Like a trophy, she waved it in the air. “Happy?”
“Very…” His smile was ever wicked. “Now…you had better eat your dinner.”
“And if I don't?” Her green eyes challenged his steely pair of rough denim blues. “Will you punish me?”
“Oh, little one...” he groaned, as he held out his wine glass and traced the delicate crystal rim around her nipple. “I'll deny you punishment if you don't eat....”
“Hmmm...” Maxine murmured, her breathing labored as she watched him, circling and circling, the water sloshing in the glass. “Mmmmm...”
Just as quickly, Drew moved his hand away and took another sip from the glass, his eyes watching Maxine's all the while. “So sensitive you, are...” he complemented. “Now, you have to take at least ten bites before we wander upstairs. Understand?”
“Yes, Sir...” she lifted her fork to his lips, rising quickly to his challenge.
“Good girl...” he whispered. “But first, we need to discuss a few details...”
“Such as?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Well, as I mentioned, we won’t have a contract, but we do need to set some limits,” he said. “And you do need to pick your safewords.”
“How about...” Maxine giggled at herself at the mere notion of negotiation. “Avocado. Banana. And strawberry?”
“How about you stop laughing?” Suddenly, his merriment transcended to sternness. “This is very serious, Maxine. And you can't just take this with a grain of salt—you could be injured if we don't work this out before we play. Last night, we kept it rather vanilla, and you still couldn't remember your own name. Let's keep it simple—red, yellow and green...”
Moderately dejected, she pouted her bottom lip. “Yes, Sir...”
“What if I've gagged you, Maxine?” he challenged. “What will we do then?”
“I...” She felt as if he were quizzing her just to see how much she'd studied up on her homework that week. “I...don't know...Sir...”
“Maybe you'll just have to trust me to check in with you during those moments of—incapacitation?”
Trust for Maxine, however, was a two-way street, and she knew that neither one of them were quite there yet. She took a sip of water and swallowed...hard. “How, Sir?”
“Perhaps I could take your hand?” he suggested and reached her hers. “You could squeeze it, if you're in distress?”
Catching her thumb and index finger, he lifted them to her breast, and clasped them around her already agitated bud, pinched them together, then returned her hand to her lap. Maxine was certain that the quivers that quaked through her entire body were unmistakable to his naked eyes.
“That would work...Sir...”
“Take a bite, Maxine,” he encouraged, looking down at her plate. “You're wasting time this evening, and you have four more to go.”
Oh, the range of moods he’d exhibited that night—from anger to anguish with a fleeting moment of frivolity before his ultimate need for control returned. Perhaps they were both starved for a stroll along the precipice of peril.
“Make it to ten bites, and I'll make it worth your while, Maxine,” he tempted. “A small reward before we play.”
The art of manipulation, honed and practiced by Drew McKenzie, was not lost on his novice submissive. Carefully, she wound two strands of linguini around her fork, which she then methodically stabbed into a mushroom slice.
“Seven,” she said, easing the fork to her lips, then chewing so very cautiously. The taste of Nanny Fiona’s culinary talents, however, escaped Maxine, as her intent wasn't to enjoy the meal, but simply finish her assigned task at hand.
“Eight...” Maxine skewered a tiny floret of broccoli and one black olive, hoping that would satisfy Drew's definition of a bite, then washed it down with another sip of sparkling water.
“Good...good...girl...” He refilled her glass, then his own, and settled back on the barstool, arms folded, to watch her. “Don't forget—there's fresh bread, too...”
Dutifully, Maxine broke off a tiny piece of the crusty Italian bread, dipped it ever so gracefully in the seasoned olive oil, then bit down, chewed and swallowed with excruciating leisure. “Nine,” she smiled triumphantly.
“One more,” he reminded her. “Will you get your reward, Maxine?”
“Yes...” Twirling one last strand of pasta around her fork, Maxine raised her eyes, batting her lashes as she accepted his challenge. “...Sir...”
WRAPPED, the second novel in Juliet Braddock’s Manhattan Bound Series, is available now.
WEAKENED: The Manhattan Bound Series Book One Page 35