AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“But I’ve kept a whole part of myself closed off.”
Al removed her legs again from the chair, and CC missed the closeness immediately. Until Al nudged the chair with CC’s legs still in it away from the table, enough to slide her own chair closer. She nudged CC’s hand to let go of the glass, then gently clasped it, tangling their fingers. “For good reason, CC. You open it up when you’re ready. No one, including me, should push you do that before then.”
“But when I’m ready...” She lifted her gaze, not sure what she’d find in Al’s, then gasping—Al’s dark eyes had gone molten, reflecting every bit of growing desire CC felt for her.
“I won’t tie you to a cross. I’m not a sadist. Pain to that degree doesn’t do it for me. But I will be happy to show others how well you take orders. Whether it’s one person or a full room, they will want to be you, because you are smart, beautiful, powerful, and you deserve to be worshipped. I will show them that you are not the imposter. Would you like that, CC?”
If the experience on the airplane, if the kiss in the office at Dram, were any indication, sex with Al—the sex she needed, that Al was promising—would be amazing. “Very much.”
Chapter Fourteen
Al was halfway up the never-ending escalators when her phone, already in her hand, vibrated. She glanced at the name on-screen and smiled. Exactly the person she wanted to talk to. She lifted the phone to her ear. “You hanging in there, Red?”
CC heaved a giant sigh. “Barely.” She barely got the word out when Wham!’s “Last Christmas” began blasting in the background. An impossibly heavier sigh echoed over the line. “Party’s still going.”
As if Al couldn’t hear that from the floor above. “Is there someplace quiet you can escape to?” Translation: Tell me exactly where to find you.
“Yeah, the terrace furthest away from the DJ.”
“Which view?” On the cab ride over, Al had distracted herself from the Drakkar Noir–soaked cab driver by looking this place up. On the top floor of a four-story building right on the water, it had amazing views from all angles—the river and bridge, the skyline, the Quarter. It was a perfect spot for MRM’s holiday party.
“Dauphin,” CC said.
“Grab a sweater. It’s finally cold out.” From when Al had entered the government building for the zoning hearing that afternoon to when she had finally escaped an hour ago, the temperature had dropped a good twenty degrees, finally making it feel like winter. Not NYC winter, but still on the colder end of what she’d experienced in New Orleans so far.
“I will take the cold over Whamageddon. Maybe no one else will be out there.” A prospect Al could get behind too. “Give me a minute to run the gauntlet.”
Al went on mute herself, finally reaching the top floor. The double doors in front of her were decorated with garlands and red ribbons, a sign next to them confirming the location of the MRM holiday party. She peeked inside. The period of the night where the lawyers who’d had too much to drink were dancing poorly was firmly in effect. Uninhibited attorneys aside, the setting was elegant from what she could see in the dim lighting. Garland wrapped candles on each white-clothed table; red, green, and gold balloons nestled in the coffered ceiling; a buffet table piled high with desserts in front of the half-moon windows that overlooked the river.
A bar immediately to her left with no line.
She cinched her coat tightly around her, severely undressed as she was among all the sparkly holiday finery, and quickly sneaked inside. She asked the bartender if there was a shortcut to the Dauphin terrace and slipped him a Benjamin for the half-full Sazerac bottle on his backbar. The shortcut put her on the green couch beneath the tinseled NOLA sign just in time to witness CC come through the terrace doors.
And fuck, what a sight she was.
She’d eschewed green and red for black, a figure-hugging, long-sleeved, off-the-shoulders leotard with a sheer black organza skirt that fell from a silk strip of fabric at her waist. A slit in the skirt swished open with each step she took, revealing a teasing glimpse of long legs and the sexiest pair of red snakeskin fuck-me heels Al had ever seen.
“Eyes up here,” CC said, and when Al lifted her gaze, she met CC’s amused grin. If the rocking body hadn’t been torture enough, her smoky eyes and blush lips, her hair was straightened and teased to max volume, were the cappers that pushed Al over the edge. She uncapped the Sazerac and took a healthy swig straight from the bottle. “I thought I said grab a coat.”
“I’m hot.”
“No shit.” She raked her gaze over the entire gorgeous woman again. “I cannot be the only person giving you looks tonight.”
CC continued to glide toward her. “You’re not.”
“You look amazing.”
“I know.” She stopped in front of her, plucked the bottle from her hand, and turned it up, taking an even healthier swig.
“That’s not helping, Red.”
“Neither is you sitting there all casual-like.” She handed back the bottle. “Hiding God only knows what under that trench.”
“A boring-ass suit.”
“You haven’t worn a boring-ass suit since the day you walked into Tchin Tchin.” She stepped closer and reached out a hand, a finger slipping beneath the gold scarf Al had paired with her suit today. “And these ties have been torturing me every day since.” She twirled it around her finger, and if Al hadn’t already been wet between her legs, she was now. “If there weren’t a room full of my work colleagues behind us...”
Al hooked her left leg around the back of CC’s right one, low enough hopefully not to be noticed, but tight enough to keep her close. “You’d do what, Red? Tell me.”
