Alisa walked down the hall, ignoring the increasing din at the door.
She halted at the door of her bedroom when she saw three vibrators, clean and ready for duty, laid out on her bedside table. BodyVibe hung half-on, half-off the overstuffed chair in the corner. The Jungle Gym mocked her from the closet. She had nowhere to hide.
Down the length of the entire hall and through the door, she could hear Mark’s deep voice shouting, “Open up, Alisa. I brought you a new sex toy. It’s even more powerful than the one we tried last night—”
She bolted back down the hall, unlocked the door of her apartment and flung it open. “Be quiet! I have neighbors!” She dragged him inside, slamming the door behind him. He reached over and threw the bolt, as he had every night for the past month. Alisa cursed the heat that swept through her when she saw the look in his eyes. This had to stop. Now.
She grabbed a cardboard box from the hall closet and swept down the hall to her bedroom. If his damn DoublePlay toys were more important to him than people, he could have every single one of them back. She raked the vibrators into the box and emptied her bedside table drawer in on top of them.
“I don’t want any more sex toys, Mark. I want you to take them all back. I don’t need them anymore.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Not even the Screamer?”
“Oh shut up. You better be careful or I’ll hit you with that sexual harassment suit you were so worried about.”
“Actually, I think I’ve got a pretty strong harassment case against you.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Well, think about it. I needed your help with DoublePlay and you said you’d only give it to me if I had sex with you. Pretty cut-and-dried, I’d say.”
“You egotistical, insufferable—” she spluttered.
“It’s not my fault I couldn’t resist you.”
“You couldn’t resist the profit, you mean.” Alisa strode across the room to grab BodyVibe. She shoved it into the box, desperate to get him out of the bedroom before she gave in to the “one more for the road” urge that being in the same room with Mark and all those DoublePlay toys was giving her. “Why are you here Mark?”
“To ask you if you would reconsider accepting a position as head of product development. But that’s not the only reason—”
Alisa reached her limit. “No. I told you. I quit.”
“Let me explain, Alisa—”
“No,” she said again, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at him. “Let me explain. There’s one thing I didn’t record on my precious DoublePlay surveys, and you might as well have all the information, since that’s what you hired me for. Playing with a partner changes everything. It isn’t just the size or the shape of the toy or even the battery power that provides the pleasure. It’s sharing it with someone else. Your pleasure became my pleasure. I know you were using me to get DoublePlay off the ground, but it wasn’t just a job to me.” Just like that, the dam broke, and it was harder to keep her emotions inside than it was to let them escape. “Last night when you so cheerfully told me we were finished with DoublePlay, I was devastated, and when you thanked me for working with you, you broke my fucking heart. So, yeah, as my last official act as a SoloPlay employee, I’d like to suggest that you design a warning label for the DoublePlay products—handle with care, or hang on to your heart or something like that.”
Mark grinned. “Thank God, I thought you were just using me for sex toys.” He took her hands and held them to his heart.
“I was using you,” she said bitterly, ignoring the warmth that began to curl inside her. “When Eric dumped me, he said I was frigid.” Now that the dam had broken, she couldn’t seem to stop the flow of words, especially since he seemed to want to hear them. “I went to Come Again to find a way to prove him wrong, and I did, but not in the way I was expecting. I found Crystal and she taught me that communication is the key to sexual pleasure. It was so easy, too easy, to be with her. She knew what I wanted, even when I couldn’t tell her.”
“Go on,” he said. His nostrils flared and he swallowed hard. Evidence of the effect of her words swelled between them.
Her body began to heat in response. She had to finish her story and get him out of here. Fast. “Crystal broke up with me because she thought it was time for me to try out my new communication skills with a man.” She paused. “Did she ever tell you she promised to send me a Prince Charming?”
Mark shook his head.
“Well, you were certainly charming.” She paused again, remembering the way he had begun seducing her, deep in the library stacks, the fantasies he had shared with her. “When you walked into the library looking for me, it seemed like fate. You wanted my help with DoublePlay and I wanted to try to have sex with a man again. It seemed like a perfect plan, but it backfired.” She pulled away from him and picked up the box on the bed. She jammed it into his hands. “You need to go.”
“Not until we’re done.” His eyes flashed.
“We are done,” Alisa said, gritting her teeth to make the words sound biting instead of breathless. “We were done last night.”
Mark shook his head and tossed the box onto the floor. A bright blue butt plug and a handful of cock rings bounced out of the box and landed at their feet. “DoublePlay was done last night. I still have plans for you.” He drew close, too close, and she couldn’t ignore the desire in his eyes or the heat in his hands as he took her arm. She didn’t resist as he pulled her down to sit beside him on the bed, but she fought the pleasure his nearness caused.
“At the coffee shop, you said you would have tested the DoublePlay products with me for free. If you weren’t doing it for the cash, why were you doing it?”
“I just told you. I wanted to learn how to have good sex with a man.” What the hell, might as well go for broke now that she’d made her damn vow. She took a deep breath. “At least, that’s what I thought I wanted. I know better now, thanks to DoublePlay.” And you, she thought wistfully.
Mark held her gaze. “What do you want now, Alisa?”
“A guy who wants to give me more than a job would be good for starters.”
His voice was a low, rough whisper. “I’ll give you anything you want.”
She looked into his hot-cold eyes and shook her head. “It’s too late, Mark. I just want you to leave me alone.”
“I don’t believe you,” he said softly.
The hairs on Alisa body stood on end, leaned toward him. Even as she tried to push him away, the space between them crackled with electric attraction. Mark bent his head to her neck, to where the pulse beat in her throat, and kissed it. Alisa trembled as his words feathered against her neck.
“If we quit now, you might feel like a failure,” he said. “We can’t have that. I’m just trying to be fair, sweetheart. It doesn’t sound like you got everything you wanted out of this experiment. Let’s do it one more time. Just once. Tell me what you want me to do.” He was giving her that look again, the devilish one, the one he usually had on his face right before he pulled some outlandish toy out of his briefcase, and she couldn’t help but respond.
Alisa’s mouth went dry. Her heart skipped a beat. “I think I’m all set, as you well know.”
Mark cupped her cheek with his wide palm. She couldn’t pull away. “I didn’t tell you how I felt about you because I thought you were only interested in DoublePlay. Initially, it was all about the money, but after that first night, everything changed. Sologirl was my dream girl. I think I might have dreamed up the whole DoublePlay idea just to have an excuse to find her. But when I found you, you were more beautiful and more magnificent than my wildest fantasies of Sologirl. I wanted you more than I’ve ever wanted anyone in my whole life. No other girl has ever come close.”
His words heated her, melted her. Alisa wanted to be furious with him, but it was hard to concentrate on anger over the sharp arousal pulsing between her thighs and the slow, grinding ache of her heart. Was it even remotely possible that Mark was lo
oking for more from her than sex and surveys? Could he be looking for love too? Hope began to whisper inside her.
Mark continued, “I want to share more than just wild nights with you, Alisa—I want to share my life with you. Please, will you give me another chance?”
Mark’s eyes were pleading, and his lips were tender on her cheek. Alisa’s heart felt full. Everything made sense now. No wonder she hadn’t been able to respond to Eric. He was a selfish putz. Her affair with Crystal had taught her enough about her body to keep her from closing the door on sex, but it hadn’t taught her anything about love.
Alisa had been waiting for Mark.
“There’s one more thing I need to tell you,” Mark admitted. “Sologirl has no secrets from me. I know everything about her, and I was using all my secret knowledge to tie you to me with pleasure.” His grin was carnal and delicious. “However, in the interest of your personal growth, I’ll forget everything I know.” His hands slid intimately over her body, pausing in all her important places. “Tell me what you want. Tell me every single thing you want me to do to you. Talk slowly, and in great detail. You spin the fantasy for me this time.”
Mark held on to her shoulders and looked lovingly, laughingly, into her eyes. “I love you, Sologirl. I want to be your Prince Charming, and SoloPlay Enterprises wants you too—as the head of product development or anything else you’d like to be.” His warm eyes dared her, and his mouth curved in wicked promise. “How about it, Sologirl? Are you game?”
Heart soaring, Alisa nodded slowly. Mark might think he knew everything about Sologirl, but he didn’t know everything about Alisa Mane. “On one condition.”
“Anything.”
“Don’t call me Sologirl. I don’t think I’m going to be playing solo anymore.”
His smile thrilled her.
Alisa spotted the game die on the floor and stood to pick it up. She gave it a spin onto the bedside table.
Reveal. Finally, she was ready.
“I love you too,” she said. Relief, then joy filled her as she bent to whisper, slowly and with great detail, into his ear.
About the Author
It makes me chuckle to think about all the romantic short stories I wrote in my rather too literary creative writing classes in college. If only one of my professors had steered me toward popular fiction! On the other hand, if I had discovered my calling back then, I wouldn’t have gone to culinary school, I wouldn’t have met my husband, we wouldn’t have had three children and I wouldn’t have turned to erotic romance to get my mojo back during all this hair-raising kid raising.
To learn more about me, please visit www.mirandabaker.com. Send an email to [email protected] if you want to chat about romance, writing, or recipes!
Look for these titles by Miranda Baker
Now Available:
Bottoms Up
Love is the hardest limit.
Bottoms Up
© 2010 Miranda Baker
Come Again, Book 1
“I’m an Aries. We don’t submit.”
“I’m a Leo. Wanna bet?”
Destiny Blake senses that her boredom with blond pretty boys is about to come to a flesh-tingling end. Since her first love left her for a more experienced Domme, she’s honed her topping skills to a fine edge. Yet the idea of bottoming for the hard-bodied owner of her favorite BDSM club is an erotic challenge she can’t resist.
Destiny isn’t Johnny Delcorral’s type. Tangling with her, even for one night, is a dangerous proposition for a man with good reason for needing his women submissive. But he suspects she's hiding a submissive streak under her dreadlocks and leather, and he hungers to make her obey—and curb her reckless spirit.
The battle is on, both in the bedroom and out. Under Johnny’s knowing hands, she is dismayed to discover she’s enjoying submission more than she cares to admit. And Johnny finds himself relishing her defiance instead of curbing it—and fighting a growing unease with his inability to find her boundaries.
Until one night he pushes one step too far—and comes hard up against the one boundary he never expected to find.
Warning: This book contains naked power struggles, sexually charged spankings, kink from chains to canes, an Upstairs sex club, a hot m/f/m ménage, and absolutely everything the title promises.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Bottoms Up:
So this is what it feels like to be a sub.
The thought hit her like a bucket of ice water. Her brain rebelled. She was no sub. She wouldn’t let this happen. For three years, ever since Damian had left her for that crazy bitch with the snake whip, she had immersed herself in Dominance. She wasn’t going to let Johnny Delcorral destroy all of her hard work in one night, damn it, just because she had, once again, done something rash.
Her bustier hit the floor. Johnny pinched her right nipple, hard. She gasped. It felt like he had pinched her clit. The clip gripped her tight flesh with piercing pain. Tears stung her eyes, but she didn’t cry out.
“Good girl. Ready for the other one?”
She nodded.
Again she felt the hard pinch of his fingers, the pleasure, the pain, then just the pleasure. She felt her body temperature rising. He gave the chain between the clips a slight tug, and she thrust her breasts forward.
“Tell me how that feels. Do you like it?”
She pressed her lips together.
Johnny smiled. “Stubborn, much?” He ran his finger down her stomach. She watched, hypnotized by the chain swaying between her breasts.
Johnny attached a second chain, then dropped it through the loop between her legs. His fingers were deft as he fastened the end of the delicate chain to her clit ring.
He exerted the tiniest bit of pressure.
She stepped forward.
He grinned. “I think I like you leashed.”
Destiny dropped her eyes, noticing on the way down that his cock was hard again. This passive role felt foreign to her. Yet at the same time, her pussy was so wet, so full, it was impossible to deny that she was enjoying his commands. Her body clamored to meet his demands. Subbing had been a lark, a dare, a new challenge, but now she feared it might become something more. The body was hardwired to the brain, the subconscious, the very essence of her being. And if her being was enjoying this, submitting to Johnny could change her life.
Not going to happen.
He could do his worst, his best, and she would not give up control of her Dominant self, not completely. She had agreed to follow his commands, and she would. She would do everything he asked. But she was going to try like hell not to enjoy it. If she failed, then fine, he’d make her orgasm. Whatever. She wasn’t going to let him in her head, though.
Johnny raised his hand in an imperious yet courtly gesture. “Get on the bed. On your back.”
She obeyed, but slowly. The chain tugged her clit and her nipples as she walked, driving her toward the bed even as her conflicted thoughts screamed caution.
Before she could reconcile the two, she found herself stretched out on her back with Johnny standing between her legs. He reached up and caught the end of a retractable rope hanging from a track on the ceiling. He pulled it down to her center. She swallowed hard as he lifted the chain from her belly and carefully attached it to the rope. When he was finished, her small breasts hung by their peaks and her clit stood at attention.
“Don’t move,” he said, diabolical eyes dancing as he stepped off the bed.
As if she could. She was immobilized by the thin chains and ropes attached to her most delicate parts. She had no way to escape, especially when he drew soft, black cords from each corner of the bed and loosely captured her wrists and ankles. The wrist and ankle restraints were purely symbolic, but, boy, did they do their job well. The Domme part of her appreciated the fact that he left some play in the cords to protect her clit and her nipples, but she was dismayed to discover she liked feeling confined.
Destiny closed her eyes to try to block out some of the disturbing
sensory stimulation, but being sightless heightened the sensations coursing through her body. Her mouth felt swollen from his cock, and she could still taste his salt on her tongue. Her nipples swelled under the clips in a constant state of steadily increasing arousal. The thin chains connecting her nipples and clitoris conducted sharp, hot pleasure through her body in a continuous loop.
She arched her back, gasping as the change in position intensified the effect, then almost screaming as she settled back on the bed and discovered that the retractable rope had just enough tension in it to give her clit and nipples a delicious tug. Her thighs fell wide. Her pelvis thrust toward the ceiling. She felt as if he had driven a wedge into a tiny crack in her façade and split her wide open.
The bed slowly dipped. The chains dragged against her. It felt so good. So delicious. Oh, my God, she thought. What have I done?
Every deal has a loophole.
Restraining the Receptionist
© 2011 Juniper Bell
…the Receptionist, Book 2
Dana Arthur’s new job with the firm of Cowell & Dirk is going well. Translation: the occasionally kinky ménage with her two bosses, Ethan and Simon, has been several months of politically incorrect bliss.
Except the relationship feels unbalanced. While Ethan is the undisputed master, the partners’ iron-clad agreement stipulates that Simon must be present as she performs her “duties”. And she senses there’s a subtle, powerful tug-of-war developing for more than just her body.
Simon had agreed to share the firm’s fiery, sensually daring receptionist…to a point. With Simon out of town, Ethan plans a feast of erotic temptations designed to have Dana begging him to break the deal. He didn’t realize his heart would be a casualty.
SoloPlay: Come Again, Book 2 Page 13