The Mammoth Book of Hot Romance

by Sonia Florens

“Now I know why people say you’re trouble, Sable.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you make being bad sound so good!”

  Sable let out a whoop of laughter to join Miranda’s giggles and jumped out of her seat. She pulled Miranda out of her chair and gave her a quick hug.

  Stepping back, Sable looked into Miranda’s eyes. “There’s nothing wrong with being good, Mandy.” She grasped Miranda’s hands in hers and squeezed them tight. “But maybe it’s time for you to do some exploring and discover what really works for you. You might be surprised.”

  Three

  Jake focused on staying calm as he pulled his jeep up in front of Miranda’s place the next night. Despite the fact that she’d taken his revelation the day before better than he’d anticipated, he was still worried. She hadn’t been waiting for him in his bed when he got home after his shift, and when he’d called her in the morning she’d been pretty reserved.

  Thoughts of her backing out, of her losing respect for him because she thought he was weak, or worse yet, that she thought he was a freak filled his head until he couldn’t stand it any more. He’d spent the afternoon pounding on a heavy bag at the gym until his mind was completely blank, but as soon as he’d left the gym, the fear that he was losing her had eked its way back into his soul.

  When they’d first met it had been clear to him that Miranda was a straight-laced good girl – a hot one, but still not his type. Then she’d decided to keep the pub instead of selling it and, as he worked with her day after day, he’d begun to see beneath her polished surface, and he liked what he saw. When she’d taken the first step, he’d known he was right to think that she had hidden depths. Still, he hadn’t wanted to love her, but now that he did, he couldn’t lose her, even if it meant burying part of himself.

  Kicking all thoughts of losing her to the kerb, he stomped through the snow to her front door and rang the bell. She answered it almost instantly, and his breath caught in his throat.

  “I didn’t know what to wear,” she said, holding her hands out to the side.

  Jake’s cock rose with his eyes as he drank in the sight of her from the shiny black heels covering her feet to the silky blonde hair pulled back in a sleek high ponytail. Her pert breasts and smooth skin were showcased with a black strapless corset, and black dress pants skimmed over her hips and down her legs. She looked classy, strong, and too fucking hot!

  He cleared his throat. “You look beautiful.”

  “Sable gave me the corset as a gift last year. I’ve never worn it before,” she said as she stepped back and reached for her coat.

  Jumping forwards he took it from her hands and held it for her, fighting the urge to kiss the back of her exposed neck when she turned.

  Fuck it, he thought, and pressed his lips to the soft spot behind her ear. “You’re amazing, darlin’.”

  She turned in his arms and gave him a small smile. “So are you.”

  He touched his lips with hers, barely a kiss, more of a promise, a wish for it all to work out. Before he could do more or say something to fuck things up completely he urged her out the door and into the jeep.

  “Where are we going?” she asked after a few minutes had passed in silence.

  “As I said, we’re going to see a friend of mine, Suzanne. Leslie introduced me to her, and I’ve been seeing her on and off for the past couple of years.”

  “Seeing her?”

  Jake heard the hurt in Miranda’s voice and spoke quickly to soothe her. “I haven’t seen her since you and I hookd up. And even before then it wasn’t like you think. It’s not romantic, and she’s never had a piece of my heart. She’s simply an outlet when I need one.”

  He waited while she digested that, ignoring the knot in his gut and concentrating on the road as snow began to fall lightly.

  “You said Leslie introduced you?” Miranda asked tentatively.

  He’d only ever told her about his wife once. He’d never been one to talk about his feelings, but she’d asked and by then he’d cared enough about her to answer. Leslie had been his childhood sweetheart and his best friend, and she’d died only three years earlier, while he’d been out of the country on a godforsaken peacekeeping mission. She was in remission when he’d left, and her death had come as a devastating shock.

  But now he had Miranda, and she deserved to know it all.

  “Sort of. She’d left me a letter with her final thoughts and it included Suzanne’s name and phone number. I found out later that Leslie had met with her and talked to her about me before she died. She wanted to be sure I was looked after.”

  Neither spoke again for a few minutes but this time the silence was almost comfortable. He knew that Miranda would be shocked a few times before the night was over, but hope was alive inside him that it would be in pleasant ways. She was inexperienced in any sort of kink, but it was such a deep part of him that he’d subconsciously eased their sex life in that direction right from the start. The first time he’d tied her to the bedposts and eaten her pussy until she screamed she’d been shocked all to hell and he’d been thrilled to discover that the ropes held an attraction to her, too.

  He realized now that it had been that night that had opened a crack in his heart for her to slip through. He just hoped that tonight didn’t turn that crack into a complete split.

  Jake stopped the jeep in front of a Victorian-style house in an old neighbourhood and Miranda waited while he jogged around to help her from the vehicle. Her heart pounded and her palms were sweating, and if she were honest with herself it wasn’t just fear that had her so anxious.

  She’d felt a lot better after her time with Sable the night before, but it hadn’t been enough. She had to deal with things in her own way, and she had spent the day in her office doing exactly that. Research and educate had always been her motto so she’d pushed aside her work and typed “master” and “dominate” into the search engine … and what she’d found both excited and terrified her.

  She’d spent more than three hours surfing articles, blogs and BDSM websites with a notepad right next to the keyboard. There was so much information to take in. Dominants, submissives, tops, bottoms, switches and slaves. There were degrees of power and control and even contracts!

  Some of the things she read were purely academic – full of rules and with little emotion. But then there were the sites that were all personal. Not really pornographic, but erotic and sensual and full of pictures and stories that did more than intrigue Miranda. They’d sent visions of tying Jake up and doing all sorts of wicked things running rampant through her mind until she’d begun to hyperventilate. Her pulse pounded and hot blood rushed through her veins, her nipples peaked and her mind balked to the point that she’d finally shut down her computer and left for home.

  Now, as Jake led her to the door of the woman his dead wife had set him up with doubt crept back into mind.

  The door opened and Miranda got her first look at Suzanne. The breath she hadn’t even been aware she was holding rushed out and Jake gave her arm a squeeze through her jacket.

  Suzanne wa tall, brunette and pretty in a very soft feminine way. She wasn’t dressed in leather and studs, she didn’t hold a whip, and she did smile warmly.

  “Miranda, I’m so glad you came. Jake’s told me all about you.”

  “All about me?” she asked as they stepped inside.

  Suzanne took their coats with a laugh. “Not all I’m sure, but enough to know that he thinks you’re very special.”

  Miranda glanced at Jake. “I think he’s pretty special too.”

  “Shall we sit down and have a chat first?” Suzanne gestured towards the front room. “Greg will be happy to serve us.”

  It wasn’t until then that she noticed the almost naked man kneeling in the corner of the room. Miranda’s heart jumped and she stared for a minute before tearing her gaze away. As nice as Suzanne seemed, they weren’t there to sit and chit-chat. “I’d rather we just get started with the session.”

&nb
sp; Miranda held Suzanne’s gaze until she nodded and looked away. “Of course. Let’s head downstairs then, shall we?”

  Suzanne called Greg to her and they led the way down the hall to some stairs. Miranda wanted to look at Jake to see what he was thinking, but she was desperately afraid he’d be watching Suzanne lead the way instead of her.

  At the bottom of the stairs, Suzanne opened a door to her left and led them into a small room with a plush leather loveseat in front of a huge tinted window. “This is the viewing room. You’re welcome to watch me work with Greg. All I ask is that you don’t interrupt us. Please have a seat here, and Jake can kneel at your side.”

  Jake had moved to the side of the sofa and Suzanne was almost out the door when Miranda finally found her tongue. “No.”

  They both stopped, staring at her. Jake’s expression was grim, Suzanne’s surprised.

  “You don’t want to watch?” she asked.

  “No. I mean, yes, I’d like to watch.” She faced Suzanne and, heart thumping in her chest, she spoke clearly. “What I meant was no, I don’t want Jake to kneel by side, and if or when I do, I’ll be the one to tell him so, not you.”

  A small smile played at the woman’s lips and she nodded. “Of course.”

  When the door was closed and they were alone she turned to Jake. “Are you OK with that?”

  He smiled. “Absolutely.”

  “OK, then.” Restless heat swam through Miranda’s system and she really didn’t think she could sit. She blew out a sharp breath and moved towards the window. She’d read a lot about proper etiquette that afternoon, and she wasn’t sure if interrupting Suzanne that way was a breach or not, but she’d been unable to stop herself. Tying Jake up and playing with him was one thing, but she didn’t want to make a slave out of him.

  The other room was large, open and well lit. Along the walls and in the corners were some odd pieces of furniture that made Miranda’s pulse leap: a huge padded table with gleaming chrome legs and buckles all around it, a large wooden X and padded vault or horse of some kind.

  Hanging from chains in the middle of the room was a steel bar with padded cuffs attached. As she watched Suzanne finished locking Greg into the cuffs and stepped back.

  “If we’re here for me to see what you need, why aren’t you out there in the cuffs?”

  Jake stepped up beside her and spoke softly. “Because I won’t bottom to anyone else but you, until you tell me you can’t, or won’t, do this.”

  She stared at him. “But you’ve done this before, let Suzanne … top you?”

  “Yes.”

  “But not in the last three months?”

  “That’s right.”

  She turnedaway from him and watched the couple in the other room. Suzanne had a flogger in one hand and was twirling it lightly so the ends brushed against Greg’s chest with each upsweep. The swings sped up, and his chest turned pink, then she set aside the flogger and picked up something that looked like a metal-tooth comb. She imagined Jake in those cuffs, his body open and bared for Suzanne, and determination set in.

  Jake was hers.

  * * *

  Every muscle in Jake’s body was taut as he drove the jeep towards Miranda’s house. She’d been entranced by the scene of Suzanne and Greg, he’d been sure of it!

  The pulse at the base of her throat had throbbed and he’d listened as her breathing had gotten more and more excited. Watching the play had aroused her. He’d seen it in the way she clenched her hands as if she were the one holding the tools and the way she’d rocked back and forth on her feet in an effort to contain herself. He knew her, and he’d known she was aroused.

  He hoped she was aroused, because just seeing her there, dressed as she was, amongst implements of pain and pleasure had raised a primal hunger deep inside him.

  When the play had ended and Suzanne had come back to the viewing room, Miranda had asked to speak to her privately. They’d left him alone for quite a while, and his certainty about her reaction had begun to fade. When she’d come back to the viewing room all she’d said was, “Take me home now, Jake.”

  His heart had dropped into his stomach, and stayed there ever since. Maybe he’d just projected his own wants and desires on her. Maybe it was just wishful thinking that she’d been aroused. He wanted to ask her what she thought, but he was scared of her answer.

  Fluffy white snow was still falling lightly when he parked in front of her house and he rushed to open her door for her.

  Once they were inside her house he couldn’t take the silence any longer. “Miranda,” he said.

  “Stop,” she commanded, holding her hand up in front of him. She met his eyes and spoke firmly. “I want you to go upstairs, strip naked, lie down on the bed and wait for me.”

  Blood rushed to his cock and his head swam with the implications of her words. “Then yo—”

  “No talking yet, Jake. Just do as I tell you.” She shrugged out of her coat before he could move and glanced pointedly at the stairs. “Go. Now.”

  His brain caught up with his ears and without hesitation he kicked off his boots and moved up the stairs. Heart thumping, dick throbbing, he moved quick and sure. He wasn’t naked on her bed for more than thirty seconds before she strode into the room wearing a short silky robe and nothing else.

  She stood by the edge of the bed for a moment, her dark eyes unreadable, before leaning over to grab his wrists. Stretching his arms above his head, she pressed his hands against the headboard of the bed. “Don’t move from this position, Jake.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said, watching her carefully.

  Her head jerked at his words and she stared at him, eyes wide. A heartbeat later her lips curled into a slow sensual smile that hit him right in the dick.

  Fingertips barely touching his skin, she ran her hands down the insides of his arms, over his ribs and down his entire body. Then back up as she began talking. “Suzanne suggested we start with where we’re comfortable, in the bedroom. She made me realize what exactly you’ve been doing in the past, Jake. Sometimes taking complete control and tying me up, and other times simply teasing me until I wrested control from you.” She licked a nipple, sucking it gently into her mouth before biting down sharply. Pain and pleasure blended, rippling out to every nerve ending. Miranda shifted, staying close enough that her hot breath brushed teasingly against his skin as she talked. “I’m supposed to take it slow, but I find having you like this too hard to resist.”

  Straddling him, she swung around until they were in a classic sixty-nine position, her pretty pink pussy right over his face.

  Her scent filled his head and he licked his lips. His mouth watered and his arms trembled with the need to cup her hips and pull her down on to his face. But she’d told him not to move, and he did not want to disappoint.

  She kept her hips raised, but lowered her front until her silk-covered breasts brushed his torso and her lips circled his cock. She licked, sucked and swallowed him, as he writhed beneath her, sweating with the delicious effort of not moving.

  He turned his head, nibbling on her inner thigh, licking every inch of soft skin he could reach until finally he pulled his head back and begged. “Please, Miranda. Let me taste you. Let me please you.”

  She straightened up, her mouth releasing his throbbing cock with a loud pop. Looking over her shoulder at him she met his gaze. “Only because you said please.”

  His chest swelled. She was enjoying their play.

  “Make me come, Jake, and keep those hands on the wall.” She spread her legs wider, lowering herself slowly closer to his waiting mouth.

  When she was close enough he took a long slow lick before delving in. She tasted so good, so sweet and true. He stiffened his tongue and slid it inside her, going as deep as he could and slurped up the juices that flowed from her cunt. He pulled back and bit so he could circle the rigid clit that had popped out from its protective hood. He flicked and nibbled at the knot of nerves, loving it slowly and surely for just a moment be
fore going back to work.

  Thrusting his tongue into her entrance, he nuzzled his chin against her clit and began to work. Soon she was rocking against him, grinding down and moaning.

  “More, Jake” she encouraged as her nails dug into his abdomen. “I love it when you eat my pussy.”

  Her words of praise made his heart sing, and he redoubled his efforts. She rocked forwards, her thighs trembling as she started at his thighs and scraped her nails up over his hips and belly to his chest.

  He groaned at the sensation, as his balls tightened and fire gathered at the base of his dick.

  “Oh yeah, you like that, don’t you?” she whispered. “Look at your beautiful cock waving in the air. So hard and red … so hungry.”

  Her hand wrapped around him and his whole body jerked. He struggled for control, only to gasp when she ground her hips down harder. “Don’t stop, Jake. You don’t come until I do.”

  He redoubled his efforts. Stiffening his tongue, he worked a steady rhythm, pulsing it up and down, in and out of her juicy hole as he rubbed his chin against her clit. Soon she was rocking on him and jerking his dick with a strong hand. She’d always been so gentle in the past, but as her pussy grasped at his tongue, she rocked faster and her grip on him got tighter. Her fist twisted up and down, as she began to bounce on top of him.

  “Yes, that’s it. Don’t stop!”

  He grabbed her hips and used his thumbs to spread her slick pussy lips and open her up. He thrust his tongue as hard and deep as he could and her insides tightened and spasmed around him as cream coated his face. The hand around his dick tightened and his whole body jerked. When the spasms of her pussy slowed, her grip loosened and he exploded, crying out as he came with dizzying ecstasy.