Perception (10 page)

He chuckled. “I wasn’t talking about
me. I was talking about you. What are
your
hard limits?” he asked,
turning the question back on her.

God, she’d given some thought to
what her hard limits were while she’d been pacing her living room, trying to
talk herself out of this. She knew she should have at least one, maybe two, but
she hadn’t come up with any. Her rationale had been that if she was going to do
this, then she wanted to go all in with this man. She wanted to give herself
over to him completely, to let him take control. It was the only way to prove
to them both that this was not what she wanted.

She’d been unable to come up with
anything she refused to do because ultimately, she trusted him; there was no
doubt about that. They’d been friends for so long, she knew everything there
was to know about him. He would never hurt her. Never.

“I don’t have any,” she finally
said, her breath coming out in a rush.

“None at all?” he asked skeptically.

“None,” she confirmed.

“So you’re good with sex in public?
Being naked at the club? Me using toys on you? Floggers, canes, whips?”

Those were just a handful of things
she knew he was really thinking about. “I have no hard limits,” she reiterated
again.

“Drop the skirt,” he commanded, his
tone gruffer than before.

Releasing the material from her
fist, she allowed her skirt to slide down her legs. Once it pooled at her feet,
she stepped out of it, moving closer to Xander.

“Have I told you how fucking
beautiful you are?” he asked.

Mercedes wasn’t sure whether he’d
meant to say the words out loud, but she answered him anyway. “No.”

“Fuck,” he muttered. “You steal my
breath, Mercedes.”

Holy shit. The honesty in his tone
nearly had her knees going weak beneath her. She’d never heard him talk like
that. Not to anyone. Ever.

Fearing that he was trying to
distract her, Mercedes reminded herself that she was still waiting for an
answer.

“Do we have a deal?” she repeated as
she waited for his next instruction.

“Take off the bra,” he told her, his
eyes locked with hers.

Without hesitation, Mercedes reached
up and unhooked the front clasp of her bra, promptly dropping it to the floor.
Xander hadn’t answered her yet, not verbally anyway, but she could see his
response in his eyes.

They were going to do this. They
were going to submit to one another.

It was only a matter of time.

Xander
was doing his best to focus on the conversation and less on the dazzling,
nearly naked woman in front of him. It wasn’t easy. Even if he prided himself
on his ability to keep his composure, there were still some temptations that
weren’t easy to ignore. Mercedes was just such temptation.

While
he contemplated his answer to her question, he was busy grazing her incredible
curves with his eyes, wanting to put his hands on her, to feel once again how
soft her skin was. To cup her breasts in his hands. He wanted to put his mouth
on her, to suck her nipples until she was writhing beneath him, begging for
more.

He
would’ve assumed that just the idea of submitting to anyone, let alone in
public, would’ve sent his dick into hiding, but truthfully that wasn’t the
case. Or maybe it was the fact that Mercedes had told him she didn’t have any
hard limits. That, in itself, was enough to make him damn near lose his mind.

To
know that she trusted him enough to know he’d only push her as far as he felt
she could go, well, it was humbling.

“Just
to confirm,” he said as he took one step closer. “You’ll give yourself over to
me for five full days. Starting now. No hard limits. And in return, I have to
agree to submit to you on two occasions. Once at Devotion, the other at a time
and place of your choosing?”

He
knew what she had up her sleeve. She was going to play her card in a public
place that would put him fully on display. Somewhere that might intimidate him.
If she believed he wasn’t on to her plan, she was sadly mistaken. He’d just
recently asked her to join him at the opening of Alluring Indulgence Resort,
and though it wasn’t planned for roughly six more months, it was clear she was
thinking that would be her venue of choice.

Not
that he really gave a shit. He knew the Walkers would likely find it amusing,
but that was the least of his worries.

“That’s
correct,” she said on a breath, her eyes still locked with his.

“Remove
your panties,” he instructed, not looking away.

Without
reservation, Mercedes reached down and slid the silky white panties down her
legs, stepping out of them as well which put her a mere foot or so away from
him.

His
eyes locked on the patch of dark hair between her legs, then he trailed up over
her generous hips, admiring the small tattoo he’d only been privy to when he
had seen her playing at the club. He continued upward, over gently rounded
belly, past her bountiful breasts. He was distracted briefly by the ornate
tattoo that encircled her entire arm from her shoulder down to her elbow. He’d
always loved that tattoo. She’d gotten it before he met her, and according to
her, it was a reminder of all that she’d been through. The flower represented
her, and the intricate detail around it was the chaos she’d lived in since she
was younger. As with a lot of her personal details, whenever he would ask, she
would shrug him off, telling him it wasn’t important. Little did she know, but
everything about her was important to him. And she should know that by now
because he’d never let her retreat from him before because he was her friend.
He was in her corner, no matter what.

He
looked up, meeting her gaze head on.

He
wanted to tell her that they had a deal. He wanted to tell her that he’d pretty
much do anything for this chance. For him, it was so much more than getting her
to submit to him. He’d wanted Mercedes for so long, had ignored that hunger and
pretended he could handle merely friendship. But this woman was all he’d ever
wanted in one magnificent, enticing package.

He
had to have her.

And
if it meant he’d have to submit in front of a crowd of people just to prove
himself to her, then so be it.

“Please
tell me we have a deal,” she whispered, her arms still hanging down to her
sides.

“We
do,” he finally conceded, unable to keep his hands off of her a moment longer.

Taking
one step forward, he cupped both of her shoulders, skimming his hands down her
arms and then back up. She was warm and soft. His self-restraint was being
tested because as far as Xander was concerned, he hadn’t waited just a few
minutes for her to get undressed, to stand before him completely and utterly
vulnerable.

No,
this certainly wasn’t something he’d come up with on the fly. He’d been waiting
for this for years.

“Turn
around.”

Mercedes
turned to face away from him, giving Xander a perfect view of her back and her
ass. He took a moment to skim over her soft skin, ensuring that there weren’t any
marks left from their scene the night before. Although he’d double and triple
checked prior to them leaving Devotion last night, he couldn’t help himself
now.

She
was flawless. Perfect in every way.

For a
man his size, he was always conscientious about the women he was with. He
didn’t pursue tiny women. He had no interest in being gentle which meant he
needed a woman who could handle him. Mercedes was that woman.

Moving
up against her, Xander reached for her hands, linking their fingers and lifting
her arms. “Put your hands around my neck,” he advised, leaning forward which
was the only way she’d be able to reach around him.

Her
fingers were cool against the overheated skin of his neck. He closed his eyes briefly,
enjoying the feel of her touch.

Pressing
his lips to the curve of her neck and shoulder, Xander slid his hands over her
hips, her waist, higher until he cupped her breasts in his hands.

“You
have such beautiful breasts,” he mumbled as he lifted them. “Perfect pink
nipples that will look so pretty clamped.”

Her
body tensed briefly, but Xander didn’t allow it to throw him off course.
Pinching her nipples, he kissed her neck again. “But not yet. First, I want you
to look up into that mirror.”

Xander
glanced up to meet her gaze in the oversized cheval mirror that his designer
had picked out, saying something about suiting his personality. For him, it had
always been just a mirror. But right now, it was a portal to ecstasy.

“For
the next five days, I’m going to own you. Every part of you. Do you agree?”

Mercedes
only nodded, but her eyes never left his.

“Answer
me,” he insisted, keeping his tone low. “That’s one thing I won’t compromise
on. You will tell me what you’re feeling. Especially when I ask.”

“Yes,”
she whispered. “For five days, you’ll own me.”

Xander
wasn’t a praying man, but right then and there, he sent up a silent plea that
five days would turn into much, much longer.

~*~*~*~

Mercedes
watched the images in the mirror closely. Xander’s body pressed up against her
back, his face serious as he observed her in the reflective glass. What she saw
wasn’t at all what she expected to see.

There,
reflecting back at her, was a naked woman – her – but she saw more than just an
abundantly curvy body that she knew was a far cry from perfect. Not that she’d
ever cared about perfection. She liked who she was, how she looked, her inner
strength. But right now, with Xander’s big hands grazing over her skin, the
fire she saw in his gaze, well, it made her feel incredibly feminine and…
powerful.

How
could that possibly be the case when for the last ten minutes she’d undressed
in front of him at his command. Could it be the way he was looking at her? Or
possibly the way his hands drifted over her skin reverently, like he was
cherishing every touch.

Whatever
it was, it was heady. Enough to make her breath lodge in her throat.

He
didn’t appear to be in a hurry, didn’t seem to need more than what they were
sharing right at that moment and she felt an exhilarating rush of lust burst in
her bloodstream.

She’d
had a hard time admitting that he would own her for the next five days. In
fact, she’d said the words while, at the same time, she was thinking that she’d
never last that long. But the longer she stood there, the more Xander touched
her, all while their eyes met briefly in the mirror, she knew he had won before
the game ever even began.

She
may never truly submit, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to fall for him.

“I
want to touch you,” Xander mumbled against her ear.

He
was touching her, wasn’t he?
She didn’t speak the words out loud though.

“Come
here.”

As
he stood up straight again, her hands fell from around his neck. She let her
arms hang down at her sides while she glimpsed the woman in the mirror one last
time. She couldn’t help but wonder whether she would recognize the woman by the
end of the weekend. She was sure if Xander had anything to say about it, she
would.

Mercedes
took Xander’s hand when he held his out to her. Following behind him, she allowed
him to lead her to his bed. Seriously? Was he going to get down to business so
quickly? That wasn’t like him at all.

“Sit,”
he said, motioning toward an oversized cedar chest that sat at the foot of the
bed.

Not
meeting his gaze, Mercedes sat as instructed, her knees tightly clamped
together in front of her while she kept her arms in close to her body, suddenly
feeling incredibly modest.

She
watched as Xander moved across the room. When he grabbed a chair and returned
to set it in front of her, she wondered what he was going to do. Surely if he
wanted to have a conversation, he could afford her a measure of dignity and
allow her to get dressed.

“Spread
your legs,” he insisted.

Ok,
so apparently her dignity just took a dive out the window. It was a twenty
story drop. There was no way it would be in tact when she finally got around to
needing it again.

Mercedes’s
nerves were suddenly at war inside of her.

Swallowing
hard, she stared back at Xander. She could do this. She knew she could. She
would just need to pretend that this was a lesson, a demonstration of sorts,
one that she could use when she was the one in control again. It wasn’t like
she didn’t have an idea what he was going to do. She’d done the same to her
subs multiple times.

Squaring
her shoulders and straightening her spine, she spread her legs, keeping her
attention focused on Xander’s handsome face.

“Very
pretty,” he remarked, his eyes sliding down her body and then stalling between
her now spread thighs.

She
fought the urge to snap her knees closed.

You
can do this
, she
reminded herself.

Xander
inched the chair closer to her, closing the gap between them.

“Put
your feet on my knees.”

Ok,
so that was going to be an awkward position. Not wanting him to see the
mortification that was probably clearly written on her face, she avoided his
eyes by looking directly at his chest as she did as she was told.

With
her feet resting on his spread knees, she had to lean back on her hands to hold
her upper body up, while her pussy was on full display for him, and he was
taking every opportunity to glance between her legs.

She
was not going to survive this.

“I’m
going to shave you later,” he informed her, one finger gently grazing the dark
curls at the apex of her thighs.

Her first
instinct was to argue. It wasn’t that she was against the idea because she was
usually bare down there, but recently, she’d decided to do something different.
Translated to: she’d gotten lazy and rushing out to the spa to get waxed hadn’t
been high on her priority list. She preferred to be bare, so in some sense, she
was still in control. Not that she would tell him as much.

Remembering
that he’d be making her decisions for the next five days per their agreement,
she didn’t say a word.

“I
want us to lay out the rules, Mercedes,” Xander said, surprising her with the
topic.

Here
she was, splayed wide for him, and he really wanted to have a civil
conversation? She was going to lose it, she knew it.

Sucking
in a deep breath, she tilted her chin up, ignoring the fact that he’d put her
in an incredibly vulnerable position. “What are the rules?”

If
she weren’t mistaken, Xander’s lips tilted slightly into one of those sexy
smirks of his.

He
was pressing his luck.

“For
four nights, you will sleep in my bed.”

“But
–”

“No
buts,” he argued. “Once I’m finished, you can tell me your thoughts and we’ll
discuss.”

God,
he sounded like such a fucking Dom.

“Fine,”
she retorted sarcastically.

Xander’s
hand lifted, and before she could react, he smacked her splayed pussy, sending
a zing of heated pleasure racing through her. She moaned.

Oh,
God. She actually moaned.

Heat
suffused her face, but this time it was embarrassment that lay claim to her
body. The body that betrayed her with such an enthusiastic reaction to his
intimate touch.