Taken Identity (11 page)

Jules sat. “I didn’t think you were,” she said, sounding composed, although her pulse was jumping. “I was only going to say I feel the same.”

Gray grinned.

“Well I’m not exactly sure about the Dom/sub bit yet,” Jules added hastily. She needed to make him understand all the different things going through her mind. That wouldn’t be easy because she didn’t understand them all herself yet. “I’m a bit hazy on the dynamics. But, hypothetically, I’m interested and intrigued. And it’s totally alien to me, as well. I’m very careful with relationships, take a while to get into them.”

Well, apart from one memorable occasion I do
not
want to think about at this moment.

“And, I was also going to say, that if I haven’t heard from Carole soon, I’ll try Aunty Meg.”

“Will she know anything?” Gray asked as, putting his glass down, he drew Jules closer.

Jules felt his body brush hers. She knew it was only the rush your body gets when it meets a new, potential mate.
But, oh my God,
this man seriously affects me
.
I never believed in wet pantie syndrome before. I do now.
She wriggled in her damp knickers as she struggled to remember his question.

“Oh, er, well…only where Carole might be, but at least we’ll know if we’re likely to hear from her.” The tinny ringtone of her phone made her stop talking and grin. “Talk of the devil, I hope.” Reluctantly, she moved away from Gray to reach for it and with an inward sense of completion, moved straight back again as she answered the call.

She nodded to Gray as he raised an eyebrow, to question who the caller was.

“Carole,” she mouthed, whilst listening intently. If only she hadn’t dropped her phone and smashed the loudspeaker bit. Up until then it hadn’t mattered.

“Yes, but what’s his last name?” she asked when finally she could get a word in. “Do you know what he’s up to now?
Really
? Now, that is very interesting. Anything else? Mmm, please, that would be great.
No
! I do not want to take him up on his offer, horrible little creep, but I might need to make him think I do. Yes, hold on. Okay, shoot.” She grabbed a pencil and scribbled a number down on the edge of that day’s newspaper. “Thanks, C. Speak later.”

“No, you bloody well will not,” Gray exploded. “Not a chance.”

“What? Speak to Carole? Don’t be stupid. Of course I will.”

Gray’s expression was thunderous. Light dawned.

“Oh, you mean take Awful Ade up on his offer. Of course not. Like I said to Carole, just maybe let him think I will.”

“Not even that, Jules. Promise me. Please, we’ll do things another way if we have to, but not that way. Promise?”

Jules sighed in relief. The last thing she wanted to do was give Adrian any idea she might be willing to get up front and personal with him. The thought made her shudder. Rubber lips and octopus arms were
so
not her thing.

“I promise,” she said. “Gladly. Anyway, Carole has told me something very interesting. Are you ready for this? Awful Adrian is actually called Raymond Adrian Archer. He has a new girlfriend, and she has red hair. Carole doesn’t know her name, only just glimpsed her, and says he is being very close-mouthed about her—which is not his usual style, not at all. But, wait for it, guess where he lives?”

Gray was obviously ahead of her. “Glasgow.”

“Correct. So, now I do agree with going somewhere else for info.” Jules smiled a very satisfied smile. “Because, I have an address for him now. But not tonight,” she said hastily. “It would be too late when we got there.”

“Oh, definitely,” Gray agreed gravely. “Besides, we’ve been drinking. We’d both be over the limit.”

She hardly thought less than half a glass of wine would qualify as being over the limit for anything, but she kept her mouth shut. The way she felt—all giddy and hot—you could get drunk on water.

“Not a good idea,” Gray said. “Tomorrow, do you think? Are you free?”

“Oh, yes, I’ll be free. Well, unless events tonight carry on into tomorrow.”

His smile, she thought, was perfect.

“Oh, Jules, I’m sure they will. Nevertheless, we’ll still find time to make that visit. Because once we find out what’s going on, hopefully, our, er…events can carry on for as long as we want them to.”

She’d hoped he’d say something like that.
Nice one.

“Now.” Gray put his glass of water down and relieved her of hers. He tugged, and as she was not expecting it, she slipped sideways across his lap, her head resting on his rock hard cock.

“Ouch.” Jules wriggled to get comfortable.

Gray groaned in apparent agony.

“That,” he said in a rasp, “will finish everything before it starts. For the love of God, or our soon to be sex life… Do. Not. Move.
Please
.”

She stilled immediately and he lifted her gently and arranged her in another position.

“Better,” he said. “For the moment, much better. I need to feel you close to me, but I don’t want to spoil everything by, well, overreacting, shall we say? We have all night, so let’s make the most of it. I hope I’m not being presumptuous here. You do want me to stay the night?”

He looked somewhat unsure, and the plum in his mouth was firmly back.

Jules hastened to reassure him. “Oh, yes, and oh, please.”

“Good.” He touched her face, his hand gentle. “We’ll start slowly. Nothing remotely out of your comfort zone, I promise. You understand traffic lights and BDSM?” He tilted her chin up with his forefinger. “You’re okay talking about this? I’m
not
being presumptuous? It’s just the lifestyle is as much a part of me as breathing or my five o’clock shadow.” He ran his hand over her cheek and stroked her skin. “I want you, oh so much, but I have to be honest. So do you, because if we go further, I need and you need to know it’s what you want. Without your consent, feely given, then we have nothing. I’ll walk away rather than know you submit just because it’s what I want and not because you have to for yourself. My role as a Dom is to cater for your wellbeing. That’s the be all and end all.” He smiled and dipped his head to nuzzle the nape of her neck. His breath feathered over her skin and she shivered as her arousal increased. “I couldn’t bear to fail you.”

Chapter Five

Jules, the most unromantic person she knew, thought it was the most romantic gesture ever made. She melted.
I’m mush, total goo. Whatever he wants! How can something so simple be so much?
She moved her head slightly and kissed his hand, even as she wished it were his mouth. It wasn’t enough. Jules knew she needed to experience much more.

Gray must have suffered in much the same way, because he bent his head and nipped her ear gently.

“We need to talk first, pet. Traffic lights. Hard and soft limits. What do you know?”

It was hard to think when her clit was doing the samba and her pussy throbbing with need. Talk about body parts with a mind of their own. She was so wet that in any other circumstances, she’d be embarrassed. Now she just wanted him to take advantage of her wetness and fill her. Even in her arousal-induced haze, Jules understood there was no likelihood of that happening. Not until she divulged what she knew and expected.

“Well.” God how she hated that word. So indecisive and pathetic. “I’m a total novice but very interested.” Surely the way her body was on fire and the rosy hue that covered her must be one sign? To say nothing of the way her breathing was erratic, and a sheen of sweat covered her skin. “I’ve read a bit, and I understand traffic lights. Green go, amber caution—I need to talk before going on, and red, oh no, not now, maybe never.” She bit her lip whist she concentrated. Gray didn’t say a word. He just stroked her arm and waited for her to go on.

“Blindfold I think will be okay. Bondage, probably, but not yet. Spanking, as long as it doesn’t hurt, is okay. Floggers and stuff, no. They’ll hurt too much. What else?”

Gray laughed. “Believe me, pet, spanking always hurts, but it’s a good hurt, and done by the right person—me—you’ll get so much pleasure from it you’ll fly. Shall we say blindfolds and bondage are amber? And you’ll try spanking and cry red if I can’t give you what you like? And think about a flogger. That’s even better, and it hurts less than my hand, unless I choose otherwise.”

Jules nibbled her lip again.

“Stop that.” Gray’s voice was full of authority, and Jules immediately did as he told her. “The only one who’ll put marks on you is me, and they will be our marks of possession.”

She sighed. “I don’t know. I’m so excited and so scared all at the same time. I never knew just how much I would want to get down on my knees and say I’m yours, Sir.” His hand stopped its gentle movement on her arm for a second and tightened as he took in her words.

“Then let’s work toward that, pet.” He began his rhythmic stroke again, as if he was soothing a frightened animal or child.

Well, he is calling me pet and he does make me want to purr.

“I wish I could just do it,” Jules said honestly. One night of perfect submission to a stranger didn’t mean she could do it in real life. “But oh, I’ve got so many worries. What if I can’t be what you want? What if I hate it and it makes me hate you? What if the other Julia comes back? What if…”

Gray placed his palm over her mouth. “Hush now. What if all your worries are wrong? How would you feel if you never tried to discover your true wants and needs?”

He twisted her around so she straddled his lap. “Decision time. I’m happy to start vanilla, but I won’t be happy with it forever. Hell, Jules, I’m holding on by a thread here, and it’s a very fine thread, which is threatening to snap at any time. So, yes or no?”

“Yes. Oh God, yes.”

“Thank the lord,” Gray said in a fervent voice. “Bedroom? Or, on the other hand, are you happy if I start taking your clothes off now and make love to you on the rug?” He stopped speaking suddenly. “Bloody hell, Jules, protection. I didn’t expect to need any. I’ve one condom in my wallet. And that’s been there so long, it’s probably perished. Is there a chemist near here? Or a pub with a helpful machine in the loo? Or even a service station?”

Jules couldn’t help it. She giggled and leaned against him. The look of anguish on his face should not really have made her chuckle, but knowing just how she could erase it had her in stitches.

“Well, the motorway services are only about thirty miles away.” She gasped in between laughs.

He blanched. “Not what I need to hear, pet.”

“And the co-op stays open until ten. But no need. I was a Girl Guide, and I’m always prepared.”

The kiss he gave her was heartfelt—and heart stopping. Jules returned it, let their tongues meet and mesh and felt his hand following the contours of her body, as if he was mapping it for future use.

“Where?” he asked raggedly.

“Bedroom, in the drawer. Bathroom, in the cabinet. Kitchen, probably.” For the life of her, she couldn’t remember where she’d found them earlier. Her brain was scrambled and all she could think of was the man in front of her and what might occur in the next hour or so.

“Bedroom then, now. Please.” He moved both hands to her waist and helped her to stand. Without his support, Jules knew she’d fall. Her legs felt as if they belonged to someone else.

“Which way?” Gray’s voice was clipped, his tone urgent.

As he followed her toward the door, she felt his erection, hard against her bottom. It was all she could do not to turn round, take the initiative and have him on the floor. Only the thought of not having a condom handy stopped her. Plus the fact she was fairly sure that would come in the category of topping from the bottom, something she’d learned about in her last read-a-thon.

“Up the stairs, second left.” Although she moved in the general direction of the stairs, she couldn’t resist moving backwards, just a bit, into his body, so his erection pressed more firmly against her. It felt so good!

“Cruel,” he said in response, and his body tightened even more. His arms went around her, anchoring her against him, as walking steadily stair-wards, he brushed his hands gently over her breasts, and his mouth explored that sensitive area around the nape of her neck. “Remember, we might be vanilla at the moment, but I’m still a Dom.”

Right,
Jules thought as coherently as she could. They needed to move. She had no intention of their first time together taking place on the stairs. Later maybe, but not this time.

“Gray.” She almost moaned as her feet hit the first stair. “I…really…want…you. Ahh…mmm.”

He nipped her neck gently. “Sir, now. Try it. Let’s practice, eh? Sir.”

“Sir. Please.” Jules had no idea what she was saying please to. She was almost crawling, one foot slowly going upwards in front of the other, her hands behind her, touching him wherever she could.

Listening to his uneven breathing at each movement of her fingers over his already-sensitive nerve ends, Jules knew she had never been so near a climax in such a detached way. If anyone had asked her if she thought it possible to feel so aroused, so quickly, by someone she had known for such a short time, she would have said no way. So how was it possible that less than forty-eight hours since she had met Gray, she was more than ready to get naked and
very
personal with him? She had no idea and was not going to analyze, either. Time for ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’ after the deed.

Jules reached the top of the stairs and turned to face Gray, who, at two stairs lower stood at lip level.
Perfect.
She moved her lips to nip and suck wherever she fancied whilst she used her tongue to play and tease, dipping in and out of his mouth. Her hands shook as somehow she managed to find her way beneath his sweater, to let her fingers play with the swirls of hair they encountered there. Who knew they could act so independently? With deliberation, she walked her fingers higher until they grazed two very taut nipples.

It was Gray’s turn to groan. “Enough, Jules, enough, or it will be over before we get any further. God help me, I need to be inside you, feel you tightly around me. Feel myself moving inside you, touching and caressing all of you and making you cry out with pleasure. Watch your face as you come for me, and then spilling myself inside you. No orgasm denial this time. So, move please.”