Plaything Read online

  But then it stopped.

  She knew he had arrived. The men who had circled her paled in comparison and she hadn’t even laid eyes on him.

  Maybe it was his presence but everyone around her scattered.

  “Well, crap,” she muttered.

  “Making new friends?” His voice mocked.

  “I was trying.”

  “You have one right here.”

  “I don’t choose you.” Something in his eyes flared at her statement but what it was she wasn’t sure. It was there in the briefest flash of a moment and then it was gone. Vanished like the snippet of a dream. A tendril you couldn’t grasp after you woke.

  She wouldn’t feel guilty. She felt that way once before and it caused more trouble than it was worth.

  Look at where it got her. She turned to walk away.

  All thought processes stopped when he yanked her back against him. She could feel the warmth of his breath near her temple as his solid body pressed into hers.

  She hadn’t realized how large he was. He made her feel…feminine. Small and delicate.

  She appreciated the feelings invoked from the heat of his body for a brief moment before she started to step away. He stopped her from leaving with the heat of a possessive palm pressed to her abdomen. It pulled her body intimately into his, so she felt the swell of his erection against the curve of her buttocks.

  Raw desire swept through her and she was instantly wet.

  Teeth grazed against the side of her neck. She closed her eyes to savor the feelings, turning her head slightly for more exposure.

  Rich baritones echoed from the speakers overhead. Smooth sultry tones, chosen to for complete seduction.

  Utter surrender.

  He pressed her hips with a roll, a gentle sway to the music. Instead of thrusting back into him, she rolled her hips away in a teasing dance.

  He nipped her earlobe gently, obviously wanting her cooperation in bending with him.

  “You know what I want.”

  Hot, heavy sex. Her skin heated from the inside out as her passage swelled and dripped with need.

  A husky laugh sounded in her ear. “That too.”

  He knows what I am thinking?

  “But more,” he continued.

  “What?”

  “I want freedom.”

  “How?”

  “By giving me your surrender.”

  She was confused as hell. How would her surrender into a night of lustful sex free him? And from what?

  She turned in his arms. She linked one leg around his hip to thrust the hot core of her pussy into the bulge in his groin. He appreciated the movement, looking down as he gripped her thigh to hold her tightly against him.

  “No,” she said, contradicting her movements.

  “I will have you,” he said.

  “I cater to no man. You join my harem under my terms.”

  Another flash of something ran across his eyes before it was shut down.

  He pressed his fingers into the seam of the crotch of her jeans. He rubbed her swollen clit through the denim, right there on the dance floor.

  There were too many squirming bodies around to pay any attention to them. Still, it was as risky as hell. Her traitorous body responded as wantonly as she expected it to, her back arching to poke hardened nipples upward.

  “Let’s go upstairs,” he muttered as he looked down into her sheer top.

  “I told you my conditions.”

  “Stubborn woman.”

  Victorious, she dropped her leg from his hip and moved away.

  This time he let her, although she didn’t feel victorious. For the first time she wondered, Is there really a winner?

  * * * * *

  She heard the footsteps when he bounded up the stairs to her apartment the next morning. The sun was shining and the sky was bright. She sat on the window seat of her living room to enjoy the warmth of the rays against her face as she drank her coffee.

  He never knocked. He slipped his key into the lock and turned it, pushing her door open.

  “You know, that macho routine can get old real fast,” she said.

  “What routine?” His grin was slow, bordering on impudent. “Good morning, darlin’.” He leaned down to press his lips to hers. His tongue flicked out for a taste. “I brought you the phone,” he whispered. “Your friend Nina is calling from Scarlett’s sister’s bar.”

  He handed her the phone and she jumped at it. He held it away, behind his back. “A kiss for trade.”

  “You just got one.”

  “You kiss me. Hard enough to show me how much you want it.”

  “That’s long distance,” she pointed out. “Silver’s bill.”

  “You can cost her a lot, or you can cost her a little. Pucker up, little girl.”

  Hell, she’d show Texas. She reached out and felt the ridges of hard abs under her wandering fingers. Lightly she skimmed upward, to reach around his neck. She pulled him to her, settling her lips over his.

  Flicking out with her tongue, she tasted him. Sensuously she moved against him, seeking and loving as she kissed.

  She was getting lost in the passion, moisture gathering between her thighs, her heart racing, her breathing deepening.

  Something poked her in the chest.

  Bemused, she looked down at the phone he offered. Before she could look up, he turned and walked out the front door, as unaffected by her kiss as she was flustered.

  Bastard.

  She snapped into the phone. “Hello.”

  “Whoa there, tiger. Someone pulling on your tail?” Nina asked.

  If only she knew.

  “Ugh. Sorry. Yeah, someone actually is. A boy toy who refuses to know his place.”

  Whereas Nina would have once joined her in a man-bash, there was a hesitant silence on the other end of the phone. Jessie knew what it was.

  The newness of her relationship with her husband, Tristan.

  Where once Jessie would have sighed with frustration, she decided to move on emotionally. She popped a piece of bubblegum into her mouth. Chewing loudly enough to be obnoxious ought to relieve her stress. “So how is married life?” Jessie asked her casually, while blowing a bubble. Not that she really cared but it would be better for her friend if the conversation continued to go well.

  “Fabulous! I should thank Silver every day of my life.”

  “For owning the bar where you met him?”

  “For hexing me. Remember?”

  Jessie almost choked on the gum. “What are you talking about?”

  “Don’t you remember the conversation we had? You said we couldn’t trust that voodoo crap and that you bet I got stuck with a whammy. I said Silver would never hex us. You seemed really scared about it.”

  “I did?” Jessie was truly confused. She didn’t remember any of this conversation at all.

  “Which, by the way, blows my mind that you turned around and agreed to help Scarlett. Hell, if you were worried about Silver and voodoo when she’s our friend, how could you go to some other city alone?”

  “Nina,” Jess whispered. “I don’t remember any of this.”

  Complete silence met her statement. “I know what you’re thinking. But if they are into witchcraft or voodoo or whatever, Jess, it’s not bad. Look at what it got me. A perfect man, perfect love.”

  “How did she do it?” Jessie whispered.

  “The pendant.”

  Jessie’s hand flew up to the sapphire around her neck. “What pendant?”

  “Silver gave me a magic pendant. It was a peridot.”

  Jessie clenched her eyelids shut. “Tell me it didn’t match her eyes.”

  “Why, exactly.” Jessie could almost hear the grin over the phone. “In fact, I didn’t even recall what color a peridot was until she gave it to me.”

  “So what did the necklace do?”

  “I guess I can tell you since I own it now, but that is kind of personal information.”

  Jessie was almost ready to sna
p, to rip her own necklace from her neck in a panic. “Nina,” she warned.

  “Oh, all right. It’s kind of weird, though.”

  “Will you get on with it?”

  “For one month out of the year, the month in which Tristan was born, whoever wears the pendant will control him. He’s obligated to obey her every command.”

  Jessie perked up. “You’re kidding me.”

  “Oh, no.”

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” Jessie muttered softly. “Guess what Scarlett gave me?”

  “Not a pendant?”

  “You got it. Sapphire.”

  “That’s great. Have you met the man connected to it?”

  “The maintenance guy.”

  “Is he hot?”

  “He’s amazing.”

  “Well, there you go. Your own boy toy. You have one month of unlimited sex, any way you want it.”

  “Except,” Jessie said with a smile she knew Nina couldn’t see. “I won’t make the mistake of marrying mine.”

  Nina simply laughed. “Well, girlfriend, Silver’s motioning. She wants to talk to Scarlett, so I’ll call you later, ok? Love you.”

  “Love you back. I’ll take the phone downstairs to her.”

  Caveman was down in the open area next to Scarlett’s office.

  “Scarlett,” Jessie called. “Phone. Silver’s on in a sec.” She handed the phone to her and made her way to the hunk of maintenance man in bulging biceps. Who still looked unaffected by her kisses, damn the man.

  “So, Levi,” Jessie said with a smirk, for this was too good to be true. “Remember that whole choice thing? I think I’d probably prefer you to be the screaming type instead of me.”

  He was wary, as well he should be, and didn’t respond.

  “I figured you out. You’re like a genie in a magic bottle. Here for a woman’s commands. Trying to train me ahead of time so I’d believe you were in control.”

  “Awfully quick of you to jump to that conclusion,” he drawled. “Grab me a hammer, would you?”

  He was fiddling with something in the wall, or maybe pretending to. Scarlett entered the room, ignoring the two of them as she went about her own business, babbling into the phone with her sister.

  “You’re going to deny that this is what you were about?”

  “Yup. I need a hammer,” he said, looking directly at her. Just like a man, not to ask nicely. Never to say please. Just announce what he needed and sit back on his haunches to wait for it.

  Jessie decided to make the arrogant Levi wait and wonder. She was dressed in a low cut blouse, which showed off the sapphire to perfection. She leaned forward.

  He would salivate.

  She would make him beg.

  She would not give in.

  The anticipation would be so sweet.

  She rubbed the pendant between her thumb and forefinger. “Levi, I think I want you. Up in my room.”

  “What for?”

  “Why don’t you just go undress, handcuff yourself to my bed and wait for me?”

  He blinked. Then drawled, “You know, I would but I just don’t seem to have the overwhelming urge to obey without thinking. Ask me politely though, and I might. But say it like you mean it.”

  Jessie looked across the room at Scarlett with an unasked question in her eyes.

  Scarlett shrugged.

  “I’m thinking Scarlett got the spell wrong,” he drawled again, humor in his voice.

  Well, nuts. It would be just her luck, get her hopes all up and then dash them down all over again. Dammit to hell, Nina had gotten her fun.

  Why couldn’t life go as planned? Just once?

  “This sucks,” she grumbled.

  “That’s never happened. I know I did the spell,” Scarlett was saying at the same time, although whether it was aimed at them or into the phone, they couldn’t tell.

  “So will you grab me that hammer now?” Levi said with a roll of his sexy eyes.

  “I told you, I’m not the little woman here to obey you,” Jessie muttered as she retrieved it anyway.

  The chatter in the room stopped when she handed it to him.

  “Well, that’s something new,” Levi drawled again in his irritating accent.

  “What?” Jessie snapped.

  There was a pause while he looked at her. “Get me the broom,” he finally said.

  “Screw you, Hick-boy,” she said as she walked to the storage closet. “Oh shit,” she said as she retrieved it against her will.

  For she couldn’t seem to help herself.

  Both heads turned to Scarlett, who stood blinking. “Hmm. Well yes,” she admitted. “I did cast a spell. I must have mixed something up.”

  They could hear a raised voice in the background as Silver yelled into the phone from the other side. Scarlett was in one of her slow dazes, ignoring the instant babble that erupted around her.

  “Scarlett,” Jessie screeched. “Mixed something up? You fucked something up.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Levi said, suddenly interested. “Scarlett, Jessie looks awfully stressed. I think she needs the night off with this sudden development.”

  “I don’t—”

  “Jessie, upstairs,” he commanded.

  Traitorous feet, they turned and headed toward the back stairs. All the way up she went, until she reached her apartment. Then she just stood there, not knowing what to do next.

  What the hell? How was it possible? He was supposed to be hers to command for a month. Not the other way around.

  A noise behind her signified his entrance and then the click of the door as it closed.

  “Look, Levi,” she began.

  The rasp of the deadbolt signaled the locking of the apartment.

  Suddenly, the gulp in her throat sounded as loud as the sliding metal.

  She tried to cover her nervousness with false bravado. “I am not your object. I do not want to sleep with you in any way, shape or form.”

  The scoot of a chair as he sat before her.

  “Take off your blouse, sexy girl.”

  She closed her eyes, wanting to refuse but her fingers knew no loyalty. They trembled as they reached up and popped the tiny buttons through their holes.

  It was kind of sexy too. No, she would not think of sex at a humiliating time like this.

  “Nice,” he rasped. “I like the necklace on you. It looks good against your smooth skin.” His voice was suddenly thick and it was doing things low in her belly.

  “I’m going to fuck you with nothing but the necklace on.”

  Slick desire drenched her cunt.

  Slowly, she dropped the white cotton from her shoulders, letting it pool on the floor near her feet.

  “Touch your skin, Jess. Let me see how soft it is.”

  The featherlight caresses didn’t even feel like her own hands as they roamed over her abdomen, up between her breasts, around the swell of her bosom. The fabric of her bra was in the way.

  “Take it off.”

  She never hesitated. She thought she would but she didn’t. She unsnapped the clasp, then slid the satin over her shoulders and down her arms.

  Her nipples were tight and hard before him.

  She brought her hands up to cup her breasts, closing her eyes, imagining she was showing him how to touch her. Gently she squeezed the soft mounds, then lightly skimmed the hardened nipples, pinching softly.

  “Jeezus,” he inhaled. “You’re not gonna take off anything else ’til I tell you to, right, darlin’?”

  She didn’t answer.

  “Jessie.” His voice was almost desperate. “Pull down your jeans for me.”

  She unsnapped the waistband with a soft pop. The zipper hissed as she pushed the jeans slowly from rounded hips.

  Sleek hips with a triangle wisp of red silk panties attached to a bit of string that hid between the cheeks of her round ass.

  She stepped from her jeans and stood before him in the thin panties and a sapphire necklace. “What else, Levi?” she asked, t
urning the tables on him. “Want me to touch myself some more?” She didn’t give him a chance to answer, she just cupped her mound through the material before she traced her slit with an index finger’s barest touch.

  Levi swallowed.

  She inserted both index fingers into the string of her underpants and pulled them slightly away from her body. If he leaned over the tiniest bit, he could sneak a peek.

  She pulled her fingers out so the panties snapped shut.

  He growled. “Take them off. I want to see what you got.”

  Jessie didn’t want to let him take control of the situation, yet she couldn’t disobey his command. She pulled down the red lace of her panties all right but she walked over to him and lifted a foot onto his lap, letting him look his fill. “Like what you see, cowboy? Hope so.”

  “Oh, I like,” he said and then reached out.

  Jessie inhaled sharply.

  The touch of his hot fingers parting her intimate flesh was almost unbearable. She craved this.

  She wanted more.

  She wanted to thrust her hips into his face, encouraging him to delight her beyond comprehension. To use his tongue against her swollen folds.

  “Oh, baby, you’re beautiful,” he said as he licked his lips.

  Jessie wondered if he’d touch his tongue to the extra-soft skin between her legs.

  “What do you want Jess? What do you want me to do to you?”

  He asked her a direct question. She couldn’t refuse to answer.

  “I want you to lick between my lips,” she said. “Suck my clit, stick your tongue deep inside me. Make me vibrate against your mouth. I want my whole body to hum.”

  She wouldn’t have shared such intimate thoughts but dammit, he controlled her.

  “What do you want to do for me?” he asked.

  “I want to give you the blowjob of your life.”

  “Do you like giving blows?”

  “Yes, for you.”

  Was part of the spell having to tell the truth? Because she couldn’t seem to help it.

  “What do you like about giving blowjobs?”

  “I like the feel of your excited cock against my cheek. The fact that you can’t control the way it swells and hardens. I like to hear your moans as I pleasure you with my lips and tongue. I like when you’ll thrust your hips into me as I swallow.”