Blush

by Lauren Jameson

  It worked, for a few minutes at least, as she wandered among the slot machines. She wasn’t in the mood to try her hand at blackjack again—she’d been lucky once and didn’t want to tempt fate.

  She’d tried her best to keep her eyes away from the balcony on which she’d once seen Alex standing, but after ten minutes, she couldn’t help it anymore. Although she’d come here to see him, she hadn’t been quite ready to find him until now.

  She looked up, her heart in her throat.

  He wasn’t there.

  Disappointment swamped her, though she knew it wasn’t overly rational. Just because he wasn’t standing on the balcony didn’t mean anything. She hadn’t even had the guts to tell him that she was finally coming to him.

  She’d go have a glass of wine, relax a bit; then she’d call him. She hurried back across the casino floor to the turnstiles through which she had entered. Against her better judgment, she turned to take one more quick look at the balcony.

  Alex still wasn’t there, but someone was. Squinting, Maddy made out a flash of dandelion-soft blond hair disappearing back through the sliding doors.

  Someone was up there with him.

  Did it mean he had found another woman? He’d said he was monogamous, and she’d believed him, but . . . well, the man must have had women throwing themselves at his feet all the time.

  She felt sick. She needed to leave.

  “Miss Stone.” The thick Irish accent caught Maddy just before she exited the building entirely. She turned to find Declan standing behind her, a hand to his Bluetooth.

  She didn’t answer, just looked at him wide-eyed.

  “Mr. Fraser asked me to catch you if I could. He saw you on the cameras. He’ll be down in a moment.” Maddy’s heart did a funny little dance inside her chest.

  She wondered briefly what Alex would say to Declan if she decided to leave. And then he was there, striding across the marble lobby, seeming not to notice the stares that his looks and bearing drew.

  He nodded at Declan as he approached, and the big man returned the gesture before fading away into the crowd. Then Maddy was alone with Alex for the first time in a week.

  “Hey.” Her voice was soft.

  “Maddy.”

  Her reaction to him was visceral. She wanted so badly to curl up in his arms and to stay there forever. “Alex, I wanted to tell you . . .” She studied him as she tried to work up the nerve to do what she’d come there to do. He looked different. He was wearing his glasses, but she’d seen those on him before. He was dressed far more casually than she’d ever seen him, in jeans that had a hole in one knee and a T-shirt that sported the name of a gym. If it hadn’t been for the casual clothes, Maddy might have thought she’d interrupted his time in the dungeon.

  “Am I interrupting something?” There was something here that she wasn’t quite catching.

  “I couldn’t let you leave without seeing you.”

  She noticed that he blithely sidestepped her question, but she could focus on only one thing at a time at the moment.

  “Do you have something to tell me?”

  “Here.” Opening her purse, Maddy pulled out a sheath of papers. Fingers trembling, she passed them over.

  His eyes searched her face intently before he unfolded the creased sheets. She watched him read, noted the slight flaring of his nostrils when he got to the part that required a signature.

  It was signed, Maddy’s name scribbled in her loopy cursive.

  “Are you sure?”

  She couldn’t quite read his expression, but his words lifted her spirits. She took a deep breath. This was it, the moment of no return. “I’m sure, Alex,” she replied, and a tremor ran through her. “If you still want me.”

  Alex’s eyes darkened, and next thing she knew, he had pulled her into the bar where they’d met, behind the counter, and into a small room, the door to which she’d never noticed before.

  The room was teensy, furnished with a couch and a desk and not much more.

  Maddy opened her mouth to ask what purpose this room served, and instead found herself pressed back against the door, her wrists bound by his fingers, her arms above her head. Pressing her into the hard surface with his hips—and his sudden erection—Alex took her mouth in a wet, hot kiss that left her breathless.

  “This is how much I still want you.” Holding her wrists in one hand, he skimmed his other down her body to her hip. Bunching the fabric of her sundress in his other hand, he pulled the skirt of her dress up until his fingers found skin.

  “Alex.” Maddy was acutely aware of the busy bar on the other side of the door, which wasn’t a thick slab of wood by any means. If they made too much noise, everyone would be able to hear them.

  “Be still, sub.” Shocked by his words, Maddy froze as commanded. He growled with satisfaction, then slid two fingers past the elastic of her bikini panties and inside of her. She had been wet since he’d pressed her against the door.

  “You’re going to come for me, Maddy, hard and fast.” He slid his fingers in and out, then crooked them several times in succession. Her vaginal walls clenched him like a fist, the sensation intimate and so, so good.

  “Alex—” Her hips began to thrust into his hand as the pleasure built, coiling tightly inside of her. His name was a strangled whisper on her lips.

  “Not a sound.” His expression was intent, focused entirely on her, drinking in the nuances of her arousal as if he wanted to remember them forever. “Come, Maddy. Come for me.”

  He slipped his fingers from inside of her and rubbed them in a hard circle over her clit. The orgasm was like a bolt of lightning, short and bright and electric. It left her panting, staring at him wide-eyed.

  Before she could say a word, he spun her around. “Put your palms flat on the door, above your head.”

  Maddy did as he told her, her knees trembling.

  “Do not move a muscle.”

  “Ahh!” She cried out, loudly, when the exposed skin of her ass was delivered a firm, hard spank.

  “Quiet.” Dominance layered his voice. She was shocked, in disbelief that he would do this then and there, of all places.

  Another blow, then another. She kept track in her head as the burn spread over her skin, counting ten in all.

  “That was for making me wait.” Alex turned Maddy back to face him, kissed her gently on the lips, then buried his face into the long waves of her hair as he smoothed her skirt back down over her hips. She whimpered as he started to pull away.

  She liked it. Maddy liked being spanked, since she knew that she richly deserved it.

  The taste of pleasure made her greedy, and she wanted more. She wanted him to come while he was deep inside of her, marking her as his own.

  “Can I come upstairs with you?” Now that she had him, that things were decided between them, she wanted to lose herself in him in the dark of night.

  Slowly, he shook his head. “I’m sorry, Maddy. I wish you could. But now isn’t a good time.”

  Ice water washed over Maddy like someone had dumped a bucket over her head.

  Not a good time. Surely he didn’t have a woman up there with him. Logically, her brain reminded her of the fact that he just didn’t seem like the kind of man who would do that.

  But the doubt remained. She had signed his damn agreement. She could see the evidence of his arousal, rock hard and surging out the top of his jeans. She really couldn’t think of a good reason that he didn’t want her in his home, particularly when she could give him the release that his body clearly wanted.

  “All right.” She wasn’t going to make a fuss. Trust . . . He kept telling her that trust was what this relationship had to be all about.

  Still, it stung.

  Looking down at her toes, Maddy smoothed the rumpled skirt of her dress over her hips, waiting for him to open the wooden door and lead her out. She thought they were quiet enough, but still, she was embarrassed to look the bartender in the eye on her own.

  Her flushed cheek
s and messy hair surely screamed of what they had just been doing.

  “Maddy.” Bending, Alex cupped her face in his hands. They were nose to nose, and she had no choice but to look right into his eyes. “It’s nothing sinister. I just have something going on right now that I can’t interrupt. But tomorrow . . . Do you work tomorrow?”

  Breathless at his proximity to her, Maddy jerked her head up and down the tiniest bit. “I’m done at nine.” She grimaced internally. She and Joe had moved on from that one strange evening when he and Alex had all but pissed testosterone in front of her, and they had gotten a bit of their old groove back.

  A bit . . . but not all. Maddy was pretty sure that what was gone between them was gone for good, and it both made her a little sad and made closing shifts with just the two of them slightly awkward.

  Alex frowned a little as she tensed at the thought, but didn’t push. Instead he pressed a kiss to her forehead and stepped back.

  “I’ll come pick you up tomorrow night at about nine thirty.”

  “What should I wear? Where are we going?” Maddy couldn’t help but feel a little giddy.

  He smirked as he reached into his pants, adjusting himself so that his erection wasn’t as noticeable. When the hem of his untucked shirt fell over the top, she couldn’t tell at all, though it surely couldn’t be comfortable for him.

  “I’ll have your clothing for the evening delivered to your house during the day tomorrow. Make sure you’re ready at nine thirty. Wear nothing that isn’t in the box.” With that, he opened the door to the small room, took her by the hand, and led her out as if nothing intense had just transpired between them.

  Maddy trembled with eager anticipation at the thought of the next night.

  What was he going to do to her?

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “Holy shit.”

  Maddy had been home from her shift at the diner for less than five minutes. As promised, there was a large box wrapped in brown paper sitting on the woven mat in front of her door.

  As Mrs. Wilson from down the hall peeked out of her door with curiosity, Maddy lugged the box inside, placed it on the table, and attacked it with a kitchen knife.

  “He’s nuts.” She couldn’t hold back the exclamation as she discovered the contents of the box. The items inside were layered with delicate pink tissue paper, but that didn’t soften their shocking impact. “I’m not going out in public dressed like this.”

  The first item was a bustier. It was constructed of black lace that tapered to a V in the front and back. The slim straps were satin ribbons, far too easily untied.

  Maddy would blush wearing this in the bedroom, let alone in public.

  Closing her eyes for a long moment, she tried to gather some mojo. It didn’t help, but a quick glance at the clock told her that she had only twenty minutes before Alex would arrive.

  The next item was a skirt, which soothed her shocked sense of propriety initially. It was almost ankle length, lightweight material, and the prettiest shade of bright blue.

  Maddy held it up to the light to get a better look at it . . . and that was when she realized it was completely see-through.

  She searched the box rapidly. Surely there were some missing pieces—a cardigan or a slip.

  She came up with a set of strings that kinda, sorta resembled a thong, a pair of strappy black stilettos, and a boxed set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Blu-ray Discs. The latter made her grin and melt a bit inside, thinking of him drinking out of her silly coffee mug, but her nerves still refused to dissipate.

  Trapped, Maddy looked at the clock on the kitchen wall. Alex had been very specific about wearing only what he sent and nothing more. And he was enough of a control freak that she knew, deep down, he hadn’t made a mistake.

  Mortified, she carried the items to the bedroom. A small part of her considered refusing, considered dressing in her own clothing.

  But there was that trust issue again. She closed her eyes against the headache that threatened, and after stripping, pulled on the shreds of clothing that, to her way of thinking, barely constituted lingerie.

  Thong, skirt, bustier, heels. Maddy avoided the full-length mirror in the bedroom as she hurried to the bathroom to comb her hair, brush her teeth, and add some mascara and lipstick.

  What she saw reflected there stopped her in her tracks.

  She looked . . . well . . . She looked sexy. Really sexy. The bustier pushed up her breasts, which looked lovely and creamy white next to the black lace. Though the blue of the sheer skirt wasn’t next to her face, it nevertheless managed to brighten her skin tone.

  Maddy was stunned enough by what she saw that she was able to ignore the fact that she could easily see the entire thong through the sheer material.

  The alert on her iPhone reminded her that she had only five more minutes. She hastily applied mascara and rosy lipstick, then scooped her hair into a bun rather than her usual ponytail.

  She liked the look of her naked neck, rising above the ribbons of black.

  At the door, she contemplated pulling a jacket or wrap around her, since desert nights could get extremely chilly.

  Wear nothing that isn’t in the box. Maddy had to admit that she was tempted to do it, just to see what would happen. Then she thought of Alex’s expression when he was angry and was overtaken with the mental image of a lion devouring a lamb.

  She left the wrap. She would behave.

  She looked at her cell phone again. He would be there any minute. As the seconds ticked by, Maddy started to feel as though the walls were closing in on her. Her hand was turning the knob of her door when she realized that, given her attire, waiting outside was probably not the best idea.

  Her doorbell rang, and she started, even though her hand was already on the door.

  “Oh God,” Maddy whispered to herself as she looked down and took one deep breath. She might have been nearly naked, but she looked good.

  “Wow, Maddy.” Alex looked her up and down slowly, and she could see the pleasure in his expression.

  Little champagne bubbles of joy bathed her skin. “Hi.” She smiled shyly. She felt better about her clothing now that he was looking at her like that. She averted her gaze to the floor, trying one last time to gather up her courage.

  When she looked up, Alex’s wolf had taken over. Maddy swallowed thickly and her arms twitched, wanting to cover herself, since his avid stare made her feel so exposed. Somehow, she didn’t think he would like that, and she was too nervous to deal with the punishment part of the festivities just yet.

  “I’m pleased you’ve followed my instructions so well.”

  She didn’t understand why it mattered so much that he was pleased, but it did. “They weren’t that hard to follow.” This wasn’t exactly true. She still had to walk across the parking lot dressed like . . . she was.

  As if sensing her dilemma, Alex shrugged out of the suit jacket that he was wearing. He placed the heavy fabric around her shoulders and buttoned it in the front.

  It was way too big, covering Maddy to midthigh. She wanted to wrap her arms around herself to better soak in its warmth.

  It smelled so good. It smelled like him.

  “That should keep your neighbors from getting an eyeful.” Alex surveyed her, and something in his gaze told Maddy that he liked seeing her in his clothing. “But make no mistake, Maddy. Where we’re going tonight, the suit jacket won’t be allowed.”

  His words were ominous enough to pull her attention away from the sight of him in his shirtsleeves, the top two buttons of his plum-colored shirt undone.

  He was really just too good-looking to be true.

  “Where are we going?” Once seated in the Turbo, Alex turned the car back in the direction of Vegas. Maddy had assumed that he would simply take her back to the penthouse until he’d made the comment about not being able to wear the suit jacket where they were going.

  But if they were going to the penthouse, she was fairly certain that she’d be naked.

&nb
sp; “If I tell you, you’ll obsess and worry the entire way and be unhappy by the time we get there. So I won’t tell you. I’ll show you. By then you’ll have so much to look at that you won’t have time to think too much.”

  “Alex.” Despite his reassurances, his words made Maddy’s heart begin to beat double time. She curled her fingers into the edge of the leather seat as the Turbo sped down the freeway.

  “Almost there.” They were on the edge of the city, in a neighborhood far removed from the neon lights of the strip. It was filled with businesses and dotted with the occasional house. It was one of these that Alex pulled up to, a monstrous two-level with a sweet Victorian design.

  There were no signs, nothing to indicate that it was more than a home beyond the valets dressed in discreet black suits at the door.

  “Will you tell me now?” Maddy didn’t think that her nerves could take much more.

  Alex chuckled as he guided the Turbo up in front of what appeared to be the valet service. He was at her car door before the others could reach them, helping her out.

  “Mr. Fraser. It’s been a while.” The man smiled at Alex, then turned his gaze to Maddy. He looked her up and down, and she suspected that he knew she was wearing something naughty beneath the suit jacket. “Very pretty, Alex.”

  She felt exposed and somehow as if she should have been insulted, but she wasn’t. Instead, that flush of pleasure washed over her, perhaps because something in this man’s bearing reminded her of Alex.

  “Maddy, this is Julien Knight. He’s the manager of this fine establishment.” The man, who was lean and lethal-looking as a panther, had flawless golden skin, black dreadlocks pulled back in a ponytail, and an eyebrow ring. He wasn’t her type at all, but he managed to exude sex appeal all the same.

  “Oh, hello.”

  Julien took Maddy’s hand and kissed it, his mouth warm against the skin of her palm rather than the top. He looked up at Alex with a cocked brow. “She new to this?”

  “Very.” Alex placed an arm around Maddy’s shoulders, and even she couldn’t miss the fact that he was staking a claim. “She’s visiting tonight. Hands off.”