Bound to be Tempted: Emergence, Book 4 (19 page)

Chapter Fifteen

On Saturday morning, they were finishing breakfast when she announced she needed to get her nails done. It had been over a month since she’d been into the city to get a manicure. She was past due.

“Sure, baby. I’ll take you. What time do you want to go?”

She rolled her eyes. “Carlton, I don’t need you to take me to the salon. I can get there on my own.” Inside, she knew she needed him with her. Outside, she couldn’t just readily agree or he’d be suspicious. They’d had this argument too many times.

Besides, she wanted to know what his motives were. He knew nothing about her being followed—stalked really. So why the hell did he have such a fetish about her driving?

“I don’t mind.” He stuffed dishes in the dishwasher while she kneeled on the floor. Her submissive mode had gone out the window with his weird, quirky need to escort her.

“I’m sure you don’t. You’ve made that abundantly clear. But why on earth would you want to go sit and wait for me to get my nails done?” She stood. In fact, she put her hands on her hips.

“I like being with you.” He smiled over his shoulder. But there was more to it, and she intended to find out now.

Perhaps she’d read him wrong, and he really was a jealous boyfriend. “Why do I get the feeling you don’t trust me?”

“What?” He made a mock-crazy expression that wasn’t sincere. “That’s absurd. Of course I trust you. Why wouldn’t I trust you?”

“I don’t know. You tell me. You obviously hate me driving anywhere. Have I done anything to give you the sense that I’m a bad driver, or are you afraid I’m too weak to fend off anyone who might try to pick me up at the salon, or work, or any other place I go?” She threw her hands up in the air, exasperated.

“Of course not. That’s ludicrous. I promise I have no latent jealousy issues. I trust you implicitly.”

“Then it’s my driving.” She stepped toward him.

“Nope.”

“What then? Carlton, stop fucking loading the dishwasher, turn around, look me in the eye and tell me why the hell you feel the need to accompany me everywhere I go.” She stopped inches from his back, knowing she had goaded him by cussing.

He froze for a moment and then slowly turned toward her, drying his hands on a towel. He didn’t meet her gaze for a long time. Finally he set the towel on the counter and lifted her face.

The look he gave her was pained, and totally unexpected. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I do have a reason. And it has nothing to do with anything you’re thinking or could possibly have imagined. I trust you completely, baby. So wipe that thought from your head.”

She waited for the rest.

He took a deep breath. “And you’re a fantastic driver. I can’t argue that.”

“So? Don’t tell me you just like to hang out at nail salons and go shopping, because I won’t buy it.”

“Not that either.” His shoulders dropped. “Come.” He took her arm and led her to the living room, where he sat on the couch and pulled her down next to him.

Now she grew worried. What the hell was going on?

“When I was eighteen, I fell in love with my high school sweetheart. We were inseparable. I thought from the first date she was the love of my life. We were together two years. We went to the same college and spent every waking hour when we weren’t studying hanging out with each other. I would say we were soul mates. At least I thought so at the time. But what did I know? We were young. Maybe it wouldn’t have worked out in the long run anyway.”

Margaret released a breath she’d been holding for too long. She took his arm and forced him to look at her. “She broke up with you?”

“No.” He shook his head. “I wish.” He held her gaze, his expression pained once more. “She died in a car crash one week after her twentieth birthday.”

The breath knocked out of Margaret’s lungs. “Oh. God. Carlton. I’m so sorry. That must have been horrible.” She set her palm on his cheek and held his face.

It all made so much more sense now. His strange driving quirks.

“She was a risk taker. Always had been. An adrenaline junkie, her friends called her. Made me crazy all the time. That night she was out with friends while I stayed home with the flu.” He wrung his hands together and then continued, lifting his gaze to hers. “Apparently she decided to race against someone else on some back roads. She lost control on a turn and slammed into a tree.”

Margaret winced. “Oh God. Honey…” She leaned into him and wrapped her arms around his neck, setting her head on his shoulder. They stayed like that for a while, him wrapping his arms around her also and holding her tight.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled into her neck. “I hate that twelve years later I’m still fighting that demon.”

“It’s okay. It’s understandable.” She rubbed his back, digging her fingers into his muscles, wishing she could crawl inside him and take the pain away with her touch to his soul. Twelve years. She didn’t miss the irony. It was twelve years ago almost to the day that her life changed irrevocably also.

“I try to fight my demons and let you have the space you need. It’s unfounded that I get stressed when you’re driving. And you always win. I always let you go.” He pulled her back and met her gaze. “I’m working on it. You’re the first person I’ve met since then that meant so much to me, I can’t stand to have you out of my sight for fear I’ll never see you again.”

She nodded, fighting tears for his loss and his declaration. Was he coming around then? Maybe there was hope that he wouldn’t let her walk away next week and go on with his life. “That’s why you wig out when I’m late. You’re scared.”

“I am.”

“I’ll do my part. I promise. You can’t take me everywhere, but when it’s reasonable, go with me. We’ll work on it together. And I’ll do my best to be sure and call or text when I’m going to be late, so you won’t worry.” She clasped his face with both hands and kissed him.

“Have I mentioned how awesome you are?”

“Yes.” She smiled. Then she lifted her hand in front of his face and spread her fingers so her nails dangled in front of his eyes. “Have I mentioned how badly my nails need to be done?” She grinned and gave him a shove. “Let’s go downtown, big guy. I need a lift. There are some really old ladies with blue hair dying to tell you about their bridge club in the waiting room.”

He chuckled. “I don’t have to go with you. I’ll survive.”

“Oh no, you don’t. Now you have to go.” She stood and tugged him to standing. “Now I want lunch too, and maybe I’ll wear some cute short dress that makes you drool all over, knowing what I’m not wearing beneath it.”

He lifted his eyebrows. “How can I resist that temptation? Can I choose the dress?” He let her pull him to standing and followed her down the hall.

“Maybe…”

Later that night Carlton had to work the front door at Emergence. The hours flew by. It was busy, but he didn’t fail to glance at Maggie every few minutes where she sat perched on a bar stool, chatting with the bartender.

He moaned when he watched her squirm on the seat. He knew her thighs got stuck to the vinyl after a while since her ass was directly on the seat, her skirt hanging over the side, and hopefully her pussy at least marginally wet with need.

He always tried to keep her on the edge even when he was working. It made the rest of the night fantastic when he finally got someone to cover for him. Plus he loved to see her squirm, and she looked at him with those sultry bedroom eyes when she reached her limit.

And one of those times was now. She’d given him her I-can’t-take-much-more-of-this-teasing look several times in the last five minutes. He knew because he’d barely paid attention to the door in that time. His cock was harder than a rock behind his jeans and threatening a revolt if he didn’t release it soon.

The dress she wore didn’t help matters at all, and he had no one to blame but himself for that. It was red, her favorite color. When she wore it, he could spot her easily anywhere in the room. Of course, so could everyone else. But he didn’t care. No regular would approach her and few guests would either. Everyone knew she was with him by now. And God almighty, she was
with
him. To deny how he felt about her was ludicrous at this point. Did she feel the same? He thought so. He’d gone over and over her reactions to him in his head. The way she looked at him like he was the only person in the room. The way she trembled beneath his touch. It was more than he deserved, and he needed to come clean with her, tell her how he felt. No way in hell was he going to let her go.

He stared at her now. The red dress was tight across her breasts, held together with leather lacing that crisscrossed all the way from her belly button to the top, which was barely above her nipples. The bottom was almost not long enough and full, making it easy for him to slip his hand under it and stroke her skin—which he’d done a dozen times throughout the evening, causing the bedroom eyes he was getting from her now.

One of his employees came to the front and relieved him just as he was about to hunt someone down. He mumbled his thanks and meandered through the crowd until he reached her back. She was laughing at something the bartender said as he wrapped his arms around her middle and kissed her neck.

“Doesn’t my submissive have the nicest nails tonight?” he asked the bartender, stroking a palm down Maggie’s arm until he held her hand out for inspection.

“You guys are weird. Get a room.” The man chuckled and walked to the other end of the bar.

“Good idea. What do you think?” He punctuated his question by spreading his hands down her chest to cup her breasts, and then farther until he crossed her belly and grasped her thighs to spread them wider.

She gasped.

He reached beneath the scarlet material and opened her sex with both hands, spearing her with a few fingers while he held her captive against the bar.

No one could see. Not that anyone cared. Much crazier things happened at Emergence than a little groping at the bar under the lip of the counter. But it wasn’t usual for Carlton to tease her like that in public, and he knew the spontaneity would drive her wild.

Sure enough, she moaned and leaned her head back to roll against his shoulder. “Carlton…” Her voice was sultry. Needy with arousal.

“Baby…” he responded, while adding more fingers to the assault and pinching her clit between his thumbs.

She lifted clear off the seat, her body going tense in an instant. And then she made that little noise he’d come to recognize preceded her orgasms. A sharp intake of breath that whistled as it passed her lips.

He released her, not wanting her to come in the middle of the crowded bar area.

She groaned as she grabbed his wrists, trying to get him to continue.

This amused him and he chuckled against her ear. “Who’s on top?”

“Carlton. God. Please.”

“Who’s on top?” he repeated.

“You are. Always you, Sir.”

“Are you sure?” He held her thighs in a tight grip, not giving her what she wanted.

“Yes, Sir. Positive. Sorry, Sir.”

“You owe me a punishment.” He nibbled her lip, trying not to grin.

“I do?”

“You do.”

She hesitated. He knew her mind was racing around to find the infraction.

“You cussed at me this morning.”

“I did? Oh shit, I did.” She threw her hand over her mouth as she did it again. “Sorry, Sir. I mean for both. I wondered if you noticed that this morning.”

“Oh, yeah. I noticed. My gorgeous, sexy submissive stood in my kitchen with her hands on her hips and ordered me to stop
fucking
loading the dishwasher.” He continued to kiss her neck, her shoulder, her ear while he tormented her. “It would have been comical, except I don’t like such words coming out of my
fucking
smoking hot submissive. It makes her less attractive.” He emphasized
fucking
the second time to point out it was okay for him to use the language, but not her.

“Yes, Sir.” She lowered her gaze, deflated a little. But her thighs remained stiff.

“Granted, she was somewhat justified to be angry with her Dom at the time, but that doesn’t change the rules. Do you think I should go easy on her?”

“Um, yes?”

“Are you asking me?”

She swallowed. He felt the movement in her throat with his lips. “No, Sir.”

“No, I shouldn’t go easy on her?” This was fun.

She didn’t respond. She sat perfectly still and waited.

“And now she has cussed again. That’s one
fuck
and one
shit
. Oh, and I believe there was a
hell
in there also.” He continued nibbling her warm skin, easing his fingers back toward her center, pulling her thighs wider as he did so.

Her hands remained on top of his, her new nails digging into his flesh, although she probably had no idea.

“Let’s do a scene.” He stood, releasing her abruptly.

She twisted on the stool to look up at him. Just as quickly she lowered her head. “Okay, Sir.”

The element of surprise was so totally his friend tonight. He’d planned the scene hours ago, but she didn’t know that.

He took her hand and helped her down from the stool. And then he led her down the side hall that accommodated several rooms that people reserved throughout the night to enact various scenes. Each room was three-sided, leaving the fourth as a wall of glass anyone could watch through from the wide hall. All this was intentional, as intentional as what Carlton had planned for Maggie.

Maggie followed close behind him. She kept her gaze low and her head bent, but even if she’d straightened her neck, all she would have seen was the back of Carlton’s body. When he stopped abruptly, she ran into him.

He turned toward her, took her face in his hands and kissed her chastely. “Trust me, baby?”

“Of course, Sir.”

“Implicitly?”

“Yes.” Her breath came faster. She stood on the edge of one of the rooms, unable to see around him to know what he had in mind.

And he held her face still. “Look at me.” He released her cheek with one hand and reached into his pocket for something. When he held it up, she gasped. “May I blindfold you?”

She nodded.