Innocence Defied (New York) (5 page)

Zoe took a sip of her latte. It was her fourth. She was in an internet cafe her parents always took her to whenever they were in the city. Her brother and his partner, Kent, came here a lot too. The coffee was the best in the city but they came now mostly so Kent could see his girlfriend, Angie. She was snarky and funny and always made Zoe feel at home. The cafe was the only place she could think of to go. She would never follow through on the nasty things she’d told Gage. She had never let any boy near her before, and she wasn’t going to change that now. Whether he believed it or not, she belonged to Gage Hollister, body and soul, and that was all there was to it.

Her problem was, up ‘til today she’d had no idea what a Dom was. If she was going to be perfect for him, she was going to have to learn everything there was to know about what he wanted in a woman and show him she could be that for him.

She looked down at her iPad and continued her search. What she’d found so far had shocked and aroused her. If Gage only knew what the writings and images brought to life inside her, he wouldn’t be so quick to refuse her. The things she had learned were so compelling, and each new facet only fascinated her more.

She saw one image of a woman, naked except for a collar around her neck, kneeling at the feet of a man dressed in leather pants. He was holding a chain attached to her collar, and she was lifting a riding crop to him with such a look of pleading desire that Zoe had flushed from head to toe.

She saw herself in that picture, and Gage towering above her as her master. Imagining that caused a sharp clenching between her legs. Every picture she saw, from the bondage and slavery to the flogging and punishments only intrigued her more. Here in this world of BDSM, the shadowy fantasies of her secrete desires were brought into full and vivid color. She couldn’t say she’d ever fantasized about some of these things specifically, because she’d never known about them to begin with. But those secret fantasies she’d always had, about Gage stealing her away in the middle of the night and ripping her clothes off now seemed less shameful and more and more possible. All of her dirty little daydreams seemed that way now. She just had to convince him.

“Hey, can I um, get you another coffee, or maybe something to eat?”

Zoe looked up to see a handsome guy in his early twenties, standing a little closer than she would have liked. He had short, light brown hair, brown eyes and was dressed like almost every guy at college—in worn jeans and a pullover hoodie. He smiled at her as she stared at him, and he got even cuter when a pair of dimples appeared in his cheeks.

“That’s really sweet of you to offer,” she answered, “but I don’t think my boyfriend would like it.” It was the line she had been using to move boys along since she was sixteen. She had no interest in anyone but Gage, and it only annoyed her when guys tried.

“Aw, a boyfriend huh?” He gave a shrug and sat down across from her without waiting to be invited. “Did he stand you up or did you have a fight?”

“What makes you ask that?” she asked, a little intrigued by his forwardness.

“Well, you’re dressed like you’re ready to party but you’ve been sitting alone since I got here—like an hour ago. It’s Saturday night and he’s nowhere to be found.” He picked up her coffee cup and took a drink out of it before he continued, while her mouth dropped open in shocked amusement. “Now, if you were my girlfriend, I would never leave you all alone on a Saturday. And I’d never let you out of my sight dressed like that.” Then he took another swallow of her drink and waited for her reaction.

“Well, I’ll say this for you…” She lifted a brow at him in question.

“Tanner.”

“Tanner. You got alotta nerve.” She snatched her drink out of his hands, and despite her best efforts, smiled at him.

“C’mon, tell the truth. Is there really a boyfriend, or are you just trying to blow me off?” He put both hands on the table and Zoe noticed that they were long fingered and wide. Nice hands—manly. She had always loved Gage’s hands—they were as big as the rest of him, and covered in scars and calluses from the work he’d done as a roughneck with his family’s oil company when he was young.

“Oh, there’s someone, all right. He just hasn’t accepted the inevitable yet and agreed to be
my
someone.” She looked at this charming and good-looking young man, and wondered if she was brave enough to follow through with the plan tickling in the back of her mind. “My name’s Zoe.”

“So, is this guy blind or stupid that he’s not out with you right now, Zo?”

“Hey.”
What the heck,
Zoe thought,
it was worth a shot
. “Would you be willing to help me with a little experiment?”

Tanner proved he was no dummy when he caught on and said, “If it involves me getting to rub up against you to make him jealous, hell yeah.”

Zoe smiled, and offered him back her coffee. “This is gonna be fun.”

Chapter Nine

He heard the giggling before they even got to the door. Gage pushed off the couch and stood in the entryway, legs braced and arms crossed over his chest. Zoe spilled into the foyer with a guy wrapped around her; for a moment disbelief froze him in place. The two stumbled in, and with a grunt, the kid kicked the door closed and shoved Zoe—
his
Zoe—against it and ran his open mouth over her throat, while his hands groped her from ass to breasts and back again.

Even as he told himself she was getting just what she wanted, Gage stormed forward and grabbed the punk by the back of the neck then yanked him off her.

“I will not be manipulated, darlin’.” He held the kid in a death grip. Without taking his eyes off his girl, he said, “You are not getting your way. And you won’t be pullin’ a stunt like this again, ya hear?” Then he pulled open the door with his free hand. Before he shoved the kid out, he finally looked at him and offered, “Nice meetin’ ya,” then tossed him onto the steps and slammed the door shut.

When he turned back around, Zoe was on her knees in front of him with her head bowed, her legs spread and her hands behind her back. His heart stopped. To keep himself from reaching for her, he curled his hands into fists at his sides and focused on breathing.

“Is this the right way?” Her voice was soft, tremulous and it stroked tendrils of fire over his cock. “Am I doing it right?”

“Where did you learn about that, Oops?” He tried to keep his own voice level as his mind scrambled for reasons he should be running like hell right now. Problem was, he couldn’t think of a damn one.

“I was on the net all night, reading and learning so I can be what you want.”

His sigh was part groan, part whimper, and full of defeat. “Aw, baby. You shouldn’t have done that. That stuff is not for innocents. It’s for people with darker things inside them than you got, sweetheart. You are all sunshine inside, not darkness.”

“I’m lying in my bed at the summer house and you sneak in my window in the middle of the night. I’m asleep so I don’t hear you. Without waking me, you slide the covers off and pull my panties down. Then you slip my nightgown up and I don’t wake up until you are kissing me between my legs.”

Gage stood in frozen shock, the image wringing unwelcome lust through his body.

“That was my first fantasy I ever had about you.” Her eyes lifted until their gazes met. “I was fourteen. And it’s also the tamest.”

“Dammit, Oops—” he began, not having a clue what he was going to say when she interrupted again.

“I have one where I’m running through the woods and I can hear you chasing after me. I don’t know why I’m running because I want you to catch me so bad, but I can’t help it. The running is making me scared a little and I can feel that you are going to make me pay for running and I kinda like that too.” He groaned and she stopped for a second before continuing. “When you catch me, you tackle me to the ground and you’re pulling off all my clothes and I’m still fighting you, but again I don’t know why because I can’t wait till you get me naked. And then when I am naked, I flip onto my hands and knees and try to crawl away, but you grab me from behind and you…you—God, you just shove into me and—”

“Christ, Zoe, stop.” They were both breathing heavily, and Gage felt himself falling down an endless abyss. And he was terribly afraid there would be no going back.

“My worst one had me so confused before today. I felt so guilty for having it. But it’s always there and now I know why. Do you want to hear it?”

Gage didn’t answer her with words, but she apparently took his steady look as assent and told him.

“It’s back in the Old West days. I’m a saloon girl and you’re a gun-slinging gambler. You’re at a table playing poker and there are four other men there with you. You have my hands strapped to the ceiling somehow and I’m standing in the middle of the table. All of you play your poker and drink your drinks and act like you can’t see me. You all can though, because every once in a while one of you will run your hand up my leg or reach up to touch me between them. Every time one of you wins a hand, the winner gets to take off a piece of my clothes. Once I’m completely naked, the stakes get higher and you get to do things to me. Like kiss my breasts or put your fingers inside me. All of a sudden you shove all your winnings into the middle of the table and bet everything you have on me. And you win. Then you drag me off the table and take me right there. Right in front of them while they all watch.” She spread her legs a little wider and lowered her eyes again. “Does that sound like sunshine to you? To me it sounds like I’m perfect for you, and everything I learned about today only makes me more sure about us, not less.”

“Stand up.” His voice was deep and the tone left no room for disobedience. She stood with a whimper.

“Strip.”

Her eyes flew to his and he saw hope and heart-wrenching joy reflected in them.

“Eyes down, girl.” If she wanted him to be her first, if she really wanted this, he was going to proceed the way he would with any sub. “You will keep your eyes down at all times unless ordered otherwise. Am I clear?”

When she only nodded and lowered her eyes, he added, “You will also answer every question and command verbally.” He stepped closer and whispered right into her ear, “And you will call me Sir.”

“Oh God.” Zoe trembled and he chuckled when her knees almost gave out.

“No, darlin’, Sir will be enough.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Hearing it whispered from her for the first time was as potent as any of the drinks he’d had tonight.

“Now, I believe I gave you an order.”

With another mumbled, “Yes, Sir,” she reached shaking hands to the hem of her dress and drew it over her head before letting it fall to the floor.

“Stop.”

Her hands, which had been about to remove her panties, fluttered at her sides.

“You left the house without a bra?”

The dangerous tone of his voice must have registered with her because the first words out of her mouth were, “I’m sorry.” She risked his punishment by looking up for the briefest second. “I was so mad at you, and I only wore what I did because I was hoping you wouldn’t let me out the door. I bought that dress for you in the first place, you know. Besides, it’s not supposed to be worn with a bra.”

The tips of her breasts were already tightly puckered, and those luscious mounds swayed gently with her erratic breaths. He took the time to look his fill, increasing her anxiety and her desire while she waited for his commands to continue. Her body was flawless perfection to him. Full lush breasts, long limbs, round hips and a nipped-in waist. She had all that dark hair curling in abandon around her face and shoulders, and one midnight curl was cradling a breast the same way it had at the airport. The memory had him closing his eyes for a moment to catch his breath.

He opened his eyes and looked at her hips. She wasn’t wearing a thong tonight. She had on a pair of those boy-cut underwear that looked as though they’d been painted on. They were a deep raspberry color and he could clearly see the outline of her pussy lips as well as the fact that her little clit was already swollen and poking out between them. It was also obvious she was wet. He walked around her and let out a soft curse at the view from behind. The painted-on look only grew more so from back here. Gage could clearly see where the seam rode up the center of her ass. The bottom seam left the lower curve of those firm round cheeks bare, and Gage could actually feel the saliva pool in his mouth at the sight.

“Go on.”

She hesitated only a second before he heard her murmur her assent, then slipped the material down her legs and stepped out of them.

He stepped close enough that he was pressed to every inch of her from the thighs up. He knew she could feel the erection he was sporting for her, and as for what he could feel… “Darlin’, this ass of yours has been drivin’ me crazy for a week and I am goin’ to make you pay for that.” He dipped his knees and pressed against that ass while her breathing grew frantic, and she let loose with a small cry.

“In all your readin’ today, did you read about safe words?”

She only nodded at first, so he reached up and grasped one tightly budded nipple, and pinched. Hard. “You’ve been told already, darlin’, you know how to answer me.”

“Yes.” She arched and gasped. “Yes, Sir. I did. Sir.”

He chuckled but didn’t let go of her nipple. He tugged lightly at it and gave it small twisting pinches just to make her squirm.