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  After dinner, she made a spur-of-the-moment decision to work out of the office the next day and to check in at the bed-and-breakfast near the Hamptons she often visited when she wanted to get out of New York City. Traffic had been horrible, though, and it took her almost double the amount of time it normally did to arrive.

  She typed out a response to The Taskmaster’s last e-mail as quickly as she could.

  The next club is in Wilmington, Delaware. Timelines have been pushed back. No opening date at the moment.

  She didn’t acknowledge his Taskmaster nickname or include her own. She looked back up at the time: eleven thirty-six. Close, but she’d made it.

  The reply came back almost instantly.

  Cutting it awfully close, aren’t you?

  Anger pounded in her veins.

  You said by midnight. I obeyed.

  He didn’t reply and that made her restless. There was only one person who could keep her mind off The Taskmaster and that was Luke. She sat back in the chair and closed her eyes. Remembering.

  Chapter Two

  Fifteen years ago

  He asked her out to dinner not long after taking the last photo. In fact, he came up behind her as she was taking off her makeup, their eyes locked in the mirror, and simply said, “Will you have dinner with me?” And just like that, with those six words, he started her down a road that would forever color how she looked at the world.

  Hours before he was to pick her up, she made a mess in her bedroom. She emptied her closet, not liking anything she saw. The outfit had to be perfect. He was a photographer, for crying out loud. He looked at beautiful women every day.

  The pile of discarded clothing on top of her bed climbed to ridiculous heights, matching the panic that grew within her with each passing second. The date was going to be disastrous. Seriously, she couldn’t even find something to wear. He’d show up and she’d be naked. Wouldn’t that be the perfect way to start the date?

  She posed the question to her roommate, Tessa, who only smiled and nodded and said, yes, it sounded like the perfect date to her. Meagan threw a sweater at her. Tessa finally grabbed her arm and dragged her down the hall to her room.

  “I’ve been saving this outfit for a special date.” Tessa opened her closet. “But since Lloyd and I broke up, it won’t be happening anytime soon, so I want you to wear it tonight. For your photographer.”

  Meagan didn’t know Tessa had such a beautiful dress in her closet. Most of her clothes were grunge, but the dress she held out was a classically elegant black sheath.

  Meagan ran a finger over the V neckline. “Are you sure? I mean, I’d love to. But if it’s that special . . .”

  “No, it’s not. Please. It’s more suited for you anyway.”

  She didn’t want to let on how much she’d like to wear the dress. “If you’re sure.”

  Tessa smiled. “Positive. There’s only one condition.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You have to let him take it off,” she said with a devious twinkle in her eye.

  Like that would happen, Meagan wanted to say, but instead nodded. “Sure thing.”

  Tessa pushed the dress at her. “Go. Change. Be fabulous.”

  Her roommate’s advice repeated in her head hours later as she stood in Luke’s apartment. He’d taken her to an upscale steak house in the city and when they finished their entrees, he oh so smoothly asked if she’d like to go back to his place. “For dessert.”

  “Depends on what you’re planning to serve,” she replied with a slight smile and a tilt of her head. In that moment she was on top of the world and she felt as if she was invincible. She was a goddess and had the world in the palm of her hand. In the last week, she’d had her first photo shoot for the cover of a magazine, she’d been asked out by Luke DeVaan, the up-and-coming photographer everyone was talking about, and he’d just asked her to his place.

  This, she decided, was living.

  But when he looked her square in the eyes and answered with “You,” she realized she had no idea what living was.

  It was as if she had been born that night. Or something inside her was born. Sure, she’d had sex before. But it’d been with guys, boys, really, who were all fumbling fingers. Too eager to get off to even bother seeing if she was satisfied. Much less to try to find out what she liked.

  Luke, though, was no boy. And, in all honesty, guy didn’t fit him either. No, Luke was one hundred percent man. The first time he took her slow and easy. He was so intent, it almost seemed as if he wasn’t concerned with his need. Every question he asked, every touch of his hand, was about her. Did she like it when he stroked her here? Was this area sensitive?

  At times she felt as if he was a student and his final exam was her. She learned things about her body she didn’t know. Especially after they recovered from that first time.

  They spent the entire weekend in bed. And Luke called in and canceled his meetings on Monday.

  He got up from the bed after making the call, gloriously naked and not embarrassed at all. It was somehow soothing, the ease and comfort he found in being naked. She wondered if it had to do with his being a photographer. Whatever it was, it made her feel confident, too. When he got up from the bed, she sat up, not even caring she was naked. She didn’t even attempt to cover her breasts. If Luke could do it, she could, too.

  Odd. Before, with anyone else, she felt all sorts of uncomfortable at being naked after sex. There were times she couldn’t get her clothes on fast enough. And her partners hadn’t been any better.

  Yes, she decided. She could get used to a man like Luke.

  She’d assumed he was going to the bathroom, and when he went out the bedroom door instead, she decided he must have needed a glass of water or something. She almost called out to him to bring her a glass, but before she could, he was walking back into the bedroom with something in his hand.

  He held it out and her heart jumped up in her throat. Rope. “I’d like to try something,” he said. “You don’t have to. I won’t push it or anything. But if you’re open to a little bit of experimenting, I think you’ll really like it.”

  He’d been right, of course. At first, she wasn’t sure she wanted to be tied up. The sex had been incredible by itself and she’d always been one to believe that if it wasn’t broken, there was no reason to fix it. More times than not, if you messed with something needlessly, it only created havoc.

  But with Luke, the rope became an extension of him. He was so knowledgeable and, though it didn’t seem possible, his focus grew even more intense. As he worked the rope around her body, she didn’t feel restricted at all. She felt secure and safe. She fell into what seemed like a trance while he worked. He moved hypnotically with the rope, binding her for his pleasure.

  He told her not to move and she didn’t dare disobey. She feared if she did, he’d stop and she didn’t think she could stand that. When he finally stepped away and held up a mirror so she could see herself, she nearly hummed in pleasure.

  She looked sexy and grown-up. What’s more, she felt sexy and grown-up. Like a woman. The rope wrapped around her upper body, twisted around her breasts, leaving her nipples exposed, and then went behind her back like a halter top.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked.

  She nodded and brushed her fingers over the soft coils. “I never knew you could use rope for something like this.”

  “I’m just learning,” he said.

  “People teach this kind of stuff?”

  He gave a little laugh and she felt a bit silly, not at all like the sophisticated woman she’d told herself she was. Of course people taught this sort of thing. You had to learn somehow.

  “Yes,” he said in confirmation of what she’d already decided. “I’m a member of a club and they have special classes teaching things like this.” His smile grew wider. “According to them, since I just tied you up, you should be calling me ‘Sir.’”

  She wrinkled her nose at the thought of that.
/>   “What’s that look for?” he asked.

  “Call you ‘Sir’? Really?” She shook her head. “Never. It reminds me of my dad and that kills my mood.”

  “Mmm, I see.” He didn’t seem to have thought of it in quite that way before. “Look at it like this. It turns me on when you call me Sir.”

  “It does?” She thought about it some more. “It doesn’t make you feel like you’re my dad?”

  “In no way does it make me feel like I’m your dad.” He moved a bit closer, that smile of his hinting at wickedness. “Maybe more like that hot teacher you had a crush on in high school.”

  “I didn’t have a hot-teacher crush in high school.” She did actually, but she wasn’t about to tell him about it.

  “No?” His eyes seemed to pierce right through her and she knew he realized the truth. “I don’t think I believe you. Tell me who he was.”

  She crossed her arms as best she could over her chest. “No.”

  “Now I can tell you’re lying.” His smile grew even bigger. “I spank girls who lie to me.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “Spank?” Now she knew for certain he had a daddy fantasy going on. “I thought you said you didn’t do the daddy thing.”

  “I don’t.”

  “But you want to spank me and have me call you Sir.”

  “Which has nothing to do with a daddy fantasy.”

  “What does it have to do with then?”

  “Have you heard of BDSM?”

  She told him no and for the next twenty minutes, they talked. She still wasn’t sure she understood everything, but it made a bit more sense. And the way he talked about it made it sound hot.

  It became even hotter when he took her over his knee and spanked her.

  She lost track of the number of times she came that day. And when she woke up in his arms on Tuesday, he took her again. Tessa laughed when Meagan called her over breakfast and told her she wouldn’t be home just yet.

  “Seems like the dress worked,” Tessa said.

  Something certainly did, Meagan had to agree. She wasn’t so sure it was the dress, though. Probably, it was that shirt made out of rope.

  She ended up begging him to put her in bondage again and he gladly did so. On Wednesday, he wove the rope around the lower part of her body. It was during that hypnotic time that he was binding her, that she began to imagine their future. They could work together as a team: he’d take the pictures and she’d model. Then at night, he could tie her up and have his wicked way with her.

  She’d even call him Sir.

  It was so perfect. So right. Together they’d be unstoppable. They’d be on top of the world. Heck, they’d own the world.

  “Why are you smiling so big?” he asked at one point.

  But she wasn’t ready to share her dream just yet. It seemed too soon and she didn’t want to freak him out. Maybe in a month or two. Or six. When they’d been together for long enough that he’d see how good they were together. How much better they would become. Then they’d talk and he’d agree how perfect they were, and then they’d be together forever.

  She got giddy just thinking about how wonderful it was all going to be.

  “Nothing,” she answered. “Just happy.”

  “Me, too,” he said, and her heart soared because it sounded as if he was already well on the way to seeing how good they were going to be.

  “Kiss me,” she whispered, needing to feel him.

  He pulled her close and gave her one of those kisses that made her entire body feel electric. She wondered idly if any of the crew at their next photo shoot would be able to tell they were together.

  “Do you have another job lined up?” she asked when he pulled back.

  He resumed working the rope around her left ankle. “I have a few meetings set up later this week that I can’t blow off. Do you have anything?”

  “No.” She didn’t, but she knew the pictures from their shoot were going to be fantastic. It was only a matter of time before people came knocking on her door. She just had to be patient.

  She looked down and caught Luke staring at her. He leaned down and nibbled on the inside of her ankle bone. Gah. That felt good. She sucked in a breath and leaned her head back.

  She had no problem being patient. No, not at all. Not with Luke here to distract her.

  She finally made it back to her apartment on Thursday. Tessa laughed and shook her head when Meagan headed straight to the bathroom for a long, hot soak in the tub.

  When he didn’t call that weekend, she told herself it was because he had all those meetings he’d brought up. And she knew how those could be. Get a bunch of creative people together in a room with a bunch of number crunchers and nothing was getting done anytime soon.

  He’d call soon, though. She felt certain.

  On the following Monday night, she called her answering machine herself, just to make sure it was working. He had to be really busy, right? It was getting harder and harder to believe.

  She was torn when Friday night came and Tessa invited her to a club. She didn’t want to go out. What if he called while she was gone? So she told Tessa that Luke came down with the flu and she was staying home.

  When Tessa gave her that I can see what you’re doing look, Meagan explained that she couldn’t go out because her throat was scratchy and it wouldn’t be very responsible of her to spread germs around all of Manhattan, would it?

  Either Tessa couldn’t come up with a counterargument, or she saw the truth and didn’t want to push. She gave Meagan a hug, told her not to wait up, and left.

  As soon as she was gone, Meagan raided the freezer and downed an entire pint of chocolate chip cookie dough. Through her tears, she thought back to their time together, trying to figure out what she’d done wrong. She couldn’t think of anything. Everything had been so wonderful. So fulfilling. And she hadn’t done anything stupid like talk about the future.

  All she could come up with was that he wanted someone with more experience in the bondage scene. He probably wanted someone who wouldn’t balk at calling him ‘Sir.’ For all she knew, he might have taken it the wrong way when she asked about the daddy fantasy thing. With that remark, maybe she’d disrespected him.

  She hadn’t looked any further into the BDSM scene, hoping that he’d be the one to instruct her in everything. If she had truly scared him off, should she research the topic more herself? Was it something she’d want to pursue without him?

  She decided to think about it later, when it became obvious he didn’t want her.

  Damn it, her heart hurt just thinking about it and she couldn’t help but hold out some sort of hope that she was wrong.

  By the time he showed up at her apartment unexpectedly a week later, though, she knew the truth. He didn’t want her. And that was unmistakable when she opened the door at his knock and let him in. His eyes said everything before he even spoke. She was glad Tessa had gone away with her sister for the weekend. Meagan had the feeling she was going to have an ugly cry when Luke left and she’d rather be alone for it.

  She let him in without saying a word and neither one of them said anything until she closed the door.

  “Meagan—” he started, but she cut him off.

  “You know,” she said. Fuck, he looked so guilty. “You could have called. I’m a big girl.”

  “I know you are.” He hung his head, as though he didn’t want to look at her. “It’s just that after that week . . .”

  She waved her hand, telling herself to act as if those days and nights together were something she did all the time. Pretend she had torrid affairs every night of the week. “Please, it was just sex. You didn’t propose or anything.”

  His head shot up in surprise and he studied her with those eyes that had been so inquisitive before. She schooled her features and forced her body to remain neutral. She could do this. She refused to show him how hurt she was.

  “Oh,” he finally said.

  “You feel the same, right?” she asked
. “I mean, I just assumed you did. Especially after I didn’t hear from you.”

  He ran a hand through his hair. “It’s complicated.”

  She snorted and it sounded so real, she was proud of herself.