First Kiss (Emma's Arabian Nights, #1)

by Mayburn, Ann

  Tanya shot Emma a wide eyed look and mouthed the letters O-M-G.

  Emma was indeed having an oh-my-god moment. Because this was Ryan. She knew he wasn’t bullshitting her and going to his house would change her life. On some bone-deep level she sensed that she could trust this man. She realized that despite her fragmented memories, he didn’t hate her, and whatever had happened between them on that drunken night long ago probably wasn’t as bad as she remembered. Now that she was older, she realized he’d done the right thing by not letting her take things further in the front yard of her parents’ house. If her dad had come outside, it would have been a double homicide after he shot Ryan - twice. Then again, her dad might have been overjoyed to have her date someone other than her cheating loser boyfriend, Darren.

  Ryan sighed, and she moved with his deep breath. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to push you.”

  “No, no, that’s okay.” She took a deep breath and dredged up her courage, conscious of Tanya holding her breath. “I will meet you at your home tomorrow, and I expect to be fully pampered by you.”

  “Of course. What’s your favorite flower?”

  Closing her eyes, she relaxed into him further and he leaned forward a bit, providing her a more comfortable position. The automatic way he did that spoke of his constant awareness of her. It thrilled her both as Domme and a woman.

  “Hmmm…I don’t know. I like things that smell pretty, so when I walk into a room and take a breath, I can smell the flowers in the air. It reminds me of the warmth of the sun no matter what time of year.”

  “Any allergies?”

  “Nope. But I don’t care for fish.”

  “No fish, got it.” He shifted beneath her. “Mistress, I hate to cut our time short, but I have an overseas business meeting that I have to be awake for at 5 a.m.”

  Reality intruded and broke the sensual spell that had ever so briefly made her feel…not alone. “Yes, of course. Please finish getting dressed.”

  Emma stepped back and for the first time in forever, she felt shy. Normally, she’d meet any man’s gaze and stare him down, but with Ryan she found herself unable to face his scrutiny, or even ogle him as he dressed. It wasn’t a dominance thing. It was an emotional thing. Disconcerted by her uncharacteristic hesitation, she lifted her chin.

  “I enjoyed your company.”

  Ryan finished pulling on his boot and grinned at her. “Mistress, you have no idea how much I enjoyed this.”

  She was astonished when he crawled across the floor towards her, his body moving like a big cat and a predatory look in his dark eyes. Once he reached her feet, he looked up at her with a devilish twinkle in his eye. “May I show my respect by kissing your beautiful little feet? God, this fucking gold toenail polish is killing me.”

  She was tempted to say no because of that last sentence, but decided to give him some leeway. They weren’t in a scene at the moment; that fact made her approval all the more important. If she let him perform this act of devotion to her out here, where Moira was no doubt watching with bated breath through the security camera, it would be a public admittance of her need for him. She hated needing someone. It sucked and would only lead to hurt feelings in the future, but she couldn’t resist his touch.

  She just had to try to keep her emotions out of it and enjoy the moment.

  Surely she could do that.

  “No, you may not kiss my feet. Stand up.”

  He stood, then then ran his hand over his bald head with hurt showing in his dark eyes. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to step out of bounds.”

  The sight of Ryan’s distress woke the protective side of her heart and without thinking, she took a step closer to him. “I want you to kiss my neck.”

  Fuck! Why did she just say that? Her neck was crazy sensitive and she’d be leaving a puddle of arousal on the floor by the time he was done with her. This was madness, this was…

  Her thoughts disintegrated into a swirl of lust-filled sparks as Ryan gently cupped her corseted waist and tugged her slightly forward. The bulge of his cock pressed against her with deliberate intent. A slight tremor went through her and his hand on her waist briefly tightened. Her mind kept trying to come to grips with the fact that this was Ryan, the boy who’d been on the debate team, the nerd who excelled at video games, was now tearing her apart from the inside out with desire.

  “May I touch you with both of my hands?”

  What? He wanted her to speak? The lust was so thick in her blood all she could do was nod her acceptance, then moan as he gently supported her neck with his large hand. Unable to help herself, she slid her arms around his waist and stroked his warm skin beneath the smooth cloth.

  Ryan brushed his lips over her skin with such gentleness that she had to strain to figure out if what she felt was real. Then his breath warmed her and she moaned louder than she’d moaned for some men while climaxing. “Emma, my self-control is hanging in tatters right now. If I kiss you and you make that sweet noise again, I won’t be able to stop myself from licking you until you scream my name. I’m going to take a rain check on kissing this lovely neck until tomorrow night. Please forgive me for not being strong enough to serve you as you wish.”

  A hot rush of pure need made Emma’s knees weak. She flushed when she realized she was holding him to her like a drowning woman clutching a life vest. Embarrassment at her own lack of control cooled her passion only slightly. She stepped back and smoothed her chain skirt, reminding her of how naked she was beneath it. She wondered if he could see how wet she was.

  New rule - no going commando around this man.

  Scraping together her dignity, she tilted her chin up, then nodded with what she hoped was cool indifference. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

  The bright, happy smile he gave her let her know she’d failed miserably at her feigned disinterest.

  “Goodnight, Emma.” With that, he was gone out the door, taking all the air in the room and the last remnants of her sanity with him.

  Tanya walked over next to her and stared at the closed door. “Does he have a brother?”

  “Why?”

  “Because he’s obviously infatuated with you, but his Mama must have raised him right. I’m hoping there’s more where he came from.”

  “Hands off,” Emma said. The tone might have been friendly, even somewhat mocking, but she was crazy-jealous-bitch serious.

  “Like I’d have a chance with him.” Tanya rolled her eyes. “I could have set my tits on fire and he wouldn’t have even noticed. That man loves you.”

  Heat raced from Emma’s chest all the way up to her hair line and she was sure she was blushing bright red. “He does not.”

  “Look, I know what a man looks like when he’s in love, and that man right there loves you.”

  “That’s stupid.”

  “But true.”

  Emma toyed with her skirt, unable to keep her hands still. “He could be a psycho.”

  “He could be your Prince Charming.”

  “Or my frog.”

  “No, more like your horse.”

  “What?”

  “Mistress, I saw the size of what that man is packing.”

  The women stared at each other for a moment then burst into giggles. As Emma hugged her friend, she couldn’t still the excitement in her veins or the butterflies in her stomach. She hadn’t been this eager about a man in…forever.

  After talking a bit more with Tanya, Emma made her way to her office and her excitement began to wane as doubt set in. Maybe she was getting this all wrong. Maybe Ryan just wanted her only as his pro-Domme.

  The heat in her blood chilled and she tried to push away the sudden hurt. She could very easily be seeing something more than there was. Yes, he said all those nice things, but it could just be part of his worship kink. But this was Ryan, and he’d never lied to her when they were kids. She could only hope the years hadn’t changed him. God knows she wasn’t the same happy, naive girl she’d been in high school. The thought of how jo
yful and trusting she used to be before getting caught up with her cheating, douche bag ex-boyfriends sent a pang of longing through her.

  She was tired of being alone.

  So tomorrow night she’d go to Ryan’s place in normal street clothes with some kick-ass lingerie underneath. She’d judge by his reaction how the evening was going to work. As she changed out of her chain skirt, she couldn’t help a small smile at the memory of her night, and a tiny part of her began to hope, even as she wondered what the hell she was doing.

  Chapter Five

  Ryan glanced around the coffee shop until he found his business partner, Justan Hall, sitting in a back booth with his laptop open and a look of intense concentration on his face. Anyone who didn’t know Justan might think the big, intimidating man with his short, navy blue Mohawk and heavily muscled body was plotting murder while he glared at his computer screen. Ryan knew his friend was probably taking down some hacker who’d dared to try and access one of the networks their firm was hired to protect.

  After grabbing his own coffee, Ryan slid into the booth across from Justan and opened his own laptop. With a few keystrokes, he joined Justan on the cyber battlefield and frowned at the information flying across his screen.

  “Fucking Chinese hackers,” he muttered as he helped Justan shore up the network for one of their overseas clients.

  Justan merely grunted. Twenty minutes later, both men sighed and leaned back from their computers, grabbing for their coffee in an almost simultaneous move.

  “Those motherfuckers are getting bolder by the day,” Justan said as he set his cup down then rubbed his eyes. “But enough about that bullshit. How was your date with Beat Me Betty last night?”

  “Ha ha, asshole.” Ryan grinned at the other man. “She was…just…wow.”

  Laughing, Justan leaned back and stretched his arms over the back of the booth, displaying the full sleeve Celtic tattoos exposed by his green ‘Byte Me’ t-shirt.

  “Look at you, blushing like a little school girl. Did she spank you and call you a naughty boy?”

  Ryan’s mind flashed back to standing next to Tanya, watching the young woman react to Emma’s touch as she was spanked. His cock immediately filled with blood and he had to shift to adjust himself. “No, but I did get to see her spank a cute little pink-haired female submissive.”

  Interest flared in Justan’s dark eyes. “Do tell.”

  “That’s all the details you’re getting out of me, you lecherous old bastard.”

  “I did some digging on the dungeon where your lady works and found some interesting stuff.”

  Unease curdled through Ryan’s stomach at Justan’s suddenly serious expression. “What’s up?”

  “Well, first off the owner, Moira, is one fucking hot piece of ass. If I had a submissive bone in my body, I’d be worshiping at her perfect little feet. Wonder if she’d ever consider switching. By the way, Tanya, the cute pink-haired girl, is Moira’s permanent submissive, but Tanya’s dating a guy who is also her Master.”

  “How do you know that?” Justan merely raised an eyebrow and Ryan blew out a harsh breath. “I told you I didn’t want you snooping.”

  “Please. That was hardly snooping. Besides, you should be more worried about what I discovered about one Mistress Emma Simonov.”

  “What?” Ryan asked as dread filled him.

  “Did you know she’s supporting her parents? That she lives in a dump and has been looking for a job for over two years now?”

  “What?”

  “Yeah. Her parents lost their jobs and their retirement benefits in one fell swoop when the city they worked for went bankrupt. She’s paying off their mortgages and supplementing their income with her work at Kiss of Blue.”

  “Mortgages? As in more than one?”

  “Yeah. They had to take out a second one to send Emma’s sisters to college. Then her dad lost his job, her mom lost her job, and when they both lost their retirement benefits, they were basically fucked. What little savings they had got burned through in the first six months. I don’t need to tell you how hard it is to find decent employment right now, let alone when you’re in your sixties and living out in the fucking boonies. Emma’s sisters help out as much as they can, but no one in her family is rich and without Emma, her parents would be homeless pretty quick.”

  “Fuck.” Ryan rubbed his face, trying to clear his head of his emotional response enough to really think about this situation. “Is it really that hard for Emma to find a teaching job?”

  “Around here? Hell, yes. Think about how many teachers are graduating from all the universities in Michigan. Now add in the fact that the teachers with tenure positions are staying at their jobs as long as they can because, more often than not, they’re the ones that are bringing home the bacon and the health insurance. Oh, I’m sure she could get a job at some shit-ass tiny town school or in the ghetto, but from what I’ve learned about Emma, I don’t think that fits her profile. It sure as hell wouldn’t pay enough to help keep her parents afloat.”

  “I’ll take care of them,” Ryan said abruptly. “Shit, you know I have more money than I can spend. Paying off their mortgages and giving them a monthly allowance wouldn’t even faze me.”

  Justan held his hand up. “Hold your horses there, kemosabe. Do you really think Emma is the kind of woman that wouldn’t flip her shit if she found out you did that behind her back?”

  “What are you talking about? She’d be happy to see her parents taken care of.”

  “Oh, I don’t doubt that. She’s not stupid. But you’d blow any chance you had with her right the fuck out of the water. If she was one of those women that liked being a damsel in distress, she might let you get away with riding in on your white horse to save the day, but she isn’t. That woman is about as independent as they come, and if you did that, you’d lose not only her trust, but you would also damage her self-respect. Don’t think that she does her pro-Domme thing only because of the money. She loves it and she’s very good at what she does and has a select and very loyal clientele to prove it. Besides, how would you explain knowing about her parents? You’d come off as some kind of stalker.”

  “You’re the fucking stalker.”

  “True.” Justan leaned forward. “Face it, Ryan. Your woman is going to expect things out of you that I don’t know if you have it in you to give. I know you, and I know that you’re an Alpha dog that’ll tear anyone apart that gets near your bitch. But you have to face the fact that she is going to be with other men, and she is going to enjoy it, because that’s who she is.”

  His stomach clenched with anger. “So you think I’ll never be enough for her?”

  “Honestly, I have no clue. Can you deal with the idea that whatever she did with you last night is something she’s probably already done a hundred times with some other dude? Or that the next time she works, some stranger will be making her climax all over his face?”

  The thought of Emma being with another man, doing the things she’d done with Ryan last night, sent a wave of possessive jealousy roar through him.

  “Watch your fucking mouth.”

  Justan rolled his eyes. “Don’t get your panties in a bunch. I was merely saying that for Emma, being a Domme isn’t just a bullshit role to earn a buck. Whatever it is that makes someone a Dominant, that woman has it in spades and she knows it. She’s been active in the local scene for years, even before she went pro. If you plan on really being with her, you need to realize that she’s going to push your comfort zones.”

  “Bullshit. I trained with a Domme and did some crazy ass shit with her. There isn’t anything Emma could want that I couldn’t handle.”

  “What about bringing another man, or woman, into the bedroom with you?”

  Ryan struggled to keep his expression blank. “I could deal with it.”

  Shaking his head, Justan sighed. “Give me a fucking break. If another man as much as looks at Emma, you’ll go ape shit. You need to wrap your caveman brain around the fact tha
t your sweet Emma won’t be satisfied with a vanilla relationship. She’s a wild one, you lucky bastard, and if you want to keep her happy, you’re going to have to learn how to share.”

  “Fuck.” Ryan ran his hands over his head.

  “I don’t see what the problem is. You shared the Mistress you trained under with her husband. And we’ve had more than one crazy night with a woman between us, so it’s not like you wouldn’t enjoy it.”

  “Yeah, but that was different.”

  “How so?”

  “Well…I didn’t love the women I shared in the past.”

  “Oh buddy, you are so fucked.” Justan laughed.

  Scowling at his friend, Ryan took a sip of his cold coffee before setting the cup back down. “What should I do?”

  “How the hell would I know?” Ryan glared at Justan, whose usual mocking smile faded. “Look, life is short and nothing’s guaranteed. You need to weigh the risks versus rewards of your actions against the facts as you know them, then plan your course of action.”

  “So you’re saying I need to create a flow chart of my relationship?”

  “That’s not a bad idea.” Justan grinned and some of his natural cockiness returned. “I think that if you can get a handle on your jealousy, you just might have a chance with that badass bitch. And if you ever need a backup, you can always call on me.”

  “Asshole,” Ryan muttered.

  “Oh, come on. You know that I know how to keep it strictly physical. Emma is hot as fuck, and I won’t lie and say I’m not more than a little curious as to what it would be like to bottom to her. But she’s your dream girl, not mine. I will tell you this, if you ask her to choose between you and her job right now, you’re going to lose.”

  The truth of his friend’s statement hurt and Ryan tried to fight off the depression threatening to engulf him. He finally had the chance to be with the woman who’d been haunting him for most of his adult life, and he didn’t know if he could handle her. The thought of anyone touching Emma made him see red, but Justan was right. If Ryan wanted to win her heart, he’d have to show her that he would love and accept her for who she was, no matter what. Starting out a relationship with the intent of changing someone never worked.