With a jolt he realized the last few minutes had been more than D/s for him. They’d been primal, and he’d been a man powerfully driven to satisfy his woman, mark her as his, keep others away from her. With every thud of his heart, he heard one word echo in his head. Mine. Tonight, he’d be sure she knew it as much as he did.
Chapter Eight
“Every single detail,” Andi demanded as they slid into a booth next to the window at Friscos, one of downtown’s most popular eateries. Since it was Tuesday night, it was busy, but not crazy, so they’d be able to talk.
“I want all the deets,” Andi went on after they’d placed their orders with the server. “The dirtier and nastier the better. Give them to me, my pretty.”
Kelsey had been anxious to talk but now that they were here, she wasn’t sure how much she wanted to share. She was still wobbly from what she and Nathan had done in the elevator this morning. She’d behaved in a way that was so wanton it was unheard of.
Shockingly, she knew she’d do it again.
In her office, he’d left her so horny it had been difficult to do her job. She’d never experienced anything like that. Until him, she would have said she possessed a low libido. But with the way she’d happily humped his hand and come all over him, she’d realized he’d been right when he’d suggested maybe the problem hadn’t been with her, but with the men she’d been with. She’d orgasmed outrageously fast with Nathan. He’d been singularly focused on driving her to the edge, involving her mind before ever touching her body. It was as if they’d had five hours of foreplay before he’d savaged her pussy in the elevator.
The server returned with their martinis, and they clinked their glasses together.
“Don’t make me wait,” Andi insisted.
“You go first. You had a hell of a day if you were drinking by nine.”
“It was eight, actually.” Andi took an unladylike gulp then said, “Fucking-A, I needed this after dealing with Lorean’s crap. He said he was too bloated to cancel his own clients, so we had to reschedule them. Then he floated in around eleven, said he’d had a hot bath and felt better. Told us to call back his fans and tell them to come in after all.”
“Fans?”
“Most of us have customers or clients. He has fans.” She traced a black-painted fingernail over one of her masterfully crafted winged eyebrows. “He drives me to drink.”
“You mean he gives you an excuse to drink.”
“Thank God for any excuse to drink!” Andi lifted a chunk of her hair, and Kelsey noted that it was light pink with stripes of baby blue.
Her friend went to New York at least three times a year to keep up on the trends. Pastel-colored hair wasn’t something Kelsey had ever desired, but Andi rocked it.
Kelsey sat back then licked the rim of her glass and closed her eyes from the rush of sweetness.
“Yuck. I don’t know how you can drink that.” Andi shuddered so hard her whole body shook, and her dozen or so bangles sounded a bit like a wind chime.
Most people would never dip a glass in cane sugar before pouring in a chocolate martini, but to Kelsey, it just gave it that extra pizzazz she loved. The fact the bartender knew her preference was one of the main reasons she came here. “I could say the same to you.”
Andi speared the olive at the bottom of her glass and popped it into her mouth. She closed her eyes and sucked on it then moaned as if she were having sex.
“Maybe I should switch to dirty martinis,” Kelsey said.
“Come to the dark side. We have extra olives.”
They both laughed, and after the intensity of the last couple of days, it was a welcome break. Seeing Mr. Newman at lunchtime had taken her aback. His color had been a frightening shade, more gray than pale. He seemed to have lost ten pounds and aged twenty years in less than a week.
Holly Newman had joined Kelsey in the cafeteria. The woman had said it was a good thing the Donovans had acquired the business when they did. Even though he’d tried to hide it, her husband’s health had been failing for some time. Each challenge was getting progressively more difficult to manage. And she confessed she’d been after him to sell or retire for several years. On a lot of levels, she was grateful they had more time to spend together. She already had a trip planned for them to see their grandchildren in California.
But as she’d driven back to work, Kelsey had felt a little shaken.
To her, Samuel Newman had always seemed so confident, vigorous. Seeing him in the hospital gown, ashen, had made her accept the fact he wouldn’t be returning.
And that meant she was truly stuck with Nathan, unless she wanted to look for another job.