12. Chapter 12 #3
Or really, really rich and pressured to marry as soon as possible. Danica was in her thirties. Surely, that’s when the pressure started? Especially as the only child in her family…
Danica put down her empty glass. “Let me cut to the chase, Ms. Colbert. I’m a woman who does things earnestly.
I don’t know how to do things any other way.
I like you. Something has drawn me to you not once, but three times.
That tells me that you’re someone I should pay attention to.
Perhaps a sign from the cosmos coming at the most opportune time.
When something like that happens, I’m likely to listen.
I didn’t mean to frighten you with talk of marriage or my sexual preferences. ”
“Oh, please…” That alcohol made its way through Alicia’s system. “Like I couldn’t tell you were into stuff like that from the way you do it.”
Danica’s grin was certainly more earnest now. “A woman needs her outlets. When you live the life I lead, you hold in a lot.”
“So you take it out sexually.”
Danica leaned back, arm snaking behind her. “I take it out however I please. I’d rather channel that energy into sex than through unhealthier ways. I’ve watched too many of my contemporaries fall to drugs and other illicit affairs. BDSM is tame by comparison. And legal.”
“Uh-huh.” Alicia steeled herself. “Let me guess. If I were to keep dating you…”
“It would be brought up sooner rather than later, yes.” Danica gestured to the door.
“You are free to leave whenever you want, though. But I would implore you, unless you already know for sure that you do not wish to partake, that you at least give it a try. You were so responsive in our other encounters that I couldn’t help but think you were either a natural submissive or at least inclined to the role. ”
“I’m not submissive,” Alicia was quick to say. “Not like that.”
“No. You’re not, are you?” Danica’s fingers danced upon her shoulder.
Alicia moved a hand over hers, both stilling Danica and encouraging her to continue.
Don’t make me do it. Don’t make me fall for you yet again.
“You could become more than you already are. It’s all right if you weren’t born knowing you could thrive in the role.
Many women don’t realize how powerful it is to consent to a lifestyle like that. ”
“Lifestyle…” So it was like that. Danica wasn’t just talking about some spanking and other play when they were having sex. She wanted the kind of package Alicia had seen a dozen times over her one night at Midnight. “You want to make me your permanent, submissive toy?”
“Toy? Please. I don’t consider women toys. The perfect submissive would be my eternal partner. It’s about balance. We would check each other. You would keep me in line like I would keep you in line.”
“You’re making such a great argument here…”
“It’s all right if you don’t understand yet. We could discuss that later.”
“I’m not even sure I want to think about it now.”
“Then, please…” She was so close, so intrusive in the way she wrapped her arm tightly around Alicia’s shoulders and breathed her alcohol-laden breath into her ear. “Let me show you how exquisite it can be.”
Tingles spread through Alicia’s body. Between Danica’s firm touch, the feel of her breath, and the deepening tone of her voice…
Alicia was a goner if she didn’t get her shit together.
“I told you,” she whispered. “No hinky stuff.” Before she could say something, she continued, “You may be rip-roaring to whip and chain me, Ms. Moreau, but I’m not ready for something like that.
” She decided to throw the smallest bone. “Yet.”
“I told you that you don’t have to do anything that makes you uncomfortable.” Danica nuzzled Alicia’s cheek. “I think you might be surprised by what you’re into once you get going. We can take it slow. I have all the time in the world tonight.”
Alicia repressed a girlish smile. God, I am such a virgin. She may not be new to relationships, but she was new to ones that incorporated such heated sex in them. “Are you taking requests, Ms. Moreau?”
“Please, Ms. Colbert.” Her lips traced the underside of Alicia’s ear. “I’ve told you a hundred times to call me anything but that.” Teeth nipped her cartilage. “But yes, what is it?”
Oh, shit, how to say it? “I’d really like to see you naked… Danica.”
“Funny. I was thinking the same thing about you… Alicia.”
Danica curled her hand around Alicia’s leg, fingers treading across her thighs, smashing themselves between both sides.
With lips now softly pressing against her throat, all Alicia could think about was Danica taking off the rest of these clothes and thrusting gently between her legs.Or maybe not so gently.
“Come here,” Danica bade, turning Alicia fully toward her.
“Do you remember our first encounter at Midnight?” It was a rhetorical question, of course.
“I told you that you could only speak in yes or no. That was a semblance of control I exerted over you. It was a part of a scene. You liked that, didn’t you? ”
Alicia eased into her embrace way too easily.
Both hands curled against Danica’s chest, feeling her crystal buttons and soft skin beneath.
Yet Alicia couldn’t be bothered to look upon whatever glory Danica held beneath her clothing.
She was too caught up in those eyes and the way they undressed her. “Yeah…”
“It’s not about ‘whips and chains,’ although that can be a part of the process. It’s about giving and taking. Power, that is. Control. You give some up, but you take it in other ways.”
Alicia rubbed her lips against Danica’s collar. Too bad her makeup was so good it couldn’t smear onto the softest cotton she ever encountered. “I wouldn’t mind doing that.”
“It’s something you must experience at least once in your life.” Knuckles tipped her chin up, lips meeting Danica’s. “I’d be honored if you experienced it with me before anyone else.”
The way this woman talked. The words she used. The sheer urgency, conviction behind everything she said… it was hard not to believe her. Danica said she wanted to show her a new world of domination and submission? Hard pressed to say no!
“You make a good argument,” Alicia muttered. Her finger dipped between buttons and trembled to touch her skin. “Danica…”
“Yes?” She pushed against Alicia, making her body sink farther into the folds of the loveseat. “You say my name so well.”
Lips lightly kissed the side of Alicia’s breast. Now I know what those stylists were doing…
Alicia was glad for it. Large keyholes in dresses were the best things ever!
When Danica’s tongue touched her skin, however, Alicia shook beneath the weight.
“I’m, um…” She was going to say it. The idea of confessing that she was a virgin the first time they had sex had kept playing in her head, particularly as she opened up throughout the evening.
Is that something I trust her with yet? The whole point of not telling was so Danica wouldn’t treat her differently.
Alicia didn’t want slow and gentle because Danica thought she was fragile.
If they were going to have slow yet passionate lovemaking, Alicia wanted it to be organic. The way it was meant to be.
Her subconscious steered her in a different direction.
“I’m not in a relationship with anyone else.” What a lame thing to say. “I wasn’t before, either. Just so you know.”
Danica languidly gazed down at her. “I see. Afraid I let passion take me over before.”
“I also don’t have kids!” she was quick to say. “Just… you know... um…”
Danica’s demeanor was neither turned off nor wistful. “Maybe someday, huh?”
Wow .
Alicia was grateful when Danica kissed her again.
No need to think now . Particularly, there was no need to think about blunders or gaffes, or the fact that Alicia had only had sex twice in her life, and this still felt outrageously new.
Not just sex, but taking it slow . Were they really in such a rush the first two times because of Danica’s time constraints?
Or was she keener to take it easy now that she fancied Alicia so much?
Did Alicia even believe her when she talked about that stuff?
“I’m going to make you feel things you’ve never felt before,” Danica growled against Alicia’s stomach. “No one else has made love to you the way I will.”
She wasn’t wrong about that.