“Thank you.”
She was about halfway through eating when he sat on the bar stool next to her.
His eyes were twinkly.
His expression was downright cheery.
Something was going on.
“I found a job for you.”
So, that was the
something.
“What kind of job?”
“I have an associate who’s an attorney. Has his own firm. Family law. He needs someone to do some research. It isn’t a big departure from what you’ve been doing. But instead of doing the dirty work, you’d be hiring someone else to do it for you.”
“Hmmm.”
“There’s more to it than that, but I don’t know the details. I figured he could give you the rundown when you go for the interview.”
“I don’t know about this. Research? Sounds dull.”
“Would it hurt to check it out?”
“Did you tell your associate I would definitely take the job?”
“No, I just told her you might be interested.”
Her.
Mandy felt her hackles rising. “I may not be qualified.”
“I believe you are.”
“But you said you don’t know all the details.”
“I know you.” He had the nerve to poke her nose with his index finger. “I know how tenacious you are. You’re intelligent and determined.”
“I suppose you told her all those things?”
“I did. And more.”
“Great, she’ll be expecting a superstar.”
“She’ll be expecting you, Amanda.”
God, how I love the way he says my name.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Because ... I like to help my friends.”
“Is that what we are, Zane? Are we ‘friends’?”
“I’d like us to be.”
I’d like us to be a helluva lot more than that, dammit.
“Friends?” she echoed.
He nodded.
Well, fuck.
“Okay, I’ll call her later today and set up an interview.”
“The interview is this afternoon.”
Her spine stiffened. This whole thing was making her uneasy. He was practically shoving her into the job. She wondered if his “associate” felt the same way she did.
Ready to tell him off for setting up the interview before talking to her, she sent him some squinty eyes.
He returned her warning glare with a big grin. She’d have thought he’d just told her he’d bought her a winning lottery ticket. More and more, she could see he was the hard-core, controlling type of man who tended to rub her the wrong way. It was probably for the best that he’d decided they should just be friends.
If only he wasn’t so freaking cute. And generous. And sexy. And sweet.
“Two o’clock.” He pulled a card from his pocket and set it on the snack bar’s granite countertop. “I’ll drive you.”
“I can drive myself. After I find my keys. I’ll need a ride home.”
“Later.”
“Now. Unless you want me to miss the interview
you
set up.”
“I tell you what—if you stay here one more hour with me, I’ll make sure your car is in your driveway by the time I take you home. That way all you have to do is get dressed and go.”
“Zane, I don’t need you to solve all my problems for me. I’m an adult. I can handle things.”
“I know. I’m not trying to treat you like a child. I’m being selfish.” He dragged her stool toward him. His eyes sparkled with erotic hunger. That was hardly a let’s-be-friends sparkle. His lips curled into a devious smile. That wasn’t a let’s-befriends grin either. Her blood warmed. A few other parts of her body warmed, too. “You’ll forgive my selfishness, won’t you?”
For some reason, it was easy forgiving Zane.
Especially when he looked at her like
that.
She guessed he was looking for more of a friends-with-benefits type of relationship than a strictly platonic friendship.
I can live with that.
He leaned in and nuzzled her neck. “Do you know how hard it was not to tear off that T-shirt last night?” He nibbled on her earlobe. “I wanted you. I want you now even more.”
Earlobe nibbles were her kryptonite. And Zane knew that. She shivered. She sighed. When his tongue swept along the whorl of her ear, she tipped her head to give him better access. “I thought we were friends.”
“Friends nibble on each others’ earlobes sometimes.” He supported her head with his hands, shifting it slightly to allow him to tease and torment her ear, her mouth, and her neck at will. “And they bind them, tease them, make them beg for release, too. Say the words,” he whispered between nips.
“Hmmm,” was her response. Her eyelids fell closed, shutting her into darkness. Now she was completely tuned in to her other senses. The taste of his lips lingering on hers. The tingles buzzing up and down her spine each time he kissed or licked her. The scent of man and food and desire hanging in the air. And the sound of her little gasps as he drove her absolutely insane with need within a few seconds.
That man knew how to use that tongue—oh, yes, he did.
“Say it. Say what I’ve been waiting to hear,” he murmured.
She sighed. “Take me, Zane. Make love to me.”
18
H
ell yes, he’d take her. He’d take her every way he could imagine. She was his. Only his.
Fuck. What was he thinking?
What was he doing?
He didn’t deserve a goddamn thing. Not a taste of her succulent skin. Not a sniff of her fragrant scent. Certainly not the pleasure of her slick heat wrapped around his cock.
She wasn’t just asking to play with him. She’d said, “Make love to me.” Those were words he never wanted to hear. So why couldn’t he cut things off? Why couldn’t he walk away? He’d done it before with other women. More than once.
He kissed her.
That didn’t make things better. Hell no.
Now his cock was straining against his pants. His heartbeat, normally so sluggish it could barely be picked up by a doctor, was now pounding heavily in his chest.
She sighed into their joined mouths. “Oh, yes, Zane. Make me beg.”
The flame in his body flared hotter.
Her tongue found his, stroking shyly. Her hands slipped beneath his shirt, her fingertips tracing tingly lines up and down his stomach.
His fingers curled, closing around two fists full of silky hair. Struggling to cling to the final threads of his self-control, he tugged. Her head fell back.
He could hear her heart beating.
He could see her pulse pounding against the thin skin.
He could practically taste her blood spilling over his tongue.
His tongue stabbed into her mouth now, fiercely, wildly. She didn’t fight against his possession, didn’t shy away from it. Her little fingers curled. She dragged her nails down his chest. The sting only stirred his need.
He didn’t want her anymore; he needed her. All of her. Forever. Always. Desperately. With every cell of his being.
He broke the kiss. Dragged his tongue down the column of her neck, feeling the blood course through the vein lying just below the surface of her skin.
His fangs pierced through his gums.
He could bite her. Feed from her. Take her essence into him.
Don’t do this to her.
“Please, Zane.”
Dammit.
His need was like a steel blade, piercing clean through his heart. He jerked her against him. Her breath puffed out of her chest as her body molded to his.
She doesn’t know what kind of monster you are.
“Zane, I need you.”
He clenched his jaw. His blood burned in his veins. The pain was excruciating.
She wants this. Listen. Look. Feel.
“No.” He pushed her back onto her stool and staggered to his feet.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, looking confused, hurt.
“Nothing. Just ... give me a minute.”
She nodded. Wide, guileless eyes lifted to his. He looked away. “My suite. Go there. Wait for me. I’ll come in a minute.” He needed time to collect himself. When she hesitated, he said, “It’s a surprise.”
“O-okay.”
He watched her walk away on visibly shaky legs.
If only she realized how shaky his legs were, too, how torn and conflicted and confused she made him feel.
She couldn’t know that. Somehow he had to muscle his way out of this strange pit he’d flung himself into. She was a submissive. Just like all the others. That was all.
He took a deep breath.
Be a dom. Only a dom. And a friend. Nothing more. She can’t be yours. Not ever.
Maybe it was time to find her another dom. A mortal dom. Perhaps that would be best. For them both.
Mandy stepped into Zane’s silent, empty suite. Now what?
He was acting strangely, as if he was fighting some kind of need or impulse. What was the problem? Was it their so-called friendship he was struggling with? Or was it something else?
Couldn’t be his definition of friends. He seemed quite comfortable with that.
Sarah had warned her about Zane’s reputation. He was known to be a hard-core dom, the kind who pushed a submissive’s limits unmercifully. So far, she’d seen nothing to back up such rumors. But she was wondering if he’d been forcing himself to take it easy on her, and now he was finding it difficult to hold back for some reason.
Maybe that’s why he said he couldn’t see me anymore.
Could she handle a tougher dom?
She didn’t know yet. She wondered if she might find out soon.
She sat on the couch and waited. She wasn’t kept waiting long. Zane strolled in within a few minutes, looking strong, dominant, and in complete control.
He walked up to her, took her hand. “This way.” To her surprise, he led her out of the room, down the stairs, and into the dungeon she’d originally met him in. That had seemed such a long time ago. He released her hand when she reached the center of the room. “I think we need to clarify some things before we begin.”
“What things?” Her heart jumped.
“We’ve talked about this. You know we must remain dom and submissive—”
“And friends.”
“And friends. There cannot be anything more. No commitment. No monogamy. You understand, don’t you?”
A little lightbulb blinked on in her head. “Oh, I understand now. It was what I said. I ... I didn’t mean to use that expression
make love.
I was swept up in the moment.”
“I know you were. But I still can’t continue if there’s any chance you might have some kind of expectation for the future, might be feeling something ...”
She was. God help her, she was feeling all kinds of somethings for him. And she had more than a niggling suspicion he was feeling a something or two for her, too. That was why she’d said what she did. And not just because she’d been caught up in the moment. Dammit, why was he being this way? “You’re saying there’s absolutely no chance we might someday decide to take this relationship to the next level?”
“No chance.” His expression reaffirmed his words, though there was something in his eyes that suggested he was perhaps feeling slightly conflicted. “Not with you. Not with anyone.”
Was there someone else?
“Are you married?” she asked.
“No. I’ve never been married. I’ll never be married.”
“I just wondered if that might be why you are so dead set against building a relationship with someone.”
“It’s not. I have my reasons.”
“Will you tell me?”
“Why?”
“So I can understand. Don’t you think I deserve that much? When we scene, you expect me to trust you. And I do. Without a second thought. Won’t you trust me a little?”
“It’s not a question of trusting you.”
“If that’s not it , then what ... ?”
“This is why I thought it might be better if we didn’t scene anymore.” He shook his head. He turned from her. Stretched a thick arm, bracing it against the door frame. His head bent down.
“No. Zane. If that’s why you’ve stayed away, I’m glad we’re having this talk now. I’m okay with this. I want you to be my master. My friend. It’s enough. I don’t need any more than that. I don’t want more. I like being independent. I like making my own choices in life.” Mandy waited, breathless. How she longed to stomp over there, yank him away from that wall, and force him to face her. But she knew if she did that, he’d shut down completely. At this point, despite the fact that he had his back to her, he still seemed somewhat emotionally open to her. “Hell, I don’t even like working for someone else.”
If only he would show her just a tiny peek of what lay below that thick armor he always wore.
“It’s no wonder you’re a PI,” he said. “You don’t give up.”
“They call me Bulldog for a reason.”
“Yeah. I’m starting to understand that now.”
“You should’ve
understood
it a long time ago, when you kept catching me sneaking cameras into your parties.”
He turned to face her again. Hallelujah. “I like your stubborn perseverance. It’s ... charming.”
The tension was easing. He was relaxing a little.
Keep it light.
She turned on her charm, donning her best teasing come-hither look. “But is that a trait you’d look for in a submissive?”
“Perhaps.”
“Really? That surprises me.”
“I’ve trained more than my share of obedient submissives. Submissives who pretend to be disobedient.”
“I don’t pretend.”
“That’s what makes you so”—he took a step toward her—“much ...” He took another. His eyes glimmered. His lips curled into a sexy half smile. “Fun.” He kissed her again. And, oh, what a kiss it was. Now they were getting somewhere. The trick with Zane was to avoid being too direct. Better to dance around the issues a little, touching upon them here and there without pushing too hard.
She’d get her answer. Like she always did. It was just a matter of time.
Zane’s tongue traced the seam of her mouth, and she opened to him, welcoming his decadent flavor inside. He tasted so good. He smelled even better. Like she had before, she let her hands slide under his shirt, mapping the lines cutting across his glorious abdomen. He was lean. Strong. Thickly muscled. One hundred percent hard, alpha dom. Her dom, she hoped, for a very, very long time.
She let him decide when to break the kiss. As a reward, she received more nibbles on her neck. More nips on her earlobe. And one bone-melting male growl in her ear.
If that didn’t make a submissive girl fall to her knees, nothing would.
He stepped away. His expression hardened. Now he was the cool, controlled dom who made her melt. “Take off those clothes. I want to see you.”
She did a slow striptease for him, watching the fire in his eyes blaze hotter with every garment she removed. By the time she was standing nude before him, her thighs were damp with her juices, her pussy was warm and clenching and aching to be filled, and her nipples were hard points. His jaw was clenched, his face the most charming shade of red.
“I am going to punish you for that,” he grumbled.
She was almost certain she was going to enjoy this. All worries about him losing control and snapping evaporated from her mind. This was Zane. He didn’t lose control. He would never hurt her. Not giving even a halfhearted attempt at looking remorseful, she said, “I’m sorry.”
He motioned to a kneeler. This one had an angled padded platform to support the upper body. “There. On your knees.” He helped position her on her knees, her body bent at the waist. Her ass was in the air, knees spread. He wrapped cuffs around her wrists, then fastened the cuffs to loops on the vertical supports. She couldn’t move her arms. Not more than an inch. Not even to scratch her nose. She’d never felt so physically vulnerable. She’d never been so erotically energized.
“I’m going to turn this bulldog into a pussycat.”
She had no doubt he could. But she decided it would be more fun if she didn’t make it so easy. “We’ll see about that. Bulldogs are notoriously stubborn.”
“I know how to handle stubbornness.” He went to the cupboard.
What was he going to do? Mandy’s body tensed while she waited. Her pussy kept clenching. A throbbing heat pounded between her legs. Shivers swept up and down her spine. She was nervous. Excited. Giddy.
Ironically, the Clark case might not have done a whole lot for her career, but it had done a great deal for her sex life. If she hadn’t been tailing Clark, she wondered how long it would have taken before she’d ventured into a bondage club.
If she hadn’t been tailing Clark, she wondered how long it would have taken for her to meet Zane. Maybe she wouldn’t have met him at all.
He was back. She sensed him behind her. She heard wrappers crackling. She heard other sounds, too. Sounds she couldn’t identify. Her spine stiffened.
“Some doms might see that stubborn streak of yours as a fault. I don’t.”
“Glad to hear that.”
“But that doesn’t mean I don’t expect you to be obedient and submissive when the time calls for it.”
“Like ... ?”
“Like when we are in the dungeon.”
“Understood.” Something dragged down her back, from her nape to her ass. Tails from a flogger, she guessed. Would he strike her? She’d never been whipped before. How painful would it be?
Goose bumps erupted over her shoulders, down her back. She shivered, hot and cold at the same time.
“For a woman, sexual arousal is as much mental as it is physical. Wouldn’t you agree?” He dragged the flogger down her back again.