Mentor's Match Read online

  But he wasn’t even close to being finished. “Maybe I should make you learn my body. That’s fair, I think. Plus it would serve some benefit for the rest of the week. It would be nice for us to start out with you already aware of my preferences.”

  Suddenly, there was a spark of hope to the night. He might not touch her, but she could touch him. Bring him pleasure. In many ways, she liked that more.

  “I know I would like that,” he continued. “You on your knees. Stroking me. Learning how I like to be touched. Fisting me with both of your hands. Keeping your eyes on mine, waiting for me to give the signal to take me in your mouth.”

  Yes. She would like that a lot. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to lick her lips. She didn’t, but something in her body language must have given her away, because his evil smile was back.

  “But you would like that too much,” he said. “So unfortunately, we won’t be doing that either. Instead, you’re going to stay right there and watch as I get myself off.”

  That she did not want to do. Any other time, she’d probably like watching him get off. There was something altogether enticing witnessing a man give himself pleasure. But when it was considered a punishment because he didn’t find her worthy of touching him? It was hard to find anything enticing about that.

  “Kneel,” he said, and she went to her knees immediately. “Watch.”

  In a matter of seconds, he had his pants down and cock in his hands. She watched, mesmerized as he fisted himself, his eyes closed in concentration. The way the muscles of his upper arms flexed? Damn. She grew hot and bothered imagining those hard muscles working for her pleasure.

  She wasn’t able to see much of his cock, but that was okay. She saw just enough to imagine how it would feel in her hands and mouth. And though she tried not to, she could imagine very clearly how it would feel inside her, filling her, thrust by rough thrust as he pounded into her. She had not anticipated being turned on while he pleasured himself, but damn if she didn’t find herself growing wet.

  “Don’t move,” he said.

  She held still, but opened her mouth, assuming that was where he would aim.

  Instead, he opened his eyes, gave a sexy-as-hell grunt, and came all over her chest. Her nipples pebbled at the feel of him, but she closed her mouth in shock.

  “That’s all you deserve tonight. Maybe by the end of the week, you’ll be worthy enough to swallow,” he said, and he didn’t sound the least bit winded. It was as if he poured ice water all over her. Suddenly, she wasn't turned on one bit.

  He tucked himself back into his pants. “I’m going to take a shower and you’re to stay in this exact spot, thinking about what your poor choice cost you, until I come back and dismiss you. Then you’ll go straight to bed and maybe by the morning, when you wake still covered in the remnants of my release, you’ll have decided it’s in your best interest to behave.”

  ~~~~~

  On Friday morning, Fritz sat in Luke DeVane’s office with both Luke and Nathaniel. He stifled a yawn. He’d only arrived in Wilmington the day before and since he’d been up half the night partly due to jet lag and partly unable to go to sleep because he was thinking about Kate, he wasn’t as rested as he should be.

  “Kate Herrington will be here in about an hour,” Luke said. “She’s the architect on the project.”

  “Oh, he knows who she is,” Nathaniel said with a smirk on his face that left no doubt in Fritz’s mind that he was aware of just how well he knew Kate.

  “You’ve worked with her before?” Luke asked and then without waiting for a reply, added, “It’s always a plus when the main parties have a good rapport.”

  “Kate and I have never worked together professionally. Our rapport comes from a more personal level.”

  “Tell me you haven’t fucked my architect,” Luke said, completely unamused.

  “I could,” Fritz said. “But I think all three of us know that would be a lie.”

  “I don’t like this.” Luke sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Since Cole recommended you both, I would have thought he’d have disclosed your personal involvement. But that’s not your issue, I’ll talk to him about it later.”

  “Cole didn’t know.” If this went badly, Fritz didn’t want any of the blame to fall on Cole. “And if you’ll allow me to speak with Kate privately when she arrives, I promise the two of us working together won't be an issue.”

  Luke started to say something, but Nathaniel shook his head. A car door slammed outside and Luke looked at his watch. “She’s early.”

  Nathaniel stood and pointed to a door in the office that led to the outside. “Fritz, if you’d like to use that door to go out and meet her, Luke and I will step into the club. You can come get us when you’ve talked.”

  “Why wouldn’t we wait for her to come in the main doorway like everyone else?” Fritz asked.

  Nathaniel looked at him as if he’d sprouted wings and a tail. “According to Abby, she’s no longer in the lifestyle. I thought this might make her more comfortable.”

  “Hell,” Luke said, though for the most part, Fritz zoned out trying to process Nathaniel’s words. “She’s designing a BDSM club. If she can’t walk through one, I have a lot of doubts this is going to work.”

  “I’ve never seen you this ornery,” Nathaniel said to his business partner. “What’s your problem this morning?”

  Luke sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “I’m sorry. It’s just that, well, Meagan started her period this morning. She was a few days late and even though it would have been rotten timing, I guess I really wanted her to be pregnant.”

  “No worries,” Nathaniel said. “I understand. And no, I think Kate should use the front door, I wanted to see if Fritz knew she wasn’t in the lifestyle anymore. From his expression, I’d say he had no idea.”

  But Fritz wasn’t going to answer Nathaniel. He had his own questions. Kate wasn’t in the lifestyle? Since when? Last week? And beyond that was the fear he’d done something to her and she’d decided based on last week that she no longer identified as a submissive.

  Nathaniel stood. “Fritz, Luke and I will step outside this door, that way you can meet Kate up front and bring her in her. Just text one of us when you’re ready for all of us to meet.”

  Fritz waited until the two men left before leaving through the office door that exited to the club. He walked toward the front where he saw Kate talking with Luke’s admin.

  For a few seconds, he stood and looked at her. She was dressed in a business suit that fit her perfectly. Her hair was pulled back neatly, though he thought the style looked a bit too severe for her. He looked down and couldn’t help smiling when he saw she had on the shoes he’d bought her.

  As if sensing someone staring, her head lifted up and turned toward him, while at the same time the admin went through the door to where Luke and Nathaniel were. Kate had been smiling, but it disappeared completely when she recognized him.

  “Hello, Kate,” he managed to say. “Nice shoes.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Kate knew she was standing in the middle of Luke’s club with her lips slightly parted, but seriously, why was Fritz here? He wasn't dressed for play, but even if he had been, the club didn’t open until the afternoon.

  Unless…she looked around, but didn’t see anyone else. He’d told her he worked with problem subs. Was he waiting for one now? It didn’t seem likely with nothing set up, but why…?

  It hit her then. He was a contractor and a friend of Cole’s.

  She shook her head and backed away when Fritz took a step forward and held out his hand. “Oh my, God,” she said. “You’re the contractor for the new club.”

  He frowned, but he didn’t deny it.

  “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.” She stood her ground since he’d stopped moving forward. “I lived in your house for a week and you didn’t mention it?”

  “Kate,” he said in a calming voice she did not appreciate. “Every time I tr
ied to bring it up, you would shut me down.”

  “No, I didn’t …” but then she realized, she had. She remembered several times he’d tried to bring up the following week. And as he said, every time she would say, “We promised we wouldn't talk about anything other than the here and now.”

  “Okay, you’re right. I can’t deny that,” she finally said. “But I still think you could have found a way to tell me.”

  He took a deep breath. “It made sense to me at the time, but now that I’ve had some distance from the situation, I agree with you.”

  Because she’d been prepared for him to argue with her, she was momentarily frozen when he agreed with her.

  He chuckled. “Believe it or not, I don’t have difficulties admitting when I’m wrong.” It was on the tip of her tongue to say how impressed she was, when he continued with, “Especially since it happens so rarely.”

  She didn’t say anything, but instead crossed her arms and glared at him. He took a step closer and continued smiling at her.

  “Kate,” he said, his rough accent sending shivers up and down her spine as she remembered other times he’d called her by name. “I was hoping that with both of us once more in the same city…”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. Surely, he wasn’t going to suggest that they - her brain fumbled for the words - pick up where they’d left off in Berlin?

  He must have sensed her displeasure with where the conversation was going, because suddenly he seemed hesitant to continue with his train of thought on the subject.

  “Yes?” She asked, not willing to give him any chance not to complete his statement.

  “I was just going to say, if you’d like to get together while I’m on this side of the pond, let me know.”

  She snorted. “Yeah, I bet that’s what you were going to say.”

  ~~~~~

  On Friday afternoon, Kate put her work away early in the afternoon. She’d worked hard all week, many days long into the night, and she decided to quit a bit early. The sad part being, she had no idea what she was going to do. Julie had told her earlier in the week that her and Daniel would be out of town, visiting his sister and their children.

  Abby and Nathaniel had already left for their Hampton Estate. She could call Dena, and see if she wanted to do something, but since she had the baby now, her guess was Dena would rather stay home.

  One thing she was not going to do was call Cole or Sasha. She liked Sasha, she really did. And she knew for a fact that she didn’t want to be back with Cole for anything. Yet, it was hard to see them together for some reason. She couldn’t quite put her finger on why. If she didn’t want him and she didn’t have feelings for him, what was it?

  She supposed, if she thought about it hard enough, what she missed was having somebody to be there for. She missed having a Master. Which she could also do nothing about, since she decided she wasn’t going to be a submissive anymore.

  Weekends had caught her off guard after she left Cole. Since she’d been his for so long, she’d never put any thought into what to do on a weekend. That had been decided for her. It would be so freeing, she’d thought to be able to do anything she wanted. She’d quickly discovered she enjoyed not having to think about it and having it decided for her.

  Which was yet another reason she didn’t want to be in at total twenty-four, seven relationship. Even thinking she’d rather someone make decisions for her made her feel weak.

  What she needed to do, was to go out and find a nice vanilla guy. Unfortunately, she had no idea how to go about being vanilla. Much less how to find a vanilla guy. The fact was, she had never been one for the clubbing or bar scene, even before she went out with Cole. She couldn’t imagine she’d find it anymore to her liking now that she was older.

  Working as she was in a strange city, she didn’t even have a girlfriend close by to hang out with. Of course all of the women she knew here in Wilmington were submissives. One thing was certain, she was not going to a BDSM club.

  She looked back towards her desk and thought about picking up her work up again. But she couldn’t bring herself to be that much of a fuddy-duddy so she decided the best thing to do would be to eat ice cream and watch movies. After all, it was better than working, right?

  Of course when she went to the refrigerator, she discovered that there was no ice cream. Going to a grocery store on a Friday night was not her idea of a good time. Neither was walking around the property and heaven knows, Daniel had enough of it.

  She finally decided to read and if the book she picked up was a BDSM romance, that didn’t mean anything. After all, she could have just as easily picked up a pirate romance, and that didn’t make her a pirate.

  Right when she was in the middle of a really good, really hot scene, someone knocked on the guesthouse door. Seriously? Now someone showed up? When she’d resigned herself to a lonely Friday night and had just got to the good part in her book?

  Whoever it was knocked again.

  “I’m coming,” she mumbled but couldn’t imagine that they’d heard. With a sigh, she put down her e-reader and stomped to the door. She didn’t even bother to look and see who it was. More than likely it was someone looking for Daniel.

  She was so certain it was someone looking for Daniel, it took her several painfully silent seconds, before she realized who it was and that he was definitely not looking for anyone other than her.

  Fritz.

  “You,” she said.

  “Kate.”

  “What are you doing here? If you’re looking for Daniel, he and Julie left earlier to go to his sister’s.”

  “I didn’t come to see Daniel,” he said. “I came by to see you.”

  She didn’t say anything because there was nothing left to say. Anyone else would have been uncomfortable by her silence. But, of course, he just took it in stride.

  He nodded toward the inside. “May I come in?”

  Silently, she stepped to the side to let him pass. He walked into the living room, sitting on the couch and waiting for her to do something similar. With a sigh she sat down in the recliner she’d been in before he rang the doorbell.

  “What can I help you with, Fritz?” she asked.

  He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees and focusing his entire attention on her. She forced herself not to look away. It had not been that long since Berlin, and she had not forgotten how intense his gaze was.

  “I believe I did you a disservice, Kate,” he said.

  She nodded. “Yes, but we discussed that earlier in the week.”

  “Not about the job here. About our time in Berlin.”

  Whatever she’d been expecting him to say, that wasn’t it. “I’m not sure…What did..How?”

  He held his hand up. “Let me explain.”

  She huffed, sat back in her chair, and crossed her arms for good measure. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear where this was going, but she was curious as to why he would make a statement like that.

  “Looking back at our time together, I have the distinct impression that you wouldn’t have minded if I’d pushed you harder. Used you more.” He tilted his head. “Perhaps added in more humiliation?”

  Every degrading fantasy she’d ever had, but had never been brave enough to talk about, flashed to mind. Snapshots of a submissive she would not allow herself to become. She took a deep breath and met his gaze head on. “Yes, you could have.” She shrugged. “But, it’s no big deal.”

  “No big deal,” he repeated, and she nodded. “Be that as it may, I would like the opportunity to do so.”

  “What?”

  “I would like for you to give me the chance to give you that fantasy in your mind that won’t leave you alone.”

  She flinched away from his much-too-intense stare, then realized how it looked that she’d done so and forced herself to meet his eyes once more. “I don’t -”

  He held up a hand. “Don’t lie and tell me you don’t have one. Tell me you don’t want to act it out, that you want
to act it out with anyone other than me, but don’t tell me you don’t have one.”

  God, he was such a know-it-all! “I don’t participate in the lifestyle anymore,” she said with as much in your face and take that attitude as she could manage.

  Across from her, he just gave her the same laid back, easy smile he always wore. “I’m not going to try and tell you how useless it is to try and be something you’re not. If you want to be vanilla, by all means try. If you’re not, you’ll fail miserably and that will be the end of it. But that’s something you have to experience on your own.”

  She heard his words and what’s more, she knew that he was right. Odds were, her vanilla experiment would be a miserable failure. But it was hers to make. Even then, if she couldn’t live totally vanilla, there was nothing to stop her from being a little kinky. She’d settle down with a nice guy who was not vanilla, but not hardcore Dom either.

  What he would not be is anything like the alpha to the core, hard-ass Dominant in front of her.

  “Give me one night, Kate,” he asked. “One night to give you those dirty fantasies you secretly craved but never admitted. One night for me to reach out to that submissive you have buried so deep inside that you pretend she doesn’t exist. One night for me to touch her, take her, and to give her what she desperately needs.”

  “And then?” She managed to ask.

  “Then if you still want to be vanilla after, I won’t say anything.”

  She cocked an eyebrow at him. Yeah, she believed that. Even so, she felt herself tempted to agree. Don’t, she argued with herself. There’s a reason you haven’t shared that fantasy with anyone. It’s too much.

  But she wanted to explore it and she wanted him to be the one she explored it with. She looked over to him, and he was watching her carefully, but his expression held a certain knowing hilt.

  “If I agree,” she said, “when will we do it?”

  “Tomorrow night.”

  “Yes.”