“Lucy and Nathan are supposedly out of town,” he said, keeping his voice even.
Bianca’s eyebrows rose. “Oh.”
Lucy’s voice had a distinct, high-pitched quality. It cut through the din of club noise. He forced his grip on Christine’s hand to loosen. He’d like to have a conversation with Nathan, illuminate the finer points of maturity the man seemed to lack, but in this situation it wasn’t his place. He wasn’t Christine’s Dom. Yet. It wasn’t his right to interfere in her deal, but he wanted to. It was a tricky situation. Since she’d made the agreement with her sister before he was in the picture he didn’t want to intrude. If he were her Dom, if she wore his collar, this mess would not have happened.
Lowering his voice, he asked, “Do you want to leave?”
“I don’t want to make you leave,” she mumbled.
Patting her hand, he glanced up at Bianca. “If you’ll excuse us, I think it’s time we went home.”
“Of course,” Bianca said, rising as they stood.
He ducked his head, pressing a kiss to the shorter woman’s cheek. He knew she was dying to ask him questions but was too polite to ask him here.
“I’ll call you,” he said by way of an apology. He’d want to consult someone else about his growing infatuation before he did anything rash.
“Christine,” Bianca said, turning to take one of her hands. “It was lovely to meet you. Don’t be a stranger.”
Aware every moment they spent around Lucy and Nathan was one more chance for an unwanted confrontation, he steered Christine toward the door. This time he nodded to those he recognized but declined the unspoken invitations. He was not unaware of the interested stares, but he didn’t share, and he wasn’t about to let her go yet.
The temperature outside was much colder. She wrapped her wool coat around her and hunched her shoulders. Every few steps she glanced at him.
“We didn’t have to leave because of Lucy.”
He turned her back to the car and gently pushed her against it. Her hands flattened against his chest under the lapels of his jacket.
“It wasn’t worth putting up with your sister’s shit or making a scene, was it?”
She shook her head.
“Good.” He pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “Get in the car.”
He helped her in and circled the car. It didn’t take a genius to know she was upset. There were some problems in the world a man couldn’t fix, and he was smart enough to know this situation needed more than a Band-Aid. The problems between Christine and Lucy ran deep.
Glancing at her as he drove, he realized at some point he’d forgotten the relationship between the sisters. Lucy had faded from his memory. While he didn’t think they were anything alike, reminding himself of it helped to cool some of his caveman urges. Before he bought into this one, he needed to be sure she wasn’t hiding something from him. As much as he hated to deny himself this most intriguing woman, he needed to try her out a bit longer. Assure himself she wasn’t hiding an inner Lucy.
He dropped her off without anything more than a long kiss and went home alone. Not that he wanted to. Everything told him to go back and claim her as his, but he erred on the side of caution. This time.
Chapter Seven
Christine was ready to get out of the office. She was glad it was Friday, but even more so that the bruises on her ass were fading. Sitting at her desk for extended periods of time was somewhat uncomfortable. But that was the price she paid for spending time with Daniel. The thought of him had her reaching for her phone to check the latest text. As a rule, she never looked at the messages when they came in. Instead, she waited a few minutes, savoring the anticipation before relieving her curiosity and replying.
Daniel was the bright spot of her week. She felt like a kid again, fluttery stomach and all. Even a stern conversation with Ginny hadn’t grounded her wayward hormones. She was quite frankly twitter-pated.
The good thing was thinking of Daniel distracted her from Lucy. Her sister was a brat and had avoided calling her back all week. She couldn’t find it in her to believe Lucy had been out of town for one second.
It hurt to think about how little her sister cared for her or their family. When Christine had been younger it hadn’t mattered as much to her, but the older she got, the more their father aged, the more important family became.
She took a deep breath and dialed her sister. She was going to have to listen to the lies at some point. She might as well get it over with.
“This is Lucy.”
Stunned that she’d answered, Christine missed a beat before replying. “Hey, Luce, it’s Chris.”
“Hey.” False cheer dripped from her sister’s voice. She imagined if Barbie could speak she would sound just like her sister.
“How was your trip?”
“The trip?” Christine could practically hear Lucy’s thoughts scrambling for traction. “Oh, it was good. Nothing special.”
“Yeah? I saw you and Nate at the club on Tuesday. Sorry I didn’t stop to say hi.” She leaned forward and propped her elbows on the desk. How was Lucy going to try to dig her way out this time?
“Really? What were you doing there?” Lucy’s voice was curious wrapped in happy plastic.
“I was there with Daniel.”
“But I thought you were meeting him Friday.”
“I did. We had dinner on Tuesday and went to the club for a while. I should probably thank you for setting us up.” She bit her lip. Typical sisters would share guy talk, secrets. Part of her wanted a relationship the older she got, but Lucy had never reciprocated.
“I heard he has a small dick,” Lucy said offhandedly.
She opened her mouth. Her teeth clicked together as she closed it. “Lucy!”
“I’m just saying if you’re going to get back into the scene you should get someone more attractive. You’re not bad-looking.” The way Lucy pronounced her not bad-looking was on par with saying taxes weren’t headache-inducing. “Anyways, Nate has some friends. I’ll ask him to set you up if you need the help.”
“No. No thank you, Lucy.” She took a deep breath and forced her hand to lie flat against the desk. “Hey, I was calling about our deal. I was hoping I could come by tonight and pick up the pearls.”
Silence.
“Lucy?”
“I’m not going to be at home tonight. Can we do this later?”
“It’ll just take me a second to pick them up.”
“God, why do you have to be so pushy? Can’t you understand I’m busy? I have a life, you know? And you aren’t my mother.”
She closed her eyes. Guilt hung on her shoulders and she knew she shouldn’t feel that way. Her sister was playing her and she was falling into it as she always did. While she would never replace their mother, she’d tried her hardest to fill those shoes. In a way she felt responsible for how Lucy had grown up, even though the foundation for her behavior had been in place long before their mother’s death.
“Yeah, sorry, Luce. I’ll call you later and we can figure it out, okay?”
“Great. Got to go. Toodles!”
She cradled her head in her hands for a few moments. She wanted to strangle her sister and hug her all at once. They were sisters; she loved her even when she hated her.
Getting to her feet, she made the short trip to the break room for her lunch. Her relationship with her sister would never be good, it was a fact she was becoming reconciled to but couldn’t ignore the problem. It didn’t mean her other relationships needed to be fraught with bad communication.
Armed with food, she returned to her desk, skipping the break room chat and tapping out an email to her father. He was always happy to get email. Sometimes she liked to send him a quick note to know he’d smile. Half of the time he called her after reading it and told her everything he would eventually type out.
Turning to face the windows behind her desk, she began nibbling on her lunch. Her thoughts still drifted back to the time she’d spent with Daniel. She couldn’t deny it had been far more satisfying than she’d expected. Though she’d gone into it with a bad attitude and dreading it, she’d come out the winner.
The only thing bothering her was that he hadn’t mentioned anything about seeing her again. They texted and chatted on the phone a little bit, but nothing more. She wanted to see him. Not only was he the kind of Dom she wanted to have in the bedroom, they’d enjoyed each other outside the dungeon. He’d listened to her, smiled and treated her with respect, but once they’d gone to the club the switch had been flipped. Until that point he hadn’t tried to dominate her. Their natural dynamic was his dominant personality guiding her submissive one, but he didn’t push her, he led.
Chewing her lip, she wondered if she should wait. She liked a strong man in her life but she was no shy violet.
Picking up her discarded phone, she redialed the number he had called her from. Her heart fluttered at the first ring, but no one answered. Instead it went to a recording.
Deciding to keep it simple, she left her name and phone number, though he already had the information, and asked him to call her.
Finishing up her lunch, she took a walk around the floor to stretch her legs and talk with some of the other people on her team before settling in to approve samples all afternoon.
Despite it being Friday, she stayed busy making corrections on proofs and arranging orders. Her office line and cell phone rang at least four times an hour. Each time her heart sped up a little, but every call was another thing that needed her immediate attention.
“Christine speaking,” she answered for what must have been the hundredth time that day.
“Don’t sound so happy to hear from me.”
“Daniel.” She couldn’t help the goofy grin spreading across her face. “Hey, sorry. Busy day.”
“It’s almost evening,” he said, his voice dipping. “What are you doing still at work?”
Spinning in her chair, she groaned at the dark blanket of night laid over the city. “I didn’t realize how late it was. Crap.”
“Are you still at work?”
“Yes.” She sighed.
“Why?”
When most people asked they didn’t want to know. You could hear it in their voice. They expected a few words strung together as a platitude. He sounded curious, as if he anticipated a real answer. Still, he couldn’t possibly care about her job.
“Just getting stuff done.” Leaning back into the chair, she pulled the pencil out of her bun and pushed the seat from side to side. Her eyes unfocused slightly as she gazed out at the dark cityscape.
“What’s so important that you’re working this late?”
“We have a trade show coming up. I’m supposed to work on all of the marketing sheets the sales staff take with them to the trade show floor. My team turned them in to me and now I have to double-check everything to make sure it’s perfect.”
“Is it a big deal?”
“Yes and no. It’s kind of a typical project but it’s the first one I’m turning out for the other people in the company to see. I’m new and it’s going to set the tone for what they think my work is like. I want it to be perfect.”
“It’ll be great.”
She smiled. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“So what did you call about?”
The dormant butterflies in her stomach woke up, fluttering around inside her chest. “Well, I meant to see if you wanted to grab dinner tonight but it’s late. Are you busy tomorrow night?”
His voice teased her, the mocking tones straight out of her middle school days. “Are you asking me out?”
She laughed. “So what if I am?”
“I might have to say yes. What were you thinking?”
“Food. I don’t know, I just realized how hungry I am and I can’t think of anything else.”
“Would it be okay with you if we did dinner in?”
The request made her pause. “Sure. Your place or mine?”
“How about I come over to your place?”
“Okay. Can I ask why?”
“I want to spend time with you.” His voice dropped. “I also want to be able to bend you over and fuck your pussy when I want.”
Heat flooded her cheeks and she clenched her thighs together. Her response to him was immediate, as if he were Pavlov’s damn bell. “Oh.”
“Do you have a problem with that?”
“No Sir.”
“Good girl.” She could imagine him sitting back, his dark eyes half hooded and an almost smile playing across his lips. “Did you touch yourself last night?”
Oh, she’d wanted to. After he’d left her with nothing more than a chaste kiss at her door on Tuesday, she hadn’t thought of anything but him. Sliding down in her chair, she spread her thighs. “No Sir.”
“Are you alone in your office?”
“I think so.”
She heard a grinding sound on his side of the call.
“I want you to touch yourself, skin on skin,” he growled out. “Right now.”
She spared a glance over her shoulder. She could get up and close the door, he would never know she hadn’t obeyed immediately. But she would. Slinking down farther in her seat, she unbuttoned her slacks and pushed her panties down her hips. Her fingers were cold against her pelvis. She slipped her hand under the delicate material and cupped her mound. She could feel the moisture from her core.
“Are you touching your clit?” he asked.
“Yes.”
Tentative touches, because she didn’t know what he intended her to do. She wouldn’t want to come too early.
“You were tight around my cock. I want you to put two fingers in your pussy. I want you to come while you’re on the phone, in your office, where anyone could walk in. Will you do it?”
Biting her lip, she weighed her options. Did she want to play it safe? Or could she take a little risk? Nerves and excitement warred within her. Excitement won.
“Yes.”
Lifting her leg, she put it on the sill to give her better access.
“Tell me what you’re doing.”
She felt herself blushing. Everything made her blush.
“I put my right leg up on the windowsill.” She would have liked to narrate with a sultry, confident voice. Instead she quavered somewhere around an anxious whisper.
“You can touch yourself better.” He moved around, shifting something in the background.
“I’m, ah, pushing two fingers in.” Her muscles constricted at the cold touch and she sucked in a breath. “I have very cold hands.” She couldn’t believe she was actually doing this. She wasn’t a stranger to taking care of herself but her preferences ran toward toys, not her own hands.
“Don’t forget about your clit.”
Capturing the cell phone between her shoulder and ear, she tucked her other hand under her arm to warm it up while slowly sliding her fingers in and out. She panted into the phone as the hand inside her channel warmed up. She shifted in the seat until she was able to get the right angle. Using her other hand to push her panties farther down her hips, she exposed herself completely and stroked her clit.
“Chris, what are you doing?” he prompted her.
“I put the phone on my shoulder. I’m…I have two fingers inside of me, and I’m touching my…my clit with my other hand.” She was a pretzel.
“Are you finger-fucking yourself? Or just touching yourself?”
Her cheeks flamed hotter. “I’m…I’m finger-fucking myself.” Her voice quavered on a shrill note as she hit the right spot. Her hands were coated, which only made her feel naughtier.
“Yeah, keep going. Are you wet?”
“A little.” Shifting her hips, she was able to get a better angle, curl her fingers just right.
“Are you going to come?”
“Not yet.”
“Keep going.” His voice had dropped to a primal-sounding rumble. The skin on the back of her shoulders prickled the more he spoke. “If I were there, I’d suck on your breasts and then lick you out. Add another finger. Come now. You can do it.”
She bit her lip and slid another finger into her cunt. She wanted him to do everything he said to her and more. Allowing her imagination free rein, she pretended it was his rough fingers toying with her, coaxing her closer and closer to the brink. His voice seduced her, whispering all the things he wanted to do to her.
She lifted up onto her heels, undulating against what she wished were Daniel. The muscles at the base of her spine constricted and everything inside her fluttered before clamping tight. She tried to muffle the moans as the climax rocked through her. Her back arched against the strain of her shirt buttons.