Dark Attraction: The Corde Noire Series (6 page)

Perfect.

Perched precariously on the edge of her sink, Sam opened the cabinet door and inspected the hinges. First, she gave the door a quick yank. Nothing happened. It was a little crooked, but nothing worse than before. Another quick tug yielded the same results. Deciding to put her whole body into it, Sam jerked hard on the cabinet door, and this time, the entire door broke away from the cabinet, sending her hurtling to the ground.

For several seconds, she lay stunned on her tiled kitchen floor.

The next thing she knew, arms were lifting her into the air.

“Sam? Sam, say something!”

Focusing, Sam discovered she was under the intense scrutiny of Doug’s frosty eyes. “What are you doing in my apartment?”

He carried her to her floral sofa. “I heard you cry out. When I came over, your door was unlocked. I told you about locking it, Sam.” He set her down on her sofa. “I found you on the floor. What were you doing?”

She sat up. Why did her hand feel wet? “I was trying to fix my cabinet.” She glanced down at her hand. There was blood on her fingers.

Brushing her hair away from her forehead, Doug hit a tender spot. Sam jerked her head back. “Your head’s bleeding.”

His half-open shirt exposed his well-defined chest muscles. Sam dropped her eyes when she realized she was staring. “It’s nothing.”

“Like hell it’s nothing. Come on.” He picked her up in his arms. “Let’s get a better look.”

She wanted to protest, but his arms felt way too good around her. As he carried her into her bedroom, she hated to admit it, but she was happy he had come to her aid. In her bathroom, Doug set her down on her vanity and turned on the bright lights.

“Where do you keep your bandages and hydrogen peroxide?”

She pointed to the cabinet below the sink to her right.

Stooping down, he opened the door and began pulling out supplies. “I left my front door open, hoping you would come by.”

“Really?” She checked her enthusiasm. “Why did you want me to come by?”

He stood up, holding some gauze and a bottle of peroxide. “So we could talk. I feel we didn’t quite settle things between us the other morning.”

She took the gauze from him. “Settle what things?”

He opened the bottle of peroxide. “Let’s talk later. After we get you fixed up.”

“Later I might break a limb when I hang a few pictures in my bedroom.”

He took a square of gauze from her hand and poured the peroxide on it. “Then I’d better stick around to make sure that doesn’t happen.” Doug set the bottle down on the vanity countertop. “Were you always this accident prone as a kid?”

Sam nodded. “Spent a lot of my time in ER’s growing up. Probably the reason I went into nursing. It was familiar to me.”

He dabbed the gauze against her forehead. “Why didn’t you call the super to fix your cabinet, or at least ask me?”

“I thought I could do it myself.” 

“You need someone to look out for you, especially since you’re so accident prone. You should let me take care of you.”

She pushed his hand away. “What are you saying, Doug?”

He dropped the gauze in the sink. Leaning over, he rested his hands on each side of her thighs, putting his face within inches of hers. “I would like you to be mine. Be my submissive.”

Sam was overwhelmed. Sure, she had been thinking about it, but for the man to come out and say it was more than a bit alarming.

“What makes you think I would make a good submissive?”

He grinned. “Instinct.”

“Maybe your instinct is wrong about me.”

“I doubt it. You’re a nurse, and nurses often make very good submissives. They’re used to taking orders.”

Sam put her hand against her throbbing forehead. “Then you know nothing about nurses. We’re patient advocates, and that means questioning orders we don’t feel are appropriate, not blindly accepting everything a doctor demands. Do you know how many residents I’ve caught writing the wrong orders?” She dropped her hand to the countertop. “Why me, Doug?”

“I thought that was obvious. I want you. I’ve always wanted you, Sam. I sense you want me, too … but the only way I can have you is my way.”

“And your way is to make me your submissive.”  

He arched away from her, crossing his arms over his chest. “What do you know about being a submissive?”

“Piper, my friend from work, had a boyfriend who was a Dominant. He liked to tie her up and hang her his ceiling.” She glared at him. “Is that what you want to do with me?”

“No. Every Dominant is different. We have preferences in the way we treat our subs.”

“So what are your preferences?”

He let out a long breath as he stood back and rested his hip against the vanity. “It would be easier to show you than to explain it. What I want to achieve involves allowing my subs to enjoy the utmost in pleasure, while catering to my needs … my will as a Dominant. Controlling you is not the goal. Controlling your pleasure is.”

She touched her hand to her head. “So you’re not out to rob me of my will?”

“No, I’m out to help you explore your sensuality.”

Climbing down from the vanity, Sam’s deep blush burned her cheeks. “I think you might be pretty disappointed then.”

He held her arm. “Why do you say that?”

There it was again. That desire to tell him everything, but she knew better than to give him that kind of control. Maybe she should just let him have his way with her, and avoid telling him about her non-existent sex life. An experienced man like Doug would never want an almost virgin like her.

“What would I have to do?”

The surprise registered on his face gave her a surge of pleasure. The glint of warmth in his icy eyes made him even more attractive.

He let go of her arm, and the warmth vanished. “We could start with some basic trust-building exercises. Things to help you become comfortable with me.”

She arched an eyebrow at him. “You don’t think I’m comfortable with you?”

“Not comfortable enough to take off your clothes and walk around naked in front of me.”

Yeah, she wasn’t that comfortable yet. “Is that what you want your subs to do?”

He said nothing as his eyes brushed up and down her scrubs. “Maybe you should consider these initial exercises as an experiment. If you like it, we can do more. If you don’t want to go on, we can just be … neighbors.”

She raised her chin, trying to appear confident. “What if I want to go on?”

He stood from the counter. “Let’s just see how you do, Sam.”

Doug was strutting to the bathroom door when she asked, “Are these trust-building exercises going to involve sex?”

He stopped at the doorway and glanced back at her. “I will not be having sex with you, Sam. That is something I only do with a submissive.”

“Then what are we going to do?”

“Right now, I’m going to get some ice for your head and then cook us dinner. After that, we’ll begin your lessons.” He walked out of the bathroom, grinning.

If he isn’t going to have sex with me, what is he going to do?

*     *     *

After a dinner of salad with homemade vinaigrette and grilled chicken with cilantro, Doug poured the last dregs from the bottle of Riesling wine he had retrieved from his apartment into her glass. Sam had noticed during their meal how he had kept refilling her wineglass, but had never bothered with his.

“How’s the head?”

“Fine.” She pushed the wine away. “Are you trying to get me drunk?”

He put the wine bottle on the breakfast bar. “I’m just getting you to lower your defenses.”

“My defenses?” She snatched up her wineglass. “I wasn’t aware I had any of those.

“You’ve got more than most women I deal with.”

That made her put the wine back down. “What kind of women do you deal with?”

“The kind who want to be dominated by me, not the kind who are terrified of me.”

“If you think I feel that way, then why bother with me?”

He stood from his stool. “Because you’re curious about my lifestyle … intrigued even. Still, you’re not convinced it’s for you. You need more research to make up your mind. That’s why I’m giving you lessons.” He picked up their plates and went around the bar to the sink.

Eyeing the curve of his jeans over his ass, Sam asked, “These women you dominated … where did you find them?”

“They found me.” He turned on the water in the sink. “A club I used to belong to in the city provided me with suitable women who were well-versed in the lifestyle.”

“Is this the club where you met Nathan Cole?”

He paused for a second or two, letting his hands linger under the flow of water. “Let’s just say I met a lot of like-minded businessmen there.”

“Businessmen who are interested in dominating women?”

He turned off the water and faced her. “That’s enough questions.”

She snapped up her wineglass. “What? I don’t get to ask questions?”

“No.” Coming around the bar, he took the wineglass. “I ask the questions, and you answer.”

She sulked as she saw him put the wine on the countertop. “That doesn’t seem fair.”

“Come with me.” He took her hand. “It’s time to begin your lessons.”

“What are you going to do?”

“No more talking.”

She was tempted to come back with a pithy reply but bit her tongue. The deadly look in his eyes warned her not to push him.

Doug led her to the sofa and sat her down. He removed a dark red men’s tie from his back pocket. Without any warning, he blindfolded her. Sam was about to raise her hands to her face when he stopped her.

“Put your hands palms down on your thighs and don’t say a word.”

Her senses came alive as she listened intently for his movements. She could make out his footfalls on the hardwood floor, heading toward the kitchen.

He’s going to torture me with kitchen utensils. Wonderful.

By the time he came back to the sofa, Sam was regretting her decision to go along with Doug’s lessons. What if she didn’t like what he did to her? Then again, what if she did?

His weight pressed down on the cushion next to her. Something brushed along her right forearm. It didn’t feel sharp like a knife or hard like a spoon. His fingertips perhaps?

“The relationship between the submissive and the Dominant is about trust. We have to trust each other implicitly. It’s never about pain, or abuse, because then there would be no trust.” His fingertips drifted down to her hand, drawing circles over the top of it. “I can touch my submissive anywhere, and she is never to pull away, or refuse me. I am everything to her.” The circles on her hand continued in a slow, methodical motion. “Imagine my fingertips gliding all over your body like this. Would you find that pleasurable or painful?”

“Do you want me to answer that question?” she asked, confused. “Or am I still not supposed to speak?” He turned over her hand and began drawing circles in her palm. “Maybe you should tell me when—”

“You talk too much. Just answer with yes or no, until I tell you otherwise.” He sounded grumpy.

“Fine.” She paused. “What was the question again?”

He snickered under his breath. “You’re adorable. Do you know that?”

The circles he was drawing on her palm began to tingle. 

“Is this pleasurable to you?”

His fingers lightly tracked up her wrist and a bolt of white heat shot up from her gut. “Ah, I guess so.”

“You don’t sound convinced.” He drew his nail across her palm.

She gulped. “Yes … that’s pleasurable.”

“Tell me what else you find pleasurable, Sam. What did men do to you in the past that you liked?”

The blush rose on her cheeks. “Umm.”

“Don’t be ashamed of enjoying pleasure. If I’m to please you, I need to ask these questions. So what have you enjoyed?”

“Kissing,” came out first. “And I guess, I liked being caressed.”

His nail ran up her forearm. “Where? Be specific.”

Where? I don’t know where. Say something.
Make it sound sexy.
“My breasts,” she finally blurted out.

His hands went to her thighs. “Did you like it when a man tasted your nipples?”

She swallowed hard. “Yes.”

His hands brushed over the fabric of her jeans. “What about biting?”

Her panties were getting wet. “Yes.”

He reached in-between her thighs, pushing them apart. “What about when a man performed oral sex on you? Did you like that?”

Sam tensed. She wanted to rip the blindfold from her eyes and get away, but his hands were firmly holding her legs open.

“Answer the question.”  

She took in a rattled breath. “I’ve, ah, never experienced that,” she confided.

“Never?” The surprise in his voice was evident. “Why not?”

Her nerves pushed to the breaking point, Sam reached for the blindfold. “Okay, enough of this.”