Training Drew Read online

  Finally, Drew looked up at him. “You bought me,” she whispered.

  He smiled, fingers grazing down her cheek. “Best money I ever spent.”

  “But you weren’t supposed to be able to…Chad said…”

  “What the hell is going on?” Chad’s strident, furious voice broke through their quiet conversation and Drew found herself firmly tucked behind Bas. She peered around him.

  “Looks like you missed the auction, Gordon. Damn shame. Well, maybe next year.”

  Drew thought Chad’s face might turn purple. He definitely looked like he might take a swing. She almost giggled at that thought. It’d be like her trying to beat up a professional wrestler or something. Chad versus her Viking, well…it’d be no contest.

  Her Viking? What on earth was she thinking? She pushed out from behind Sebastian and glared at Chad. “You said it was a game! That nobody else would be able to buy me.”

  Chad glared at Bas. “That was the plan until somebody interfered. Come on, we’re getting out of here. Save your money, Falk, she’s not for sale!” Then grabbed her wrist and started to pull.

  Drew didn’t know what made her do it – maybe she was just really sick of being yanked around like a doll with no mind of her own – but she snatched her hand free and tilted her chin up when Chad gave her a shocked look. “If I wasn’t for sale, I shouldn’t have been on that stage at all. Maybe I am for sale.”

  Bas turned her to face him, brows lifted. “You can leave if you want to, Drew. I can’t stop you and I won’t. But I’d rather you leave with me. Be mine tonight. I promise you won’t regret it.” And held his hand out to her.

  She glanced at Chad – who actually really was turning purple – then back at Bas. Oh goodness, she was insane. She gave him her hand.

  Bas grinned, pulling her into his arms. “Good girl.”

  Oh, she liked the way that sounded, like he was super proud of her, like she’d done good. It made her giddy inside and she leaned into him, free arm sliding around his neck. “Now what?”

  “Now we leave.”

  “Like fucking hell!” Chad burst out, stepping in Sebastian’s path. Drew turned, resisting when Bas tried to pull her around behind him again. It didn’t do much good, but at least this time she ended up beside him, not peering around his impressive biceps.

  “Get out of my way or maybe security might have to do a full body search this time,” Bas snarled.

  Now what on earth did that mean? Before she could ask a statuesque woman all in leather swept up beside them, her black hair pulled severely back from her astonishingly beautiful face. Goodness. Was there some kind of ‘only beautiful people need apply’ ordinance for Twisted & Tied? If so, then she had no idea how she’d been let in. She was cute, certainly, but standing next to Bas and this woman, she felt like both a midget and a dull wallflower.

  “Is there a problem?” The woman didn’t look like she’d be pleased if there was one. Drew decided then and there she never wanted to be on this woman’s bad side. Whoever she was.

  Bas just grinned at her, though, like an impish schoolboy who’d angered his teacher and thought he could charm his way out of trouble. Of course, he probably could, was the problem. Then he turned back to glaring at Chad. “I don’t know, Chad, is there a problem?” Bas asked, lip curling like he smelled something gross. “I was just trying to leave with my new sub, Freya.”

  Chad snarled. “Fuck off, Bas.”

  Freya lifted her jet-black brows, glancing at Drew. “Since the boys and their testosterone stores don’t want to give me straight answers, how about you, little one? Is everything alright? However much money either of them threw around for you, you don’t have to leave with either if you don’t want to. You can spend the rest of the night keeping me company.”

  Drew blinked. She probably looked like an awe-struck owl, but she managed to find her voice. “I…I think everything’s fine, thank you. I want to go with Bas.” She glanced at Chad. “I’m sorry, um…I really kinda do, though.” She did feel bad about abandoning him mid-date.

  Freya smiled then, one long lacquered nail skimming down Drew’s cheek, sending shivers down her spine. “Take good care of this one, Sebastian.”

  He nodded. “I have every intention of it.”

  Well, gosh, what girl didn’t want to hear a man say something like that? She beamed and held onto Bas’s hand as he led her out of the club to the entry lobby.

  Just like the auction, things were a bit spinny and fast as Bas got her coat and bundled her into his car and the next thing she knew they were whisking down the street heading toward Virginia. It was about then she decided she maybe ought to know a bit more about what had just happened and what was about to happen. This was not how she’d planned for her night to turn out. If she’d thought it was a possibility she’d meet a Viking with the hots for her tonight, she’d have worn sexier panties.

  “Um…where are we going?” It was as good a place to start as any.

  “I live in Arlington.” Bas glanced over at her, the shadows of the dark car making his already strong, sharp bone structure even more dramatic. He looked like he’d been chiseled out of stone, or as if he’d stepped out of one of those underwear ads where everything was slightly desaturated and the girls looked hungry while the guys looked…mostly naked. “If you’re not comfortable with that, we can find a hotel. Neutral ground?”

  She thought about it – that might make sense – but then shook her head. “No. Your place is fine.” That decided, she turned slightly in her seat, head tilted. “What did you mean when you said maybe security could do a full body search on Chad? Search for what?”

  “Security at the club sometimes does random searches, to make sure no one’s sneaking drugs or alcohol into the club.” Bas didn’t look at her, staring straight ahead. “Chad was being belligerent. They might have decided he was on something and searched him.”

  “Oh.” Huh. She supposed that made sense. What did she know about how a BDSM club worked?

  Before she could think of another question, Bas glanced over at her. “He told you the auction would be rigged somehow? So only he could win you?”

  Drew just about boiled inside remembering Chad’s lies. “Ohhh, I’m so mad at him. He swore the whole time that no one else could win, that he’d worked it out with the host and it’d be fine. I don’t know what on earth even happened, I didn’t hear him bidding any of the time I was up there. Shows how important it was, I guess. He just wandered off.”

  “You didn’t seem terribly distraught that I’d bought you, Drew.”

  Oh thank goodness it was dark in the car so maybe he couldn’t see her blushing. “I wasn’t. I should have been, I think. I probably shouldn’t have left with you at all.” Quite frankly she was shocked at herself.

  “Why did you?” he asked, a smile in his voice as if maybe he knew part of the reason was because he turned her on so much she could hardly breathe. Which was totally true.

  So of course she didn’t say that part. “Because the whole point of tonight was that I wanted to…experience what it was like. To belong to someone. Be…owned.” Just saying it out loud sent shivers down her spine. It was so wicked and it made her clench inside. “Plus when he told me that the auction wasn’t real, well, I was disappointed. Oh, I know it’s terrible of me, but I really liked even the idea that some total stranger could…” She cut off with a nervous laugh. “Well. And then you did!”

  He laughed. “And then I did.”

  She looked over at him, silence filling the car with a sizzling sort of tension suddenly. Her hands shook where they lay clasped in her lap. “And now you own me,” she breathed.

  He slid his gaze sideways, the car stopped at a red light. It was like his gaze was a physical touch, shimmering along her skin, reaching deep into places she didn’t know one sultry look could go. She couldn’t breathe, and then abruptly the light turned green and the moment passed and she let out a long, shaky breath.

  God help her wh
en he started touching her with more than just his fingertips and his eyes.

  Which was going to be soon, as the car slowed and Bas pulled into a strange shaped building’s underground parking. She peered up at it through the window as they slipped underground. “Is this where you live? That’s so odd. It’s shaped like a trapezoid.”

  Bas laughed. “Do you know you’re the first person I know who’s gotten that right? Even a couple of the guys I work with – highly paid computer geeks – got it wrong. One said a rhombus, the other said parallelogram.”

  Drew lifted her brows, then shook her head adamantly. “Oh, no, I have no idea what those are. I mean, I remember from classes, but not really. I never was very good at math of any kind. I only know trapezoid because I worked at a jewelry store my freshman year. Believe me, a girl does not forget trapeze-cut diamonds.”

  “No, I imagine she doesn’t.” Bas pulled the car into a designated spot and gave her a sideways smile that made her stomach flip pleasantly. “One last chance, little one. Are you sure?”

  She swallowed hard, then nodded. “Yes. I’m sure.” Well, as sure as she could be, she supposed. Considering she had no idea what she was walking into. But wasn’t that really the case for any one night stand? That was all this was. A one night stand with a twist.

  Bas took her at her word, though, coming around to open her door and then took her hand. He held it the whole way through the deserted, very industrial looking lobby and up the elevator. She’d kind of thought – maybe hoped – that he’d kiss her or something in the elevator. Maybe she should have kissed him. But before she could really worry about a missed opportunity, the elevator stopped and Bas led her out. It was strange, a long, narrow hallway that led to a single door at one end, another door at the other end. Lined with windows, so there weren’t other apartments along it, just the two on either end.

  “It’s like towers. You live in the building tower.” That was fun.

  “I never thought of it that way, but I guess so. Yeah. I chose it for the privacy. Sometimes my play can get…loud.”

  Drew’s eyes widened, mouth dropping open as he led her down the hallway to the left. “Loud? Like…loud how, exactly?” There were lots of ways sex could get loud. Some good, some not so good.

  “Why don’t you wait and find out?” he teased.

  She was willing to bet he knew all the good ways to make sex loud.

  The hall wasn’t the only thing on the rooftop between the two top apartments. They passed a set of double glass doors, too, and though it was hard to see in the dark, she got the impression of tables and chairs and plants. Some kind of rooftop garden. Oh, that was nice. She bet it looked pretty in the morning. If she had a rooftop garden she’d spend every morning out there with a cup of coffee before she had to start her day. Well, she would if she could ever get up on time, that is. Normally she spent at least half an hour hitting snooze.

  She was just trying to avoid thinking about what was happening. All these silly thoughts whisking around to distract herself from the fact that she’d gone and let herself get sold to a total stranger who…probably expected to sleep with her. She certainly hoped he expected to, otherwise he was going to be mighty surprised when she jumped him. Which she felt like she might do any second if he didn’t stop walking all sexy long-legged gait and perfect ass in those jeans and the wicked smile he kept throwing over his shoulder at her.

  She fought not to hold her breath as he led her into his dark apartment and shut the door behind them. Except it wasn’t really dark thanks to the wall of ginormous windows that stretched the full length of the loft. It let in moonlight and streetlights and city lights. “Wow. Look at that.” She drifted in that direction, shrugging out of her coat and dropping it on the couch as she passed. When she reached the windows and turned to look back at him, her heart skipped several beats to find him staring at her, his eyes saying quite clearly that the incredible view was not interesting to him.

  Goodness, it was hard to think straight with a man like Bas focusing one hundred percent of his attention on her. Luckily this wasn’t one of those moments when she felt incredibly dull – she was feeling very mysterious and maybe a little intriguing tonight. After all, it wasn’t every night she let a beautiful man purchase her for the evening.

  Speaking of which…

  “What exactly did you buy when you paid all that money for me? Do I have to sleep with you?”

  His brows shot up and for a second she thought she might have offended him, but then he laughed. “You don’t have to, no. I’m hoping you might want to.”

  She smiled, leaning back against the glass. “I do. Very much.” Ohhh, wicked, wicked. Her roommate Jeannie would be shocked. And pleased. Jeannie was always saying she should get out more, be more adventurous. This definitely qualified.

  Not to mention it seemed to have been just the right thing to say because Sebastian’s eyes got even hotter and he moved closer. It was like her ability to breathe shut down a little more with every step he took. Maybe she should warn him that she wasn’t at all experienced in the kind of thing implied by being sold as a submissive at a BDSM club.

  “I’ve never done this before, you know. I thought you should know.”

  He stopped a few feet from her. “Done what?”

  She let out an exasperated sigh, waving her hand a little back and forth between them. “This.”

  His brows lifted and he smiled. “This…? If you tell me you’re a virgin I’m going to be very disappointed in the men of the DC metro area.”

  Drew rolled her eyes. “No, duh. Of course I’m not. I mean…I mean that I’ve never been a submissive before. Not really, anyway. I tried once, but…” She cut off. “You probably thought you were buying someone experienced, but I’m not. I’m sorry.”

  He laughed, shaking his head. “Don’t be sorry, Drew. You did mention earlier that you were doing the auction to sort of experiment. I assumed that meant you were new to the Lifestyle.”

  Oh. Had she said that? It was very hard to keep track of anything. The night had been one whirlwind after another. “Oh. Okay, well good, I’d hate for you to be disappointed.”

  Bas stepped close then, closing the short distance between them. He slid his hand into her hair, gently cupping the side of her neck. “For future reference, if a man is ever disappointed with having the chance to be with you, run. Lesson number one – you are a treasure and if a man doesn’t treat you as one, then get the hell away from him.”

  Ohh, that was nice. She smiled. “Okay.” Bas was definitely treating her like she was a treasure, so she deliberately moved a little closer – arching toward him and letting out a breathless sigh when he pinned her against the glass. “What’s the next lesson?” She liked the idea of lessons. While she’d never really excelled at school, she had always been very good at following instructions. When she remembered them, anyway. She was pretty sure she’d remember every word that came out of Sebastian’s mouth.

  His mouth hovered so close to hers, their eyes locked, her lips parted in anticipation…and then he let go of her! She nearly fell over when he let go of her and turned to walk over to the couch. What? When he came back, he had her phone in his hand. He held it out.

  “Call someone. A roommate. A friend. Whoever you trust. Tell them where you are, who you’re with and that you will call them in the morning. Lesson number two is be conscious of your own safety. And never trust a man who doesn’t put that first.”

  Why was that so sexy? But it was. She felt all warm and bubbly inside as she swiped through her contacts and hit Jeannie’s picture. She didn’t look away from Bas as the phone rang.

  “Yellow.”

  Drew smiled. “Hey. It’s me.”

  “Aren’t you supposed to be out with the douchebag?” Jeannie did not like Chad. It was starting to become a pattern, actually, people not liking him.

  “Um…I kind of met someone.” She winced at Jeannie’s squeal. “I can’t really talk because he’s standing h
ere all gorgeous and stuff, so um…his name is Sebastian…Falk?” Sebastian nodded. “Falk. I met him at that club, and he lives in Arlington – ” Bas handed her a business card with an address she rattled off to Jeannie. “I just wanted to let you know where I was and…and who I was with. I’ll call you in the morning.”

  “Okay, but tell me…”

  “Not now, Jeannie.”

  “Gotcha. Get it, girl.” Then Jeannie hung up and so did Drew, handing the phone back to Bas.

  “There.” She bit her lip, breath coming quicker as Bas set the phone on the coffee table and then came back to her.

  He didn’t waste a second, swooping in for a kiss that knocked her socks off. His hands caught her wrists, drawing them above her to pin to the glass. Oh god, that was so hot. She arched, kissing him back, but couldn’t help but think she was way, way out of her depth here. Luckily, she was pretty certain Bas wouldn’t let her drown.

  Chapter Three

  The kiss just seemed to go on and on and on, every sweep of his tongue stoking the fire higher and higher. Then the kiss ended abruptly and she gasped as Bas turned her to face the glass, her arms stretched high above her head and pinned there so easily with one of his own. And now he pressed up against her back, big body dwarfing her, his mouth a hot brand against the side of her neck.

  “Lesson number three,” he whispered. “Submission is not about what you do, it’s about what you feel.”

  Drew trembled, nodding. Then she glanced back at him, breathing hard. “I…I don’t know what you mean.” Oh please don’t let him think she was a moron. She’d been pretty sure she understood the definition of submit – yield to a superior authority. She wasn’t sure how to feel that, not do it.

  Bas smiled, leaning in to give her earlobe a light nip. “Dominance and submission is a two way street. Without your submission, I can’t dominate you. Without my dominance, you have nothing to submit to. We need each other, little one.”

  Her insides just about melted. “You…You need me?” Even if he didn’t mean it in any profound sort of way, just the thought that he might need her for anything was…overwhelming.