She’d played it cool, the girl. She’d kept her cards close to her chest, hidden herself behind a foul mouth and a cocky attitude. She was a cactus: bristly and hard and adapted to tough conditions. She wanted me to believe that she wanted nothing to do with me, nothing to do with my magnanimous offer. I almost believed her.
Almost.
She’d fought me when I grabbed hold of her delicate wrist, but when I’d leaned forward to drape my jacket around her shoulders she hadn’t resisted. A rabbit who doesn’t want to be caught doesn’t stick around at the first flash of a trap. Her words snapped and snarled, but in her eyes, I saw a different story. I saw curiosity, intrigue, a desire she couldn’t hide.
She would stay, I was certain of that. She would stay. She would watch. Her eyes would be fixed on me, on my every movement. The thought of it sent a thrill of excitement through my body. I did so love a little game of cat and mouse, especially when you weren’t entirely sure who was who.
Just outside the harsh yellow glare of the streetlamp, I leaned against the brick corner of the closed bank across the alley from The White Room. I didn’t have to wait long for someone to come out, the huge bouncers nodding at the couple as they held open the glass doors.
The gentleman had his hand on the woman’s elbow, guiding her as if by the rudder of a boat. She stumbled in her stilettos as he rushed her along, hand crashed to his ear like a general on the radio calling in bomb strikes as he talked obnoxiously loud on his phone.
“Yeah, yeah, no, I heard you!” he practically bellowed. “No, I—shite, hold on.”
He stopped the woman abruptly just by tugging back on his grip of his elbow; she was one or two Botox shots away from being the perfect wind-up doll for the prick.
“Stand here,” he said to her. “Just stand here and wait. I need to take this.”
The woman opened her mouth to protest, but the man was back inside the gilded lobby and she was alone on the sidewalk before she could utter a word. From my place hidden in the shadows, I watched her. This was the most important part: figuring out what she wanted. Everything after that was easy, all I had to do was be that, exactly that.
I chewed at my lip as I assessed her. She hadn’t moved from the spot her husband or boyfriend or customer had left her; she might as well have been a house plant. She stared blankly ahead, probably not even seeing the street, the passing cars, the buildings on the other side of the road. I hesitated. If I got this wrong and went out there trying to steal her away from her man with not a dime in my pocket, she’d laugh in my face and then the American would be gone. No doubt about that.
I itched to glance back over my shoulder, itched to make sure she was still there. But I restrained myself. She needed to believe I didn’t care, didn’t care whether she was there or not.
After quickly shaking out my hands, I ruffled up my hair a bit more, untucked my shirt, and stepped toward the woman. I looked around as if in a daze as I moved toward her, adding just a bit of a stumble. I saw her eyeing me distrustfully, saw her draw her clutch a little tighter to the side of her form-fitting dress.
I blinked slowly, turning my head in confusion left, then right. “Excuse me, did you see a woman come by this way?”
The woman on the sidewalk scowled in disgust at me and shook her head. I wandered a little closer and stopped beside her.
“I’ve just been robbed,” I told her, clutching at my hair. “I’ve just been robbed by this woman.”
I noticed a flicker of interest play across the woman’s dark charcoal-lined eyes. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.”
She meant that as a goodbye, as a get lost, but I remained where I was. I dragged my fingers through my hair and stared up at the starless night.
“I’d never met anyone like her,” I said. “She took me to a hotel room and, and… she just took complete control. I was helpless. The second her clothes hit the floor, I was completely helpless.”
The woman continued to stare straight ahead, but I didn’t fail to notice her shifting from foot to foot, a nervous sort of fidget.
“I already told you,” she said, tension in her voice, “I can’t help you.”
“I know, I know,” I told her, sucking in a deep breath and exhaling shakily. “It’s just that I never knew how arousing that could be, to have a woman be in such a place of power over me. I was in such ecstasy that I didn’t even notice she’d run off with my wallet and jacket.”
The woman’s eyes flashed toward me and she swallowed.
“What did she—I mean, what did she do?” she asked after checking over her shoulder at the pair of glass doors that remained shut between the bouncers.
I shook my head and let out a little laugh.
“Whatever she wanted,” I said. “I was her prisoner. I was her captive. I’ve always been such a fool with beautiful women. I can’t help but give myself over to them, mind, body, soul. It’s like they hypnotise me.”
I’d earned the woman’s full attention now. She twisted her head to face me, her dark blue eyes fixed on mine. “What do you mean?”
I let my gaze drip like honey down her body.
“Well,” I said, stepping a little closer. She flinched but did not move away. “When I see the elegant curve of a neck, like this…” I reached out to brush the backs of my fingers along the fluttering vein in her neck, “…when I see the rise of goosebumps beneath my touch… when I hear a woman suck in a shuddering breath… I just find myself dropping to my knees and—”
I let my hand fall and mumbled an apology as I put on a sheepish smile. It was the woman who moved closer when I took an embarrassed-looking step back.
“Really, ma’am, I’m sorry to have bothered you,” I told her. “I’ll just go to the police station and—”
“You’re on your knees,” she whispered harshly, quickly, eyes looking up at me.
I look away as if to hide a sudden blush.
“Look, you’re obviously a lady,” I said. “I shouldn’t even be speaking to you of such nasty things. Besides, you know what happens next.”
“She twists her fingers into your hair.”
All I had to do was gaze down at her silently for the rise and fall of her chest to quicken.
“She pulls,” the woman continued, licking her deep-maroon lips. “Pulls just a little too hard.”
I glanced warily at the glass doors.
“Maybe we should stop,” I whispered as if the two of us were hiding in a closet, about to be caught. “Wasn’t that your husband I saw step inside earlier?”
“She tells you what to do with your tongue,” the woman practically hissed. “And you do it, whatever she says.”
My eyes trailed down purposefully to her ample cleavage which quivered as she shuddered. When I met her gaze again, I found her pupils wide, her teeth sunk deep into her bottom lip.
“I do,” I said, making my voice rasp as if with uncontrollable arousal. “Because I’m powerless before her.”
“Because she’s in control,” the woman said on an uneven exhale.
“Because she’s in control,” I repeated.
The woman’s lips curled into a hungry smile. “Do you have a place around here?” she asked.