French Blue (3 page)

He said the last line with such a perfect English accent that Lisa giggled. “Now I understand. So you live and work in Paris?”

“Yes. You probably know I have a gallery on the Left Bank?”

“Yes, Mimi told me, but I’ve seen reports of some of the exhibitions you host in the press. She says you support young and up-and-coming artists and fund scholarships at one of the arts schools.”

A twitch of the mouth showed he was a little embarrassed by the praise. “I do what I can.”

“Do you paint, yourself? Mimi says you went to the Slade School of Fine Art in London after you left school.”

“Mimi says a lot. And I’m sure you know a lot more about me than your questions imply.” A frustrated edge had crept into his tone, though Lisa wasn’t sure why, but then he continued smoothly enough. “You’re obviously a skilled communicator or you wouldn’t have been so successful in Public Affairs.”

“I do what I can.”

He raised a glass to her. “Touché. So what else does Mimi have to say about me?”

“That you have an apartment in one of chicest
arrondisements
.”

Tiny droplets of champagne glistened on his lips as he spoke. “Chic? I wouldn’t say that, but I do hope to see you there very often from now on.”

Lisa downed a large gulp of her own wine.

“I
will
be seeing you there, won’t I?” She hesitated, and Olivier took the glass silently from her hand and placed it on the stone window ledge. As he did so, his cool fingers brushed her hot ones, and every nerve seemed to fizz with sensation. “Shall we get to the point or do you have any more questions for me?”

She hesitated. So many questions crowded into her mind at once, she could barely pull one out of the tangle. Most were questions she was afraid to give voice to. Dark, kinky, forbidden questions that she couldn’t ask, even with Olivier sitting so close his breath feathered her collarbone. Light pressure on the inside of her wrist made her aware that he held her hand in his now, his forefinger massaging her pulse. They were angled towards each other on the window seat, and Olivier withdrew his fingers from her wrist and slipped his arm around her back. At the touch of his fingers on her bare flesh, Lisa almost leapt off the seat. She tensed for a split second, then closed her eyes, giving in to the sensation of his fingers stroking her. It had been so long since a man had touched her, so long since she’d responded to a man like this. Not since Jody… And when he’d betrayed her, she’d ended up in pieces. But that wouldn’t happen, because this was an arrangement, a pleasurable contract where both of them knew exactly what they wanted. She was safe and yet not safe from Olivier, and the contrast sent a thrill like electricity through her body.

“How does that sound?” he whispered.

His fingers circled the small of her back, then slipped lower between the soft fabric of her dress, resting on the skin over the cleft of her buttocks. Millimetres away from the most intimate contact.

“Intriguing…”

“Intriguing? That’s a neutral response. I can promise you the most intense experience of your life. Some moments, I hope, will be gloriously pleasurable, but some will be hard to bear. You’ll wonder how you got through them, but you will, and you’ll be proud you did.”

Still with one hand resting on her back, his lips touched her throat, and she tipped back her head. Need thrummed between her thighs.

“Is that what you expect from me?” he whispered.

Desire pulsed through her like electricity. “I expect to do as you wish, Olivier.”

He captured her chin tightly between his fingertips and jerked her head up. Her eyes blinked open. She was stunned at the switch from gentle to harsh. “Hmm. Smart answer. I like your style, but I have to tell you now that while you think you will try to do as I wish, I know that you will fail. You’re not a natural submissive, and you never will be.”

He let go of her chin, leaving her trembling with shock. “Then why are you taking me on?”

“Perhaps I shouldn’t. In fact, I probably ought to walk away now, but I also love a challenge, and watching you fail is going to be fascinating. I can see that there will be a lot of consequences.”

“You bast—” She bit back the rest of the expletive, but it was too late. His eyes shone with triumph and provocation.

“What? What were you going to call me? Say it. I can see your nostrils flaring, your fingers clenched ready for the fight. You hate me already for making you lose control.”

Lisa screamed silently, torn between the urge to let her true feelings out or throw back icy politeness. “I have nothing to say to you.”

He blew out a breath. “
Nothing
?
Cherie
, you think you’re acting so coolly, but your ‘nothing’ tells me more than you can imagine. I’m going to help you free the Lisa you’ve imprisoned inside this polite, capable facade. The angry, rebellious Lisa I want to drag out of you, kicking and screaming.”

He ran a finger from her throat to the top of her cleavage, leaving a fiery trail of heat. Lisa’s fight-or-flight instincts were battling so hard, her fingers dug into the seat pad as if it were his flesh. In this moment, she hated him for how desperate he made her feel.

“You’re so angry that don’t trust yourself to respond to me, I can tell.” He leaned forward and placed his lips to her ear, his hot breath feather-light against her neck. “And I can understand that, but even more than your anger, there are things you want to know, that you
have
to know.”

Her resolve collapsed like a building that had stood too long on crumbling foundations. Her reply was hoarse. “Yes, I do, but…I don’t know how to ask them.”

“That’s okay,
cherie
. Do you want me to help you?” His words soothed her like a balm. “Shall I ask your questions?”

She hesitated and then gave a raw reply. “Yes.”

“
Tres bien
. Let’s start with Lisa Archer’s number one question, the one that’s bugging her so badly she can hardly keep still in her seat, the one that’s making her pulse jump about like crazy and making the tiny pair of panties I know she’s wearing damper by the second. The question that has occupied her mind almost every waking minute since Mimi set up this meeting is: ‘Is this man really going to dominate and discipline me
,
and will there be real pain as well as pleasure?’”

Shock sucked the breath from her lungs. Directness she’d expected, but this was brutal.

“Well?” he asked. “What is your answer?”

Her reply fluttered out on a sigh. “Yes…”

“To the discipline, the pain or the pleasure?”

“All of them, damn it!” she snapped back, then glanced at the curtains, wondering if at any moment someone might pull them open and expose her, Olivier and their secrets.

As if he’d seen the anxiety in her eyes, Olivier pulled the brocade curtain more tightly shut. He rested his fingers on the nape of her neck, and the fine down rose. They trailed down her spine, caressing every vertebrae, and lingered on the bare skin above the back of her dress.

“Shall I go on?”

Unable to form words, Lisa nodded.

“Your next question is, ‘Will this man tie me up and restrain me?’”

Her reply came out on a sigh. “Yes.”

Her eyes were riveted on the long, strong fingers that now rested on her thigh. The warmth of his palm seared her flesh through the flimsy fabric.

“‘Will he tell me to get on my knees and suck his cock?’”

Lisa closed her eyes, her lips parting as his fingers slid beneath her dress and moved upwards before resting at the lacy edge of her panties. “Yes…”

“‘Go down on me until I beg for mercy?’”

Her nipples, already stiff, felt as if they would burst. “Yes, please.”

Tugging her panties aside, Olivier slid the tip of his finger between her labia. Hot shards of desire shot through her pussy as he pressed lightly on her clitoris. She closed her eyes as his voice drifted into her fast-dissolving consciousness.

“You have a new question to ask,
non
?”

“Yes…”

As one finger rested on her clit, his other hand lifted her hemline up her thigh, and she fought for breath.

“And that question is, ‘Will my Dom expect me to bare my beautiful breasts and pussy to the world?’”

Her eyes flew open. “No!” Immediately she regretted her cry. Someone would surely hear.

He put his mouth close to her ear. “I think that it would be very good for you to share the beauty of your body with others.”

She shook her head. “I…no…I couldn’t go naked in front of other people.”

He slipped his fingertip inside her, and her response was an instant rush of arousal.

“
Cherie
, you’re creamy at the mere mention of it, so I can tell public nudity is one of your fantasies, even if you’ve locked the idea away more securely than a treasure in the Louvre.”

She squirmed against the seat, with lust and shame in equal measure. How could he do this to her? Probe her deepest desires and fears in this way. In public too? “How would you do that to me? You said you weren’t into the club scene, and I don’t want anyone else to know about our arrangement. Oh God…”

She bucked her hips as Olivier ran his finger through the thick juices of her sex. “I have a few ideas, but I need your answer. Will you consent to be bared in public if I demand it?”

Bared in public.
That implied that she would be forced to be naked against her will. The idea horrified and tantalized her so much she gripped his arms like a vise. Olivier stroked her clit, stoking her need like a fire. “Please…” she begged.

“Stop or carry on?”

His finger stilled, and she was bereft. She knew what her choice was. Agree, or he would not bring her to climax. Perhaps he would simply walk away altogether. Her breathing was hoarse, his finger holding the power to give intense pleasure or send her away from him, cheated and unsatisfied.

“Well? Do you agree to be bared if I so choose?”

“Fuck you, but yes!” The words came from the gutter of her soul, but she didn’t care. She craved release like she never had before.

“
Fuck
me?” He tutted. “What language for a lady to use. A respected professional too. Some Doms would consider that more than enough grounds to punish you right now, but I’m not sure our hosts would appreciate me administering a thrashing to your pert derriere in their salon.”

At the mention of punishment, Lisa almost leapt off the seat. How could she be so twisted as to almost faint with lust at the thought of being spanked by this arrogant stranger? Too late to analyse her feelings, because Olivier began his gentle assault on her clit again, drawing groans of ecstasy from her that in turn, made her heart thud in case she was heard.

She gripped the window seat, whimpering for mercy and release.

“Are you ready to come, yet? Or shall I stop the questions?” he said.

His fingers slipped inside her vagina, firmly spearing her.

“Yes. No, please. Please, I want to come so much.”

He laughed. “With all these people around us? The great and good of Paris? Your friends and business connections? Your clients? And this is the woman who said no to public nudity. I think not. You will wait until I am ready.”

“You bastard!”

That word again. It had emerged from the seedy, sordid depths, where the raw, wicked Lisa lived.

His voice continued, as calm and steady as a metronome. “The word you’re looking for is
maître
. It’s almost the same as my surname, so it should be easy to remember. That is the word you will use when I demand it. The word you will use when I allow you to receive pleasure from me. The word you will use when you give me pleasure. A word that, if forgotten, will result in me having to correct you.”

Correct me?

“
Maître
, please, please, make me come.”

“Perhaps in a moment. One more question first. ‘Will this man pleasure and punish me until I beg for mercy? Will he expect me to obey him without question?’”

Lisa whimpered as waves of sensation rippled through her pussy, impossible to resist any longer. She clung to Olivier’s body, buried her face in his chest as her muscles clamped around his fingers.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

She collapsed against him while the aftershocks of her climax subsided into waves, then ripples. Slowly, she became aware of the sound of her own ragged breathing, the dull pulse of Olivier’s heart beating against her cheek, the sheen of perspiration that prickled her skin, and the musky scent of arousal, hers and his. His fingers freed a rogue strand of hair that had been captured by her lip gloss. He whispered words in French that she didn’t understand but knew were tender, filthy endearments. Her panties were soaked, she was hot, and she knew if she picked up her glass, her hands would tremble. Within half an hour of meeting her, he’d reduced her to this limp mess of need. She’d allowed a strange man to bring her to orgasm in a public place and given her consent to any number of acts she had only ever agreed to in her wildest dreams.

He glanced at his watch. “Now. We’ve said enough. You will come to my apartment next Saturday evening at seven, on the dot. I should warn you that as soon as you step inside, our arrangement starts. It will begin with an interview—a proper interview, not like this, and I’ll expect you to answer all my questions in full without question. At the end of the interview, you’ll experience a taste of what will happen if you do disobey me. Have no illusions about that. Do you understand?”