Dark Perception: The Corde Noire Series (24 page)

“
If you don’t do it, you
can pack up your things and get out.” Nathan lowered his head to
her. “Go back to that rat-infested hellhole you lived in, back to
reading cards in Jackson Square.”

Fear grabbed hold of her heart. “I
can’t go back there.”

“
Then do it, Melinda. No
more discussion.”

Quashing her anxiety, she nodded her
head.

“
Get on your knees,” he
ordered. “On the floor in front of me.”

She got down on the floor, but
hesitated for a moment as her grip tightened around the
vibrator.

“
Do as I ask or you will
suffer my punishment.”

Punishment?
She didn’t want to find out what his punishments
would be like. Closing her eyes, she lowered the vibrator between
her legs. As Melinda pushed it in, she concentrated on doing what
he wanted. Very slowly, she moved the vibrator in and
out.

“
That’s it. Moan for
me.”

Moaning, Melinda began to rock back
and forth as heat flowed through her. Her orgasm was building and
she moved her hand faster, wanting to hurry the rush of her
release.

“
I want to hear you call
out.” He spanked her ass hard.

“
Oh, God!”

Soon, she could no longer hold back
and frantically manipulated the vibrator, hurtling toward her
climax.

He slapped her butt even harder. “Do
you like fucking yourself?”

“
Yes!”

Another brutal whack rang out. “It’s
‘yes, Sir,’ baby.”

Her butt stung like mad, but Melinda
didn’t care. She was on the cusp, and just when she was ready to
come, Nathan ripped the vibrator from her hand.

Melinda tumbled against the sofa, her
eyes screaming with confusion.

Nathan eased back on the sofa, showing
her his hard cock. Putting the vibrator in his mouth, he sucked on
the tip. “I love the taste of a woman.” Licking his lips, he
lowered the vibrator from his mouth. “You ever had a
woman?”

She wanted to turn away, to hide her
revulsion, but she couldn’t. “No. I’ve never done that.”

“
Pity. I like watching two
women go at it.” He dropped his eyes to his erection. “Before I let
you come, you will please me.”

Melinda scooted closer to the sofa,
and leaning over his lap, took his cock in her hands. Moving her
fingers over his shaft, she heard him let go a frustrated
sigh.

“
No, Melinda, use your
mouth. I don’t want a hand job.”

She gazed up at him, trembling. “I—I
don’t know how to do that.”

“
What?” He rocked forward,
appearing shocked. “You’ve never given a man a blow
job?”

She shook her head, feeling utterly
humiliated. “No, never.”

With a cruel grin, Nathan stared down
at her. “I find that hard to believe.”

Her lower lip quivered. “Josh never …
he never taught me.”

His grin receded, replaced by an
indulgent smile. “Fine. I’ll teach you.” He took her head in his
hands and positioned her mouth over his lap. “Take me in your
mouth.”

She licked her lips and lowered her
mouth over his tip. It was an odd sensation, having a penis in her
mouth. It was nothing like the cucumber she had practiced with in
high school.

“
Move your mouth up and
down. Think of it as having sex with your mouth.”

She started bobbing her head, making
sure to keep her lips tightly wrapped around his shaft.

“
Yes, that’s it,” he
moaned.

Melinda kind of liked having a man in
her mouth. It wasn’t as uncomfortable as she’d thought it would be.
In some ways, it made her feel in control. Emboldened by her
newfound power, she began experimenting, using her tongue to tease
him more, slowing down and then going faster.

His hands clasped around her head,
trying to control her speed, but she ignored him. Melinda was going
to enjoy teasing him just as much as he had been teasing
her.

Without warning, Nathan wrenched her
mouth away from his cock. “You’re a little vixen, aren’t you?” He
held her head as his face loomed before her. “Two can play at that
game.”

With an unexpected show of strength,
he lifted her onto the sofa. Positioning Melinda on her back, he
squatted over her face.

“
Every time you tease me
with your mouth, I will tease you.” He pried her knees apart and
lowered his head between her legs.

She was about to close her mouth over
his throbbing erection when she felt his hands on her folds. Then
something soft brushed over her clit, making Melinda
tense.

Oh, God, was that his
tongue?

“
Make me come, Melinda, and
I will do the same for you.”

Nathan lowered his hips over her face.
Taking him into her mouth, she eagerly began to run her lips up and
down his shaft, but when his tongue started drawing circles around
her clit, she couldn’t concentrate on what she was doing. His cock
slipped from her mouth and rubbed against her cheek.

He slapped her clit hard and she cried
out. She struggled to get away as tears filled her eyes, but he had
her trapped beneath him on the sofa.

“
Do it right,” he
growled.

She started again, this time trying to
block out the delight his mouth was creating. With his every lick,
she would drive him deeper into her mouth. Soon, she was pumping
her lips against his shaft in a sort of frenzy, keeping time with
his tongue against her clit.

When he trembled and groaned, her
mouth filled with his cum. She wanted to gag, but didn’t think that
would be a good idea. Swallowing back the salty taste of him, she
scraped her teeth against the tip of his cock as she pulled away.
In response, he bit down on her clit, sending her into the most
breathtaking orgasm. Her body lurched forward, tingling with
ribbons of ecstasy.

For several seconds they stayed locked
together on the sofa, breathing hard.

Nathan moved off her and swept her red
hair away from her face. “You’ve got a very talented mouth, baby.”
He ran his hand down her chest, teasing her right nipple. Then he
held the vibrator in front of her face. “We’re going to do this
again.”

Sitting up on her elbows, Melinda
watched as Nathan switched on the vibrator and lowered it between
her legs. When he eased the vibrator into her, Melinda slammed back
against the sofa. It was too much. She was already so sensitive,
she felt as if she were a tightly coiled spring about to
burst.

Nathan wrestled her hands over her
head and pressed his weight on top of her, making sure she couldn’t
move a muscle. “A lesson in following directions, my
girl.”

The vibrator hummed away inside her,
the agony of its constant stimulation making her whimper into his
chest.

“
Nathan,
please.”

“
Sir,” he mumbled into her
hair. “Please, Sir.” He bit down on the nape of her neck. “I’m
going to leave that inside you until I have watched you come again,
and again, and again.”

As her body trembled at the onslaught
of her orgasm, she gritted her teeth. “Why are you doing
this?”

He kissed her grimacing mouth.
“Because you’re mine.”

Chapter 15

Sitting at her keyboard, Melinda kept
replaying the episode on Nathan’s sofa over in her head. Something
like that should have made her feel humiliated and cheap. Instead,
she had found the entire experience liberating.

“
What’s wrong with me?” She
played a single note on her keyboard. “A year ago I would have been
running for the door. Now, I can’t wait to do it again.”

A knock at the front door thankfully
saved her from any more self-recrimination. Hoping it was Nathan,
back early from his meeting, she trotted out of her
bedroom.

“
Hello, Miss Harris,” a
mustached man with green eyes said when she opened the door. “I’m
Marv Spell, the buildin’ supervisor. Mr. Cole said you needed some
changes made to the intercom system and a lock put on that storage
door of yours.”

Wearing a pair of blue jean overalls
and a beat-up denim cap, he carried a red toolbox in one hand and a
clipboard in the other.

Melinda waved him into her apartment.
“Yes, Marv, come in, and please call me Melinda.”

Marv gave her a bright, gapped-tooth
smile. “Sure thing, Melinda. Mr. Cole told me to come on up first
thing. I hope that’s okay?”

“
It’s fine,
Marv.”

He nodded to the intercom system by
the door. “I’ve got to pull this out and change some of the wirin’
inside. Mr. Cole said he wanted a direct link from your place to
his. Told me you keep gettin’ spooked by the ghosts.”

Melinda hesitated, unsure if Marv was
joking with her or serious. “The ghosts?”

“
Damn place is crawlin’
with them. They love to leave the water faucets on, play with the
lights, and are constantly burnin’ out light bulbs in the
lobby.”

“
So you actually believe in
ghosts, Marv?”

He chortled, sounding like a donkey.
“Hell, yeah! Maintenance guys always believe in ghosts. What else
is gonna explain all the weird crap I’ve seen in this
buildin’?”

Enthralled, she ventured closer to
him. “What have you seen?”

He set his toolbox on the floor.
“Floatin’ white shadows that disappear behind doors, doors openin’
and closin’ on their own, not to mention all the crazy knockin’
sounds in the lobby walls.” He reached into his toolbox and
selected a flat-head screwdriver. “Mr. Cole doesn’t like us talkin’
about the ghosts ‘cause he’s afraid it’ll drive away tenants. He
just doesn’t understand that this is N’awlins … everybody’s used to
livin’ with ghosts in this town.” He turned his focus to the
intercom panel.

“
You’re from here?” She’d
guessed he was by his accent.

He began unscrewing the outside plate
on the intercom. “Yeah, grew up in the Ninth Ward. I got a daughter
in Lakeview. She’s a nurse and married to this real nice doctor.
They got themselves a big house on the lake.”

Melinda’s mind filled with images of a
little girl in a bright yellow dress. “And your
granddaughter?”

Marv stopped unscrewing the panel and
stared at her. “I don’t have a granddaughter.”

“
You will.”

Marv glimpsed the screwdriver in his
hand. “You got the sight, don’t ya, girl?”

Melinda nodded. “My grandmother called
it the dark perception.”

“
With me it’s spirits. They
told me ‘bout my granddaughter a while back. She’ll be born in the
fall of next year.”

“
Then you understand.”
Melinda relaxed, relieved to find another like her. “With me it’s
mostly visions about what will come, but I can read people, too. I
see their thoughts.”

“
That’s why Mr. Cole wants
you. He wants you to read people for him, don’t he?”

Melinda turned away from his
inquisitive eyes. “I was a tarot card reader for tourists at
Jackson Square. Nathan Cole was one of my clients. When he offered
me this job and an apartment in his building … well, it would have
been stupid to pass it up.”

“
So you’re sayin’ this job
is a step up for you?”

“
In some ways.” Melinda
faced the hallway and her eyes landed on the metal door of the
storage closet. “I just wish my apartment wasn’t
haunted.”

“
Your apartment ain’t
haunted,” Marv insisted behind her. “Most of the activity is on the
first floor. I’ve never seen nothin’ in here.”

“
No, there’s something in
that storage room. I’ve seen a white mist of a woman in
there.”

“
I ain’t never seen a woman
in there, and I was up here a lot when Miss Julie lived
here.”

Melinda wheeled around to him. “You
knew Julie?”

Marv returned to unscrewing the
intercom panel. “I knew her,” he mumbled, keeping his eyes lowered.
“She claimed she was a decorator. Mr. Cole let her redo his
penthouse and this apartment, but she knew as much ‘bout decoratin’
as I know ‘bout makin’ a dress.”

“
Why do you say that,
Marv?”

“
She wasn’t exactly
educated. Don’t get me wrong … she tried her best to learn ‘bout
fabrics and coordinatin’ furniture. I think Mr. Cole meant well and
tried to make her a real lady, but she couldn’t overcome her
past.”

Melinda’s skin prickled. “What
past?”

“
Miss Julie was a sweet
girl, but from the wrong side of the tracks, if you know what I
mean. She was the girlfriend of some mafia guy when Mr. Cole met
her at a party. A few days later, he moved her in here. She stayed
for a few months, and everyone knew Mr. Cole was crazy ‘bout her,
but then one day she was gone. Packed up her stuff and left durin’
the night.”

“
Do you know where she
went?”

He pulled off the panel from the
intercom. “I never asked. I don’t think she had friends in town,
‘cause she never went out, ‘cept with Mr. Cole. No one ever came to
visit her, neither. She was a real private lady.”