Oh, perfect. “You’re the best, baby. I’ll take both. Jordan’s not thirsty at the moment.” I sat forward and reached for the drinks. “Thank you. Sprite’s a little too sweet for me, but I’ll wash it down.” Later. Not now. It could sit on the table for a while and taunt Jordan.
“But Daddy, I?—”
“You can shut the fuck up,” I told him. “You’ve had your fucking-around fun. We’ve reached the find-out portion of the night now.”
He smashed his mouth shut and pulled up his knees to hug them to his chest.
Nate pursed his lips, hiding his mirth. “That bad, huh?”
“Nah. He’s just a mouthy little shit.” I took a sip of my whiskey sour and nodded in approval. That was a good drink, which it always was when Gretchen bartended.
I patted the spot next to me so James could stop hesitating over which couch to pick.
“Well…in the spirit of finding out,” Nathan said, aiming for Jordan, “I think I’ll share a story with you, little one. It’s about a Sadist whose leash always seems so long—but in the blink of an eye, it’s so short that you can’t move.”
Sounded like a great story. I’d let them get cozy with that tale while I gave James some attention instead. I still wanted him to voice his desires out loud.
I leaned toward James’s drink and sniffed it. “What did you get?” It smelled like rum and Coke.
He shifted where he sat. “Rum and Coke, boss.”
Knew it.
“Is he being disobedient?” he asked quietly.
“He’s just testing me. All part of the fun.” I leaned in closer and kissed the spot below his ear. “You know what else is fun? When you get nervous around me.”
He chuckled awkwardly and took a gulp of his drink.
“Make it last,” I murmured. “We don’t want a repeat of the team-building exercise tonight.” Two or three drinks were fine, but no more than that.
I removed my mask again, ’cause it was just in the way. Then I took off James’s too, wanting to see his face better.
“I just love that you remind me of that day so often,” he grumbled.
I chuckled into my drink, then started rubbing his neck. “It’s a fond memory for me.”
“I bet it is.”
I pulled up my knee and turned a little so I could see him properly. “What would be a fond memory for you? Right now, for instance. Say one thing you’d like to do.” I gestured over my shoulder. “Learning how to waltz?”
The competition had started on the dance floor, filling the club with…not my kind of music.
“I had to take my cousin to cotillion when I was a kid,” he replied. “I know how to waltz. But no, that’s not what I want to do.”
I hummed and dragged my thumb up his neck. “So tell me. Tell me right now what you wanna do.”
He swallowed and dropped his gaze to the sliver of space between us. “I, uh…I wanna kiss you.”
Decent start.
“Why?”
That earned me a flicker of frustration. “Why? Because…because I’ve thought about it a lot. I’ve fantasized about it.”
“For how long?”
A breath gusted out of him, and he took a big swallow of his drink. “Probably since the day you hired me.”
