I put my mega-burrito on the table in the outdoor café down the street from the Police station.
I sat down in front of Riley. We always came here for lunch.
“Well, we’ve eliminated all the suspects we know about,” I told her. “Who do we have left?”
She took an enormous bite of her burrito and put it back down while she talked with her mouth full. “We’ve eliminated Maynard Sutherland’s accountant, housekeeper, ex-wife, and all of his business associates. We don’t have any more suspects.”
“There must be someone We still haven’t checked his associates or social…..”
I stopped in mid-sentence and stared over her shoulder as Ash Keiff came around a corner three blocks away. He was wearing a navy blue business suit.
I hadn’t seen or heard from him in a month since my visit to the BDSM club.
He kept his word and texted me regularly for three days after that. He waited just long enough to make sure I came out of my depression—or whatever it was.
I had read his last text so many times I had committed it to memory. I’m glad you’re doing better. I’ll stop pestering you so you can get back to work.
I didn’t want him to stop pestering me, but I had already made my peace with the idea that we were both going to move on after that night.
I threw myself back into work. I had actually started to forget about that night. Seeing him at this distance brought it all back.
I didn’t actually start to forget about that night—not at all. It made me even more curious to find out everything about BDSM—but I did it in my free time.
I didn’t discuss it with Riley anymore, either, except when it specifically came up in the Maynard Sutherland case.
Riley frowned at me. “Are you okay?”
I couldn’t answer. I couldn’t even move. Ash didn’t see me. He stood on a street corner facing the other way while he did something on his phone.
She glanced over her shoulder to see what I was looking at. “Who is that?”
I shot out of my seat. “I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere—and don’t touch my burrito, you pig.”
She laughed.
I raced away with my heart in my mouth. Was I really going to do this?
I had rehearsed this moment a thousand times, but I never really let myself believe I would go through with it.
I always found it so much easier to pretend I would never do anything in the BDSM world again. I had no reason to—except that I had to. I couldn’t explain why even to myself.
Ash stiffened and his eyes narrowed when I walked up to him. He kept his guard up when he said, “Hello.”
“Hello,” I replied. “I just saw you over here and I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind if we met for coffee or something—just to talk. I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind if I asked you a few questions—not related to the murder case. This would be strictly personal—just between you and me.”
“Um….okay…..” he began. “What do you want to talk to me about? Give me a clue beforehand so I don’t think you’re going to arrest me.”
I couldn’t even take the joke. I inhaled a shaky breath to steady my nerves. “I was wondering….if you would be willing…..to….you know….do what you did that night again……I mean…..maybe like as many times as you feel comfortable with…..you know…like…..not do anything….but just so I can gain experience. I want to have some more experiences and I don’t even know where to start looking for someone I trust enough to do that. I already know you and I already trust you….so…..if you’re willing….I would really appreciate it. You were right. I don’t know what I don’t know. I’ve been doing a lot of research since I last saw you ….and I know enough to know I’m too ignorant even to start looking for someone to get experience with…..but I already know you…..so I was wondering…..you know….either just once…or more than once…..or whatever…..I mean, I wouldn’t be your submissive. It would just be a set time limit thing. I read you can do that…..like you did that night.”
I heard myself babbling, so I forced myself to stop. I wasn’t making any sense at all even to myself.
He stood there scrutinizing me for a long time. He must think I was a real idiot if I couldn’t even speak coherently about this.
I started to squirm. I was just about to make a tactful exit when he pulled his phone out of his pocket and sent me a text.
“All right. I’ll do it,” he replied. “Come to this address at seven o’clock tonight. We can talk more there. Wear something casual—nothing fancy or provocative. I gotta go.” He looked behind me. “Are you okay? Do you need anything else?”
“I’m okay. I’m having lunch with Riley. We’re at work.”
“Okay. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
He walked away and I went back to the table.
I didn’t let myself think about my upcoming meeting with Ash while I blundered through the rest of my workday.
I finally went home, took a shower, and changed my clothes.
I chose a pair of khaki capri pants to wear along with a plain white blouse. That should be casual enough. I put on my white ankle sneakers to finish off my outfit.
I showed up at the address at five minutes to seven. The place was a warehouse in an industrial part of town.
It looked like the kind of place an axe murderer would bring his victims before dismembering them with a chainsaw and cannibalizing their remains in his basement.
I shivered at the thought and tried to shake it off. Ash wasn’t a cannibal…..or was he?
Was that the reason he didn’t want to take me as a submissive?
That couldn’t be right. He looked and acted so….normal.
If he wanted to kidnap me, cut me up with a chainsaw, and cannibalize me, he could have done it that night.
I was alone with him multiple times in the middle of the night. No one would have seen him.
He came across as a businessman—and I had done some research on him, too, as part of the murder investigation.
He was involved in multiple high-level business ventures around the city. He engaged in angel investing, stock market investing, real estate investing, and a bunch of other dominant-appearing activities.
Someone like that wasn’t likely to be a closet serial killer—but if he was, the missing and dismembered victims would have turned up on my desk. I would at least have heard about it by now.
It was too late to back out, though, because right then, he pulled up in his car. It was a sleek black BMW roadster with all the trimmings. Of course.
He used a remote control to open a garage door in the side of the building, pulled his car in, and came out to meet me on the sidewalk. He used his remote to shut the garage door behind him.
“Follow me,” he told me. “Let’s go inside.”
He used a normal key to unlock a door in the same building. It opened into a stairwell leading up one floor to another locked door.
I really expected him to lead me into another dim, moldy torture chamber of emaciated prisoners screaming on the rack.
Instead, he waved me into a giant loft apartment with blazing sunshine streaming through enormous windows along one wall.
Potted plants, trees, and green walls separated different sections of the huge open floor.
He had set it up into multiple sitting areas full of couches, desks, and chaise lounges in different spots. An open plan kitchen and island occupied the far end of the apartment.
He shut the door behind me and didn’t lock it. He tossed his keys into a carved wooden dish on the table next to the door. “Come on in,” he told me. “Make yourself at home.”
“Is this….is this your place?”
“Does that surprise you? What were you expecting?”
I didn’t tell him what I was really expecting. For some stupid reason, I expected something more formal than this—something more like a “real” BDSM dungeon or playroom or something—something like the pictures I had seen on the internet.
This apartment didn’t look like anything related to BDSM. It was all so….so normal.
He stopped next to the kitchen counter and leaned against it. “So….here you are. Tell me what it is you want.”
“Um….just what I told you. I want to have more experiences….and I don’t really know how to do it. I don’t even know what my next experiences should be. That’s what I was kinda hoping to ask you….like…..if you weren’t willing to do it yourself…..that you could advise me on what I should try and what I should tell whoever I do it with what I want them to do.”
“What have you done? What have you experienced sexually with your other partners?”
I frowned at him. “What do you mean?”
“Have you ever been tied up in bed?”
“No.”
“Have you ever been blindfolded during sex?”
I shuffled my feet. His questions made me uncomfortable, but I also sensed them starting to turn me on.
My voice quavered when I said, “No.”
“Have you ever been spanked?”
I couldn’t answer at all. I just shook my head.
“So you’ve never had anything but straight sex. Has anyone ever gotten rough with you in bed?”
“No, definitely not. Everyone I’ve ever been with has always been really nice.”
He studied me across the room. “Does any of that appeal to you—being tied up, being blindfolded, getting spanked, or someone getting rough with you?”
I squirmed again. “I guess so.”
“Was there something else you wanted to ask me?”
I opened my mouth. “You said being your submissive meant something different than what we did. What did you mean?”
“You aren’t ready to be my submissive.”
“I know that. I’m just trying to understand. What is so different about being your submissive?”
“I’m a sadist,” he blurted out.
The words set off a cannon shot in my brain. Sadist. That word made my blood run cold.
I glanced around. His apartment didn’t contain any racks of whips, chains, and implements of torture the way I always thought a sadist’s apartment would.
Did he even own any whips and chains? Maybe I knew as little about that as I knew about everything else in this crazy world.
He saw my reaction right away. He couldn’t miss it. “Now do you understand? Are you sure you still want to do this—with me?”
I opened my mouth. I had to swallow again before I could make a sound. “So you……you get off……on hurting people?”
“Yes. That is what a sadist is—but I swear to you I will not hurt you. If you want me to help you gain experience, I swear to you on my honor I won’t do anything painful to you. I will never do anything painful to you unless you specifically ask me to.”
I snorted in his face. “I would never ask anyone to deliberately hurt me. That’s ridiculous.”
He shrugged. “You might. You might even beg me for it.”
I made a face. That was never going to happen.
“Are you sure you still want to do this?” he asked. “You said you trusted me. Do you still?”
I threw back my shoulders. “Yes. I do. If you say you won’t, then I believe you.”
“Are you ready to get started, then?”
I nodded. “I’m ready.”
“We’ll follow the same rules as last time. This session won’t last longer than fifteen minutes. You’ll obey everything I tell you to do without question. You’ll be able to stop whenever you want to either by just walking out of here or by using ‘red’ again. Understand?”
“Are we keeping the same rule about you not touching me?”
“I will touch you, but I won’t use my hands. No part of my body will touch any part of your body ever at any time during the fifteen minutes. Do you accept that?”
I nodded. “Okay. I agree.”
He pushed himself off the counter, walked around it to the kitchen, opened a drawer, and took something out.
He brought it over to me and held it out to me. “Put these on.”
I had to put down my handbag to see what it was that he wanted me to put on. They were a pair of soft, padded, fabric wrist cuffs with a strip of nylon webbing around them.
A Velcro strap tightened them around the wrists with a metal D ring sewn into the webbing.
I slipped the cuffs over my wrists and cinched the Velcro closed. The webbing spread the pressure over a wide area of my wrists. The cuffs actually felt comfortable.
I pressed the Velcro into place and looked up to find Ash standing in front of me. He held up a black piece of cloth.
“I’m going to blindfold you. As soon as I tie this around your head, our session will start and you’ll obey everything I say without question. Are you ready?”
I nodded. This was really happening.
He stepped behind me and spread the black fabric in front of my eyes. Only then did I see that the part that went over my face was actually a thick padded foam mask with indentations where it fit over my eyes.
It also had a piece cut out to make room for my nose. I held the mask in place while he tied the two lengths of fabric behind my head.
The blindfold completely blacked out everything, even the sunshine coming through the windows.
I plunged into darkness…..and also plunged back into that breathless place where I had been that night in the hotel.
Ash retreated and left me there in silence. I waited….and waited.
His voice came from in front of me. Was he far away or right next to me? I couldn’t tell.
“How do you feel?” he murmured.
I tried to fidget and wound up looking around at nothing. “Um…kind of….nervous.”
“Do you still trust me?”
I couldn’t stop my voice from trembling when I said, “Yes.”
“Strip down to your bra and panties, but keep them on.”
My pulse started racing. My hands shook when I fumbled with my blouse buttons. I had trouble unfastening them without being able to see what I was doing.
I might be getting myself into another compromising position here, but I always fell back on my trust in Ash.
He could have taken advantage of me a dozen times, but he didn’t. He didn’t even really want to do this. He was doing this as a favor to me—so I could gain experience with someone who wouldn’t take advantage of me.
One other thought sent a torch of excitement through my insides. He was going to see me with my clothes off. Was I good enough for him? Would he like what he saw?
At least I wouldn’t be able to see his reaction.
I pulled off my blouse and pushed my pants down. I kicked off my shoes and straightened up wearing only my bra and panties.
Now he could see me, but I couldn’t see him.
He waited another long time. Every second dragged. What was he doing out there? Was he deciding that I wasn’t good looking enough for him?
His voice came out of nowhere. It curled around me and slithered over my skin the way it did last time.
“Now I want you to listen to my voice very carefully,” he murmured. “I’m going to lock your wrists together. I’ll be using a regular snaffle clip and your hands won’t be restrained in any other way. If you decide you want to leave, all you have to do is push up the blindfold, unclip the hook, and walk out that door. Do you understand?”
I nodded, but my nerves wouldn’t let me speak.
Something touched my wrists and then I heard a click. The hook locked my wrists together in the front.
I shivered at the sensation. This was the closest I had ever come to being tied up or restrained in any way.
I got a flash of what I must look like from his point of view—half naked, blindfolded, my wrists tied together.
My restrained arms pushed my breasts together in the middle. They made my cleavage stand out.
I looked like a BDSM submissive—like all the pictures I had ever seen of this kind of thing. Is this really what I was becoming—one of those kind of people?
He started pacing around and around me the way he did that night. He was looking at me, seeing me helpless and trembling….waiting for his touch.
He stopped behind me again and murmured in my ear. “Does this turn you on?”
I started to nod and wound up gasping out, “Yes!”
“Does it turn you on that I’m the one seeing you like this?” His breath tickled down my neck. “Does it turn you on that I could do anything I wanted with you right now and make you love it—make you scream for it?”
I tried to say, “Yes!” again, but no sound came out.
He circled some more. “Did you think about me touching you during our last session?”
“Yes!” I choked.
“Did you think that I was the one pushing you down on the couch, holding you down, and overpowering you?”
“Yes!” I panted.
He stopped behind me and barely whispered in my ear. “Is that what you want? You want me to take you right now—bend you over—make you scream for me—make you beg me to own you—make you crawl for the privilege of doing anything I say?”
I tried again to say, “Yes!” but a sob came out instead.
Those words burned. How did he know?
I couldn’t stop fantasizing about Ash. So many forbidden fantasies had been coming to the surface ever since that night—and he was the man in all of them.
I didn’t even let myself consciously think most of those fantasies. They were too insane even to consider.
He stepped away, but that powerful, radiating presence didn’t go away. He stood right there. He didn’t have to lay a finger on me. He overpowered me just by standing there.
“Are you wet right now?” he murmured.
I grimaced in agony. I wanted so badly to say, “Yes!” but I couldn’t even form the word.
Of course he knew. He had to know the effect he had on me.
He moved farther away and I heard him rummaging around in the apartment.
My ears became hyper-tuned to every sound. I followed his movements until he came back over to me. He stopped in front of me—and something grazed the side of my stomach.
It felt soft—like very soft buffed suede. Being blindfolded and tied up made my skin extra sensitive, too.
I jolted at the sensation and a charge of electricity went down my skin. It almost felt like an orgasm.
I started to pull away. “Stand still!” he snapped so harshly that I froze. He had never spoken to me like that—ever.
He leaned in extra close and snarled in my ear in a deadly undertone. “You promised to do exactly as I told you. Now stand still and don’t move again until I tell you to. Do you understand?”
I swallowed hard. I couldn’t speak. I could only nod in trembling shock.
He stepped back and grazed the same soft suede object over the same part of my stomach—and then it migrated across my belly to the other side—and around my back….and up my sides to my neck.
The sensation excited every nerve ending. The softness turned me on even more….and then it traveled down my chest to my breasts.
I gasped for breath trying in every way to cope with this intoxicating sensation. I squirmed, but his command stopped me from trying to get away from that touch.
The pressure increased as it passed back and forth across my bra cups…..floated down my stomach……and against the inner surface of my thighs.
“That’s right…..” Ash lowered his voice to a husky murmur. This wasn’t his gentle soothing undertone or the deadly snarl. “Do you feel that? Do you feel me about to take you the way you want me to? Does that excite you? Do you want me to touch you….here?”
The suede object barely grazed my panties.
I gasped out in a sudden rush of desire. “Yes!”
He stroked whatever it was up and down my inner thighs and then slid what felt like something long, hard, and cylindrical between my legs.
It grazed the damp section of my panties right between my legs. That feeling of whatever it is thrusting between my legs drove me out of my mind.
I moaned and shuddered as a wave of delicious pleasure swept over me. I wanted more—a lot more. I wanted more pressure on my slit and for whatever this was to push inside me.
He took the thing away the minute I moaned like that. I almost broke down crying when he left me standing there throbbing with need….for him.
He wouldn’t do it. He said no part of his body would touch any part of my body.
I had learned one thing about him. He would never do anything he said he wasn’t going to do. Once he made that agreement, he wouldn’t break it no matter how much I wanted it.
I actually considered falling on my knees and begging him to take me. I pushed the thought away immediately, but it did actually cross my mind. Christ, was I really coming to that?
He walked away again and came back. I couldn’t stop shaking. I needed….sex. I needed to do it with someone—like right now. I couldn’t stand this.
Something about that agreement we made acted on me with just as much unbreakable power. I couldn’t push the blindfold up and walk away. I couldn’t bring myself to break any part of the agreement.
I put myself under his control for fifteen minutes. As long as I stood here with my eyes covered and my wrists tied, I had to stay under his control for whatever he wanted to do to me.
Did it turn him on to see me like this?
He touched me with a different object. This one felt soft, too, but I couldn’t identify what substance it was made out of.
It started buzzing against my skin with a very faint vibration so soft I could barely feel it at all. It made no sound.
He passed the thing up and down my arm first. The buzz spread a layer of warmth through my skin. The vibration relaxed and excited me at the same time.
He passed the object around my shoulders and back, down my chest, and teased my nipples through my bra.
I moaned again and yelped in rising need as the vibration excited me to the limit. Would he use this thing to touch me between my legs? Was that where this was going?
My chest heaved, but he followed my movements exactly. He teased my nipples until I screamed out in desperation. Should I beg him now?
He stroked the thing down my stomach and up and down my thighs exactly the way he did before. The buzz barely touched my slit.
I screamed, but he pulled it away instantly and moved off.
I thought he would walk away and leave me practically sobbing in ravenous desire, but instead, he circled behind me and stopped there.
He ran the thing over my ass, down to the backs of my thighs, and finally, finally, stroked the thing between my legs from behind.
It followed the same thrusting motion as the suede thing, but this time, he held it there and let the vibrations take over.
They spread up my vulva and penetrated deep into my innermost core. I really did scream then. A colossal wave of ecstasy radiated outward from my center. It would blast me apart as soon as it burst.
I convulsed on one surge of energy after another building to the breaking point. I spasmed so hard I almost fell over—and that’s when I felt something in front of me.
It felt like the back of a couch, but I hadn’t been standing near a couch when he blindfolded and restrained me.
That convulsion made me bend over whatever this was. That one small change in position drove me out of my mind.
At that moment, Ash moved the vibrator up between my ass cheeks, teased my asshole for a split second, and then thrust the vibrator back down between my legs.
I never understood anal sex before, but that one instant of stimulation exploded me beyond my limits into a catastrophic orgasm.
I screamed, but I couldn’t stop bucking on whatever this vibration was between my legs. It drove me wild until I couldn’t stop.
He stopped it for me, took the thing away, and the vibrations ceased. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think even to take the blindfold off. What the hell just happened to me?
Out of nowhere, he scooped me up in his arms, carried me somewhere, sat down with me on his lap, and pulled the blindfold off.
I couldn’t open my eyes except to steal a peak at where we were before I shut them again. We were sitting on one of the couches. I was still wearing my bra and panties. He was still wearing a suit.
He pulled my head down on his shoulder. I couldn’t stop quivering and whimpering from the power of that orgasm.
I couldn’t function, but I didn’t have to. He just held me there without saying a word.
I finally sank into a dazed trance. I must have dozed off because I woke up still sitting sideways on his lap with my head on his shoulder.
His fingers trailed through my hair the way they did that night. He didn’t move otherwise.
I sat up and looked around. I felt drugged.
He must have taken the snaffle clip off the cuffs because I could move around just fine when I raised my hand to rub my eyes.
He gazed up at me and used his fingertip to comb my hair out of my eyes. “How do you feel?” he asked.
I tried to answer, but the words wouldn’t come.
Having him see me like this felt natural—almost like this was normal, too. It felt almost as if he had always seen me like this—like my clothes had always been invisible to him.
His hand stroked down my back and infected my skin with warm, comforting heat.
“So what did you think?” he asked. “What did you think of your first time being blindfolded and restrained?”
I should have looked at him. I should have said something intelligent and insightful—or maybe made a joke.
I couldn’t do any of that. I didn’t want to function or have to think about anything.
I curled up on his lap and put my head back down on his shoulder. I just wanted to feel this—just for a few more minutes.
I would leave here and we would go back to living separate lives. I would probably never find out what he meant when he said he was a sadist. He certainly never did anything sadistic with me today—or ever.
He could, though. I understand that now. He showed his hard, rough, cruel side when he told me to stand still.
I could definitely see how he could be hurtful and brutal if he really wanted to. He just wasn’t with me. He never did anything like that to me.
Those words—that threatening warning—it actually made me trust him more. He could bring out the steel when he needed to. He was more than just a kind, caring, soft-spoken businessman. He was much more than that.
He didn’t rush me to get off his lap. He kept massaging the back of my neck, combing his fingers through my hair, and hugging me down deeper into his neck.
“I want you to come here at this time every week,” he murmured. “I want you to set this time aside to come here and learn from me. I want you to promise me you won’t play with anyone else as long as you’re coming here to visit me. I’ll take charge of your education, but you have to promise not to play with anyone else until I decide that you’re ready. Can you do that?”
I nodded without picking my head up. I shut my eyes as an unspeakable wave of gratitude overtook me. “Thank you,” I whispered. “I really didn’t want to go with anyone else.”
He twisted his head sideways and kissed me on the forehead. “You don’t have to. I’ll make sure you’re safe.”
I could have put my arms around him and kissed him for that, but something about the way all of this was progressing stopped me from doing it.
The fifteen minutes were over. I wasn’t wearing a blindfold anymore and his body was touching my body even if he was still wearing a suit.
Technically, I wasn’t bound by the rules of our agreement, but an invisible barrier stopped me from touching him.
Our relationship—or whatever this was—it didn’t include that. He could give me the most mind-blowing orgasm of my life, but the process didn’t go the other way—not unless he told me to do something.
He only ever kissed me on the head or forehead. He never even tried to kiss me on the lips. This wasn’t about that. I couldn’t explain why.
It wasn’t even about sex. Him doing that to me wasn’t about sex. It was about something else.
He never once suggested that I get up, put my clothes on, and leave. He waited there without another word until I sat up by myself.
“Do you feel ready to go?” he asked.
I nodded down at my hands. He could see me stripped and raw and fragile like this because it wasn’t about sex.
It was more about him being able to access a part of me I couldn’t access on my own. It was more about him being able to do things to me that no one else could or would ever do.
Part of me—this part of me—it already belonged to him. I didn’t want to share it with anyone else. I just wanted….him.
He kept touching me in the same innocent way. He never tried to touch my body—not like that.
“I guess I better go,” I mumbled.
For the first time, he cupped his hand under my chin, lifted my head, and made me turn around and look at him. “You’re perfect,” he murmured. “You’re everything a man could ever dream about.”
I gulped. I wanted to say so many things, but there was only one thing I absolutely had to say before I left. “Thank you….for next week.”
“Of course. I won’t let anything happen to you—and our agreement still holds and will always hold. I will never hurt you or do anything to you that you don’t want me to. I swear it to you on my life.”
I couldn’t speak to answer. Looking into his eyes made me emotional. If I stayed here, I would fall apart the way I did last time.
He must have sensed that because he let me go. I stood up, took the cuffs off, and put my clothes on.
I felt myself slipping back into my everyday businesslike persona. No one outside this apartment knew I was doing any of this. Not even Riley knew what was going on between me and Ash.
He went to the kitchen while I got dressed. He got a plate out of the cupboard and took a sandwich and a bottle of lemonade out of the fridge.
He cut the sandwich, put both halves on the plate, poured a glass of lemonade, and brought everything over to the couch. “Come over here and eat and drink something before you leave.”
I retrieved my handbag and sat down next to him. Now what was I supposed to say?
I took a gulp of the lemonade. It tasted unbelievably good. Then I took a bite of the sandwich. Damn. I really needed this.
“How’s the case coming along?” he asked. “Do you have any leads on what happened to Maynard?”
“Not really,” I mumbled with my mouth full. “We keep ruling out suspects. That’s the best we can do in the absence of any other evidence?”
“What evidence do you have that his death was even murder?”
“Just that there weren’t any other fingerprints in his apartment. The knot on the plastic bag made the ME think someone else tied it.”
Ash frowned. “So….the bag was knotted?”
“The ME consulted with an asphyxiation expert upstate. The guy is also an expert in auto-asphyxiation. He says that, when someone uses a plastic bag to auto-asphyxiate, they usually just twist the bag and hold it in their hand. That way, if they really do pass out, the bag comes loose and they’ll be able to breathe again. He says it doesn’t make sense that Maynard would actually knot the bag unless he was trying to kill himself.”
Ash frowned some more. “That makes sense, I guess—except that Maynard wasn’t suicidal.”
“I know. Everyone who knew him says the same thing. That’s why the investigation was transferred to homicide.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Okay. So are you feeling okay about everything that happened tonight?”
I nodded again. “Thank you again for doing this. I’m really grateful.”
“You don’t have to keep saying that. Consider this my civil service of getting a dangerous newbie off the street.”
I laughed and almost choked on my sandwich. “Great.”
He smiled at me—and the tension dissolved. I could face the world again.
I ate one half of the sandwich and finished the glass of lemonade. “Thank you for this. I’m ready to go now.”
“Okay. I’ll see you next week.”
He escorted me to the door. He stayed in the apartment while I went down to the sidewalk, got into my car, and drove home.
All my energy drained the minute I walked into the house. I couldn’t stay upright a second longer even though it wasn’t even eight o’clock at night.
I toppled onto the couch still shivering from the energy of that orgasm. I needed to get some sleep to recover from it.
Right then, my phone buzzed. I took it out and laughed again when I read a text from Ash. Guess who. I’m back in your messages.
I couldn’t stop grinning when I texted back. Hello, stranger.
I’m going to keep track of you in the next couple of days. If you start dropping, you text or call me, day or night. Don’t hesitate. Understand?
Yes, I understand. Thank you. I feel fine now. I’m just really drained.
That’s normal. Get some sleep.
I will. Thank you again. Good night.
He sent back another kiss emoji. He almost always ended his messages with that.
I put the phone down and threw my arm over my eyes. Next week. Seven days from tonight. Could I really wait that long?
