Tease (13 page)

I was still staring after her when Dad hung up.

“Emerson, how are you?”

I snapped my gaze to my father. “Good. How are you, Daddy? Did your meeting go well?”

He made a face. “Oh, they’re interested in opening a new building for the Theater and Dance Department. Can you imagine? Why would they possibly need an entire building?”

I stared at him as he perused the menu, marveling that he could think so little of the arts when his own daughter was a studio arts major.

“Imagine that,” I murmured.

The waiter appeared then and we placed our orders.

His gaze settled on me then, and even though he had seen me over the holidays he winced at the dyed streaks in my hair. Fortunately, he refrained from commenting. He’d already voiced his disapproval. I was spared from hearing it again.

“So. How’s school?”

“Good.” I sipped from my glass of water. “I’ve been busy on several pieces for the upcoming showcase—”

“Oh, that reminds me. I was talking to Bill Wetherford.”

At my blank look, he added, “Of Wetherford Enterprises?”

I nodded like that rang a bell. He was looking at me like I should know the company.

Apparently he could see I didn’t. “It’s one of the largest toilet paper manufacturers in the United States. Anyway. Turns out Wetherford is interested in creating an in-house design team. And I told him all about you.”

A design team for a toilet paper company? “That sounds . . . interesting.”

Thankfully, our food arrived right then and he became more interested in his prime rib. Conversation was intermittent after that and he took two more calls. I found myself watching Beth as she came in and out of the room, seating other diners. It seemed like she made a great effort not to look my way, and I knew it was because I’d brought up Shaw.

I don’t know why I had mentioned him. We weren’t really friends. Sure, I hadn’t kissed any other guy since I met him, but that was about to change. At least I assumed it would. I doubted a night at a kink club would result in anything less. Annie had texted me and we were on for tonight.

“So. Emerson,” Dad said, clicking his phone shut. “Are you seeing anyone?”

I shook my head and reached for my glass, shoving the image of Shaw from my mind. “No. No one.”

“Good. You’re still young. Best to focus on your studies and get your career off the ground.”

I nodded like that was it. Like that was the reason I wasn’t seeing anyone. The reason I couldn’t let myself have more than empty hookups. The reason I was going to a kink club. It had nothing to do with trying to get a guy out of my system.

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins
Publishers

....................................

Chapter 13

I
drove my own
car, my fingers flexing on the leather steering wheel as if finding the right grip would somehow strengthen my shaky resolve. Annie offered to drive, but that was one mistake I wasn’t repeating. My stomach was full of knots as I followed her across town, and I wasn’t sure why. Deciding to go to the kink club was a lot easier in theory. Right now, when it was about to become a reality . . . it was a lot harder than I had expected.

I parked behind Annie on a residential street. The houses were nice, middle-class homes. Two-storied with driveways scraped fresh of snow.

Shaw had texted me off and on through the week . . . even called twice. I ignored him until he finally stopped. Either he had given up or he was just super busy. Pepper had mentioned that Reece went to visit him at work to check out the custom bike he was working on for some rich client, so there was merit in that theory.

Still, as I stepped from my car and locked it, I couldn’t help wondering what he was doing tonight. I couldn’t imagine him spending a Friday night alone, but Pepper hadn’t mentioned that she or Reece had plans with him. Was he at Maisie’s?

“C’mon!” Annie waved at me anxiously. As I hurried to catch up with her, she added, “This isn’t the kind of thing you want to be late to. All the most interesting people are paired up by then.”

Annie turned up the walkway of a two-story home that looked very . . . Well, not the location one would expect to host a kink club.

“This is it?”

“Tonight it is. It changes location every time.”

I sent her a look. “Why?”

She laughed. “I never thought I’d say this, but oh, Emerson. You’re so naïve.” At my continued blank look, she sighed. “So we don’t get raided.”

“Raided? What? Are we walking into a meth house?” I looked around as if I expected the DEA to jump out of the bushes.

She laughed again. “Do me a favor. Don’t sound like such a Girl Scout in there. Or maybe you should. Some of them might like that.”

Misgivings trickled through me as we neared the front door. Music floated from behind it. She stepped up onto the porch ahead of me. When she realized I wasn’t at her side, she started to turn back, but then the front door opened.

A girl dressed from head to toe in black leather stepped out followed by a guy. A guy I knew. And so did Annie.

“Logan,” I breathed. “What are you doing here?”

He looked down at me in surprise from the porch. “Emerson. What are
you
doing here?”

“Logan,” Annie greeted in a purring voice, sidling close. She stroked a hand along his arm. “I didn’t know you were a member.”

He gave her a distracted look, as if he didn’t remember hooking up with her all that well. “Amber, hey. How are you?”

“Annie,” she snapped. “It’s Annie.” She shot me a look. “I’ll be inside.” That said, she flounced in.

Logan and his friend descended the steps to stop in front of me. He repeated himself. “Em, what are you doing here?”

I looked from the friend back to him. “Same thing you are.”

He shook his head and rubbed at the back of his neck, looking older than his eighteen years as he stared at me in concern. “Look, maybe you should go home.”

His friend dug in her bag, pulled out a cigarette, and lit up. She watched us with mild interest, inhaling deeply.

“Why would I want to do that?”

He leaned a little closer, lowering his voice. “I’m not sure this is the place for you. You don’t want to go in there.”

I laughed, but the sound was forced. “Clearly you don’t know me as well as you think.”

He shared a look with his companion. She watched me in silence, her black fingernails a severe contrast to her milk-white skin as she brought the cigarette to her lips again. She worked her lips, puffing smoke in my direction. Her lips were painted so red they looked almost as dark as her fingernails. Her throaty voice scratched the air. “It’s not for everyone, sweetheart. Maybe you should listen to him.”

I squared my shoulders, affronted that Logan and this stranger thought I was somehow incapable of handling whatever was on the other side of this door. They didn’t know me. I was strong. I wasn’t afraid.

And I was fed up. I was tired of being pushed and pulled by others. Justin. My mother. And now, even though he was nothing like either one of them, to an extent by . . . Shaw.

I was in control. Meeting Logan’s gaze straight on, I said, “I can handle it.” I moved forward and they parted for me. Marching up the steps, I didn’t bother knocking. Turning the doorknob, I walked inside the house.

It took precisely five
minutes for me to realize I’d made a mistake.

It was dark inside the house. Candles big and small decorated several surfaces. Tables. Shelves. I was offered a blindfold, which I declined with a shake of my head. This only got me a frown from the woman dressed in a costume that resembled those cigarette girl outfits from the forties. She moved on with her tray of blindfolds. I didn’t see Annie anywhere.

Sounds mingled with music as I carefully navigated the room. It didn’t take an expert to identify the noises. Moans and wails and sharp, keening cries drifted from upstairs.

I told myself not to let it bother me. It’s not as though I hadn’t been to parties before. I’m sure people made use of rooms at all those other parties I attended. I just never had to hear quite so
well
what was going on inside them. Logan’s voice echoed through my mind:
You don’t want to go in there.

Shaking off that echo, I moved on, searching for Annie.

Several people sat on a couch, all blindfolded. Three women and one man. They were touching, kissing, slowly removing each other’s clothing piece by piece.

As I skirted the couch, a woman approached me and offered me a drink. I smiled shakily as I declined. Something told me I shouldn’t drink. Not only did I need a clear head, but who knew what could be in the contents of those glasses?

A hand stroked down my arm and laced with my fingers. I yanked my hand away and looked down. A guy sat in a sofa chair, a girl already snuggled up in his lap. He smiled at me and held out his hand as if I would just naturally accept it. He patted the seat next to him and then with that same hand he cupped the girl’s breast, watching me as he fondled it.

My stomach dipped. I backed away and bumped into someone. I turned with an apology on my lips and came face-to-face with a life-size squirrel. Given his height I would guess it was a man.

A man inside a squirrel costume.

He bumped me again and I glanced down to see that he was anatomically correct. Well, disproportionately so. Peering at him in the dim lighting, that part of him jutted out bigger than the average man. Bigger than the above average man.

“E-excuse me,” I stammered, jerking my gaze back up. The squirrel’s big dark eyes stared down at me, wide as saucers.

With an awkward hip thrust, he bumped me again and I snapped, “Stop that!”

I shuffled backward to avoid his enormous . . . what even was it? A strap-on? Was it sewn into the costume? I shook my head and told myself this was one mystery I didn’t want to unravel. I might have laughed, but my overriding emotion was annoyance.

“There you are, Chippy.” A woman appeared at the squirrel’s side. “Oh, did you meet a friend?” She gave me a flirty smile.

I mumbled something and backed away, still shaking my head. I didn’t bother searching for Annie anymore. My overriding thought was:
Leave
.
Get out of here, Emerson
.

A guy reached for my arm, but I side-stepped him as I hurried toward the front door. I plunged out into the night and sucked a breath of bitter-cold air into my lungs, unaware until that moment that I had hardly been breathing since I stepped inside that house. Which totally mystified me.

I had wanted to check out this kink club ever since I heard of its existence. I figured it would be the perfect place where I could hook up with guys who didn’t mind dominant girls who called all the shots. Only it hadn’t been like that at all, and somehow I knew. Shaw was to blame.

He had ruined me. I couldn’t even think about being with another guy. He filled my head. I wrapped my fingers around the porch post and stared out at the silent street, my fingers digging into the rough, cold wood. I needed to get him out of my system. And to do that . . . maybe I should just get my fill of him, satisfy my curiosity, my urges. Then I could walk away from him for good.

I took several more bracing breaths and released the post. Stepping down, I let that idea take root, testing it out, trying to decide if it was as crazy as it sounded.

I heard him before I saw him. Like the mere idea of him had conjured him up here.

Footsteps thudded against the sidewalk. His large shape appeared, skidding to a stop at the end of the walkway, his chest lifting with breaths.

“Shaw . . . what are you doing here?”

Crazy, stupid delight coursed through me. I drank in the sight of him, standing tall before me, legs braced apart like nothing could take him down. The guy was built like a tank, and my belly fluttered, the very core of me reacting to him in the most fundamental way. A week without a glimpse of him and my heart reacted, pounding with longing. Such a treacherous thing. The heart really does have a mind of its own.

“I got a text from Reece.”

Anger flared to life inside me. I approached him with hard steps, delight at seeing him withering away. “Why did Reece text you?”

“Logan told him you were here.” His gaze flicked to the house. “He was worried about you.”

Damn Logan
. My life was none of his business. “And you raced over here? For what? To rescue me? I told you I didn’t need rescuing.”

His gaze slid from the house back to me again. I had no doubt that he knew what this place was. Reece hadn’t left that tidbit out when he called him. Any why had Reece called him anyway? Did he think Shaw and I were involved? Because that would be incorrect on his part.

“What are you doing here, Emerson?”

I compressed my lips, not about to tell him that I had been wondering the same thing. “I don’t need Logan or Reece or
you
looking out for me like I can’t take care of myself.” This was the part where I could tell him that I had made a mistake and had decided to leave, that the kink club wasn’t for me—that I was in fact leaving when he showed up, but I refused to give him that satisfaction.

“C’mon.” He reached for my hand, but I yanked my arm back before he could claim it.

“I drove myself here. I can get myself home.” I circled around him and started walking in hard steps away from him and toward my car.

He followed fast on my heels. “What were you doing here?”

He wasn’t going to let it drop. “That’s none of your business.”

“This isn’t you.”

That only made me even angrier—if possible. My boots dug into the concrete with every step. I hit an icy patch and would have gone down. My arms flailed for balance, but he was there, grabbing me to stop me from falling. I struggled free from his hands and kept going until I reached my car. I whirled around at the door and jabbed a finger at him. “You don’t know me.” Emotion shook my voice, betraying me. I swallowed and inhaled a deep breath.

“I know you’ve tried really hard to keep me out, but it didn’t work. I’m in your blood. And you’re in mine. I know that.” He stared hard at me, letting the words sink in. “And I know you. I see you.”

I shook my head like a stubborn child, panic crawling up my throat.

He motioned back toward the house. “If you don’t know why you’re here, then I do. You’re running from me.”

I laughed and the sound rang brittle even to my own ears. “Oh, you’ve got ego.”

He didn’t care. Just kept talking. “I know that you’re not half as wild or experienced as you pretend to be.”

My laughter faded. I stared at him for a long moment, something that felt dangerously close to fear bubbling up in my chest. He couldn’t know that. He couldn’t see me. “I’m not pretending to
be
anything.”

His eyes glinted knowingly as his well-carved lips flattened into a grim line. He didn’t say the word but I heard it between us just the same.
Liar
.

“How?” I demanded. “How do you know anything about me?” I wasn’t admitting he was right, but I had to know. I had to know what I’d said or done that gave me away.

Why was he here? Lately every time I turned he was there. He wasn’t like any other hookup. If he was, he’d already be gone. Every guy I ever messed around with was happy to take what I gave and then move on. Why did he want more?
Why did he have to be different?

He moved in then. Just three steps and he had me backed against the cold metal of my car.

“You know what they called me in the Marines?” I shook my head and he answered, his voice low and deep and raising goose bumps on my skin, “Hawk. And it was because I could read people, assess situations in an instant. Call it whatever you want. Street sense. Situational awareness. I have it.”

Hawk
. It fit him. I swallowed back the golf-ball-size lump in my throat. His deep voice, his closeness . . . My skin shivered uncontrollably. I hated that I trembled but at least I could blame it on the cold. He didn’t know it was him and what he did to me.

Of course, he just claimed to be able to read a person. I gulped, worried even as I told myself he wasn’t a mind reader. He couldn’t be
that
perceptive. Even if he was a former Marine with a nickname like Hawk. He couldn’t see my secrets.

My gaze darted from his eyes to his mouth, both so close. Even in the near dark, with only the glow from the streetlamp halfway down the block, I could make out the tiny flecks of gold in his brown eyes. My hands fluttered between us as though looking for a place to land. His chest felt so warm and inviting, a solid wall pressing intimately against me, against breasts that felt achy and swollen.