Chapter 30
Becca suspected she scored a direct hit with her question by how Jamie”s eyes widened.
She needed to know if she was different—if this was special to him or just another stroll along a kinky pathway.
”No,” he said after taking a deep breath. ”Never. This is different,” he murmured, making her wonder if he read her thoughts. ”You want total honesty?”
Did she? A tremor akin to fear raced along her nerve endings. Total honesty was admirable as a concept, but it came with a long list of warnings in practice.
Be strong.
”You said you wouldn”t ask or expect anything from me that you weren”t ready to give, so, yeah. You want me to express myself, right?”
He nodded, and a half-smirk curled the corner of his mouth.
”Now it”s your turn,” she murmured.
He studied her face and then wound his fingers in her hair. The gesture felt possessive.
She placed her hand on his forearm.
”Okay—here goes,” he said quietly but firmly. ”You have to give a fuck to open up, and I didn”t. Until now.”
Her spirit soared.
”Kinky practices are not the same as real-life training in the Dominant arts. I learned from people doing this since before grey had fifty shades. BDSM experiences are easy to come by if all you want is sex. I opened up because along the rocky path we”ve been walking, I caught some damn feelings for you. I give more than a fuck, Rebecca. Letting you inside is the most terrifying thing I”ve ever done because scaring you off would kill my soul.”
Worried she might be putting the cart ahead of the horse, she wet her lips and timidly asked, ”Are you saying what”s different is having feelings?”
”I believe you”re a natural submissive—saying it that way doesn”t diminish your strength. You”re still a fierce bitch—to everyone, including me.”He grinned. ”The craving to submit to a dominant male was always there—inside. Thankfully, I”m that man. In my not-so-humble opinion, dating in the time of kinkified fuckery has cheapened what in reality is an elegant system of beliefs and behaviors.”
”Can you put that in a Hallmark card?”she teased.
She jolted when Jamie put a hand on her neck and whispered in her ear, ”Handcuffs, a blindfold, a butt plug, and a heart on the outside of the card. Inside reads, Apologizing in advance for what I”m going to do to you.”
Dammit. Panties would be nice—something to prevent the arousal from wetting the inside of her thighs.
She shook her head and answered his blunt talk with some straight talk of her own. ”Metal handcuffs are a hard no—not worth the panic attack. Something less scary and skin-friendly, though, is negotiable.”
In a humor-filled voice, he asked, ”What about the blindfold and butt plug?”
”I”m open to discussion.”
Clutching his chest in a dramatic tone, he growled, ”You”re killing me.”
Mini explosions of fluffy, happy silliness snapped, crackled, and popped inside her. She enjoyed his funny side.
Give him some of the seductive, submissive, flirty stuff you”ve read about, the devil on her shoulder giggled.
Putting space between them, she clasped both hands behind her back, swung her hips so her dress would swish back and forth, and spelled out the guardrails one would expect of an old-fashioned date in a coy, demur tone.
”Since this is a first date, we can”t go past first base. You can kiss me goodnight, but that”s it.”
Slowly lowering her gaze to his zipper, she wet her lips before returning her eyes to his.
”Will that make things, um, hard for you?”
The innocently delivered double entendre made him laugh big.
”Wouldn”t be the first time where you”re concerned,”he drawled in a husky voice.
Wait. She gasped. Oh my goodness—what was he saying?
”What does that mean?”She bit her lip, waiting for his reply.
”It means, young lady, that just last night, you left me with an erection that wouldn”t go away. Had to take things in hand if you catch my drift.”
”Last night?”
His sexy smirk and twinkling eyes triggered another wave of arousal. Pressing her thighs together, Becca prayed the things she read in books about dripping was bullshit.
”Yes. What about you? Did you think about me and touch yourself?”
How did he know?
Mortified, she ducked her head as a heated blush rushed onto her cheeks.
Laughing at her reaction, he asked, ”Embarrassed? Don”t be. Remember what I said about your inner bad girl? She wants to fuck, but we aren”t there yet, so self-satisfaction is the only way.”
Rather than turn her off, his directness increased her desire.
His lightheartedness didn”t diminish. Jamie Hunter was a very sexual being.
”I”d love to watch,”he told her in a sexy growl.
Shocked and suddenly dizzy with lust, she wobbled unsteadily and had to grab hold of a nearby chair for support. She tried to imagine a scenario like that and moaned at her own audacity.
”Masturbating together can be hot as fuck.”His eyes told a story that made her gasp.
”Jamie,”she whispered in a shaky voice, although she didn”t know what she was pleading for.
”Rebecca.”His growled reply made her pussy tingle.
Oh, boy. She was in trouble if he could reduce her to a wanton with just a few growls.
”Come here.”He crooked his finger.
”I don”t know if that”s wise.”
A smile moved slowly onto his face. ”I can make you.”
”Yes, I know,”she giggled.
”Tell you what—I”ll play nice if you answer some questions.”
”Hmm. What kind of questions?”
”Intimate questions.”
Dammit—she”d walked into a trap. A sexy trap.
Cocking a hip, she slapped her hands on her waist and gave him a look.
”Nice try, Dr. Hunter. Give some credit. I”m a mom and a boss, and I know what an open-ended question is. Be specific. How many?”
”Three.”
”And if I don”t answer, you”ll what?”
His eyebrow-wagging leer left her with little doubt she”d have a full-blown seduction on her hands.
”First question,”she snarled with a huff.
”Have you had sex in a swing?”
”No,”she snorted with a laugh. ”Is that seriously what you want to know? If little old white bread and vanilla pudding me took a walk on the sex swing wild side? I mean, come on. What does that even look like? Aren”t there safety concerns? Has OSHA cleared the equipment?”
He. Cracked. Up.
So. Did. She.
”We”ll circle round to the swing at another time. Question two,”he continued. ”This one has several parts. Essay answers.”He cleared his throat. ”Written porn, video porn, or both? Fingers, toys, or both? Remember to show your work.”
”Oh, okay. Um, well, I read romance. Some sweet, some spicy.”
”Which do you prefer?”
”Both have merit, but the tally for risqué stuff would be pretty high if I kept count. The first dirty romance I read,”she told him using air quotes, ”Was about a roguish pirate and his female captive. I”d never seen such language or erotic imagery.”
”I”m listening.”His voice was full of humor.
”As for the other, video porn is a tough sell for women. So much of it is disgusting and crosses lines. It”s not a hard no, but if it denigrates women—which you know is nearly all of it— or is too violent, I”m out.”
”And part two?”
Becca had push-pull whiplash from the long-standing debate over where female masturbation ranked on the naughty scale. Was it self-care or aberrant behavior? Was it only for bad girls with loose morals or a natural condition of living? And what if toys were involved? Did that change things?
She cleared her throat, took a breath, and sighed before answering.
She kept it short, taking care not to reveal too much information. ”Both.”
His reaction was a devilish grin. ”Care to elaborate?”
”No.”
He laughed. ”Not even for bonus points?”
The man was incorrigible!
And she liked that about him—a lot.
”This QA feels one-sided.”She lifted one brow and gave him a dry look.
”You want three questions?”He shrugged. ”Go for it.”
When three worthy questions formed in her head, she felt uneasy. What she was curious about were not things she wanted to discuss right now. Whether Jamie Hunter wanted children and fatherhood was not a first-date question.
Shaking her head, she looked away, muttering, ”Maybe another time.”
”Okay—then that leaves us with my last question.”
Oh crap—she forgot he had one more. Considering what he had already asked, Becca knew this final query would pack a punch.
”This is for the win, Rebecca, so listen carefully. I want the first answer that pops into your head. No editing or curating of the response. Understood?”
There was a spot on her back—a few inches below her left shoulder—that tingled each time he spoke in what she was coming to recognize as his Dom”s voice. She could not deny him, no matter how hard she tried.
”Ready?”
Nodding, she steadied herself for what she knew would be a deeply intimate subject.
”Give me two adjectives that best describe how you like to fuck.”
Startled and unnerved, she opened her mouth, but nothing came out. He wanted an honest answer. Was she brave enough, sure enough of herself, to say the first words that formed in her mind?
”Rough,”she murmured more shyly than intended. ”And passionate.”
Jamie”s eyes flared and then turned smokey.
”That cost you, huh?”he asked quietly.
”You have no idea,”she replied. ”Footnote,”she added in barely a whisper. ”I”ve experienced neither.”
Her emotions careened back and forth between feeling liberated by the truth and free-falling panic over having said out loud what she barely admitted to herself.
”I knew that without you saying it.”The look he gave her felt meaningful. ”I also know you would never answer such an intimate question for anyone else, so thank you,”he said, touching his chest over his heart.
The expression on his handsome face indicated he was studying her every response—as if waiting for something.
His quiet words unleashed a whirlwind of feelings. A lightness about everything and a sense of arriving at a special place overtook Becca. Something he spoke of earlier—his belief that she was a natural submissive—made sense.
Her feelings for Jamie went from complicated, confusing, and ever-changing to making perfect sense in a heartbeat.
”Wow,”she murmured.
”Is this your come to the lord moment?”
”Close enough,”she admitted.
Wearing his devilishly sexy grin, he announced, ”Then my work here is done!”
Feeling as though she might have given away too much—been too easy—she started to squirm, mentally and physically.
”None of that,”he growled. ”Tell those thoughts to fuck off.”
”Can”t help it. I”m standing here without my panties, having just divulged some pretty intimate stuff.”
”Change the narrative. Instead of worrying, feel some satisfaction over acing your first submissive tests. Surrendering your panties, practicing spanking positions, answering personal questions honestly—you see it now, don”t you?”
”I suppose.”
He arched one eyebrow.
”Okay, yes,”she growled.
Pushing away, she put a good deal of distance between them and then, for some insane reason, paid theatrical obeisance to the devilish Dom with a mocking curtsy that stopped just short of genuflecting.
To make things worse, her mouth got off its leash, and she said, ”I bow to your dominance.”
They both froze.
Time slowed.
She felt all the blood in her head rush south.
His wolfish expression left her with little doubt of his thoughts.
”Ten-second rule,”he drawled. ”Want to take back those words?”
Ten.
Nine.
Eight.
Seven.
Six.
”No.”With the utterance of a single word, she felt calm and centered.
He came forward and took her arm. She felt possessiveness in his touch and quivered.
”It”s getting late, and we both have early starts at work. Time to call it an evening.”
Becca heard something new in his voice. A quality that had not been there before. She wondered about it for half a second and then realized this was Jamie”s Dom persona taking control. She knew what a power play was and understood that he was making it obvious that he was choosing to start as he aimed to proceed—commandingly.
There was no internal resistance or pushback on her part. She wanted him to be the man as much as she wanted to bask in his maleness.
Taking control meant she had to stand there and wait while he gathered her purse and a bakery box with two servings of tiramisu for her to share with Kori.
She giggled when he went in search of Cat so she could say goodbye while mumbling about his feline roommate”s shitty manners.
”Found her,”the big man said with an indulgent chuckle. In his arms was a ball of fur.
Prompted by Jamie, Cat made a feeble attempt to interact. Her standoffishness reminded Becca of Domineau”s cat, the infamous Pywakett.
After making the appropriate fuss and giving Cat a final scratch, the disinterested feline jumped from his arms and walked away, swishing her tail.
”Car keys,”Jamie commanded with his hand out.
She fished a plain keyring out of her purse and handed it to him.
Carrying her purse and the dessert box, he walked her from the house to the driveway and guided her to the driver”s door.
”Hold these,”he said before handing her the box with her purse.
Unlocking the door, he pulled it open, took the things from her hands, and leaned across the driver”s seat to place them on the passenger side.
No joke—she liked this manly man doing all the things behavior. It made her feminine and important.
”I had a wonderful time tonight..”
Her words were cut off by his mouth crashing onto hers.
He yanked her into a fierce hug, shoved his hard thigh between her legs, and pushed her against the side of the van.
In less time than it took to say goodbye, his kiss turned primitive. He speared the fingers of one hand into her hair to control her head and deepened the marauding kiss. His tongue explored and teased until she answered in kind.
Kissing as a word did not fully convey what Jamie did to her mouth.
First, he staked a claim. Then, he declared ownership.
She surrendered with a moan.
Dazed when he ended the kiss and pulled back, she gasped when he reached beneath her dress and slid his hand between her thighs. Pulling her onto her toes with his firm grip, he growled into her ear, ”No touching tonight. I mean it, Rebecca. No fingers, no toys.”
Assisting as she awkwardly fumbled her way into the van, Becca shook as she put the key he handed her into the ignition.
He stood in the open door. His closeness and overpowering presence made her throb with need.
Her eyes sought his. She needed reassurance.
He gave it when he said, ”Just to be clear—no one but me. Whatever this turns out to be, it”s exclusive.”
She bit her lip and nodded.
His expression was both pleased and feral.
”Use your words, my little trainee.”
Trainee? She liked that.
”Yes, um, sir? Or do you prefer master?”
”I prefer my name unless we”re playing.”
”Playing?”
He smirked. ”Do the research, trainee. Explore the master-slave scenario. I can imagine several worthy playtime scenes with you as a slave. The same goes for the overused but highly entertaining scenario of Daddy and his princess.”
”Oh.”
Swiftly kissing her one last time, he shut the driver”s door and motioned for her to roll the window down.
”I want to know you got home safely. Text me.”
”Yes, Jamie,”she replied with a hint of a smirk. ”Will do, sir.”
He stayed in the driveway, watching, until she drove out of sight and headed home.