I already had the key in my handbag, so we headed straight for the elevators and rode up. It amazed me how easily just being in the building brought up those old feelings of giddy anticipation. I remembered every moment of our first encounter there with vivid detail, right down to the shape of his hands on my body. But we’d been different people then, something that hadn’t struck me as particularly important before we’d opened the door and stepped across the threshold.
The W prided itself on its customer service, in which seemingly nothing was off the table or impossible if you gave the staff enough time and the money with which to execute your plan. I’d taken full advantage, though I wasn’t sure I could ever look the concierge in the eye again, now that the staff had laid out my selection of sex toys in the upstairs bedroom.
I almost didn’t recognize the suite; the warm glow that lit it now differed so much from the lights of the city illuminating the room all of those other nights. But nothing had changed, from the acrylic panel art on the light, smoky-hued walls, to the enormous windows that reached all the way up to the second-floor loft.
While Neil gazed around the room in shock, I stepped over to connect my phone to the built-in sound system. I brought up the playlist I’d prepared, hit play, and TV On The Radio’s “Will Do” slithered through the air.
He remembered the song; I could tell from the way his quiet surprise faded into a darker, more focused mix of emotions that slowly transformed his features into an expression of pure lust and heady memory. The last time he’d heard this song, in this room, it had been the first night of our illicit, no-strings affair. He’d walked through the door to find me, legs spread, fingering myself as I waited from him to arrive for passionate, entirely platonic friends-with-benefits sex.
We’d really fucked up that arrangement.
I took slow steps toward him, sliding one strap of my dress off my shoulder. “Do you know what the best part of tonight is going to be, Sir?”
As I stepped into his arms,
his hand slipped beneath the other strap, and he slowly rolled it to my elbow, then up again. “What will the best part be, Sophie?”
“You get to do whatever you want.”
He jerked the strap down.
“I always get whatever I want,” he said in a disapproving tone. “Don’t I?”
“Yes, Sir. Anything. Any time.” I grinned.
He slowly leaned down. With the lightest, softest pressure, he brushed his lips across mine.
“Then we need to discuss our boundaries,” he whispered against my mouth.
“All right.” I took him by the hand and led him to the sofa. “Let’s talk.”
“What better place than where we first had one of these discussions?” he asked with a wistful note. “Can I tell you how stunned and touched I am by all this?”
“You can tell me anything. It’s your night.” I swung my bare legs over his lap. His gaze drifted down my thighs to where the short skirt had bunched up to reveal just a tiny triangle of my panties.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to concentrate, if you keep on sitting like that.” He leaned his elbow on the back of the couch and rested his tilted head against his hand. “Let’s start with what’s off the menu.”
I considered. I wanted to say, “nothing,” but there were definitely things I didn’t like. “No flogger directly on my clit. The paddle is fine for pussy spanking, but that flogger fucking hurts.”
A small, amused smile canted his lips. “Noted.”
“Don’t be too hard on the hair. I just had it highlighted and I’m prone to breakage. You can pull, just, you know, don’t drag me around by it.” I considered a moment more. “When you slap my face, don’t hit the same side all the time. Sometimes you do that, and it not only feels weirdly lopsided, but it starts to really hurt. If it leaves a mark, that’s awkward to explain.”
“Done.” He nodded. “And filed away for the future.”
“That’s it for the don’ts. What do you expect from me tonight?” That was an important question to ask. I needed to know what level he was looking for. “Are we being playful, are we just doing light stuff…”
“Oh no,” he said, a mischievous squint to his eyes as he slowly shook his head. “No, Sophie. I want total submission.”
I shivered, and it had nothing to do with the temperature of the room. “Total as in…”
“Total, as in you do not move unless I tell you to, you do not speak unless I ask you to…” He walked his fingers slowly down my thigh. “You do not come unless I allow you to.”
“But someone needs to remember the physical limitations of the third one,” I reminded him, reaching down to pluck his hand from my thigh. “You can’t put a freaking Hitachi on my clit and expect me to not come. No mental trick could stop that.”
“Darling, if I use the Hitachi on you, believe me, I’m not going to ask you stop coming.” He dropped his hand to my knee. “Just so we are clear, I’d like to go…fairly hard tonight. I want to do things to you that I’d only dreamed about when we were here before.”
“That’s fine with me. You haven’t been hard on me in a long time. I thought you were wimping out on me.” I tried to be playful, but heart and stomach both fluttered. It still caught me by surprise, how much he wanted me. How much he’d wanted me since the very first time we’d been together, even though we’d spent six years apart.