Purely Professional (10 page)

“So tell me about you.” He drew his hand back and changed the subject. “I know what your face looks like when you come, but I don’t know anything about who you are.”

She had just bitten into her sandwich and almost choked. Max disarmed her far more than anyone else ever had. Recovering, she chewed carefully and swallowed. “All right. I’m an only child. My mom and dad divorced when I was young, but it was amiable. I grew up in a two-family household. Both my parents remarried, Dad when I was in high school, Mom when I was in college. I have three stepsiblings, two from my stepmom’s first marriage and one from my stepdad’s first marriage. Dad lives out in Milwaukee now and Mom moved to Hawaii.”

“Wow, pretty nice,” he said.

“I know, Milwaukee’s a dream.” When he raised an eyebrow, confused, she smiled. “I know you meant Hawaii. I’ve been out a few times to visit, but it’s expensive, so I don’t go often.”

“Do you get lonely?”

Max had a tendency to become uncomfortably intimate right away, something she wasn’t sure she liked. “Um, well…” She paused to think about it. “I have friends. And my job takes up a lot of my time.” Was that enough? she wondered suddenly. Did she really not want anything else? She looked down at her sandwich and took a bite just to fill the silence.

“I’m surprised you don’t have a cat.”

“What do you mean? Lonely woman in her thirties, I’m destined to be the cat woman so I might as well start now?”

“No.” Max shook his head. “You just strike me as the type of person who would have a cat. It can be nice to have another heartbeat in the house, I’ve heard. And I thought you weren’t lonely.”

“I’m not.” Maybe she said that too quickly. When he raised an eyebrow, she sighed. “All right, sure. It might be nice to have someone to come home to, but there’s so much…baggage with a relationship. Expectations and all that.” How did they end up back on her again? “But what about you? Do you ever get lonely?”

Max paused. “Yes, all the time. I value my solitude and my space, but I don’t have a woman in my life I can really talk to. I can get sexual partners, and company, but I want an equal.”

“An equal?”

“Yes, an
equal
,” he emphasized. “I don’t want to be dominant all the time. Only during sex. I thought we went over this last week at a very revealing meeting in Starbucks.”

“Was that only a week ago? It feels like forever.”

“A lot has happened since then.” He took another bite. “So you went to school for journalism?”

She noticed how directly he steered the conversation back to her, but she didn’t mind following this time. His question was innocuous. “Yeah, it’s what I always wanted to do.”

“Wrote for the high school paper and all that?”

“Even better. I was a student reporter for the local television station. I covered all those little meaningless stories that no one gave two shits about, but I was a cute kid so people watched. It was my first experience with using my looks to get what I wanted.” She sipped from her drink.

“Ah, always a cynic.” Max leaned back in his chair and set his napkin beside his plate. “Learning to work the system from a tender age.”

Bridget thought about her job. “It’s all about manipulating the system in my line of work. It’s an art form.”

“And how did you get into working with
Sultry
?”

“Internship in graduate school.”

“Not your traditional internship location.”

“I’m not your traditional woman.”

“No, you’re not,” Max agreed.

Bridget continued. “I’ve been reading
Sultry
since I was in high school, so the internship let me combine my dream career with content I enjoy. I’ve been there ever since. Started out part-time doing grunt work and slowly climbed my way up the ladder. Now I’m a senior editor, and if this pans out, I’ll get promoted.” She raised her glass in a mock toast, then drank.

Max raised his glass as well, meeting her toast. “I hope it turns out well for you. I hope you’re not getting into more than you can handle.”

“With the job?”

He smiled. “No, with me.”

She smiled back. “We’ll see. I can handle quite a lot.”

“I hope so. There’s a lot left to come.”

* * *

“So what are your plans for the rest of the day?” Max asked her as they pulled into her driveway.

“It’s Friday night,” Bridget said. “So movies and takeout with Helen.”

“Ah, Helen.” Max leaned back in his seat and stretched. “How is she?”

“Fine. I was pretty pissed at her for not telling me I was meeting
you
at Starbucks, you know.” She looked over at him.

“It turned out okay, though, right?” He reached into the backseat and handed her the bag of lingerie with a wink.

“I guess.” She gave him a half smile and took the bag. “I’m free tomorrow, though.”

“For the whole day?”

She paused, suddenly apprehensive. “Yes.”

“Good.” He nodded. He patted her leg, his hand lingering on her thigh. “Come over about ten? I’ll make you breakfast.”

“Okay…”

Max shifted in his seat to face her. “What’s wrong? You sound nervous.” He took his hand off her leg. “I thought you wanted to try this out. You chickening out on me?”

She shook her head, wanting to reassure him. “No. I’m just wondering what we’re going to do tomorrow.”

“Good. Keep wondering.” He smiled. “I’ll see you in the morning. Oh, and wear a skirt.”

He was still smiling, his eyes twinkling with mischief. She considered kissing him. Was that what he was expecting? She looked at his lips, full and soft, remembering how lovely they felt against hers.

“Bridget?” Max broke her reverie. “Need something?”

“No.” She opened the door. “Goodbye.”

“Bye.” As she got out, she swore he was laughing at her.

Chapter Nine

“Ugh.” Bridget poked at her pad thai with the end of a chopstick.

“What’s wrong with it?” Helen sounded bored, asking only out of obligation.

“Too many peanuts.” Bridget scraped some off into the lid of the takeout container.

“You liked Thai Garden last time,” Helen reminded her. “That’s why we ordered it again.”

“I didn’t have pad thai last time,” Bridget retorted. She drew her feet up on Helen’s sofa, scratching the top of one foot with the toes of the other. “It’s not that bad. I’ll deal.” She added some Sriracha from the bottle on the coffee table. “It’s better spicy,” she said over a mouthful of noodles.

“So, are you going to tell me what’s going on with you and Max, or what?” Helen peered at her friend from over her own takeout dish.

“Come on, we were having a nice meal.” Bridget looked studiously into her bowl, avoiding eye contact.

“You’ve been dodging the question since last week. You can’t keep it a secret forever.” She gestured with her barbecue pork grasped between chopsticks. “If you won’t tell me, I’ll ask Max.”

“Don’t you dare.” Bridget wrinkled her nose in annoyance at Helen, who was grinning evilly. “Okay, fine.” She took a bite of dinner, chewing slowly, taking her time just to make Helen wait. “I asked him to show me a few things about the lifestyle.”

“No shit.” Helen set her pork aside and leaned forward. “So what have you done?”

Bridget ran through the events in her mind, from him watching her masturbate to the incident in the lingerie store. If it was all just research, why was she so reluctant to share the details? Or even an overview? “Not much. Mostly he’s just getting me used to the power dynamic.”

“Have you had sex yet?”

“Helen, this isn’t really any of your business.” Bridget set her chopsticks down.

“Come on.” Helen brushed her hair behind her shoulders. “I’d tell you about my sex life if you asked.”

“I don’t
want
to know about your sex life,” Bridget reminded her, leaning back on the sofa. Helen had paused
The Dark Knight
. She was on a Maggie Gyllenhaal kick lately, and Bridget was just glad she hadn’t chosen
Secretary
for their Friday night. “No, we haven’t had sex yet.” She shifted on the couch. “Maybe tomorrow. We’re spending the day together.”

“And what do you think? This BDSM thing, is it for you?” Helen was practically hanging off her chair, all thoughts of dinner forgotten.

“I don’t know. We haven’t really done much yet.” She picked at her own food. “What turned you off to it?”

Shifting the attention back to Helen seemed to take the edge off her friend’s curiosity. Helen sat back in her chair and studied her fingernails. “Leslie wanted to be dominated, and I didn’t like it. I felt kind of silly bossing her around like that”

Bridget set her noodles aside. “If she hadn’t moved to Colorado, do you think you would have kept trying? Or was it definitely not working out?” She couldn’t imagine Helen as a Dominant, not that she wanted to try.

Helen chipped a tiny fleck of nail polish off her fingernail. She seemed absorbed in the task, not looking up. “I don’t really know.”

“See, that’s what I wonder.” Bridget leaned forward on the sofa. “If somebody’s into that, can they ever really be happy with someone who’s not? Isn’t that, like, a fundamental incompatibility?”

Helen looked up from her fingernails, raising an eyebrow. To her credit, she didn’t question Bridget’s motives for asking. “I suppose people can compromise. That’s what relationships are about.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Bridget wasn’t sure. Why was she even thinking of this? Max was both clever and attractive, and he certainly piqued her curiosity, but she had no plans of getting into a relationship of any kind at the moment.
Who says he’d even be interested?
asked a small voice inside her that she’d rather not acknowledge.

“So, did he spank you?” Helen smiled.

“No. And I don’t want to
talk
about this anymore. Can’t we just watch the movie?” Bridget curled up on the sofa.

Helen picked up her plastic takeout container. “Fine. Back to Maggie.” She unpaused
The Dark Knight.
After a moment, though, she looked over at Bridget with a sly smile. “He’s good, I bet, isn’t he?”

Bridget colored a little, tingling at memories of the past two days. “Yeah. He’s good.”

* * *

Bridget showered and dressed as Max had requested, choosing a cute pair of white panties along with a matching bra. It was nice to have such an extensive collection of matching undergarments to pair with her skirt and button-down shirt, another concession to frivolity. After finishing her morning ablutions, she walked over to Max’s house at precisely ten o’clock.

Max opened the door in a baggy pair of jeans and a plain blue shirt, his hair tamed into loose, dark curls, and flashed her a warm smile. “Come on in. You’re just in time.”

“Just in time for what?” She wasn’t really sure what to expect as she entered the house.

“Breakfast. You look nice.”

“Thanks.” She smoothed down her skirt. “You didn’t give me much choice. I only own a few skirts.” She followed him into the dining room, where he’d already set the table for two.

“Waffles are in the oven staying warm. I’ll get them.”

Bridget sat down, enjoying the domesticity.

“Go ahead and get started.” Max set a plate of waffles down on the table. “How do you take your coffee?”

“Cream and sugar, thanks.”

He returned a few moments later with two cups of coffee and sat down opposite her. “So how’s Helen?”

“Nosy.” She cut into her waffles. “How was your evening?”

“Good. And your night? Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Mmm, the waffles were delicious. “These are good. You use a mix?”

“That’s my secret.” He winked. “Did you have sex dreams?”

Bridget dropped her fork with a loud clatter and hastily picked it back up again. “What?”

“You heard me.” He looked at her, chewing, then took a sip of coffee.

“Okay, yes, I did.” She drank her own coffee, willing herself not to blush.

“Did you at least get through the good part?” He scooped another forkful of waffle into his mouth.

“No.” She recognized a note of annoyance in her own voice. “The alarm went off.”

Max shook his head in mock sadness. “Too bad. Looks like you’ll just have to wait.”

“Well, I’m getting a bit sick of waiting.”

“What, since yesterday morning?” He laughed. “You’re a machine.”

The waffles were delicious, but she couldn’t focus on them. “It’s your fault, you know.” She took another sip of coffee. “I’m usually completely composed.”

“Oh, sure. I just bring out the worst in you.”

“And I’m sure you’re just a bastion of self-control.”

“I don’t have to be.” He opened his mouth again as if about to say something, then shook his head and returned to the waffles.

“What were you going to say just then?”

He shook his head. “Nothing,” he said, in a tone that said he wasn’t mad but was done talking about it. “You know, many people in this kinky fetish world of ours think edging is very hot.”

“Hey, it’s
your
kinky fetish world,” she corrected him. “I’m just here for a visit.”

He chuckled. “Sure. You keep telling yourself that.”

“And what’s edging?”

“Orgasm denial. Being brought to the edge and stopped. It makes the inevitable climax much more intense.” He waggled his eyebrows at her.

“Oh.” So that was what he’d been doing. She couldn’t deny that her climaxes so far with him were incredible, but she wasn’t sure if that was due to “edging” or to the delights of having an actual partner. Regardless, she was excited about whatever he had planned for them, and she was unable to resist asking. “So what are we going to do today?”

“Breakfast is a good start, don’t you think?” Max added more syrup to his waffles. “It’s the most important meal of the day.”

“Sure. And then what?”

“That’s for me to know. But I hope you’re wearing nice underwear, because I plan to be seeing a whole lot of them later.”

How could he disarm her so quickly? The directness of his voice cut right through the teasing and made her all hot and uncomfortable in the best of ways. Bridget covered her response by eating more of the waffles, even though she was well into her second and getting full.

Max looked up. “That reminds me. We’re moving into some new territory now. You’re going to want a safe word.”

“I think ‘no’ should be my safe word.”

“Definitely not. I want you to be able to beg me to stop and know I won’t. You complain about everything, Bridget. I can’t be just waiting for every time you protest. So here’s what it’ll be. If you want me to stop immediately, say ‘red.’ If you just think things are going too fast, say ‘yellow.’”

She rolled her eyes. “Really? Yellow and red? Aren’t those, maybe, the most unoriginal safe words in the history of anything?”

“Yes, exactly.” He went back to his food.

“Do all the submissives you play with have the same safe words?” She wasn’t sure why she wanted to know, since the thought of Max and other submissives turned her stomach a bit.

He paused, then shrugged. “There’s some overlap, but a few are different.”

“How do you remember?”

Max smiled. “That’s my job, to remember. Besides, I take notes and review.” He set his fork down. “Bridget, I think you have a mistaken understanding of my sex life. I’m not sleeping with dozens of women here.”

She held up a hand. “I don’t want to hear about it. I don’t want to know.”

“Fair enough. Are you done eating?”

“Yeah.” She finished her coffee with a gulp, the residual sugar sweet against her tongue.

“Help me load the dishwasher.”

After cleaning up, they sat in his living room, the place where all this had begun. Max turned to face her, his expression serious.

“Bridget, I’d like you to be my submissive today.”

She blinked, confused. That was certainly formal. “Isn’t that what I’ve been doing?”

“To a degree, but this is going to be for a longer period of time. We’re going for a drive today up to Tunxis State Forest. We’ll stop for a picnic lunch, and then we’ll come back here. You will address me as ‘sir,’ and you will do what I ask you to do. If you complain, object or do anything but obey, I will punish you. I will not stop my plans today unless you use a safe word. Am I clear?”

What was it about his authoritative tone that made her grow wet immediately? “Yes.” When he raised an eyebrow, she hastily added, “sir.”

“Now, I have something for you.” He handed her a small box from the end table. “This one’s brand-new, just for you.”

Bridget took it and turned it over in her hand. It looked just like one of the many boxes she’d delivered to his front door after they’d come to her mailbox by mistake. Another piece of the puzzle.

Inside the box was a little silver bullet-shaped vibrator. Bridget recognized the style, but this one had no discernible buttons or switches. Suddenly, it came to life in her hand and she almost dropped it. Max laughed, holding up the remote control as he switched it off. Bridget bit her lip, knowing immediately what this day was going to be like.

“I want that right up against your clit.” When she got up to find the bathroom, he shook his head. “Now. Right here.”

All right, then. She reached up under her skirt and tucked the tiny vibrator inside her underwear. The metal was cold, smooth, unusual. She breathed in a bit at the sensation and arranged her clothing back into place. Damn, why did she wear these underwear? They were very snug, and they held the vibrator pressed tightly against her, arousing her without anything else happening.

“Cold?” He grinned.

“Yeah.”

“What was that?”

“Yes, sir.” She repressed an eye roll.

As Bridget followed Max out to his car, the little vibrator rubbed against her with every step, stimulating her even though he hadn’t turned it on. He loaded a cooler that presumably contained their picnic lunch into the backseat.

They were on the highway headed north before he turned it on. Bridget gasped as she felt it come to life, buzzing softly against her clit, shocking her with the suddenness. What was more surprising was that she couldn’t hear it at all. She hadn’t even seen him use the remote; it was tucked in the driver’s side door handle and mostly hidden from view.

“It’s so nice and quiet,” Max said as if reading her mind. “The previous models of these were bulky and loud. This is a better model.” He shut the vibrator off and Bridget exhaled, releasing her grip on the leather of the car seat. The snarky reply on her lips died when he turned it back on again, leaving it on this time.

“Take off your bra.”

Bridget looked over at him, but he didn’t ask her again, staring straight ahead at the road, his tone not inviting question. Right now? Here? On the highway? If she didn’t obey, he said he’d punish her. What would that entail? She wasn’t sure she wanted to find out. She reached up under her shirt and unfastened the clasp in the back of her bra. She had to lean forward to do so, which pressed the vibrator more firmly against her clit, and she sucked in a breath of air at the sudden wash of pleasure. She maneuvered her arms into and out of her shirt and then pulled the bra out from one sleeve.

“Put it in your purse.” This meant she had to lean forward again, which she didn’t mind. Her nipples puckered as they rubbed against the stiff cotton of her shirt. The sensation, combined with the vibrator, was making her incredibly hot.

“Unbutton your top button.”

Her hands trembled a bit as she obeyed.

“Another button.”

Bridget did so. Now her shirt was open to midbreast, the line of her cleavage clearly visible. Max looked over briefly, then back at the road. The vibrator started buzzing at a higher intensity, and she saw his hand resting on the door handle. Ah, it had multiple speeds. She tried to steady her breathing, to keep calm, not to squirm. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing how strongly she was affected.

“Now pinch your nipples through your shirt.”