With a grin, I answer the call. “Hello?”
“Ms. Fairchild,” he says—his voice is low and enticing and flows over me like warm chocolate.
“Mr. Stark,” I say, unable to hide my amusement. “Funny you were able to call me, since I have no phone.”
“I told you—I will always take care of your needs.”
I smile, feeling warm and satisfied. “Where are you?”
“I’m not with you,” he says. “Other than that, does it matter?”
My mouth curves into a smile. “No, but you’re wrong. You are with me. You’re always with me.”
There is a pause before he answers. “Yes,” he finally says, and I don’t think I have ever heard that simple word spoken with so much meaning and complexity before.
I sigh with satisfaction, then close my eyes. He may not be beside me, but for the moment, I am content.
“We’ve done this before,” he says. “You, alone in the back of my limo. Me, somewhere else, thinking of you. Imagining you. Wanting you.”
I swallow, my body already tightening in anticipation of where these words are going. Because we have done this before—and the caress of his voice upon me that night is one of my most treasured memories.
“Tell me what you did,” he says.
“That night in the limo?” I ask, though I know that is not what he means.
“Tonight. At Raven.”
“I watched the dancers.”
“What did they do?” His voice has a hard edge, and I shiver a little, remembering his promise to punish me.
“They danced,” I say. And then, because I’m feeling reckless, I add, “They stripped down to thongs. They were slick with oil. They got close.”
“How close?”
I think of the way the cowboy was gyrating right in front of my face. I remember the way that Jamie laughed and Lisa and Evelyn egged him on. “Pretty close,” I whisper.
“I see.”
There is a pause, and I squirm on the seat. My legs feel prickly, my sex clenches greedily. I’m thinking of Damien’s promise to punish me, and I yearn to be home. To feel his hands upon me.
“Did it turn you on?” he asks, with that low, dangerous tone.
I almost lie, but I can’t do that. “Yes,” I whisper. “But only because it made me think of you. Your body hard and naked in front of me. Your chest close to me. That thin strip of hair that leads down to your cock, so near I could lick it. And those amazing muscles that form a V as if arrowing down to heaven.”
“Christ, Nikki.”
I smile, pleased I can bring that ragged tone to his voice.
“Mostly, though, it turned me on because I was watching other men. Because they were nearly naked, and I knew that when I got home to you—” I cut myself off, my bravado suddenly evaporating.
“What?” he asks. “What will happen when you get home?”
“You said you’d punish me,” I say, so softly I’m not sure that he can hear me.
“Did I?” There is a note of triumph in his voice, and it makes me weak. “How should I punish you?”
I lick my lips. “You should probably spank me.”
“I probably should,” he agrees. “Would you like that?”
“Yes.” My voice is nothing more than a whisper of air.
“Why?”
I close my eyes. It’s a question that I expect whenever I ask for the pain, and I know that after my dreams he will be even more careful with me. I love that he understands me so well, but it means that I have to say aloud what I want from him, and that voicing of my desires is both awkward and undeniably exciting.
“Why, Nikki? I want to hear why you want the sting of my palm.”
I lick my lips, forcing them to wrap around my words. “Because of the way it feels.”
“Tell me.”