Every Part of You Taunts Me (4 page)

“You should’ve told me,” Simone said under her breath as they took their seats at the table and the girl–her name was Corrina, Simone reminded herself. Corrina excused herself to use the restroom.

“I thought maybe you wouldn’t come if you knew.” Aidan gave her what looked like one of his old cocky grins, except there was a shadow of uncertainty beneath it.

He’d been really nervous, Simone saw. Genuinely worried. Touched, she reached for his hand, linked their fingers. She brushed a kiss along his knuckles.

“I might not have. But that would’ve made me the asshole,” she told him.

He squeezed her hand and pulled her closer for the hug he hadn’t given her when he picked her up at her apartment. It was awkward, stretching across the empty chair between them, but for the moment it felt so good to be hugging him that it didn’t matter. He kissed her cheek, hard.

“Don’t go away like that again,” Aidan said fiercely into her ear.

He pulled away when Corrina came back to the table, but not quick enough. The girl saw the embrace. She was good about hiding her feelings, though. She gave Simone a smile that seemed almost genuine. It was better than the one Simone would’ve been able to make if the situation were reversed, that was for sure.

That was the moment when Simone decided to like her.

“So, Corrina,” she said. “Tell me about yourself.”

*   *   *

Later, when Aidan had paid for the meal and talked her into going back to his place instead of having him take her immediately home, Simone had the chance to see Corrina in a different light. The moment she walked through Aidan’s front door, she took off her shoes and set them carefully on the mat next to the door. Then she knelt and unlaced Aidan’s and set them aside, too.

“No, thanks,” Simone said when Corrina looked first to Aidan for affirmation, then up at her. “I’ll take care of my own.”

“Go change and then bring us a couple of coffees, sweetheart,” Aidan told her. When she turned to go, he stared after her for so long Simone wondered if he were going to simply wait until she came back before he even turned to her.

“You are in so fucking deep,” she murmured, shaking her head and pushing past him to take a seat on the couch.

She pulled her phone from her bag, thumbing the screen to check for messages, but there was nothing but a few alerts from apps she barely used. Nothing from Elliott. She opened her lists of texts, just to check and be sure, but the last thing on it was her message telling him to have a great day. No reply from him.

Aidan laughed and took a seat in the chair across from her. “She’s … perfect.”

Simone raised her brows and looked up at him from over the top of her phone. “Nobody is perfect.”

“She’s perfect for me.”

Jealousy is a hard emotion to swallow, even when you’re trying hard to shove it down your throat to keep from being an ignorant asshole to someone you used to love. Simone forced a smile. “I’m happy for you.”

“Good. I’m glad.” Aidan grinned, then narrowed his eyes to look her over. “Are you, really?”

Simone leaned forward, phone held between her hands. “Yes, honey. Yes. I am.”

“I meant what I said at the restaurant. Don’t ever go away like that again.”

“I don’t like it when we don’t talk,” she admitted, and snuck another peek at her phone, even though it hadn’t done so much as buzz to indicate a new message.

“So. Who is he?”

She looked up, feigning innocence. “Who?”

“The guy who’s not texting you.”

She frowned. “Is it that obvious?”

“I know you, that’s all. So, who is he?”

“Elliott Anderson,” Simone said in a low voice.

Aidan put his feet down with a thump. “No shit. No shit, no way. Office exhibitionist guy?”

“He’s not … you can’t say he’s an exhibitionist,” Simone said. “I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know anyone can see him.”

“But it’s the guy you’ve been watching. The one you had a crush on since you started working in that building? No. Shit.” Aidan sat back with a stunned expression.

Simone hesitated, looking him over. “Now who’s jealous?”

“You’re with him? I mean, with him, with him?”

That was the question, wasn’t it? Simone looked at her phone again. She held it up, showing him the lack of incoming texts. Then she put it back in her purse.

Corrina, wearing a tiny lace bra and matching panties and carrying a tray with steaming cups of coffee, came into the living room. Gracefully, she put down the tray on the coffee table and then knelt in front of it to take the lid off a sugar bowl so she could spoon sweetness into one cup. Then cream. On her knees, she crossed to Aidan and handed him the cup.

“Tell her how you take yours,” Aidan said.

All that time together as lovers, a much longer time together as friends, and he still didn’t know. It didn’t matter. “I’ll make my own, thanks.”

“You sure?” He passed a hand over Corrina’s hair, unbound now and trailing to her waist in rippling golden waves. “She’ll do whatever I ask her to do.”

Of course she would, and of course Simone was not about to let her. “I’ll do it.”

“So independent.” Aidan smoothed his hand over Corrina’s hair again.

Simone had tried that a few times. Sitting at Aidan’s feet. Playing the part of the sweet submissive. She’d been terrible at it.

Aidan must’ve known what she was thinking, because he laughed. “You’d have spilled the coffee on purpose in order to get a spanking.”

Simone fixed herself a cup of coffee and sat back on the couch. “It was the spanking that I liked best. Not the other stuff.”

“So, what about this guy? Anderson? Does he spank you?”

Simone glanced at Corrina, but the other woman sat serenely at Aidan’s feet with her hands folded, one inside the other, her gaze on him. Attending him like a handmaiden. Simone would never have been able to pull that off, not in a million years … but watching it, seeing her adoration of Aidan and his clear delight in it, Simone couldn’t help feeling a flutter of heat inside her.

She was a voyeur, after all.

Aidan’s gaze got a little darker when she didn’t answer right away. He leaned forward. “Simone. Does he spank you?”

“Not the way you did.”

“What the hell’s wrong with him?” He laughed, but looked pleased.

Simone shrugged. “He won’t really talk about it. We’ve only been together a few times. He’s into pinching. A little slapping. Hair pulling.That sort of thing. He’s good at it. He gets off on it.”

“But he doesn’t text you back.”

Simone sighed. “We’re not dating. We’re just … fucking.”

“Oh, babe. When did you start to settle?”

Simone grimaced, sitting back against the couch. “When did you start getting so judgmental about my sex life?”

“Does he give you what you need?” This came from Corrina, who spoke quietly and respectfully, but it still surprised Simone she’d spoken at all. “You said he gets off. Do you?”

“I do.”

“You like pain,” Corrina said. “But you’re not submissive.”

“Did Aidan tell you that?” Simone gave him a long, cold glare.

“He didn’t have to. I could tell.” Corrina looked at Simone with a small but friendly smile, then leaned to kiss Aidan’s knee, just once. “Aidan doesn’t understand.”

“Bullshit.” He looked down at her.

Corrina looked back at him without flinching. “Respectfully, sweetheart. You don’t.”

“She’s right,” Simone said. “You never did, really.”

Aidan scowled. “What do I need to understand? That this guy isn’t treating you right? That you deserve better?”

“You don’t even know him,” Simone told him evenly. “And I already said, we’re not dating. We’re just fucking. And it’s not so easy, you know. To find a man who will give me what I like.”

“Most of them are too soft,” Corrina said. “They’re afraid of breaking you.”

Simone looked at the girl with a newfound level of respect. “Yes.”

“Was Aidan? Afraid of breaking you?”

Simone and Aidan stared at one another. “That’s a question he’d have to answer.”

“No. I wasn’t afraid of breaking you. No matter what I gave you, Simone, you always took it. As much as I could give you.”

“He’s afraid of breaking
me
,” Corrina said with a hitch in her voice. Her shoulders slumped. She lost her perfect posture.

Shit
. Was she going to cry? Simone put her coffee mug back on the tray.

“She’s not as strong as you were,” Aidan said, and Corrina let out a low, muffled sob.

“Hey,” Simone said to him. “Not cool.”

“No, no. It’s all right.” Corrina looked up with wet eyes and a brave smile. “I need to get better.”

“Aidan told me you were perfect,” Simone told her with a sniff in his direction.

Corrina burst into sobs.

“Shit, now look what you did,” Aidan said.

“I’m s-s-sorry,” Corrina gasped. “I’m not perfect! I’m trying to be–”

“Nobody’s perfect,” Simone said harshly. “Hey. Corrina. Look at me.”

Corrina wasn’t Simone’s sub, but she turned anyway. Simone waved a hand in Aidan’s direction. “I was far from perfect for him.”

Corrina swiped at her eyes, getting herself under control with visible effort. She straightened her back and shoulders and folded her hands in her lap again. She lowered her head.

“I’m sorry, Aidan.”

At least he wasn’t making her call him Sir. Or Master. He’d been into that for a while. Simone could still remember the bitter taste of that on her tongue.

Aidan looked at her, and Simone couldn’t tell if he were angry or amused or turned on. Maybe all three. She tried to communicate her frustration to him with a look, but typically, he ignored her.

“Your outburst is uncalled for, Corrina,” he said in a low, shiver-inducing voice that wasn’t meant for her and should’ve turned Simone’s stomach, but still managed to make her tingle. Just a little.

There was a reason they’d stayed friends, after all.

“I’m sorry,” Corrina repeated, and got to her feet with a smooth, graceful motion Simone envied. Head still bowed, without even a glance toward Simone, she said, “should I get the chair?”

“I don’t know. Simone, do you think I should get the chair?”

Simone gave him another long look. Now he was starting to play games, and that wasn’t what she’d had in mind when she’d agreed to come over after dinner. There was that saying, though, about old habits and dying hard.

“I don’t know, Aidan. What’s the chair?”

“Get the chair, Corrina.”

The girl shuddered, but went at once to the corner of the living room and pulled out a straight-backed chair. Worn, a little rickety, nothing special about it. She took it to the center of the room and turned it around so she could grip the back of it. She settled her feet at shoulder-width and bent her head to let her hair fall over her shoulders, exposing her back.

Aidan went over to her, running his fingers down the knobs of her spine. The dimples at the base of it, just above her hips. He brushed the last few strands of her hair over her shoulders, then looked at Simone with a small smile.

“Get the switch, Corrina.”

Simone’s nipples went tight and hard. Her clit pulsed. She remembered the switch.

Corrina hesitated, and Aidan’s gaze turned assessing. “Now.”

To Simone, he said as an aside, “she hates the switch.”

But he’d use it on her anyway, because he liked it, and it was Corrina’s place to do what he wanted. Her chosen place, Simone reminded herself, watching Corrina walk with her head held high but with hesitant steps to the armoire on the other side of the room. Corrina opened the doors and pulled out a long, slender switch of braided leather. She brought it back to him laid across her hands, eyes downcast, and held it out to him.

“Pomp and ceremony,” Simone said. “Always the ritual with you, Aidan.”

He didn’t take his eyes off of Corrina, but his words were for Simone. “Now who’s judging?”

She laughed, gently.

“Corrina. Get the clamps.”

Corrina shivered, her nipples rising beneath the black lace of her bra. She had gorgeous tits. Corrina’s lush curves made Simone feel self-conscious about her own lean frame, but there was no denying her beauty.

Corrina went again to the armoire and pulled out a set of metal nipple clamps, the kind with the cruelly digging ridges. She brought them to Aidan and held them out on the flat of her palm. He didn’t take them or tell her to move.

If Corrina were really perfect, she’d stay there until he told her what to do next. Simone had never managed that. She’d have either burst into giggles or been rolling her eyes by now. She was impressed.

“I’m going to get out of here,” she said. “You two need some private time.”

“Wait,” Aidan said, still looking at Corrina, though his hand snaked out to grab Simone’s wrist with unerring accuracy. “Babe, stay. Where do you have to go? Home? Alone? What fun is that?”

She laughed, though it stuttered a little at the grip of his fingers on her wrist. “Just because I like to watch, doesn’t mean I need to see this.”

“It’s been a long time since we played.” Finally, Aidan looked at her. Corrina, in front of him, still held her position with the clamps on her palm. He gave Simone a smile that not even so long ago would’ve charmed her into staying. “Stay.”

“I can’t.”

“Because of him? Corrina. Put the clamps on and go stand by the chair.” To Simone, Aidan said, “I thought you weren’t serious or dating.”

“I’m … we’re not. But that doesn’t mean I want to just randomly join your party, Aidan. Jeeze.” Simone watched Corrina slip out of her bra and put on the clips. They pinched her tender flesh, engorging the nipples. Simone swallowed hard, but looked back at Aidan. “I’m going to go. Thanks for dinner. We’ll get together soon, okay?”

“Wait,” Aidan said before she could get to the front door. “Simone, wait a minute.”

She turned and he leaned in, close. He smelled good, though the cologne was new. He took her by the upper arms, pinching a little, but though she liked pain, she didn’t like that. She pushed him away firmly until he let her go.

“She’s right,” he said quietly, obviously trying not to let Corrina overhear.