Read Online Her Secret Pleasure by Jordan Bell - Free Book Online Page B

before. He shouldn’t see daylight for a while. Thanks for your help.”
    Sean shook the officer’s hand and began collecting each of my lost objects one-by-one.
    My cell phone vibrated between my fingers and I tapped the screen. Marcus’s grinning face popped up, but it did not inspire as much pleasure as it usually did. I was too tired to get excited for him.
     
    Party’s over. Changed my mind. Want to see you. Coming to get you.
     
    I thumbed a message back.
     
    Not home. With police. Was mugged while waiting at the subway. I’m fine. I promise. Bad guy’s in custody. Just want to go home and sleep.
     
    Sean returned to where I was sitting on the bench. I turned my phone off when he got close and tucked it in my jacket pocket.
    “How’re you holding up?” He handed me my bag, then offered his hand, and I took that too. It felt more calloused than I remembered. Too many hours of cutting and chopping and too many kitchen burns and hot pans, I guessed.
    “Besides the fact I feel like the word victim has been carved into my forehead, I’m ok. He didn’t hurt me.” I touched my cheek hesitantly with my fingertip. I could feel a cut, but it had stopped bleeding a while ago. “Well, maybe a little. Nothing that won’t heal.”
    Sean tugged my hand until I was standing. He put an arm across my back and urged me away from the crime scene.
    “Come on. Let’s go take a look at that.”
    He pulled me into the men’s room after making sure it was empty. I stood near the sink and Sean stepped in close to me. Too close.
    “Up,” he whispered as he placed his hands on my hips. I slid up onto the edge of the countertop, a secret part of me stirring with pleasure at being given a command from this man it could happily obey.
    He moved his hands down to my bare knees to just above my socks and parted my legs slowly. The memory of this felt so acutely real it took my breath away and started my heart hammering despite my exhaustion. He was so close, his hot breath on my face, the warmth radiating through his fingertips on my bare skin. It all felt so deliciously familiar. I gazed up at his face, but he watched my knees where his hands touched. His eyes glassed over and I thought I could detect a hitching change in his breathing, too.
    When Sean pulled his hands away, they were shaking.
    He grabbed a handful of paper towels, ran one under the faucet, and then moved expertly between my parted legs to get as close as possible. He touched a fingertip under my chin, raised my gaze to meet his, and lightly guided my face to turn so that my wounded cheek was facing him, every touch given with frightening intimacy.
    He held me still with his thumb on my chin and index finger beneath it. Very gently he touched the wet paper towel to the dry edges of my scratch. I flinched, tried to yank away from him, but he held me steady.
    “Shhh,” he whispered. “I’ve got you.”
    The ghost of a smile caught the corners of his mouth and I considered what the consequences might be if I pressed my mouth against that smile.
    “Reminds me of the Syler game my junior year,” he murmured.
    “If I remember right, it was you and Zach against the entire Syler soccer team that night after the game.”
    “Not our fault they were sore losers.” Sean tossed the paper towel and grabbed a new one, ran it under warm water before beginning again. “You tried to stop that fight single handedly and ended up taking an elbow to the nose. There was so much blood, man, I thought you were dying. You’d only let Maris anywhere near you.” He got quiet then, lost in the memory of that night, maybe. I could relate.
    I remembered Maris holding a bag of frozen French fries against my nose she bullied from the boy working the concession stands. I remember I couldn’t taste food for days. I remember we made love twice a night for a week after that game.
    “I stopped the fight though.”
    “With your nose .”
    I shrugged. “A girl uses what she’s