“I’m beat. You know what’s keeping me going?”
“No,” she said, lifting a leg and resting her foot on the bed. She soaked up the last of the water off her calf with her towel.
“What’s keeping me going is knowing that I’ll be seeing you when I get back, knowing what I’m going to do to you. Knowing how you’re going to submit for me.”
Frozen, she listened to his words.
And then he said, “I can take you there right now, if you’ll let me.”
A shiver raced up her spine. “What do you mean?”
“Ruby, baby. You know exactly what I mean.”
“Mark…”
“Baby, I can already hear the surrender in your voice.”
“I don’t know, Mark.”
“Don’t fight it, sweetheart.”
Hadn’t she been waiting all day for this? “Okay,” she said, even as her gut twisted with nerves.
“Good girl.”
His simple approval cemented the deal, no turning back now. And besides, he was three hundred miles away; what did she have to lose?
Chapter
Fourteen
Where are you?” he asked.
“My bedroom.” She hadn’t blown her hair dry; it would be a frizzy mess tomorrow. She tucked a damp strand behind her ear. “I just got out of the bath.”
“Fuck, are you already naked for me?”
“It wasn’t for you, but yes. I’m naked.”
“Baby, I can picture you so well. I can see you standing in your room, with that frilly little lamp of yours turned low. I can see your pale skin glowing like it did on the beach. Have I told you how much I love your body, Ruby?”
His words were like a hot whisper over her skin, melting her. “No.”
“I do. Your breasts fit in my hands perfectly, your legs wrap around me so tight.”
Her legs turned liquid and weak, but she didn’t sit down. He hadn’t given her permission for that yet.
“But you know what I noticed first about you?”
“No.”
“Your hair. I really love your hair.”
She thought he wouldn’t think that if he saw it now, damp and a wild mess. “Really?”
“Yes. Now, where are the things I sent you?”
“In the kitchen, still in their box.”
“Good. Now listen, Ruby. This is what I want you to do. I want you to go into the kitchen.”
The air was chilly against her damp skin as she walked down the hall, teasing her nipples, making goose bumps sprinkle her arms.
“Are you there now?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Standing naked in your kitchen?”
“Yes,” she said. “It’s freezing.”
He paused; she could hear him breathing, and then he said, “Good girl. Now I want you to take out each thing in that box, and, as you do, I want you to tell me what you’re holding in your hands.”
She approached the box, her pulse loud in her ears as she opened it. “I have a leather cuff… another cuff.” She sounded breathless, like someone else. “Two more cuffs. And the vibrator.”
“Ah, yes. The vibrator. But that’s not just any vibrator, doll. It’s a very special toy, one of the better results of modern communication technology.”
She held the pink phallic-shaped implement in her hand, comprehension finally beginning to dawn on her. “No way.”
“Yes, way—and by the way, I didn’t give you permission to talk. Now, are you ready to behave?”
She sighed at the thrill that shot through her.
“Okay, then. Now, pull out a chair and sit down. Are you sitting?”
“Yes.” The vinyl seat was sticky on her bare skin, but she kept that to herself. There would be time for disobedience later.
“Okay, baby. Now spread your legs for me. I need you to straddle that chair, I want your feet next to the legs, got it?”
“Yes,” she said, not quite believing she was in her kitchen, naked, having phone sex with Mark St. Crow.
“Good girl. Now, tell me how you’re feeling.”
“Ridiculous. Horny.”
“Honest enough.” He laughed. “Isn’t that what’s so great about this, though? About you and me? Instant honesty through our dual perversions?”
“Is that what this is? Because I honestly can’t believe what I’ve let you do to me… what I’ve told you.”
“But you love it, don’t you, baby?”
She hesitated, then shrugged. “Yes. But I’m afraid of what will happen when this is over. When you go. Will I ever be able to go back to normal?”
“Why would you want to?”
She pictured James Cleaver, her “perfect” man, representing everything she’d wanted her entire life. Stability, reliability, dependability. She’d thought she’d dodged a bullet with Ash, but now she was wondering if she’d just been scared of something. Scared of what she felt now, with Mark.