Playing for Keeps

by Glenda Horsfall

  “Who’s there?” Cassie called from inside the apartment.

  “Cassie you know who’s here. Open the door!” Matt was irritated already. He let out a loud sigh, straightening away from the door to run his fingers through his hair.

  “No. You’ve got to say, ‘it’s the landlord come to collect the rent’.”

  Huh, landlord. Scumbag more like! And he didn’t like it, not in the slightest.

  Hoping none of the neighbors heard him, he leaned toward the door and said quietly, “It’s the landlord come to collect the rent.”

  “No, no … You have to be more forceful!” She didn’t unlock the door.

  I’m going to throttle her before this night is through. He felt like a real idiot talking to her through the door, and he sure as hell didn’t want the neighbors coming out to see what was going on. He flushed, just imagining the embarrassment. Losing patience, he banged on the door loudly. “Open the door, Cassie.” He’d had enough of this game already. “I’m not standing out here any longer.”

  The door opened slowly and he surveyed her. Her arms were crossed defensively across her chest, and her lips were pinched with disapproval. She obviously wasn’t happy. Oh shit, now he was in trouble! Maybe if she had picked a happier or more romantic role, he might have been able to get into it, but he just couldn’t play someone out to take advantage. Morally it didn’t sit right.

  “You’re not even trying to get into the role,” she accused, her lips pursed in displeasure.

  “Well, it’s not a role I’m comfortable with,” he tried to explain. “Why can’t you pick something more conventional, something non-threatening?”

  “Because that’s not what I fancy,” she snapped, her eyes flashing in anger.

  “Well, I don’t fancy your roles, either.” They were going around in circles and getting nowhere. His temper was starting to fray with frustration at not being able to understand what she was looking for.

  “Let’s forget it for tonight.” Knocking at the front door and feeling like an idiot had cooled his ardor. “It’s late, I’m tired.” Too bloody tired to play these kinds of games, but he didn’t say that to her.

  “Well, maybe you should just go home now and get your beauty sleep!” She glared at him.

  God, that hurt. Matt closed his eyes in despair and took a deep breath, composing himself before he replied. “I think we should talk about this before you send me home.” He really needed to understand why role-play was so important to her. He had to make her open up and talk to him.

  “What’s there to talk about?” With hands on her hips she stood looking up at him. “I want to experiment a little, you obviously don’t!”

  Shit! “It’s not that I don’t,” he tried reasoning, “It’s just that I don’t understand why you would want… that?” Why did all the roles she asked him to play have to be abusive? Why did she always cast him as the baddie? They really needed to talk about this.

  “Want what?” Cassie fired back. “You’d think I was asking for something kinky, something dangerous. I’m only after spicing up our love life a little.”

  He could tell she was getting up steam now. Perhaps if he could just get her to sit down and talk about it, she would realize that the roles she picked for him just weren’t him. He didn’t see himself in the role of abuser. He imagined himself playing other roles; roles were he got to play the take charge lover and make mad passionate love to her. Sure didn’t look like it was going to happen tonight though.

  He put his hands up in a sign of surrender and backed slightly away from her. “Look at it from my point of view, Cassie,” he started. “Think about it. If you were really behind with the rent and the landlord came demanding sexual favors, are you going to satisfy him?”

  “Of course not,” she snapped, eyes blazing. “Don’t be stupid!

  It’s a game we’re playing.” She threw her arms up in the air as if she couldn’t believe he would ask something so stupid.

  “Well, why not if the idea turns you on?” he shouted at her.

  “Because,” she took a deep breath before continuing through gritted teeth, as though he was being dense, “I don’t want to play games with my landlord. I don’t fancy him.”

  “Listen to yourself,” he bit out. “If you did fancy him, would you oblige?” Christ, he hoped not!

  “Now you’re being silly! It’s not like that, you’re just trying to twist my words,” she accused, and he felt guilty when he saw her eyes fill with tears.

  He couldn’t bear the thought that he had reduced her to tears. He softened his tone, trying to reason with her, trying to get her to understand his point of view.

  “No. I’m not trying to twist your words.” Matt shook his head, still trying to fathom her reasoning. “I’m just trying to make you understand why I can’t do this. It feels wrong, Cassie.” He held up his hand to stall her. “The thought of someone, the landlord, anyone demanding sexual favors because you owe them money turns my stomach.” He paced the room, unable to stand still in his agitated state. “I can’t get turned on by that idea, Cassie. Hell, I would want to beat crap out of the bastard; it’s abusive and immoral. I don’t understand how it can turn you on.” He looked at her perplexed.

  Minutes before her face had been flushed a becoming pale pink with arousal. Now it was stained a darker tone with anger. Her arms were folded across her chest, hiding the nipples that only moments before had been begging to be kissed, and she was glaring at him.

  “It’s only role-play, nothing else. Why can’t you see that?” She was pouting again.

  “I can see that!” he retorted sharply. “It’s the kind of role-play you want to try that bothers me!”

  “You just don’t want to play, that’s what you are really saying. You are quite happy with a vanilla sex life!” She spat the words, clearly disgusted with him. “I’m not discussing this anymore tonight. I’m tired, I’ve had enough and I’m no longer in the mood.” Ouch, that hurt. “I’m going to bed.” She looked him straight in the eye and finished, “Alone.”

  God, give me patience. Surely she wasn’t going to send him home just because he wouldn’t play along with her games. She was acting like a spoiled brat. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths to get himself under control. At that moment he could have quite happily put her across his knee and paddled her backside.

  Never in his life had he thought she could tempt him to spank her, but at that moment she was acting like a child who deserved a good spanking. The way she had been behaving lately, she might just like it. And he certainly wasn’t about to indulge her while he was in a temper.

  “Okay, if that’s the way you want to play it,” he said carefully. “We’ll talk about this another time when you’ve calmed down.”

  She nodded, not speaking to him.

  Shit, she really did mean to send him home!

  He hated the idea of going home now. She would be left on her own to worry about their argument, convince herself that they were not right together. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to end up losing her. “Is it okay if I call myself a cab?” he snapped. Fear that she was going to end their relationship churned his stomach, and he couldn’t help that his question was abrupt.

  He hadn’t taken her need to experiment sexually seriously; it obviously meant a lot more to her than he’d thought. He would really have to think about what she wanted, if he was serious about taking their relationship a stage further.

  “Help yourself. I’m going to bed, so let yourself out.” She sounded mad as hell. “Lock up when the cab gets here. Goodnight.”

  She walked away, and he was left standing alone as he watched her retreating toward the bedroom. He was stunned that the evening had come to this and vowed that he would make her sit down and talk the issue through when they had both calmed down.

  He couldn’t relax and sit, so he paced her living room while waiting for his cab to arrive. His muscles bunched tight with disappointment and frustration. He cast h
is eyes around the room and spied her stack of romance novels, the novels giving her all these stupid ideas. He felt like throwing them in the trash can, as if by getting rid of the books he would rid Cassie of the notion.

  As he looked down at the stack the cover on the top book snagged his attention. The title ‘The Dom Who Loved Me’ caused him to pause. The Dom? Like BDSM? Cassie hadn’t mentioned wanting to experiment in that direction, at least he didn’t think that was what she had been getting at. He decided to sit down and have a look through the titles she had been reading.

  What an eye opener. Cassie obviously had desires he hadn’t yet explored. All the books appeared to have the same theme. He read through the titles, My Master, His to Command, Slave to Submission. There was a definite pattern emerging and he began to wonder about the stories contained within the pages of her books.

  He grabbed a couple and put them in his jacket pocket. Maybe if he read them, he would figure out exactly what it was about the idea of role-play that turned her on. Perhaps then he could come up with a role-play scenario they could both enjoy.

  He arrived back at his own apartment, bewildered, not able to believe the evening which had started off so well, had ended so badly. Unable to even think about sleep as he was still so wound up, not to mention sexually frustrated, he poured himself a drink and settled down to have a look at the books which he blamed for all their troubles.

  Several hours later Matt finished the first of the books he had taken from Cassie’s apartment. The book had been an anthology of short stories, all of which were based around a BDSM club run by bikers. The men were all Dominant, the women submissive. No wonder she wanted to play. The stories she had been reading were sexy enough to turn a corpse on! He had taken himself in hand several times throughout the book, especially when the action heated up between a Master and sub.

  Reading the book had done nothing to ease his frustration. Although some of the scenes had been, in his opinion, extreme and borderline abusive, a lot were more positive, emphasizing the fact that those within the BDSM scene had to have total trust in their partner. A submissive put all of her trust in her Dom; he in return ensured her sexual satisfaction and made sure that she was well taken care of in other ways. If what he had read was true, then a good Dom who knew what he was doing could actually get his submissive to orgasm on command. Christ, imagine that! Just the thought had him hard.

  He vaguely recalled that on a guys’ night out several months earlier, a couple of his friends, slightly drunk at the time, had discussed the best clubs for those in the lifestyle. He did recall James saying that he and his girlfriend were stronger than ever before as a couple once they had begun to explore the lifestyle, as he called it. He would give James a ring tomorrow and get more information from him.

  His trousers were already undone; the hard on he had had all the way through reading the book had not dissipated. He leaned back into the chair; spreading his legs. He fisted his rigid cock and closed his eyes. He imagined Cassie down on her knees before him, her mouth wrapped around his rigid length as she took him deep into her throat. He stroked himself slowly at first, letting the fantasy carry him as he imagined the sensation of her tongue curling around his head, licking and kissing her way down the length of his erection. His legs trembled slightly and he smeared the bead of pre-cum down the length of his cock, before grasping himself tighter, imagining himself inside her warm moist body. As he stroked himself with greater urgency, he fantasized that he had Cassie kneeling between his legs as he commanded her to suck him faster and harder. Panting like he was running a marathon, he stroked himself quicker and quicker as he reached for his release. Shit, his orgasm was about to blow! His last thought before his ejaculation brought his brain to a screaming halt was that he would love to look in her eyes as she swallowed all he gave her.

  As he lay in bed still unable to sleep, he pondered exactly what it was Cassie was looking for. All the subs in her book got really turned on just by the act of submission. He began to suspect that what Cassie was really looking for was domination in the bedroom. She really wanted to submit, not role-play!

  “Well honey, if that’s what you want… that’s what you’re going to get,” he murmured, before he fell asleep exhausted.

  Chapter 2

  It wasn’t quite what Cassie had expected. When Matt had said he was taking her away for her birthday, she had expected an upmarket hotel, roses, champagne, a romantic dinner followed by a night in his arms. After all Matt was the traditional type – no matter how much she had tried to persuade him to experiment a bit in the bedroom.

  She had not expected to end up at a Gothic looking palace that looked like it had been stolen from the pages of a Steven King novel. The hotel sat in the middle of nowhere, an island in a vista of lush green foliage. The patchwork of fields stretched as far as the eye could see and she spied no other properties nearby. When he’d told her they were going to a costume party that night, she had wanted to turn around and ask him to take her home. For months she had been trying to tempt him into trying a little role-play. The last thing she wanted to have to take part in was some juvenile costume parade. Cassie felt like she had lost the prize and ended up with the consolation award. Her stomach was in knots. She was going to have a hard time hiding her disappointment.

  She looked around the suite they had been shown to. There was a small lounge, large bedroom with a solid wood four-poster bed decked out in crisp white linens on a raised dais. This bed sat opposite a large picture window giving views across fields and woodland that seemed to stretch for miles.

  She felt a twinge of guilt. It had probably cost him a fortune for the weekend; suites in country hotels did not come cheap, but for lord’s sake where was the romance in a costume party?

  The bathroom was luxurious with a large sunken Jacuzzi bath easily big enough to accommodate two, twin washbasins and a shower enclosure. The walls and floor were black marble flecked with gold, and the shelves where filled with expensive toiletries, which, had she not been feeling so disappointed would have thrilled her. Maybe she could persuade him to join her in the large bath and they could have their own party up here in their room. Determined to try to rescue some romance from the weekend, she set about unpacking her bag and personal toiletries.

  Matt had to struggle to keep the grin off his face as he leaned against the bedroom door frame, watching her unpack. He knew she was disappointed, but hoped that when he sprung his final surprise she would be pleased. Just the thought of her in the outfit he had ordered was enough to make his cock twitch. He had to bite the inside of his cheek to try to get himself back under control.

  Deep breaths, easy boy!

  “Cassie, I’m going to nip downstairs and pick up our costumes. Why don’t you have your bath now while I’m gone and you can get straight into yours when I get back? The party starts in about an hour.”

  He knew she wasn’t excited by the idea of a costume party but was trying to put a brave face on her disappointment. He was tempted to ‘come clean’ and tell her exactly what he had planned for the evening, but he managed to contain himself, sure that a surprise would be better.

  “Are you sure you want to go to the party?” she asked, her tone flirtatious. “Wouldn’t you rather order dinner and stay here and make our own party?”

  Matt watched her saunter over to him, her lush hips swaying. Shit – he couldn’t wait to see her in her outfit. She stopped directly in front of him, her hands splaying out across his chest her nails lightly raking his nipples. Down boy. It would have been so easy to take what she was offering, he could have quite happily thrown her down on the bed and made love to her, but he reminded himself this night was for her, about making her fantasies come true.

  No vanilla sex tonight – he had planned this to the last detail and he would see it through even if she was killing him! He grabbed her hands and hauled them around his waist as he pulled her closer. Her breasts pushed up against his pecs and her mound rubbed against his h
ardening erection.

  His mouth came down hard on hers, his tongue flicking across the seam of her mouth until with a sigh she sank into him and opened her mouth fully. He thrust his tongue in and out of her mouth, mimicking his desire to be buried deep inside her. His tongue tangled with hers as he ground his pelvis against her mound. She moaned softly, a whimper from the back of her throat as her body softened and pressed into him. His left hand came up to grab her hair. The long wavy hair the color of mahogany was one of the first things he had noticed about her. He had fantasized about seeing it spread out on his pillows as she lay underneath him. He wrapped a handful in his fist and pulled back gently to expose her throat. Her skin was like satin and he left her mouth to trail kisses down her throat. At the junction of her neck and shoulder, he nibbled gently with his teeth, knowing she was sensitive in that area. He had the satisfaction of hearing her moan again.

  He returned to her mouth, kissing her hard before forcibly putting her away from him. He felt bad about the disappointment in her eyes, but had to stick to his plan.

  “We can’t miss the party, honey,” he told her. “You get in the bath while I go and sort things out. I promise I will make it up to you later.”

  He turned away while he still had the strength and walked back into the lounge. His cock was throbbing and tenting painfully against his pants. He poured himself a drink from the mini bar and tried to calm down. He sure as hell couldn’t leave the room with his cock at half-mast!

  By the time he returned from picking up the costumes, Cassie was already settled in the big bath with her hair pinned atop her head. The bubble bath she had added created a dense coating of bubbles and he couldn’t see below the water line. Her more than generous breasts with their darker, large nipples bobbed gently on the surface. She lay back in the bath with her eyes closed, a smile hovering on her lips. She obviously had not heard him enter the suite and he took his time standing in the bathroom doorway just watching her.