by Kendra Mase
Running her tongue over her lips to cover any heavy breath that escaped through them, Katherine’s heart pounded as she lifted her chin up and saw what she’d imagined for months.
With lips slightly parted, Jack looked right back down at her, his hazel eyes hard and narrowed.
“Eyes averted down.”
“Like you’re praying,” Evie whispered somewhere in the distance.
As he took a small circle, walking around her, he tapped her back gently with the toe of his shoe.
Katherine sat up straight, adjusting her hands to lay carefully on either thigh where her dress’s skirt slipped up at the fixed posture, no longer covering the clips of her garters.
“Good,” Jack spoke, his voice rough and low.
Katherine did not move.
“BDSM.” He spoke each word slowly as he continued making his round around her to make sure she didn’t flinch as he got closer. “Do you know what that stands for, Kitten?”
“Yes.”
“Tell me.”
“Bondage, dominance, submission…” She trailed off. If her hands weren’t cupping her knees, she was sure they would be shaking as she kept her voice even.
“So, you don’t know,” Jack said. “Let me tell you, yes?”
Katherine tilted her head.
But Jack stopped his walk. “What was that?”
She forced the word out, though not loud. She was never someone who was loud. She looked up toward him before immediately remembering and placing her eyes back in front of her on the floor.
Like she was praying. “Yes.”
“I thought so, I wanted to make sure after all. Consent is key for us to be doing this, you know. What was I saying again, Evie?”
Katherine spoke up again. “BDSM.”
She could feel his head whip back to her. “I don’t think I was asking you, Kitten. Did I ask you to speak?”
No.
“Who was I asking?”
Katherine shut her eyes. “Evie.”
“BDSM,” Evie supplied.
“Oh yes, that’s right. BDSM.” Jack sang the letters through the space again as if he was just starting to enjoy himself, a hint of light in his voice. “Bondage, very good, Kitten. Dominance, yes, but also discipline. We may need to work on that.”
Katherine cringed but opened her eyes again, sitting up straight and looking down straight ahead even as she ached to look up and give him a glare.
“And submission, as well as sadism. And M. Did I give you any hints, sweetheart?”
M. Katherine took another deep breath, settling her heart. She was here, right here, as Jack waited.
“You can answer.”
“Masochism?”
“What a quick learner,” Jack said, and suddenly he was right in front of her. Squatting down, he lifted her chin with two fingers. His honey gaze turned sharp like specks of gold. “Will you ever stop surprising me, Kit?”
Another deep breath. She felt oddly calm. Simple.
“Look so simple now?” Jack asked, as if he could read her thoughts. She sure didn’t say anything aloud. Something more than intrigued crossed over him as he leaned in close to her ear. “Is this what you were curious about the other night at the club when you almost slipped into the wrong hands?”
Katherine narrowed her eyes and this time when he pulled back to look at her, she only grinned, not letting him get to her. They were playing, but she was still part of the game. “Looks like I have a lot to learn.”
The door across from them opened to the view of the two of them there in that position.
“It appears I am interrupting something?” A woman peeked inside. “I’m here for Evie, but you three continue doing… whatever this is you are doing.” She waved her hand around the scene.
Mouth gaping, Katherine easily slipped back up onto her heels to standing. She heard a pleased clap at the swift movement from both Jack and Evie behind her. She couldn’t help but spin around with an accusing glare.
“Forgive my intrusion.”
“Nothing to be forgiven, Mistress.” Jack stood and bowed at the waist toward the leather-clad woman.
She turned to Evie. “Coming?”
“Everyone is so giving today,” Evie proclaimed as she stood up, picking up her thigh-highs she removed to wiggle her toes.
The mistress rolled her eyes.
“We were just teaching Jack’s friend here the basics.”
“Is that so?” the woman asked, turning back to Katherine. “Jack’s friend?”
Katherine only stood there for a long moment. At some point, her throat turned very dry.
Luckily, Jack stepped in. “Kit is helping with the New Year’s Eve bash since Queen isn’t here.”
“She isn’t going to be back by then?”
Jack paused at the question. “She’ll probably be back, but someone had to pick up the planning slack.”
“Right.” The mistress, Raquel, Katherine remembered from her past orders, glanced toward her again. “Have a nice night.”
“You too,” Katherine whispered as the door slammed closed.
“Did I scare you?”
Scare her?
She was still visualizing herself down on the floor with him looking down at her…
“No,” Katherine spoke rapidly as she processed. “That dominatrix—Raquel. Will she think that we were… are—”
Jack was very close to her now. Taking a hesitant step back, Katherine pressed up against the wall. His eyes softened, suddenly tired, as he looked her up and down with a sigh.
“Don’t worry, Kitten, your reputation is still intact. Like I’ve said before, if we were anything, you’d know it by now,” he purred, a low rumble. The sound vibrated through her chest and settled low in her stomach.
Jack took in Katherine. She stared back. Only once she dared to meet his hazel eyes did he give an amused laugh and pull away, as if just noticing how close to one another they were. “So would your wallet. Come on. We still have work to do, but I’m exhausted.”
Katherine nodded in agreement.
“Hungry?”
As their usual schedule dictated. After DuCain and event work, she and Jack almost always spent the rest of the night together in simple company. They picked up takeout or groceries and took them back to the townhouse.
They left the television on to a random channel as they ate rice noodles or worked next to each other. Katherine finally finished the final page of the website. Now truly, there were only two things standing in the way of her hitting the final publish button.
She shut the screen, pulling the blanket around herself on the couch.
“You done?” Jack asked. He was still on his computer, editing raw images until the colors popped.
“The decorations have been ordered. Cherry has been updated on the event schedule,” Katherine recounted. “The headliner at DuCain has been settled.”
Jack snorted.
“I like Evie.”
“Of course you do. You both are shy until you get comfortable. Then, you won’t shut up.”
He had a point.
The corner of his mouth quirked up. “Are you staying?”
Katherine shook her head, like she always did as she curled down farther into the corner. “Just for a little, then I’ll head home.”
She knew that she couldn’t keep staying here, leaving Emilie alone, but then again, she wasn’t really talking to Katherine anyway. She’d watch the rest of whatever episode was on, then she’d go.
Unconvinced, Jack only nodded and looked back to his screen. His other hand reached out to her blanket, stretching it so it fit over her feet.
It had been nice being at the townhouse with Jack for the past few weeks. It was easy and warm. They talked and laughed, and he never questioned her taco order with extra lettuce since she proclaimed it always fell out of the top when she tried to eat it. And they never questioned the first time when she stayed over and kissed him.
A sort of memory on
ly Katherine only reminisced on, wondering if he remembered it happening, not that it mattered.
They had a lot of more important things to worry about anyway. The event and Katherine still helping Emilie with the shop.
She could ask him right now. The realization that there was only one way to get the website up and running on her own without spending any more than she already was for hosting became abundantly clear, and he had offered.
But Katherine didn’t. The television screen blurred before her eyes as she fell asleep, knowing that she would get up and head straight home to the shop again.
And then the next day, they would do it all over again.
Only today, Katherine stretched as she sat up in the dim light of an early Ashton morning. She carefully nudged Jack so he could almost think it was an accident.
With a yawn, Jack inhaled before blinking a few times. “What time is it?”
“Jack?”
“Morning.”
Will you take pictures of me half naked to put online? Katherine wanted to ask. “Truth or dare?”
“It’s a little early for this, Kitten. You want coffee or tea?”
It didn’t matter. “Truth or dare?”
He rubbed his eyes, looking her up and down. She couldn’t imagine what her hair looked like as she pulled on her glasses from the side table. He must’ve taken them off as she fell asleep next to him again last night.
She waited for his answer.
It came out soft, even. “Dare. Was that the right answer?”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The first time he knew that there was no walking away from Avril was when he watched her have sex with someone else. He felt little as he stared at the two of them at some party uptown, in a building he wouldn’t be able to pick out of a lineup. He’d convinced the two of them to go after getting an invite from an old friend who still remembered him from his time at school. Jack got his internship alongside the guy before he dropped out.
But, when he watched Avril laugh and smile, she did whatever the hell she pleased, there was only one thing he could think, and he couldn’t help but think that Reed after a while, had thought the same thing.
It looked like he was along for whatever ride she had him on.
Jack didn’t want to get off, though he thought about it occasionally. He thought about the possibility when she pushed him away or got so drunk, it was nearly impossible for her to mount the stairs of the castle. Or, when she rolled over in his bed late some nights after they were out and whispered the sort of dirty things in his ear he only ever thought were made up in his sickest fantasies.
But he knew that this was different.
No matter how many times he forced himself to stop whatever thought trailed through his mind late at night or even right when he woke up, it was still there, and he knew it.
Knew it from the moment he couldn’t get the image of Kit kneeling down in front of him out of his mind, staring back up at him with parted lips that with anyone else, he would have smashed his against.
And she looked at him like she wouldn’t mind.
Then there was also how she fell asleep almost every other night on the couch next to him. She cleaned up the plates on the coffee table, putting her laptop where they had been and told him how she was just going to rest her eyes for a minute or finish watching the end of the movie he knew she never saw the beginning of—then she’d be asleep, comfortable and safe next to him.
Most nights, he couldn’t bring himself to walk upstairs to his own bed, instead, sprawling out on the oversized cushions across from her and eventually falling asleep too. He’d look at the ceiling they wished on stars through, and he tried for the life of him to remember what the hell he must’ve wished for that night, because it was obviously coming true.
Her constant presence swirled like the sweetness of honey that clung to his tongue. It was a craving that snuck up on him and could never be quenched like with a quart of ice cream where at least he would stop when he hit the bottom and felt the heavy sick feeling churning his insides.
And the way she looked at him—no. He shook his head, ignoring it all from the first time she kissed him. He wanted nothing more than to grasp her and kiss her back all the harder until there was no question of what he possibly thought about her. As of now, they were—well, Jack was never fond of labels anyway.
Of course, as he shoved the furniture out of the way from where rising light streamed in the front window of the house, he wasn’t exactly sure what this all classified. Did friends take photos of each other? Did partners of sorts in the downtown Ashton underworld?
Letting out a deep breath, a strand of Jack’s unkempt hair blew upward out from his eyes. He hadn’t even made time to get a haircut recently he’d been so busy with making himself busy alongside her.
He yanked the refinished settee over the sheet he had laid over the hardwood. That should be good enough.
Jack was helping a friend with her business. That was what this was.
He’d offered to begin with and imagined her taking him up on it. But now, here they were. Running her across the bridge back to Emilie’s, Jack helped sneak her in and out before Emilie looked to even be awake for the day. She gathered supplies and set one after another, knowing exactly where they were into one of those oversized tote bags she constantly carried around.
She called Emilie on the ride back to the townhouse she figured was as good as any place to do this, letting her know that she wouldn’t be in until later.
The call was a short one. He took one of his own while Katherine went up to get changed, tossing his phone back onto the couch afterward so he could focus.
He looked around the living room before looking down at his jean-clad thighs.
“Calm down.”
Professionalism was key. Think of it as another tab in his portfolio he’d been updating on his old website hidden in the back corners of the internet. Jack cleared his throat, rolling his neck as he made sure his tripod was at the right height.
“Can you turn around?”
He was pretty sure, seeing as she was talking to his back, he already was. Still, he froze where he was.
“You realize the day we met, you ended up half naked on the townhouse kitchen floor, right?”
“That was different.”
“Was it?” Jack wasn’t so sure. For one, this time, they were both completely sober. He took another deep breath. Were his hands… shaking?
“Just turn around.”
“I’m going to see you in about a minute anyway.”
Katherine popped her head out of the bathroom door and caught Jack’s eye.
“Fine.” He turned back around all the way this time.
“Thank you.”
For a long moment, there was only silence ringing throughout the house.
“Are you coming out now, or am I going to have to come in there and drag you?” Jack asked before adjusting his lens again, mumbling. “Nah, you’d probably enjoy that too much.”
“Probably.”
His head swung up to meet Kit’s nervous eyes. Her mouth pressed together in a small laugh, though.
He didn’t think she would come out so quickly, but now he couldn’t look away from her. She stood in front of him in a teal and gold embroidered set that looked like it was made specifically for her body from where it hit her shoulders to smoothing around her hips. She fixed one of the clips on her stocking before looking up at him. She did similar makeup to what she wore most nights when they were out. Without her glasses, her eyeliner winged out to either side sharply as the curls of her hair swept to one side.
She looked like a perfect pinup.
Swallowing, he raised an eyebrow. “Would you like to reenact the last two minutes?”
“No. I need to do this before I change my mind.”
He was beginning to think the same thing. “That’s the spirit.”
Slowly, Katherine made her way across from him to the makeshift set.
“I’m nervous.”
“Why?”
Looking around the space, she gripped her one elbow, obviously trying to think of a good reason. “I don’t know.”
“Well, that’s a start. Kitten out of worries. Is this a first?”
“Maybe.”
“I’m glad I’m here for this.” He shot a picture.
“Stop. I wasn’t ready.”
“Okay, take your seat or stand or do whatever it is you imagine,” Jack said. Stepping back around his camera, he cleared his throat again. Focus. He could do that. Looking through his camera, though, to make sure he was set up correctly, he was met with a very stiff model.
“You look like you are in pain.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Jack said. “Just, talk to me. Relax. Safe space.”
She nodded a few times, slowly drifting into less pain and more preparing for school picture day.
“Who were you on the phone with?”
“What?” Jack peeked up at her as she adjusted herself again, trying to get comfortable.
“I heard you talking on the phone. Who was it?”
“Oh, one of them was my sister-in-law calling again. She’s still trying to make me go home for my parents’ anniversary.”
“It hasn’t happened yet?”
“Nope.” Jack dipped his head back down, looking at his camera and hitting the shutter button while she was relaxed. A second after, she tensed again.
“That wasn’t very nice.”
“Better than having photos that make your lingerie look like someone has a knife at your back.”
She shrugged. Obviously, for once, Jack had a point.
“When is your parents’ party?”
“November sixteenth is their anniversary,” Jack said.
Kit’s eyes widened. “This weekend? As in tomorrow?”
He hummed in confirmation.
“You need to go.”
“I don’t,” Jack said, though they both could hear the sour turn of his voice. Maybe he did, but that isn’t what they needed to be talking about right now. “Later.”