At least, for me he wasn’t.
I had to admit, I was titillated. My eyes kept darting around the room, taking in its wonders as I settled back into the leather chair. I could feel his eyes on me as he sat on the ottoman in front of me, his stature growing tall as he straightened out his back. I had no idea what type of world I was stepping into. Hell, I didn’t even know how much of this stuff was supposed to come into play. The ropes and chains that donned the walls and the toys that hung up on hooks were things I didn’t even recognize.
But then my eyes fell on a line of paddles that were affixed to the wall just beyond the dark prince’s shoulder and I started to shiver.
The intensity of the moment was too much to bear. I could feel my entire body trembling in the leather chair as a chill shot down my spine. The intensity of the man before me, surrounded by the chilling intensity of the room he’d led me into, bubbled something in the pit of my gut I’d never felt before.
I wished I could define it but all it did was bring tears to my eyes.
“Why are you here?”
His voice ripped me from my trance and I paused, attempting to formulate my answer. My watery gaze connected back with his but, if he caught it, he didn’t show it. I felt a tear trail down my cheek as a shuddering breath left my lips and, for the first time in my life, I honestly didn’t know what to say.
Why in the world was I here?
“Well,” I said breathlessly. “My friend, um, brought me here.”
But all he did was stare at me and I got the feeling that my shaking sentence hadn’t been enough for him.
“She, uh… invited me to… to New York. To see her. For the weekend. I, uh, haven’t seen her since culinary school and I’d missed her. I’m from a small town near the Poconos and I don’t really get to the city often. At least, since I left school. After, well… after everything happened.”
I felt like an idiot, stammering on like a childish schoolgirl, while this poised man held his hungry gaze on my face. I felt my words trail off as another silent tear cascaded down my cheek and, in a split second, I felt his fingertips graze my skin.
This thumb was wiping away my tear trails before his hand cupped my cheek, bringing my gaze back to his.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Why are you here now? With me?”
I felt my cheeks heat up with his touch as I involuntarily nuzzled into his palm. I had no idea why I was here with him, so I simply stayed silent.
“It’s very clear you’re inexperienced,” he said.
“I’m sorry.”
His hand rushed to my chin, clenching it tightly, and I yelped; not in pain, but in surprise.
“Never be sorry for something like that.” It was as if his voice had dropped an entire octave and I could feel a throbbing between my legs. I wanted him to use that voice again. I didn’t know why and I didn’t know for what, but all I wanted to do was hear those notes grace my eardrums again.
He released my chin and I let out the breath I was holding, waiting for him to say something else.
Anything else.
“Have you ever been spanked before?” he asked.
“You caught me staring at those paddles,” I said.
“You’ve been caught in nothing,” he said. “I’m merely studying you.”
I shook my head slowly, answering his question as that devilish grin reappeared upon his cheeks. I had to be honest with him. If there was anything this man needed to know, it was the secret I kept hidden away from the world.
The secret my friends constantly teased me about.
“I’ve never had sex, much less been introduced to any of this,” I said.
I heard him take in a sharp breath of air and my eyes flew back up to his. I’d folded my hands in my lap, ashamed of the woman he’d decided to waste his time on. No man of his expertise and his sexual appetite would ever want to be with someone who truly didn’t understand what they were doing, and I knew he would cast me out, consider me a lost cause, and force me to find my way back to the dance floor.
But the way his eyes held my body in its silent clutch, I got the feeling that my statement had intrigued him more.
“And yet you came here with me?” he asked. “Has your curiosity overwhelmed your sense of danger?”