N is for... (Checklist Book 14) by L DuBois (best classic books TXT) 📕

making small talk with someone who would soon put their hands on her naked body. Pleasure her, hurt her, in all the right ways.

It was a bit like picking up a guy in a bar for a one-night stand. Looking around in the dim light and seeing someone. Going to talk to them, starting with inane conversation, all the while knowing where it was going.

But at Las Palmas, meeting someone new was actually less dangerous than picking someone up at a bar. There was less chance of being murdered, since all members were thoroughly vetted. And, most importantly for her, the kink element was guaranteed.

“Bat shit,” Daniel said, surprising her.

“Huh?”

“You called the game ‘bat shit’. I like it. Not a phrase I hear often.”

Autumn stopped walking, pulling her hand free of his arm. Daniel turned to her, brows raised.

“Are you one of those stuffy, high-protocol, formal tops?”

The hint of a smile touched his mouth and the smile line on the left side of his mouth appeared. “And if I am?”

Her stomach tightened with anxiety, but she didn’t let any of it show. “Then we’re going to have a rough time.”

“Because you dislike high-protocol?”

“And I curse like a sailor. Pleasure, pain… Both best expressed with cursing.”

Daniel’s smile grew. “I’m not stuffy, or formal.”

“Really, cufflinks, you’re not formal?”

He raised his arm, twisting it to look at the silver cufflink which was just peeking out from the bottom of his jacket sleeve.

He frowned. “Oh dear, these are my gardening cufflinks. How embarrassing. Please ignore these and pretend I’m wearing the solid gold and diamond ones.”

Autumn let out a peal of laughter so loud that she startled even herself. She slapped a hand over her mouth to dampen the sound as Daniel dropped the faux-chagrin and smiled at her.

When she’d calmed herself, Autumn dropped her hand. “Okay, fair enough. I shouldn’t judge a book by its very nice cover—”

“Thank you.” He bowed with a little flourish.

“—and I’m sorry in advance for my language.”

Daniel smiled at her, and started to offer his arm, then stopped, and instead removed his suit jacket. She was about to make a joke about getting naked, but he stepped close, draping his coat over her shoulders. It was warm from his body heat and smelled good. Male and expensive. The faintest trace of cologne.

Her sassy comment died on her tongue. She gently gripped the edges of the coat, pulling it a little tighter against her skin. He was standing close enough that she had to tip her head back just a little to look up at him. “Thank you.”

Gray. His eyes were the gray of smoke and coastal fog.

“You’re welcome.” He’d lowered his voice in apparent deference to their proximity, and it added an intimacy that made her very, very aware of exactly how little she was wearing.

It was thrilling and terrifying to look up into this man’s eyes and know that though they were strangers, they were about to share something very physical.

She wanted to kiss him.

That thought had her mentally, if not physically, backpedaling. Autumn slapped on a saucy grin. “Well, partner, what’s our letter?”

Daniel’s gaze searched her face, and his expression was all too serious. It was a penetrating stare that made her feel like he could see inside her. Not her thoughts, or not just her thoughts, but into her heart, her soul, where she kept her old hurts, and barely healed emotional scars.

She looked away. Not down, but off to the side.

He stepped back and then motioned with one hand for her to precede him. His serious, knowing expression was gone, the grin back in place. It was enough to make her wonder if she’d imagined that searching look.

She hadn’t. The butterflies in her stomach confirmed that. As did the heavy arousal that heated her blood and made her hyper-aware of her half-exposed breasts and rapidly dampening thong.

She started walking, and he fell in step beside her. There was no one else near them. The last of the subs had disappeared through the opening that would take them through the interconnected buildings back to the gate of the Subs’ Garden. There were several men behind them—other Doms who, like Daniel, already had their assigned letters for the checklist game—but they were far enough back that their presence didn’t break the sense of intimacy between them.

When they reached the building complex, Daniel paused.

“Where would you prefer to talk? The library, or perhaps the dining room?”

“I haven’t eaten dinner yet.” She glanced behind them to the northwest, where the sun would soon sink into the Pacific Ocean, though the ocean itself wasn’t visible from here. “But it’s still early.”

“I could eat.” Daniel smiled.

“Says the person not wearing a corset.” She rapped her knuckles against her stomach.

“Would you like to change first?”

Yes, because discussing a scene and getting to know a new play partner were things best done when comfortable and able to focus. Wearing a corset was both less than totally comfortable and too much of a reminder that she was the submissive.

She should say yes and go change into a robe. Or maybe a bralette and booty shorts, if she still wanted to be cute and sexy, but not so tightly confined.

What came out of her mouth was, “No, I’ll be fine…if you’ll help me loosen it a little?”

The way he inhaled, the fire that ignited in his eyes, made her shiver with desire.

“It would be my pleasure,” he murmured.

This time he put his hand on the small of her back as he guided her towards the club’s dining room.

As they reached the door Daniel paused again, looking down at her, his smile lines peeking out. “Our letter is N. I hope you don’t have any objections to nipple play.”

Chapter 2

The dining room was empty, and the buffet laid out though the dishes were all still covered. She stood beside Daniel and stared at the untouched buffet.

“We could start with a drink.” Her reluctance to be the first one to dig in