The Gift (26 page)

‘Better?’

She nodded but she wasn’t sure. Something dark and perverse inside her mourned the exposure. She liked showing herself to him. Exhibiting her thighs, her sex, allowing him total access to her, to do whatever he wanted. She liked giving him dominion over her pleasure too. The power to give it, the power to withhold it. Freedom to use her like a plaything, and handle her intimately.

We may not have this ‘thing’ for long. But tonight we’ve got it. And I want more.

She stared at his mouth, and in the darkness of the car’s interior it looked reddened as if he’d bitten his lip. Her body stirred once more, as if those lips were pressed between her legs, and the tongue that had owned hers was licking and tasting her. As she started to get excited and wet again he smiled. Why was it always so bloody easy for him to read her?

Exerting a dominion of her own, Sandy reached out and placed her hand over his crotch, assessing his erection. Dear God, he was hard. She could feel the heat and the shape of him clean through the silk worsted of his suit trousers. As her fingers tightened experimentally, his cock kicked against her touch, and he muttered, ‘Fuck!’ beneath his breath, while his insanely long black
eyelashes flickered down and his head tipped back.

There was a contrary thrill to this strange see-saw they seemed to be on tonight. One minute he was in charge, the next, she was. She knew he’d take back the power any moment, any second. But right now, it was hers, and as heady as the wine she’d sipped.

Slowly, she circled her palm against the bulge of his cock, her fingers curving, exploring, cupping. Jay rolled his head, his white teeth digging into his full lower lip.

‘You know you’re going to make me come if you do much more of that,’ he warned, but he didn’t brush her hand away.

‘Would that be such a tragedy?’ She moved her thumb, strumming it from side to side, and his breath hissed.

‘I don’t suppose so, really,’ he said, through gritted teeth. ‘Especially if you like the idea of men so helplessly aroused by you that they sticky their shorts in your honour.’

‘I’ve never thought about it before.’

His erection stirred. How could he get any stiffer? Any bigger? He was already enormous, tenting his elegant trousers and pushing against the zip.

Jay let out a harsh laugh, adjusting himself in his seat. ‘Good God, woman, it must happen constantly. With your face, your hair, your body, men must get hard over you all the time.’

Sandy frowned. She was pretty enough, she knew that, but she knew prettier and sexier women who she imagined did induce hard-ons aplenty. Kat, for instance, was much more of a siren than she was.

‘I’m not so sure.’

‘Then
be
sure, you sexy little tart,’ Jay growled, moving uneasily, his hips lifting a little to push himself into her hold.

‘I’ve developed a raging hard-on every time I’ve ever set eyes on you. And I do mean every time.’

It took a moment for the penny to drop but, when it did, Sandy tried to snatch her hand away. She felt confused, a bit appalled, but also ridiculously pleased in a way. But before she could properly retreat, Jay’s stronger hand grasped hers, clamping it in place.

‘Yes, I admit it, I’m a disgusting sexual pervert, and I was fifteen years ago. Even while I was trying to comfort you and calm you and be the perfect gentle knight, I was still fancying you at the same time and getting hard for you.’

That was sick, wasn’t it? Sort of … Well, a bit.

‘I never realised. I just thought you were trying to be kind.’

He sighed. ‘I was. I was. But I was twenty, and you were utterly gorgeous. You still are. That’s why you affect me in a way no other woman ever has.’

Sandy’s heart lurched. Could she believe that? Jay’s erection was still as rampant as ever, but suddenly there was a peculiar quality of resignation, of weariness about him. He seemed almost bitter. Did he resent her somehow for this supposed power she had over him?

‘I don’t believe that.’ She stared at him, trying to divine what it was that had changed his aura so abruptly. ‘A man like you, so accomplished and so attractive –’ she ignored his grunt of derision ‘– and who’s obviously got a bob or two. You must have women throwing themselves at you right, left and centre. And don’t tell me they’ve all been dogs and they haven’t turned you on!’

To her surprise, Jay laced his fingers with hers and lifted her hand away from his body. In the low light of the car’s
interior, his eyes looked dark and troubled. He drew her hand to his lips and kissed the palm, then leaned across and set it in her own lap.

‘Seat belt,’ he instructed crisply. ‘Let’s get back to your place. I want to try out a few of those sex toys. Experiment a bit.’ As he clipped his own belt, his expression lightened, eyes glinting playfully.

So that’s the way it is? Play first, discussions afterwards.
Sandy fastened herself in, all the time on the point of opening her mouth and demanding answers, illumination. She sensed he’d been about to admit to something, she knew not what, but serious somehow. But now he’d set it aside, shut it in a box, sequestered the less than palatable in favour of pursuing pleasure.

Was that selfish? Evasive? Typically male? Was she going to force the issue? Be typically female at the expense of pleasure for herself too?

No, I fucking well am not, Jay Bentley! No way!

He could be gone again tomorrow. Why screw up the chance of a lifetime with a sexy and mysterious man, just to get a few answers she might not like anyway?

‘Yeah, so do I! Let’s go. What are we waiting for?’

His eyes were full of admiration as he stabbed the starter and the car roared.

‘Where are you going with it? What are you doing?’

With the box of exotic goodies in his arms, Jay was already heading for the café when he answered her. They’d abandoned their coats on the landing, and at Jay’s command, Sandy had retrieved her gift from the bedroom, surprised he’d not followed her in there.

‘Indulge me. I have this perverse desire to have a little fun in your workplace, Princess.’ He elbowed open the door into the main serving area. ‘I like the idea of you thinking about me touching you and tasting you next time you’re serving tea and a doughnut to some horny workman who’s eyeing you up and fancying you.’

‘You’re twisted, you are,’ she muttered as she followed him in. He was already sifting through the items in the box, and a vertigo of anticipation gripped her as she mentally catalogued its contents.

‘Guilty as charged,’ he said, setting down the box, and glancing around the room, with a grin, ‘Nice decorations … going for the abstract look?’ He quirked a dark brow. Kat had been supposed to be trimming the room, but had clearly got distracted half way through, probably by Greg.
Several streamers were half-pinned-up, half-drooping, and a small artificial Christmas tree in the corner of the room sported a rather tatty fairy on the top, but no other adornment. Baubles and tinsel spilled out of a box on the counter.

‘It’s a work in progress,’ replied Sandy, watching closely as Jay returned his attention to his own box of goodies. He flashed her a glance out of the corner of his eye, lifting out the vibrator she’d used while they’d spoken on the phone. She swallowed, knowing, just knowing he was going to raise it to his nose to see if he could smell her on it, even though she’d washed and soaped it pretty scrupulously.

But Jay being Jay, he didn’t. He just winked and set it back in the box.

‘How about these? Have you tried these? They look rather Christmassy.’

Unfolding one of the small black paper parcels, he showed her a pair of delicate nipple clamps, each adorned with a prismatic Swarovski crystal pendant.

Sandy’s reaction was strong and instant, a primitive automatic urge to cross her legs and cringe at the same time. She hadn’t tried them. She daren’t. But she wanted to. When she pinched her nipples while she was playing with herself, or being played with, her level of arousal nearly went through the ceiling. But the idea of clamps made her throat go dry, and fear grind with the desire low in her belly.

‘No,’ she said in a small voice, part of her praying he’d put them back in the box, most of her praying that they’d taken his fancy.

‘Why not?’

Oh boy …

Delicious apprehension crawled across her skin, but then without warning Jay smirked and held the little clamps against his ears. ‘Do they suit me?’

Despite the tension, Sandy laughed.

‘Uh-oh, this is serious business,’ he reproved, his face not quite straight as he held the jewelled toys out in front of him, swinging the little pendants.

Christ, they looked heavy.

‘Why not?’ he asked her.

‘I daren’t. I once tried some makeshift nipple clamps after I saw a woman wearing them in one of the magazines that Greg lends to Kat to get her going.’

Sandy blushed as Jay’s dark eyebrows rose. ‘So you like to read erotic magazines, do you? I wish I’d known; I’d have sent some of those too.’ Obviously they’d got far beyond any kind of pretence that it wasn’t him who’d sent the sexy booty.

‘I was curious.’

‘So am I. What do you mean by “makeshift” nipple clamps, Princess? I’m dying to know here.’

Sandy blushed furiously. This was far more embarrassing than anything they’d done together. Stupid, really. She stared at her toes and almost fidgeted like a naughty child, then wondered if Jay would find that amusing.

‘Um … well, I tried a clothes peg, but it hurt so much I screamed and kicked over the bathroom stool.’

Jay’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Bloody hell, I’m not surprised. Clothes pegs are very blunt tools to use on tender little nipples like yours.’ Without warning, he brushed the back of his hands against said tender little nipples and the surge of pleasure that induced almost made her sigh. ‘I like playing kinky little games, but I’m not into brutal pain like that,
love, and I’ve a feeling you aren’t either.’ His fingertips swept lightly across her breasts again, still holding the jewelled clamps. ‘I like pleasure and experimentation, a bit of pervy exploratory fun, nothing heavy.’

She looked at him again, into his eyes. They were steady and bright, and she felt safe with him. He was a horny, highly sexed man, but he was caring, not a selfish domineering brute.

‘Now these … These are much more suited to the purpose.’ Palming one of the clamps, he showed her the other more closely. ‘They screw on, and we only have to tighten them sufficiently that they stay in place. No sadistic torture involved, and they certainly wouldn’t keep the washing on the line.’

Sandy let out a bubble of nervous laughter, her heart beating wildly. God, she wanted to try them. They were pretty, and she had a feeling that they weren’t quite as mild as Jay was making out, but she could still take it.

The way he smiled at her, slowly, and creamily, told her he was as keen to play now as she was. If not more.

‘Take off your dress.’

The words were low, intent, almost mellow, but Sandy felt so excited she was afraid she might sway on her feet. Dragging in a breath, she braced herself and lifted her chin. Not in defiance, but to try to fool him she wasn’t afraid. She probably wasn’t fooling him one bit, but the act of attempting to gave her confidence and strength.

Reaching behind her, she whizzed down the zip of her dress, acutely aware of cooler air hitting her back. It wasn’t cold in the room, the echo of the central heating still warmed the air, but her skin was so feverish there was an appreciable temperature difference. And even more so
when she shook the dress off her shoulders and allowed it to slide off, down her body, until she could step out of it. In a show of bravado she kicked it away, sending it coasting along the wooden floor and beneath one of the chequer-clothed tables.

Aware of Jay’s eyes scrutinising her in the minutest detail, she glanced quickly towards the window, and saw her own reflection.

A shapely girl with piled-up hair, wearing a gorgeous bra and a tiny G-string that barely hid her pubes. Her thighs were bisected by bands of dark lace, the tops of her stockings, but her bare hips and flanks gleamed exotically in the soft lamplight of the ordinary room where she spent so much of her working life. They were enclosed in their own little bubble of space and time here, and yet at the back of her mind Sandy was aware that anyone in the upper chambers of the Town Hall across the precinct square could look in and see her in her undies. They’d have to have binoculars to see any details, and at this time of year, with the Christmas lights already blinking and flashing outside, an illuminated window might not be quite so noticeable, but that still didn’t mean there couldn’t be someone lurking in a darkened room up there, watching the show.

The thought of being observed while playing some perverse little game of pain and pleasure with Jay made her clit ache.

‘What are you smiling at?’ enquired Jay, smiling too.

‘Someone might be watching us, from across the precinct.’ She nodded towards the decorated space outside, beyond their own zone of light and intimacy. ‘With the lights on people can see in.’

Jay moved in, close enough for her to feel his breath on
the side of her face. His hand settled against her flank. He was still holding the little clamps and they were cool and sharp-feeling against the surface of her skin.

‘Does it excite you? The idea of being on show? It does me. I like the idea of others looking, but only me touching and exploring.’

Closing her eyes, Sandy melted, leaning against him like a magnet attracted to its polar opposite, its match. It was so easy to be soft with him, pliant. His presence granted her the freedom not to have to fight and struggle.

‘Let down your hair,’ he purred, his mouth touching her skin now, tongue sneaking out, pointed and insolent, tasting her cheek. Then, as suddenly as he’d approached, he dropped a kiss on her neck and spun away towards the nearest table. The little clamps tinkled as he dropped them on a place mat, and he dragged a chair out, reversed it and sat down, his elbows folded across the top of its back.

‘Let down your hair, Princess,’ he said again, more firmly. She pulled out the pins, and the little band, and flung them away. Her hair slithered down over her shoulders, long, but not long enough to cover her body, her breasts. Tipping her head, she flipped the mass of it back, exposing her shoulders.