King Hunt (Boys of Brisley 1)

“My dad told me your love language was physical touch, and I was trying to improvise. Normally, I’d handle that in a much different way, but given the circumstances, I thought something was better than nothing.” He bowed his head a little with an amused, sideways smile. “I was apparently very wrong.”

The force of my laughter surprised me. This rich, successful, beautiful man was just as hopeless at this as I was. “Wait, so Charlie was the one that made me take that damn quiz? Have you taken one?”

“Hell no. But yeah, did you think it was me?” He snorted, covering his mouth quickly and shaking with silent laughter. “Fucking hell, that’s awkward.”

“Yeah, it was. I almost asked about it a few times and then completely forgot about it. The quiz is horrible, stay away. All it did was tell me I need something I can’t have. Zero-out-of-ten stars.” I reached down for my glass again and polished it off, only to find him staring at me intently when I set it back down.

“Why do you think you can’t have it?”

“I haven’t been properly touched in four years. My only attempts since then were all fails, and the last time I was touched, it was with a stranger I refused to even tell my name to. Oh, and I cried during sex. Do you know how humiliating that was? Ugh, maybe my latest fails were a good thing and I should just be a fucking nun.” I laughed at myself, hoping he’d join in and stop looking at me the way that he was. I didn’t know if it was pity, and part of me didn’t care, all I knew was I wanted to fuck him so badly I nearly took it right there on the couch.

“Crying isn’t humiliating, Zeppelin. Or at least it shouldn’t be. If you understood the rush of hormones and endorphins that good, really good orgasms cause, you’d wonder why you weren’t crying more often.” He slid his hand along my thigh, breath catching in his throat as he stared at his own fingers. “I suddenly think I need to take another look at your results. How high were acts of service and words of affirmation?”

I tried not to focus on the things he said about orgasms, because in reality, I’d never had one that good in my life. The crying came well before anyone came, but I decided to leave that part out and grinned at him when my brain caught up. “So you did Google it, didn’t you? Words of affirmation were second, but I’ve grown so used to living without those I don’t even know how it was so high on the list. I honestly can’t remember where acts of service were.” My breath caught in my throat as the heat of his fingers seeped through my pajamas and I craved more, so much fucking more.

“Yes, I looked it up, but I didn’t take it myself. I already know what mine is, I don’t need some quiz to tell me that acts of service would be at the very fucking top. Something you excel at, it seems.” His voice was so fucking low it was barely more than a vibration going straight to my pussy, but the hunger in his eyes is what did me in. “That’s why I pay for my encounters. It’s hard to find the type of sub I need.”

I’d heard that word before — sub — but I’d never done any real research on the subject before, and in that moment I knew I needed to. You wouldn’t have to pay me, Sterling. I could be who you need. My devil reared her dumb face in that moment reminding me that I didn’t have a clue what he needed without proper research, and she was the only reason those words didn’t spill from my lips... for now. “I—”

Cough.

My attention turned toward the monitor seconds before more coughing blared through the small speaker, bringing both of us to our feet in seconds. The wine had my head spinning slightly as we rushed up the stairs to help Charlie. Once again, the universe was against me fucking my boss, but this time ... I wasn’t quite done with him yet.