Discipline (17 page)

“Don’t know what?”

Giving up on her purse search, she looked up
at me, her skinny nostrils flaring. “You don’t know what’s out
there and what’s not. But I can tell you what’s not, and that’s a
fantasy man who’s a hundred percent gorgeous and loyal and
perfect.” Her icy eyes cut through me as she swallowed and for a
second, I wondered if she knew about Dane and the vacation. “Our
boys, Nina, they can be tough to handle. They like to be pampered,
reminded who’s boss. But it’s worth it for what they provide. It
pays off.”

I could only shake my head in response. I
forced myself not to speak, knowing that it was pointless with
Tory.

“You learn, Nina, what it’s like to be a
real woman with these boys. None of these girls here,” she nodded
with disdain at the streams of people passing us on the sidewalk,
“none of them know how to make a man happy the way we do. They
don’t have the ability we have — to carry ourselves like real
ladies, to treat our men like real men. We could steal every one of
their boys if we wanted to, we just don’t. So excuse my language,
but you’d be damned crazy to let it all go to waste, all the skills
that you learned these past years.”

“Letting him control me wasn’t a skill,” I
retorted.

“No, it’s a patience,” she responded
briskly. “And a blessing, eventually. You just learn to love their
way. You’ll want the same things he wants eventually.”

I shook my head with conviction. “I want to
remember the things that I want. I like feeling like somebody with
her own thoughts and passions. It makes me feel alive again.”

“Whatever you say, honey.” Tory shrugged,
hoisting her purse onto her shoulder. She pressed her cold cheek
against mine in an air kiss, sighing into my ear. “You could’ve had
it all so early, but you gave up the most perfect life a woman
could ask for. I just pray you don’t do anything stupid so that Ben
never takes you back,” she said. And with one last pretend kiss on
the cheek, Tory sauntered away.

~

I was at the Chelsea restaurant by the time
I realized I’d forgotten to put on any makeup before leaving. My
heeled feet had stomped straight out of the apartment after pulling
on the stretchy black dress I’d purchased earlier that day, since
Daniel had chosen a somewhat formal restaurant for our dinner.
Perhaps I’d caught a glimpse of myself in the bathroom mirror and
mistaken my cheeks as being brushed with blush or bronzer. They’d
been bright and rosy since my run-in with Tory.

The conversation still had me fuming. Not as
much with her but with Ben. And myself. He’d been so close to
brainwashing me as thoroughly as Dane had with her. There
had
been a point when I’d convinced myself that his wants
were my own. That I
liked
being at the apartment twenty-four
seven, available to him at his beck and call. That it was best to
simply text my friends every once in awhile rather than see them —
they wouldn’t understand my relationship with Ben anyway, and
they’d only judge me. Especially Adriana, since Ben had convinced
me that girls like her were out to corrupt and ruin other
people.

God, I was an idiot
, I grumbled
inwardly as my feet flew down the stairs and into the dimly lit
restaurant built to look like a wine cellar. Despite the darkness
upon entering, my eyes still flew straight to Daniel sitting at a
table in the center of the room. Even without his magnetic force on
my gaze, it would’ve been easy to spot him considering the
waitresses who were huddled together at the POS system, not so
subtly staring at Daniel while whispering to one another. How could
they not? He looked so outrageously sexy in a black skinny tie and
slim fit
suit
, dear God, that I wanted to scream.

The best part was that he promptly rose to
his feet when he spotted me, his eyes gleaming at me with an
anticipation that felt like the biggest compliment I’d ever
received. I could feel my chest bounce with each step, my hair
blowing behind me as I created a wind with my own long strides.
Panting already, my fury with Ben and Dane and Tory immediately
renewed itself into something of need.

Daniel exhaled when I reached him, his eyes
feasting on me in a way that made my heart pound.

“Nina — ”

I cut him off. My fingers hooked into his
collar as I went on my toes, pulling him close enough to crush my
lips against his. The sound of surprise in his throat quickly
turned into something hungry as his hands grabbed hold of my waist,
his mouth rumbling hot against mine. Somewhere in the room, someone
began a round of applause but the sounded faded out from my ears as
I felt Daniel press me firmly against his body.

“I can’t wait anymore,” I pulled away to
exhale, my fingers curling to scratch the skin beneath his collar.
“I want you now.”

Breathing hard, Daniel studied me. Eyes
traveling from my red lips to my heaving chest, he surrendered
easily. “Let’s go.”

~

A cab ride had never felt so torturous.

I flew out of the car before it came to a
full stop, fumbling with my keys in search of the one for the front
door of the building. I could hear the cabbie’s repeated thank
you’s as Daniel no doubt declined change in favor of getting out of
the car as fast as possible.

“Come on,” I groaned as my key took more
than a second to turn. Pleasure was already building between my
legs and Daniel had yet to even touch me.

Scaling the stairs, I could hear Daniel
behind me, his footsteps catching up to mine. My heart pounded
faster and faster as I heard them approaching, my shaking hands
doing their best to unlock my door.

“Wait, Daniel,” I protested when I felt his
body crash into mine from the back, his hot lips on the back of my
neck and his hands absolutely everywhere. “Not yet,” I moaned, my
body weakening at his touch, melting in the hold of his strong
arms. My name rumbled from his lips as his arousal pressed hard
against the small of my back, his hands finding my neckline and
hooking his fingers into it. “
Daniel!”
I gasped as he yanked
it down hard so that I stood in the hallway of my apartment with my
bra exposed. The image of my neighbors looking through their
peepholes flashed in my mind, but for less than a second as Daniel
reclaimed my focus with a pleasured grunt as he slid his fingers
under the cups of my bra. I could feel his rapid breaths against my
neck. They grew more and more shallow as his hands slid further up,
his fingers slowly wrapping around the mound of my breast. But
before they could squeeze, I removed his hand.

“Not yet,” I murmured. The tortured,
guttural groan that followed from his lips was sure to have woken
up any neighbors who hadn’t already heard us flying up the
stairs.

“Open the door, Nina, please,” Daniel
pleaded into my neck, his fingers grabbing handfuls of my top and
squeezing so that it stretched tighter on my body, rubbing against
my tingling skin.

My hands suddenly steady, I stabbed the key
through the door.

I barely saw it open before finding myself
bent over the dining room table across from the door, Daniel
shedding his jacket before his hands began peeling my dress down my
body by the straps, his mouth and warm tongue trailing it and
tasting every bare inch of skin as he uncovered it.

Once my dress was a puddle around my feet,
Daniel’s hands gripped the cups of my bra, pulling down until my
breasts sprung free. He spun me around, allowing his eyes to feast
on the sight before taking me in his arms again, his knees bending
so that he could flick his tongue across my taut nipple before
taking it in his mouth and sucking. Hard. I gasped for breath, the
warm, wet sensations sweeping the sensitive spot made my hand shoot
out and reach for my own panties, but Daniel’s grabbed it before I
could give myself any pleasure.

“I need to,” I pleaded to no avail. Daniel
ignored my whimpers as he gathered both my hands and brought them
behind my back, holding both of them still with just one of his
own. He watched me as he slid his free hand down the front of my
panties. His jaw fell open the moment he felt the amount of wetness
he’d caused.

“Holy shit,” he exhaled, releasing me to
take a handful of my hair. He tugged so that I looked up at him,
our faces an inch apart as he slid a finger into me. The second my
mouth opened to release a moan, he covered it with his lips,
swallowing the sound of my ecstasy before letting his tongue thrust
against mine. As a second finger slid into me, he kissed me harder,
a delighted
mmm
rumbling against my lips as I moaned again,
and louder as he pumped his fingers in and out of me.

I was dizzy, faint, so overwhelmed with
pleasure that I was sure that nothing could ever get better than
this very moment.

Until I registered the feeling of something
long, rocklike rubbing against my thigh and hipbone.
Jesus
Christ, I almost forgot the best part
.

“Oh,
fuck
.” Daniel nearly collapsed
all of his weight onto me the second I grabbed his hard cock,
rubbing it over his suit pants, marveling in how long my strokes
had to be in order to touch all of him.

“Take it off,” I ordered, my anticipation
getting the better of me. Within seconds, Daniel was down to a
muscle-friendly white undershirt and the tent that was his boxer
briefs. Grabbing handfuls from behind his back, he whipped his
shirt off to reveal the incredible, mouthwateringly cut chest and
abs that I’d imagined so many times between my senior year in high
school to now. Feeling the need, I slid my hands into my panties,
picking up where he had left off as he stretched the elastic of his
boxer briefs, bringing the band out and over his impressive
erection before pulling them down and kicking them the rest of the
way off.

And for the next few seconds, he stood there
with an awed, almost lecherous gaze as I rubbed myself, in
desperate need of the relief as I stared at everything about
him.

“Get over here,” he snarled once he’d had
enough, letting his body collide into mine once again, our skin
hot, sticky against each other as he lifted me into his arms,
kissing me deeply as he carried me into my bedroom.

Once he set me down onto my mattress, I
reached over my head, pulling open the drawer on my nightstand so
that he could take out a condom. Once he had it on, I pulled him
onto my body, relishing in the feeling of his weight on top of mine
before I rolled over, straddling him and taking the top.

On my knees, my palms flattened against
Daniel’s hard chest. I dragged my lower lip through my teeth as a
slow, wide smile spread his beautiful lips.

“Yeah?”

I bit my lip, nodding. Keeping my eyes fixed
on his, I wrapped my fingers around the base of his cock, lowering
my body just enough to position his tip outside my wet entrance. I
watched him watch my body intently, his jaw dropping as my hips
circled to rub him against the length of my wetness.

“Nina…” A deep groan tore from Daniel’s
throat and he squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, opening them
once again to study me, his irises glittering with awe as my head
rolled back, my hair grazing the tops of his thighs as I let the
throbbing need build between my legs before rewarding myself. Eyes
closed, I relished the sounds of Daniel’s breathless grunts as I
teased us both, his hands gripping my waist tight as I let his tip
inside me, contracting, torturing him before pulling back out and
repeating until I’d had enough myself.

A growl broke free from Daniel’s lips and
filled the room the moment I sank down onto him. No sound emerged
from my own open mouth but my fingers clawed at my bed sheets,
twisting them under my palms as I felt an unreal pleasure tearing
ferociously through me, sending me spiraling me into an ecstasy
that I never knew existed, that I’d never even known the slightest
hint of but could surely never go without ever again.

CHAPTER
12

“Hold on, let me process this.” Adriana held
her hand out, indicating that she needed silence for a couple
moments. “So… the two sexually repressed Woodhill folks got down
and dirty and
filthy
— and on
Sunday
? The day of God?
I love it,” Adriana squealed as she rolled onto her back in my bed,
her bright eyes sparkling up at my ceiling as she processed the
story of my date with Daniel, though I wasn’t sure if our extremely
brief time at the restaurant qualified as being a date. “Nina, I’m
so proud right now. And happy for you. And I really hope you washed
your sheets since last night.” She grabbed the pillow from under my
head and held it to her face, taking a big, long whiff.

“Ade!” I cackled “What if I hadn’t?” She
gave me a dirty smile.

“I’d probably be less disturbed about it
than I should be.”

“That’s… lovely. At least you’re honest
about it. But in case you’re wondering, I changed the sheets that
night and the other ones are in the laundry right now.”

They had to be. That night, our bodies had
shone from so much perspiration that they actually reflected light.
And his had never resembled a marble statue more.

After catching our breaths, Daniel had
helped my weak legs up and out of bed so we could jump into the
shower before he left, just to be extra safe in case Kelsey for
some reason came back. I soaped his body by heaping suds onto his
broad shoulders and watching them cascade down the slope of his
V-shaped back and slip into the deep lines of his muscles. The
light pitter patter of the raining water was a good match with the
shift of our energy, which had gone from wild and carnal to
something gentle and easy, his kisses on my skin and lips soft and
sweet when ten minutes ago, they’d been quite the opposite. Holding
me down with his strong arms, he had licked sweat from my skin and
tugged my lip with his teeth.