By His Command (House of Submission 2)

He fumbled in a bag and took out a bottle of water.

‘Here,’ he said, uncapping it and putting it to my lips. ‘You need to drink.’

I swallowed a few gulps and felt the stirrings of revival. Better than sal volatile.

‘Why didn’t you email? Or text? Or anything?’ I demanded, able now to struggle to an upright position against the tension of Jasper’s arm.

‘Sorry, work’s been absolutely manic. Besides, I wanted to surprise you.’

‘Surprises are overrated.’

‘Oh, no, no, no,’ he tutted. ‘You don’t mean that.’

I could see where I was now. It was the best drawing room and Rob and Lucy were lurking in a corner as if ready to dash for first-aid assistance.

‘She’s fine,’ Jasper said to them. ‘You don’t need to hang around. But thank you.’

Rob hesitated, but Lucy dragged him away by the elbow.

I groaned and hid my face in Jasper’s shoulder.

‘I’m going to get fired,’ I wailed. ‘My dream first job and I lasted three weeks.’

‘Don’t be daft. They can’t fire you for fainting, especially when they make you wear … are you wearing a corset?’

He prodded my stomach. I could tell by the way his breathing deepened that he was starting to feel turned on.

‘No,’ I said. ‘Sorry to disappoint but, as you said, you can take role-playing too far. Damaging my ribcage and crushing my lungs on a daily basis didn’t appeal.’

‘I’ll get you into a corset,’ he said. ‘Just you see if I don’t.’

I removed my face from his jacket lapel and tilted it to meet his eyes.

‘Is that a threat or a promise?’

‘Both.’

Looking into his eyes was a bad mistake. How on earth was I supposed to …?

There were things I ought to do. Think? Was that one of them? Or … breathe?

Kiss. Yes, of course, it was obvious. I was supposed to kiss. There wasn’t anything else I could do.

And there it was again, Russian leather, spice, some kind of vintage aftershave, coiling into me and binding my senses to it. I had lain awake night after night trying to capture this feeling, but when it came it was so much bigger and denser and more all-consuming than any memory.

And something had been missing from my memory, something that came right back to the forefront of my mind within seconds of our lips locking. I had tried to remember the feel of it, the smell of it, the all-enveloping nature of it, and had some success, especially in my dreams. But I had forgotten the pulse of uncertainty that beat through the sensation. What’s going to happen next?

Because that was the one thing you could never know, not when you were with Jasper Jay.

In the sensual rapture of it all, I lost my grip on where we were and who I was and what I was supposed to be doing until the sound of a footfall on the gravel outside the window reminded me.

I pinched his cheek, and the surprise of it ended our kiss and made him frown rather thrillingly down at me. He’d get me for that later. Not now, though, because now was in working hours.

‘I think the boss is outside,’ I whispered.

‘No, the boss is inside,’ he answered without missing a beat. I flapped a hand at his shoulder.

‘You know what I mean. He won’t be happy to catch me with a personal visitor.’