by Koko Brown
Nerds are Freaks Too
Koko Brown
Roxanne is stunned when her best friend, Leo, admits his feelings for her—she’s so not going there. Lovers may come and go, but true friends are hard to find. Instead, she enlists his help to sign her up for an online fetish dating site. She immediately meets a man who can help her explore her kinky side, starting with a chat session that leads to the best orgasm of her life. While her body’s satisfied, her mind can’t forget Leo’s confession…
Leo, meanwhile, isn’t giving up so easily. He knows Roxanne like the back of his hand, knows what she needs, and he’s more than equipped to give it to her. Subtle touches, a sexy spanking, the most erotic dessert-eating session ever… Leo is successfully proving that computer nerds can be sexual freaks too—until Roxanne discovers his secret. One that could kill not only a potential relationship, but their longtime friendship as well.
Ellora’s Cave Publishing
www.ellorascave.com
Nerds are Freaks Too
ISBN 9781419935480
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Nerds are Freaks Too Copyright © 2011 Koko Brown
Edited by Kelli Collins
Cover design by Syneca
Photography: CURAphotography/Shutterstock.com
Electronic book publication August 2011
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Nerds are Freaks Too
Koko Brown
Dedication
I would like to give huge thanks to Briana St. James for giving me such great advice; Lena Matthews for all the tough love that set me back on track; and Jaid Black and Kelli Collins for taking a chance on the unknown. All of you ladies rock!
Chapter One
“What qualities are you looking for in your Mr. Right?”
Roxanne glanced up at the bakery’s carnation-pink ceiling and pretended to mull over the question. “I think he should be young, hung and full of cum.”
Apparently not amused, her best friend Leonidas slammed his laptop shut. “I’m out of here.” He began to stand but Roxanne grabbed his hand.
“I’m only teasing, Leo. Please don’t leave.” Roxanne glanced at the booth next to theirs. A group of Catholic schoolgirls sat across from them. They munched on chocolate cupcakes and giggled over the current issue of some bubble gum magazine, but Roxanne leaned forward just in case.
“I’m nervous about this whole online dating thing. If you don’t help me, I’ll end up with some bald, sixty-year-old guy with a postage stamp fetish.”
A smirk lifted one corner of Leo’s mouth as he pushed his black Buddy Holly-esque glasses up the bridge of his nose. The thick glass magnified the size of his beautiful blue eyes. For the thousandth time, Roxanne wished he’d ditch them. His baby blues rivaled Jake Gyllenhaal’s.
“If you’re so skittish about online dating, why sign up? You’ve never had an issue meeting men.”
True. With her Coke-bottle size-twelve curves, gregarious personality and confidence equivalent to a she-lion’s, Roxanne never had trouble meeting men. Just not the right man. Silently cursing how well he knew her, Roxanne pulled on her earlobe.
“Roxie…” Leo coaxed.
She wanted to squirm. Talking to a guy with a Mensa-certified I.Q. of one hundred and fifty-one about needing more variety in your sex life seemed so trivial. “You don’t want to hear the boring details.”
“Try me,” he replied, relaxing back into the booth.
Roxanne caught his gaze and held it. “No judgments?”
“Have I ever judged you?”
Actually, no. Despite all the tomfoolery she’d committed over the years, Leo had always been tolerant.
“I’m hornier than a private during Marine Week.” She sighed dramatically. “I haven’t had sex in—”
“Eight months, three days and…” Leo glanced down at his watch. Roxanne had given him the titanium timepiece for landing his first client several years ago. “Sixteen minutes and forty-five seconds.”
Roxanne wrinkled her nose to keep from laughing. “You’re exaggerating the minutes and seconds.” Leaning forward, she pulled the sugar shaker toward her and fingered the rim. “I guess I’ve over shared one too many times.”
Leo inched his index finger toward his thumb. “I’m this close to handing out ‘Get Roxanne Laid’ campaign buttons.” His perfectly timed humor made Roxanne chuckle. “Jokes and horniness aside,” he continued, “I believe the ‘why’ is more important than the ‘how long’.”
Damn he’s good! Roxanne sat back, wavering between confession and mule-headed secrecy. She drummed her polished nails against the chrome tabletop, trying to buy herself some time. But Leo’s I-can-outlast-you-any-day look obliterated her game plan. “My sex life is missing something.”
“Missing what?”
Roxanne glanced at the teen-pop crowd again. “Actually, my sex life is abysmal,” she muttered.
Leo’s eyebrows jutted above the frames of his black spectacles. “How abysmal?”
“Black-hole, Deep Impact abysmal.”
Leo rubbed his hand over his mouth and regarded her with what looked like disbelief. “Deep Impact?” Roxanne nodded. “Well, I wasn’t expecting that. Not from the poster girl for young, black and fabulously single in the Windy City. Up until several months ago, you ran through men faster than the NFL draft.”
Roxanne winced. She hadn’t been that free with the milk, had she? “You make me sound like a two-piece-chicken-and-biscuit whore.”
Leo chuckled. They’d come up with the term in college to define all the co-eds who’d put out for the cheap two-dollar meal from Ray’s Bar-B-Que, a popular late-night hangout.
“You know I’ve always followed the motto, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.” His voice dropped an octave. “So, let me get this straight. You stopped having sex because whoever was doing it to you wasn’t doing it for you?”
Roxanne smirked. Leo had such a way of putting things. “All of them gave it their best. I think they were just too…” Roxanne paused, hunting for the right word to describe her whitewashed sex life.
“Vanilla?”
Roxanne rapped her knuckles against the table and Leo’s eyebrows rose another inch. Any higher and they’d blend into his hairline. “Jessina says I need a take-charge kind of guy. A macho man who’ll push me to the ed
ge, make me beg for it.”
During her sexual confessional, Leo’s expression grew increasingly pensive. As the seconds of complete silence stretched between them, Roxanne’s insides twisted. For someone who considered herself a sexual being, her lack of a decent sex life made her feel a little inadequate.
“If you’re looking for what I think you’re looking for, you’re wasting your time on a traditional dating website.” He slipped out of the booth and moved to her side, sliding in next to her. “You need to go directly to the source,” he continued, swiveling his laptop around to face them.
With a few quick strokes and a click of the mouse, he pulled up a website with a black background and deep red fonts. The site had the prerequisite smiling couple as its blissful mascot. Instead of the innocent hugging pose, the man wore a half-mask and lay handcuffed to a platform bed while his female companion stood over him with a braided flogger.
“WhipADate.com?” she whispered, unable to tear her eyes away from the computer screen. “Why have I never heard about this?”
“You’re vanilla, remember?” Leo maneuvered the cursor over the member profile link and clicked enter.
“Oh my,” Roxanne breathed as a portal unlike any she’d ever seen unfolded on the screen.
“What are those? Sexual fantasies?” she asked, pointing to a sidebar with scrolling text.
“Member testimonials of fantasies fulfilled.”
Roxanne sat forward. Her eyes devoured a catalogue of member photos featuring full-frontal nudity, skin pinched with wooden clothespins, limbs entwined in rope and chains, and mouths stretched with rubber balls.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she murmured aloud and then shook her head. It was one thing to talk shit, quite another to walk the walk, it seemed.
“Everything on this site is real and hardcore. And you’d better be as well, or at least serious about your intentions, because the membership has a tendency to out those who are simply window shopping. If they do, you’re dead in the water and you’ll be using your vibrator for another eight months.”
Roxanne stiffened. She and Leo discussed pretty much everything, but never the most intimate details of their sex lives.
“You’ve never used a sex toy, have you?”
Groaning loudly, Roxanne sat back. “It’s confirmed, Houston. I’m vanilla.”
Leo drummed his fingers on the keyboard. “Are you sure you’re ready for this? Do you think you’ll be able to let someone else bend you to their every whim?”
She might not have a submissive bone in her body, but for some reason the idea of being compliant to someone else’s every wish and command pulled at something deep inside her.
“You know, there’s a more sensible alternative.”
“There is?” Roxanne hated that she sounded so eager.
Leo nodded. “You could start out slow with someone you know. I think―”
“Only one problem,” she interjected. “I’ve never backtracked, and I’m not dating anyone currently.”
Leo turned toward her and propped his arm on the back of the booth. When his thigh brushed against hers, Roxanne didn’t think anything of it. While in college, they’d often slept in the same bed. However, when Leo didn’t say anything…just sat there staring at her…she started to fidget.
“I don’t want you to do this with anyone else, Roxie. I want to introduce you.”
Roxanne slapped his thigh. “Ha ha, good one!”
Thinking nothing else of his proposal, she picked up her half-eaten red velvet cupcake and took a bite. Too bad the dessert didn’t come with a dick. The mix of chocolate and cream cheese almost made her moan as she devoured the rest of the cake. When she fell back down to earth, Roxanne finally noticed she was the only one laughing.
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” She couldn’t keep the incredulous tone out of her voice.
“Very,” he replied, powering off his laptop.
The crumbs in Roxanne’s mouth suddenly turned to dust. She picked up the Mason jar next to her plate and gulped down her milk, wishing it was something stiffer.
Never in a thousand years would she have guessed Leo wanted more than friendship! If his tight-lipped answer was any indication, a new millennium had obviously dawned. Roxanne eyed him over her glass. Not as a good friend, but as a woman eyeing a potential lover.
Easy on the eyes, Leo had a curly mop of jet-black curls that offset his electric blue eyes and the rich, olive-toned skin he’d inherited from his Greek parents. Those very same genes also contributed to a pair of full lips, high cheekbones and a lean, six-foot-plus frame that didn’t need much in the form of exercise, even though he worked out on a regular basis.
Looks aside, Leo was also very intelligent and the owner of one of Chicago’s most successful internet companies. He’d earned his first million five years ago at the ripe old age of twenty-four.
Despite the solid foundation, Roxanne knew she couldn’t go there. Becoming lovers would only complicate things. Boyfriends came and went, true friends did not.
Wedged between a rock and a hard place, she decided to grease her way out of a difficult situation with reverse psychology. “You and I both know I’m not your type.”
“Not my type?” Leo rolled his eyes. “You’re one of the most desirable women I’ve ever met.” Leo’s light gaze slid over her in a lingering perusal. Hot, predatory and disturbingly wicked, the gaze lingered far too long on her cleavage.
Unsettled and feeling a growing itch between her thighs, Roxanne snapped, “Who are you kidding? Every woman you’ve dated sprouted from the same Grow Me a Barbie Petri dish. All of them were size zero, blonde and blue-eyed, just like your ex-fiancée.”
Roxanne winced as a shadow fell over Leo’s expression before he quickly blanketed it. Damn! Leo’s confession had so unsettled her, she’d run roughshod into forbidden territory.
Two years ago, Victoria Carlson, Leo’s former fiancée, had called off their wedding a month before the nuptials on the ridiculous assumption that Leo was in love with someone else. The idea was preposterous. Leo had always been a one-woman man.
Roxanne reached out to diminish the damage. When her fingers brushed along his forearm, a jolt of electricity bolted up her own. Startled, she drew back. What was wrong with her?
“You’re looking for excuses.” Leo cocked his head and mustered up a tight smile. “I would have never taken you for a coward.”
Roxanne’s mouth fell open. “Take it back!”
“Coward.”
“I think cautious is a better word for it.”
Leo tucked his thumbs under his armpits and flapped his arms. “Bock, bock,” he clucked.
A patch of giggles erupted across from them. Time to go. Ignoring the whispers and giggles of the parochial set, Roxanne grabbed her clutch bag and pushed Leo from the booth, sliding out behind him. “Let’s take this outside,” she said, nodding at their underage audience. She threw a twenty on the table while Leo gathered his things.
Roxanne stepped outside and pulled on her leather gloves. Chicago’s temperature must have plummeted twenty degrees while they’d been inside Let Them Eat Cake.
Leo followed, bursting into a speech as soon as he cleared the threshold. “Why won’t you admit it? The real reason you won’t consider me is because you’re not attracted to me. Roxanne Simmons always falls for tall, dark and debonair. Not tall, white and geeky. You like guys who wear cashmere, tailored suits from London and suede horse-bit loafers. Not computer geeks who live in wrinkled khakis, button-down shirts, Chuck Taylors and glasses.”
Broadsided by his superficial opinion of her, Roxanne stood rooted to the spot—because she realized she couldn’t entirely disagree. But saying she found him unattractive wasn’t exactly the truth. Leo might not be GQ’s man of the year, but there was something about him that appealed to her in a way other men never would.
Still, his opinion stung. She refused his hand when he found an opening in traffic, instead picking her
own way through Chicago’s midday rush. She needed the brief respite to dampen her hurt and anger.
Once on the other side of the street, Leo clicked his key fob, opening the doors to his silver Maserati GranCabrio. Roxanne crossed in front of the shiny four-seater, which Leo called his First Born, and scaled the curb. Miffed by the whole situation, she didn’t get in the car but instead started to pace beside it briskly.
“Leo…I’m hurt by what you said back there. I don’t find you unappealing. Far from it.” Roxanne stopped abruptly and faced him. “But you’re my best friend. I love you and I don’t want to lose what we have by downgrading you to a booty call. Think about it. If it doesn’t work between us, can you go back to what we have now?”
For several drawn-out seconds, he didn’t say anything. In the late-afternoon sunlight, his exotic features were more pronounced and his gaze twinkled like diamonds behind the black frames of his glasses.
“No,” he finally admitted, shoving his hands in the pockets of his khakis. “Once I’ve tasted you, I’d be unable to settle for anything else.”
Roxanne blamed the milk she’d gulped down earlier for the sudden flutter in her stomach.
“Come on, get in,” he said. “I’ll drop you back off at the boutique. I’ll come over later and we’ll finish your profile.”
Roxanne nodded in agreement. But as she slid in beside him, she wondered if what she really needed was online…or already sitting right beside her.
* * * * *
Leo realized the dynamic between them had changed the moment Roxanne had climbed into his car. During the half-hour commute across town, she didn’t speak a word. She’d even taken pains to make sure they didn’t touch, sitting as stiff as an ironing board. And when he’d dropped her off, she’d jumped out of the car so quickly, he could barely say goodbye.