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“Oh, I’m sorry. I was left here and basically told to stand still until I’m told to do otherwise.”
Warmth seeps into my cold body and I try to tell myself I should be scared but I’m not.
“Such impatience,” the husky-voiced stranger drawls out close to my ear. His words brush against loose strands causing a shiver to work through my body. He sounds familiar. Maybe. I Dig around in my memory bank, but nothing comes back.
“I don’t have patience for games nor do I flare for the dramatic is all,” I deadpan with a little more sass than I should have with the price tag he just paid.
His low, warm laugh peppers my ears but I still can’t place him. I must be losing my mind.
Tips of callused fingers caress over the edge of the blindfold. A couple of tugs and he secures it back in place. As quickly as his arms come around me, they suddenly drop and I’m left standing in the middle of the room.
“Hello? Where did you go?” I reach out only to pull back empty air.
Silence.
“I’m putting a lot of trust in you. At least tell me your name.”
“No one is here to hurt you. Tonight is all about connecting and finding pleasure.” I feel him reach for a strand of hair and I imagine he’s either smelling it or twirling it around a finger. He drags the tips along the small curve of my jawline in a languid stroke. I don’t want to react but my body hasn’t been mine to control since I became pregnant. I’m hungry all the time and most embarrassingly horny, too. Heat blooms over my breasts and flows up my neck to settle in my cheeks. I lick my lips. At least the cloak hides my hard nipples and most of the red flush.
The stranger vibrates a low hum of appreciation. “You look beautiful when you’re off balance.”
My smile is held in place by sheer determination to get through this night without making enemies. “It’s not a great feeling,” I admit. What I really want to say is can we get to the dirty part of this so I can leave? I reach for patience I don’t feel and calmly say, “Are we going to spend all night like this? I’m not into the cat and mouse games.” Then again, he paid handsomely to do whatever he wants with me, I remind myself. But I’m not going to say it if he’s not.
My question is ignored for one of his own. “Did Solomon tell you your safe word?”
I nod.
“Words, precious. Tell me the safe word to make sure we are both aware and then we can move on.”
“To what?”
The stranger’s low laugh tickles a memory in the back of my mind. I reach for it, but it slips through my hold like smoke in the air. Then again, my heart is pounding and blood rushes in my ears. I could be dead wrong about the sound of his voice. I’ve met so many of Oliver’s ‘associates’, as he calls them.
“You… umm…you sound familiar,” I finally spit out.
There’s silence before he speaks, but I swear I hear a lowly growled curse.
“Do I know you?” Oliver has a lot of friends and more enemies. How royally did I screw up here? Did I sell myself to someone who wants to hurt me? My breathing hitches and I back up until I hit something with the back of my legs. I reach out to find the edge soft and covered in cloth. Since the couch is on the other side of the room, it has to be the bed.
“I assure you, we have never officially met.”
“And unofficially?” I swallow hard and try to sound nonchalant like I do this sort of thing all the time, but my voice wobbles.
Footsteps shuffle over the carpet and then fingers brush over the slope of my cheek like a whisper of reassurance. I reach for the hand but he’s already moved away.
“What are you? A ghost?”
There comes that laugh again. It’s deep and not too unlike my husband’s. My heart squeezes. I wish I could be in his arms and hearing his voice.
“I’ve watched you, Amethyst Stone.”
I raise my head up and jut my chin out like I have the upper hand here. “I mean, you are the one who purchased the evening with me. I imagine you watched me all evening.”
Right? Could just anyone walk in here as if they purchased me? Solomon wouldn’t let that happen. The headmistress would cut heads off.
“Are you asking or telling?”
I hear the humor in his question, but I don’t feel like smiling. “Both, I guess.”
