Three Simple Rules (The Blindfold Club #1) (31 page)

I took a deep breath before turning my key in his lock, steeling myself. I’d gotten a text from Logan at twenty to five:

It wasn’t a question.

The train ride to his apartment had been spent mapping out a way to not make me seem like a lovesick, moon-eyed girl who wanted to have ten thousand of his babies.

He wasn’t in the kitchen or the living area beyond. I set my purse down on the entry table, then thought better of it and tucked it in the closet where he liked it.

“Logan?”

There wasn’t an answer. I checked my phone for text messages or a missed call. Nothing. Where was he? I sent a text asking when to expect him, and he replied he was stuck in traffic and would be home shortly.

I called Payton, frantic, revealing the whole mess. She tried to calm me, but wasn’t much help. Payton was always honest, and given Logan’s history, she was worried for me.

Behind me, the front door creaked opened as Logan came in. I turned to face him and almost dropped the phone. “Logan’s home, I gotta call you back.”

“Hi,” he said, setting the plastic bags carrying what I assumed was our dinner on the counter. He set the other item down too – a glass vase bursting with gorgeous red roses. “These are for you.”

My shaky hand shoved my phone in my back pocket. “Why?”

He paused. “Why? I can’t buy you flowers?”

“It’s suspect. Are you breaking up with me for the crazy things you overheard come out of my mouth?”

His smile was mesmerizing. “It didn’t sound like you want that.” He approached, his arms wrapping around my back and drawing me in. “I was being overly-protective. I came down to that restaurant thinking . . .”

“You were going to challenge Blake to a duel?”

His eyes glinted with amusement, then sobered. “I thought he was going to talk you into leaving me.”

“No. He wanted my advice on how to propose to his girlfriend, who’s pregnant.”

His eyes softened. “So, I bought flowers.” He motioned to the vase. “I should have trusted you to have it under control.”

“What about what I said? Can you pretend you didn’t hear it?”

“Why would I want to?”

He made everything upside-down again. “I don’t know, because it goes against the general rules of dating.”

The devious look he had made my mouth water. “I thought you knew I liked it when you break the rules.”

I’d forgotten to call Payton back, and the next morning she broke down and called me at work.

“What happened?”

“We’re okay. He was surprisingly cool about it.”

Jamie dropped a birthday card on my desk. It seemed like it was always someone’s birthday in the office, and I signed it before reading who it was addressed to.

“Who’s birthday is it?” I asked her.

She collected the card from me. “Logan’s.” She disappeared, and the gasp on the other end of the phone told me Payton had heard the exchange.

“Did you know it was his birthday today?”

“No.” I was so fucked. I hadn’t the faintest clue what to get him. He had everything he needed. And he’d told me on more than one occasion that having me in his bed was all he wanted. So, what now?

We hung up and Payton immediately started brainstorming ideas, sending me text messages. Stuff for his upcoming marathon? Nope, he had it covered. Some sort of tech item? If he wanted something for himself, he bought it. And what could I afford on my tiny paycheck?

I sent him a text.

We’d agreed no more attempts at lunch after yesterday, so that meant I could go out during my break and get his present, but I had to come up with something first. For as creative as I could be at designing, I was the worst gift-giver on the planet.

Payton texted later.

No, he didn’t need porn. He had those cellphone videos of us. Watching us have sex was so much hotter than the fake stuff—

Oh.

Well, that was an idea.

It made my heart race. My throat clamped too tight to talk, and that was fine. I couldn’t ask what I was about to out loud, with only a half-wall partition separating me from my coworkers. My nervous fingers tapped out the message to Payton.

chapter

TWENTY-ONE

He wouldn’t be home until eight. I gave Payton the tour of his place and then pulled down the bottle of tequila.

“You sure you want to do this?” I asked her.

“Hell yeah. Are you?” She motioned to the shot I’d just poured. I downed it and considered her question. When she’d said she wanted to watch us have sex, Logan had said he was flattered. Giving him praise or an ego boost seemed to affect him deeply. He loved it.

So, the plan was to recreate the night Logan and I had truly met, the night we saw each other as we were. Payton would blindfold me, tie me down, and then wait with me until Logan came home. If he wanted to ask her to stay and watch, I was okay with that. I’d have the blindfold on anyway.

I didn’t want to get performance anxiety though. Last time I hadn’t had any warning that we were going to be exhibitionists. Tonight, I had plenty of time to consider what was going to happen and get worked up over it. My hint of excitement was stifled by nerves. She was my best friend and totally comfortable with anything, but still. What if this made things weird? How could it not? I did a second shot, and she did one, too.

“What level of sloppiness are we shooting for?” she asked when I poured my third.

“Just on the drunk side of drunk.”

I didn’t eat dinner, so the liquor kicked in fast. Twenty minutes after we’d each done three shots, I swayed into the bedroom, buzzing. I was less anxious about her watching now. Much more eager to hear his reaction when he came home. I giggled to myself when I pulled my top over my head and almost lost my balance in the closet.

“Shit, he’s got you hanging up your clothes? You
would
do anything for him.” A smile spread across her exotic face. Payton set her purse down beside the chair in the corner. It was the one she’d be watching from if everything played out as I assumed it would.

She pulled a mess of black fabric from her purse and tossed it on the bed. Ribbon to tie me up. I tugged my jeans off and folded them, setting them on the shelf of the closet. At work, I’d snuck away for a late lunch and called Payton from a table in the back of the restaurant so no one could hear the indecent conversation I had with her. She’d agreed right away, even offering to pick up a blindfold and ties, and there was a crinkle of plastic now as she opened the blindfold from its package.

Like all of the other crazy sex decisions I’d made recently, once I’d decided on this I didn’t have a lot of regret or hesitation. Only excitement.

Payton bent down and secured one of the ribbons to the bed frame, rising up to view me when it was finished. Her eyes traveled upward over me, and they were hooded when they met mine.

“When do you think he’ll come home?”

I bent my arms to unhook my bra. “He’s usually back around eight.”

The bra was undone, and set on top of my jeans on the shelf. It was odd, the feeling that she was looking at me. She hadn’t looked at me like that the night in the club when I’d undressed, or the day I’d stripped in front of Joseph. Anticipation clung in the air, heavy and thick.

“He might be early,” she said, securing the other tie.

And it would look rather awkward if he walked in right now. I hurried, hooked my thumbs under my panties and pulled them off. I thought about leaving them on the floor of his closet, and because I was naked and drunk, I smiled. He disliked clothes on the floor, so I left them there to tease him.

Payton hesitated beside the bed, waiting for me to climb up on it, an expression I didn’t understand fixed on her face.

“What’s wrong?” I folded the comforter down to the edge of the bed, then again so it was a narrow strip, and climbed onto the sheets.

“I don’t want to make things weird between us, but . . .” She paused. “Your tits are amazing.”

I laughed at her unexpected compliment. “Okay, thanks. Yours are really nice, too.” I mashed the pillow with my hand and lay down on it, spreading my hair out beneath me.

“You’ve been checking out my rack?” She gave me a pretend judgmental look.

I’d only seen her naked, like, a thousand times. “You hardly ever had clothes on when we lived together.”

She handed me the black blindfold and I took it, along with a deep breath. Good things waited for me once I had it on, so I didn’t waste time. I positioned it right where I wanted it, slipped into darkness, then surrendered my first wrist to her soft hand.