Dark Favors

“Yes,” I said.

“What did you forget?”

“My keys and my phone.”

“Come and get them,” he said. “You’ll need them.”

The way he said it was soft and kind. Strangely enough, I got the feeling that Locke really did want me to be okay. He didn’t seem to want anything bad to happen to me, and that in and of itself was a little bit weird. We didn’t have a relationship beyond landlord and tenant, yet somehow, in just the course of the week, something had shifted between us.

When I reached the desk, I paused. He looked up at me. Again, his eyes were filled with...not kindness, but something pretty close. Patience, maybe? He seemed like it was really important to him that I take the keys, and that I take care of myself. It was definitely a tender sort of look that he gave me.

And then I made the mistake of glancing, just for a moment, at his lips.

As soon as I did that, I knew all bets were off, because Locke had woken something up inside of me. He’d spanked me so hard, and he’d turned me on so much, that I couldn’t stop the way I was feeling. There was not a single part of me that didn’t want to kiss him, and honestly, I didn’t think I had anything to lose.

So I did.

I brought my lips to his quickly, hastily, and then I pulled away and stared at him. I slapped my hand over my mouth, shocked that I’d been so bold. I was shocked that I’d done it.

He didn’t seem to be very surprised though. If anything, he looked amused, and that was embarrassing to me. Shit. Did he think I was being stupid? Did he think I was a bad kisser?

“Oh, Miss Key,” he said, standing up. “I think you can do better than that. Don’t you?”

“What?” I whispered breathlessly.

“The kiss,” he explained. “I think you can do better than that.”

“I...I’m sorry. I don’t know why I did that.”

“I don’t mind at all,” he said, reaching for his cock. He grabbed it over the pants and smiled at me. “Obviously, I didn’t mind,” he said.

I looked, and I saw that he was hard. Damn. Something shifted within me when I saw that. Suddenly, I didn’t feel like an awkward over-aged college student fighting to fit in. Instead, I felt...powerful. Sexy. I felt strong and desired. He was the richest guy I’d ever met in my damn life, and he had made quite a name for himself. He was handsome, and he attracted a certain breed of woman: the kind of woman I wasn’t. But right now, with him looking at me like that, nothing else really seemed to matter.

“You didn’t mind,” I repeated quietly, lamely, because I didn’t know what else to say, but I licked my lips, and I looked at him.

He didn’t mind.

“But I think that if you’re going to kiss a man, you should kiss him. You shouldn’t tease him with the promise of a kiss. Don’t you agree?” He watched me carefully to see what I was going to do next, and I understood what he was doing. I understood a challenge when I saw one. That’s what he was doing. He was challenging me. He was trying to see if I was really going to follow through.

“I...um...maybe?” I whispered. I’d never had anyone talk to me the way Locke talked to me. No guys ever said that sort of stuff to me. Why would they? His words were like...insane. Locke spoke like he was on top of the world, and he talked like he could get anything he wanted, which he could. He had money, and that was something people liked. He had looks, and that was another thing people liked. He had confidence, too, and that was like the trifecta. He didn’t need anything else.

“I believe in you,” he said.

Then he waited.

He stood there patiently, hands at his sides. He looked at me calmly, and he seemed totally collected. His phone rang, but he ignored it, and he just watched me. Finally, he raised an eyebrow.

A question.

A test.

Was I going to be brave?

Or was I going to be totally lame?

I’d spent my life being careful. I’d been very careful, in fact. I’d been guarded, and I’d watched out for things. I’d tried my best to take care of my mom when she was alive. After all, she’d spent so much time taking care of me. It was the least I could do. Still, it had been a lot of work. It had taken so much effort. I’d done just about anything I could imagine, but still, I’d been cautious.

It was time to change, I realized. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life wondering “what if.” I didn’t want to go home to Fawn and have to tell her that I’d chickened out. Nobody in the world wanted to think that being afraid was okay. I was no different. I didn’t want to tell her I was afraid.