Total pages in book: 767
Estimated words: 732023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 3660(@200wpm)___ 2928(@250wpm)___ 2440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 732023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 3660(@200wpm)___ 2928(@250wpm)___ 2440(@300wpm)
“Surprising good, or surprising bad?” Alena asked with narrowed eyes. She wasn’t actually upset. Right now her predominant emotions were fading panic and relief that he hadn’t walked away.
Because you need him for the job. The inner voice was cold and sneering.
Because you want him to top you and fuck you. The second voice was warmer, the voice of her need, her inner submissive.
Alexander slid back onto the stool and swiveled to face her. He braced one foot on the rung of her stool, his thigh brushing hers. Alena grabbed her glass, but before she could take a sip, he plucked the flute from her hand.
“First you insult me, and now you take my drink?”
“I need to know your consent is uninfluenced.” He set her glass down on the table.
“I was sober as a judge when I talked to Lillian.”
“Sober as a judge…” He smiled a little as he tried out the colloquialism.
“Alexander, what’s wrong? We clearly want to play together tonight.” She gestured between his gray clothes and her own silver dress, which was actually bespoke sleepwear. If she slipped off the spaghetti straps, the whole thing would slither to the floor.
“You are so…”
“Outspoken?”
He shook his head. “Honest.”
Oh, that hurt to hear.
“I tell plenty of lies. We all do.”
“Not when you submit to me.” It was an order, and a warning.
“I won’t lie to you in a scene.” Carefully worded, that was a promise she could keep.
Before and after? Well, that was another kettle of fish. Now, and again after the scene, during the aftercare, was when she needed to work him, build a relationship that she could leverage to manipulate him.
She took a sip of her champagne, faux glaring at him to ensure he didn’t attempt to snatch her glass again.
Alexander held up a hand and one of the bartenders came out from behind the bar to take his order.
Once he was done, she tried again.
“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?” The perverse part of it was that she really wanted to know, wanted to understand what was going on in his head. That had nothing to do with the job, and everything to do with their chemistry.
“I didn’t say anything was wrong.”
“Of course you didn’t say it.” Alena waved one hand in the air. “You don’t talk. But I can read your body language, just like you read mine last night.”
“You think you know me?” There was bite to his words, and a bit of bitterness.
“No, I don’t know you.” Lie. “But I know that the man who topped me last night wasn’t this angry, so something happened, and I want to know what.”
“And if I told you?”
“Then I would…do absolutely nothing but listen.”
He laughed, and finally the tension in his shoulders relaxed. A second later the bartender arrived with his drink, a glass of red, which he gently tapped to her flute.
They sipped in companionable silence, though it took a good measure of self-control to keep from leaning towards him like a moth to flame.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about you today.” Alexander’s low statement caught her by surprise.
Alena lowered her glass, which she’d had halfway to her mouth. “I’m not ashamed to admit that I spent most of my day alternately remembering and fantasizing.”
Alexander swiveled to face her, once again bracing a foot on the rung of her stool.
Alena turned too, the outside of her thigh pressed to the inside of his.
They regarded one another, two strangers with a night of shared intimacy to bind them, the specter of what they would share tonight looming over them.
“The more I thought about you, the…harder…my fantasies got.” Alexander took a sip of wine. “No, not harder…darker.” His gaze met hers. “More brutal.”
Alena shivered, then reached for her glass, trying to cover up how much his words affected her.
“Alena, you should not submit to me.”
“Will you ignore my limits? My safeword?”
“No. But you’ve already said you changed those limits. That’s dangerous.”
“I changed them to add in sexual contact. Clearly you and I are attracted to one another, which doesn’t always happen between play partners.”
“True.” He ran his hand through his hair, brow furrowed.
Alena slid off her stool, standing so her hip was in contact with his thigh, her pelvis almost touching his stool.
“Alexander, I’m not afraid of you.”
“You should be.”
“Then you should be afraid of me. too.”
He raised his other foot, bracing it so she was caged between his legs. “I should?”
“Yes.”
He had no idea how true that was. She reached up and pulled the silver clip from her hair, letting it spill over her shoulders. “After all, I’m the one who keeps hunting you down.”
“True.” His gaze roamed over her head and shoulders, lingering on her breasts for a moment.
“Today when I was touching myself, I was thinking about you.” Alena leaned in enough that her breasts brushed his chest and she was able to whisper in his ear. “Did you think about me while you stroked your cock?”