Playing Rough: 3 Hot Tales of Sensual Submission (9 page)

Jessica patted Tanya on her bare leg. “Do
what you need to do to move on.”

“I should.” Tanya pushed her almost waist
length brown hair over her shoulder. “It’s just not going to be
easy.”

“You can do it.” Jessica slung her purse over
her shoulder. “See you at work Monday.”

Tanya nodded and raised her third mojito.
“See you.”

She didn’t watch Jessica leave. Instead she
scanned the bar’s patrons the best she could. Maybe there was
someone who would interest her more than Austin Graham, although
that was highly unlikely.

Man, she had it bad.

Friday night happy hour and Peppers had a
good crowd. Most of the people probably just got off work and
needed a little something to unwind. Around nine a band would start
playing and the bar would be beyond crowded.

She didn’t mind being alone and checking out
the place. People-watching was one of her favorite things to
do.

She passed her gaze over a man in a booth and
she did a double-take. It wasn’t. It was.

It was Austin.

He was on the phone and as far as she knew,
he hadn’t noticed her.

For a moment she watched him. He wore a black
polo shirt which made it easy to see the flex of muscle in his
carved biceps as he moved. She imagined listening to his smooth,
sexy voice as he spoke on the phone. Or better yet, as he spoke to
her.

She thought about the pictures he looked at
on his computer. What he liked might frighten some, but not her.
She never would have figured this guy had these interests and it
made him all the more exciting. Though she had never tried those
things, many women had to like the thought of being helpless at the
hands of a strong man. She liked knowing his secret.

She considered fleeing before he saw her in
her too-short skirt and busty blouse. Or maybe it was the perfect
time to sit with him and talk if he invited her to. He was probably
meeting someone, but why not give it a try? She swallowed. She
wanted a relationship with Austin and that was never going to
happen if she didn’t try to get to know him better, and for him to
get to know her better.

She’d better hurry. She didn’t want him to
leave. Tanya looked down at her almost full drink. She usually
didn’t drink this fast, but here goes, she thought. Nothing like
mojito courage.

Tanya slid off the bar stool, smoothed her
skirt, and adjusted her blouse so that she wasn’t spilling out of
it. She didn’t have a perfect body by a long shot and she wondered
what Austin thought about imperfect figures. She glanced in the
mirror behind the bar and took a deep breath.

“Austin, here I come,” she murmured under her
breath as she wound her way through the crowd. Jessica had said the
short skirt showed off her long legs, which she had been told were
one of her best assets.

He pressed the
OFF
button on his Blackberry just as she reached the table. As he
slowly looked up, he examined her from her legs to her breasts and
then his dark eyes met hers and recognition flashed in them. His
smile was so sexy it almost made her squirm.

“Tanya.” His voice was low, sensual.

She lowered her eyelids. “Hi, Austin.”

He glanced over her shoulder. “Are you here
with someone for happy hour?”

“Not now.” She shook her head and let her
hair slide over her shoulders. “Jessica left a few minutes
ago.”

“My meeting just canceled.” He raised his
Blackberry as if to say he’d just been talking with the person who
had canceled, before sliding the cell phone into the pocket of his
slacks. “Have a drink with me.”

“Sure.” Tanya felt jittery as she slipped
into the booth then slid on the bench seat until she was sitting
across from him. Her stomach twisted with excitement at having a
drink with her boss, the man she’d had a thing for ever since he
started working for the company.

He signaled for the server and when she
arrived, Tanya said she would like another mojito.

“How do you like L.A.?” he asked. “Not having
any family in this area must be hard.”

For a moment she was taken aback that he knew
that about her since he never asked where her family lived before.
He hadn’t asked much about her personal life since they started
working together. She faltered for a second.

“It’s fine with just me and my calico,
Amanda,” Tanya said. “I wanted a fresh start and a big change.
That’s what I got when I moved here, and then some.”

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
“Culture shock?”

“You could say that.” She smiled. “But I
adapted pretty quickly.”

He studied her as if recalling something.
“You’re from the Midwest and most of your family is in Kansas.”

“Yes.” Even more amazement filtered through
her before she responded. “I have a few extended family members
sprinkled around the country. None in California.”

He smiled. “You’re not married and no
boyfriend.” She blinked. Had she told him that? No, she didn’t
think so.

She pushed a strand of hair over her
shoulder. “How did you know all of that?”

The server arrived and set Tanya’s mojito in
front of her and Austin paid for her drink. After the server left,
he said, “When I’m interested in something or someone I find it
out.”

The emphasis on someone made butterflies skip
in her belly. Had he meant because he wanted to know more about her
as his assistant, or something more?”

Anxious to change the subject away from
herself, she said, “What about you? Were you ever married, do you
have a girlfriend, been here long?”

She almost felt embarrassed by asking him the
personal questions, but he had opened it by talking about her
personal life.

He smiled. “No, no, and I was born in Anaheim
and have lived here my entire life.”

Austin picked up his glass of scotch. “You’ve
been on the support staff for almost a year now,” he stated after
the waitress left. “Do you like the job change as my executive
assistant when I started at the company?”

“Yes.” She smiled as she leaned back and
crossed her legs at her knees. She bumped his leg with her shoe and
pretended not to notice. “At times it can be a little rough, but
nothing I can’t handle.”

The corner of his mouth turned up. His smile
was so sexual that she had to squeeze her legs tightly together.
“So, do you mind the rough? I have the impression that you like
that part of it.”

Her eyes widened and she tried to keep her
jaw from dropping. “I—I” Her face had to be bright red. Here was
her chance and she was speechless. So much for mojito courage.

He tapped his fingers on his glass. “I didn’t
mean to embarrass you. I think you saw the pictures on my computer
earlier today.”

She felt a little reckless. “I know this is
the mojito admitting more than I should but I really liked those
pictures. I’ve seen them before.”

He studied her with intensity in his gaze.
“Where have you seen those types of pictures?”

She bit her lower lip before she spoke. “Ok,
but I don’t want to get into trouble.”

He looked intrigued. “You won’t.”

A deep breath. “On your computer. You leave
it connected to your home network.”

He raised his brows. “So you’ve known all
this time?”

“Since day one.” She nodded, the movement
making her feel even more tipsy while she wondered if she was about
to lose her job. “I can’t get some of those images out of my
mind.”

“Tomorrow morning I should probably be fired
just for talking about this with you.” He paused and met her gaze.
“So tell me. Did you think they’re hot?”

She swallowed. “Yes, thought they were hot.
Exciting.”

“Would you like to be one of the women in the
pictures?” His voice was low, sexy as he leaned forward in his
seat. “Would you ever like to experience what it feels like to
submit to someone?”

She bit her lower lip before she said, “Yes.”
She felt the sudden urge to run. She couldn’t take the sensual
assault anymore. She couldn’t believe that she was talking about
this to Austin.

The waitress set another scotch in front of
him and asked Tanya if she wanted another mojito. She shook her
head. Anymore mojito courage and she might be ripping off her
clothes in public.

After the server left, Tanya said, “Okay. My
turn. Have you done this sort of thing?”

“It’s something I enjoy and have for a long
time. It’s not easy finding someone who likes it as much as I
do.”

“I can’t say that I have tried it,” she said.
“But the pictures that I saw make me, well, they make me excited.”
She paused then blurted out, “Do you actually have some of the
gags, restraints, and the other equipment that was in some of those
pictures?”

He held her gaze. “Yes, I do.”

“Would you show me some of your equipment?”
The mojito courage had her saying things that she would never have
said otherwise. Yeah, she was all out of restraint now. “I would
like to see it,” she found herself saying.

His gaze was intense as he studied her. “This
is getting really dangerous.”

“Please, please, please.” She leaned closer
to him. “I really want to.”

He took a drink of his scotch. He set the
glass down. “Do you mean come to my apartment?”

“Not unless you have it in the trunk of your
car,” she said with a grin.

“Tanya…” He studied her. “Is this the alcohol
talking? I won’t take advantage of you.”

Tanya straightened in her seat. “I’ve only
had three mojitos and I don’t consider myself drunk. She spoke
seriously, knowing this was important. “I’m relaxed enough to be
honest about things I normally wouldn’t.” She leaned forward. “But
I have wanted those things ever since I first saw them on your
computer and I still do.”

Austin pushed his empty glass aside. He
considered her for a long moment. “Okay. Let’s go.”

Austin opened the door to his Mercedes for
her and then he slipped into the driver’s side. The car’s ride was
smooth as he drove. The entire way, fireworks erupted in Tanya’s
belly. She was alone with her boss, at night, and going to his
apartment and soon to be looking at his bondage toys.

“Anymore true confessions?” he asked as he
guided his car onto the freeway.

“I’ve told you more than I ever expected to,”
she said. “Let me ask you a few questions. What is there about BDSM
that excites you? Why do you like the thought of tying a woman
up?”

Austin looked at her. “The idea of total
control. It’s not that I take it from you, it’s that you want to
give it up. You want to trust me.” He continued to glance at the
road and back to her. “I’m stronger than you, but I don’t want to
take anything from you that you don’t give me.”

He continued, “The idea that you trust me and
you are willing to give up all control and be put into a helpless,
vulnerable position, is intoxicating. It is knowing that you love
to be in that position and are willing to do it for me.

“Some people claim that it dehumanizes
someone,” he went on. “It’s very much the opposite. It attracts me
all the more to that person. To have an intelligent and
strong-minded woman give up control to me because she wants to.
It’s a high that I can’t get enough of.”

“I never thought of it that way.” Tanya found
herself more intrigued than ever. “So, does it excite you to see
pictures of someone who you don’t know, helpless?”

“It does when I think of specific people I
would like to experience it with,” he said.

“Who in the office do you think of?” she
asked, knowing that she was pushing it.

“I think of only one person.” He paused.
“You.”

Flutters traveled from her belly to between
her thighs. “You really think of me tied up like that?”

“Yes,” he said. “Now you know it all.”

“When was the last time you did something
like this?” she asked.

“I had a girlfriend who broke up with me
about nine months ago.” He shrugged. “She tried to like BDSM, but
it wasn’t her thing. She preferred vanilla sex. There were other
issues, but that really did us in.”

She thought about what it would be like to
love something and the person you were with didn’t, and didn’t want
anything to do with it. She could see how that would make things
difficult in a relationship and why his relationship had ended.

“Does it frighten you off that I think of you
like the women in those pictures?” he asked.

She was quiet as she thought about everything
he had just told her.

“Did I say something wrong?” he asked. “I
think I pushed it too far.”

“No,” she said quietly. “From the first time
I saw the pictures, I have thought about being in the position of
the women with you taking control. Now you know it all.”

Austin pulled up to his apartment building at
the same time he was digesting Tanya’s statement. He had a feeling
she was doing the same thing—thinking about what he had said.

After they parked, he helped her out of the
car. As they walked, he touched his fingers to the base of her
spine. A feeling like electricity sizzled between the two of them,
something he had never felt with any other woman.

He walked behind her as they took the single
flight of stairs up to the apartment building and he got a look at
her black panties beneath her short skirt. The red ones he’d had a
chance to see yesterday had been hot. These were totally sexy,
too.

When they reached the first floor, he used
his keycard, held the glass door open, and then escorted her to the
elevator. Once they were in, he leaned up against one of the brass
handrails as they rode it to the twelfth floor of the apartment
building.

He didn’t say anything on the ride. After all
that talk how could there be this silence, he thought. He just let
his gaze drift over her, lingering on her breasts and her hard
nipples before traveling down to her long legs and then meeting her
eyes again. His cock was hard and he ached to get his hands on
her.