“Yes,” Tess blurted, then closed her eyes and groaned at her
own idiocy. They were in a restaurant, for Christ’s sake. “Fuck. I mean—”
“I’ve also been meaning to talk to you about all the
language, Tess.”
“Oh what? Are you gonna wash my mouth out with soap?”
That seemed to trigger something in Jake. His lips pressed
into a thin line and when he finally spoke, his voice was straight out of her
dreams. “No, brat. In fact, unless you tell me otherwise when I get back from
paying this check, I’m going to take you home, tie you up on my bed, flog your
ass until you don’t know your own name anymore and then I’m going to fuck you
into next week. Like we’ve both wanted for years. And if you’re very, very
cooperative, and at least a little repentant, I might let you come too.”
Apparently pleased with Tess’ response of drop-jawed
silence, Jake rose from the booth to pay the bill at the register.
Left alone, Tess closed her mouth and eyes and tried to
think what possible reason she could name for remaining at the table one second
longer. By all logic, she should be racing out the door and as far away from
Jake Hogan as possible. Instead, her butt remained firmly seated and her logic
seemed to be racing out the door without her.
Seconds, or minutes, or hours later, Jake returned to the
booth and scooped Tess’ jacket off the seat, shaking it out and holding it up
for her. After a moment she rose and slipped her arms into it, letting him wrap
it around her. He held her in that embrace so she couldn’t walk away as he bent
to whisper in her ear.
“Don’t talk during the ride home. Not one word. Use the time
to think, because I don’t want you to do this lightly. When we get there, you
have two choices. You can either ask me to drop you off at your place, or you
can come inside with me. If it’s your place, fine, and this conversation never
happened. If it’s
my
place…”
He took her earlobe in his teeth, scraping the delicate skin
and sending a flood of heat through Tess’ body. “If it’s my place, I’ll do
exactly what I said earlier and a whole lot more. And I triple-dog dare you not
to say a word while I’m doing it.”
With a final flick of his tongue over the rim of her ear, he
released her shoulders and headed for the door, calling back, “I’ll bet you
can’t last five minutes without making a smart-ass comment.”
She could never ignore a dare. Especially not a triple-dog
dare, the nuclear option of the dare magnitude system. She grabbed her purse
and marched after him.
Oh, it’s on
.
Chapter Four
The silence was as much for his sake as for Tess’. Jake
needed to get his scattered mind back in order and consider the consequences of
what he’d started.
Jake was no fool, or at least not usually. He knew Tess had
made up her mind back in the restaurant. Exactly how he knew, he wasn’t quite
sure, because she was so familiar to him he hardly had to think about it. Like
family. He just knew.
That disconcerted him, because he was
used
to
thinking about it. Used to figuring a woman out, getting to know how she
thought, what she needed, whether that matched what she
said
she needed.
That was the game.
He considered that part of his responsibility as a sexual
Dominant, to figure out how to lead a submissive to the very edge of what she
thought she could take, then push that tiny bit more. Or sometimes a whole lot
more. Find her real limits, not merely the ones she was willing to admit but
the place where she flew past those into a new realm of sensation. Pleasure,
pain, whatever it took. To Jake it really didn’t matter which; it was the
result he craved, and he was used to working hard for days, weeks, sometimes
months for that payoff.
With Tess, it was all different. He had been pushing her
buttons for years, and he knew their sequence now like he knew the controls of
his own car. He knew
her
—possibly better than she knew herself, because
she didn’t seem to know herself very well at all. No stalking had been
necessary to learn her this way. It wasn’t even work. Tess was
there
, a
part of his life, a part of this town. Even after moving to the city she’d
still called this place home, as he had, and had made regular pilgrimages. Jake
wouldn’t have been able to avoid her if he’d wanted to.
He had never wanted to, even though he had planned never to
make a move on her. Even this week, right up until he’d gone and done it. Too
much history, he’d told himself, and their friendship was worth too much to
risk it over sex. But he’d known her too long not to guess what she was, or at
least to have a strong suspicion. He had watched her brat off to friends,
boyfriends, to stupid Danny head-up-his-ass Fields; to her father, who had sort
of tuned out for a few years after his wife’s death.
Jake came to know it well, that flash of contempt and
disappointment on Tess’ face when they responded, never in quite the way she
seemed to hope. The way she listened to a respected few, following directions
without hesitation and basking in their occasional praise. She was eager to
serve when she thought nobody was looking. But only then. She’d never been
accused of being a teacher’s pet. Tess sought direction and approval from
authority figures only in a clandestine way, as though it were a vice. Which it
was, in a way, for someone like her.
When she mouthed off to Jake, he usually stared her down
with a hint of a smile, then hid his own pronounced reaction to the way she
would pause, flush or bite her lip, before she shrugged and turned away. He’d
once overheard Tess say that he bored her because she could never get a rise
out of him.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Which was why he’d always resisted the temptation to push
for more, and up until now avoided spending too much time alone with Tess. He
liked control, and she did strange things to his. It messed with his rhythm,
how easy it was to get inside her head. It was beyond appealing, the stuff of
fantasies, and he thought it might well be addictive. Once he started, he
didn’t know if he’d be able to make himself stop.
That was an uncomfortable place for him. Especially now,
when his kinkier side was only unleashed on the occasional weekend in the city.
His dating closer to home had been strictly vanilla until now. He’d always kept
his two lives separate, but right now that separation was extreme. His special
cabinet had remained locked since he’d moved it into his bedroom in the
Cranston house, except for the few times a year he packed a bag to take to the
club in the city. He’d restocked supplies as needed then too but ended up
throwing away condoms and lubricant unused more often than not as their
expiration dates passed.
There could be no keeping things separate with Tess. It
would have to be all or nothing.
Jake risked a glance over to the passenger seat, where Tess
sat still as a statue. An angry, needy, beautiful statue. Spite-sex, that’s
what she thought she was doing. Scratching their ancient itch. And a dare. He
hadn’t been able to resist that touch, even though he knew it wasn’t really
playing fair. Pushing that button was too much. Like a gag, instead of a
command for silence. He knew she would bite, so in a way it was cheating,
taking the choice from her without her realizing it.
He hadn’t been able to resist. Because she was hard and
brittle, like fine marble, and he wanted her to turn into clay under his hands.
He wanted nothing more than to soften her, make her malleable and work her into
a pose more pleasing to them both.
He knew just the tools for that.
His beautiful statue sighed and drew her knees up to her
chest, long legs folding neatly, indicating a very promising flexibility. Jake
ignored the urge to adjust his cock and forced his eyes back to the road.
She’s an adult
, he told himself.
She knows what
she’s getting into. It’s her choice.
The angel on the other shoulder reminded him that Tess was a
screwed-up adult at best, that she was broken, that he didn’t mess with broken,
bratty subs because he wasn’t a therapist and didn’t have an interest in
playing Daddy. That was why he had always been careful, when pushing her
buttons, not to push them in this particular order. Not to push the big red one
at the bottom, the one with all the warnings around it.
Beware, here be
dragons. Danger, Will Robinson. Contents may be toxic
.
He’d finally given in and pushed that one. Hard. The
contents were almost certainly toxic. He’d done it on impulse, rashly, which he
knew was no way to begin. But how could he hold back when she so clearly needed
something, and he knew of only one thing to offer that might help? Poor Tess,
who not only seemed to be in a depression but had apparently never figured out
her own deal. He’d taken a huge risk back in the restaurant, assuming so much
about her. Acting like he had Dominant Spidey-senses. Saying what he’d always
suspected—wished—as though it were a certainty. That she was his counterpart,
his complementary flavor, bottom to his top.
I can’t believe I made her tell me she was wet
.
It had been a moment of pure hubris. He’d been half
convinced even as he spoke that the conversation would put her off forever, and
he really didn’t even know why he’d gone there except that he’d always
wanted
to go there with Tess. Get it out in the open and out of the way. Or possibly
it was pure instinct, too long suppressed. She pushed his buttons too. They’d
been wise to avoid being alone together to often all these years. It had taken
only a week of neighborly dinners and one serious lunch to bring them to this
point.
He couldn’t believe he’d made her tell him, but he could
believe her answer with no hesitation. When he’d put on the Dom face, used the
discipline voice with her, she’d responded instantly. Completely. Beyond his
wildest dreams. She’d planted her lovely butt on the seat and listened to all
he had to say. And she’d done it
despite herself
, making the whole thing
even more delicious. Watching that struggle on her face, the consternation at
her own body’s betrayal, was too much like every dream he’d ever had about Tess
back in high school. But also not quite enough like those dreams, because she
still had her clothes on and wasn’t tied up or sucking him off.
He bit back a groan and rolled his shoulders. The drive back
to his house had never seemed to take so long. They were nearly there, however.
Here was the turnoff, the back road that led to both their houses. Jake slowed
a bit, trying to keep from looking at Tess, not wanting to influence her
decision.
He failed and cut his gaze over, to see her own flicker
toward her cottage as they passed by then back to the front.
He turned onto his property, and the crunch of gravel under
the wheels filled the silence until he swung onto the smoothly paved main
driveway a few dozen yards from the house. Tess was still staring out the front
windshield, and Jake’s heart thumped out his excitement and hope as he hit the
automatic door opener and pulled to a stop inside his garage.
The customary animation had drained from Tess’ face over the
course of the ride. Now she looked scared, and part of Jake thought that was a
good look for her, even as he reminded himself that she was new to this type of
thing and would need help navigating such an unfamiliar path. Fear was only fun
up to a point.
He would help. With his hands, his mouth, his voice. With
restraints and any type of whip she would allow, and finally with his cock in
every permissible orifice, as many times as he was able. So helpful. A
veritable humanitarian, that’s what he’d be.
When he reached for his door handle, Tess unbuckled her seat
belt and started to open hers too.
“Nuh-uh. Stay there.”
Robbed of her words, she could only look at him, puzzled,
then shrug and settle back in her seat.
He walked around, opened her door and offered a hand, because
he was a gentleman in his own special way. And because he was already getting
into the scene and he knew this treatment would throw her off, which he wanted
to do. He wanted to put her off balance and keep her there, fuck with her mind
as long and hard as he would eventually fuck her body.
He could hardly believe she had come home with him. That
they were finally going to do this. The anticipation was killing him, and he
felt transported back to his randy teenage days. At this rate he would be lucky
to keep from coming in his pants.
* * * * *
After taking her jacket and indicating she should leave her
shoes in the mudroom, Jake walked Tess to the middle of his living room and
told her to stay there. He went off for a minute or two, and she could hear
what sounded like his answering machine as he retrieved messages. She was still
standing in that spot, anxious and self-conscious, when he returned and stepped
in front of her.
“Okay, here’s how this is going to work.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. He raised one back, staring
her down until she lowered her eyes. If she kept looking at him, she wouldn’t
be able to resist making a snide remark. In a straight staring contest with no
snappy comebacks allowed, Jake would always have the advantage. But if she seized
the advantage of the snappy comeback, she’d fail at the dare. Tricky.
Determined, she kept her lips pressed together and her eyes
averted.
“You’re not going to talk. We’ve already established that.
You’ll have to rely on other ways to communicate, and you’ll have to trust me
to pay attention and give you what you need. Can you do that, Tess?”
She shrugged, and he shook his head. “Maybe isn’t an
acceptable answer. Either you’ll commit to this exercise or you won’t. The time
for maybe ended when we got out of the truck. I’m not asking for perfection
though. Just asking if you’re capable of trusting me to take care of you.”
Of course I trust you, dumbass. I wouldn’t be here
otherwise
. She wanted to say it out loud, but checked herself and nodded.
“Good. Moving along…I’m going to take your clothes off now.
Once they’re off, they stay off until I tell you to get dressed again. You
won’t try to cover yourself or hide from me. For the rest of the day, every
part of your body is mine to look at, touch, play with. Do whatever I want
with. My toy. My pet. Got it?”
Her nod was warier this time as she conceded a larger part
of herself. She felt naked already under Jake’s scrutiny and she’d only taken
her coat and boots off so far.
Jake took his own jacket off and slung it over the back of a
chair; the leather creaked softly as it bent. “I take good care of my pets, and
I’m not into anything very extreme. Bondage, whips and things, toys, yes. No
needles or knives. I’ll never break the skin, at least not on purpose. It’s a
risk, of course, but blood’s not really my thing. I’ll never deliberately leave
a permanent mark, and I’ll do my best not to leave any bruises or welts in
places that are hard to cover up when you go out in public. As long as you pay
attention and do what I tell you, I’ll let you come.”
Let me? How do you plan to stop me?
“I do plan to restrain you—”
Oh.
“So if you have any circulation problems, bad back, trick
knees, severe claustrophobia, latex allergy, anything like that, now would be
the time to tell me. Or STDs, of course. Time-out from the dare for that.
So…anything?” She shook her head. “Good. I’ll also be using a variety of
implements of destruction on you. Sometimes because I think you need it,
sometimes because
I
need it. I’m clean too, by the way. And…I’ll cover
the rest as we go along.”
She wasn’t expecting the sudden shift from talk to action,
and jumped when Jake reached up and touched her face. He pulled away for a
second until she settled, then moved in more slowly. He traced her bottom lip
with one fingertip, taking his time. When Tess swayed closer, he pulled his
hand away.
“No. Don’t move or I’ll stop. Stay where I put you.”
She opened her mouth then clamped it shut, biting down on
her lips to keep from responding.
“Eyes front. Just like that. Good girl,” he murmured as he
walked behind her, and Tess shivered as a dark thrill coursed through her. She
didn’t know what Jake was doing or why she was reacting to it, but she wanted
him to keep going. More than anything. She craved it, that soothing voice, that
casual praise. And she hated that she craved it. He was treating her like a
pet, exactly like he’d said.