can't admit why I made the gesture or how everything but my brain is enthusiastically screaming my acquiescence.
Rule number 6 -- Know the rules of the game, the stakes and the quitting time.
"What do you require?"
"Thirty days of you." His hand eases over the swell of my stomach to find my breast, arousing the nipple once more to a sharp pucker. He kisses below my ear, his tongue sliding against the skin. "Whenever I want you. However I want."
Finding the nipple erect, he manipulates it, pinching and tugging until my hips move in the direction of his hand. "I want your sweet, wet cunt and lush ass."
His hand captures my chin and then he pulls my face toward his. "I need this oh-so-fuckable mouth quivering around my cock."
He kisses me again, his tongue pushing forcefully past my lips to sweep against my upper palate. His fingers knot in my hair, drawing me deeper into the kiss. Heat unfurls across my chest and hips. My pussy, wet and wanting, twists around nothing, aching in a way I have never experienced.
Panic douses the heat and I push at his chest. The force of his grip eases but he doesn't release me completely, merely allows me to come up for air.
"You're saying you will save Rose if I have sex with you for a month? Is that right?"
"I'm saying I'll do everything within my power to save Rose from Solandro. I will make your arrest warrant go away and you and Tommy will have whatever you want, within reason, during that period -- but I'm not asking for sex." Something unnameable flickers across his beautiful face and then he closes his eyes. "I'm asking for complete submission, for things you likely haven't experienced, Marie."
That is a given. I have never experienced a kiss like Luke's, never had a man inside me, never had a man's mouth so close to that swollen and aching juncture of my thighs or had his hands teasing my breasts. We already are far beyond my experience level, but I can't tell Masters.
He won't believe me.
"I'm growing impatient, baby." His lips brush along my jaw as his hand squeezes my breast. "Tell me you agree."
Eyes closed, my whole body shaking with the weight of Rose's life and my own lust, I answer.
"Yes."
**********
I return to the penthouse with Luke. He deposits me in an opulent bedroom furnished in the same dark colors and wood as his office. In the adjoining bathroom, he draws me a bath, telling me I need to sleep afterward. I am still standing completely stunned and just inside the bedroom door when the water is ready.
"You've been awake and stressed an entire day, Marie." He cups my face with both hands and brushes his lips across mine. "I want you relaxed and rested so you can enjoy our time together."
Nodding, I watch him leave. He is a complete enigma. Rich and powerful, he is manipulating me into a sexual relationship in which I must agree to his every demand. Yet he wants me to enjoy it. Chances are, I will. He drives my body crazy with the lightest touch. Rich, power, and sexy as hell, he can also act kind and thoughtful -- the tea at breakfast was the same blend as the loose bags in my purse and I don't think that was a coincidence.
Alone and naked, I sink into the water. My hands work on auto-pilot to clean my body while my mind spars with shadows. Again and again, I circle back to the same conclusion -- I want Luke, but I can't trust him.
Too tired to keep fighting the situation, I finish the bath, wrap an oversized towel around me and return to the bedroom. In my absence, someone has placed a big, fluffy white robe on the bed and a semi-transparent, pearl colored baby doll nightgown. I lift the robe and nightgown in search of at least underwear, but there is nothing more.
I examine the baby doll. The fabric is satiny smooth but iridescent. On the bed and in my hands, it is lovely and elegant, but at some point it has to go on my body. Standing with my back to the mirrored dresser, I pull the nightgown over my head. The hem falls slightly above the very top of
Charna Halpern, Del Close, Kim Johnson