Page 7 of Melt With You

‘I was lip-synching,’ she reminded him. ‘It was make-believe.’

‘But it seemed real,’ he protested, and then, apparently getting up his nerve finally, he said, ‘Are you into anything kinky now?’ The question caught her off guard. ‘You know, has New York rubbed off on you?’ And when she still didn’t respond, he continued in a rush, ‘You’re so gorgeous, Dori. I’ll bet when you get all dolled up, you have to beat men off with a whip.’

‘A whip.’ She repeated the words, and she heard the steel-like edge in her voice, realizing that she’d echoed the word without turning it into a question. A whip.

He raised his gingery eyebrows at her, then refilled their drinks, choosing four bottles of a different liquor now. At this rate, they would drain the well-stocked mini bar in no time, but maybe that was necessary. Maybe in order for Luke to explain what he wanted, he had to be tipsy. Because he was going somewhere with this line of discussion, she was sure of that. But where?

‘What do you like, Dori? Come on, we’re not in school any more. You don’t have to play the good girl. You can be as bad you want.’

Now, she grinned. The liquor was definitely affecting her. But she found herself enjoying the watery sensation rushing through her body, and she drank a large sip of her second drink to keep the feeling close. ‘You like bad girls, Luke? I remember that. I remember exactly the type that you went after.’ The Cabriolet Cuties. That’s what Violet had called them. The ones who went on birth control as soon as they hit sixteen.

He shrugged off the comment. ‘There are certain girls who will do it and certain ones who won’t. You fell into the won’t category. But it all evens out in the wash, doesn’t it? At the end of the day, we’re all animals.’

She understood that he wanted something from her, and she was surprised that she thought she might be able to give it to him. And then she was surprised again when he unbuckled his belt. Her eyes widened, but she didn’t say a word. He wasn’t merely taking off his pants, which would have been presumptuous at this point, anyway. But he was pulling the belt out through the loops of his slacks, slowly removing that expensive width of dark brown leather.

She watched as he toyed with the belt between both hands, and she realized she’d misjudged him. It wasn’t that he desired a bad girl. He wanted to be a bad boy. The smile returned to her lips. She felt as if she’d entered The Twilight Zone. Luke Robertson wanted her to be a Dom. Who would ever have thought?

If they’d been back in high school, she would already have been rehearsing how she would describe the experience to her friends the following day:

‘And then he took off his belt and handed it to me.’

She could even hear Violet’s response: ‘The sick puppy. What’d you do, Dori?’

Was her life that different now? She’d still undoubtedly tell Violet in the morning, but the response would be different. Violet would be interested rather than repelled, yet she’d still want to know every single luscious detail.

Luke seemed to notice that his hands were nervously stroking the belt, and he tossed the thing onto the mattress, as if the leather had become hot.

‘What do you like?’ he asked again, softer this time, and she saw the potential in his eyes. Saw the desires. She knew what it was like to have desires, and to have those desires go unfulfilled. Could she fulfill his?

Why not? She strode to the bed and reached for the belt, and when she looked at him again, she saw the relief on his face. He was going to get what he wanted and that made him relax. She doubled the belt and let the leather snap, and then she smiled when he flinched.

She’d never have to see him again. At least, not until the next reunion. And by then they’d be nearly fifty. The feeling was freeing. She could do whatever she wanted.

‘You keep asking me,’ she said, echoing the low tone of his voice, but pleased at the husky quality of her own. ‘Let’s flip it around, Luke. What do you like? What do you think about when you’re traveling? You’re all alone in your room, right? Unless you’ve gotten lucky and hooked up with some floozy from the hotel bar. I can see you, dialing up porn on the TV, but not finding what you want. Or maybe you download dirty videos directly to your X-pod. Do you do that? And then watch on the tiny little screen, clutching your pod in one hand and your pud in the other?’

He took a hurried sip of his drink, leaving less than an inch of the amber-colored liquid inside. They were going to have to order up a bottle if they kept drinking at this rate. Luke’s hand was trembling and, when he went to set down his drink, the glass chattered on the table edge and nearly tipped, but he caught the tumbler in mid-fall. ‘When I ask you a question, I expect an answer.’

Was that how this was done? She was learning on the fly, but she’d read enough of those letters in Variations to have an idea. More than that, she’d fantasized often enough about this sort of situation. Controlling a scene from start to finish. Taking charge. This wasn’t a fantasy she’d had when she was young, but one she’d grown into over the years, and one she’d never actually lived out. She liked the way Luke was looking at her now, liked the way his belt felt in her hands, but she set the leather down on the bed, coiling the strip carefully, so that it looked like a snake, waiting.

She moved across the room and turned off the overhead light. Now, there was only one lamp lit in the room. Feeling Luke’s eyes following her, she pulled her teal-green silk scarf from her purse and draped it over the shade. The room instantly took on a dreamy glow, the light shining through the thin material. They were inside an emerald now. A polished jewel.

Macy Gray had morphed into Annie Lennox’s ‘Why,’ and Dori took a step closer to Luke. When they kissed again, this time she was kissing him. She was gripping into his hair and kissing him so hard that when they parted, he sighed.

He wouldn’t look at her as she stroked one fingertip along the line of his jaw, as she undid his forest-green tie, as she took off his expensive suit jacket. He hadn’t told her what he wanted, but she understood. God, if she’d been a man, she would have sported a raging hard-on right now, her cock at full attention. As it was, she had to shift her hips, realizing how wet she’d become already. She loved the way this felt, pushing him down on the bed. He lay on his back, looking up at her.

Waiting.

She was brand new at this, but she didn’t want to let on. Feeling so sexy from the way Luke was looking at her, taking power from his eyes on her, she climbed onto the bed, moving between his legs, kissing his chest. He gripped into her long hair, drawing her down for another kiss, and she pulled away.

‘You don’t touch me,’ she said.

His eyes got wider, changing color, first brown, then green. His eye color reminded her of sea glass, broken bits of beer bottles washed smooth from the ocean.

‘You don’t do anything,’ she said next. ‘Not without my explicit permission.’

When he parted his lips, she silenced him with her fingers over his mouth.

‘No, baby,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘Not a word. Nod if you understand.’

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