Page 84 of Love Without Demands

Rolling onto my back, I stared at nothing and did a quick playback of my middle-of-the-night sneak visit. Then I started overthinking.Was the baton thing too much?He’d looked surprised, though he did get hard. Very hard.

No, he definitely enjoyed the scene. The sight of his veins popping out the side of his neck while I was going down on him would live rent free in my brain forever. A smile pushed mycheeks upward.It was a pretty damn good blow job, if I do say so myself.

I’d felt confident and alive last night, though acting like a bossy bitch was way far out of my comfort zone. But that’s what role playing was all about, right? To do things you wouldn’t normally do. Like fucking a Viking.

I wasn’t sure what had come over me; it could’ve had something to do with the liquid courage—in the form of one of those small bottles of Fireball they display on the counter at the liquor store—I’d shot before walking down the hallway to Cruz’s.

Adjusting the pillow beneath my head, I giggled at the ceiling. I’d even tied him to his bed, which was completely unplanned.

Suddenly I sat bolt upright, reaching for my phone as a thought occurred to me. “No. No, no, no.” I searched my email and found the document Cruz had sent me. After our initial discussion about our arrangement, he’d sent me an extremely detailed list of limits we could both fill out. I’d read his over after he sent it, but I thought I remembered…

Scrolling down the list, I found the item I was looking for:

Are you okay with being tied down? Answer: No.

“Fuck!” I squeaked out. “Noooooo.”

The number one rule when playing sexual games of any kind was to respect each other’s clear boundaries, and I’d obliterated this one last night. How could he ever trust me again?”

I ran through the memory once more in my head, cringing when I thought of sitting on top of Cruz and binding his hands to the bed frame with my tie. It had felt like such a sexy thing to do at the time.

He hadn’t said anything.Why hadn’t he said anything? Shit!

My fingernails drummed against my lips as I paced back and forth. What should I do? What if he’d had some kind of traumatic experience while he was in the Marine Corps and that’s why he didn’t want to be tied up? Maybe he’d been captured or something and…Oh god, this is a nightmare.

I had to go check on him to make sure he was okay. Clipping my hair on top of my head, I quickly showered, brushed my teeth, and got dressed in a purple workout set. Then I walked to his apartment and knocked.

No answer.Shit.Just to make sure he wasn’t lying on his bed in a traumatic ball, I used my key card to open his door. After a quick search of the apartment, I determined he wasn’t there.

He wasn’t resuming work until next week, so maybe he’d gone out to run errands or for an early lunch.Might as well get your workout done to burn off some of this nervous energy, you rule-breaking perv.

Our apartment building was swanky as hell and had a workout room on each level, designated only for the residents of that floor. It was nice not to have to battle for machines with everyone in the building. Walking to the end of the hallway, I pushed open the glass doors and stepped into the small foyer. As I rounded the corner into the main room, which was beautifully done with hardwood floors and mirrored walls, I froze.

Cruz Estrada was in the weight room on the far side of the gym. He had a bar laden with what looked like a couple tons of weights across his shoulders, and he was doing squats.

I’m not ashamed to say that I gawked. His thigh muscles were thick and moved like fluid beneath his caramel skin. The black tank he wore covered what I knew was a strong back, and his ass? Have mercy! It was like God and Satan had joined forces to sculpt Cruz’s behind. Beauty and temptation combined to form two very fine gluteus maximus muscles that perfectly filled out his tight black shorts.

Oh, and to top it all off, he had his hat on backward.My damn weakness.

I was happy to see I wasn’t the only one staring. The poor woman running on the treadmill in the main room was ogling so hard, she lost her footing and had to grab onto the handles to keep from falling off the machine. She was dressed in beige-colored shorts and a matching sports bra, giving the impression that she was working out naked.

My attention went back to Cruz. He seemed okay, but the gym wasn’t the best place to have the kind of serious discussion I needed to have with him. Not with someone else present anyway.

Go away, lady. You’re hot enough already.

She didn’t heed my silent plea, instead choosing to shut down the treadmill and head to one of the machines that I didn’t know the name of. It did involve a lot of leg spreading though as she kept her gaze trained on the glassed-in weight room.

A frisson of jealousy arced through my chest. Naked girl was definitely interested. But hells bells, who wouldn’t be?

Cruz finished his set and wiped down with a plush dove-gray towel before exiting the small room with the weights. I pulled back, finding his reflection in one of the mirrored walls. He climbed on one of the treadmills and worked up a nice jog while watching his phone and laughing at whatever he saw there.

Okay, he doesn’t seem to be traumatized,I noted with relief, though I still wanted to talk to him about last night. My phone rang in my pocket, and I stifled a surprised scream. Ducking quickly out into the corridor, I answered in a rush.

“Hello?”

“Hey, girl! Still on for lunch today?” Nicolette’s cheery voice asked.

“Lunch? Today?” I asked breathlessly, running to my apartment like I’d been caught doing something illegal.

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