Page 21 of Submit

Chapter Seven

Morning dawned with the usual San Francisco fog floating outside her bedroom windows. Skye glanced at the clock on her nightstand. It was almost ten, late for her, but she didn’t want to get out of her warm bed yet. She stretched, noticing how her arms and legs felt used, a little sore. Her nipples felt the same way. She ran a hand over her bottom and smiled at the tenderness of the skin there.

Why should this make her happy?

She didn’t know. She only knew that it did.

She smoothed her hands over her body: her stomach, her ribs, her breasts. Beneath her fingertips her nipples came up hard. Her skin was hyper-sensitive everywhere, as though her night with Adam had awakened something in her.

The trilling of her cell phone made her jump, and she grabbed it from her nightstand, a part of her wishing it would be him. She glanced at the caller ID.

“Hey, Esme.”

“Good morning, cous. Get any sleep last night?”

“I slept like a rock, actually, but I’m so drowsy this morning. And you’re too damned chipper.”

“You know me—I’ve always been a morning person. You, on the other hand, can be a right witch in the morning. And it’s nearly ten, hardly even morning anymore. So, tell me. What happened? How are you?”

“I’m fine. I feel good in sort of… strange ways.”

“Bruised?”

“Maybe a little. More sore than bruised.”

“Get some of that arnica gel I told you about—it’ll help with the bruising and the soreness.”

“I will.”

“So? How was your evening?”

“Pretty damn thrilling if you want to know the truth. What I’m not so thrilled about is… that he was right about me.”

“I would have suspected that. You’re too attached to your own sense of control to be happy about it,” Esme suggested, only half teasing.

“I know. But I can’t deny the way my body responded to the things he did to me. Hell, I can’t deny what he did to my head.”

And maybe my heart.

But no, that was ridiculous. She hardly knew the man.

I know everything I need to know.

Why was the voice in her head so damn smug? Maybe because it was right?

“Esme, what do I really even know about him?” she asked, exasperated with her own sense of doubt, hoping for an answer.

“Well, it seems to me you know quite a bit, from what you’ve told me—that he’s gorgeous, intelligent, articulate. And kinky.” She paused, her tone growing more serious. “And it seems you know you can trust him.”

“Yes. No, that isn’t quite right. It’s too easy. And him being kinky is too crude an explanation. I mean, he is but... Adam is a true sensualist. I can see it in everything he does. The way he moves, the way he… the way he touched me. The way he shifts his damn car. In the simple luxury of his home. You should see the art covering his walls. He knows art. Unless he used a decorator, but I don’t think he did.”

“He sounds like the perfect man for you.”

“Maybe. Except this BDSM thing is a huge part of his life and for me it’s a temporary experience. All we have is this carved out bit of time together—a few days, a few weeks, maybe. By then I’ll have this urge worked out of my system and whatever is going on between us will be over, exactly as it’s supposed to be. I don’t even know why I’m spending so much time trying to figure it all out.”

“Sometimes the best laid plans, and all that, Skye.”

“Sometimes. Not for me, though.”

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