The Flirtation Read online

  The monitor shifted his weight. “I escorted her to her room so she could get her things. She said she didn’t have a car and that she came by cab . . . I . . . ummm . . .”

  He didn’t have to say it. Simon could tell what happened by the expression on his face. “You left her in the room to pack and you waited outside the door to call a cab.”

  “Right. I figured I was guarding the door.” He shrugged. “That she couldn’t get past me.”

  “How much time passed before you realized she went out the back window?”

  The monitor’s face turned red. “Longer than I’d like to admit.”

  “Do you know where she went?”

  The other man jerked his thumb toward the security guard. “We were just looking over the security video.”

  Simon wasn’t sure what he could do to help, so he gave them both his card and room number and told them to call him when they found out anything. He walked back to the main building. It was past time for him to meet Lynne back in the room. He ran a hand through his hair. And just what was he going to do about her?

  His initial reasons for staying away, namely that she wasn’t submissive, didn’t hold water anymore. He wasn’t even certain he could use the fact that he was a sadist. Plus, after discovering that Lynne and Faye were one and the same, he no longer had to feel guilty about spending time with two different women.

  Which left two obstacles. Nathaniel and the trust issue.

  He thought he knew Nathaniel well enough to know that if his friend felt he had Lynne’s best interest in mind, he wouldn’t have a problem with Simon seeing her. Of course, he’d been wrong before. But surely Nathaniel would see reason.

  If Simon truly had her best interest in mind, that is.

  Did he?

  There was still the trust issue to work through, but he was man enough to admit he’d never really gotten over her after they broke up. And now, if there was a chance she could give him what he needed and he could do the same for her, he would be a fool to walk away.

  He took the stairs to the room instead of the elevator, giving himself more time to think. He had her for the weekend. She had agreed to be his sub. What was the risk in enjoying the situation for what it was and reassessing Sunday night?

  He couldn’t think of one, but as he opened the door to the room, he had a feeling he was missing something.

  He’d thought since he was later than anticipated returning to the room, Lynne might not be in place. He was surprised to discover he was wrong. He looked through the door of the bedroom he’d claimed as his and saw her waiting in perfect position.

  Fuck, he wanted her so bad. He checked his watch. Dinner could wait, and if he decided as the night went on that he wanted to play outside at the party, he really didn’t want their first scene together to be public. He should take her now.

  His dick agreed.

  Though he typically didn’t ask his dick’s opinion when it came to making decisions, it was nice that all his body parts were in agreement.

  He took his time walking into the room. Her spine straightened just a hair when she heard him enter, and he watched her breathing grow heavier. No matter how many times he played, he never grew tired of the way a submissive waited. Anxious. Needy. Yearning. Excited.

  To have them so focused on him and his next move was a rush like no other.

  For that submissive to be Lynne cranked up the rush by about one hundred percent.

  He stood in front of her and took his belt off, making sure he did it slowly enough that she could hear the leather sliding through the loops of his pants. He didn’t miss the small shiver that shook her body.

  “You know I’m a sadist?” He hadn’t told her when they were together the last time, and he didn’t want to go any further without being very clear about who he was.

  “Yes, Sir.”

  He let one end of the belt hang so just a part of it was in her line of sight. She sucked in a breath.

  Yes.

  “Your mind is racing, isn’t it?” he asked. “There’s the part telling you to stand up and get the hell out of this room. That you’re crazy for even thinking about staying here. That no normal person would put themselves willingly into the hands of a sadist.”

  He didn’t need her to answer. He knew he was right by the way she shifted slightly, as if wanting to give in to that advice.

  “But the other part of you wants to stay right where you are because even though you know it doesn’t make sense, you want nothing more than to be right here, right now, with me. Isn’t that right?”

  “Yes, Sir,” she said, and her response held no fear, only need.

  “That part of you is louder than the other part, but if I’m not mistaken, you’ve been doing all you can to silence it. You’ve tried telling it no and that it’s a bad idea. You probably gave it all the reasons you can think of, and I’m sure some of them are really good reasons. But it’s never enough, is it? Deep in your soul, you have a need for this, and giving in and accepting that need is the only thing that’s going to shut it up. Am I right?”

  “Yes, Sir.” Her cheeks were flushed. He’d hit her thoughts exactly, and some part of her was embarrassed. He thought the embarrassment came from her admission of what she needed and not that he’d read her so easily.

  “Rest assured, I’ll do my very best to give you what you need this weekend. So, for the next forty-eight hours, let’s leave the outside world outside. There will be only you and me and what we do together. How does that sound?”

  “Really good, Sir.” He didn’t miss the smile in her voice.

  “And, Lynne, look at me.” He waited until she lifted her head before continuing. “You are not to feel shame or guilt for any of it. Understand?”

  That one was harder for her to agree to. He appreciated that she didn’t comply without thinking it through, but he didn’t like her hesitation over something so basic in her personality. She was a submissive and she needed to accept that.

  “I mean it, Lynne. We’ll check out and go home right now if you can’t agree to that.”

  She took a deep breath. “I’ll try, Sir.”

  It would have to do, he decided. As the weekend went on, he would make it a point to check in with her frequently. If he ever caught her feeling embarrassed, he’d simply take her aside and they would talk through it.

  “Earlier, I said that I was going to punish you for your deceit during the demo, but I’ve changed my mind. We’re going to go ahead and get that out of the way right now, so we can, hopefully, spend the rest of the day exploring more pleasurable pursuits. Any questions so far?”

  “No, Sir.”

  “Anything you want to talk about that I didn’t bring up?”

  “No, Sir.”

  He doubled the belt in his hand. “All right, let’s get this over with. I want you to stand up and lean over the back of the couch. I’m going to use the belt, and there is no need for you to count. Tell me your safe word.”

  “Red.”

  “Nice and simple. This is a punishment, so it will hurt. And while my expectation is that you will accept what I give you, if it gets to be too much, you will use your safe word without hesitation. If you understand, go get into position.”

  She slowly rose to her feet and moved to stand behind the couch. He watched her, looking for any signs of distress and not finding any. She presented herself perfectly.

  He wasn’t looking forward to this. Disciplining a sub was hard. Though he was a sadist, he didn’t enjoy inflicting pain for the sake of pain. It was much more enjoyable when both people got something out of it.

  He moved behind her and gently caressed her backside. He wasn’t sure how many strokes he was going to give her. That was one of the downsides of never having played with her before; he wasn’t sure what she could take.

  He warmed her up slowly with his hand, spending more time than he normally would because she was so unknown to him. But even then, the strokes weren’t painless. He could te
ll when they really started to hurt because of the way her muscles strained to remained still.

  He ran two fingers between her legs and felt the evidence of her arousal. Feeling her excitement made him grow hard. Because this was a discipline session, he wouldn’t take her. But he would soon, he promised himself. He definitely would.

  Satisfied that he had warmed her skin up enough, he started spanking her with the belt. He didn’t go easy on her. He wanted her to have a sore backside so that she would remember what happened when she lied.

  He watched her carefully. Silent tears ran down her cheeks, but she didn’t utter a sound. Her ass was a deep red, and he knew she’d recall this very moment with just about every move she made.

  “Spread your legs more. Give me access to that greedy pussy.”

  She faltered for a second, no doubt wondering what his plans were. He had just opened his mouth to tell her to do it now when she widened her stance.

  “Good girl,” he said instead. “Last few strokes.”

  He brought the belt down on her pussy three times—each one made her jump and squeal. As soon as the last one fell, he dropped the belt and carried her to the bed. He gathered her in his arms, holding her and gently rubbing her back. He knew she’d never been spanked before, and he’d feared she’d pull away from him, but she didn’t. In fact, he was happily surprised that she seemed to want to put her arms around him.

  He snagged a nearby blanket and covered her with it, not wanting her to get cold. She snuggled deeper into his embrace, and he was glad he’d decided to get that out of the way. Now the entire weekend was before them, promising nothing but decadent pleasure.

  He’d forgotten how comforting it was to simply hold a submissive. It’d been far too long since he had. Since their schedule was free for the rest of the day, he decided they’d take it easy for the next hour or so. Lynne might need to talk since it had been her first punishment session.

  Or, he thought, tightening his arms around her, she might just need to be held. And he was perfectly okay with that, too.

  Because he’d decided that they would rest for the foreseeable future, it took longer than it should have for him to notice Lynne’s hands were getting more provocative. He caught her wrist as it traced his jeans.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “I want you, Sir.” Her eyes were dark with lust. “Take me. Please.”

  Out of all the things he might have expected her to say and all the ways he thought she might react, her asking for sex had never entered his mind as a possibility. His dick, of course, was all for it.

  “Now?” he asked.

  “Yes, Sir.”

  He could imagine there were very few men who could turn a request like that down. How could he tell her no? Why would he?

  Actually, he could think of a few reasons to refuse her, but at the moment none of them seemed important.

  He lifted the blanket from her upper body and dropped a kiss on her shoulder. “I need to care for your backside first.”

  Maybe the act of tending to her would help keep his libido in check. As it was, it felt like he was losing the tentative grip he had on his control.

  “Roll over onto your belly,” he said as he got out of bed. What he needed was in the bags he’d brought, but he’d left them in the living room. He made sure Lynne was covered and went to get it.

  He’d also left his phone in the living room, and of course it happened to start ringing as soon as he was making his way back to the bedroom. Whoever it was could leave a message. Lynne was his top priority right now.

  She was in the same position he’d left her in, but at his entrance, she lifted her head and looked over her shoulder at him. Damn, she was gorgeous.

  “Ass hurt?” he asked, even though he knew the answer. He climbed onto the bed, lifted the blanket, and tended to her skin.

  “Yes, Sir,” she said. “But I like it. Well, not like it, like it. I mean, I don’t want to do that again, but yeah. It reminds me of you, and because of that, I like it.”

  She fisted the sheets, almost as if she needed something to hold on to. “You okay?” he asked. The cream he was putting on her shouldn’t be causing her pain, but something was bothering her.

  “Yes, Sir,” she said.

  He kissed her lower back, right above the swell of her backside, and he swore he could feel her body relax at his touch. He caressed her, teased the skin of her back with nibbles and kisses.

  Pressing himself along her back, being careful not to put too much pressure on her ass, he dropped his head and whispered in her ear, “I want you to get up on all fours, so I can fuck you while I admire how red I made your ass.”

  “Sir? I . . . um . . .”

  “Yes?”

  “Remember when you said earlier not to be embarrassed or ashamed by what I want?”

  “Yes.” He kept stroking her body, not wanting to let her arousal subside.

  “I would like to do something, and, well, it’s okay for me to ask, right? I know as a Dom you don’t have to do it.”

  He was struck again at how different she was now compared to when they were together the first time. That Lynne would have never asked for anything. He was so proud of her, he knew he’d give her anything she wanted.

  “Tell me,” he said. “No more secrets between us. If you have a need or want, you bring it to me.”

  She took a deep breath. “Do I have to be on all fours?”

  That was what she wanted to talk about? Positions? Really?

  Instead of explaining why he thought it’d be better for her to be on all fours, he decided to see just how open and forthcoming she was going to be. “How would you like to be?”

  “On my back.” She wasn’t looking at him now. She had her head turned to the side away from him. That was probably why she was able to talk so freely. He needed to remember that. “I know it’ll be maybe a little painful, but I think I’d like it like that. You on top of me, taking me, while at the same time, I feel what you did to my ass not too long ago. The harder you fuck me, the more I’ll feel where you spanked me and it’ll—”

  He cut her off by flipping her over and claiming her mouth with a kiss. Hot fucking damn, if hearing her talk like that wasn’t the hottest and sexiest thing he’d ever heard, he didn’t know what was. Listening to her had turned a part of him on that had been dormant for entirely too long. Hell, he wasn’t even sure it’d ever been turned on. And he was willing to bet she had no idea what her words did to ignite the sadist within him.

  Beneath him, she was all softness and sexy curves, her body a treasure map of pleasure that was his for the taking. She wasn’t passive in her kiss, either. Oh no, not this new Lynne. She took as well as she gave, and as much as he was tasting her, she tasted him.

  He ended the kiss with a bite on her lower lip that made her groan. “I think you’ve got quite a bit of a masochist in you.”

  It was his ultimate dream, the one he never thought he could have, and here it was in his arms. Lynne. His Lynne. Looking at him as if he was her dream, too.

  • • •

  It was hard for Lynne to breathe the way Simon was looking at her. His eyes held an intensity she’d never seen before. It was a bit disarming, actually. Like he wanted to devour her and at the same time to shelter and protect her from anything.

  “I think you might be right,” she said. “And, trust me, that doesn’t come as a bigger shock to anyone than it does me.”

  “Why is that?”

  She couldn’t believe, given the position they were in, that he wanted to talk. She almost thought about asking if he was serious, but being on her back had the exact effect she’d thought it would. Yet the pain from her backside only added to the overwhelming sense of arousal that made her grit her teeth so she wouldn’t hump against him, desperate for relief.

  But still, she wasn’t going to goad him into punishing her again.

  “Why is it a shock that I think I might be a masochist?” she asked,
repeating his question. “I guess because I always categorized them. Thought that they would look different, act different. I never saw them as someone who could work as a nanny or a schoolteacher.”

  As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized how foolish they sounded.

  “Saying it, I can tell how silly that is. Like your profession dictates your sexual needs or something.” She wrinkled her nose. “Or your sexual needs dictate your profession. Either way it doesn’t work.”

  “No, it doesn’t. And you are no less and no more of anything because of what you need sexually.”