Bound to Please(65)

He wouldn’t rest until he saw his vision developing in a dark room, and for the first time ever, Ruby felt sorry for him.

“I’ll think about it, all right?” The fact was, being bound did sound appealing, and it wasn’t as if she had any reason to say no. If it wasn’t as exciting as with Mark, at least it was familiar.

He nodded. “That would be great. You let me know.”

After a quick hug good-bye, she continued up the street toward Clement. Keeping her head down, she walked briskly up the hill. It felt good to get that little meeting over with. She’d seen her ex, called him on his shit, and lived to tell about it.

And it hadn’t been awful. In fact, it hadn’t been awful at all.

Meg tapped her fingers on the arm of the black Eames chair that had been their first splurge as a married couple. She watched the door, waiting for Emmett to walk through it. She didn’t care when he got home, she was waiting up. She had plans for him, for them. For their marriage. She wasn’t giving up.

She felt like a stupid girl. How could she have missed all the signs? Like that time in the kitchen. It was months ago, and she’d been making breakfast when she’d suddenly felt frisky. She’d ordered him to fuck her right there, on the counter. And he had. With aplomb.

She’d watched the porn again and realized Ruby was right. The point of those movies was women dominating men.

Meg could do that. Fuck, she longed to do it.

She tapped a long leather paddle on her vinyl thigh-high boots. The sharp slap echoed in the loft, and her pulse jumped in anticipation. Just putting on the outfit, dressing up like a domme, had turned her on. The ritual of it, getting ready, was all part of the scene, and that’s exactly what she was doing: setting up a scene, a fantasy. Her husband’s fantasy.

Hopefully, she’d gotten it right.

An electric thrill bolted through her. She hadn’t felt this charged up since…

She couldn’t even remember when.

Ten minutes later she heard keys in the door. Her heart fluttered with a sudden attack of nerves, but she straightened her back and crossed her legs. The vinyl was sticky so she had to really work to get her limbs in exactly the right position—tough but sexy. She hoped to God she could pull this off.

Emmett opened the door and stepped into the hall. His gaze fell on her, and his metal briefcase dropped to the floor and landed with a heavy thud.

His eyes went wide as he took in her appearance in jerky glances. He couldn’t stop looking at her, and he looked more shocked than happy or turned on. She began to get self-conscious; why didn’t he say anything? Maybe the vinyl bustier was overkill? Or the fishnets? Or the paddle in her hand…

She tried to kick the flogger under the table, but the action only drew his eyes to it.

Running a hand through his hair, Emmett came toward her, slowly, as if he was afraid of her.

“Um, Meg. What’s going on here?”

She pushed herself to standing. “No questions. I want you to take off your clothes and service me.” She felt her cheeks burn. And the look he was giving her, as if she was insane, wasn’t helping.

With a quirked brow he sat on the sofa and crossed his arms over his chest. “Service you?”

“Yes. You know… service me.” Humiliation coursed through her. This was not going anything like she’d planned. Why wasn’t he stripping? Why wasn’t he obeying her?

“Meg.” He patted the seat next to him. “Come here and tell me what’s going on.”

She remained where she stood. “I’m just trying to give you what you want! See, I finally figured it out. You want to be dominated.” Her voice turned into a whisper. “I was just hoping you wanted to be dominated by me.”

His eyes went soft. “Sweetheart, come here.”

She hesitated.

“Now.”

Shouldn’t she be the one doing the ordering? Tears in her eyes, she dropped onto the sofa beside him, her vinyl boots squeaking and creaking as she sat.

He took the paddle out of her hand and inspected it. “Do you know how to use one of these things?”

Her cheeks burned. “I had a little lesson at the sex shop…”

His eyes got big again, but then he took her hand and kissed her fingertips. “Listen. I really appreciate the effort, and I gotta tell you, you’re partly right.”

She jerked her head up. “I am?”

“I do love it when you take charge.”

“But why…” She gulped and her throat was painfully tight. “Why don’t you want to have sex with me anymore?”

He cradled the side of her face in the palm of one warm hand. “Oh, sweetheart. You don’t know how wrong you are.”