James (Doms of Club Indigo #1)

Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

Laura huddled against the shelves, wishing the room was big enough to let her pace. She wasn’t a pacer, but she had to do something with all this nervous energy so she could think. She felt so confused. What was wrong with her? Wait, why was she blaming herself? He was the one who’d spanked her! But only after she went willingly over his knee. He didn’t use his strength to overpower her and he easily could have, if that was his goal. But on the other hand, he didn’t stop spanking her when she asked him to stop. Although… she’d said ‘stop,’ not ‘red’. And she couldn’t pretend she’d forgotten it in the heat of the moment. It was her safeword, and it had been burning in her mind throughout the spanking, but she’d never said it.

He probably wouldn’t have listened anyway. She closed her eyes, shutting out the sight of James watching her so patiently while she mentally maligned him. Of course he would have listened. He knew the lifestyle, at least well enough to call it the lifestyle in that easy manner. And if he had nothing else, the man had self- control. Jake had no such discipline. He had a hair-trigger temper and she had been his favorite target.

James hadn’t been angry, even when she’d given him reasons. If she had to put a label on it, she would say he was concerned. After her initial outraged reaction to his first threat of a spanking, he’d backed off at once, explaining he thought she was into the lifestyle… and it was only after she didn’t tell him off for that assumption that he’d brought it up again, given her a safeword and made sure she understood what it was. Let her put herself over his lap. And when she had broken down and begged him to stop… well, he hadn’t, but he had paused. Had he been waiting for her to use her safeword?

She opened her eyes and studied him. He watched her with nothing predatory or frightening in his demeanor. He remained seated with his arms resting on his knees and his hands open, relaxed, patiently waiting for her to come to terms with what had happened between the two of them.

She was beginning to feel a little silly, but she still needed to think about this. He’d spanked her, how did she feel about that? It had hurt, but not more than she could bear. She felt embarrassed about being over his knee. He had treated her like a disobedient child, but she hadn’t been acting like a responsible adult, had she? She had kind of deserved it and he had stopped as soon as she had been repentant. He comforted her right away and that had felt really good until her brain kicked in.

She made eye contact with him again. “I’m sorry,” she said and he gave her a smile that bolstered her confidence. “I guess I freaked out for a minute.”

He studied her face, his eyes piercing hers. “Are you all right now? ”

She nodded.

He opened his arms, and she went willingly into his embrace. For a long moment, they sat there. A hyper-awareness of James and his subtle movements came over Laura. Some of the burdens lifted from her chest, and warmth spread through her body as the comfort of being held settled her mind.

The wind was still howling outside. The tornado had passed, but the thunderstorm still raged. A tiredness that was fulfilling rather than exhausting took over her limbs.

James cleared his throat and asked in a low tone, “Can you tell me a bit more about your ex? Jake is his name?”

“Please, no.” She shuddered and struggled to take a deep breath. “I don’t want him in here with us. I worked so hard at forgetting him. It was difficult getting over the things he did and said.”

Unfortunately, even though she didn’t have to talk about Jake, it didn’t keep the past out of her head. Just mentioning his name brought it all back. Her body tensed as the memories cascaded through her mind. He had seemed so sweet when they were dating. Attentive, very much involved in her life, protective, even a bit possessive in a manly way, and on those rare occasions that they quarreled, well, he might get a little mean in the moment, but afterwards, he was so sorry, showering her with gifts and praise. Yes, he did rush the relationship, but he justifiably pointed out that she wasn’t getting any younger and with looks like hers, she couldn’t really afford to be choosy, could she? Then, after the first year of marriage, he became angrier and angrier and routinely took his feelings out on Laura. First, in words, and later with his fists.

Laura worried her bottom lip and James caressed her cheek and pressed her head to his chest. She sighed contently, as he stroked her back.

“Okay, honey,” he relented. “I hope you’ll feel safe enough to discuss him with me at some time later on. I would like to get to know you better. You said ex, so you’re divorced.”

She nodded. “Six years now.”

“Do you have kids?”

“No. He didn’t like children or the thought of sharing me with them. He was unhappy enough with the amount of time I spent with the rest of my family.”

He nodded, an act felt rather than seen. “Your family?”

She shifted to sit where she could look at his face, feeling much better and more animated as the subject veered away from Jake. “Yes, I have a younger sister and she has two children. Her husband died about 4 years ago. Pancreatic cancer. Suzie is great and I adore Tim and Abby. Every Saturday, they spend time with me. Lately, we’ve gone swimming a lot. They’re so much fun.” A bit of the light disappeared from her heart as she added, “Then there’s my dad. He’s alone now and he’s having trouble adjusting without Mom. Suzie and I visit and I cook some of his meals for him, but… Wait, am I boring you? Of course I’m boring you,” she said with a forced laugh. “Let’s talk about you.”

“You’re not boring me,” he said with a quiet intensity that brought the heat back to her face. And other places.

“Well, let’s talk about you anyway. My bottom knows you better than I do,” she joked. “Who is James Black?”

James watched his submissive, admiring the light, loving energy that filled her when she talked about her family.

Wait, what? His ?

He needed to explore this possessive feeling later, but he had to focus on this conversation first. There was something about the way she mentioned her father that set off his Dom-radar. He also stored that awareness away for later examination. What he’d learned about her so far, he liked a great deal. Not only was she attractive with an appealing submissiveness, she was also compassionate and completely loyal to her loved ones. The way her brain kept kicking in and the way she had reacted verbally, he was confident she was an intelligent woman, which would be a relief after his experiences with his ex-wife, who was gorgeous but shallow and self-absorbed.

He could have listened to Laura’s voice all night, but she was clearly uncomfortable talking about herself for too long. He let her change the subject to him, hoping that would make her more willing to talk later.

For now, he smiled and said, “Thank you for sharing. I’m divorced, too. Cindy and I were high school sweethearts and we had amazing chemistry at the time, but –” He shrugged. “— I grew up and she didn’t. We split about five years ago. The separation was mutual and fairly amicable. I think you could still call us friends. She’s been remarried for about a year now. Seems like a nice guy, even if he does take his steaks well-done.”

“You still keep in touch?” she asked and when he nodded, went on in an over-casual tone, “For the kids?”

“Ha! No, no kids. I’ve had a couple of brief relationships since then, but nothing serious.” He paused and pulled her higher on his lap, and then continued, “I don’t have any living relatives. My parents died in a car accident when I was ten, and I was raised by my grandfather. He was the one who taught me about restoration and renovation – the need to respect old things and buildings. He had this cool chair in the library of the house. It was high-backed, like a throne. It was oak, stained dark. When I was fourteen or fifteen and roughhousing with some friends of mine, we accidentally broke one of the arms off. I thought my grandfather was going to be furious, but no. He was really patient and taught me how to repair it. That’s what got me into carpentry, woodworking, and eventually my own company. Now I work in construction with my best friend. We renovate older buildings and remodel a lot of bathrooms and kitchens. You know, modernizing without losing the history, or the style.” He caught her much smaller hand in his and ran his thumb over the soft skin. “What do you do for a living?”

Laura laughed. “I guess you’d call me a geek. I’m a software engineer. I design and program applications for an international company.”

James chuckled, “A geek, huh? I don’t see you wearing a T-shirt that says, ‘There are 10 types of people. Those who understand binary and those who don’t.’”

Laura started laughing as well, “Okay, I guess you’ve got me there. I don’t own many T-shirts, but a lot of people at work do wear them. My favorite is, ‘Most Computer Issues are Caused by a Faulty Connection Between the Chair and the Keyboard.’ So, I’m not a geek, just a woman doing geeky things.”

James turned his arm so he could glance at his watch, which showed it was already past 11 pm. The storm was still thrashing around the building. There was no way they could leave safely. “How about this? Let’s try to get comfortable and wait out the storm in here, maybe get some rest. We’ll see how things stand in the morning.”

As if on cue she smothered a yawn and nodded sleepily, “Sounds like a plan to me.”

Together, they busied themselves to create a makeshift bed out of musty old clothes. “Can you believe what people leave behind in a laundromat?” she asked, holding up a comforter.

“Pity it’s a single, not a double.” James laughed, holding up two different socks: “I was afraid we’d have to make a mattress out of these. God knows there are enough.”

Laura couldn’t agree more. It was astonishing how many single socks there were in here. With smiles on their faces, they lay down and made themselves comfortable for the night.