Page 32 of Bayside Heat
“What?” he said angrily. “I didn’t.”
She held up her arm and twisted her hand from side to side, showing him the bracelet. “Violet said it’s a slave bracelet.”
“She’s wrong,” he said vehemently, putting his mouth beside her ear again. “I’d never want you for my slave. I’m not into that shit.” The distaste in his voice conveyed his honesty.
“Then why did you get me a slave bracelet?”
“I got you a bracelet I liked, something edgy and different, like you,” he said.
She pressed her lips together, wishing she’d asked Violet if they sold them in places other than kinky sex stores. “Where’d you get it?”
“From a custom-jeweler friend of mine, Sterling. We designed it together two months ago. He’s in P-town with his brothers for the weekend. He called the office today. You’ve talked to him several times. Why?”
Oh boy. Now she felt like an idiot. “I’m sorry.” She reached for her drink, and he covered her hand with his, stopping her.
“Before you get blitzed, tell me what’s going on.” His serious expression rattled her. “Don’t you trust me?”
“Yes” came easily, honestly, and with a gust of relief. Luckily, the girls were busy chatting and not hanging on her every word. “Tonight threw me off or something. When Violet said that, it made me think I didn’t really know you.” She leaned closer and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Are you into that stuff? Slaves and submissives?”
He put an arm around her and pulled her closer. “I’m into you, Serena. Do I enjoy a little kink? Sometimes, sure, if my partner is into it, but I’m not into slaves and submissives.”
She skipped right over his admission about being into her, because they both knew this thing between them was like a simmering pot ready to explode. “Kink,” she repeated. Her mind zoomed through all the kinky things she could think of. What if her definition of kink was different from his? She shielded her mouth again and whispered, “What do you consider kink?”
He gave her a get serious look and said, “We are not talking about this here.”
“Do you make women call you Daddy?” she whispered, now more curious than ever about what he was into.
“Don’t be sick,” he said with a laugh. “I told you we aren’t talking about this.”
“Oh, yes, we are. I’m leaving tomorrow, and I want to know.”
He hauled her closer. She was practically sitting on his lap. He’d never been a close talker, and now it seemed that was the only way he wanted to communicate with her. “I’m not going to educate you in kink the night before you leave town.”
The way he said educate you, in a lower and more serious tone, made her stomach dip. She loved his reaction so much, she decided to push him even further. She grabbed her purse and dug out her phone. “Fine. Maybe I can find some explanatory pictures of guys with big cocks doing kinky th—”
He snagged her phone, scowling at her. “Enough.”
“If you won’t educate me…” She glanced around the bar and spotted Harper’s brothers. Colton owned the bar and was gay, and Brock owned a gym in Eastham and was straight as an arrow, making him the perfect weapon to stir Drake’s jealousy. “I bet Brock will.”
She pushed to her feet, and Drake grabbed her hand, stopping her in her tracks. Her nerves flared. She felt like she was standing on the edge of a volcano, taunting an eruption by egging him on, but Lord help her, she wanted to jump in feet-first.
He rose slowly and purposefully beside her, his steady gaze rooting her in place.
“Where are you going?” Chloe asked.
“To dance,” Drake said, putting his other hand on her lower back so possessively he could have branded her bare skin.
Chapter Seven
DRAKE CONSIDERED HIMSELF a master of self-control, but Serena was chipping away at it minute by minute. He’d believed he had conquered his desire for her, shelved it out of reach to be fantasized about but never realized. But as they weaved through the crowded dance floor, his sassy, sexy girl clinging to him, colorful lights raining down on an orgy of bumping and grinding bodies all around them, the scent of lust thickening the air, he struggled with his resolve.
