My Prerogative Read online

  “Oh yeah!” I moaned.

  Then his hand was gone, and the only sound in the room was my heavy breathing. I looked over my shoulder and saw Harlan just staring at my ass. The look in his eyes was pure lust.

  My heart pounded and blood rushed to my cunt. My inner muscles clenched, searching for him.

  Mouth dry and throat tight with desire, I forced myself to speak. “Harlan?”

  “You have an ass made for spanking, and pink is definitely your color, my girl.” Harlan stepped up and ran a hand over the curve of my rump lovingly. “Let’s see some more of it, shall we?”

  Folding the belt in half, he went to work. First my ass, then my thighs, then one cheek, then the other, then my thigh. Pain flooded my system, blending with my arousal and making me incoherent as I floated on a sea of sensation.

  My ass throbbed, my thighs throbbed, my pussy throbbed until I finally pushed against the back of the sofa and begged.

  “Harlan, more. Stop. Please,” I gasped. “You. I need you.”

  Then he smacked my pussy with the strap.

  A tremor shook me and I cried out. He did it again and again. “Please,” I cried, tears running down my cheeks.

  Dropping his belt Harlan slid his hand between my thighs and slapped my pussy three times sharply, hitting me in a way that had the hard jewel on my piercing digging directly into my clit, setting off my orgasm.

  I shook and shivered and moaned as sensation rocked my insides. The room tilted and once again I was in Harlan’s arms. He crossed the room and set me down gently in the middle of his bed.

  I gazed at him, hungry for more, and thrilled to see that same intense hunger reflected back at me.

  28

  Harlan laid her on the bed and sucked in a deep breath. Emotion beyond sexual arousal filled his chest and clogged his throat. Reaching down he gently removed Kelsey’s bra, before stripping his own clothes off.

  Still and silent in the middle of his bed, her eyes tracked all of his movements and drank in every inch of bare skin as he revealed it.

  It was the first time anyone had ever watched him so closely, and he felt her gaze as if it were her hands. He wondered if that was how she felt when he watched her. If she could feel his gaze even across the street.

  When he lowered himself onto the bed, next to her, Kelsey immediately reached for him, her soft sigh of pleasure music to his ears.

  He’d worried, for just a moment, that he’d gone too far with his spanking. But the combination of gratitude and desire still in her darkening eyes reassured him. She was as passionate and eager as ever.

  Now it was time for him to reassure her.

  He covered her body with his, and kissed her. Gently, savoring her taste, her feel, he began to explore her.

  He cupped her breasts and suckled at the nipples, he kissed each rib until she was gasping and arching into every caress. His fingertips skimmed over the baby smooth skin inside her elbow, and behind her knee.

  Hot lava flowed through his veins, keeping him steady and sure as he loved her. When her breathy moans turned to pleas, he reached into the bedside drawer and quickly sheathed himself.

  Settling between her legs he slid into her body easily, her warm wetness welcoming him, surrounding him. Braced on his elbows he stared into Kelsey’s eyes and began to move.

  Her hands gripped his shoulders, her thighs cradled his hips and she rocked with him. Sweat slicked their skin, and she cupped the back of his head, tugging him down until their lips were touching.

  She licked his lips and nipped at the bottom one, then soothed it with a long kiss that made his balls tighten and the pressure build to bursting at the base of his cock. She pulled back slightly, gasping and wrapping her legs around his hips.

  “Come for me, Harlan.” Her eyes glowed as she smiled. “Please.”

  Unable to hold back any longer, Harlan picked up his speed and thrust hard, his balls tightened and tingled and that was it. Every muscle in his body snapped tight and sparks went off behind his eyes as pleasure swamped his system.

  Harlan came awake slowly, his hand automatically searching the bed for Kelsey, and closing on a cold piece of paper. He lay there on his back, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the light now flooding the loft before he attempted to read the note.

  He’d come so hard he passed out.

  He had a dim recollection of Kelsey snuggled in his arms as he slept, and of her creeping out from his arms and kissing his cheek.

  He could’ve stopped her if he’d really wanted to, but it had been an intense night. Her cut and run reaction didn’t surprise him. Her note did though.

  Scrubbing a hand over his face once more he peeled his eyes open and focused.

  Thank you.

  Thank you for what? For the date? For the pizza? For the fuck?

  Thank you for finally breaking through her shield just a little bit?

  And he was breaking through her shield. She’d spent the day with him, more than twelve hours. When they’d not talked, the silence had been comfortable. When they had talked, it had been about real things, not just sex. Of course they’d had sex, and oh, what sex it was. She was everything he’d thought she was, and more. He didn’t understand why she kept such tight control on herself. Why she worked so hard to appear tough and carefree when just below the surface, she was seething with emotion and passion.

  He glanced over to the work space side of his loft and wondered if she’d checked out the paintings before she’d left. There was no doubt a couple of them would be fine with her—she did offer to pose for him—but there were two he wasn’t sure she was ready to see just yet. They showed what he saw in her, not just the surface she worked so hard to uphold.

  There was no way she’d looked at them. If she had, she would’ve woken him up. Shy and quiet was one thing Kelsey was not, and those particular paintings would certainly get a reaction.

  29

  I spent all day Monday on the phone or the Internet, lining up the goodies for Ariel’s party. With less than a week to get it all together, there was no time to dick around. Plus, keeping busy with that stuff kept me from obsessing about time spent with Harlan. that stuff kept me from obsessing about time spent with Harlan.

  Lucky for me, Lacey’s contacts paid off big-time. I found privacy screens to separate the party room into sections on my third phone call. And since I only needed two screens, the short notice wasn’t a big deal.

  Lacey detailed her food plan, and I knew it would be a big hit. Even my mom would like it. I called Samair and asked her if she could make me something, anything small and relatively cheap, for the guest goodie bags.

  “Do you want each bag to have the same item?” she asked. “Or can they be different items of the same value, that sort of thing?”

  “If different items make it easier for you, then go for it. The guest list is sitting at an even dozen, but I want enough for fifteen goodie bags. Just in case.”

  “Leave it to me,” she said.

  So I did.

  Next on the list was an actual trip to an adult’s-only love shop. Since I had to pass a couple of them on my way to work, I showered and got ready, and headed in to work early.

  It wasn’t until I was behind the bar at Risqué, stocking beer and doing prep work, that thoughts of Harlan refused to be pushed aside any longer.

  I liked him. I liked how he made me feel, what he made me feel. Talking to him was easy, and there was no question about the sex. The man had a drool-worthy body, and he knew exactly how to use it.

  Only after spending the day with him, I couldn’t pretend that I was just going with the flow anymore. This was real. He was real.

  And I was way out of my element.

  Sex I could handle. Meeting for drinks when I had a plan of action, I could handle. But the whole wandering through art galleries and sharing private time with a man who knew my secrets without me even telling them was a whole other game.

  We’d barely talked about anything signifi
cant, yet, I felt . . . Shit, I didn’t know what I felt, but it was something.

  It didn’t matter that Harlan seemed to be the man I’d always wanted, the one I’d been waiting for. My experience with men was sexual only. Working in a nightclub wasn’t exactly conducive to dating, what with working when most people were playing. And figuring that when Mr. Right came along he’d see beyond the club clothes and bartender attitude, I’d always liked it that way.

  Only now that I had a man who was looking beyond the club clothes and attitude, I wasn’t sure how to proceed.

  A movement in the top corner of the club caught my eye and I knew Val was stocking the VIP bar upstairs for me.

  I loved working for Val, but I loved working for him not only because I get to have a good time at work, but because he was also one of the few people in my life who saw beyond the first layer. He knew that people who stayed in this business too long ended up with issues. Issues with relationships, with drinking, with drugs.

  Yet, he’d found Samair. A woman who saw beneath his first layer of tough guy club owner. Proof that it was possible.

  Harlan saw beyond my surface. In fact, he saw way too much. He seemed to instinctively know what I needed even better than I did, and as much as I liked it, it was scary as hell.

  “Hey, Kelsey. How you doing?”

  Callie danced into the bar from the back room, startling me out of my thoughts. I jumped and the knife I was using to slice lemons sliced my finger instead. “Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Nothing like lemon juice in a fresh cut to make a person dance and curse.

  Sucking my finger I turned to Callie. “Hey, Callie. I’m good. You?”

  “Great. Awesome even. I hope it’s busy tonight. I need it to be busy. Do you think it’ll be busy?”

  The waitress’s rapid-fire questions told me more than I wanted to know. She was high . . . again. The small-town girl was fast disappearing in the world of easy sex and drugs. “It’s Monday. Not a huge amount of people, but plenty of drinking. You know what it’s like. You want a drink?”

  “Just a diet Pepsi.”

  I poured the drink and set it on the bar in front of me. “Come and get it.”

  Callie walked over and grabbed her drink. She avoided my gaze and started to walk away but I grabbed her arm. “Look at me.”

  Sure enough, her pupils told the truth. “Callie, what are you doing to yourself?”

  Her shoulders slumped and she gave me a sullen rebellious look. “What?”

  A couple more staff members came in through the back, and after a wave and a smile headed for their stations. When we were alone again I pinned Callie with a stare.

  “I’m not your mother, so stop acting like a brat.” I sighed and leaned over the bar, trying to get her to see my concern, and not think I was just giving her shit. “I’m asking you what’s wrong. Sex in the cooler the other day, and now coming to work fucked up . . . It’s not like you, Callie. Talk to me.”

  She snorted. “Like you’re one to talk. You drink all night every night. Everyone here does. George is always stoned and in his own world. Why is it such a big deal that I want to have fun too?”

  What could I say that wouldn’t be hypocritical? I did drink every night, and a lot of the staff did work high or drunk, it was the way of our world after dark. But Callie had never been like that. She was trying too hard to fit in and it bothered me.

  “You’re right, drugs and alcohol are common in all night-clubs, and as long as you can do your job, chances are you’ll keep it. But Callie, it’s not you. What about Rick? How does he feel about you coming home high?”

  Tears welled in Callie’s eyes. “Rick doesn’t care. He dumped me last week.”

  Crap! I really did not want to get into the whole girly-girl sharing discussion thing with Callie. I wasn’t good at it. I could barely handle it when Dee and I did it. But Callie was young, and her whole “love” shtick from before had sort of touched me.

  Sigh. “What happened?”

  Callie talked and I tried not to tune her out as she went on about how her man had been so busy since they’d moved here. He was in school all day, she worked all night. She was lonely, he was grumpy.

  “Y’all seem to have so much fun and my life is so boring.”

  “It is fun to work in a bar, but it’s also a job, Callie.” I frowned at her. “You can’t be coming to work all messed up or fucking bouncers in the cooler.” And if she’s so happy screwing around on her boyfriend, why was his dumping her so upsetting?

  I shook my head. Who was I to give advice? Relationships confused the hell out of me.

  Callie sniffed, then visibly pulled herself together. She straightened up and smiled. “I’m single and I’m going to have fun now. I want to live life. I want to experience it all and learn by doing, not by reading about it in some book like Rick.”

  Her words echoed in my ears as I watched her flounce off. She’d sounded just like I did. All that crap about living life and experiencing things—it was the same stuff I’d said to my parents the day I graduated from college. They did not like me traveling the world when I should’ve been starting a good career. But I’d wanted to live life, to see the world. And I had.

  It had been fun. But now there were times when I was more lost than ever before.

  Hey, Jack,” I said when I looked up and saw my next customer. “How’re you doing?”

  “Whatever.”

  I planted my hands on my hips and stared at him. “What’s with you?”

  “Just give me a beer, Kelsey.”

  I thought about saying no, just because his attitude sucked and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with it, but it seemed a lot of people were having a bad night. I grabbed a bottle from the cooler, twisted the cap off, and slid it over to him. “It’s on me, have a good night.”

  He scowled, tossed a ten-dollar bill on the bar, and walked away with his beer.

  “Must be a full moon,” I muttered.

  Chad, one of the bouncers, was standing at the end of the bar and heard me. He smiled. “You got that right. I caught a couple going at it in the men’s john, and Steve’s had to ban two people already. He’s not in a good mood.”

  Never mind the big fight we’d all seen earlier when the bouncers between two rival clubs had decided to see who was toughest. Turned out our bouncers were the toughest.

  It was one of those nights.

  Keeping that in mind, I didn’t do any drinking, and I didn’t push any shooters. Callie bounced up to the bar with an order. I made her drinks, keeping an eye on her as she blatantly hit on Chad.

  Chad looked over her head at me and raised his eyebrows.

  “Callie,” I said. “Stop fucking around and run your drinks out.”

  “Thanks,” Chad said after she’d tottered away with her tray.

  Just then, Val walked up. “Send her up to my office as soon as she gets back from that round, Kelsey.”

  We all watched as Callie stumbled and one of the customers, Jack, caught her with a laugh. Instead of hearing what I’d said about it being a job, she’d gotten it in her head to have more fun.

  “Her boyfriend just dumped her, Val. She’s having a rough night.”

  He met my gaze. “You gave her a warning last week, and I saw you talking to her at the start of her shift. It’s my turn to talk to her now.”

  Resigned, I nodded.

  Val let us drink on shift, but he didn’t tolerate drunk and disorderly workers. Risqué was a top club, and the only way to stay that way was to maintain a high level of professionalism while we encouraged everyone else to party hard. I knew he was right about Callie, I’d seen it coming, but losing your boyfriend and then your job was a real shitty week . . . for anyone.

  The DJ announced last call and Callie came back from her round. I took her tray and set it behind the bar as the last of my customers walked away.

  “Val wants to see you in his office,” I told her.

  Callie’s eyes widened and she bit her lip. “Ab
out what?”

  “Go see him and find out.” I’d already warned her about her behavior before her shift, I wasn’t going to get into it with her again.

  I watched her walk toward the stairs, passing Jack on his way to the bar. “Beer please,” he said.

  I twisted off the cap and handed him his order without saying anything. I was tired of babysitting for the night. If he was in a bad mood, I was going to let him stay there.

  He took his drink and leaned on the bar. There were no customers behind him and I got the immediate feeling that he’d waited until the last minute on purpose.

  “What’s up?” I finally asked.

  “You fucked Dave.”

  Oh, that.

  “Yes, I did.” I continued to wipe the bar down, not ignoring him, but not willing to make him my top priority either.

  “Why him and not me? I’ve been trying to get you to go out with me forever.”

  I stopped my cleaning and looked at him. His frown was fierce and his bottom lip was actually sticking out in a pout! “Jack, I like you, but get real. We both know you’ve never asked me out.”

  “I ask you every week!”

  “No,” I said. “You ask me to go home with you after work every week. That’s not the same as asking me out.”

  “Whatever.” His pouting lip disappeared and his posture turned belligerent. “Dave didn’t ask you out, and you took him home.”

  I sighed. Chad and Steve were standing five feet away, watching and waiting to see if I needed them, and I was starting to think I might. “Jack, I took Dave home because he was here when I wanted a fuck and I’d never see him again. You’re in here every week, and I’m not interested in dealing with that.”

  “What’s to deal with? We’d have a good time and that would be it.”

  I threw up my hands. “This is what I didn’t want to deal with. You thinking you had any say in anything, or anyone, I do. You’re a customer, Jack. That’s it.”

  “And you’re a fucking bitch!” he snarled. “Thinking you’re hot shit when you’re nothing but a cunt on—”