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  “Oh, you really are a tease.” I’d heard a rumour that the last time someone tried to top Lena, she’d had him tied up in the dungeon with an ass halfway to purple by the end of the night. Watching her, I could believe it.

  “I’d only be a tease if I didn’t plan to let you take what you wanted.” She ran her fingers over my paddle again, lightly up, then down, then up…

  Fuck, if she kept this up I was gonna lose control and demand her submission tonight. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat as my hard-on grew painful against my pants.

  My scene with Alex had been interesting, but it had all been platonic. There were so many things I hadn’t done for years, and stepping into a Dominant’s role had awoken cravings I’d become used to ignoring during my failed marriage. Cravings that definitely didn’t fall into the ‘platonic’ category.

  And Lena… Lena had no idea who she was dealing with. The thought made me smile. “Gonna invite me in, then?”

  “We still haven’t negotiated nearly enough for that,” she said, some of her cockiness fading.

  “Then let’s start now. The scene tonight… See anything you wouldn’t like doing to you?”

  “No—” She bit down on the word ‘Sir’ before it could escape, and then scowled at me when I laughed softly.

  “Then that’s checks in the exhibitionism, light bondage, spanking, crops and paddles boxes.”

  “Plenty of boxes left to check,” she said.

  I shrugged. “Easier to figure out what to uncheck. Tell me what you don’t like.”

  “All the messy stuff.” She didn’t need to elaborate further on that one. “Pet play. Age play…and yeah, I know you think I’m into that. Everyone does.”

  “Lost that preconception the moment you stood toe-to-toe with me.” At her curious expression, I elaborated. “Lots of girls can wear pigtails. Only a few can wear them and look ready to kick your ass.”

  She preened a little at the compliment. “So now you know.”

  “Mmm-hmm. Still working out what makes you tick, but I’m getting there…little tease.”

  Lena hesitated, watching me from under her dark lashes. “You still wanna come inside?”

  I reached out to run a finger up her thigh, from her knee to the hem of her dress, then a fraction higher. Her skin was soft, and I imagined trailing my lips over the same path my finger was taking. “Are you inviting me into your apartment, or just asking if I still want you?”

  “You’re toying with me,” she accused in a whisper.

  I withdrew my touch from her thigh and shrugged. “You started it. Why are you running from me?”

  She drew a shaky breath, then leaned in to kiss my cheek. The brush of her lips across my skin was simultaneously not enough, and too much to bear. “Thanks for the ride home, Josh. Night.”

  Before I could reply, she got out of the car and made for her apartment building, not sparing me a backward glance.

  Picking up the paddle she’d left on the passenger seat, the wood still warm from her body heat, I tried to puzzle out this latest encounter. Every time I thought I had her figured out, she surprised me.

  And now I had to calm the hell down enough to drive home.

  * * * *

  Lena

  I closed my apartment door behind me and leaned against it, exhaling hard. I’d invited Josh into the apartment and he hadn’t jumped at the chance, but had teased me instead—why did that bug me so much? Had I expected him to be like a panting puppy, desperate for any attention I chose to give him? He was older and probably wiser than me, not to mention a Dom. And up until our negotiations the flirtation between us had been so relaxed.

  I’d lost my nerve and bailed on the conversation instead.

  But I’d wanted him tonight, craved him so badly that for just a few moments I’d been willing to stop all games just to have him. The first intimate touch he’d ever given me—just a finger sliding up my thigh, pushing up my dress a fraction—had made my pussy melt. I could tell our flirting had made him hard for me. With the way I’d been practically giving his paddle a hand job, that was hardly surprising.

  God, I was a tease sometimes. But my need for Josh was so intense that I still wasn’t sure letting him in was a good idea. The last time I’d felt this way about a guy…well, better not to think about it.

  Pushing away the sour memory, I went into my room and stripped off my dress, stockings and heels. The cool air against my breasts made me shiver, and I could almost feel Josh’s touch against my thigh again if I closed my eyes.

  Fuck it—I really needed to get off.

  After grabbing my waterproof vibrator from its satin bag, I headed into the bathroom and switched on the shower. As soon as I stepped under the warm spray, leaving my wet panties on the floor behind me, my pulse kicked and my pussy squeezed.

  What if Josh had followed me here, watched me undress, and now opened the shower cubicle door to join me? I ran my hands over my body, my imagination immediately seizing the fantasy.

  He pulls my back against his chest, my ass against his cock, grinding slowly against me. “You really got it bad for me, huh, little tease?”

  I whimper as he cups my breasts in his hands, squeezes my wet nipples, my skin slippery against his.

  “I’ve been thinking about fucking you since the night I laid eyes on you,” he murmurs. One of his hands slides lower to delve between my labia, stroking slowly, teasingly. I sigh and steady myself against the cubicle wall. He thrusts a finger deep inside me, withdrawing it gradually, then rubs the slickness over my clit with a growl. “God, I can’t wait to get inside this tight little cunt…”

  He plucks the vibrator from my fingers and switches it on, the buzzing hardly audible over the patter of the water. “You’re mine, you know that, right? No one else can have you.”

  I don’t want anyone else. I just want him, and the vibrations he’s sending up the insides of my thighs are nowhere near enough. I grab his hand with the vibrator still in it and push the toy against my clit. “Oh, God…”

  He sounds amused. “You know I could punish you for that. Would, if I were real.”

  I tilted my hips against the vibrator’s touch with a sigh. Only I could come up with a fantasy version of a man who was completely aware he was a figment of my imagination.

  “But you don’t care, do you, needy tease? You just want to get off. Not very submissive, is it? But right now I’m gonna let you have exactly what you want. Because it’s what I want. That’s the only reason.”

  Josh squeezes my breast with one hand, and I lean into the touch, arching my back. With his other hand, he circles my clit with the vibrator, then works it into my pussy with short, shallow thrusts until it teases my G-spot and makes my knees weaken.

  He gets on his knees in front of me and encourages me to put one foot on his shoulder. I divert the water so it doesn’t stream down my body into his face, and he licks my clit with soft, teasing strokes…

  I fucked myself fast and shallowly with the vibrator, fingered myself with the other hand and moaned as the sensations began to intensify, the orgasm building, making me tense by degrees.

  I remembered the realities of the night as I grew close to orgasm—the Dom voice he’d used on both Smurfette and me, the shifting of his muscles as he’d paddled my friend, the heat in his eyes as I’d looked up from the craftsmanship of his wooden implement to his face. The way he’d touched me in the car, just a light, brief touch that had made my mind practically explode…

  I braced myself against the wall of the shower cubicle and rubbed myself the rest of the way to orgasm, coming so hard that I pushed the vibrator out of me completely. As my pussy clenched over and over, I gasped for breath, Josh’s name forming on my lips.

  Why hadn’t I let him come in? I could have been having this for real right now, and a whole lot more besides. Only he’d be in command, not my imagination. My pleasure would have only come when he’d allowed it, and been a hundred times stronger for the wait.

/>   I experimentally let my knees take most of my weight again, finding my legs slightly shaky but able to take my weight again. Shutting off the vibrator, I picked up the soap and began to clean up.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Lena

  Josh hadn’t been at Rack and Ruin two weeks ago, and I’d missed him. Heidi had assured me that he’d had to work, but part of me kept worrying that he was mad that I’d jumped ship in the middle of our conversation in his car. I’d left the club early, trying to tell myself I wasn’t moping about his absence.

  I pulled on my slinky-kinky new dress and took a few minutes longer than usual over my make-up, then headed out to my car.

  Half an hour later, I fiddled with the sleeve of my dress as I walked through the arch into Rack and Ruin’s social space, irrationally nervous and hating it.

  He wasn’t here yet. I didn’t know whether I was disappointed or relieved. Either way, I let Izzy grab me and drag me to the bar, returning the greetings of a couple of friends on the way.

  Around twenty minutes later, Josh walked in. My heart skipped, and I gave him a quick wave when he glanced our way. He relaxed a little, as if he’d been worried I wouldn’t show, and I tried not to grin like an idiot as he made his way over.

  “Hey,” he said softly, and leaned over to kiss my cheek. The gesture wasn’t lost on the people around us. Why was it that whenever we were together, all eyes were on us? “How’ve you been?”

  “Good. Still busy at work?”

  “Not so much now,” he said. “You want a drink?”

  I accompanied him over to the bar to get the round in, and while we waited for the bartender to fill our order, I told him, “It was weird being here without you last time.”

  Josh grinned. “Trying to tell me you missed me?”

  “Where were you both two weeks ago?” Ben wanted to know, butting in between us. “Having a little private scene somewhere?”

  Josh’s eyes narrowed a little; he and Ben obviously didn’t get on, for some reason I wasn’t privy to. I decided not to ask.

  “No. Not that it’s any of your business, but I was working the night shift.” Josh’s words came out more biting than I’d expected.

  Ben frowned and backed off. “Okay… Didn’t mean anything by it.”

  We both watched him go back to his table, and then exchanged glances. “He’s the weirdest guy, sometimes,” I said.

  “Uh-huh,” Josh agreed, handing money to the bartender.

  After a while, he took Smurfette into the dungeon for a scene, and I sat with Ben and Mel for a while. Something about the way Ben had been fishing made me suspicious.

  “So where were you last week, if Josh was working?”

  The question came just a couple of minutes into our conversation, and when I saw Mel trying to discreetly nudge him into silence…that just slotted the puzzle piece into place. I’d seen this from them before, in more vanilla terms. Mel had talked my ear off about it for hours back when he’d stolen cash from her to place bets down at the racetrack.

  “You’re getting people to bet on us?!”

  “Good work there, Ben. Real subtle.” Mel rolled her eyes at her sub.

  Rage and nausea warred within me, and I fought the urge to throw my drink at one of them. The only reason I didn’t do it was that I didn’t know which of them I should choose.

  “You two are unbelievable.” I bailed on them without another word, marched across the club and into the ladies’ room, figuring that at least I could get some space from one of them that way.

  Mel gave me a couple of minutes to fume before joining me, and by the time she got there, my brain had already jumped to the next big question. The one that made my heart constrict.

  “Is Josh in on this?” I demanded, without giving her chance to speak. If he was…I couldn’t go any further with him. Not if he was laying bets on when I’d play with him. That was just one step away from betting on when he could get me into bed. I couldn’t go through that again.

  “Pay up, man.” A muttered comment almost out of the range of my hearing had made my heart sink. Spinning, I’d caught sight of money changing hands—from a friend’s fingers into my new boyfriend’s pocket.

  It had happened back in my freshman year of college, but all these years later, the memory still burned, my humiliation intense. Even more so when I’d realised I’d just been a conquest to him. Not a real human woman with emotions of her own; just a lay to be used for his egotism and pleasure.

  If Josh were doing the same thing… My stomach twisted, and for a brief moment I thought I might be sick. I’d been so close to trusting him as a Dom, in a way I hardly ever let anyone in anymore. Had I been so wrong about him?

  Mel’s eyes widened, and she shook her head emphatically, taking a step forward. “Oh, honey, no. Don’t even think that.”

  The thought got to me more than it should have. He was just a guy. I could do without him. But after everything that had happened over the past couple of months, my giving in to him had started to become a matter of ‘when’ in my mind, rather than ‘if’. “Would you tell me if he were in on it? How much did you bet?”

  Sensing my distress, she pulled me into a hug. I blinked back angry tears against her shoulder as she told me, “Ben has a problem. You know that. We’re seeing the therapist, but every now and then he can’t help himself. And I’d never hear the end of it if I didn’t play, so I put ten dollars on the end of next month, to shut him up.”

  Ben could be a real asshole when he wanted to be. I’d never understood Mel’s fascination with him, but that was between them. I didn’t have the energy to get into that argument again. “I’ll give you twenty dollars myself, if you play it straight with me. What does Josh know about this? Has he bet on me?”

  Mel tugged one of my braids incredulously. “Oh, come on, Lee. I can see you’re upset. You don’t need to bribe the truth out of me.” Sighing, she leaned against the wall. “Josh knows what’s going on, but he wouldn’t touch it. He seemed more worried that if you found out what we were doing, you’d run from him just to avoid giving us the satisfaction.”

  I wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed that he hadn’t come to me, or relieved that he’d respected me enough not to bet. I settled on pissed off with the whole situation. “Well, good…I guess. But damn it, Mel! If I play with him, someone gets a payout. If I don’t, I could be missing the relationship of my life. What am I supposed to do?”

  She shrugged. “Play with him a few times away from the club, and don’t tell anyone about it until it’s impossible for anyone to figure out when you started?”

  “You know Ben will just pay the person who bet closest to the time when everyone finds out.” Sighing, I checked my eye makeup for smudges, then headed for the door. “I’ll figure it out later.”

  Without stopping to say goodbye to anyone, I headed out onto the street and called a cab as I walked. I didn’t know what I’d have said to Josh if I’d seen him.

  * * * *

  Josh

  Once I’d settled Alex down in the social area of the club after our scene, I headed to the bar to get us both drinks, glancing around for Lena. She was nowhere near the bar, but she’d probably come over later.

  ‘Later’ came and went, and Alex frowned at me. “Think Lena got jealous and went home?”

  God, I hope not. It seemed unlikely, given that she’d already watched us play, but sometimes people could be unpredictable. “You know her better than I do. You tell me.”

  “I’ve never seen her have a drama fit before…but she’s pretty serious about you.” While I digested that statement, suppressing the smile that wanted to hijack my face, she spun and waved to catch Isabelle’s attention. “Izz! You seen Lena?”

  Frowning, Izzy crossed to sit at our table. “Saw her go outside a while ago, but she didn’t say goodbye, so I guess she just went to get some air. She’s not back yet?”

  What if something had happened to her out there? “Has anyone seen her come ba
ck in?”

  Before we could even stand up, Mel appeared at my side. “Don’t panic. She just skipped out early.”

  Her posture was defensive, and I reacted to it before I could stop myself. “Why?”

  She flinched at my harsh tone. “She knows about the betting pool.”

  Alex, Izzy and I shared a moment of silent realisation, and then I blanked them out, focusing on Mel with a scowl. “What the hell happened?”

  “Ben…was a little too obvious in trying to figure out where the two of you were a couple of weeks ago. Lena knows about his gambling problem, and she put two and two together. I’m sorry, Josh.”

  “When I get hold of him, he’s gonna have more than a gambling problem.”

  Mel shook her head, tears in her eyes. “Please… He doesn’t mean to be the way he is. He has an addiction. Don’t hurt him.”

  Before I could answer, Alex chipped in. “How did Lena take it?”

  “Bad,” Mel said, seeming genuinely guilty. “She wanted to know if you knew.”

  “Of course she did,” Izzy said, scowling at Mel. “This isn’t the first time guys have bet on whether they can get her into bed. We went to college together; it happened back then too.”

  I closed my eyes for a second, rage welling up within me at the thought of any man wagering on gaining her trust that way.

  “She found out?” Alex asked quietly.

  “Saw the money changing hands the next day. He’d been playing her for a few weeks, too, waiting for her to give it up. When she took him back to our room, she didn’t mean it to be a one-night thing. She ended it as soon as she realised what a dick he was, though.” Izzy shook her head in disgust. “I swear she’s never been quite the same since.”

  Irrationally, I wanted to rip the guy’s head off for hurting Lena. I quelled the impulse and sighed. “So what did you tell her, Mel? When she asked if I knew?”

  Mel dropped her gaze, stricken. “I told her you did, but that you wouldn’t bet. She wants to believe me, but I think she’s scared to, in case she gets hurt. Her guard’s way up, now.”