He nodded and sat in the chair to her right. He could have sat across from her and watched her all night, but this seemed safer. Closer too, he realized as she shifted, and her knee brushed against his.
“But, to answer your question,” she said, “no. There isn’t anyone special in my life right now.”
“That’s good.”
Her brows rose.
“Well, okay, not good exactly. But, you know, since we seem to have stumbled upon each other here, it would be yet another cruel trick of the universe if we were both already involved with other people.”
“So you’re not married with two kids yet? It is the Elmwood way, after all.”
He grinned, feeling the old ease between them coming back with a quickness. “Nah. I left all that up to Jackson.”
“So you really didn’t know I’d be here, huh?”
“I guess I should have. I mean, I get the newsletter, and I came for the auction. I guess I didn’t pay much attention to the cause we were raising for tonight. Chase and Dusty run a great place, so I figured it was a worthy organization. Guess I should have been paying more attention.”
She looked... disappointed? The laugh lines around her eyes got more noticeable as she squinted at him just a bit, and her mouth pressed tightly together.
“I think what you’ve done with the foundation is amazing,” he added. Maybe he should have come looking for her again, but he’d been so sure she’d reject him.
He just figured if she’d wanted him, she would have let him know. For a while, he’d hoped that she had broken things off with Jackson because of him. A foolish fantasy, clearly.
“Thanks. It’s been good work. I was an adult when my parents declared they wanted nothing more to do with me and cut off all access to everything but the one trust they weren’t administrators of. I at least had that to live off of. So many kids are kicked out every year just for being different, even ones as young as eleven. I just had to do something. You know?”
“It’s total shit, when parents abandon their kids, no matter the circumstances. But yeah, when these kids are left with nothing... it’s so much worse. I listened to your speech. You’ve done right by a lot of people.”
“Thanks.” Her face smoothed and her smile brightened. “So, you didn’t bid on anyone tonight, even though you came looking for someone to... uh...”
“Purchase?” he said.
She blushed. “Yeah.”
“It’s kind of a strange concept, to auction people off, in a not horribly seedy way, huh?” He understood for someone who wasn’t kinky how it might be construed. But everyone here wanted what was happening. That was one of the most important things about the kink community. Consent ruled over everything else.
“It is,” she agreed.
“Well, I can’t say that if you were up on the auction block, I wouldn’t have had some seriously alternative motives aside from raising money.”
Heat sparked in her eyes as she watched him. The lights dimmed and the music increased, which just helped him ignore their surroundings and focus on her. It would be hard to keep just talking here, even though they weren’t far from each other.
“Oh really?” she said, raising her voice over the music now thumping hard around them.
“Mmmhmm. And I’d still like to make a donation.”
“That would be great. I’d appreciate it.”
Dusty approached their table and Jensen hid a sigh. He didn’t want to have to share Syneca’s attention. People were dancing around them and heading off into different areas of the club. But here, at this intimate table, with her body heat radiating into his, he’d been able to tune out their surroundings. Focus on what was important. Everything around him had faded. Except her. Syneca Madison Lexington was radiant as ever.
“Hey guys,” Dusty said by way of greeting.
“Hey,” Syn said.
“What’s going on man?” Jensen turned a bit and reached out to shake.
“I’m sorry we couldn’t interest you in the auction tonight,” Dusty said as he took Jensen’s hand.
“That’s alright. I found something to my liking.” He could feel Syn’s laser stare boring into the back of his head.
A strange look crossed Dusty’s face. “I guess I’ll skip the intros then.”
“Should I come upstairs to finalize anything?” Syneca asked, clearly intent on ignoring Jensen’s comment. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt this driving need to win her over. To have her. Even if just for tonight. Except there was a voice inside him that kept insisting he never let her out of his sight again.
He knew he should ignore it. But he couldn’t, damn it.
“No, we’re good. I just wanted to let you know the total, if you’d like?” Dusty said.
“Sure, that’d be great.”
“You can add a few zeros to whatever that number is,” Jensen offered.
Dusty grinned. “I’m glad you’ve seen what a worthy cause this is,” he said, just as Syneca’s sharp voice of: “Jensen, you can’t do that,” came from over his left shoulder.
He turned to Syneca. “I sure can.”
She rolled her eyes.
“What? I told you I could afford you now. And I didn’t just mean the zeroes.” It was a bold statement. One he shouldn’t be making, but he absolutely could not help himself.
“And that, ladies and gents is my cue to leave!” Dusty turned and practically ran away.
“Whoa. I’ve never seen that boy get embarrassed.” He shook his head.
“Well, that might be because he kind of sees me as a bit of a ah, well mother figure, I guess you’d say.”
Whoops. Right. Dusty had said as much as he’d introduced her tonight and said she’d saved his life.
“He was one of the first kids in the program,” Syneca offered. “Back when I was starting out, I didn’t have others to help me run Madison house, so I was not just the head of the business, I was also running the house. I was the one supervising them day in, day out. And that’s all I really should say.”
He nodded. “Yeah, of course. I understand; that’s his story to tell. But now I understand his reaction to us being here together. That’s not going to be too weird for you is it?” Together. Damn he liked the sound of that. A lot. Jensen couldn’t hide his interest. And why should he?
She shook her head.
“Okay. So,” he lowered his voice and leaned closer, “About that whole getting out of here thing...”
She stared intently at him and then inclined her head.
“Excellent.” He stood and offered her a hand. She let him escort her from the club into the cooling Nevada night. Springtime in the desert meant days hot as summer in the northeast, but nights bordering on cold. He loved spring in the desert. He took a deep breath of the crisp night air, and then said, “My place, or yours?”
She glanced at him. “That’s a bit presumptuous.”
He paused, and she stopped beside him. He held her hand in the crook of his arm. “We’re not kids anymore, Syn. And besides, I am a Dom, after all.”
Her mouth opened in a small o and she took a deep breath.
“That okay with you?”
She closed her mouth and swallowed. “Yes.”
That was his girl. Syneca Madison Lexington never backed down from a challenge.
Chapter Two
Syneca’s skin was taut, hot. Jensen was staring at her across his living room like he wanted to devour her. She wanted to let him. As he’d said, they weren’t kids anymore. She knew her skin would be flushed. She could feel the heat of a blush. The drive here had been quiet. Tense with sexual heat.
“So, being a Dom entails what for you, exactly?” She’d heard various individual desires from the submissive side as the auction went on tonight, and she knew that a Dom had similar likes and dislikes. Before they went any further, she wanted to know what she was in for. Trepidation still made her cautious.
He grinned, but it wasn’t his goofy, adorable smile. It
was seductive. And it made her shiver.
“Well, it’s a lot of different things really. I like to be in control.”
That surprised her. “You were always so easygoing when we were kids.”
“I still am. It’s just that now when I play with a submissive, it’s less about being easygoing and more about being malleable, which I know kind of sounds counter to being in charge. But I want to be the kind of Dom that particular submissive needs.”
“So, you’re still all about just going with the flow?”
“In a lot of ways. Would you like to sit down?” he asked. They were still standing in the main living area of his home.
“Aren’t you supposed to, like, order me to sit down?”
“Do you want me to?”
“No.”
“Then, no.” He made it sound so simple.
“Okay.” She sat down. She did want to sit down; she just didn’t want to be told to do it. That probably meant she couldn’t be the sub to his Dom. And why did that thought make her so sad? There was a lot of history between them, but no promises. No real relationship. Almost twenty years had passed since they last saw one another.
“Shall I get you a cocktail?” he offered.
“No, I’m good, thanks.”
He sat on the couch beside her. He spread his arm out behind her on the couch, and she felt the urge to lean into his touch. She probably should have resisted, but she didn’t. She leaned back and turned on the couch so she was facing him, with her head resting on his arm.
“I guess I’m still not sure what it all really entails.” Even after learning what she had recently with Dusty and Chase at The K Club, she still felt like she barely understood this world that Jensen seemed completely at ease in. She didn’t like this weird inexperience.
“It’s like anything else, really. You decide what it is you both like, and you talk about those things, and you find a way that you can like them together.”
“So, what do you like?”
“Keeping a woman happy, basically.”
She nibbled her bottom lip. That part didn’t surprise her. Girls Jensen’s age would fawn all over him. He always loved the attention. And he was sweet. Even though he never really dated, he was always doing something for his girl friends, who weren’t actually his girlfriends. He always had more friends who were female than male.
“And that entails a lot of different things for different submissives. Some like to be bratty and brought to heel. Others enjoy just being taken care of, not making any decisions, and knowing that I will just take care of everything. Others like to serve their Doms, so I let myself be doted upon.”
It was oddly easy, just sitting here, staring at him, letting the warmth of his body and the slight musky scent of his skin comfort her. When was the last time she’d just sat on the couch and looked at someone? When she was just close to someone? Twenty years may have passed, but the familiarity between them hadn’t seemed to fade.
“You’ve had a lot of submissives, then?” Again, not a shock. And she made sure to keep the judgment from her voice. There was no reason for her to have anything to say about that. She’d had a myriad of lovers over the past twenty years. His brother included. One shouldn’t cast stones, after all.
“A few, yeah. And some relationships with people who weren’t submissive, or kinky at all, really.”
“I’ve had several relationships myself. Some men, some women. None that seemed to take, though.”
“Me neither. It took me a while to figure out that I had these desires. They seemed counter to a lot of what I’d thought I’d wanted, so for years I had non-kinky relationships.” He shrugged.
“So, you’d be willing to kind of keep things, erm... I don’t want to say normal, but...”
“Vanilla.”
She raised her brow at that. “Vanilla?”
“Yeah, that’s the actual term for not-kinky sex. I promise, I didn’t just make that up.”
She smiled and took a deep breath. “Vanilla. That works well for me. And if I, for instance, decided I wanted strawberry?” It was a terrible analogy to keep running with, but she couldn’t help it. If vanilla was the term for someone who wanted non-kinky antics, then it stood to reason that they could use other ice cream flavors to describe the rest of it. Hell if she knew what the fuck strawberry entailed! She fought the urge to roll her eyes at herself. Get a grip, lady. She told herself. She really spent too much time all up in her own head.
“That’d be okay with me, too. We’ll just start out slow, and see where things go from there, shall we?” he said.
“Yeah, I’d like that.”
“Good. Now, at the risk of being too non-vanilla, come here.” He threaded a hand through her hair and pulled her face closer to his. She moved with him, letting him guide her, and lifted her face to his for a kiss. The moment his lips touched hers, her body soared. She moaned and he slid his tongue against hers. She reveled in the heat of him. Then she was pressing closer, and he was lifting her onto his lap. She straddled him, and he held her with one hand tangled in her hair and the other on the curve of her hip. She kissed him with deep thrusts of her tongue, needing him all at once with a ferocity that shocked her. He slowly moved his hand up and down her hip and ass. She rubbed herself against him and let him kiss her over and over again until her head was spinning and her whole body vibrated.
When he released her lips, panting, those green eyes of his speared through her. “What do you want, Syneca?” he asked. His voice was dark. He said her name like a curse. Like something he couldn’t escape. But also, as if he never wanted to.
“You.”
The word was all he needed. Jensen slid the edges of her dress up and up, until he could reach the skin of her bare thighs, until he could cup her ass through her panties and slide his fingers under the fabric there. She raised herself to her knees and wriggled until he pulled her panties down. When she leaned forward and rubbed herself against him as he wrangled her panties off the rest of the way, she moaned.
“I want you, just like this.” She reached for his belt and went to work freeing him from his pants. When his erection sprang free, she grinned. “That’s a lovely sight. You, sitting here all fully clothed in that suit, nothing but your cock exposed.”
He started to speak, but then she wrapped her hand around his shaft, and he groaned, all words leaving him in an instant. He’d wanted her for as long as he could remember. And now, that she was here, stroking him, it was so much more than he could have ever imagined.
She worked at him slowly with one hand and reached with her other for her purse on the end table. When she pulled a condom out, he took it from her and opened it.
“You’ll have to stop that if you expect me to suit up, darling.”
She moved her grip from his shaft to his shoulder, so he could roll the condom down his length. Then, she was angling herself over him and teasing the tip of his cock with her wet heat. She slowly slid down until he was deep inside her, and she moaned. She put both hands on his shoulders and rocked into him in slow pulses. The feel of her body around his, finally, almost made him come right there.
He took a deep breath and reached down to her hips. He pushed her up and back down on his shaft, watching her face as she moaned. From there, he let her set the pace, just holding onto her for support. He was a Dom whose only goal was giving his submissive what she wanted. What she needed. It was just the way he was hard-wired. And tonight, right now, she was his.
Her fingers dug into the suit at his shoulders, and her hair slid forward and back as she rode him. She increased her pace until he was clenching his toes.
“So... close.” Her voice was a hoarse whisper. His fingers dug deep into her hips and she groaned. “Yes. More.”
He thrust up deep into her as she slammed down onto his cock. She let him take over the rhythm. He drove up into her, guiding her up and down in quick thrusts, his hold firm. She cried out, and her inner muscles clenched him tight within her. S
he spasmed above him, and he kept up the brutal pace, urging her harder, faster, as the orgasm spiraled through her. Her hands clenched his shoulders tightly and she threw her head back, a scream torn from her. Finally, he let go, allowing his own release to rip through him.
She rocked against him as he emptied himself, and when he groaned and loosened his hold on her hips, she slumped against him, resting her head in the crook of his neck. She sighed, her breath slipping over his sensitive skin and making him shiver. They were both breathing hard, and he wrapped his arms around her back, holding her close against him. She nuzzled the side of his neck and placed a gentle kiss there.
He rubbed up and down her back. She was pliant in his arms. He knew they would have to move soon, but for a moment, he just wanted to bask in the feel of her against him. He’d waited a lifetime for this moment, and he never wanted it to end.
“So, that was vanilla sex, huh?” she asked. He could hear the smile in her voice.
He agreed. As sex went, that was pretty epic. It wasn’t like they’d done anything particularly special, in terms of position or anything like that. It was just that it was... her. And that meant it was amazing.
“Mmhmm.”
“Well, maybe we could try something else a little bit less vanilla next time.”
There would be a next time?
Hell yes.
****
Jensen smiled as soon as he opened his eyes the next morning. Syneca was snuggled up tight against him, her head resting on his pillow, her hand on his chest. As if, even in sleep, she hadn’t been able to bear the thought of being too far away from him. He could relate.
Last night’s events rolled through his mind as he lay there in the mid-morning sunlight that peeked around the curtains of his bedroom. It was just enough glow to see her clearly. He sighed, content. They’d finally disentangled themselves from each other on the couch and gotten cleaned up. He’d given her some shorts and a T-shirt to put on after they were clean, and they had spent several more hours lounging in the living room, snacking, and talking.
For Sir Page 2