“Who is he and where have you been keeping him?” Amanda wanted to know, the appreciation in her eyes revealing the same thing Leslie remembered thinking when she’d first set eyes on him.
With his arms crossed, emphasizing his thick biceps and corded forearms, tight jeans molding to bulging quad muscles and black Stetson tipped low so the eyes were drawn to his rugged, sun-kissed jaw, was it any wonder both she and Amanda had stopped in their tracks as soon as they’d exited the building? But more important than her body’s quick spin into overdrive upon seeing him waiting for her was, what was he doing here?
“He’s…” What? A friend? Lover? Neither applied to them. “Someone I recently met, and I have no idea what he’s doing here. Mind if I take a raincheck on that drink?”
“Not as long as you promise details.” With a teasing grin, Amanda waved and veered toward her car as Leslie took slow, measured steps across the lot, willing her heart to quit racing and her happy girly parts to settle down. The wind blew her calf-length skirt around her legs and whipped her hair into her face. She wore a long-sleeved knit top, but still shivered as a chill invaded her body the closer she got to the first man to leave her still shaken hours after leaving her bed.
Sucking in a deep breath, Leslie clutched her satchel to her chest as she reached her car, and Master Kurt. “How did you know where I work?” was all she could think to ask as he straightened and those coal black eyes tracked over her face.
“It wasn’t hard once Caden gave me your last name. You’re cold.” Reaching behind him, Kurt opened the driver’s side door and placed a firm hand on her lower back. “Get in. The wind kicked up in the last hour, making the temperature drop.”
Turning, she pressed a hand on his chest, felt the heat and muscle through his shirt, and shivered again, this time for a completely different reason. “Why are you here?” Over his shoulder, she spotted Alan coming out of the school with another teacher, his look curious as he stiffened. Swearing under her breath, she hissed, “You need to leave. I can’t afford for anyone here to start gossip about me or to get wind of my membership at The Barn.”
“Well, I’m not going to tell them about the club,” he replied with a bite in his tone.
Rolling her eyes, she reminded him, “I may not have known who you were that first night, but I’ve heard how well-connected your family is since. Please, just go. I know I wasn’t honest Saturday night and you’re probably pissed, but I’m not discussing anything here.”
Shaking his head, he pressed her shoulder to nudge her down behind the wheel and then placed himself between the door and the seat, blocking the wind. “Nor would I ask you to, and I’m not mad,” he replied, leaning down and surprising her with his answer. “But I am curious about what drove you to ask me to come home with you when you didn’t have a clue who I was, and why you kept your real identity a secret the other night. Have dinner with me, and we’ll talk.”
Leslie wasn’t sure she heard him right but breathed easier as she noticed Alan driving off. The two times they were together there had been nothing but sex between them, and he wanted to have dinner? The small part of her she’d tried desperately to keep tucked away thrilled to the invitation, and the interested look in his eyes, and she didn’t welcome that reaction. Once she’d developed a reputation as a submissive only interested in the physical appeasement of her needs, the Doms at the club had refrained from pushing for more. She’d suppressed the desire for a relationship for a reason, and she only had to recall her neighbor’s pale, pain-filled face when he’d been shot at her front door to remember why.
“Look, I’m sorry I lied. I value my privacy. I appreciate the invitation, but it isn’t necessary. As you can see, I’m fine, no traumatic aftereffects from our scene.”
Cocking his head, he regarded her for one long, expression-examining moment that set her on edge before answering, “I wouldn’t have let you leave the club if I didn’t believe you were good to go. I’m offering you dinner, and a chance to get to know each other better, to make it more comfortable the next time we’re at the club together. Besides, accepting is the least you can do after trying to pull the wool over my eyes. According to Caden, you’re experienced enough to know why you should never lie to a Master.”
Guilt, that annoying emotion that wouldn’t let her be, reared its head again. Or, maybe the cramp in her abdomen was a continuation of the culpability she’d been experiencing since hearing about Jason Glascott’s death and Jake’s dire condition. That discomfort went along with the first thread of worry about possible repercussions for her deliberate deception.
“You’re thinking too hard, sweetheart, and making too much out of this. Come on, follow me to Rowdy’s Steakhouse. It won’t be crowded this early on a Monday.”
She wanted to, and that’s what bothered Leslie – she really wanted to, more so after hearing him call her sweetheart in that slow drawl that curled her toes and made her forget about possible consequences for her dishonesty. Because she hadn’t been able to forget him in the weeks between their two encounters, she’d be lying to herself if she denied being as curious about him as he seemed to be about her. She didn’t want to forgo going to the club again, and having a platonic dinner with Kurt would ease the way for when they saw each other again in the sex-charged atmosphere of The Barn. Given his appeal, it would test her skills at maintaining an emotional distance, but watching several other teachers exit the school, a few casting speculative glances her way, pushed her into accepting without further thought. “Fine. I’ll meet you there.”
“Excellent. In case you change your mind after I leave, remember, I know where you live.” Following that veiled threat, Kurt shut the car door and strode to his truck without a backward glance.
Resisting the childish urge to stick her
tongue out at his broad-shouldered back, Leslie started the car and drove behind him all the way to the restaurant. She’d dined at the popular, casual steakhouse a few times and liked the food, but as they parked, her stomach churned with queasy unease over her ability to keep secrets from a Master. None of the Doms she’d played with before Kurt had probed to know anything beyond her physical needs. Not that they were inattentive, but because they respected the boundaries she’d thrown up. This Master didn’t seem to care for the dividing line she’d drawn, and given his tenacity in tracking her down, wasn’t one to be satisfied with evasive answers. If she couldn’t forget him as a stranger who shared her bed one night, what made her think she could keep him at bay now?
Kurt approached her with a crooked smile tilting the corners of his sexy lips and a knowing glint in his eyes. “You’re doing it again,” he drawled as he took her elbow and steered her toward the doors.
Leslie couldn’t deny she liked his firm grip that helped settle her nerves, and the rough scratch of his palm against her softer, smoother skin. “Doing what?” she managed to ask around the distraction as he held the door open.
“Thinking too hard. Relax, It’s just a friendly meal between two acquaintances.”
She tilted her head in question as she looked up at him. “Is that what we are? Acquaintances?”
“For now.”
That smooth, confident reply set the butterflies to fluttering in her abdomen again. She tried pulling from his hold, but he only tightened it on her elbow as he spoke to the young hostess who eyed him as if she’d like to have Kurt for dinner. Leslie couldn’t blame the girl as they followed her twitching butt across the peanut-shelled wood-planked floor to a corner table. But she could, and should control the frisson of jealousy that irritated her to no end. If he was interested in the immature, flirty type, that was all the better for her.
“Thank you.” Kurt nodded at the hostess and pulled out a chair for Leslie. Bending, he whispered in her ear, “I prefer a woman with blue eyes who hides secrets to the open ogling of a kid.”
This time Leslie succeeded in removing her arm from his grasp as she shook her head and sat down. “Do you have eyes in the back of your head?”
“No, just good peripheral vision and experience with reticent subs.”
“Look.” Leslie leaned forward as Kurt took the seat opposite her. “I’ve never needed to spill my life’s story to play at the club, and don’t intend to start now. Teaching is everything to me, and I won’t let you jeopardize my job by insisting on getting personal, so if that’s what you’re…”
“Stop.” The cold whiplash of his quiet voice halted her tirade and sent a shiver down her rigid spine. “That’s the second time you’ve suggested I would, in any way, risk your job by revealing the nature of our relationship, and I don’t appreciate it. Do not do so again.”