“Pas du tout. It’s understandable. Your mother died, you raised your brother and kept him safe from your father….”
Charlotte toyed with the pancake left on her plate.
“Oui,” she agreed.
“At a young age you had to take on enormous responsibilities. What you must understand is that submissive women are not weak. They are often much stronger than the men who dominate them. They have to be strong and brave to submit without losing themselves. I believe you are both. And,” he said, squatting down in front of her, “I think there’s a part of you that would very much enjoy not being in control of everything for once.”
Charlotte looked up at him. No one that handsome should also be that insightful.
“I’ve never done kink before,” she finally said.
“I can teach you everything you need to know.”
“You would teach me?”
Kingsley tapped her under her chin and grinned at her. Something in his smile made her stomach clench. “Is that such a terrible prospect?”
Charlotte stared at him. Never before had she seen a more viscerally attractive man in her life. He seemed to read her reaction to him in her eyes.
The sane rational part of Charlotte’s brain told her to get up and get out. Unfortunately every other part of her body and mind overruled her.
“Stand up,” Kingsley ordered and Charlotte came to her feet.
He looked her up and down once before flashing her a dangerous smile. Raising his hand, he caressed her lips with the soft pad of his thumb while he reached out with his free hand and opened a drawer on the bedside table. From it he pulled a pair of handcuffs.
“Hey, no way in Hell.” Charlotte took a quick step back.
Kingsley said nothing as he slapped the cuffs onto his own left wrist.
“S’il vous plaît,” he said and turned around, indicating he wanted her to cuff his hands behind his back.
Charlotte took the cuffs in her hand and nervously clapped them onto Kingsley’s other wrist.
He turned around to face her.
“Do you feel safe with me now?” he asked.
Slowly she nodded. What could he really do to her with his hands cuffed, after all?
“Now,” he said, “drop the robe.”
Immediately Charlotte pulled the robe tighter around her body.
“Charlie…take off the robe. Now.”
Something in Kingsley’s voice, some hard edge of authority, spoke to something deep within her. Slowly she untied the cord and let the robe fall to the floor. Kingsley ran his eyes up and down her body with an appraising air as she stood naked and blushing before him.
He stepped forward and she fought the urge to step back. Instead she stood her ground as he made a circuit around her body.
“You have exquisite br**sts,” he said. “The perfect size to fit in the palm of a large hand. I’m sure other lovers have told you that.”
One old boyfriend had said she had “great tits” but that had been the extent of it.
“Not in so many words.”
“Pity. Also, lovely full hips. Well-rounded but with definition. Oh,” he said pausing at her back. “You have a birthmark.”
Every muscle in Charlotte’s body tensed as Kingsley dropped to his knees behind her.
“Just a little one.”
“It looks like—” Kingsley’s voice dropped to a low whisper “—the Eiffel Tower.”
Charlotte laughed but the laugh turned to a gasp when Kingsley’s lips touched the birthmark that graced the back of her left hip. The heat from his mouth on her skin spread through her entire pelvic region and sunk deep into her stomach. Just as the gasp started to turn to a low moan, Kingsley stood back up again.
“Long legs but not excessively so. Not too thin. Beautiful Celtic skin. Exquisite Roman nose.”
“Roman? Is that a synonym for hooked?”
“Oui. You, Charlie, will do nicely.”
“Um…merci?” she said, remembering one other French word.
“De rien. Now tell me…would you care to stay with me? One month. Let me train you to be the perfect sexual submissive.”
“I have a job, you know.” She grabbed the robe and pulled it around her again.
“I’ll pay you twice what you made in your best month last year. Cash. Of course.”
“Of course.” Charlotte swallowed. Good Lord, he really meant it. This drop-dead gorgeous rich weird Frenchman wanted her to stay with him for a month. And not just stay with him, he wanted to teach her how to submit sexually to some rich client of his. Insanity. And yet, the thought of walking away from this offer… No, not the offer, from Kingsley…
She couldn’t quite bring herself to walk away from Kingsley.
“I’m not agreeing to anything,” she finally said. “I haven’t even met this guy.”
“I won’t ask you to agree to anything until you meet him. Nor will he agree to anything until he’s met you. We’ll spend the next few weeks in training. When you’re ready, I’ll arrange a meeting. If you like each other and decide to give a relationship a try, he’ll pay me my rather exorbitant finder’s fee and you and he can work out whatever financial arrangement best suits you both. Knowing him he’ll offer you a room in his rather impressive home and the freedom to come and go as you please as long as you are at his disposal three to five evenings a week. He’ll have a partner who is his sexual equal and you’ll have someone who is quite happy to make most or all of the decisions so you, for once in your life, won’t have to.”