by Berry, Kitty
I thank her but tell her that I want to stay here and start my real job at S&S Design. I don’t tell her that the more important reason for staying is to see if Damian Stone calls me.
Chapter 4
Damian wakes mid day on Saturday to the sound of his cell phone ringing. When he checks the screen and sees Alex’s name he knows he’s in for a lecture, he’s just surprised it took him until today. Instead of being greeted with a warm hello from his friend he is met by, “Stop before you even fucking start with her. Do you hear me? She’s the best designer I have seen in years and as of next month she works for us at S&S so she’s off limits, Stone. Don’t fuck this up.”
Well, at least that explains why she called him Alex instead of Professor Smith, Damian thinks before saying, “Hey Alex. Good morning to you too. Sleep well?”
“I’m not fucking around here, man. I saw the look on your face and I know Abby’s leaving later today but remember you said that was it. It’s time to move on and be done with it. I think you should stick by that plan. Try for a normal real life vanilla missionary position relationship and be miserable like the rest of us.”
Damian sighs but agrees that Sydney working for them complicates things a bit but in reality he’s only a silent partner in the design firm. So does that really count as a conflict of interest? Nah.
“What the hell went on between you two when I was in the bathroom? I have never seen her so flustered that she couldn’t formulate a sentence that made any kind of sense at all” Alex inquires.
“Well, I pulled open the door from inside your office at the same time as she pushed it from the other side and the force of the motion knocked her to her knees on the threshold of your office, right at my feet.”
“Please tell me you did not ask her for a blow job!” Alex chokes out worried of the answer.
“No, actually I did not” Damian chuckles remembering the look on Sydney’s face as she made her way up his body that first day. “It was her who said she doesn’t usually “go down” on men like that when she opens a door.”
“Oh, please dear God what did you say to that? Stone, it never amazes me how this kind of shit always happens to you.”
“Yeah I know. I was just thinking about what I said about Abby at the start of the semester, remember? I said I was done with it after her unless of course some beautiful woman happened to fall at my feet. I said in that case all bets were off so I guess all bets are off. She’s the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Why did I not know about her?”
“Because she is a phenomenal designer and I knew if she met you this would happen and you’d fuck it up for me. You make very smart woman get very stupid very fast with your mind fuck games.”
“Do you want her, Alex?”
“No, I don’t want her, asshole. Not like that. Yes, she’s beautiful but I just want her to be my designer. Unlike you I don’t need to bag every pretty girl I know. I can keep some out of my bed so I can work with them.”
Damian tells Alex that Abby already left and that the apartment is being cleared as they speak. He also tells him that Sydney’s roommate who just happens to be one of his models will be leaving on Monday for Paris and Sydney needs to find a place to live.
“It all sounds too convenient Damian. What did you do this time and what else are you planning on doing?”
Damian tells his best friend about finding out about Mac and Drea fooling around behind his back. “I know she’s a big girl but I can’t stand to think about her with a guy, you know? It’s for the best. I like Mac, he does a good job, I don’t want to have to find a new security guy but if Drea stays here and I know they’re fucking I can’t keep him on so this works out best for everyone. Mac can stay working for me and by the time Drea gets back she will have forgotten all about him. He’s like twenty years older than her. What is she thinking?”
Alex is never surprised by his friend and his manipulative ways. He knows he’s a total control freak and he has the money to make that habit dangerous for all who know him.
“It’s an extra bonus that Parker is leaving with Drea. I know Sydney needs an apartment and I have one for her, now she’ll just need it faster and I won’t have to wait. You know I don’t do waiting very well. I just need to figure out the best way to get her into the apartment and the role I need her to fill while there. Do you think she has it in her? She seemed a little skittish but the way she was on her knees…I just can’t get that image in my mind to go away.”
Alex tries to picture Sydney under Damian’s spell but he’s not sure she’ll be capable in filling the role he’s going to ask her to. He’s a bit worried about what it might do to her to even try to fill the shoes his friend wants her to wear. There’s always been something about Sydney that has seemed tormented to him. He has never been able to put his finger on it but something is haunting that girl and getting involved with his best friend may not be the best way for her to fight off demons.
“I don’t know man. She doesn’t strike me as the type to go for all your kinky shit but what do I know? In a way she’s always seemed like she hates making decisions, she second guesses herself all the time and her ideas are great but she lacks the confidence. You just need to be careful, there’s something about her that I can’t figure out but she seems haunted by something so take it easy on her. I need her at S&S.”
Damian’s mind goes to an image of him doing just the opposite of what his friend suggested and not taking it easy on her at all, he pictures riding her hard and long into the night. He pictures her on her knees in front of him like she was that day in Alex’s office but this time with that sassy mouth of hers full of him. “Hmm..” he thinks, “potential” and is pleased to find that just the thought of her on her knees with her hands tied behind her back and him in her mouth has made him hard…hard as stone.
“I can spot a submissive from miles away, Alex, trust me, she has it in her. She may not know it yet, but she does.”
Sydney Cooper will be more difficult than his usual established subs, she’ll be a challenge. Maybe that’s just want he needs, finally a woman who would be a challenge to him. Maybe that’s why he feels so off his game with this girl. Maybe that’s why he feels an uncontrollable desire to see her again, to claim her, to have her. He has to have her, needs to have her. Needs to feel her smooth bare skin under his touch as she goes all soft and limp when she gives herself over to him and slips into that wonderful world of subspace, that psychological state that he’ll bring her to over and over again. She’ll float into deep subspace, a state of deep incoherence for him so beautifully, he can tell, he can feel it in his bones, in his erection.
He pushes those thoughts from his mind and puts the next step of his plan in motion. “I was thinking about that auction you have next week. I need a ticket. I’ll have Veronica set it up on Monday with your office.”
“What are you doing, Stone?”
“Giving her what she clearly needs. She’s at a time in her life where she’s going to be on her own for what I suspect is the first time. She’s finished with school and starting a new job. You’ll see, I’ll be the best thing for her. She’s a big girl, she’ll be fine. She can walk away at anytime and you never know she might not even agree to it in the first place. And you know she’ll be safe with me. I have lived by the safe, sane and consensual motto with each of my subs.”
Damian knows that if he is able to, no, when he is able to make Sydney fall into subspace she will fall hard, she’ll open up to him, for him, let everything go, empty her mind of all but him and the pleasures he’ll bring her.
“Again, she can walk away at anytime, man. You know that.”
A laugh escapes both of them at the same time. There has never been a woman who was able to turn down Damian Stone regardless of what he asked of them, none of them have ever walked away. Neither of them believes for one moment that Sydney will be any different.
Alex contemplates then continues, “But dude, listen. I doubt she’s ever explored
your world, BDSM is not for everyone, you know. It’s okay but it’s not a way of life for everyone like it has become for you.”
“But I can see it in her; I felt it all the way deep down in my bones when I touched her. I smelt it on her. She’s a bottom, Alex, she doesn’t know it yet but you’ll see.”
Damian hung up with his friend and realized again that he was hard from just thinking about her beautiful body going slack from his touch, slipping under as he played her. He got up and poured himself a drink of his best scotch. He downed it in one gulp but the burning need to see her again, have her, and make her his hadn’t subsided. He didn’t think it would until she was his and make no mistake he thought, “She will be mine.”
************
When I arrive at Hard as Stone on Saturday night for my second shift I find out that I also get tips. The guys put money in a container on the stage and when I’m done dancing it’s collected and held for me until I pick it up in the office. The first night I made a ton in tips alone for only dancing for a four hour shift. If I had initial doubts about this job they’re definitely gone now. After my shift I’m called into the office by Clark and asked to sit down.
“Sydney”, Clark begins. Clark is a big man with bulging arms and a shaved head. “We took a quick poll last night with our patrons to see what their responses were to you and they were all very positive.”
“Thank you, I’m glad it’s working out for me here. I enjoyed myself last night."
Clark continues, “They all loved your song choice and the bondage S&M dance. The outfit was a big hit too; they loved the combination innocent school girl mixed with the bondage bad girl. They said they’d love to see your hair up first and then pulled down.” Clark continues to tell me that he called the owner and he’s also very happy to hear I’m already popular with the clientele and he’s planning on coming in to see a set or two of mine in the next few weeks.
“Okay, just don’t forget I have next Saturday off. I have a benefit auction to go to for a friend but I’ll be here next Friday” I remind him.
I head home with a smile on my face and thoughts of Damian Stone in my head. These thoughts are invading my brain more and more often and I’m afraid of what they might mean. At home, in bed alone I lay awake and allow myself the danger of wondering what his strong male hands would feel like running over my body. I can feel his hands touching me as I lay here alone and I’m not sure what’s scaring me more, the fact that I’m having these thoughts or the response my body is giving me from having them. I am flushed; panting and feeling my panties grow wetter by the second. If this is the response I have just thinking about him, I can’t imagine what my body will do to betray me if I am ever actual with him again.
Parker and I spend her last day in the city together. We go for a breakfast of coffee and bagels then head for a walk in the park. When we get back to our apartment I help her pack her stuff for me to take to my new apartment, when I get one that is. By the time our take out Chinese is delivered for dinner she’s ready to go and we are both a little tipsy from the shots and wine we’ve been drinking all afternoon.
On Monday morning I say a tearful good-bye to my best friend and get ready to head to campus to meet with Alex. I’m distracted on the way, taking wrong turns and wandering aimlessly. My mind is on the phone call that never came. I don’t know why I am so upset over a call from a man, a man I met once for five minutes and accepted a ride from to escape the rain. Of course he gave me a ride, it was pouring out and he was just being nice, his gentleman like manners coming to mind again, the way he placed his hand in the small of my back guiding me along, like I was his. His. It was a ride in his car for fucks sake not a ride on his…oh my, where are these thoughts coming from? When I mentioned the apartment he was probably also just being nice when he said he’d let me know if he hears of anything for me. It’s not like he asked me to move in with him and be his love slave. Hmm… that’s a thought. If he did I wonder what I’d say. My first instinct would be to say no, after my past I could never be someone’s slave for sex but with this man I’m afraid I might actually give it some thought. After the response my body proved it’s capable of last night I’m sure I’d be spread and ready for him in no time.
Caught up in my impure thoughts, the next thing I know I find myself absent mindedly rubbing my hands over the stone façade of the building that I am leaning against. I look around, not sure where I am or how I got here and then I see it. A sign that says, “Stones” and I instantly sigh thinking of Mr. Damian Stone. Maybe it’s a cosmic sign from the powers that be. Or maybe I’m just losing my mind.
It’s as if I am able to channel him just by my thoughts alone because a black Cadillac Escalade has pulled up in front of the restaurant and climbing out of the car is none other than Damian Stone, Mr. Perfection, the man who has been occupying my dreams of love during the day and much darker images at night.
He is dressed in a pair of black slim jeans, a tight striped v-neck t-shirt and a pair of steel gray sneakers. His hair is tasseled and hanging over his eyes, still damp from a shower. I go weak in the knees and my belly muscles clench. I gulp in as much air as I can into my lungs knowing that in his presence I will be unable to breathe. I use my hands to brace myself up against the stone facade of the restaurant and within minutes I am trapped between stones, the stone of the building and the man whose chest looks as hard as stone. He lunges at me and leans up against the wall trapping me with one arm that he places on the wall next to my body as he casually leans into me like it’s his right. I begin to daydream what it would be like to run my hands over the muscles that are under that shirt but that’s not enough for me, oh no. I need more. I imagine what it would feel and taste like to run my tongue over his nipples as they grow hard and down to his belly button swirling it around inside. I want to lick the hard slab of muscle that I just know is his stomach. I am snapped out of my thoughts when I hear his deep voice.
“What a pleasant surprise Sydney. Are you here to see me?” he asks in that super sexy raspy voice that I realize I have been yearning to hear again since we said good-bye days ago, it snaps me back to reality. His voice brings a calm warm feeling over my body but at the same time causes many chaotic internal responses.
“Um” I’m confused, why would I be meeting him here?
“No, um…I was just heading to campus and then I guess I wondered off course. The next thing I knew I was leaning against this building with these smooth stones, I rubbed my hands over them just thinking about stuff. My mind is a little scattered today I guess. My roommate left today and I’m...I don’t know.”
“Yes, I was afraid of that. I’m glad I found you. Come, let’s talk over lunch” he says as he leads me inside the restaurant by placing his strong hand at the small of my back again. This I can get used to and fast. I welcome his guidance and follow him without question into the restaurant forgetting all about my meeting with Alex to discuss the upcoming auction. Then something he said strikes me as peculiar. Why would he be afraid that I’d be lost without Parker? I didn’t tell him she was leaving.
I’m immediately distracted by the décor inside the restaurant. The stones are carried out inside, there is a gorgeous stone wall that is floor to ceiling on one side of the room; upon closer inspection I realize it’s a water wall. The water is gently running over the smooth river rocks creating a soothing feel for the diners seated next to it. The other walls are painted a sandy color with bronze sconces on the wall. The lighting is subdued and the table linens are a fabulous burnt red, almost the color of my hair.
We are greeted by the hostess upon arrival. “Mr. Stone sir, can I show you to your room?”
“Yes, thank you Andrea, you may.”
Well, at least it’s nice to know I am not the only woman he has this effect on because this Andrea chick is staring at him enthralled by his beauty as much as I am. At that moment something, a feeling, one I have no words for comes over me and I want to slap her face. I don’t like the
way her eyes are roaming over his impressive physique, like she’s seen it up close and personal.
Andrea shows us into a private dining room with a table for two in the center of the room. This space is the same as the main dining room, painted a sandy color with burnt red linens. Instead of the stone wall this space has art work throughout; paintings, canvases and prints all depicting stones.
Oh. My. God! It finally hits me, this must be his restaurant. As if he can read my mind Damian says, “Yes, Sydney this is my place. Come. Sit.” It was not a suggestion but rather a command. Damian pulls out a chair for me and I sit as he smiles at me.
Andrea is still staring at him when he dismisses her, “That will be all Andrea. Tell the staff I do not want to be bothered. We’ll have marinated olives for the table with bread, and then to start we’ll have the Calamari, two salads, and for our main course we’ll share the pasta special of the day. They know my taste in wines. Thank you.” Another command.