The Men With the Golden Cuffs(51)
“You don’t like thongs? Are you kidding me? Serena, pet, I’ve read your work. Tell me what Joshua Lake would do to a submissive who blatantly violated her Dom’s orders regarding clothing.” He would use her work against her, though in this case it really was proper training material.
That sexy lower lip trembled, making him want to kiss her until she couldn’t move. “He would probably just tell her to not do it again.”
She wanted to play it that way? He pulled her hair gently, forcing her to look him straight in the eye. “He’s not a pussy Dom, Serena. You didn’t write him that way. Of all the characters you’ve written, he’s the most vivid, the most alive. He’s your fantasy. Now you tell me what he would do.”
Her breath escaped in shallow pants. “He would say I gave up the right to underwear at all.”
Jake smiled, releasing her hair. “Excellent. We’ll start there. Remove those panties. They offend me.”
“But Jake, if I take them off, the skirt is so short people will be able to see me.”
“That’s ten swats.”
“But I didn’t know,” Serena tried to argue.
Reality seemed to be setting in for the little sub. It was odd, but Jake found himself actually enjoying the push and pull. He’d spent the last several years with perfectly trained subs who got off on showing their bodies and displaying their pure obedience. But it hadn’t been earned from Jake. And he also got that this was Serena’s fantasy. Serena’s fantasies weren’t about everything going perfectly. Her characters had to fight. This would be a little fight, but they both could win.
“You didn’t know your Dom would discipline you?” Jake asked. “That’s another ten, by the way.”
Her fists clenched. “I didn’t know it would be you.”
The words hit him like a bucket of ice cold water. “You thought it would be Adam. Of course.”
She cared about Adam. She wanted Adam. Adam was the one with all the smooth moves. Adam cooked for her and took care of her schedule. Jake was just the meathead whose job was to throw his oversized body in front of any bullet that came her way. Yeah. He should have gotten that by now.
“I just thought Ian was making you do it because you did the course thing.”
He heard the words, but his head was somewhere else. “It’s fine, Serena. Come on. I’ll show you around the club. Adam is going to be a couple of hours. We can look around, and then I’ll take you home. What do you want to see first?”
He would be like a tour guide, polite, efficient, and uninvolved. His cock would just have to calm the fuck down. He turned to go, but she caught his hand. When he turned back, she was struggling to get to her feet. He helped her up. He would at least prove he could be polite. He wasn’t some animal. Jennifer’s words came back to haunt him.
You’re just a dumb piece of beefcake, Jake. I was never going to marry you. I’m not going to spend my life with a grunt no matter how well trained he is. Adam is a man I could see marrying, but you ruined him. Now he doesn’t even have a career.
He helped Serena up because she was Adam’s girl. Not his. He wasn’t going to fuck it up for Adam again.
Serena stood there looking at him, her big eyes threatening to pull him in. “I’m sorry, Sir.”
He shook his head. “No, I apologize. I didn’t get what you wanted. No problem, Serena. And just call me Jake.”
It would be too hard to listen to her call him “Sir” in that breathy Texas twang of hers, not when it wasn’t real. He didn’t want to play with Serena. He wanted it to be real. He’d been an idiot, doing exactly what he’d promised Ian he wouldn’t do. He’d been thinking with his heart and not his head.
“Tell me you’re not playing with me.”
Serena’s soft words made him turn around. She looked small and fragile standing there in her miniskirt and corset, her bare feet on the carpet.
He sighed. “I’m not going to hurt you, Serena. I promise. No swats. Nothing at all. You need to stay by my side because you don’t know your way around, but no one is going to touch you.”
Her fists clenched at her sides. “Damn it, Jake, that wasn’t what I meant.”
He hated being cursed at, especially by subs, but she was the client and his best friend’s crush. “Then please explain what you want, Serena. I’m here to meet your needs.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want this. I want it the way it was just a few minutes ago, but I’m scared. Not of you. God, Jacob, we need to work on your self-esteem. You’re so gorgeous I have a hard time looking at you, but the first place your brain goes to when I talk is that I’m rejecting you. I’m not. I’m scared that this is going to be the best experience of my life and you’ll just walk away afterward and never think of me again. That’s what I’m scared of. And I think you’ll spank really hard. I probably will cry and maybe scream and I’ll make a fool of myself. But if you’ll just tell me that this means something, anything, to you, then I’ll be okay. Jake, I’m not asking for an engagement ring or a permanent collar, I just want to know that you like me, that this isn’t something you’re doing because Adam pushed you to it.”