Three
Rainy days always brought the most business to the store, so the monsoon happening outside the large front window made my first day on the job a bit hectic. I’d been in the store on a busy day before but without a name tag, I’d never been asked as many questions. It was a good thing I knew the store so well on my own, otherwise I would’ve been chasing down Oliver every other second.
I captured a quiet moment and began shelving a few new books that had come in with the most recent delivery. Opening the next box and pulling out the brown packing paper, I gasped when my eyes fell on the two titles on top. Pain for Pleasure: A Guide to Sadomasochism and Different Loving: The World of Sexual Dominance and Submission.
When I pulled the two books from the box, two more titles on the subject made my ears burn. I could only assume who’d placed the order, as I didn’t imagine the Marquis de Sade had strolled into Salem in the last week.
Or maybe he had.
Lifting my head, I stared at Leo’s profile where he stood on the other side of the store, helping a father and his young son in the children’s section. As he crouched down to the little boy, handing him a copy of Where the Wild Things Are, a sweet smile on his lips, I marveled at how unassuming he seemed. But I knew those black leather gloves hadn’t been in his breast pocket because of the approaching autumn season. Somehow, I knew they were a permanent part of his ensemble, even tucked away out of sight.
I swatted away rogue thoughts of Leo and our one and only intimate interaction and filled a rolling cart with the new books, heading for the section marked Human Sexuality. Each title drew my attention but I kept myself from reading the backs or opening a single page. I needed to do my job. Google it when you get home, I scolded myself. When I’d placed the last of the new order on the shelf, I took a step back and shook my head with a smile. A section that once consisted of a few books on how to spice up a marriage and basic gender studies would now surely be cause for teenage giggles and blushing grandmothers. Who in Salem would need fifteen titles on kink?
My curiosity got the better of me and I reached out a hand to the selection once more, placing my index finger on the spine of a book, inching it out of place. Before I allowed myself to slip it off the shelf and into my eager hands for a glance, I turned my head to see if anyone was around. I gasped and my cheeks flushed as Leo’s indigo eyes danced over my mortified face. I jerked my hand away from the book, but it was barely balanced on the edge of the shelf and it clattered to my feet with the sudden move.
“Shit,” I whispered, ducking down to pick it up. My hands shook as I reached for it, but the moment another hand covered mine, I stilled. Snapping my head up, I watched as Leo examined me from the same position I was in, crouched down between the book cart and the shelf. His soft gaze kept me immobilized and the feeling of his hand on mine caused a wicked thought to prance across my mind.
I wish he were wearing those gloves.
“Hi,” he whispered.
“Hi.”
Taking the book from beneath my fingers, Leo rose and I followed. “How’s your first day going?” he asked. He returned the book to its place on the shelf and I swear I saw him smirk as he scanned the line of new titles.
“It’s okay.”
“Just okay?”
I dropped my eyes to study the wood grain of the floor my black flats pressed into. “I haven’t worked in a while so I’m just getting used to it again. H-how are you?”
Leo gave a soft smile and stroked his jaw before leaning one shoulder against the bookshelf, folding his arms across his chest. He looked casual, at ease, and yet with his eyes on me I still felt like his captive. Well…his willing captive.
“I’m doing well. I haven’t had a chance to tell you how happy I am that you decided to take the job. Oliver can be a bit obsessive about this place so if you get overwhelmed just let me know,” he said. “I’m looking forward to spending more time with you.”
I was certain Oliver would never have the power to overwhelm me, but Leo was another story. I felt overwhelmed just breathing in front of him. Knowing he was looking forward to spending time with me made me want to squirm. How would I ever be able to look at him without thinking the filthiest of thoughts?
I noticed a shy half-grin form on his lips and his eyes fell to his feet briefly. “So I was thinking maybe I could—well… Okay, look, I—don’t want you to feel pressured…”
“Pressured? What, to entertain Oliver’s OCD? I don’t,” I blurted.
His grin grew to a beam as he looked at me through dark lashes, his tongue touching his top and bottom lip alternately before he straightened. He took one step, erasing any comfortable space between us, and I sucked in a sharp breath watching as he reached into the inside pocket of his dark blazer. A ripple of delicious chills scattered over my skin as I waited to see him retrieve the gloves.
“No. Not about that. About this,” Leo said, handing me a thick white envelope from his jacket.
My brow furrowed as I took the weighty envelope, turning it in my hands. Glancing up at him, confusion washed over me. In a matter of seconds, his entire demeanor changed. As though I held the confidence and power he usually exuded in the mystery envelope, Leo had lost the supremacy I’d felt radiating off of him from day one.
His hand rose, gliding through one side of his hair before scratching the back of his head. He avoided my eyes. “Maybe it’s too forward, but,” he said, “I wanted you to have that in case you want to…play. Again.”
My throat worked to swallow hard as his words chased through my mind. I hadn’t even opened the envelope yet but I knew to what he was referring.
“You call that playing?”
A little smile formed on his face and though my stomach pitched with worry, I bit my lip at the sight of his curling, wicked mouth.
“Don’t you?”
I gulped again and shook my head, still clouded by his every word. I tore the envelope open and scanned the first page. Medical records. STD tests dated two days ago from the local clinic. Leonardo E. Calloway was apparently clean as a whistle and he wanted me to know. My head whipped up, pinning him with a wild look.
Leo’s face fell and paled as his hands shot up and he took a step back. “Like I said, this isn’t to pressure you. With you working here, I know it could be awkward to… I just always try to be transparent. If it was a one-time thing, I’m fine with that,” his voice dropped to a whisper, “but I figured however frank it seems, you should know, I haven’t been that satisfied with a scene or a sub in a while…maybe ever.”
Dizziness swarmed me, darkness crept in on the outskirts of my vision and my palms dampened with sweat. His words were foreign and yet I knew deep down I understood what he was telling me. A thousand questions and retorts flickered in my mind, aimed silently at Leo, but I didn’t know where to begin. The scene—our scene—had more than satisfied me as well. It set fire to a whole new inferno of cravings that now raged in me, begging for release. Of course, I wanted to play again. And I didn’t even know what that truly meant. Couldn’t he see it in my eyes?
His word—sub—slipped under my skin and slithered its way to my soul the same way his word “punishment” had that first time we spoke. Without ever cracking one of those new books, I knew what sub meant and I knew that even if I never did anything like it again, our solitary tryst had christened me as one.
“Oh, God,” he whispered before a deep sigh.
I looked up at him and pulled my lips in my mouth to keep quiet. He stepped into my space once more and it wasn’t until he hesitantly reached out for me that I differentiated the sound of the rain beating on the roof from my thudding heart. He didn’t take my hand, but knowing he’d reached for it was enough. He wanted to comfort me; I could see it on his face. I could feel his protective nature leeching out from his attempt to shroud me. My forehead wrinkled as I watched the waves of emotion crash over his expression.
“I’m so sorry,” he started. “The other day you…you seemed like a natural. It just sort of started and I thought you were…” His voice trailed off and his eyes glazed over as he began shaking his head solemnly.
I took in a few deep breaths, unable to respond, and then he met my eyes.
“I can’t believe I did that. You didn’t consent. You didn’t even know. You’re not—you don’t—” Leo paused as horror painted his face. “No wonder you’ve been so jumpy around me. I assaulted you.”
I moved my hand to touch his, linking our fingers for an instant, my voice breathily finding its way out of my body. “No. You didn’t,” I assured him. Looking deep into his eyes, I saw him accept my words the same way he’d accepted my silent consent to the spanking. I’d never known it was possible to speak such volumes without a single word. No connection had ever felt this pure or strong. We might’ve been strangers on the surface, but the intimacy we’d already stolen from one another threaded something through us that couldn’t be easily undone.
Leo reached for the papers he’d given me, but I held them back and dropped his fingers. He squinted and just as another sinful grin began to lift his mouth, I heard the sharp noise of a throat clearing beside us. We both turned to see an exhausted looking Oliver.
“Could one of you come help me unload the rest of the new inventory please?” Oliver huffed.
Leo pushed a hand through his hair and nodded at his brother, walking with him to the front of the store, leaving me. My shoulders slumped back against the shelf, supporting my weight as a breath heaved from my aching lungs. Shutting my eyes, I let my head roll back. When I straightened a few moments later, ready to get back to work, I let my gaze fall on the alluring titles one last time, secretly deciding which one I’d order online.
***
Slipping into my jacket, I heard Oliver close the cash drawer after his final count and call out to his brother. My spine tingled and I froze when his smoky voice echoed from the top of the stairs. We hadn’t spoken the entire rest of the evening. The store stayed busy until just a half hour before closing and I’d been occupied with either customers or some Oliver-delegated task each time Leo locked eyes on me, begging me to pick up where we left off. Did he know how badly I wanted to move toward him? He was a magnet and I was iron, desperate to bond to him yet weighed down by my own composition.
“So…” Oliver said with a smile, breaking me from paralysis. “Think you might like it here? You kept up like a champ today.”
“Thanks. Yeah, I think it’s gonna be good. It’s kind of nice to be working again.”
He pulled the shades down over the front window and craned his neck to glance back at me. “The paycheck may not thrill you, but if you want anything off the shelves just let me know. You’re allowed freebies every now and then.”
“Oh, that’s awesome. I’m sure I’ll find something I want to take home before too long.”
I let out a steady breath when the sensation of eyes searing into my neck struck me. How could I feel him so clearly? I couldn’t turn around for fear the sight of Leo would turn me permanently maroon. Keeping my gaze on Oliver as he picked up the children’s area, prattling on about the newest bestseller he’d been reading, I flinched when a hand came down on my shoulder. A ghost of a breath next to my ear had me leaning into the hand for support.
“This one will do,” Leo whispered against my skin, pulling the strap of my purse down my arm so he could slip a book inside. I glanced at the spine, not surprised to see one of the new titles that had tempted me earlier. It was the one I’d dropped when he caught me pondering a glance at it. He pulled the leather strap back up to rest on my shoulder easily, keeping the book tucked inside our little secret.
I turned to see his thrilling smirk had returned. “What makes you think I want that book?” I asked, my voice hushed so Oliver wouldn’t overhear. Who was I kidding? I wanted the entire new shipment. I wanted to devour them cover to cover—dive in headfirst.
Leo’s eyes flicked up and down my body twice before wetting his lips. “Well, it seems for whatever reason, I’m pretty damn good at reading you,” he said. “You wanted what I gave you the other day, you kept the envelope, so you want the book. Trust me.”
“And if I read it…and like it…what happens next?” I whispered, fear and intrigue lacing the question.
The devilish way his full lips curved, brightening his eyes, made my heartbeat fall out of synch to hear his answer better.
“Oh, Sloane,” Leo said. “I can’t wait to find out.”