GrandSlam (11 page)

I got myself a drink from the bar—a Coke, I never drank
alcohol in these places or when I was playingwith someone—then began to
wander about the room, taking in the people and what they were up to,
exchanging polite nods with men and lascivious smiles with women. One of the
women reminded me of Marie, and I couldn’t help but think how she would feel
about visiting somewhere like this. It seemed like a good club, so I’d
definitely be bringing her there in the near future, and I could hardly wait to
see her reaction. Would she be shocked, turned-on? One thing was for sure, worldly
as she seemed on the outside, she would most definitely not be blasé.

The music was so loud and I was so engrossed in checking the
place out and popping my head into the various playrooms to see what was going
on that I didn’t hear my mobile phone ring, nor feel it vibrate against my leg.
In fact, it wasn’t until I went to the toilet, happy to leave the thud of the
bass, that I thought to check my phone. It was habit more than anything—I
didn’t expect anyone to be contacting me on a Saturday night. Even my
party-animal best friend would be asleep by now, being eight hours in front and
all.

After washing my hands, I pulled the device out of my
pocket, pushed the button to illuminate the screen and frowned. I’d had two
missed calls from Marie. It was weird—we had each other’s numbers in our phones
for professional reasons—for a psychologist to contact her client and vice
versa, but we’d never called each other before. Not that it mattered—why the
hell was she phoning me now? She was meant to be on her date with Peter. I
headed out of the gents’ and back into the black-and-silver corridor, then out
into the night. People were standing around smoking and some, like me, were on
their mobiles. Or at least I was about to be on my mobile anyway.

I unlocked the screen and went into my calls list, tapping
on the latest missed call from Marie and pressing the button to return it, all
the while wondering why the hell she was phoning me from the Kodak Theater.

It seemed like an age before she answered.

“Travis?” I said, clutching my phone to my ear as an
enormous fire truck hurtled past the cab I was riding in.

“Marie, Jesus, what’s up? Are you all right?”

I could hear concern in his voice. Felt bad for worrying
him. The sound of the siren had been unfortunate. “I’m fine, on my way home. In
a taxi.”

“Oh.” He paused. “Alone?”

“Yes.”

Another silence.

“Peter stayed on at the theater to go to an after-show
party.”

“What, and he didn’t take you?”

“It’s fine. I didn’t want to go. He bumped into his cousin.
They hadn’t caught up for over a year and it seemed he had a small part in the
film we’d just seen. They were thrilled to run into each other and I didn’t
want to get in the way.”

“And he didn’t want you on his arm?” Travis spoke in a low,
irritated voice. “He just let you go? Alone?”

“Well, actually I excused myself. Pleaded a headache. The
film was okay, subtitled, but I really couldn’t cope with an evening analyzing
it.” It had been appalling but I wouldn’t say so, just in case it got back to
Peter. The thought had been sweet and it had been amazing to go to the place
all those Oscar types had been to in their dazzling glory. But it wasn’t really
for me.

“So do you have a headache?”

“No.”
Heartache, groin ache, aching everywhere for you.

Travis didn’t reply. I tried to listen, to see if I could
guess if he was at home or out. But wherever he was, it was pretty quiet. No
TV, no traffic, no music or voices.

“Why did you call me, Marie?”

Ah, the prize question. What could I do but be truthful? “I
was thinking of you. Of the other day in my office. I haven’t seen you since
then.”

“There was a reason for that.”

“There was?” I crossed my legs, fiddled with the hem on my
dress, tugging it down from where it had ridden up my thighs.

“Yeah.”

“Are you going to tell me?” I asked.

“Do you want to know?”

I thought for a moment. What if he’d changed his mind about
exploring a budding side of my sexuality with me? Decided that I wasn’t so
beautiful after all and he had no intention of treating me to his mouth the way
I had him?

The thought was too horrible to contemplate. But equally I
had to know. Then, if my worst fears were realized, I could at least face my
pain head-on. “Yes, I want to know.”

He answered quickly, as though the words were already
spilling as I spoke. “Because you fucked me up, Marie.”

Shit.
“I did?”

“Yeah, going out with Peter. Bloody hell, I know I shouldn’t
feel jealous, have no right to. But the thought of him, you, it just makes me
feel sick to my stomach.”

“But—”

“I couldn’t see you, talk to you, because I would have
insisted that you cancel the date, and I have no sodding right to do that
because you’re not mine. What we have is nothing more than playing and
learning.”

“Playing and learning,” I repeated, my mouth going dry.

“Yes, we’re two consenting, desirous adults enjoying a bit
of kink, exploring some of your new desires and satisfying mine. I have no
claim on you.”

I could imagine the frown that would be etched between his
eyebrows. The hard set of his jaw and the tight line of his lips. I hated to
think that I had made him feel so conflicted, so “fucked up”.

“So how about I don’t date Peter anymore?” I asked, the
words coming easily. It was no sacrifice. He was a nice guy but there was no
real spark. When he slipped his palm into the hollow of my back as we walked
down the theater aisle, I didn’t get the
I-want-to-rip-your-clothes-off-and-fuck-you-’til-I-pass-out feeling I got
whenever I was just in the same room as Travis.

“That would suit me very well,” Travis said. “But like I
said, I have no hold on you, that decision is yours.”

“Then the decision is made.” It felt as though a weight had
been lifted from me. Peter and I had made no firm arrangements to get together
again, just that we’d catch up at the academy on Monday. I would just gently
put him off if he asked me out again.

“That makes me feel much better,” Travis said.

“I want to make you feel more than better. I want to make
you feel good, great.”

He chuckled. “Oh babe, you don’t have to do any more than
smile at me to make me feel like I’m king of the world.”

His words ballooned in my chest. Fuck. The guy just fired
Cupid’s arrows straight at me without warning. I made him feel like the king of
the world. In that case, when he held me, kissed me, he made me feel like his
queen.

“So shall we get together? Now?” he asked.

“Where are you?”

“Somewhere I think you’d like. Somewhere that would be good
for us.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Purposefully. I want it to be a surprise. Pass the phone to
the driver.”

I did as he asked. Heard the low rumble of Travis’ voice and
the deep, “About twenty from here,” response of the cab driver.

I put the phone back to my ear.

“It’ll take you twenty minutes to get to me,” Travis said.
“What are you wearing?”

“A dress.”

“What color?”

“It’s double-layered. Cream silk with an overlay of black
lace.”

“Sounds perfect.”

“For what?”

“For me. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

The line went dead and I sucked in a deep breath. My evening
had suddenly got a whole lot more interesting.

* * * * *

The cab pulled up and a tall, broad man dressed entirely in
black stepped from the shadows of a brick building. It took me a moment to
realize it was Travis.

He paid the fare through the driver’s window, deliberately
not stooping so as to avoid recognition, then opened the back door, offered his
hand and helped me out.

“Hey,” he said with a smile.

Damn, it was that predatory one again. The curl of lips that
showed his top teeth and was combined with a sexy narrowing of his eyes. Had he
just tricked me into visiting his lair?

Probably.

What the hell. I was here now.

“Travis,” I said, rubbing my bare arms against the faint
chill of the night. “What’s this? A restaurant?” I hoped not, I wasn’t hungry.
Well, not for food anyway.

“I think you can get a meal here, but no, this isn’t a
restaurant, Marie.” He rested his hands over mine and touched his lips to my
mouth. “This is something so much more exciting.”

His nearness, his soft kiss, the timbre of his voice, damn,
the whole package of Travis did funny things to my insides. The usual
heart-skipping and feeling breathless but also my pussy clenched, a tingle
spreading down my thighs and upward deep into my abdomen. A flutter of
excitement, anticipation and surrealness that I was here, with Travis Connolly,
all settled inside me. A delicious swirl of emotions that made me want to dance
and sing as much as I just wanted to get primitive and naked with the seriously
hot guy who was looking at me as though I were dinner.

“So let’s go in,” I said, unable to control my impatience.

“Yes, my lady.” He took my hand and led me to a door. There
was no sign, no window, nothing to give away what lay beyond.

We stepped inside and a couple of burly guys in black suits
nodded at Travis. He walked past them down a corridor. I could hear music, loud
music, something beaty and thumpingly fast.

“Stop,” he said, stilling. “I want you to wear this.” He
held up a strip of black material.

“What is it?”

“A blindfold. I want you to close your eyes and see.”

“But—”

“Please, you must trust me. This is the best way for you to
understand this place.” He paused. “But you can say no, Marie. You don’t have
to submit to my every command.”

“I want to, this one anyway, if you think it’s for the
best.”

He smiled. “It is. You have other senses we must awaken,
which means removing the one you rely upon the most.”

Unease skittered over me as I allowed Travis to tie the
blindfold around my head, trapping my eyes shut. But I didn’t resist. I wanted
to please him and trusted him to not only keep me safe but to help me understand
what I wanted to know about myself.

“Now come this way. I promise I won’t let go of your hand.”
He wound his fingers with mine and my shoulder brushed the top of his arm. We
continued to walk toward the sound of the music.

Before long it was deafening. But not just deafening, it was
also booming right through my body, jostling my internal organs and pounding at
my eardrums.

We kept walking, the scent of bodies—sweaty, dancing
bodies—filtering up my nose, as did a cacophony of perfumes and colognes and another
smell, something I couldn’t put my finger on. It was a little musky, sweet but
sour, sexy too. Yes, it was definitely a sexy smell.

Someone bumped into me. I started to stumble but Travis
pulled me close into his side, switched my hand to his other and continued to
steer me forward with one arm around my waist.

It was a relief as the breeze of a door opening and closing
signaled us entering another room. The noise of the music more than halved.
That I could cope with.

“We’ll sit in here,” Travis said, guiding me to a seat. “And
you can let your body tell you everything you need to know about where you
are.”

The chair was soft, padded, leather maybe and I crossed my
ankles and sat back, hands now on my lap, Travis holding them both with one of
his. I was aware of him wrapping his other arm around my shoulders, resting on
the back of my seat, and his body moving up close, warm and reassuring against
mine.

“Now you must listen,” he said, his lips moving against the
shell of my ear. “Accept your blindness as you accepted submitting to me in
your office. Be at peace with the unknown, trust me but also trust yourself.
Marie, you can do this, you can learn to enjoy things you never thought you
would and in the process expand your mind and enhance your pleasure.”

Travis had this way of speaking that was almost hypnotic; he
had so much self-belief, absolute faith in himself and his ability to achieve
what he set out to. It came off him in waves, this confidence, and was
transported into me on his whispers.

I calmed, breathed deep and did as he asked, relaxing into
the moment, accepting I wasn’t in control and he was, and trusting him too.
Yes, I trusted him to be looking out for me, wherever the hell I was.

There were other noises, smells, movement around me. I wanted
to listen, to figure out where he’d brought me, but that would have to wait.
All I could concentrate on was his voice slipping like nectar into my mind.

“Your eyes haven’t got a clue who you should be with or how
you should be with yourself, Marie. Just let a dormant, slumbered desire wake
within you and let it be your destination. Let
me
by your guide, your
servant on this momentous journey. Have you any idea how humbling that is for
me, that you’ve given me your trust, your obedience? It is, I swear, the most
precious gift one person can give another.”

I turned, reached up, found his face and captured his cheek
in my palm. It was rough, he hadn’t shaved. “Travis,” I gasped, my stomach
twirling, my need for him spiraling out of control.

“Shh, now just listen, just feel what is going on around
you. Absorb the energy and acknowledge how wonderful and nurturing it is.”

He pulled away a little but he still held my hand, still
kept me within the circle of his arm.

I allowed the same scents as in the first, noisy room to
filter up my nose. At the same time sounds emerged. They’d been distant
initially, like mist rising on a lake, but now they became clearer. Voices but
not words, moans, gasps, a groan deep and guttural and then a slap and someone
cried out. A yelp, another slap and a moan.

God, that moan, it was male I was sure and it went straight
to my clit. Swelling the little nub and making me wriggle on my seat. I didn’t
need to see to know that it was a moan of pleasure. The yelp, that was pain, I
was certain, but the same voice had quickly released a gurgle of appreciation.

I leaned forward, hoping to hear more. Was rewarded by
noises to my left, panting and the friction of skin on skin. “Oh, yes, yes,
yes…”

I knew those words, had called them out myself on several
occasions. I gripped Travis’ hand, wanting to put it between my legs. I was
burning for his touch, for stimulation.

Another slapping sound, followed by another and another. A
cry of delight, of pain, a plea for more, to stop, more, more, more…

I knew where I was, all right. Travis had brought me to an
orgy. All around me people were having sex. The smells of their arousal, their
juices, sweat and cum filled the air. It didn’t disgust me in the slightest. It
turned me the hell on.

I parted my legs as far as I could within my dress, knowing
the hem was up around my thighs and wondering if Travis would take the hint. It
was a brazen move, sure, but hell, this lot were fucking. What harm would a
little fingering do?

“Marie,” Travis said, his mouth pressing onto my ear again.
“Can you describe what’s happening around you?”

“Fucking,” I gasped. “They’re all fucking, aren’t they?”

“How do you know?”

“I can hear them, smell them, bloody hell, I can taste them
too.” Again I squirmed, canting my hips slightly, slipping my bum on the chair.

Travis chuckled, the shift of his chest jostling me. “Would
you like to see if you’re right?”

“Yes.”

He released my hand, fiddled with the blindfold then removed
it.

I kept my eyes shut. I wasn’t sure why. Waiting for instruction?

“You can look now,” he said, taking my hand again.

I opened my eyes, peered into the relative darkness of the
room. The first thing that struck me was how pale skin is in darkness, kind of
glowing. A crescendo was being reached on my left and I stared in fascination
as a couple screwed wildly. Her legs over his shoulders as he pounded his hips
forward, dents forming in the side of his buttocks as his muscles flexed. They
came noisily and in perfect tandem. My cunt spasmed, as if mimicking the pleasure
she would be experiencing at the height of her climax.