“Say what?”
“I don’t have the benefit of the questionnaire you filled out for the auction.”
“Oh.”
Here it goes. The sex.
“That’s kind of a personal question,” she stalled.
“This isn’t a job interview. Or a date.”
Right. What happens if he wanted a virgin? Would he toss her back to Jake if she told the truth? What sick fuck only wanted to do it with virgins?
“Do you prefer virgins?” she asked.
“Are you looking to be disciplined?”
Her mouth went dry.
“Look, this’ll go a lot easier if you just answer my questions.”
“No, I’m not a virgin.”
He looked relieved. “I understand you’re into BDSM.”
She hesitated, wondering what the best answer was. On the one hand, she didn’t want to engage in sex, let alone BDSM sex with a stranger. On the other hand, she didn’t want to risk being returned to Jake if that’s what Ben was looking for. “It depends...”
“On what?”
“On the guy.”
“Do you have any hard limits?”
Everything is off limits to perverts who prefer to pay for sex. But she couldn’t blow her cover, and in truth, her mind drew a blank, even though one of the Scarlet Auction questionnaires she had signed had listed a bunch of kinks. If Ben was a halfway normal super-sexy guy, she would have been open to trying just about anything. Still, there was something about him that messed with the logical part of her brain, and so she answered stupidly.
“Maybe.”
“You can’t think of any off the top of your head?”
“Like I said, it depends on the guy and how comfortable I am.”
She felt a little better with that statement, like she had salvaged some of her IQ.
“What would you like your safety word to be?”
The question stumped her. She had never had a safety word before because she had never delved into any hardcore stuff. She and one of her ex-boyfriends had played around with rope, spanking, and a crop, but otherwise, most of the sex she’d had was vanilla.
“What do you usually use?” Ben prodded.
“I don’t...it’s been a while, so...”
“Mercy. Your safety word is mercy.”
Feeling a lump in her throat, she only nodded. Jesus, she had better get the info she needed and get out of here. Sooner rather than later.
CHAPTER TEN
“So you got yourself a pretty cute chick,” Jason said to Ben as they stood in the living room while Derek mixed drinks at the bar and the women chatted amongst themselves out on the patio. He passed Ben a joint.