Wedding Favors (28 page)

“Ready?” he asked.

She nodded, all too aware of the intensity brewing between them. Anxious, she followed him up the cramped stairwell. They reached the attic door, and he removed his keys from his pocket and unlocked it.

They went inside, and he flipped a light switch. The room was larger than she’d expected and cluttered with boxes, old trunks, and battered furniture. Two small windows were trimmed with lace curtains.

“Some of this stuff is mine, and some of it was already here,” he said.

“It’s spooky.”

“There’s nothing to be afraid of. I promise it isn’t haunted.”

Maybe not by ghosts, but she was getting chilled just the same.

He took her hand and led her to a tight space behind the furniture, where a wall was covered in wood panels.

“I was moving some stuff around in here, when a stack of boxes tipped over and hit the wall. That’s how I discovered the door.” He pushed on a panel and it moved, creating an opening.

Kendra’s stomach flip-flopped. “It’s like something out of an old movie.”

“I know. Isn’t it great?”

He flashed that sloe gin smile of his, and she felt downright faint, like a silly Victorian miss.

He offered to let her go first. “After you.”

She hesitated. “Will it be dark?”

He shook his head. “When I turned on the lights in the attic, it turned on the lights in there, too. It’s the same switch.”

Taking the lead, she crossed the mysterious threshold and walked straight into the dungeon that had been living in her mind.

“Is it from your dreams?” James asked from behind her.

“Yes.” She released the air in her lungs. “But it looks newer and prettier.” Softly illuminated, the gothic scene all but glittered. The manacles were bright and shiny, the cross was sleek and smooth, even the floors were polished to perfection. She turned to look at him. “It was rougher in my dreams.”

“Then you must have been seeing it the way it was before.” He moved closer. “I spent months restoring everything.”

She could little more than ask, “Why?”

“Because from the moment I discovered this room, it consumed me, and I wanted to bring it back to life.” He glanced around. “I’ve never been the fetish type, so it was a bit weird, getting attached to a dungeon. But the more I worked on it, the more I wanted to become part of it. I started having these hot, wild thoughts. Bondage and discipline. Dominance and submission. I even researched it online.”

She stood there in her bridesmaid’s dress, surrounded by the ambience he’d created. She was both aroused and afraid, her pulse skittering beneath her skin.

“It’s supposed to be perfectly normal to have these types of fantasies,” he said. “But it makes me feel dark inside.”

Me, too, she thought.

“See that cabinet?” He pointed to an armoire near the wood panels and the door.

She shifted her gaze. It was the only section of the dungeon that hadn’t appeared in her subconscious.

He continued by saying, “It’s filled with bondage gear and sex toys and all sorts of crazy stuff. Things I ordered from the Net. Things that intrigue me.”

Kendra sucked in her breath. Should she drop down and kneel at his feet? Or run away and never come back? “I was afraid to get too into it. I didn’t look anything up online.”

“So you’ve been having dreams about a culture you don’t know anything about?”

“I know what I feel.”

“Which is what?”

“That I want someone to restrain me. In all sorts of ways.”

He made the ultimate offer. “I could do that for you. We could experiment together.”

Oh, God. She wanted him desperately. But that didn’t lessen her fear. She glanced at the cross and imagined the spinning sensation.

“We could come back here later tonight,” he said.

Her pulse went haywire. “What time?” She needed structure, a schedule to follow.

“How about one o’clock?”

After the bewitching hour. “That’s good.”

“Yes, good.” He leaned forward to kiss her, but he didn’t use his tongue. He simply skimmed her lips with his, teasing her, taunting himself.

She nearly creamed her panties.

He drew back. “We should go before your friends start wondering what happened to you.”

She nodded, and they returned to the normal part of the attic. On their way out, he turned out the lights, leaving the room in shadows.

After he locked the door, he removed the key from his key ring and extended it to her.

She was still reeling from her near-damp undies. “Don’t you need it?”

“I have a spare in my apartment.”

She accepted the key and closed her hand around it.

From there, they rejoined the wedding reception and made a point of going their separate ways, preparing in their minds to meet again.

Kendra
stood in front of the vanity mirror in her room, gazing at her reflection. She’d changed her clothes at least three times, then decided that she should wear a nightgown.

It wasn’t a sexy garment, but it was soft and pretty. Adorned with lace, embroidery, and ribbons, it flowed to her ankles. The color was almost the same shade as her skin, but with a hint of shimmer. She even had a robe to match.

Anxious, she glanced over her shoulder at the clock on the nightstand: 12:22 a.m. She still had time to kill.

She turned back to the mirror. She was braless, of course. Who wore a bra with a nightgown? As for panties, that was another matter. Kendra always wore underwear to bed.

Yes, but she wasn’t going to bed. She was going to a medieval-style dungeon in a Victorian attic.

Oh, goodness.

Shaking her head, she lifted the hem of her gown and exposed her panties. They were as soft and pretty as the nightgown. She suspected that James would like them.

She thought about the barely there kiss he’d given her earlier and how easily it had threatened to make her wet.

Her sex life would never be the same. After tonight, she would be forever changed.

But it was fate, wasn’t it? Why else would she have dreamed about the dungeon James had been compelled to restore? Between the two of them, this was meant to happen. A tie-me-up rendezvous on someone else’s wedding night. It didn’t get any hotter than that.

Kendra sat on the edge of the bed and waited until it was time to go. Finally, at twelve forty-five, she donned her robe and a pair of ladylike slippers.

Instead of dealing with a cumbersome purse, she placed the key to the attic, along with the key to her room, in a delicate little satchel she’d received as a bridesmaid’s gift.

She opened her door and peered out. There was no one in the hallway, but she hadn’t expected to run into another guest at this hour. Still, she quickly headed for the stairwell and ascended to the third floor.

After glancing in the direction of James’s apartment, she made her way to the attic and unlocked the door, hoping he was already there. But she found herself in a darkened room.

She flipped the light switch and crept over to the paneled wall. At first she couldn’t get the door to work, but then she realized she was pushing on the wrong panel.

When it finally moved, she took a deep breath and slipped inside, closing the passageway behind her.

Alone in the softly lit dungeon, she gave herself a moment of acclimation, then placed her satchel on the floor beside the sex-toys cabinet.

Curious, she reached for the handle, wondering if it was unlocked. It was. Unable to resist, she opened it and scanned the shelves.

Holy mother.

Fancy handcuffs, silky blindfolds, gags, dildos, vibrators, lubricants, massage oils, body paint, condoms ...

She reached for a jar of strawberry something or other that was supposed to enhance the flavor of oral sex. Just as she twisted the cap and dipped into it, a voice came out of nowhere.

“Having fun?”

She spun around. She’d been so engrossed in the toys that she hadn’t heard James come in.

He looked gorgeous as ever, but he hadn’t fussed over his appearance. He was wearing the same suit he’d worn to the wedding, but without the jacket or tie. That left him in black trousers and a pale blue shirt, the first two buttons undone.

“Go ahead and taste it,” he said.

“What?”

“The flavor you put on your finger.”

Oh, right. The strawberry stuff. “No, that’s okay.”

“Taste it, Kendra.”

Her heart hit her rib cage. Apparently the dominance had already begun. Oddly exhilarated, she stuck her finger in her mouth and sucked on the tip like a good little girl.

“Now take off your slippers and robe.”

Once again, she obeyed him.

He stepped back to study her, scanning the length of her body. “You look pretty.”

“Thank you.”

“I like that you wore a nightgown. But I want you to take it off, too.”

Before a major dose of shyness set in, she peeled the gossamer garment over her head. Then she stood quietly, allowing him to look at her, wearing nothing but lace-trimmed panties.

He gazed at her for what seemed like an endless amount of time, and she could tell that he appreciated what he saw.

“Are you nervous?” he asked.

“Yes. But in a good way.” Hot, hungry fear. She’d never experienced anything like it.

“In this type of play, we’re supposed to use a safe word.”

Confused, she merely looked at him.

He explained, “A code word that will either stop the activity if you want it to end or decrease the level of intensity if you want to keep going.”

“What if I don’t want to use a safe word?”

“Then we don’t have to.” James came forward and pressed against her. “But it’s considered risky not to.”

She lustfully pressed back. She could feel his hard-on through his pants. “I want it to be risky.” She wanted to put her faith in a man she barely knew.

He finally kissed her,
really
kissed her, his tongue making wild contact with hers. She moaned her pleasure, and he reached down and slid his hand along the waistband of her panties.

“Take those off,” he ordered in the gruffest of whispers.

Kendra tugged them down. Already she felt as if she belonged to him. His naked toy. His innocent prize. His fuck-me possession.

He gazed hungrily at her. “Put the strawberry gel down there.”

While he watched, she reached for the jar and dipped into the slick substance. She applied it generously, all the way inside, then around her clit.

“I’m going to restrain the hell out of you.” James motioned with his chin, indicating the direction of the cross. “On that.”

Kendra’s knees turned to putty, and he led her to what was about to become her bondage christening.

He positioned her so that she was facing him in a spread-eagle stance. After securing her wrists to the wood, he knelt to cuff her ankles in the same manner. He stood up and finished the process by pulling a strap around her waist.

He studied his handiwork. “Now you really are a butterfly on a wheel.”

Her pulse pounded at her pussy. Was that how he’d been thinking of her? With pins through her wings?

She waited for him to maul her. But he was excruciatingly gentle, nuzzling her neck and nipping at her collarbone.

Kendra’s instinct was to slide her hands through his hair and return his affection. But she couldn’t. She was helpless to his ministrations.

He moved lower, teasing her nipples with tongue-flicking licks. Back and forth he went, making her areolas crinkle around each rising bud.

When he got on his knees and blew air across her navel, she sucked in her stomach.

Soon he was headed toward the flavor she’d slathered between her legs. Her pussy swelled, the folds going naturally damp.

He looked up at her. “Do you want me to taste you? Do you want me to eat your sweet little cunt?”

Kendra moaned. “Yes.”

“Then say please.”

“Please.”
Pretty, pretty please.

He parted her with his fingers, spreading her labia for his entertainment. “Saint Andrew was martyred on a cross like this. That’s why it’s called a Saint Andrew’s cross.”

Martyrs, butterflies, and a powerful man on his knees. Her head swam with it.

He put his mouth against her, and she fixated on how primal he looked, sipping from her swollen sex. She tried to press closer, but the restraints hindered her.

He took his time, pleasuring her with probing stabs and long, lethal strokes. Slow, hard, soft, deep, fast, shallow. He used a maddening rhythm.

When he sucked on her clit, all she wanted was to come. But apparently he had other ideas.

He actually stood up and wiped his mouth while unrequited wetness drizzled down her thighs.