Both Kai’s company and Valhalla emptied out in the second half of December, giving us plenty of leeway to sneak around to our hearts’ content. Everyone had fled to St. Moritz or St. Barth’s, but we avoided the city hotspots out of an abundance of caution.
Instead, we made good use of my bed—the one furniture item I’d splurged on—and the club’s various nooks and crannies. Occasionally, we indulged in out-of-the-way date destinations: the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, tiny dumpling and tea shops in Flushing, an underground comedy show in Harlem.
They were areas I would’ve never visited on my own due to time and distance, and I loved exploring them with Kai. However, my favorite spot was still, hands down, the place where it all began.
I stepped into our secret room. The bookcase clicked shut behind me, and my heart fluttered when I saw Kai was already there. He sat in the armchair, reading one of those boring classics he loved so much. In his shirt and suspenders, with the sleeves rolled up and his glasses perched on the end of his nose, he looked like the world’s sexiest professor.
“If my lecturers looked like you in college, I would’ve spent way more time in class instead of playing hooky at the beach,” I said.
Kai saved his spot with a bookmark and set the book aside before glancing up. “Hooky at the beach?” he said with a disordinate amount of interest. “I don’t suppose you have photos of you there to back up your claim. For verification purposes, of course.”
“Of course,” I said in a solemn tone. “No photos, but I have something better.” I swept a hand over my front. “I found this trench at my favorite vintage store. Looks appropriately spyish, don’t you think? Perfect for sneaking around.”
Kai looked disappointed. “I suppose,” he said dubiously. “It’s certainly…a style.”
“Hmm.” I tilted my head with a thoughtful frown. “Perhaps you’ll like it more when you see what I’m wearing underneath…”
I untied my belt, revealing the black lace-and-silk teddy I’d changed into after my shift. It retailed for a mind-boggling price, but thanks to Vivian, I had an evergreen friends and family discount at Delamonte, one of the luxury brands in Dante’s portfolio.
Kai stilled, his gaze fastening on the flimsy material like a predator locking onto prey.
The coat fell to the floor as I walked toward him, my heels gliding with ease over the plush carpet.
“I thought we could play a game today.” I straddled his lap and wrapped my arms around his neck.
“What type of game?” He sounded remarkably calm, but his breathing accelerated when I pressed my mouth to his jaw.
“The one where you’re not allowed to touch me until you come.” I kissed my way down his neck to the hollow of his throat. He smelled so delicious I wanted to wrap him around me like a blanket. “If you do, you lose, and you have to read only books of my choosing for a month.”
Kai was so stressed about DigiStream and work. Hopefully this would loosen him up.
“And if I win?” The words turned smoky in the thickening air.
“If you win…” I hooked my fingers around his suspenders and straightened. “I’ll do whatever you want for twenty-four hours.”
His eyes gleamed with dark interest. “Whatever I want?”
A streak of fear mixed with a potent shot of arousal. “Yes.”
It wasn’t an offer I would’ve given anyone else, but I trusted him. He wouldn’t take advantage of the situation.
Besides, I had no intention of losing.
Kai leaned back. A shutter fell over his expression as he observed me with the detached interest of a professor examining a student or a king observing a peasant.
Do your best, his eyes challenged.
My heart thrummed behind my ribcage as I released his suspenders and slid his shirt buttons from their plackets. Slowly, one by one, until his torso was bared and I could taste the heat of his bare skin.
Our breaths and the soft ticks of the clock filled the room.
Kai possessed the mind of a scholar but the body of an athlete. Lean and chiseled, its sleek muscles the result of boxing instead of gym work.
I flicked my tongue against his nipple and smiled at his resulting shudder.
I continued my journey down the defined ridges of his chest and abs until I reached his belt. It took me less than a minute to remove the barriers and free him from his confines.
His cock sprang out, thick and veined and already leaking precum. My mouth watered at the memory of how it tasted and felt.
“God, I can’t wait to take you down my throat,” I said huskily.
I stacked my hands on his impressive length and swirled my tongue around the head, savoring the shudder that ran through his body.
I loved giving blow jobs to Kai. Nothing turned me on more than seeing him lose control and knowing I was the one in charge of his pleasure. I could give, take, and withhold as I pleased.
I had no intention of withholding today.
I bobbed my head up and down, licking and sucking and taking him deeper each time. I looked up, the ball of heat in my stomach coiling tight at the naked intensity on Kai’s face. His jaw clenched so tight I could see the muscle spasm.
Deeper…deeper…
His cock hit the back of my throat. I choked, my eyes watering as my gag reflex kicked in. Drool leaked from the corners of my mouth and dripped down my chin.
My clit throbbed in time with my escalating pulse. I desperately wanted to touch myself, but if I did, I’d cave and beg for him to fuck me again.
Kai’s knuckles turned white around the armrests. He hadn’t made a sound since the game started. There was something so fucking hot about the wet, sloppy sounds of my blowjob filling the silence while he so clearly strained against the leash of his control.
Spots danced in front of my vision, and I finally pulled back with a gasp. Oxygen flooded my lungs, making me light-headed, but it evaporated again at Kai’s next words.
“I didn’t say you could pull back.” His voice carried a preternatural calm. “Keep sucking, Isabella.”
The command poured through me like molten lava. I was supposed to be the one calling the shots, but my resistance disintegrated before it even fully formed.
I obeyed, taking him to the hilt again.
“Fuck.” His groan ran straight to the ache building between my legs. “Just like that, sweetheart. You take my cock so beautifully.”
He didn’t touch me, but his words of encouragement acted in his stead. They were a fist in my hair, guiding me up and down with increasing speed. They were hands on my breasts and fingers manipulating my clit until my wetness matched the mess of tears, drool, and precum smearing my face.
Kai’s head tilted back. The tendons in his neck strained, and his harsh breaths mingled with my chokes and gurgles until he finally came down my throat.
“Swallow every drop. That’s it.” His fingers tangled in my hair. “You look so pretty on your knees with your mouth full of my cum.”
I moaned. A tiny beacon of pride glowed in my chest, and it was only after I swallowed thoroughly that I sat back on my haunches.
“Good girl,” Kai murmured, smoothing a hand over my head.
The pride glowed brighter, but not enough to make me forget the purpose of the game.
“You touched me,” I breathed, my voice raw from my exertions. “At the end. You lost.”
Amusement leaked into his gaze. “I touched you after I came, love. Which means I won.”
“That’s…” I faltered, unsure. I’d been so lost in my ministrations I hadn’t paid attention to the timing.
Kai tightened his grip on my hair before releasing it. “Pick a book.”
“What?” I blinked, disoriented by the sudden and baffling change in topic.
“A book.” He nodded at the leather-bound tomes lining the shelves. “Pick one.”
Curiosity compelled me to select a book at random.
“Open it.”
I opened it to a page in the middle. Coincidentally, I’d chosen Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, one of the few classics I enjoyed.
“Now bend over the couch and spread your legs.”
My confusion ramped up even as heat crawled through my blood, lighting me on fire. In this position, I was bared to him, the tiny scraps of my lingerie doing little to hide my swollen arousal or the juices drenching my thighs.
“We’re going to play a new game.” Kai stepped behind me. “It’s simple. If you can read a full page out loud without stopping or stuttering, I’ll let you come.”
“What…” I gasped when he slipped the flimsy silk to the side and brushed a feather over my clit. Where the hell did he get a feather?
Another brush, and where he found it suddenly didn’t matter.
A moan climbed up my throat. I tried to push back against him, but his other hand braced my hip, forcing me to still.
“Start reading, Isabella.” Iron underlaid his voice. “Or we’ll be here all day.”
He’s sadistic. That was the only thought running through my mind as I attempted to read the page while he tortured me with the feather. It was firm enough to spark jolts of pleasure but too flexible to induce an orgasm no matter how much I bucked and ground against it.
“Mr. Darcy, with grave propriety, requested…” The feather brushed a particularly sensitive spot, and my sentence trailed off with a whimper. Tiny shivers rippled down my spine.
They turned into a shocked yelp when Kai’s palm landed on my bare ass with a sharp slap. There was a breath-rattling sting of pain, followed by a slow bloom of heat.
“Start over,” he ordered with the stern command of an unforgiving professor.
I did, but I never made it more than two paragraphs before I paused or stuttered. Every mistake earned me another slap until my eyes welled with tears and I squirmed with mindless abandon. Pain and pleasure blurred into one delicious, agonizing burn.
I was barely paying attention to the text anymore. It got to the point where every word out of my mouth alternated with a hard spank.
“Please,” I sobbed. “I can’t…I need…”
“Yes, you can.” Kai’s voice was as unyielding as his punishment. He shoved two fingers into my dripping, exposed cunt.
Oh God. My insides knotted; my breaths came out in heavy, whining pants. So close. If he would only move. I would…I could…
“Unless you’re messing up on purpose.” He kept pushing until he was knuckles deep inside me. “Does this turn you on, Isabella? Getting bent over and punished like a dirty schoolgirl?”
“No. Yes. I don’t know,” I moaned, too dizzy and turned on to think properly. Tears leaked down my cheeks when he twisted and curled his fingers inside. I bucked again, but it was no use. I couldn’t get enough friction to light the simmering fuse in my stomach. “I need to come…let me come…please.”
But no matter how much I begged and pleaded, Kai refused to yield.
“You can come once you complete your assignment. That’s the game.” He withdrew his hand and resumed his exquisite, feathery torture. “You like those, don’t you? Now start from the top.”
I didn’t know how, but eventually, I mustered enough willpower and presence of mind to read the page without messing up. The words poured out, faster and faster, before reaching a breathless crescendo on the last sentence.
Kai’s fingers slammed inside me again. His thumb pressed against my clit, and his other hand delivered a sharp, final slap on my ass.
My orgasm ripped through me in one brutal, mind-numbing tear. My entire body bowed from the intensity; bursts of light exploded behind my eyes as the book clattered out of my limp hands and hit the cushion with a faint thud.
When I floated back down an eternity later, I was still racked with shudders from how hard I came. The echoes of my screams lingered in the air, bringing a wash of mortification to my cheeks.
“Perfect.” Kai’s voice softened. He was himself again, not the cruel, demanding master who’d forced me to dance on the razor’s edge of orgasm for God knew how long. Strong, gentle hands smoothed and kneaded away the burn. “I knew you could do it. A-plus work, Ms. Valencia.”
“Fuck you,” I mumbled, too spent to infuse my words with much venom. “I can never read Austen the same way again.”
Kai turned me around and pressed a smiling kiss on my pout. “Look on the bright side. Whenever you come across an obstacle, you know it can’t be harder than reading a full page of Pride and Prejudice out loud while someone’s trying to make you come.”
A simultaneous laugh and groan slipped past my lips. “You’re the only person I know who can turn sex into some weird motivational life lesson.”
“It’s a special talent, along with my fluent command of Latin and ability to produce amazing orgasms.”
“Huh. I don’t know about amazing…”
I squealed when he picked me up and tossed me on the couch. “Do you need another lesson?” he threatened, his eyes dancing with a playful light that made my heart melt. Sex and banter aside, my favorite version of Kai was the relaxed, comfortable one. He was so stressed all the time, and it made me happy to see him happy.
“Maybe. I’ve never been great at school.” He didn’t resist when I pulled him down next to me and draped an arm and leg over him like he was a giant teddy bear. Drowsiness hit with the suddenness of a lightning bolt. I yawned and snuggled closer to him. “But let’s…” Another yawn. “Rest first. Have to recharge.” I mumbled the last sentence into his chest.
Kai and I settled into a comfortable silence. The past few weeks had been a whirlwind of mind-blowing sex and swoonworthy dates, but they didn’t hold a candle to the quiet moments in between. I could lie here next to him and listen to his heart beat forever.
“What are you doing for Christmas?” Kai asked after a while. He played absentmindedly with the ends of my hair, and warmth seeped through me at the casual intimacy of his touch.
“Binge-watching cheesy rom-coms and butchering my mom’s traditional Christmas recipes,” I said. “One of these days, I will make buko pandan as good as hers. What about you?”
“Binge-watching cheesy action movies and ordering takeout,” he quipped. Another silence fell. Then, he asked, so quietly I almost didn’t hear him, “Why don’t you spend it with me?”
My eyes snapped up to his. “What?”
“Spend Christmas with me. We’ll both be in the city, and we can come to a compromise about the movies.”
My heart stuttered beneath the blow of my surprise.
Sex and dating was one thing. Spending the holidays together was another. My family may have pushed our celebration back for logistical purposes, but Christmas was sacred to us. Who we spent it with mattered.
Plus, Kai and I were already treading a fine line with our relationship. We were having fun now, but we came from different worlds. It was only a matter of time before everything exploded in our faces.
My chest pinched at the thought.
On the other hand…if what we had was destined to end, wouldn’t it make sense to enjoy every second while it lasted?
Don’t overthink. Do what feels right. My father’s advice drifted, unbidden, through my mind.
He’d been talking about music, but the same principle applied here.
I made a snap decision. It wasn’t what New Isabella should do, but New Isabella could shove it.
I brushed my lips over Kai’s with a smile. “I’d love to spend Christmas with you.”
