Page 78 of His to Possess
“You should come to the club tonight,” Rebecca says, her cheeks getting a little pink. “Luke and I are doing a scene.”
“They’re so good together,” Harper says with a dreamy sigh—like the thought of watching one of her friends get whipped in public is so romantic.
Rebecca gives me a hug goodbye. “It might be good for you to see,” she whispers in my ear. “Luke does a really good job of taking care of me. If you’re curious about things, it may help.”
“Thank you,” I tell her, squeezing back.
She releases me, smiling. “It was really nice to meet you, Lilah.”
“You too.”
The other two girls hug me as well. “I hope to see you again soon,” Harper says before releasing me.
“Try not to stress too much,” Emma advises. “Sex is supposed to be fun!”
Fun, I repeat to myself as I slip into the car Philip arranged to pick me up. What we did at the club in New York had certainly been fun. So was the phone call this morning. And our make-out session on the plane coming home.
Maybe, if I’m very lucky, we’ll continue to have the same kind of fun for the foreseeable future.
* * *
Philip is tense.
I’m not sure what could have happened in between our steamy phone call earlier—good Lord that phone call—and now, but his mood has definitely changed. He’s all clenched-jaw and narrowed-eyes and I have no idea why.
Is it wrong that I find him hot like this? Because I do—very much. It’s not that I want him to be stressed out or upset. But there’s something about a brooding, stone-faced Philip that does it for me.
It’s so similar to the way he looked at the New York club the other night when he took me over his knee.
Jesus.
“My lunch was nice,” I finally say when he’s been silently staring at his whiskey glass for the last five minutes straight without saying a word. I met him after work with a drink, thinking he’d be into that little demonstration of submission, but he’d merely kissed my forehead and taken his whiskey to the living room. I followed him with my own glass of wine, attempting conversation by asking about his day. His one-word answers made me feel awkward—even as I kept sneaking looks at that sharp jaw and getting hot and bothered over it.
He finally looks up and his face softens as he takes me in. “Sorry, love. I’ve been a dickhead, haven’t I?”
I laugh. “Maybe a little.”
He gives me a smile, and it only looks a little forced. “I had a stressful call right before I left for the day,” he explains. “But I should have left that at the office.” He sets his glass down and pats his lap. “Come here.”
It should feel weird—infantilizing, even—to sit on his lap. I’m a grown woman, not a child. But I can’t deny the surge of contentment that goes through me as I snuggle into his chest, Philip’s strong arms coming up around me, his big palm rubbing gentle circles on my back.
I could get used to this.
“Tell me about lunch,” he says.
“We went to a new sushi place,” I say. “The sashimi was amazing.”
“Mmm,” he agrees, his hand going to my hair now. God, I could literally purr, it feels so good when he pets me like that. “And the company?”
“So nice.” I feel a little giddy when I remember the afternoon. It’s been so long since I’ve had the simple pleasure of hanging out with girlfriends. Michelle has been wonderful to me since we met working at the bar, even giving me a place to crash, but we’d both been so busy with our shitty jobs and so broke that we never really had time to just hang out and have fun.
“I like Rebecca a lot,” I tell him. The dark-haired girl had been a little quiet at first, but she was friendly in spite of her shyness. “She reminded me a bit of myself, actually. I could see us really being friends someday.”
I remind myself not to get carried away. There’s no guarantee that I’ll still be hanging out with these people at the end of the week. However perfect the last several days might have been, I need to remember that nothing about this is assured. Philip could lose interest tomorrow.
God, though—it’s hard not to want to believe it. I cuddle in a little closer, taking a deep inhale of his clean scent. I could sit like this forever.
“Rebecca is great,” he agrees and I feel like a bucket of ice water was just thrown over me.
