Good Girl (14 page)

***

Hunter had an awful weekend. He wasn’t
used to being denied by a woman. He was tempted to go up to Jefferson to see
Kali and her hometown. Talk about getting to know her! He would be able to
decode her like the Rosetta Stone if he could see her at home.

But that was stalkerish behavior. He
might as well admit he had no self-control when it came to Kali if he did that.

He checked the train schedules and knew
when she’d be pulling into Penn station. It was nearly nine, too late for them
to get together. And he didn’t want to text or call her to ask her out. He
needed to see her face when he spoke to her. He needed to find out what she was
thinking.

When he ran into Kali at work Monday
morning next to the construction fence, a bunch of people were around. She went
straight to getting an update on the progress of moving the fountain. He felt
like the blue plywood wall was standing between them instead of next to them.

She gave him no opportunity to ask her
out, and by the time the truck arrived to pick up the fountain, he was afraid
it was going to have to wait. Maybe she had backed off because he had withdrawn
after their last scene. But that usually made women chase after him. Kali
definitely wasn’t chasing after him. If anything she was even more polite and
distant than he had been last week. Maybe she had talked to her friends at home
and had thought better of going down the kinky brick road with the big city
man.

A crowd gathered to watch the sections
of fountain being loaded by a forklift onto the back of a semi-truck. Hunter
was in the thick of it, directing the workers to keep people out of the way and
making sure the rigging was secure. He couldn’t afford to have anything go
wrong, not with several reporters standing near Kali and Selina, taking photos
of the move.

When it was done, he went up to the
Central Park Conservancy Garden in the truck. None of the reporters came, so
Kali didn’t either. The reporters would come back in a few weeks once the
fountain was reassembled and hooked up, with the new cobblestone plaza laid
around it. Hunter helped the efficient Central Park crew as they unloaded the
pieces of the fountain and laid them carefully behind cyclone fencing near the
fountain’s final resting place.

Finally, as he left the garden, he
couldn’t stand the thought of going back to his place and not knowing what Kali
was doing. He texted her:
Want to watch the sunset at my place? The view
from my roof is huge.

There was a longer pause than usual for
her reply. Finally it came:
I want to talk not play.

We can do that
,
he wrote back.

Not at your place. Or mine. I know what
will happen.

So he wasn’t kidding himself—she was
putting on the brakes. He couldn’t argue with that. He kept trying to put the
brakes on himself, only he wasn’t having much luck. Maybe she would.

He checked his watch. She should be
leaving SunTech about now, and he didn’t want her to wait in a park for him
while he got back downtown.

How about Katz’s on Houston &
Ludlow?
he asked.
I can be there in 30 min.

Ok,
she texted back.

By the time he got there, she was
already seated at one of the side tables waiting for him. Usually he went
directly to the counter to order, but the tables were separate and more
private, so it was a good choice.

“Is this really where Harry Met Sally
was filmed?” He noticed that she didn’t get up to greet him with a hug and a
kiss.

He glanced up at the placard dangling
over one of the center tables. “Yes, that scene where she fakes an orgasm.”

“I can’t wait to tell my mom. It’s one
of her favorite movies. She always makes me watch it whenever it’s on TV.”

Hunter was suddenly glad they were
meeting at the restaurant instead of his place. She was right, he wouldn’t have
been able to keep his hands off her. He wanted to take her in hand, and make
her beg for more. His cock was stirring even now, when it was exactly the wrong
time for him to get lost in a lustful haze staring into her eyes and
remembering how amazing she looked spread out naked for him to use as he
wanted.

He ordered the pastrami sandwich for
her, but she quickly requested no mustard.

“It’s not the same without mustard,” he
said.

“I hate mustard.” She smiled at the
waiter as she handed back the menu.

“Okay, good to know.”

There was an awkward silence as he tried
to figure out the best way to pierce the wall between them.

She toyed with a fork. “So how was the
party?”

“Not bad,” he shrugged. “It was a
birthday party for a friend of mine.”

“Where was it?”

He hesitated. “At a local fetish club.”

“Where people go to have sex?”

“Not like intercourse sex. We do BDSM.
And we hang out with our friends.”

Lightly, she asked, “Which one did you
do?”

Again he hesitated. She noticed, so he
quickly added, “It wasn’t much of anything. I gave my friend her birthday
spanking. She’s a Domme, so usually she’s the top. But she does bottom to
certain people, and she asked me months ago if I would do it for her at her
party.”

Kali looked at him for a few seconds.
Hunter had a hard time figuring out what she was thinking. She was so reserved.

The waiter came up with their root
beers. Kali waited until he left. “What’s her name?”

“Heather. I’ve known her for a long
time. Practically since I came to New York. She’s one of my friends I want to
introduce you to.”

“So tell me what you did. I want to know
more about your world.”

He figured he might as well take the plunge.
Kali would have watched the scene if she had come to the party. Maybe this was
better. “I put her over my lap and gave her thirty hard smacks, alternating on
each butt cheek. Plus one to grow on.”

“Over your lap? Was she naked?”

“She was wearing a g-string. It’s not
the same if you spank someone through clothing.” He noticed Kali pulled back
slightly. “It wasn’t sensuous! Everyone was standing around egging me on and
laughing at her as she begged me to go softer. But she didn’t use her safeword,
and I knew she wanted a really hard spanking to mark her birthday.”

The waiter returned with their
sandwiches and placed them on the table. Kali stared down at hers as if she had
never seen such a thing before. The image he had just placed in her mind was
apparently throwing her for a loop. To him, it seemed so tame. Innocent,
almost, in the context of the scene. Like hugging someone.

“Have you ever had sex with Heather?”
Kali suddenly asked.

“Um, yeah. But that ended years ago.”

“So you stay friends with your lovers?”

“I try to. Sometimes it’s not possible.
But there are only a certain number of parties and events, so you’re bound to
run into your past.”

Kali shook her head slightly as she
removed half the meat from her sandwich so she could fit her mouth around it.
He took a bite of his own pastrami with mustard, watching her, letting her
absorb what he’d said.

They ate for a while, until he couldn’t
stand the silence any longer. It would be better if she would just talk, but if
she wouldn’t, he would have to drag it out of her.

“Didn’t you see any old boyfriends when
you went home?” he asked.

She swallowed. “I saw my grade school
crush at the hardware store, if that’s what you mean. He used to be the cutest
boy in school, but now he’s fat and kind of slow. It was weird how he wanted to
talk to me, when he pretty much ignored me when we were kids.”

“No one more recent than that?”

“Hmm, come to think of it, Johnny was at
the Tavern on Saturday. He was my boyfriend all through Junior year in high
school. He’s married now and his wife was at home with their two babies.”

He tried to fight down an absurd stab of
jealousy. “So you see how it happens.”

Kali shook her head. “I didn’t say two
words to Johnny. Not quite like spanking your near-naked ex-girlfriend as she
lies over your lap.”

He met her eyes, trying to will her to
understand. “It wasn’t sexual for me, Kali. I don’t feel that way about
Heather.”

“What about Minx?”

“What about her?”

She laughed shortly, but she wasn’t
amused. “Did you see her this weekend?”

“Yes. She came over to clean the loft.”

Kali looked away. “Oh. Right.”

“We didn’t have a scene. I didn’t even
touch her. I didn’t want to.”

“I’m sure it satisfies her or she
wouldn’t be scrubbing your floors.”

Hunter didn’t know what to say to that,
because she was right. Minx had fallen at his feet and kissed the ground in
front of his toes, begging him to punish her for coming over without
permission. She said she would take anything, do anything, as long as he
forgave her. She was trembling, wracked with emotion, as he ordered her to
leave on Sunday. His denial was winding her up to a feverish pitch. He knew she
would follow through on her promise, and he could think of all sorts of dirty,
demeaning things he could make her do.

But he didn’t want to.

“I only want you, Kali. I don’t want
those other women.”

“But there are so many women in your
life. And you’re still doing very intimate things with them. Hunter, I can’t be
in a relationship with someone who’s seeing other women. Especially when I have
to trust you.”

He felt himself nodding. “I can
understand how you feel that way. But we’ve only just started to date.”

“Will it be different later? You like to
be free, I can tell, to do whatever you want.”

“To be honest, yes. I’ve done that for a
long time.”
            “So you
don’t mind it when Minx sleeps with another man? Or if I did?”

“You?” Suddenly it all fell into place.
“Not you. I don’t think I could stand it if another man touched you.”

Now she was really looking at him. He
was finally reaching her.

“You don’t know what you’ve done to me,”
he confessed. “I think about you all the time. If you don’t want me to see Minx
anymore, then I won’t. I won’t get kinky with any of my friends. I want to
explore this with you.”

“You want a real relationship with me?”
she asked.

“I want you to stop pulling away from
me. It’s driving me crazy.”

Her mouth fell open, as if he had just
said something shocking. “I see.”

He didn’t understand. “What do you see?”

“It’s all a game to you, isn’t it? I’m
something you want to conquer, to win over. And then what? Do you really want
to get married and have kids?”

He was at a loss. “I don’t know. I
haven’t met anyone that made me want that before.”

She refused to even meet his eyes. He
had almost had her! But he had ruined it.

“So it’s the chase,” she said slowly.
“I’m running away, so that’s why you want me. But as soon as I stop running and
try to have a real relationship with you, then
you’re
going to run.”

“No, I won’t.” But she had shaken him by
pinning his motives down so easily. He was supposed to be prying into her brain
to figure out how she ticked, not the other way around.

She sadly tried to smile, but it didn’t
work. “You know I’m right, Hunter.”

“But you’re different.”

“I’m just harder to catch than girls like
Minx. Because I want more than sex, Hunter. You’re the one who said I should
figure out what
I
want. And one thing I know for sure—even if it
is
fantastic, mind-blowing sex, that’s not enough for me.”

His mouth opened, but he didn’t know
what to say. It was true that he quickly grew bored when women chased after
him. He loved the pursuit, the subtle game of luring a woman in, but so few
women were elusive. At some point they threw themselves at him, and that ruined
everything. Then he spent the last half of the relationship trying to peel them
off and keep them at a distance. He was doing that now with Minx.

But nobody had ever turned him on like
Kali did, with her quiet reserve and proud, independent ways.

Kali stood up. “Thanks for dinner,
Hunter. I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”

He snatched hold of her wrist, keeping
her from turning away. “Is that all? When I know you want me as much as I want
you?”

“You’re not going to break my heart,
Hunter. It’s already hard to leave now.” Gently, she twisted her arm to get him
to release her. “We don’t want the same thing.”

As she walked away, he felt like he
couldn’t take a deep breath. How could she walk away from him? After everything
they’d gone through together! He wanted to run after her, to shake some sense
into her.

Suddenly he knew how the women in his
life had felt, when they had cried and begged him to not break up with them. He
had been sad and wise, just like Kali was being with him.