by Measha Stone
“Carissa, bring some wine glasses out to the table for us,” Jamison directed and picked up the ceramic bowl of spaghetti.
She only nodded, grabbed four glasses and followed him to the dining room.
Garrick had a spacious condo near Michigan Avenue, which was laid out like a perfect backdrop beyond his full wall windows. The sun had already set and the city lights twinkled, creating the perfect ambience for dinner.
Although the condo was in one of the best locations of the city, Garrick never went over the top with his spending or showing off his obvious wealth. The dining room was simply decorated and gave a comfortable vibe. Most likely because over the years of their friendship, Garrick had listened to Jade’s decorating advice more often than not.
“You’ve been quiet this evening,” Jamison remarked as he poured the last glass of wine and placed it near the plate.
She had been, saying very little since they’d left her apartment to head over. She’d been doing some investigating on his behalf and was desperate to tell him about it. But she couldn’t yet.
She’d tracked down a close friend of his mother’s. Finding his mother’s name hadn’t been hard, thanks to Google and his father having such a large business presence in the city, but finding her wasn’t turning out to be so easy. Every avenue Carissa pursued led to a dead end. It was as if the woman had just gone ‘poof’ into thin air. But she’d finally gotten a response back from another socialite whom Carissa had seen in several photographs with both his parents. She’d responded to a Facebook message Clarissa had sent and told her she’d be calling her tomorrow. Carissa just wanted the woman to answer her questions right then through messenger, but the message had come in during her shift. So she’d have to wait until they could talk on the phone.
“Just tired, I guess.”
“Maybe an early bedtime is in order then.” He flashed her a grin. Such a handsome grin he had, she could almost forget for a moment their relationship came with an end date.
“Only if you promise to tuck me in properly,” she teased.
Garrick and Jade entered the room carrying the salad and bread, effectively cutting off Jamison’s response, though the little crinkle on the side of his lips gave away the deviousness of his thoughts.
“So.” Jade sat next to Garrick on one side of the table while Jamison and Carissa took the seats opposite them.
“Yeah?” Carissa grabbed the salad bowl and passed it directly to Jade across the table.
“No salad?” Jamison asked.
“Not in the mood,” Carissa answered and reached for the bread basket. She waited to hear another lecture on her poor eating habits, but he didn’t remark any further.
The conversation moved easily between the foursome. Having been friends with Garrick and Jade for so long made the dinner comfortable for Carissa, and sitting beside Jamison accentuated that level of relaxation.
“Looks like we’ll be having dinner with Jamison’s dad on Sunday.” Jade brought up the exact topic Carissa’s mind had been attempting to block over the last hour.
“I guess.” Carissa took a long swallow of her wine, careful not to finish it off since she wouldn’t be having another.
“You ready for a long business discussion which neither of us will understand or care about?”
“Sure.” Carissa shrugged and took another swallow, nearly draining the glass. “I’m sure it won’t be as boring as that.”
“Of course it will be,” Jamison promised and placed a scoop of salad on her plate. “But don’t worry, it will be a short conversation. The project he wants to do looks like a great investment. We’ll eat, give him the news he wants, and then head out after dessert.”
“You liked the location then?” Jade asked.
“It seems like a great place to build a hotel. And from what my father tells me, the small businesses on the block have already started to accept his bids for purchase.”
“Where is it?” Carissa asked, shoving the tomato in the salad away from her pasta. She didn’t want to get into another discussion about her eating habits. When Jamison had picked her up, he’d gone straight for the fridge to be sure she’d actually put the groceries away. He didn’t like the container of leftover Chinese from her dinner the previous night but was happy with her when she said she’d brought her own lunch to work and had eaten it.
He was even happier when he made her turn around and flip up her skirt to show her panties. Of course she’d remembered to put on the good girl panties he’d left, and had even been wearing them to work. She couldn’t explain it, but knowing he’d given them to her, that he expected her to wear them, made her feel held by him. Walking around during her shift feeling a little bit of him was with her the entire time.
Since he was in such a good mood with her, she didn’t want to divert the conversation to anything that might lead them in the direction of an argument.
“Wells and Walton. There’s one building that wasn’t marked, so I’m not sure what it was. I didn’t see any acceptance of bid from that address in the stuff Father gave me, either. I’ll have to ask him about that one.”
Her fork stilled halfway to her mouth, a bit of pasta falling off the end and back onto her plate. “Wells and Walton?”
“Yes, why?”
“Oh. No,” Jade whispered and wiped her mouth with a napkin.
“That’s the shelter I volunteer at. It’s a women’s shelter, so it’s unmarked to protect them. So bastard men can’t find their wives and try to steal them back.” She bit back most of her annoyance but could hear the anger spilling into the words.
“Really?” Garrick was the first to respond.
Carissa turned to Jamison, giving him a hard glare. “You can’t do the project. You can’t let your father do it, either. Find somewhere else to build your damn hotel.” Her heart was racing. That shelter could not be torn down just so more rich and powerful men had a comfortable place to lay their heads.
“Watch your tone and your language,” Jamison responded, which only served to increase her ire.
“My tone? Are you really concerned about that right now? You cannot do that project!” She threw her fork down on her plate.
“Carissa,” Jade whispered. “Give him a chance to answer.”
“You’re going to tell him no, right?” She narrowed her eyelids.
“This conversation sounds a bit familiar to me,” Garrick spoke up and gave Jade a pointed look before addressing Carissa. “How about you let him get his mind wrapped around this before you go biting off his head? You know, the same advice you gave Jade when she thought I was screwing her father out of his rental properties.”
“This is different.” Carissa didn’t take her eyes off Jamison, who was staring at her hard. He looked furious, but she wasn’t going to back down. “Promise me.”
“Why is that shelter so important to you? I know you volunteer there, but they could simply move it, it might not be shut down.”
Her heart leapt up into her throat, her anger nearly choking her. “There are women and children who depend on that place! They like it right where it is, and it’s been supporting that community for fifty years. It’s not that easy to just open a women’s shelter. Thanks to the red tape involved, it could take years just to get the okay to open the doors somewhere else. Turning it into a fucking hotel is… is…” She couldn’t find the words, her tongue was too thick, her anger too hot for the words to come to her. “Stupid!” She slammed her palm on the table, making the plates jump.
“Why don’t we change the subject?” Jade made a solid attempt to move the topic to safer waters. “I’m sure the guys will look everything over and do the right thing.”
Garrick might think it all over and do the right thing, but what about Jamison? He still looked to his father for approval. Would he be able to put a stop to this project, knowing how much his father wanted it to happen?
“Carissa.” Her name was said so low, with such control, her body clenched. “Kitch
en. Now.” He pushed away from the table and grabbed the back of her chair, pulling it out.
Before she could utter a word, his hand wrapped around hers and tugged her from her chair.
“It’s okay, Jamison. She was just caught off guard.” Jade attempted a rescue mission that might have worked if Garrick had still been only her friend and not her dominant.
“Stay out of it, Jade.” Garrick’s voice was firm, but not chastising. “Jamison will handle the situation. We talked about this.”
About what? Me?
“You talked about me?” Carissa yanked her hand out of Jamison’s grip and faced Jade full on. “What were you talking about?”
“Nothing.” Jade shook her head quickly but her cheeks had already tinted. “Really, Carissa. We only said that we were happy you two met.” That wasn’t the whole of it, but before Carissa could question her further, Jamison had his hand around her upper arm.
“I’m not asking again. Kitchen.”
“Oh, fine!” Carissa yanked her arm free once again and stomped off toward the kitchen. If everyone wanted to talk about her like she was some damn child, then she might as well give them the show they were waiting for.
Once she walked to the far end of the kitchen, where she hoped Jade and Garrick wouldn’t be able to hear much of whatever Jamison was going to say to her, she turned around to face him, arms crossed over her chest and her lips pinched together.
“Oh, little girl, whatever fit you’re getting ready to pitch, you’d better think twice. We may be at a friend’s house, but they know damn well what happens to naughty girls. And Garrick won’t let Jade come in here to save you from your punishment.”
He was right. Garrick wouldn’t. In fact, he probably already had Jade out of the dining room so as to give them even more privacy.
“You wanted to talk in the kitchen,” she said. “We’re in the kitchen.” She couldn’t keep her voice from tightening but she managed to keep the volume down.
The little crinkle that usually formed on the side of his lips when he found her amusing was missing. There was no laughter in his eyes, or even the softness she was used to. Hard and unyielding, he stared at her from only two steps away. His presence took her breath away when he was simply looking his casually handsome self, but now, standing before her in full Daddy mode, she found herself dropping her arms from her chest and fumbling with the hem of her shirt.
The longer the silence stretched between them, the more she sank into her soft side that would probably give in too easily to whatever he wanted from her. She swallowed hard, her gaze unable to remain too long on his disappointed expression.
“What is it about this shelter that has you so wound up? I know you volunteer there, but you have to know that if they were to sell, they’d probably open up somewhere else. So, what is it?”
She settled her gaze on his chest, finding it easier than looking him in the eyes when she spoke.
“It’s nothing. It’s just not right to close it down. I’m fine.”
The air from his heavy sigh moved her hair. “What did I say about that word?”
Oh, yeah. That.
“You don’t like the word.”
“I told you not to use it any more. And I told you no cursing, but you’ve done both. And you’ve raised your voice to your friends and to me. Do you think this is how a good girl behaves?”
Her stomach twisted. Couldn’t they just go back to having dinner? Now that they were away from the table and had broken away from the topic that had pissed her off, she’d calmed down. She’d talk to him, he’d see the right of it, she could trust him. Jamison would do the right thing. He wasn’t his father. Money didn’t mean everything to him.
“I didn’t mean to raise my voice.” It was really the only concession she could give.
“You’re keeping something from me, and I don’t like it. Especially since it’s making you act rude and disobedient.”
“I said I was fine—uh—okay. I’m okay. I’m sorry I raised my voice. I’ll apologize.” She tried to walk around him, to get away from the punishing stare of his eyes, but he caught her around her middle too easily. Hauling her toward the fridge, he picked her up and put her on the countertop.
“You were naughty, and you’re still being evasive.”
“And you are ruining a nice evening by being all… all—ugh!” She went back to crossing her arms over her chest. She’d already fallen into her softer side, and it was hard to pull herself out of it to argue with him when he continued to hover over her with such dark eyes.
“I’m going to ask you once more, what is going on?”
She squeezed her eyes closed and shook her head. “We can talk later.”
He sighed again, a disappointed sound that tugged at her heart. She just didn’t want to talk about his father, not yet, and not that evening.
She heard the fridge open and bottles rattle and opened her eyes to watch him. He returned to standing in front of her, holding up a bottle of hot sauce.
“What are you doing?” She tried to keep her eyes off the bottle of heat but she kept glancing at it. “Are we done? Can we go back to dinner?”
“No. Your naughtiness hasn’t been addressed yet, and you’re still in the middle of your little fit.”
Maybe he’d never seen a fit before, but those didn’t usually happen without screaming and crying.
“You can’t spank me here. They’ll hear!” She gave a pointed glance toward the dining room door.
“I have no intention of spanking you—right now, at least.” He held up the bottle again. “Besides, why make your ass pay for the sins of your mouth?”
“W-what?”
“Open your mouth and stick out your tongue, Carissa-girl.” He unscrewed the top of the bottle.
“Why?” Stupid question. She knew what he was going to do, and she wanted nothing to do with it.
“Because I said so. Do it now.”
“Promise me you won’t do the project.” This might not be the right time to bargain, but nothing gained if not asked.
“We’ll talk about that later, as well as a few other things. Right now, we are addressing your foul language and your yelling. Now do what Daddy says and give me your tongue.”
She looked at the bottle again, then at him. No cracks to be seen in his features. He meant it, he was going to do it. Of course, she could cry her safeword. He’d screw on the cap and take her home. But it would damage them, and weren’t they already damaged enough just by being them?
Prying her lips open, she slipped the very tip of her tongue out toward him.
“Open wide and push your tongue all the way out.”
“You know, if I suck your cock after this, it’s gonna hurt you, too.” Last ditch efforts were rarely attempted with good taste or any grace.
“Didn’t I already explain that you can’t lead me around by my dick?” he retorted. “Now your mouth has gotten you extra time.” He wiggled the bottle in the air. “Tongue. Now.”
Carissa managed to fight off the eye roll and open her mouth, sticking her tongue completely out of her mouth in as clinical a manner as she could muster. She wouldn’t give in to the temptation to beg him to take her home to have this discussion.
Her eyes nearly crossed as she watched the bottle tip and small droplets of red hot sauce sprinkled onto her tongue. The burn came slowly, but as the liquid heat rolled over her tongue it spread, becoming more intense.
She hated spicy food, and this was more than any hot taco she’d ever eaten. She fisted her hands in her lap and wiggled her bottom against the counter. As though any position she found could keep the acid burn of the sauce from slipping around her tongue.
“Now, you hold it like that until I say otherwise. Do not swallow, do not spit it out. And keep your eyes on me.”
She whimpered but managed to look up at him. The hard edge in his eyes had softened. Her obedience, although slow in coming, had taken away a bit of his ire.
Her eyes watere
d and she blinked to see him more clearly as he continued to lecture her, though her flaming tongue made it hard to focus on anything but that.
“When I ask you a question, you are always to be honest and direct. We’ve already had that conversation, but maybe after this you might remember better. And you don’t raise your voice and you don’t curse. Do you understand me, Carissa-girl?”
She blinked, hoping he would take the tears now trailing down her cheek as enough evidence that she’d fully understood his meaning. Her body started heating up too!
“Yes, Daddy,” she said, but with her tongue sticking out as it was, it came out all mumbled and weird. She couldn’t hold it much longer, it was too much, too intense, too hot, too everything.
“Good. Almost done now. When I allow you to swallow, you’ll stay right here, and when you’re ready to tell me what’s going on with your attitude, I’ll give you a glass of milk.”
She whimpered again. Her taste-buds would be ruined! The intensity started to die down but the heat continued to linger and when she moved, even slightly, the sauce would creep down her tongue, a drop already sliding down her throat, leaving a trail of fire in its path.
“Are you going to be a good girl now?” he asked, screwing the top back on the hot sauce bottle.
“Yes, Daddy,” she said again, feeling even more foolish because of how garbled it sounded when she spoke.
“Okay, you can swallow.” He placed the bottle on the counter next to her.
She pulled her tongue back in and swallowed the horrible liquid. “Augh!” She groaned. “My throat burns now too,” she complained, wiping the back of her hand across her mouth.
“Now tell me what’s going on.”
She threw her head back and sighed. “That shelter was there for me and my mom when we needed it.”
“When your father left?”
“How do you know about that?” She hadn’t told him, hadn’t gone into that part of her history.
“Garrick filled me in on a few things.”
“Of course he did. He’s as meddlesome as Jade.” She glared at the door leading to the dining room.