“Yes, in the corporate arena.” His mood dimmed some as he thought about those days and how frivolous his life had been. Even with all of the parties and entertainment, it had been stressful trying to keep up with the reckless existence.
Lowering the fork loaded with her next bite, she stared at him. “From your tone, I can only take it that you didn’t enjoy it.”
He ate, giving himself time as he processed her words. “Some parts of it I did. When you can find loopholes in the tax law that gets the heads of corporations breaks or ensure a contract is worded just so in your client’s economic favor, it can be extremely profitable.” And sickening. And empty.
“The success of it should have felt good as well.” She picked up her wine with her free hand.
He locked his gaze on her. “Does it?”
She sipped once. Twice. Instead of setting her wine down, she held it and released her fork. “We weren’t talking about me.”
“No. However, that’s the reason we’re here.”
“So, you’re allowed to question me but I’m not offered the same liberties?” She drank some more.
“You may ask me anything you like. As long as the moment is appropriate.” It was time for him to gear the conversation to the reason they were meeting in the first place.
“And this is?” she lead.
“Why is Lolli concerned about you?” he asked instead of answering her.
Taking another drink, she looked down at her glass and frowned. She apparently realized the glass was almost empty and how much she’d consumed. She set the glass back beside her plate. Picking up her abandoned fork, she said, “She shouldn’t be. Emmalee or Lolli can be a worrywart at times.”
“I never got that impression when I trained her.” He purposely contradicted Kindle. She was attempting to make light of her career’s impact. However, it was just what he would need her to see if he was going to get her to agree to move their relationship to another level. Where he wanted it to be.
There was no other way to think about it, but that he desired Kindle as a submissive. When he first headed to her office to deliver the candy, he saw it as him fulfilling a request, but that was it. He understood Lolli’s anxiety regarding her friend, but didn’t see it going any further than meeting Kindle. Once he met her, he desired her sexually, couldn’t deny his response. Yet, wanting her prostrate over a bench or kneeling before him was a complex matter entirely. One he sought just the same.
“It’s only when it comes to me and my job.” She guided her fork into her mouth. After she chewed and swallowed the bite down, she continued, “Many people have stressful jobs. Hell, her job can be all consuming when she’s deep in research.”
“There’s a difference between the two of you.”
“She’s white and I’m black,” Kindle jested and shrugged. A façade because Masaun could see the tight corners of her mouth. She was a smart woman, a brilliant attorney most likely, and she would be able to clearly see the signs showing where the conversation was headed.
“She has an outlet and you don’t,” he declared.
Pulling off a chunk of baguette, she ate it and sat silent as she blankly stared off to the side, with her hands in her lap.
He watched her chest rise high and fall slowly, as if she were gaining control or folding inside some secret corner of herself. He took another sip of his wine and waited. The music in the place was still low, the hour too early for people to start dancing.
When her gaze met his, her stoic, professional mask was in place. That look, the same one he’d seen in her office, had been the catalyst for him to give her his number. The reason he was here tonight. Kindle needed him, even if she didn’t know it yet. He’d seen that look before in other subs and some Doms. Like a wild animal had when it was alone and trapped, they showed a brave, strong face to the world. Attempting to prove they were alright and had things under control.
But, it didn’t last for animals or subs. And it wouldn’t for Kindle either; sooner or later she would lose it if she didn’t have an egress. He was determined that would be him.
“Look, Masaun, I don’t know what Lolli led you to believe about me…but I’m perfectly fine.”
“Your friend may have sent me to you. However, I’ve been a Dom for too many years to allow anyone to pick and choose who I take on, scene with.”
She waved a hand in front of her body. “I’m not even sure what that means entirely. Anyway, if not for my friend’s request, then what’s all this about?” She pointed at their meals on the table, indicating their date.
“You.”
“Me?” The tension in her features was starting to show around the edges of her mouth, nose and eyes. “As I told you alre—”
“You may be an excellent attorney professionally, I don’t doubt that. However, personally, you’re walking a tightrope that could snap beneath your feet at any time.”
A muscle in her jaw flexed as she leaned forward and lowered her voice to barely above a whisper. “You don’t even know me. So, what makes you think you have the right to comment on any part of my life?”
Lifting his left hand, he rested his forearm on the table beside his plate, palm up. “Give me your hand, Kindle,” he commanded, keeping his voice low and controlled.
She glanced from his face to his hand and back again. Emotions and thoughts swirled in her gaze, making the indifferent mask she held her features in start to show cracks.
He wouldn’t be happy until it fell away completely.
Sitting there, calm, he waited. He wouldn’t rush her. A submissive, even an unaware submissive, had to yield to a Dominant on her own.
Letting out a harsh breath, Kindle set her right hand in his, palm down. The light weight of her slender hand caused warmth to crawl up his arm and spread through his body. It wasn’t a great leap of trust, but even such the small amount of faith Kindle showed in him caused his gut to tighten and a volt of pleasure to race from base to tip of his cock.
“Is this just about sex?” she asked, as if reading his response to her.
Even if that were true and she’d witnessed the level of his desire or felt the spark, it had no influence on helping her to discover another way to ease the weight on her shoulders and mind.
“No. I’ll admit, you are a beautiful and sexy woman. You could get a man in your bed with one of your rare smiles.” His gut clenched at the thought of her with another man. He went on, “I’m attracted to you on many levels, but that’s not what this is about.”
He refused to allow her another chance to delay his point further.
Turning her hand over, he looked down at it. It was just as he’d suspected. Earlier when he’d observed her unaware at the restaurant door holding her clenched fist against her stomach and taking breaths to calm herself, it had looked second nature. As if she’d done the action so often to gather her bearings she probably rarely noticed she was doing it. Kindle had done the same thing when he challenged her about being late and other times during dinner, he’d noticed one or both hands balling up in her lap when she was uncomfortable with a question. Usually in connection with her job.
“This is your outlet.” With his other hand, he lightly brushed over the half-moon impressions and cuts in her palm.
She gasped; shocked, she tugged against his hold, trying to remove her hand. “That’s none of your business.”
His fingers encircled her wrists, locking her in place. His grip wasn’t tight enough to hurt her, but firm enough that if she wanted to break away from him, she’d have to snatch her hand away, creating a scene. Something he doubted she wanted to do.
Still caressing the new and old wounds, he kept his voice steady as he gazed into her shadowed eyes. “I’m not judging you, Kindle.”
She glanced past his shoulder then turned her head to the side. “That’s not how it appears from my side of the table.”
“You know, over the years I have trained people from all walks of life. Some of those just as emotionall
y strained as you seemed to me from the first moment I saw you. There have been those that bite their nails, drink heavily, eat odd things that have made them sick or pull out their hair one strand at a time.” He wouldn’t tell her which of those behaviors Lolli was using, unsure of whether Kindle’s friend had revealed that to her or not.
“What are you supposed to be, some kind of therapist with a belt?” she harangued.
“I don’t use a belt. If you’re looking for some kind of daddy and bad girl games, you’re talking to the wrong man.” He stopped the movement of his fingers on her.
“I wasn’t looking for any of this. You came to me, remember?” She tugged again.
He held on. “Yes. And I can help you.” He pressed his top hand flat over hers, sandwiching hers between his. When her russet gaze met his, he continued, “I know you don’t know me, but I’m asking you to trust me.”
She shook her head. “My life is laden with every aspect of this trial…” There was a catch in her voice. “There’s barely enough air for me to breathe.”
That was what worried him. If Kindle was causing herself pain through her day just to focus and maintain control, the magnitude of this case could push her into more extreme behaviors as a defense. “Don’t you think about letting someone else take control for just a moment? An hour or so where you just let go and breathe.”
A breath seemed to shudder through her, causing her hand to tremble in his and her eyes to become glassy. When she rolled her bottom lip into her mouth and bit down, he gave her palm one last caress and released her.
Kindle pulled her hand away. However, she didn’t ball it into a fist but pressed it flat to her stomach. Glancing down, she blinked rapidly as if clearing the water away that was threatening to spill over her lower lids and become tears.
The woman was full of strength and courage, evident in her straight-back posture. She had the potential to be an exquisite submissive.
“How’s everything?” Mandy came to the table and asked.
“We’re both finished.” He never removed his gaze from Kindle.
“Not a problem. Either of you care to have the remainder of your meal in a carryout box?”
Arching an eyebrow at Kindle, he waited for her response.
Keeping her gaze on him, Kindle said, “No, thank you.”
“Great. Can I get the two of you anything else?” In his peripheral, he saw the waitress look from him to Kindle, her forehead pinched with curiosity.
“No, Mandy.”
With one last look, the waitress took their plates and walked away.
“When’s the last time you danced, Kindle,” he asked.
Tilting her head to the side, she frowned. “What? I…it was…” She let out a breath. “I don’t know, maybe a few years ago.”
Rising, he held his hand out. “Dance with me, now.”
She only hesitated a fraction of a second before she slipped her hand into his, allowing him to pull her to her feet.
With a hand on her lower back, he guided her toward the small dance floor in the bar area. In a couple of hours, the restaurant would be filled with locals drinking, devouring appetizers and mezzé and dancing until the place closed.
Standing in the center of the wood flooring, Kindle stepped to him, placing her free hand on his shoulder as he slipped his arm around her waist. At first she kept rigid, her body leaning away from his slightly as they glided around the floor. However, as the seconds passed, he could feel her relaxing a little at a time until she was pressed against him, her breasts crushed to his chest. Nothing obscene, just enough to close the gap between them.
Being so close to her, he felt when her chest expanded further than normal and heard the low sniffing sound. She smelled him. That knowledge made him smile. However, he knew she wouldn’t pick up anything, because he’d stopped wearing cologne five years ago. Sweet had a rule at the shop that the staff could not wear perfumes and aftershaves. His brother firmly believed that other fragrances would obstruct the sweet candy aroma in the air, therefore throwing off customers’ olfactory detection, which would ruin their cravings, diminish what they would purchase and hurt sales. Sales were Masaun’s bottom line so, because of that and respect for his brother’s nightly hard work, Masaun just stopped using cologne all together.
Masaun continued to hold Kindle in his arms and neither of them spoke as they swayed to the music. He enjoyed the warmth of her body along his and the soft fragrance of her cologne with the undertones of her personal scent—the perfect warm floral blend. Oh, yes, she had a distinct aroma. The desire to bury his nose along the side of her neck and take more of it in had his senses reeling. It had probably been just as long for him since he danced or had a woman in his arms for any reason other than aftercare following a scene. If Kindle was in his life and he was offering her something other than outlet for her emotions, he could easily get used to this being a part of their relationship.
As the last few notes of the slow song played, she leaned back and gazed at him. “Masaun, I can’t give you or any man control over my life twenty-four seven.”
He caressed the palm of the hand he held against his chest. “I don’t know what impression Lolli has given you of my life.” He tossed her words back at her.
Her lips relaxed into a small smile.
Another slow ballad started.
“But, I’ve never desired to own my submissives. I just want to be there for you, give you pleasure and show you a side of yourself you just may like.”
Her fingers flexed against his chest. “What if I agree now, but realize it’s not for me?”
“Then you tell me so and you walk away. At any time.” He knew that if he ever got Kindle beneath his paddle, he wouldn’t want to let her go. But he would. Even as hard as it would be, BDSM lifestyle was not about imprisonment or holding a person captive when they desired to be released from their commitment. Criminals did things like that. There was no comparison.
Not wanting her to feel pressured, he stepped back, giving her space. “The fall air is still nice enough to walk outside. Let’s get out of here.”
“Okay.”
When he led her back to their table, he was happy to see the check was there. Removing his wallet from his pocket, he placed enough cash inside the black folder to cover their meals and gratuity.
Kindle took her purse from the back of the chair and they left.
They spent almost an hour silently strolling down the boardwalk or stopping just to stare out into the Atlantic Ocean at the waves rolling up onto the beach.
Masaun could have initiated small talk, discussed benign things in the news but he didn’t. This was Kindle’s time to process what he’d said and his offer. He wasn’t expecting her to make a decision tonight, but he would still respect the enormity of the choice she had before her.
All too soon, he escorted her back across the street to the restaurant parking lot, now filled from the Saturday night bar crowd, and followed Kindle to her car as she activated the unlock button on her key fob.
Next to the driver side of her car, she turned to him and said, “I’ll do it.”
His gaze searched her face. She wasn’t wearing her veneer of indifference, but neither was she showing much emotion regarding her choice. “Are you sure, Kindle?”
“Yes. I’m extremely nervous, not really knowing much but what I’ve seen being around Randolph and Emmalee. I’ve been one to chicken out because I’m fearful.”
“We’ll go slowly. Talk and ease you into it.”
“That’s good to know.” Her shoulders seemed to relax some. “When do you want to start?”
“You’re the one with the demanding schedule. I assume nights are best.” He was standing in front of her, not touching her. He hadn’t held her since they danced. However, the urge to pull her into his arms and let her know that things would be all right consumed him.
“Yes. Unfortunately, I’ll keep pretty late hours most nights and with the trial there will probably be
more not less.”
“Give me two nights a week. You can choose them, but I’ll expect you to keep the time.” She would need to understand that once they were in their designated roles, he’d demand she meet the standards he set.
Her hands were clutching her purse tight, but she nodded. “I think I can manage that.”
“Where do you want to meet?”
She thought for a moment. “I can’t do the Barbie Mansion… or whatever Lolli said it was called.”
He chuckled. “The dungeon is called The Dollhouse. However, meeting there is not necessary. My home is equipped with everything I need.”
“Oh.” Her mouth parted in a perfect O and her eyes lit up with surprise. “Okay. Your house is fine. Sundays and Wednesdays should work.”
“Meet me tomorrow evening at five. I’ll call you with the address.”
“I’ll be there.” She held her hand out to him.
“Business meetings adjourn with a shake. However, dates end with a kiss, Kindle.” Not giving her time to debate what he said, he took her hand and used it to pull her into his arms. By the time her body touched his, his lips were on hers.
A kiss that he meant to be brief went on for long moments because he couldn’t get enough of her. She had the perfect lips for kissing, full and supple. He licked and nibbled along them, coaxing her to open for him.
When her lips parted beneath his, he plunged in. There was no room for thoughts of finesse; only to take. The only thing was that she seemed to consume every part of him through the kiss. There was nothing coy or hesitant about her kiss, she gave back to him in equal measure. Something he enjoyed, knowing she was just as turned on as he.
His tongue swept across the tip of hers and she circled it, seduced him to go deeper. Slipping a hand up the back of her neck, he cupped it and he held her in place. Angling his head further to the side, he plunged his tongue deep into her mouth. In and out.
Kindle didn’t shy away from the aggressiveness of his kiss; instead she tightened her lips around his tongue and sucked it in a rhythm that matched his thrusting. When she swept her tongue along the sensitive bottom of his it was almost his undoing. He took a step forward, she followed with one back.
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