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  We meet up with Robert and Sarah from the local office in L.A. Paul has already briefed them and they know how they should play it tonight. I feel better, knowing everything is in control, but we have tomorrow to continue discussions if things do not go well. I have back-to-back meetings arranged already, but they can be canceled if need be.

  But my good feeling about the evening does not last long. It lasts only until the BTGRM team show up with the late addition to their contingent. It’s my ex. Mercia.

  Have she and John, the CEO from BTGRM, cooked up this whole thing to get at me? She is all over him, as if that would bother me. But she knows far too much about what gets me riled. And her new friend is using every bit of that insider knowledge to his advantage.

  Is she trying to exact her revenge for me not falling to pieces when she divorced me? Was my lack of public sorrow not good for her image? That bitch! I see Paul signaling to me to cool it when my hackles rise at some comment one of the BTGRM team makes that hits too close to home.

  “Gentlemen,” he says, “maybe we should just enjoy our dinner and continue this discussion tomorrow.”

  And thankfully, there is general agreement that the meal and wine are far too fine to be spoiled by business. But I’m seething inside.

  CHAPTER 13

  Holly

  After a night going over and over the thought of Reid and Friday, and resisting any temptation to touch myself as if he was in the room watching me, I call my friend Tanya to fill her in on what’s been going on. Not in detail. I can’t share that with anyone. But in general.

  “You go, girl,” she says. “You’ve always had a crush on him.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “The way you get all dreamy whenever you’ve been on a visit to his house. And now you’re living there. With him. And you’ve kissed him.”

  “You don’t think he’s just using me because I’m here, do you?”

  “I don’t know him, Holly. What do you think? If you’re not sure, wait a while; but not too long—a nice, experienced man for your first. That has to be better than Will Brown at high school, who was mine.” She makes an audible shudder. “What was I thinking? I could never look him in the face again after that.”

  “I worry it will all go wrong with Reid and we’ll be awkward with each other if I sleep with him.”

  “You think he’d be awkward with you?”

  I think about it a moment. “Not really. I’m the only one that will be awkward, I’m pretty sure.”

  “So get over yourself. He sounds like he’d be good for you.”

  “Yeah!” I go all dreamy again. “It was good.”

  “Good? Holly Jamieson, you already…”

  “No, we didn’t get that far.”

  “Define good then. What was good?”

  I can see she’ll drum it out of me eventually. Tanya never gives up until she has the truth. I blame it on her job on the local newspaper. She’s training to be a journalist and I can tell she’ll go far, if managing to extract the truth from me is anything to go by. “Good in that he gave me, you know, an orgasm.”

  “Without coming himself, you mean?”

  “Yes.”

  “Wow, you’ve got to hang onto him. There are not that many men like that around here. Ask me how I know. I think I’ve dated every selfish one of them. Well, at least ten. That’s enough of a sample size.” She giggles. “Sleep with Reid and you can add to the experimental data, a service to womankind.”

  “He’s the only one I’ve ever wanted.”

  “I have to meet this god of all men sometime. Invite me around. Introduce me to his friends. Maybe the unselfish lovers all congregate in groups and only come out in the dead of night in secret.”

  *

  Reid is different on the phone when he calls later, less flirty. He talks to Jack and Katie and they don’t appear to notice any difference, but I do.

  “Jack and Katie sound like they enjoyed the roller rink,” he says.

  “I secretly enjoyed it too,” I say. “It’s years since I’ve been. How was your day?”

  “Tough meeting last night and today,” he says. “I had to do a lot of damage control. More meetings tomorrow. It will be good to be home.”

  “It will be good to have you back.”

  He seems distracted. He doesn’t ask if the twins are in the room or talk dirty to me or ask me if I obeyed him or threaten to punish me.

  I feel a bit down when he breaks off the call. All he says is, “See you tomorrow. I had better get back to it.” I know he’s busy, but I was looking forward to speaking to him again, and for more than a discussion on meetings and roller rinks

  Does he even remember what he told me to do?

  I don’t know.

  *

  By the time Friday night rolls around, I feel both anxious about his return and silly doing something that he only mentioned once, so I don’t wear my carefully laundered and pressed red dress or leave off my panties.

  The minute I hear his key in the door, I wonder if I made a mistake.

  “You didn’t wear your red dress,” he says, as he kisses me hello, a soft brush of his lips on my cheek. “Everything okay with the twins?”

  “Yes, they’re fine.”

  “Am I in the doghouse, then?”

  “I thought you were kidding.”

  “I wasn’t. Not about your dress and not about the panties or punishment, either.” His eyes grow dark looking at me and his mood has switched to exactly how it was on the phone, except now he is right here beside me.

  If it was anyone but Reid, I might feel threatened by the darkness in his eyes, the commanding tone of his words. But I know what he wants, and I’m sure it’s not to do me harm. Far from it.

  I can hardly breathe. “I could put my dress on now.”

  “Bring it here,” he says, his voice low and rough.

  I know exactly where the red dress is, given I’ve been taking it in and out of the closet all evening wondering if I should wear it or not.

  I go upstairs to fetch it and take it back to the hall.

  “I want to see you in it,” he says. “Put it on.”

  I gasp. He can’t mean…

  “Yes, I mean here.”

  “The kids…”

  “I assume they are asleep, otherwise they’d have come bounding down here to say hello.”

  “What if they wake up?”

  “You’d better get into it, then, before they do.”

  He takes the dress from me and stands back, his eyes on mine. I can’t help wanting to do as he says, to feel the thrill of following his instructions, the slight shame in the submissiveness of it, of unbuttoning my blouse in front of him and letting him watch. I take it off and leave it on the chair by the hall table.

  I’m acutely conscious of everything, the soft light from the lamp, the scent of the flowers in a vase on the glass surface, the matte cream surface of the walls, the bright artwork. It’s as if I’m in slow motion moving toward whatever fate has in store. My nipples are poking through the thin satiny fabric of my bra, begging for attention. I know I’m wet.

  I undo the button and zipper on my jeans and slide them down my legs, stepping out of them. I don’t bother to pick them up.

  I reach toward him for the dress, but he grabs my hand and won’t let me take what I want. “And the rest.” His voice is quiet, almost growly.

  My sharp intake of breath doesn’t deter him. He doesn’t move, just looks at me as if he expects me to comply, not taking his eyes from me.

  I feel my pulse in my throat. Can he can see it? Is he even looking there? Is he holding his breath, as I am?

  Heart thudding, I reach behind and unhook my bra, then gradually pull the straps from my shoulders. I hardly dare let go. But he’s watching me closely. “I’m waiting,” he says, softly. So I let the bra fall away from my breasts to the ground.

  “Beautiful,” he says.

  “My dress…”

  “Not y
et. You haven’t finished. Do this for me, Holly. Like I asked.”

  His encouragement gives me permission. I hook my fingers in the sides of my panties and slowly push them down to my thighs and then down farther to my knees where they fall in a pool at my feet and I step out of them. I am naked for him.

  “Hand me your panties,” he says.

  I bend to retrieve them from the floor and hand them over to him. I can feel my face scarlet and I’m panting a little, as if I just ran for a bus. But I haven’t moved from the spot in the hall for what feels like an hour, though it can be no more than a few minutes.

  “Now then.” He puts the dress over my head and helps me into it. I stand there feeling the cool fabric against my hard nipples, the air between my legs making me aware of my nakedness beneath the dress.

  He raises my panties to his nose as I arrange my dress, and I squirm with embarrassment at his gesture. “Mmmh,” he says. “It would have been easier on you if you had just done as I asked; then I wouldn’t have to punish you.”

  “Punish me?” In truth, I know exactly what he means, what he meant the first time he said it. It feels like I should protest, but the whole idea just makes me hot. I clasp my legs together, hyper-aware of every sensitive part of my body, as if all my nerve endings have come out to play at once.

  “Yes.” He runs his hand over my behind, smoothing the fabric of my dress over it. “But only if you like it. Do you like it?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “We’ll have to find out then, won’t we? But not tonight. Not with the kids around. Only when I can turn you over my knee and give your naked ass my full, undivided attention.”

  CHAPTER 14

  Reid

  I’ve never seen her looking more beautiful or more vulnerable. She makes a sound in her throat when I talk about putting her over my knee that makes my cock stiffen. I love that she doesn’t protest at the idea of being punished. I hope she likes it, but I already decided on my way home it’s not a deal breaker. Nothing is a deal breaker with her. I want to make her happy. Whatever that takes.

  I kiss her, my hands finding their way under her dress, running up the back of her thighs to cup her bare behind, feeling the round, soft globes in my palms.

  My cock is threatening to burst through my pants, so hard she must feel it digging into her, showing how much I want her, how much I have to give her when I make her mine.

  “It’s time,” I tell her. “It’s time I took you to bed. I’m going to look in on the children, but I’ll only be a minute. Don’t go anywhere.”

  I kiss her again. It turns out I don’t want to leave her here in the hall for even a moment. “Think I’ll have to take you with me.” I grab her hand and we go upstairs to see the kids so I can kiss their sweet faces. Katie hardly stirs, but Jack opens his eyes. “Daddy,” he says. “You’re back. And Holly.”

  “Yes, I’m back, safe and sound. Back to sleep now. I’ll see you in the morning. If you’re a good boy, I’ll make you pancakes for breakfast.”

  “Holly makes great waffles.”

  “Does she, now? Maybe I’ll get Holly to make us all waffles, then. Night night.”

  “Night night.” He closes his eyes, and I stroke his small head.

  “They look so tiny in their beds,” Holly whispers. I love that she is looking after them, that they like her.

  “And then so wild and crazy when they’re running around,” I say, as we leave them to sleep and close the bedroom door.

  She smiles. “Tell me about it. Some old police movie was showing on TV today, and we ended up playing cops and robbers.”

  “Sounds a bit like my day at work. Were you a cop or a robber?”

  “We were all cops; the robbers were hiding behind the couch.”

  “I might hide behind the couch faced with the three of you after me. But I’ve never seen anyone look less like a hardened detective in pursuit of a criminal than you do tonight. You are definitely all girl.”

  “Girls can be hardened detectives, too.”

  “There’s nothing hard about you.”

  “What makes you say that?” she teases.

  “This.”

  CHAPTER 15

  Holly

  Reid runs his fingers over my nipple, which is threatening to break through my dress. “Maybe I was wrong about hard.”

  I gulp, not daring to speak.

  “Bedroom,” he says. “I want you in my bed.” He watches me with dark, hooded eyes, loaded with questions. But I take his hand and he leads me along to his room.

  He shuts the door behind us and turns the lock, which somehow startles me.

  “The kids,” he says. “Coming across you naked in the hall is one thing, but I want to fuck you so bad right now, they won’t understand what the hell is going on if they see that.”

  I can’t help a soft moan escaping my lips. I don’t want to put him off. I can’t let him know how inexperienced I am, but I’m not sure I can hide it.

  “If you don’t want this, tell me now.”

  “I want this.” I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything as much.

  “Good,” he says and swoops down to kiss me with such passion we end up slammed against the solid bedroom door, the thing rattling in its frame from our need for each other. I feel his cock hard against me through the thin fabric of my dress and reach for him, but he catches my hand, and then my other one, holding them above my head, as his mouth continues to plunder mine and his hard cock grinds into my belly.

  We pull apart, panting, catching our breath, and he leads me over to the bed and sits down, switching on one of the bedside lamps.

  “Take the dress off,” he says, pulling up the hem as if I wouldn’t know how to start removing it. “I want you naked again.”

  I peel it off and leave it on the floor beside me. I can’t look up. I sense his eyes are all over me, taking in my body. And when I do glance at him, his gaze is so intense, I want to cover up, but when I move my hands, he says “Don’t” and stops me in my tracks.

  He holds out a hand to me and pulls me toward him so I am between his legs and he buries his face between my breasts. “You are so fucking beautiful,” he says, his breath hot against my naked flesh, my nipples painfully tight. He takes a nipple in his mouth, sucking hard and doling out teasing nips with his teeth until my fingers are frantic in his hair, not knowing whether to push him away or ask for more.

  But just as it’s getting too much, he stops to plant a trail of soft kisses down my stomach, pulling me down onto the bed beside him and slides his hands up my legs, holding my thighs apart. There’s a low growl from his throat and his mouth is on me there, so light and delicate, teasing me, making me moan out wordless sounds, begging for more.

  “Patience,” he says, increasing the pressure. “I want to taste every part of you. We have all night. Don’t worry, I’m going to fuck you so hard you won’t be able to move tomorrow.”

  I gasp, but the brief frisson of fear is taken over by the action of his mouth on me. He holds open my folds and toys with my clit, running his tongue around the sensitive bud, finding the exact place to drive me insane, to make me beg, calling out his name.

  And then he flicks the tips of his tongue back and forth over my engorged nub harder and faster until I’m completely unraveled. I don’t know which way is up or down, inside or out. I am undone, my limbs shaking against the rasp on his face as I come.

  When I open my eyes, I look at him, shyly, aware of how that must have looked. Did I really beg him for more?

  But he’s smiling at me and pulling off his shirt and for the first time I’m treated to the broad expanse of his naked chest, the smattering of hair, his beautiful, well-defined, lickable abs, the happy trail down to the waistband of his pants. And soon he’s out of those and has slid off his white cotton underwear.

  There he is, naked, even bigger than I imagined as he ground himself against my belly, thick and hard and—gulp—mine!

  I bend to take the hea
d between my lips. I want to give him as much pleasure as he just gave me.

  But he pulls me off. “If you do that I’m going to come, for sure. I’ve wanted you for so long, the first time I come, it’s going to be deep inside you, as far as I can go.”

  He pulls out a condom from the nightstand.

  Is now the time to tell him we don’t need it? That I’m on birth control for painful periods? Awkward. I’m not used to this. They drummed into us in sex ed it was safer to use a condom, but I trust Reid not to harm me. I know he would never do that.

  “Do we have to use one?” I ask. “I’m on the pill.”

  “I’m clean, tested,” he says, his voice low. I sense the idea of going bare excites him. “You too?”

  “I’ve never…” Fuck! Did I just say that?

  His eyes widen. He’s going to run for the hills, I know it. Stupid, stupid me.

  CHAPTER 16

  Reid

  “You’re a virgin?” Why did that never occur to me? Fuck! I told her I was going to go hard on her. What was it? So hard, she wouldn’t be able to move tomorrow. Shit!

  “Yes.”

  “Didn’t you date at college?”

  “I went on a few dates, yes.”

  “Now I’m worried about the whole male college population, who can’t see a treasure when there’s one right in front of their eyes.”

  “Very funny. Those guys just didn’t appeal to me.”

  “And I do?”

  “Yes.”

  I hold her in my arms. “You’re sure you want this?”

  “Yes.”

  I look down at her. Does she mean it? Her eyes are shining and she’s looking up at me.

  “I want you. I want this.” She reaches out to me and my cock throbs in her small hand.

  “In that case, I’m flattered and honored you want me to be your first, and I must admit…”

  “What?” She bends and kisses the tip of my cock.

  “Fucking turned on.”

  She giggles. “Don’t do anything differently.”