Bound to be Taken (Emergence) (5 page)

Dane watched her face as her eyebrows rose, and then she smiled. “Perfect. A trade.” And then her face fell. “Wait. We? Both of you?”

“Yep.” Aiden reached for her hand and spun the knob to turn off the water as she stepped out onto the rug. He tugged her over to a stool and eased her down. She didn’t hesitate and he didn’t miss the way she’d let him lead her across the room without questioning his motive. “We have this…thing…we want to attend, but we need a date.” He stepped back.

Dane knelt in front of her and gently dabbed a towel on her pink skin. He knew Aiden had to be beside himself wishing he could touch her skin also, but it would seem awfully awkward for them both to fondle her right now.

“Just one date…for the both of you?” She stiffened. Her spine straightened as she glanced at Dane.

“Yeah, it’s a little complicated, but the place we’re going doesn’t allow single men to attend without a woman.”

Stephanie winced when he touched a particularly sensitive spot. She gripped the edges of the bench seat with both hands, so focused on her burning skin and the intense conversation that he was sure she didn’t realize how high her skirt had risen to accommodate his administrations.

“What sort of place is this?”

“It’s a club.” Dane reached around her for the salve and twisted off the cap.

“Uh huh. I’ve heard of that, I guess. Some clubs where only women and couples can get in.” She cringed again as Dane smeared the white lotion into her shin, working his way up her leg.

“Yeah, that’s the deal.” Dane froze and looked up at Aiden. “Help me out here?”

With the leg or the fetish date?

Aiden didn’t think Dane looked as if he needed any assistance with the ointment. In fact, the man was taking his sweet time spreading the stuff up Stephanie’s leg, gradually reaching above her knee while she seemed to sink into the bench seat in…bliss. Aiden watched her as she allowed Dane to twist her leg every direction, directing her with just a nudge here and there. She complied so readily he couldn’t think clearly or take his gaze off her limbs.

Okay, sure. I’ll take it from here. Let me do the dirty work while you fondle the woman.

“Stephanie.” Aiden waited for her to look up at him. “We need a sub.”

“A what?”

He had to tell her. Shit, they couldn’t just waltz into a fetish club on a Friday night with a woman this uninformed. It wasn’t fair to her. Plus, they needed to prepare her a bit. If they didn’t teach her a thing or two between now and then, she’d never fit in, and no one would believe she was submissive. Not that he cared much what other people thought, but it would sure make the evening smoother if he laid down a few cards now…and added to them every day this week.

“A submissive. It’s a…BDSM club.” Aiden paused for that to sink in.

There was a fraction of time when Aiden was sure the earth paused. At least for Stephanie. She stared at Aiden’s face in shock, her eyes wide and her mouth open. Aiden glanced at Dane when she flinched and found his partner’s hand had wandered up her thigh.

Stephanie jerked her leg free of his clutches and stood. She shook her head and mumbled under her breath while she glanced around. “I…I… I have to go. Did we leave my shoes in the kitchen? I…have to get back to work…somehow.” She scrambled for the door, and Aiden followed her with Dane at his rear.

Aiden pondered her last word. He doubted she was concerned about her method of arrival at work, but rather her mental ability to function this afternoon. She was flustered. And the look on her face had been priceless. She blinked several times. Her cheeks pinkened almost instantly. And Aiden’s cock grew stiff. He fought a groan.

They had to let her go. If she never spoke to them again, there was nothing they could do. All they could hope for was that she pondered the idea and faced them later.

“I know it’s a lot to ask.” Aiden intended to get a few more words in before she disappeared. “We don’t mean to insult you. And I promise we would never do anything that made you uncomfortable. We just need you to go with us, maybe participate a little? Just enough for it to be believable.”

Stephanie gathered her shoes, stockings and purse at the door. She turned back to them with her hand on the knob. She was shaking. In fear? Disgust? Curiosity? “Why are you so interested in pretending to be straight for an evening? Aren’t you gay?”

Aiden gasped. Oh God. She totally had the wrong impression. How stupid of them. He shook his head. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize you thought we were gay. We’re bisexual. We enjoy women as much as men.”

Dane stepped toward her but Aiden grabbed his arm. They needed to let her go.

“Wait. If you thought we were gay, why did you want one of us to go to your company party on Saturday?”

Stephanie opened her mouth to speak, but then shut it just as fast and fled the apartment.

The door shut with a resounding click that made Aiden shudder. “Fuck.”

“Yeah. That could’ve gone better,” Dane added.

Chapter Four

“What the hell happened to you?” Lisa, Stephanie’s coworker, bounced up from her seat as Stephanie passed her office.

Stephanie glanced at Lisa, blew her bangs off her face and kept walking until she was inside her own office.

“The elevator in my building jammed,” she offered when she finally turned around.

Lisa had followed her. She’d known that would happen. Nothing got by her coworker. Lisa lifted one eyebrow. “And that made your legs bright pink and your face stark white?”

Stephanie glanced down.
Christ.
She’d totally forgotten about the state of her legs. The ache took a backseat to the strange conversation she’d just had with two sexy men who…were not gay? “Oh, that. When the elevator stalled, someone dropped their coffee and I got splashed.”

“Geez, Steph, that looks bad. Are you okay? I’ve never seen you without your hose.” Lisa stepped closer and leaned down to get a better look.

“Yeah, I peeled them off and decided there was no way I could put on a new pair. It’s not too bad. Just stings.”

“Was the guy at least hot?”

Stephanie flinched. Actually, she nearly jumped out of her skin. “What guy?”

Lisa tipped her head up toward Stephanie’s and grinned broadly. “So it was a guy. Ah
ha
. I was fishing. You look guilty. In fact, your face is whiter than it was when you came in. Spill.”

When Stephanie just swallowed and didn’t open her mouth, Lisa continued, “Deets, please.” The woman grabbed the chair in front of Stephanie’s desk with both hands, pulled it away from the desk and plopped herself down with every intention of staying until she had what she wanted.

Ugh. Stephanie cringed as she turned her back on Lisa and circled the desk to sit in her own chair. “What are you, psychic?”

“So you aren’t kidding? It was a
guy
that spilled his coffee on you?”

“Yeah, so what?”

Lisa’s smile broadened. “So what? Steph, you never date. You’re so flustered, you must have liked him. As long as he’s in the age range of twenty-five to say forty-five, not ugly, and doesn’t pick his nose, I say go for it.”

Stephanie leaned her forehead on her hands. If Lisa only knew…
Yeah, he fits the age range, I doubt he picks his nose, and he sure as hell isn’t ugly…but, there are two of him, they aren’t gay, and in exchange for agreeing to help me out this Saturday they need me to be their submissive for a night. I’m thinking there are some things that can and do cancel out others.

“Yeah, I probably should. It would be nice to have a date to the company party.” She hadn’t mentioned to her friend what she’d overheard from their bosses yesterday. It still made her sick to even think about that exchange. She couldn’t bring herself to verbalize their bet.

“That would be awesome.” Lisa beamed and then glanced at her watch. Stephanie knew Lisa had as much on her plate as she did. “Shit. So much to do this afternoon. I wanna hear more about this later.” Lisa stood, eyebrows raised, dimples on both cheeks, and headed for the door. She nodded toward the massive stack of files on Stephanie’s desk that demanded her attention. “Looks like you have your work cut out for you this afternoon too. Ugh.”

“That’s for sure.” Stephanie sighed when her office door snicked closed. How the hell was she supposed to concentrate on all this work with everything that had happened in the last hour haunting her every thought?

The phone rang, jerking Stephanie from her musing. According to the caller ID, it was her boss, Jack. An internal call. She grabbed the receiver with a shaky hand. “Hello.”

“Stephanie, it’s Jack. How are the reports coming along for the Garwood account?”

Stephanie grabbed that folder off the top. She hadn’t even opened it.

“Great. Working on that now.”
For you, the man who referred to me as though I were a sex object just yesterday morning.

“Good. I need it ASAP. Can you finish that one by the end of the day?”

Sure, if I stay half the night getting all the other clients straightened out too.
“Absolutely. I’ll run it up to you as soon as I have it.”

“Perfect.” A click disconnected the call.

Stephanie let her forehead fall with a thump onto the top of the desk. She was in way over her head. She needed to learn to say no. Perhaps she also needed to learn to say yes.

She felt herself flush for the millionth time as she pondered the last hour. Aiden and Dane. They could both fill a room with their presence. She considered their personalities. They were distinct, but both men were…bossy. Yep, that’s how she would describe them. Gah. They’d said they were into BDSM. No wonder… That meant they probably were bossy.

Speaking of bossy… She lifted her face from her desk. She knew her bosses were testing her. Pushing her hard to see if she was up to the task of project manager. It was only four more days. Or three and a half if you counted Tuesday as half over. If she burned the midnight oil, she would look fantastic in their eyes.

Especially if she also took the not-so-gay guys up on their offer and solidified a date for Saturday night. Maybe if she threw herself into the role they needed her to play on Friday, one of them would do a super job of making her look human enough for a promotion on Saturday.

Taking the offer would accomplish several things at once. One, she wouldn’t have to spend the next several days finding a date—especially since that was doomed to failure. Two, she could put the entire thing out of her mind and concentrate on her work. And three, she’d sleep better at night without that nagging worry corrupting her dreams. Oh, who was she kidding? There was a fourth objective. She was intrigued as hell. They stirred things inside her that had lain dormant for many years. Two sexy men had actually propositioned her. And she’d been dressed like a prim librarian. Maybe they could see beneath her disguise.

But, God. Could she pretend to be someone’s submissive? She let her head fall back on the desk and roll to one side, resting on one cheek over the cool surface. Contrary to her outward appearance, she wasn’t a total prude.

Sure, her bosses thought she was because of how she dressed. And the not-so-gay guys must have thought she was because of her naïve response to the word “sub”. She couldn’t have seemed any stupider if she’d tried. When they’d said they needed a sub, she had honestly thought they’d meant a “substitute”, a fill in for something. What an idiot.

They must be laughing hysterically at me now.

The reality was Stephanie didn’t date for deep personal reasons. Her entire childhood had been a series of poor examples set by her mother. She’d loved the woman, but her bad choices had shaped Stephanie into the timid woman she was today.

Ugh. She needed to trust herself and remind herself daily that she was not her mother. She’d never be led down the paths that woman had taken. Would she? It was that doubt that made her skittish around men. She didn’t trust men. Few had ever convinced her otherwise.

Stephanie righted herself and sat up straight. “Let it go, girl,” she muttered under her breath.
They seem nice enough. Take a chance. It’s for a very good cause. Your financial future depends on this.

Resolved, she straightened her papers and opened the Garwood folder. Crunch time.

It took nearly an hour to finish the job Jack requested. She clipped down the hall toward his end of the building as fast as her legs would carry her. As she approached, she slowed. Laughter filled the hall, seeping out from under the closed door of Mr. Cane’s office. Geez. She couldn’t imagine who was in there, but they sure were entertained.

Stephanie’s hand shook as she waited. Seconds ticked by. More giggles. Someone seemed to be flirting with Jack. Ick. The man was…old.

The door suddenly flung open and a woman Stephanie knew from down the hall stepped out, grinning broadly. Her face sobered when she set her gaze on Stephanie. “Oh, hi. Were you waiting to see Jack?”

Jack? She called their boss by his first name—in front of him. The door was still open. In fact, the man himself was now standing behind this woman—Cherise. His look was also playful, jovial.

Stephanie felt sick. She swallowed, hoping to keep from bending over as her stomach clenched.