The Bottom Line (24 page)

“Thanks.” As long as he didn’t think he could make free with the wench’s boobs. She was so relieved to get a job, even if it was in a theme restaurant that relied heavily on the waitresses’ assets.

At this stage, she couldn’t afford to be fussy, and the pay was good. Even better, the job came with a meal, something more substantial than the rice and pasta she’d existed on for the last month.

Maggie collected her uniform from Eva and returned to her apartment. A free afternoon loomed, one where she could actually relax instead of job hunt and watch the bids on the possessions she’d put up on
Trade Me
.

After ringing Connor the other day, she’d officially given up on him. The woman who’d answered had giggled when she’d said she was Connor’s cousin.

“I’m not really his cousin,” she’d confessed, giggling again. “That’s just what we tell people for simplicity and to avoid explanations.”

“So what are you?” Maggie had demanded.

“What do you think?” the woman cooed.

Maggie had snapped out a naughty word and slammed the phone down. If Connor intended to lie to her then she still didn’t want to talk to him.

An hour later, Maggie perched on a stool at her kitchen counter, her laptop powering up. She signed into her email account. An email from
Kinky Lover
.

Grinning, she opened it, a sense of real anticipation fluttering through her stomach. Since flipping him an email saying she’d prefer sex, that’s what he’d given her. Raunchy cyber sex.

She couldn’t wait to read what he’d written this time.

Mindless sex is good sometimes. I like a good no-strings fuck as much as the next guy, with no expectations on either side. I know there are women out there who like the same thing—the professional women who are too busy to deal with the nuances of a relationship, the careful building and romance.

Engaging the mind brings a new element to the sexual act.

Find a quiet place. I want you to feel comfortable. Strip off all your clothes. No, don’t hurry. Remove them slowly, one at a time. Today I’m going to engage your mind, play your body like a musical instrument…

Maggie continued reading, her breathing becoming faster, louder. Kinky Lover had a way with words that really got to her. Made her hot. Made her shiver. Made her want to know what he looked like.

He was the one bright spot in her day.

At first, she’d worried about it. Now she went with the flow. Took pleasure in following his instructions.

Stand in front of a mirror and watch the reactions of your body while you touch it. Run your fingers down your chest, skimming over your breasts until your nipples pull tight. Take one finger and circle your nipple. Do you feel that? Finger your nipple. Give it a sharp tug. Think of how it would feel if it were my fingers doing the same thing. I’d fondle your nipples until they darkened in color, then I’d start to use my tongue and fingers, all the time telling you how beautiful you are, how much I want to fuck you.

I’ll touch you everywhere: your breasts, your arms, drift my fingers across your ribs, your collarbone. I’ll lick around your belly button, run my fingers up and down your legs. Even sucking your toes would make me happy.

Touch yourself, and imagine that I’m there with you, standing behind you. You can see my hands in the mirror, darker against your pale skin, while I touch you. You shiver as my hand drifts down to your pubic bone, your eyes glittering. A sharp inhalation. A soft sigh. I hear them both when my fingers skin across your folds. I want to taste you, but first I indulge my other senses. My sight because you look so beautiful as arousal claims your body. Your breathing is quicker, your eyes darker while a flush stains your cheeks. And of course touch. I like the creamy smoothness of your skin, your soft, shiny hair and the coarser hair guarding your secrets.

Maggie swallowed, pausing to fan her face. She felt the heat in her cheeks, the edgy prickle and flip of her stomach as she read his words.

A magical seduction.

The man was a maestro, adept at his craft.

She skimmed the rest of the page, closing her eyes briefly when she reached the part about touching herself intimately and smoothing her juices over her clit. She groaned softly, checked her watch and walked into her bedroom. It held nothing but her bed and an old wall mirror, her clothes sitting in neat piles along the wall where her dresser had once stood.

Maggie removed her clothes, carefully folding each item of apparel before she removed the next. Fully naked, she went to stand by the mirror, studying her body closely.

A combination of exercise and lack of money for food had slimmed her body down. Still curvy with big breasts, she would never be waif-thin, but Maggie thought she looked pretty good. And after following Kinky Lover’s instructions, she’d feel better too.

Sex, the wonder drug.

She watched herself in the mirror, palming her breasts and squeezing the soft globes. A ripple of pleasure pulsed through her, sharp enough to bring a gasp. She stroked and tugged until her nipple burned, the hint of pain burgeoning into sharp arousal. When she widened her stance, she could see the juices gleaming on her sex, the sharp tang of arousal rising in the air.

Fascinated, she studied her body. The changes in it. The deep sparkle in her eyes, the flush of her cheeks. Her elevated breathing.

Her legs trembled as arousal shimmered through her. For the first time in weeks, she felt alive. Sexy.

All she lacked was a good man.

Chapter Twenty

Connor walked into the lunchroom and saw Julia, Christina and Susan sitting together. None of them were talking to each other. They were ignoring him too.

Bloody ridiculous
.

Maggie wasn’t there, either. Plain wrong. He picked up an empty coffee mug, squeezing his hand around it until his knuckles whitened.

With a coffee in hand, he strode toward the table where the girls sat, still in silence.

“How are you?” His lips curled in self-derision.
Nothing like the polite niceties to get started.

“Connor!” Christina seemed startled by his presence. Heck, they all did.

“For fuck’s sake,” he muttered, knowing the swearing would piss them off. “Did you think I wouldn’t talk to you? I’d like to think we’re still friends. The reason I like hanging out with you all was because you never pulled this girly shit.”

The three women glanced at each other before looking back at him.

“Have you seen Maggie?” Julia asked.

“No, she said she didn’t want to see me again.” Connor wouldn’t say it out loud, but Julia looked like shit. Sad. Fragile.

“Why?” Susan asked.

“That’s private,” Connor said. “Maggie might be refusing to see me or take my calls, but I love her, and I want her back. You’re all going to help me.”

They stared at him, their reactions varied but all containing varying degrees of shock.

Christina shut her gaping mouth before saying, “You’re really serious about her?”

“Yes.”
Serious enough to want her permanently
. He hated his empty bed and missed her like hell. Their emails were the highlight of his day. Not even the upcoming final against the North Shore Raiders was enough to excite him.

“You can’t help who you love,” Julia said, a hitch in her voice.

Connor’s heart ached when he saw the sheen of tears in her eyes. He spoke quickly in the hope of staving off an uncomfortable bout of crying. Every time he offered to listen, she started crying. In the end, he’d decided to wait. She could keep her secrets. Julia would talk when she was ready. “I’ve loved Maggie for a long time.”

“You love her? What about the parade of blondes?” Christina demanded.

“Yeah! What she said.” Susan shot him a challenging look, her brows arching up in emphasis. “If you love Maggie, why so many blondes?”

Connor glared back at them. “I don’t kiss and tell. You’ll have to take my word on it. Maggie is the one I love, the one I want.” He’d finally gotten rid of Sylvie by making her face the truth. He was in love with another woman. Then he’d introduced her to some of his rugby teammates and she’d moved into her own flat. Now it looked as if she might hook up with his flatmate.

“Why all the sneaking around?” Susan demanded.

“Susan, you know why—” Christina cut off abruptly, her eyes widening behind the lenses of her glasses.

“Spill,” Connor said in a tight voice. He’d guessed there was something else going on with the women.

“In hindsight, it wasn’t such a good idea. After we met you, we decided we liked having you around, your male input and the way you never hit on any of us. You treated us like friends, almost like sisters. We liked that and didn’t want to screw things up. We decided we’d make a pact and promised we’d never hit on you or go out with you in a romantic way.” Julia shrugged, her discomfort doing nothing to halt the burning anger inside Connor.

“And Maggie broke the pact,” Connor said, his voice rough around the edges. “So you pushed her away when she needed you most.”

“We didn’t exactly push, but we weren’t nice either.” Christina scowled. “You don’t have to glare. We are sorry. You’ve made your point.”

“It’s weird without Maggie around,” Julia said.

“The next time you see her, you’re going to act friendly instead of snubbing her,” Connor ordered. “She needs her friends now.”

“She’s not answering her phone,” Julia said. “I rang her a couple of days ago to thank her for the flowers she sent me.”

“Has anyone seen her?” Connor asked.

“No,” Susan said.

“You know Greg sacked her because of the blog,” Connor said.

“The official story is it’s because she used the Internet during work hours,” Susan said.

“Bullshit.” Connor picked up his coffee, took a sip and discarded it. Cold. “Maggie hardly ever used the computer for personal stuff. There were other worse offenders who should have been made an example of before Maggie.”

“Greg is a prick,” Julia said.

“Pompous,” Christina agreed. “And it’s not fair. Maggie should take a case to the employment tribunal.”

“She won’t do that,” Connor said, thinking about her mother and father and her past. She wouldn’t want people gossiping about her or the publicity.

“Greg wasn’t right for Maggie. You’re much better,” Susan said. “We all noticed her growing confidence, but didn’t know why.”

“What if Maggie doesn’t want to get back together with you?” Christina asked.

Connor stared at her in shock, his gut lurching with a jolt of fear. He didn’t want to consider that possibility. Instead, he’d focus on his plan. “If that’s what Maggie wants, I’ll walk away.” He forced out the words while inside his mind screamed at him. The words were a lie. He’d do anything to change Maggie’s mind.

Undress and lie on your bed. Close your eyes.

You hear me open a drawer and know I’ve pulled out our favorite rope. It’s soft so it won’t scratch your delicate skin. Imagine me straddling your body, dragging the end of that soft rope over your shoulders and lower across your breasts. I use it as a massager, a mere scrape of fibers across your skin, and sometimes I change the pressure so it digs into your muscles, the sensation almost painful.

I awake your nerve endings until they sing and your sex tingles. Every one of my touches zaps its way there until your tissues are damp and your juices run from your pussy.

I start to use my mouth, kissing parts of your body that don’t normally receive that type of attention, and gradually I tie you. I loop the rope around your legs, tying them apart so your pussy flowers and blooms for me. I imagine the cool air feels good on your swollen tissues, the contrast another layer of sensation.

Soon your arms are secure and you can’t move. You’re totally at my mercy. I kiss your lips, and you groan. You want me to fuck you, but I know it can be better, the need more urgent yet.

I suck at your neck, nipping then laving your flesh. You like being helpless and at my mercy. I like having you that way. It’s a real turn-on for me, seeing your swollen lips, your taut muscles as you strain toward me, desperate to end the ache coalescing in your pussy.

You beg me to take you, to ram my cock deep until the pleasure takes us both.

Laughing, I say no. I flick your tight nipples, licking around the areola. I tease them, tightening my fingers until the blood rushes there, the pain an echo of pleasure in your sex. You arch upward, attempting to push me, make me lose control.

“Don’t move,” I say. The words are an order, and you know it. I haven’t finished with you yet. I touch and tease you from head to foot until you are a quivering mass of desire, desperate for release. Desperate for me.

Your lips are swollen, your eyes glazed, yet I have never seen a woman look more beautiful. I love looking at you, knowing I have the power to create this sort of reaction in you.

Without a word, I untie the ropes holding you captive. You’re confused. Nervous. I can see it in the way you look at me and the fine tremor of your body.

“Turn over,” I order.

You send me another uncertain look before you slowly turn over to lie on your stomach. Quickly I tie you again. You are my captive, mine to do with what I will.

I know you’re unsure. It’s a turn-on for me knowing you still trust me enough to follow my orders blindly. I smooth my hand over your ass. You start, your surprise a sharp intake of breath. I tap my hand down on one cheek and quickly wind up into a spanking. You gasp. I know I’ve surprised you. You adjust quickly.

From where I’m sitting I can see your pink folds and the way your juices glisten. Along with the bite of pain comes a wash of pleasure. Your butt is a delightful pink, a shade deeper than your sex. Your clit is a hard button protruding from its hood.

Finally, I stop spanking you, about to explode. I move up behind you and leaning on my elbows, I guide my cock into your tight sheath. There is nothing sexier than watching my cock disappear into your body, hearing your encouraging cries and feeling the tight squeeze of your cunt.

“Please,” you beg.

I push into you, halting when I’m balls deep to enjoy the pulsing feel of you surrounding me. Then I can’t wait any longer. I draw back and thrust into you. It’s hard and almost brutal. We’re both grunting, but I can feel you lifting up into my thrusts. You’re encouraging me, reaching for the orgasm I know is swelling through you, because it’s starting to tingle in my balls too. I can feel it, and it’s so good.

You explode, a scream ripping from deep in your throat. Seconds later I follow as the pulses of your pussy milk me to completion…

Maggie groaned, her clothes feeling heavy on her sensitive skin. She ached, each step toward her bedroom almost killing her. The emails from Kinky Lover were becoming hotter. More explicit.

“Who the heck are you? Are you a pervert, or someone I should get to know?” she muttered, ripping her clothes from her body and tossing them aside. She fell onto the bed, her hand stroking between her legs almost before she hit the mattress.

It didn’t take much. A pinch of her nipple. A stroke of her finger, the liquid squelch bringing a rush of embarrassment to her cheeks. She came with an orgasmic rush, the tight coil in her belly unraveling until she drifted down.

Maggie laid there, heart pounding while she analyzed her reaction. She was obsessed with Kinky Lover, whoever he was. She raced home from work to check her email and checked it before she left for work. Hooked by cybersex.

At least she wouldn’t catch any nasty diseases.

Maggie glanced at her watch and realized she needed to move or she’d be late for the job interview she had scheduled. She couldn’t blow it off, because she needed a second job at the local pub to subsidize her wages. Hopefully, another job meant she could work on a nest egg, because she never wanted to go through the same financial trauma again.

Two nights later, Maggie stared at her most recent email from Kinky Lover.

We have great email sex. I keep thinking what it could be like if circumstances were different. I want to meet you in person. What do you say?

Maggie read the short email again, nerves jumping at the thought. Immediately, Connor jumped into her mind. She missed him, even though she was having torrid cybersex with another man. Thoughts of Connor still filled her mind at odd times of the day. A lost cause. She admitted the truth, but it didn’t stop her thinking about what might have been, if he hadn’t been so obsessed with blonde women, if she had been enough for him.

She missed the others as well, catching herself thinking about describing a particular customer at the theme restaurant to them before she remembered they’d washed their hands of her.

A pang of loneliness hit her as she realized the last person she’d talked to was the man at the bar where she’d gone for an interview. She hadn’t talked to another person since. At the gym she put on her ear phones and ignored everyone. She’d taken her phone off the hook and ignored the doorbell.

“Damn, this isolation has got to change.” She couldn’t keep going on like this. It wasn’t healthy.

She glanced at the email again and wondered. Maybe she should take a chance on Kinky Lover. He wrote great emails and was into spanking. Other kink, too, judging by the addition of ropes.

She started to type a response, then stopped. Perhaps she’d better think about it first before she committed herself to anything with a man she didn’t know. Instead, she wrote a blog entry.

For those of you who are reluctant to participate in a spanking or can’t understand why anyone would enjoy a good spanking, I thought I’d give you ten reasons why I think spanking is great.

It’s a great method of stress relief.

It can be a good way of opening communication, since spanking requires talking and discussion.

Spanking doesn’t require special tools—a hand or a hairbrush will work.

It can bring a new buzz to a relationship.

Most bottoms are well-padded and careful swats won’t do any damage.

The closeness that comes after a spanking is magical.

It’s great for foreplay and sex after a spanking is hot.

It’s fun trying out different positions and scenarios.

Role-playing and dress-up can be a lot of fun.

An alpha man administering a spanking is plain sexy.

Let me know if you think of other reasons to add to my list. I’m all about learning when it comes to spanking.

An hour later, Maggie worked the bar during the regular barman’s break, smiled and joked with two male customers while keeping an eye on the rest of the customers. Just gone five, it was still quiet. Another hour and the place would rock. She wriggled her toes in her black flats. Thank goodness for comfortable shoes.

A young couple walked up to the bar. Automatically, she scanned their faces and decided they were legal. She poured a vodka RTD, one of the popular ready-to-drink mixes, and a beer, taking their money with a smile.

From the corner of her eye, she noted some new arrivals, and when she’d finished, she turned. Her welcome smile died a rapid death when she came face-to-face with Susan and Christina.

The pub doors opened, and Julia walked in.

Maggie’s heart stuttered before kicking into its normal beat. She forced her smile back to her lips. “Hello. What can I get you to drink?”

“Maggie, I didn’t realize you worked here,” Julia said. “We thought we’d try a new pub. This one hasn’t been open for that long.”