Perception (23 page)

Day
Three…

Saturday

On
Saturday evening, Xander was tidying up the kitchen after tossing the remnants
of their dinner into the trash. After a surprisingly leisurely day, one they’d
spent together at his condo doing literally nothing for most of the day, Xander
had finally given in and cooked dinner for Mercedes.

He wasn’t
much of a cook, he would be the first to admit, but he was capable of working a
stove. The sausage and vegetable risotto, a dish his mother had made quite
often when he was a kid, wasn’t fancy, but it had been decent. Not as good as
his mother’s, but edible. That’s all that mattered.

So, after
he’d slaved over the stove for all of thirty minutes, they’d shared a meal
while they talked about the upcoming week.

Mercedes
had gone on to tell him about the official offer she’d put in on the Milton
building yesterday, and how she was now waiting for the counteroffer, fully
expecting it to come on Monday. There was no doubt about it, the seller would
certainly counter. Not that Xander blamed them.

Now, as
they made their way to the living room, he was falling into his normal evening
routine, which for the next hour would consist of watching the news.

“I think
I’m going to head to my place and take a bath,” Mercedes told him hesitantly.

“No,” he
responded easily, keeping his voice soft. “You can take a bath here.” He wasn’t
about to let her disappear on him again. After all, they had agreed that she
would stay with him unless she was working, and he’d been impressed that she’d
spent the entire day at his place, never once using an excuse to go home.

Progress,
especially after the rocky day they’d had yesterday.

“But –”

Xander
glared at her, effectively silencing her.

“My bath
works just as well as yours does.”

To his
surprise, Mercedes didn’t argue. Instead, she pinned him with a glare of her
own before turning her attention on the stairs that led up to the master suite.

Neither
of them said anything more and the next thing Xander knew, Mercedes was making
her way upstairs. When she was halfway there, he called out to her. He waited
until she turned to look down at him.

“I’ll be
up in a little while to help you out. Don’t get out until I come get you.”

He could
tell that his instructions weren’t exactly what she wanted to hear, but he’d
give her props for not complaining. Xander didn’t budge until she’d made it to
the top of the stairs.

Once she
was there, he reached for the remote and flipped on the television, dropping
onto the sofa. As he sank into the cool leather, he immediately remembered the
way Mercedes had looked perched atop him, riding him. And then yesterday in his
office, when he had thrust inside of her on a very similar sofa… Shit. He
wasn’t sure he’d ever look at black leather the same again.

God,
she’d come completely undone right there in his office. The memory was enough
to heat his blood and send it pooling south. He wanted her.

Then
again, he was certain he was nearing sainthood since he’d refrained from taking
her a million different ways throughout the day.

As he
stared at the television screen, not seeing anything other than the bright glow
of the images, he thought back to the first time he’d asked Mercedes to dinner
all those years ago. The setting hadn’t been exactly what he’d hoped for, but
all in all, it’d been interesting to say the least.

From the
moment he met Mercedes, he’d been intrigued by her. Even if he had come to
accept there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that there would ever be
anything between them. Mainly for the fact that she was a Domme and he was in
no way submissive.

He wouldn’t
lie, he had never really come to terms with it. It had just taken him a little
while – nearly a decade – to find a way to show her just how he felt about the
whole thing.

If his
memories served him correctly, it had been during their first dinner out –
unfortunately that had been business, not pleasure – which he found himself
seeking a way to get under her skin the same way she had him.

They
hadn’t been alone that night either. They’d been joined by the Realtor of one
of the clients Xander had been working with and the man’s assistant. He hadn’t
been happy to find out they had chaperones, but at the time, he figured
Mercedes had invited them on purpose. To protect herself from him.

He was
right because that night she’d made her feelings on the subject crystal clear.

“You
don’t know what a submissive is?” Mercedes asked skeptically. She was speaking
directly to Tim Johnson, a high profile Realtor who was working for the seller
of a property Xander was in the process of acquiring.

As
they sat in the upscale restaurant, the waiter having just brought out baskets
of bread for the foursome congregating at the table, Mercedes had apparently
latched onto one little comment that Tim had said jokingly.

“Nothing
more than the glorified stuff I’ve seen on television,” Tim admitted, his full
attention on Mercedes.

Xander
watched Mercedes, waiting to see what she’d say. How they’d gotten on the topic
originally, he wasn’t sure, but it was interesting to see that Mercedes was
completely open to the discussion.

Mercedes
seemed to study Tim for a moment before she continued. “Do you like to be in
control, Mr. Johnson?”

Xander
grinned, hiding it behind his wine glass. He noticed the way Tim shivered
outwardly, an obvious reaction to Mercedes’s very sexy voice. Xander could only
imagine the fantasies the man was having where she was concerned. Hell, he’d
had a few of his own in recent weeks.

Tim
glanced over at Xander, who was sitting beside Mercedes, but his gaze didn’t
linger elsewhere for long. The man was probably trying to determine what he
wanted to say.

Xander
leaned back in his chair and watched things play out between the two of them.

“Depends,”
Tim finally admitted, his voice lower than before. “If we’re talking business,
I do. When it comes to other things, I could be persuaded to give up control.”

“Persuaded?”
Mercedes asked seriously, sipping her wine as she stared back at him. “Or is it
something you prefer?”

Xander
had a feeling that the question was loaded. He got the impression there was
only one correct answer where Mercedes was concerned.

“It’s
something
I
prefer,” Tim’s assistant stated firmly.

Xander’s
gaze darted to the pretty young woman sitting to Tim’s left. She wasn’t looking
at her boss, which was probably a good thing because her open admission seemed
to have shocked Tim somewhat.

Based
on Mercedes’s reaction, she hadn’t expected it either.

“Do
you play at a club?” Mercedes asked casually.

“I
have, yes,” Clarissa Tinsley admitted, her cheeks turning pink.

“Well,
Xander here,” Mercedes glanced over at him, “is a Dom.” He wasn’t sure why, but
somehow she had successfully pulled him directly into the conversation. He
fought the urge to laugh at that.

“Is
that right?” Clarissa asked sweetly, her eyes glazing over slightly.

“Mercedes
is being too kind. She’s a Domme herself, but she doesn’t like to brag,” he
said with a smile. “I’m a member of Kink,” he admitted, sipping his wine and
making sure they all noticed his casual disinterest in the conversation.

What
he wanted to do was to talk to Mercedes directly. Preferably about something
other than business, but until today, she’d managed to keep their brief
relationship on a steadfast professional level.

He had
hoped to change that tonight.

She
had successfully cock blocked him by inviting these two.

“Is
your husband a Dom?” Mercedes asked Clarissa, and Xander heard the subtle
irritation in her tone. It seemed as though she hadn’t been looking to spread
the word of her Domme status.

Fair
was fair, in his opinion.

“I’m
not married,” Clarissa admitted, her eyes immediately going down to the table.

“Well,
Mr. Boone might just be interested in showing you the ropes.”

Lord,
was she serious?

Keeping
his reaction to Mercedes’s very blatant assumption was difficult, but he prided
himself on his ability to maintain his composure at all costs. He also thought
she might’ve been testing him, so he decided to play into her hands.

“If
you’re interested in seeing the club, I’d be more than happy to have you as a
guest,” he told Clarissa, watching Mercedes out of the corner of his eye.

“What
is it that you like about being a submissive?” Tim asked this time, surprising
them all with his interest.

When
Clarissa seemed to be thinking things through, Xander added, “Don’t overthink
it. Tell him the first thing that came to your mind. Why is it something you
prefer?”

“I
don’t want to be in control all the time,” Clarissa offered easily.

“I
could never do that,” Tim said, laughing. He appeared as though he were
suddenly uncomfortable.

“No?”
Mercedes asked. “Is that because you want to be in control of your business?”

“I
would never give up control of my business.”

“Who
said you had to?” Mercedes asked.

Xander
wondered why she seemed to be pushing the issue.

“I
just assumed,” Tim said, glancing around to look at the three of them.

“But
aside from that, you’d give up all control?” Mercedes asked Tim, resting her
elegant forearms on the table, her beautiful hands wrapped around the stem of
her now empty wine glass.

The
waiter must’ve noticed her body language because he was immediately at her
side, refilling her glass.

“Thank
you,” she told him with a brief glance.

“I
think it’s a possibility.”

Xander’s
attention jerked back to Tim. Had he been answering Mercedes’s question? Was
this guy a submissive? Or was he just playing with Mercedes?

There
was only one way to tell.

“So,
you’d be interested in being dominated by a woman?” he asked, signaling for the
waiter to refill his glass as well.

“I
think it would be fun,” Tim said.

Xander
could see that Tim was making every effort to keep from looking at his
assistant.

Yep,
the conversation was definitely uncomfortable for the man, but at the same
time, at least it wasn’t business.

Xander
focused on the television screen, noticing the words scrolling across the
bottom for the first time. He didn’t pay them much attention even now, but as
he watched the jumble of words, the memory of that first dinner date began to
fade. He did his best not to think about the events that happened shortly after
that dinner either.

As it
turned out, Tim was very interested in being dominated, and Mercedes had been
all too kind by agreeing to show him the ropes. It was their introductory scene
at Kink. Xander would never forget it either. If he were correct, Tim wouldn’t
either. The man had been smitten, just like several of the unattached male subs
that night. Needless to say, Mercedes had garnered a reputation at the club.

If they
could only see her now, he thought to himself.

Pushing up
off of the sofa, Xander untucked his polo shirt from his jeans. On his way up
the stairs, he unbuttoned one of the buttons near his neck. Once he was inside
his bedroom, he reached behind his head, grabbed a handful of cotton and pulled
his shirt over his head, discarding it on a chair nearby.

He made
his way to the master bathroom and propped himself against the open door,
staring at the beautiful woman soaking in the oversized Jacuzzi tub.

Xander
was pretty damn sure that each and every time he saw her again, she was even
more beautiful than the last time.

Black
hair piled haphazardly on top of her head, her naked body covered with mounds
of white bubbles. She was sensational. Her eyes were closed, her arms resting
along the sides of the tub.

For once,
Mercedes looked entirely at peace.

“You
decided to join me?” she asked sweetly, not opening her eyes.

“Not
tonight,” he informed her, pushing away from the wall. Rather than join her in
the tub, he decided for a quick shower. And then they’d play a little before
bed.

Hoping to
give her a few more minutes to relax, he took his time in the shower, glancing
over at her through the glass walls. Xander liked the fact that she was
watching him. In fact, she never seemed to look away, unabashedly watching as
he soaped up.

“Are you
making me get out?” she asked, smiling.

“It’s
time. I was hoping to show you something before bed.”

That
seemed to catch her interest.

“What are
you going to show me?”

“Wouldn’t
you like to know,” he teased.

God, he
loved the way she seemed so comfortable in his bathroom, relaxing in his tub,
sharing the space with him. It just felt… natural.

Reaching
down, he waited for her to take his hand. Once she’d hit the button to release
the water from the tub, she took his proffered hand, and he assisted her to her
feet. Taking the handheld shower sprayer that was attached to the tub, he
turned on the warm water and rinsed her thoroughly.

The water
sluiced over her generous curves and he watched as every glorious inch of her
was uncovered. As usual, he found himself intrigued by the intricate magnolia
flower tattoo on her shoulder that wrapped around her upper arm all the way to
her elbow. It was feminine and so damn sensual. As was the other one on her hip
that contained a pair of cuffs, a collar, and a flogger hidden in the
brilliantly colored flowers.