Hanging On (7 page)

She circled behind him. The tinny scrape of metal announced his snap was open. The zipper followed, and he pushed the loose denim down his legs. Hooking her fingers in the waistband of his cotton boxers, she sent them fluttering as well.

As she expected, the physical marks of his spanking were gone. The soreness was in the muscle. Since he was her responsibility, she needed to know if he was bruised or just sore. Plus, it gave her another chance to feel him up. She ran her fingertips over the smooth skin of his incredibly tight ass, keeping her touch light.

“Are you terribly sore?”

“If I am, will it make you go easier on me?” The deep-throated huskiness of his voice caught her attention. He was aroused, which was what she intended.

“No.”

He ran a hand through his hair. She wanted to order him to grow it longer so she could have some silky blond locks to hold on to, but that was crossing a boundary.

“I didn’t think so.”

Without taking her hands from him, she returned to his front. His eyes were closed, and his cock was fully erect. The only clothing on him pooled around his ankles. He was magnificent. She traced her fingers up his chest, loving the firm feel of him and the distinct scent of his soap and aftershave.

Placing her hands on either side of his head, she tilted his face to hers.

His eyes opened in surprise as she brushed a feathery kiss across his lips. It was quick. She left him no time to respond, to kiss her back.

He wasn’t breathing when she knelt before him, and he gasped as she licked the length of his cock. She toyed with him, teasing with tongue and teeth. From the corners of her eyes, she watched as he struggled to keep his hands away from her. If he touched her, the punishment would stop.

57

The analytical part of Sophia stayed in control. She could not afford to lose herself in his flavor and texture. This was a punishment. She closed her mouth around him, taking him deep and sucking hard until he moaned.

Then she stopped.

She pushed herself to standing. Drew gazed at her through half-closed eyelids. His face was flushed, and his breathing was abnormal. She smiled.

Before she could tell him to get dressed, he pulled her to him, crushing her in his arms as his lips claimed hers in a kiss that singed Sophia to her bones.

He kissed with his whole body. Completely wrapped in his arms, she felt safe and exposed at the same time. She couldn’t have stopped that kiss if she wanted, and she sure as hell didn’t want to.

When he released her, they were both trembling. She stepped out of his arms, needing distance in order to gather her thoughts and catch her breath.

“Get dressed.”

A cocky smile lifted the corners of his lips and lit the brilliant blue of his eyes. He lifted his pants over his still-erect penis and snapped them into place. “I suppose I’ve earned another punishment for that?”

“Yes,” she said regretfully. She scooped his shirt up from the floor near her feet and tossed it to him. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.” His jaw dropped, and he froze in the midst of pulling on his shirt.

“Tomorrow?”

She smiled serenely at the underlying desperation there. She had planned to have him over that night, but she couldn’t reward this kind of behavior. She paused with her hand on the doorknob. “Don’t forget, Drew: no masturbating.”

“If I do?”

“You do seem intent on learning the hard way,” she said, opening the door. “Care to try me?”

He followed her out a few minutes later and took his position behind her. He was quiet for the remainder of the afternoon.

58

Sabrina cornered Sophia after most people left. Her coral shirt perfectly matched her lips and nail polish. Sophia was amazed at how well put together Sabrina always appeared. She frequently wished she was as self-possessed, but she wasn’t. Everybody hides an insecurity. Sophia lived in mortal fear that someone would find out that she wasn’t in complete control and that she spent more time running from relationships than anything else.

Even friendships made Sophia uncomfortable.

She wrapped a tentative hand around Sophia’s upper arm. “Sophia, what on earth did you do to Drew?”

Before she could say a word, namely, that it was none of her business, Jonas interrupted. “Honey, I can’t believe you actually asked that.” Sabrina turned on Jonas, impaling him with a look that shut him up.

Sophia really didn’t understand their relationship. How could Sabrina be the submissive but still have such power over Jonas? How could he be a dominant and be okay with that?

“He looked so lost and desperate. I’ve known Drew for almost fifteen years, and I’ve never once seen him so…so…upset.” Sophia repressed a proud grin and met Jonas’s eyes over her head. “I told him I was too busy tonight to see him.” Then, she closed her eyes and swore, her moment of pride gone. Tomorrow was her brother’s birthday.

She had plans to meet Daniel and their parents for dinner. These things always ran late, and she had to get up early Tuesday for work.

The white brick ranch house was empty when Sophia got home, not that she expected anything else. Flipping through the channels on her television, she stumbled into an airing of Drew’s show. She watched the last ten minutes of the episode without moving.

59

Those ice-blue eyes stared out of the flat screen, ensnaring her. Sophia was certain he was looking directly at her, that his flirty smiles were meant exclusively for her. Of course, they weren’t. He hadn’t even known her when he taped these episodes. His smiles were meant for the masses. The knowing glint in his eye was for someone else.

Climbing into bed later that night, Sophia quelled the possessiveness she felt toward Drew, burying it deep inside with the rest of her shameful secrets. Yet when she slid her vibrator deep inside, it was the feel of Drew’s body against hers that propelled her to orgasm.

Sabrina had thoughtfully loaded the numbers of each member of the wedding party into the BlackBerrys, having had each of their cell numbers transferred to the new account. Sophia waited until the next morning to text Drew. She turned on the phone to find three messages.

The first was from Sabrina. She apologized for being so presumptuous.

Sophia and Drew were adults, and she very much hoped they could be happy together.

Sophia knew Jonas hadn’t put her up to it. She would never make one of her subs apologize to anyone but her. She’d learned that from Jonas. Every successful relationship respected boundaries.

The hesitation in Sabrina’s voice made Sophia wonder if she doubted Sophia or Drew, or the two of them together.

The second was from her mother. She wondered what Sophia was getting Daniel for his birthday, and she wanted to remind Sophia to be at the restaurant at six sharp. She didn’t call her mother back.

The third was a text from Drew:
I would rather have had you whip me.

The grin on her face didn’t fade as she showered and dressed. On the way to the mall, she tried to figure out the best way to break the news to him without driving him away. She didn’t want him to think she was playing the wrong kind of games. How could she establish the necessary trust if he couldn’t rely on her?

Sophia was in agony. Even thinking about how successful her unorthodox punishment had been didn’t cheer her up. The only time she had free in the next three days was Thursday during the day…unless he could come over today before she had to meet her family. Her grin returned. She sent him a text and hoped he got it in time.

60

Change of plans. I’m busy this evening. I can’t see you today unless you
can be at my house by one.

She hit send and left it in the hands of fate.

Daniel wanted the complete collection of Bruce Lee movies on Blu-ray.

If she hadn’t been so invested in her procrastinator status, Sophia would have shopped over the Internet and had them delivered to her house. Now, she was stuck with whatever she could find at Twelve Oaks Mall, which was not a complete collection. Hopefully, it would be enough. She and Daniel had always been close. He was a good person and a good friend. He owned his own karate studio where she taught a women’s self-defense class on Wednesday nights.

Traffic made her late in arriving home, and pessimism made her sure Drew hadn’t received her text in time. He hadn’t responded.

Nobody was on her porch when she pulled into the driveway, and she had no idea what Drew’s car looked like. However, she did recognize Daniel’s truck in the street out front. He had a key to her house. She expected to find him waiting inside, but she was baffled that he didn’t call or text to find out what time she planned to return home. Sophia had a notorious reputation for being late.

Sophia parked in the garage and entered through the door to the kitchen.

Since she also stopped by the grocery store, her arms were laden with bags.

Daniel rushed to help when she opened the door.

He was tall, nearly six feet, and thickly muscled, taking after their father with his larger build. He mirrored their father in other ways as well. Like Sophia, he had their father’s thick, dark brown hair that looked black in certain lights, and deep brown eyes that were sometimes hard to read.

He clipped his hair short, letting his cowlick stick straight up over his right eye. On him, it looked charming. When they were younger, Sophia used to tease him mercilessly about it, to the point where he kept his head shaved through most of high school. Enough of his girlfriends had commented on how sexy it was since then that he let it grow.

He was ten months older than Sophia, and she couldn’t remember a time when they hadn’t been close.

“Don’t look in the bags,” she warned. “You’ll ruin the surprise.”

“I can see you put a lot of thought into this,” he teased.

61

“Well,” she explained, “I knew what I wanted to get, but I haven’t had the time to get to the store.”

“Yeah, that stable of submissives requires a lot of maintenance.” He dug into a bag of vegetables she set near the refrigerator, automatically helping even though she hadn’t asked.

Sophia knew he was teasing, but she wasn’t feeling up to it. She’d lost two subs over the weekend, she had no idea what was going on with Livia, and Drew wasn’t waiting on her front porch when she got home. “I’m down two subs, Dan. Christopher got a girlfriend.” The pair made short work of her shopping excursion. He cracked open a can of pop and regarded her solemnly. “When you started doing all this stuff, I didn’t say anything, Sophie. I’m your brother and your friend. I love you no matter what. However, I do have to say that I don’t understand why you can’t settle down with one person. You and Chris were together for what? A year?”

She nodded. That sounded right. It was useless to tell Daniel that she had never dated Christopher. They played, that’s all.

“You don’t even seem upset that he dumped you for someone else.

Something else is bothering you.”

The sound of a car pulling into her driveway distracted them both.

Daniel was in a better position to look out the front window. A car door closed, and his expression turned grim.

He set his half-empty can on the counter and grabbed his keys. “Looks like another one of your ‘friends,’ Sophie.” Her heart leapt into her throat, and her eyes flared. She didn’t need a mirror to know the depth of the transformation Daniel saw in her demeanor.

His curiosity was proof enough. The doorbell chimed. Daniel beat her to it.

He wasn’t usually nosy about her sexual exploits, and she afforded him the same privacy. He held open the door, beckoning Drew inside.

The two studied one another intently. Though they had similar builds, the two men were a study in surface contrasts. Drew was blond and light.

Daniel was olive-complexioned, just like Sophia. However, delving deeper brought to light a similar reputation for playing the field. If Ginny and Sabrina had told her nothing else about Drew, they definitely let her know he had a new girl on his arm every time they saw him. Ginny rarely bothered to learn their names.

62

Drew said absolutely nothing to Daniel. He was probably grateful for her rule about staying silent. From the myriad expressions that crossed his face, she could tell he was sizing up Daniel and trying to figure out his place in her life.

Daniel dismissed Drew pretty quickly. He turned to Sophia, his expression serious. “I’d love to stick around, Mistress, but I have things to do. Don’t be late tonight. I guarantee you will not like the punishment.” Sophia rolled her eyes. “Drew, wait for me downstairs.” Drew tore his gaze from Daniel with obvious reluctance. Narrowed eyes containing a thinly veiled warning pinned her briefly as he brushed past her.

She waited until he was safely out of earshot before she gave voice to the glare she shot at Daniel. “That was mean.” He looked at her funny. “That’s ironic coming from the woman who is going to strip him naked and make him look like a candy cane.” She hadn’t decided if she was going to whip him or not. Maybe he wouldn’t kiss her like that again if she did. “You never said why you dropped by.”

“I was going to ask you for relationship advice, but I decided against it.” Without waiting for her reaction, he pushed open the door and left.

The idea that Daniel would ask for relationship advice took Sophia by surprise. Daniel hadn’t stuck with one woman for more than a couple of months for as long as she could remember. Their parents were going to celebrate thirty years together in the fall, and neither of their children spent any time looking for a permanent relationship.

Maybe they both knew something like what their parents had was impossible to find.

Sophia shrugged away those concerns. Drew Snow was naked and waiting for her. She locked the doors and hopped down the stairs with an extra spring in her step. Except for the three rooms her father helped her build along the far side, her basement was a wide-open space. One room was for laundry, one was a bathroom, and the other contained Drew.

Pushing open the door, she found him kneeling in the center of the room, naked. Hard, tense muscles corded his entire body. Those lush lips pressed together, not quite hiding his jealousy. Nostrils flared, and thick lashes hid the fury in his eyes.

63

Instantly, Sophia was wet. This did not bode well for her ability to hold out against him for very long. She had wanted to get home before him so that she could change into something sexy. When she dressed to go shopping, she did so for comfort. She wore a cream-and-brown patterned cotton dress that came down to her knees and brown leggings that covered her to the ankles. She looked cute in earth tones, not sexy.

She leaned against the door frame. “You’re late.”

“You didn’t look like you were hurting for company.” He growled the words to the floor.

His vehemence had the effect of pouring ice water over her head. She snapped out of sex mode and into dominatrix mode. It was a good thing, too.

He could have seduced her so easily, rendering her domination of him ineffective. “If you’re ever late again, I will send you home. I do not tolerate lateness.”

“I don’t suppose,
Mistress
, that you know I work over an hour away from here. I didn’t get your message until after twelve. A little more lead time might be nice.” Again, he growled.

He had a point, but she wasn’t about to concede. She needed to deal with his attitude first. “Next time, you may call or text me if the time is inconvenient.” She planned for them to have three hours together. They might get two now, if they were lucky. She longed to bind his wrists and ankles with thick leather just to see those muscles straining for freedom.

Drew lifted his eyes to her for the first time. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

He was nervous. Sophia almost sagged with relief. She could deal with nervousness. Impertinence was something else altogether. Given his behavior, she thought she wouldn’t be able to fuck him. Now, she knew she could. She just had to punish him first.

She closed and locked the door. Daniel wasn’t the only family member with keys to her house, and her parents had no idea what she did down here.

They thought it was an odd place to put another guest bedroom. It was soundproof and sparsely furnished. The bed was bare, and the single set of shelves held various-sized boxes where she kept her tools and toys. The walls were a warm dark beige, designed to melt into the background.

64

Eyeing the shelves, Sophia shook her head. She didn’t want to use toys with Drew, not their first time together. She wanted him to appreciate her without the toys before she blew his mind with them.

She let her hands wander over his shoulders and chest. Muscles rippled and twitched beneath the gentle glide of her fingers, and his cock lengthened. He felt so damn good. A soft tap under his chin and he responded, lifting his face to look at her.