Текст книги "Blindfold Vol. 1"

Автор книги: M. S. Parker

Соавторы: Cassie Wild
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Chapter 5

Toni

Friday evenings were for my family, but Friday nights were for me. I spent most of my time working, going to school and/or studying, so by the end of the week, I needed to unwind. Sometimes wine, a hot bath, and a good book were enough. Sometimes, I needed something more.

My favorite club was close to my minuscule apartment – and I do mean miniscule. There'd been a TV show on a few years back that had featured making the most out of some of the efficiency apartments in New York. I knew some people thought that show had exaggerated, but it hadn't.

My entire apartment could have fit in my parents' bedroom and bathroom. There was enough room for my murphy bed and a small kitchenette. My desk was the tiny little breakfast nook at the end of the kitchen counter. Clever use of vertical space gave me bookshelves and places to store my clothing, although reaching them required a step-stool since I was so damn short.

After dinner, I swung by my place to change. I couldn’t exactly wear the sort of clothes I’d wear to go dancing over to my parents, and I wasn’t going dancing in jeans and t-shirt.

The smoky blue, spaghetti strap dress went a few inches past my butt and clung to what little curves I had. It highlighted my assets and played up the fact that while my legs weren’t long, they were a damn good pair anyway.

The dress, combined with a pair of shoes that wouldn’t kill me in a matter of minutes, took all of ten minutes to change into. I swept my hair up into a loose knot, dusted on light make-up, and was out the door.

There were a few whistles and catcalls, but I ignored them all. A woman in New York had to learn how to handle ignorance, and generally, pretending the nuisance didn't exist was the best thing to do.

The club was already packed by the time I managed to make my way inside. I went straight for the dance floor, waving at a few familiar faces, but before I managed to reach them, I bumped into a broad, muscular chest.

“I’m sorry.” I had to shout over the pounding music.

A pair of deep, dark eyes met mine, and a slow, sexy smile spread across a face so sinfully handsome, my heart did a slow roll in my chest. “Please, don’t be.”

I grinned up at him. Damn, he was fine.

His dark eyes went nearly black, and that shiver of heat inside me turned into something a little more. He moved in closer and dipped his head so we didn't have to yell. At the same time, he held out a hand. “Dance with me?”

He didn’t have to ask twice.

I’d seen him around more than once and he was almost always with a different woman. That didn’t bother me. I wasn’t looking for a relationship, just some fun. And the man could dance like nobody’s business.

One dance turned into two, and I could feel the stress of the past few weeks sliding away, dissolving until there was nothing but music and rhythm and a hard, strong body that matched mine beat for beat.

The fast pace slid into a slower one, and instead of assuming, my partner gave me a questioning look. I appreciated the courtesy and moved in closer, bringing my hands up to loop around his neck. He rested his hand on my hip, his eyes still on me, and I moved in closer. The hand on my hip settled more firmly, and I rested my head on his chest.

He smelled like soap and bourbon, two scents I could appreciate on a man, and when he spun me around in a lazy twirl, I started to laugh. My feet tangled in the next moment, and I almost tripped as my eyes landed on a figure standing in a pool of light near the bar.

Half of his face was in shadow, but the rest of him...all hollows and angles and brooding eyes. He was looking right at me, and there was no mistaking that face.

Ash.

My partner steadied me, and I jerked my head around to meet his concerned gaze.

“Are you okay?” he asked, lowering his head to speak directly into my ear.

I nodded, looking back to where I thought I’d seen Ash.

But he wasn’t there.

I was imagining things. I had to be. There was no way someone like Ashford Lang would be somewhere like this. This was a club for people like me. People who actually had to work for a living.

Forcing my mouth into a smile, I moved closer to him, trying to settle back into the rhythm we'd found. “I couldn’t be better.”

I didn't know if he heard me, but judging by the glint in his eyes, he caught my meaning just fine. He slid one hand down my spine until he reached the small of my back, guiding my hips until we were moving in tandem.

The dance was slowly becoming more intimate, and it wasn’t very hard to stop thinking about what – who – I'd thought I’d seen.

Right up until I saw him again about ten minutes later.

I managed not to trip this time, instead, ducking my head and spinning myself around to press my back up against my partner’s chest. He wrapped his arm around my waist, and even as I searched for Ash, I had to appreciate the solid length of the man at my back. And one part of him was getting even more solid as I ground back against him...

Ash had disappeared.

Again.

Was he here?

Or was I imagining things?

Why would I be imagining him though? That was a question I really didn't want to think about.

Hard, calloused hands stroked down my shoulders, and I shivered a little as he moved me back around. The music changed, but I was sweating and in need of a break. My partner must have either sensed it or needed a break as much as I did, because he started to lead me off the dance floor towards the bar where I'd seen Ash. Or, at least, where I thought I'd seen Ash.

“Can I buy you a drink?” he asked, his breath hot against my ear.

“I buy my own.” I gave him a quick smile. This wasn't a date and I didn't want him to mistake it for one.

He nodded, unfazed, and flagged down the bartender.

Once we had our drinks, he bent over me so he could talk without having to actually shout. “You got a guy watching you. You know that?”

I almost spilled my drink.

Again, he steadied me, his hand curling over my elbow and staying there. “Don’t look over there yet, he’ll just get lost in the crowd.”

“You sound like you’re a pro at this.”

“I’m a cop.” He grinned at me and shrugged, taking a sip from his beer.

A cop. I studied him thoughtfully for a moment, and then shook my head. “I wouldn’t have guessed that.” Throat dry, I looked down at my vodka martini, and then took a healthy swallow.

“It’s my pretty face.” He winked and then nodded off to the side—the right side. “Glance over to my left, casual, like you’re looking for the ladies room or something,” he advised, reaching out and stroking a hand down my shoulder.

I did, trying not to think about the way his skin felt against mine. It had been a while since I'd gotten laid. Far too long.

My gaze collided with Ashford Lang.

This time, he didn’t look away.

For a beat of maybe five seconds, we stared at each other, and my heart pounded harder with each moment that ticked by. I suddenly didn't feel my dance partner's hand anymore.

Furious now, I tossed back the rest of the vodka martini, and practically slammed my glass down on the surface of the bar.

“I take it you know him.”

I looked at the sexy cop I’d been dancing with, but I wasn't really seeing him. “You could say that. I’ll be back.”

I shot up and began to make my way through the crowd.

Chapter 6

Ash

Fuck me.

She moved like sex personified. Calm, self-assured sensuality. Someone with that much fire and intensity shouldn't be allowed to move like that on top of everything else.

I still wasn’t sure why I’d followed her into the club. It definitely wasn’t my kind of scene. When I went out, it was for a specific reason, and it wasn't to make friends.

That seemed to be the main reason she was here, although I wasn't sure I liked the kind of friends she wanted to make.

The guy she was dancing with had some issues keeping his eyes – and hands – off of her, but she didn’t seem to mind. Hell, for all I knew, she’d come here to find a guy to take home and fuck him six different ways from Sunday.

The idea irritated me more than I was comfortable with. But it wasn't because I was bothered by the idea of a woman who was comfortable with her sexuality and wanted to have sex. I was bothered because when I pictured Toni spread out and naked, I was picturing her with me.

And there was no way in hell that was going to happen.

But I couldn't stop watching her. Hell, I hadn't been able to stop thinking about her from the moment she'd sized me up and told me off. At first, I'd chalked it up to me being pissed, but the first time I let myself remember my sudden urge to kiss her, I hadn't been able to put it out of my mind. I'd found myself watching her whenever she was around, making excuses to spend time with Isadora when I'd known Toni would be there. It had only been a week, but I couldn't quit thinking about her and it was driving me crazy.

She spun around and pressed back up against her partner. I watched as he caught her hips, pulled her ass snug against him. The narrow blue skirt wasn’t insanely short, but as she bent and swayed and twisted to the music, it rode up a little higher, and I could imagine how easy it would be to push it all the way up, strip away whatever fussy, frilly bit of panties she wore and drive myself inside her.

She was so petite, she’d have to fight to take me all at once.

I would fist one hand in her hair, force her to hold still as her body worked to take my cock. As her tight pussy squeezed me...

I blew out a slow, controlled breath and shoved the image out of my head.

It wasn’t going to happen.

She was Isadora’s employee.

And there was some shit in her background that didn’t exactly thrill me. It wasn’t even that she’d taken this job knowing it was only short term, although I sure as hell wasn’t please about that. Isadora had been crestfallen when I'd told her that the woman she was bubbling over about was only working for her to pay for her last six months of school.

I was still sort of stunned by the fact that the girl was going to be a psychiatrist.

She just didn’t seem…well, I couldn't say she didn’t seem smart enough or determined enough – or ballsy enough.

The private investigator I’d retained – a quiet, soft-spoken former cop by the name of Stanley Kowalski – had turned over a veritable mountain of information on her. It had taken me some time to page through it and I was still puzzled by some of it. She’d graduated high school at sixteen, even with taking advanced placement courses so that she'd been a good part of her way through a BA in psychiatry when she'd gotten her diploma. She'd also been on her way to Stanford once she'd gotten approved for all of the scholarships she'd been a shoe-in for.

And then...nothing.

She'd gone nowhere. She'd still gone to school, but she hadn't had any scholarships. Hence the reason she was working for my sister.

Kowalski postulated that her sudden change in plans was related to the mess one of her brothers had been tied up in.

That was the real reason I was pissed off.

Three of her four brothers were clean. The fourth was a felon. A felon with a record. A felon who’d done a whopping six months, and had then been let off with a slap on the wrist after he’d turned over evidence that led to the conviction of some of his 'friends.' Even after that, coming so close to getting his ass thrown behind bars for who knew how long, he still kept fucking up. More than a few minor brushes with the law.

I didn’t want somebody with that kind of history even tangentially connected to my sister.

I wanted...

My gaze flicked back to Toni and I just about shattered the glass in my hand.

She had turned her head and was staring up at her partner. I could read her desire from where I was standing. He had one arm wrapped around her waist and his expression was just as hungry as hers. The heat between the two of them should have been enough to make the room spontaneously combust.

I wanted to tear her away from him.

I wanted to pull her up against me, and feel her body move against mine.

They left the dance floor and I blew out a breath. I needed to leave. I didn't know what I expected to find, following her like this. It wasn’t solving anything. Wasn’t providing me with any easy answers.

All it was doing was make me think even more about what it would be like to have her naked and submissive...

I couldn't resist though. I stopped and risked another look. It wasn’t hard to find her, even among the tightly packed bodies. It was like she was a beacon, and my gaze was drawn straight to her. She was at the bar with the guy she’d been dancing with, but I didn’t think they were here on a date. She’d bumped into him and he’d led her onto the dance floor. Still, that had been nearly an hour ago and she hadn’t left his side since.

Her gaze swung to mine, pinning me in place.

Shit.

Even though she was too far away for me to see her eye color, I knew that precise shade of blue so well I could still see it. She was staring straight at me and for a span of maybe five seconds, I couldn’t look away.

I knew the very moment when her speculation gave way to irritation, then anger.

Fuck.

She surged upright and started toward me.

Shit.

The crowd shifted and I shifted with it.

If I stayed, I had a feeling I’d do something I’d regret…like put my hands on her.

And then my mouth...

***

The cool elegance of Olympus wrapped around me, a startling contrast to the hot, pulsing place I’d left behind.

Part of me wished I hadn’t left.

Part of me was playing out exactly what would have happened if I’d stayed there and waited for Toni to fight her way through the bodies toward me. I was a good judge of character and I'd spent enough time observing her over the last week to have a pretty good idea of what would've happened when she'd reached me.

She would have told me off, her pale skin flushing, eyes sparking. I would have listened, and it would have amused me and pissed me off at the same time. Right up until she pushed too far, and then I would have snapped at her. Then she would have shouted back, and I would have grabbed her, wrapping my hand in that glorious hair as I finally shut her up the way I'd wanted to since almost the first moment I'd seen her.

Would she moan when I kissed her? Shiver?

Would she freak out and back away? Slap me?

I didn’t know, but I was guessing that last one was the most likely option.

The light in the club changed as I settled down at a table near the railing on the upper level and I looked down at the stage below. A show was getting ready to start.

Bored already despite the fact that I'd just arrived, I looked around.

I didn’t want to watch some Dom spank or whip his – or her – chosen pet into submission. Nor was I in the mood for a public orgy or any of the exhibitionism that I usually found entertaining.

I wasn't even sure why I'd come here, but then a familiar form caught my eye. Contessa Reyes, with her sleek cap of black hair and pale gold eyes, was one of the loveliest women I’d ever seen. She was also one of my preferred subs because she knew exactly how to behave.

She saw me and bowed her head, looking up at me from beneath her thick lashes. The perfect submissive pose. My body automatically responded.

I nodded at the empty seat in front of me and a few moments later, she sat down, crossing one leg over the other. Unlike most of the subs here, she wasn’t dressed in leather, nor was she wearing a skirt so short I didn’t have to guess if she’d gone for a Brazilian. I liked my women submissive, but there were some styles that the bdsm set went for that I didn't find particularly attractive.

To each their own though.

Contessa wore a long, sleek skirt that went all the way down to her ankles but there was a slit in it that went halfway up her left thigh. The slit allowed me to see the vicious red of her boots, a red that echoed the corset she wore. Her dynamite curves practically poured out of the device, although I knew from experience, those curves were all natural. Large breasts, round, lush hips and the kind of ass that filled a man’s hands, Contessa looked like a pin-up from the forties.

And she was the complete opposite of Toni, which was exactly what I needed to get the tiny redhead out of my mind.

“I haven’t seen you here in a while,” she said, her words tinged with her Dominican accent.

“I've been busy.”

She reached out, her eyes seeking permission before she touched me. I gave it with a single nod.

Her fingers brushed across my knee. “You look tense, Sir. May I help with that?”

Instead of answering, I stood up and held out my hand.

In less than five minutes, we were in a private room and Contessa was on her knees in front of me.

It wasn’t her I was seeing though.

It was a diminutive redhead with a mouth I was dying to taste.

Chapter 7

Toni

“So…are you really a cop?”

My dance partner’s name was Luke McCoy, and we’d left the club ten minutes ago.

Before we'd gone, I’d traded out my heels for the little fold-up shoes I kept tucked inside my palm-sized purse. Whoever thought those up needed to be nominated for sainthood. Luke had taken my shoes as I traded them out and was still carrying them for me. Not only did he dance like a dream, he had to be one of the sweetest, sexiest guys I’d come across in a long time.

If I'd been looking for a relationship, he'd be a catch. He was a catch for just one night as it was.

“Really.” His eyes gleamed in the darkness and he grinned at me, a nice, easy smile. “Want to see my badge?” He wiggled his eyebrows. “Handcuffs?”

I laughed. “No. I don’t think that’s necessary. Although, I guess I could shoot your name off to my brothers. They know half the cops in the city.”

“I imagine.” He shifted his gaze to stare straight ahead, his posture stiffening slightly. “I…ah. Well, I've had a few run-ins with your older brother, Vic.”

I tensed, waiting for what inevitably came next.

Luke glanced over at me and shrugged. “What he’s done is his business, his problem. None of yours. But I’d seen you around before, and when you told me your name, I figured out why you looked familiar.” He paused, then added, “If you’d rather me just drop you off...”

“No.” Tugging him to a halt, I smiled at him. “I’ve...well, I’ve gotten use to people making snap judgements about me based off him. It’s nice to not have to put up with it.”

Luke stared down at me, and when he lifted a hand to cup my face, my heart started to race. When he lowered his head to brush his lips against mine, my breath caught, then squeezed inside my lungs.

Damn.

We ended up backing into one of the doorways of a nearby business, dark now, the closed sign telling us when we could find them open again. His hands held my face as he came back for another taste, and then another, his tongue slowly exploring my mouth even as I slid mine into his. I caught his tongue between my teeth and bit him gently, whimpering as he growled in his throat and pressed his body closer.

His cock was hard against my belly and I moaned as he rocked his hips.

He lifted his head, staring down at me and I licked my lips, enjoying the taste he'd left there. Scotch...and him.

“Luke.” My voice was breathless and I could feel my pulse pounding in my chest.

He pressed his mouth to my neck and I arched my head to the side, shivering as stubble rasped against sensitive skin.

“Do you want to come back to my place?”

At first, he didn’t reply, but then he straightened, looking at me with eyes that seemed to burn. “I can’t think of anything I’d like more. But…”

He stroked a hand down and gripped my hip. Through the material of my dress, his thumb stroked, around and around, stoking the heat inside me.

“I'm going to be upfront about this. I won’t call you. You won’t see me again, except maybe on the dance floor. I don't do repeats.”

“That sounds about perfect.”

***

We practically stumbled inside my apartment, hands and mouths all over each other. He was still kicking the door closed when I turned on him and grabbed the hem of his shirt, yanking upward. I wanted to see if he looked as good without it as he did with it.

Damn. He did.

His mouth closed over mine the second the shirt cleared his head, and I found myself pinned between him and the door. That suited me just fine. It was even better when he caught my hips and lifted me, bracing my weight using only his body. My dress rucked up around my waist as his hand worked its way between us. I heard his zipper, then felt his finger brush over the crotch of my panties before pulling it aside.

Foil tore and I whimpered as I felt the head of his cock pressing against me.

“Yes, please,” I gasped out.

His mouth gentled on mine and I tangled my hands in his hair.

He eased into me, one hand stroking up my thigh as he lifted his head, staring into my eyes. He was big and thick and I winced a little as I worked to accommodate him. It was a delicious kind of pain and it only made me wetter. And that made it easier to take him.

I hadn't expected him to take it easy. Most guys who wanted one-night stands weren't the slow and sweet type. Especially not guys who I fully expected to be fucking me against the door.

Fuck that.

If I'd wanted tender, I'd have picked up a guy at an art gallery or wherever the hell guys like that hung out.

I twisted myself on the thick length stretching me, forcing him into me faster. He tensed, air hissing between his teeth as I used the arms around his neck as leverage to ride him. He moved harder when I started to whimper every time I dropped my body onto him, driving him deeper.

When I sank my nails into his shoulder, he made a rough noise, his hips jerking up. I cried out and Luke growled. I felt it click for him and he began to slam into me, driving me back against the door until I knew I was going to have bruises.

Just before I was ready to come, he stumbled us backwards towards the bed. It was too small for both of us, but I solved that problem by using my weight to drop us backwards so I landed on top of him. I wailed as it drove the tip of him into the end of me.

“You’re going to kill me,” Luke gasped, his teeth flashing in the darkness.

“You’ll die a happy man.” I could barely get the words out. Every nerve in my body felt like it was on fire.

He reached up and plucked at my nipples, the pressure light, gentle, using me to move. Watching him through slitted eyes, I started to ride him faster, a burning ache inside me spreading and widening until it was a void.

As if sensing my frustration, Luke twisted and flipped me over. He pulled back and I groaned, but all he did was pull me onto my hands and knees. When he drove into me this time, he wasn't gentle and I shuddered.

Eyes closed, I braced myself for another thrust and this one was hard enough to make me cry out.

My mind slid away and sensation took over.

Need took over.

I found myself thinking…dreaming…needing as I pushed back against him.

It wasn’t Luke’s hands on me now.

It was Ash’s.

He’d come up to me in the club. Touched me.

And now he was in bed with me.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

A part of me was protesting, but it was a small part of me.

But it felt so right. I climaxed with a hoarse cry and Luke continued to pound away at me, fingers digging into my hips. I was still convulsing from my first climax when another started and sent me flying, all thoughts of Luke and Ash disappearing as I focused only on the pleasure.