A paper takeout bag crinkled as it settled onto her desk.
“As requested,” Jay told her as his shadow fell across her. When she looked up he was leaning casually against the edge of her workspace, a to-go cup in his hand until that too was set in front of her. “Don’t worry, it’s not coffee. Chai latte.”
He looked good, as per usual. The leather jacket, the v-neck sweater and dark jeans, his hair slightly wind-tousled but otherwise well-kept. His blue eyes scanned her face and then moved downward.
“Nice scarf,” he said. It sounded perfectly innocent, but Nina could tell that he knew.
“Oh, you like it? They come in handy when you don’t want coworkers to gossip too much,” There was some sass to her tone, but not overly much. Nina was frustrated with him, not actually angry. Jay basically embodied the term playing hard to get, and she enjoyed the game. …most of the time.
Before she started in on a lecture he well deserved she had a swallow of the chai and immediately felt the tiniest bit better. She was always starving by lunch time, since she never bothered with breakfast. Nina went rummaging through the paper bag.
“Why on earth would you send me a rope tying professor? Are you really that afraid of going on a date with me yourself?”
“I thought you’d like him,” Jay said. “Looks like I was right.”
She hadn’t even told him her favorite sandwich, but somehow he’d managed to hit the nail on the head on that, too. There was a half cup of butternut squash soup to go with it, and a small bag of potato chips.
“Do you ever properly feed yourself?” he wanted to know, watching her tear open her food. “I get that you don’t want to cook for one person, but that’s no excuse to skip meals.”
“I can sleep more if I skip breakfast,” she defended after swallowing a bite of sandwich. There was no doubt that she could pack it all away in the span of five minutes, but it seemed she’d be too busy fussing at him.
“This is not about me!” she wagged a finger at him. “This about you going out of your way to find me someone I’d genuinely want to see again. Were you hoping I’d get bedazzled by him and forget that I like you? Because I can like two people at once. And I have all kinds of new ideas now. Filthy ideas, Jay!”
Suddenly Nina realized her volume was way too high for the office and she quickly slapped her hand over her mouth. She leaned in her chair to peer around at the other desks and off to where the rows of shelves stood. Most all of her coworkers had left for lunch. They tended to head off to one of the student cafeterias, or out somewhere fancy instead of eating in the office. Nina herself was only there for lunch because it was a convenient place to yell at Jay.
Despite her shouting, Jay was grinning at her when she turned back around.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” He leaned across the desk to brush a crumb off of her cheek with his thumb. “Are you sure you’re not mad because you think you can’t have what you want?”
Before she could answer, he straightened up again, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Dane’s my friend,” he explained patiently. “You’re also my friend. I thought you two had potential. And I thought it would be good for both of you to meet. He needed someone to give him a push to actually join the scene, and you… You needed to see a newbie get hooked by their first point of contact in the lifestyle.”
“I am definitely mad because I’m not getting what I want,” she grumbled back. And what a revelation to have. What a bratty little punk way for her to feel! When did she go from never asking, to now demanding and expecting things to go her way? Not only was she a nymphomaniac, she was turning into Tabby. Nina had officially lost her mind somewhere.
Several more bites of her sandwich disappear while she tried to dissect the rest of his statement.
“Why?” she finally asked, sighing as she leaned back in her chair. “What do you mean by me needing to see? Because if you’re going to tell me that people are easily caught up and swept away by their first experiences, I know. Boy, do I know.”
“Do you?” Jay’s eyes were piercing. “Then you should know why I wanted to make a point.”
“Did you ask me here for any other reason than to pout at me?” he asked, circling around her desk and taking a seat on the edge. There was an amused little smile on his face as he reached out and toyed with the end of her scarf. “Or was that about it?”
“Hrm,” was her simply huffy reply. Nina finished off her sandwich and licked the salt and little bit of mayo from her fingers before she was after the soup. She would’ve been happy with just the sandwich alone, but butternut squash was such the perfect companion to turkey on rye and she drank it straight from the cup.
Despite all of her fussing, Nina understood why Jay was being difficult. He wasn’t actually being difficult, really. He was a natural caretaker sort of person who also was such a Daddy, that it wouldn’t have mattered if she was the most well rounded, smartest, capable, or experienced person in the world. Jay would probably still make a fuss about being sure she knew what she was doing and knew all her options. Even though she was incredibly frustrated by it, she still respected it.
“I’m not pouting,” she finally said, twisting her chair away from him once she’d set down the empty soup container. “I’m expressing my frustrations in a constructive way! Thank you for the free lunch,” Now that’d fussed at him, the humor in her voice had crept back in.
“Who said it was free?” He hadn’t let go of her scarf even when she’d turned away, and now she felt a short, firm tug around her neck. “I didn’t come all the way down here for nothing.”
A little jolt of elation flipped in her stomach and it took everything in her to not let that show on her face or in her movements. Nina leaned all the way back in her chair, lifting her arm up to look at the gold chain bracelet on her wrist as if it were a watch.
“I don’t know, Jay. My colleagues will be back in half and hour and I’m just not sure I have enough time. I have a ten in my wallet though, is that good?”
“Get your ass out of that chair right now.” Jay yanked on the scarf again, harder this time, and it tightened briefly around Nina’s throat. “As much as I’d be fine doing this right here… I think you’d be mad about the security cameras.”
He stood up off of her desk, smiling down at her. “If you’ve only got thirty minutes, I guess you’ll have to hop to it.”
“You have such a beautiful way with words,” she commented. Why did she enjoy sassing at him so much? Nina had rarely ever done it to Shaun. Although, that might’ve been because Shaun always seemed to think she was insulting him or being rude, even when it was clearly exaggerated teasing. Actually getting to say all those snappy comebacks that first come to mind was a refreshing change.
Casting only a brief look up at the ceiling towards the nearest security camera, Nina twisted up her mouth in a thoughtful frown. Jay wouldn’t get her into any serious trouble at work, she was pretty sure, even if he was plotting something new to thwart her challenge win. So whatever he was up to wouldn’t be too much for her to handle.
Nina stood up, smoothing her hands down her sides so the skirt of her striped sweater dress would fall back to it’s proper length, then pointed towards the small hall that led off to the private archives.
“Did you want to see the university’s private collection?”
The moment the door shut behind them, Jay put his hands on Nina’s hips and walked her back against a bookcase. He glanced around, probably checking to make sure they were actually out of clear view, and then reached up to run a finger over the scarf. His thumb managed to find the exact spot where it obscured her hickey and dig in gently.
“You’ve been bad,” he told her, though he didn’t actually sound upset. If anything, he was fighting a laugh. “Getting marked by someone else isn’t going to convince me to date you. Are you sure you really like me that much?”
Nina was starting to wonder if Jay had been lurking at the club and spying the entire time she was on her date. That filthy thought sent flushing heat down the back of her neck and she had to bite into her lip. She couldn’t recall if that were a thing on his list, but she was quickly realizing that it needed to be a greenlit one on hers.
She was itching to put her hands on his jacket and after a moment of debating went ahead and gripped the open edges just to see if it was that nice soft leather or something stiffer.
“I asked you if there were any rules or caveats for that date and you didn’t give me any, in fact, you said I should enjoy myself and I did. So that is all definitely all your fault.”
His jacket was firm but yielding in her grip. Sturdy, but well worn and soft material.
“Is that so?” Jay asked, grinning. “I don’t know, Nina. I think you need to prove it to me.”
Pulling the scarf free slowly, he took a moment to inspect her bruise. The pads of his fingers smoothed over it like it might rub off. Then, in a matter of seconds, Jay had taken her wrists and twisted them behind her back.
“Here’s a rule. No hands.” The scarf looped expertly and securely around her wrists, knotting tight.
“That- Hm.” Could they do this at work? It was all well and fun to daydream about it, but being tied up in the archives was a few steps above making out in one of the janitor closets. What if someone came back from lunch early? What if one of the professors decided they needed a particular book about medieval tapestry and couldn’t wait for a sign in? Her heart was already thumping several beats faster.
Nina didn’t stop him, though. But her voice did drop to a high pitched whisper.
“What exactly did you want me to prove without my hands? I’m not going to let you get away with sneaky things to ruin my challenge!”
Jay raised an eyebrow.
“Use your imagination.” His fingers slid into her hair, combing across her scalp. “I know you’re not this innocent, Nina. Do I have to spell it out for you?”
Nina’s imagination certainly had a few ideas, maybe even too many ideas. Unfortunately what she wanted to go down didn’t necessarily line up with her bigger pictures plans, as enjoyable as it might be.
“I can’t read your mind,” she responded, wide-eyed. Though she was playing it coy, it was still an honest statement. Nina could think of all kinds of suggestions, but she had no intention of making it easier for him to torment her. “What would you like me to do? It’ll be awfully hard to text Dane and tell him I can’t get spicy anymore if I can’t use my hands.”
Jay leaned in, his lips ghosting across hers.
“Get on your knees and suck my cock,” he said, shoving down on her shoulder and pressing his thumb into the hickey at the same time. His other hand skimmed down across the front of her dress, stroking her abdomen. “Is that clear enough for you?”
“What!” Immediately she burst into laughter, her head tilting back against the bookshelf. It’s not like the thought hadn’t rattled around in her dozens of ideas, but actually hearing it out loud in that soft suggestive voice of his was almost too much.
Her teeth dug into her bottom lip again. This one required a little bit of thought. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d done it by far, nor was it something she had an issue with. But at work? Without her hands? Nina didn’t tend to have any confidence in her skills in a private setting, being in a risky setting like this was a little nerve wracking. She could legitimately get fired if the wrong person walked in. Still, there was a little thrill in the demand and being asked to do something outside of her comfort zone.
Nina also really, really like the idea of seeing if she could get him to lose his cool.
“Okay,” she finally answered with a whisper, already sliding down against the bookcase. “If that’s all you want.”
“For now.” There was definitely a promise in the words.
Jay reached down to undo the button of his jeans for her, but that was all the help she got. He was already visibly half-hard as she sank to her knees.
“That’s all you, you know,” he told her, his fingers slipping into her hair again. His thumb brushed her bruise. “This too. I almost feel a little bad for Dane.”
Being someone who was sensual and sexual didn’t come natural to Nina, at least, she didn’t believe it did. What she felt was shy and awkward, and like she looked completely ridiculous. A little bit of encouragement went a long way though, and she always seemed to have that tiny spark of something that made her want to prove herself despite it. Once she was comfortably on her knees, she she had to remind herself she was on a time limit too. There wasn’t any time for her to be insecure.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she denied with a soft breath. She then caught the fabric of his jeans with her teeth and gave a sharp tug, finding herself trying to stifle her giggling. The least he could have done was pull down the zipper too! Nina didn’t balk, though. She flicked the zipper up with her tongue, high enough so she could snag it with her teeth and then it was just a matter of bending until she pulled it all the way down.
His fingers petted the nape of her neck.
“Of course not. Your moron of an ex-husband didn’t appreciate what he had.” Jay let out a small huff of laughter. “It’d be really funny if it didn’t piss me off.”
Nina had to pause for a moment, resting her forehead against his stomach while she tamped down that sudden flush of embarrassment and pleasure. Even if she did have her face in his crotch, him being pissed off about her ex was nice to know. Oh, plenty of people had told her that her ex was a moron, most of which just being happy to get laid, but from Jay it was just a little bit more believable. He didn’t have the same kind of agenda.
Well. He had an agenda, but apparently it was making things as difficult for Nina as possible. She had to swallow more of her giggling until she finally got his pants undone and tugged out of the way, only to find there were boxers for her to deal with too. At least she knew now, for sure, Jay definitely enjoyed her company.
“Jaaaay,” she tilted her head back to complain, simply for the sake of being dramatic, but refused to ask him for any help. In fact, after an annoyed huff, she applied a very liberally amount of pressure with her tongue in trying to get a hold of that tiny little button on his boxers.
He laughed again, louder this time, and moved to tug his underwear out of the way for her.
“Is that better, sweetheart?” he teased. His thumb ran over Nina’s lips, and then both of his hands were curled tightly in her hair. He gave a gentle tug. “Come on. We don’t have all day.”
“You’re real bossy for someone in such a vulnerable position,” she muttered, already breathless and her face no doubt in three shades of red. She almost shushed him too for being so loud, but she had a much more effective way to do that.
Nina licked the length of him before anything else, taking delight in the twitch and way he swelled even harder. She was deliberately ginger about guiding his tip into her mouth, restricting her tongue’s attention to just the head before Nina bent forward and tested just how far she could slide him into her mouth.
Her hands clenched tight behind her, among other things.
“Who’s vulnerable?” he breathed, rolling his hips to push further into her mouth. She felt him bump the back of her throat. “You’re the one tied up and kneeling.”
As if to prove a point, he yanked on her hair again, his fingertips digging into her scalp. Nina could hear a different note creeping into his voice, though, something raw and low that reminded her of the way he’d looked at her that night at the club.
Nina made a quick surprised squeak and even had to readjust herself on the floor, but she didn’t make a move to pull away. To answer the question, she gave the very softest graze of her teeth against his delicate skin, soothing immediately with a swirl of her tongue.
She certainly wasn’t giggling now. The look he gave her was dangerous in all the best kind of ways and Nina had to remind herself she actually needed to breathe. When she did it came out as a humming sigh.
“Nina,” he said, warning. He stroked a finger along her jawline. “If you don’t keep your teeth to yourself I’ll leave you hogtied on your desk.”
Nina didn’t doubt for a second that he would after their last exchange, and wisely chose not to test it. Didn’t stop her from giggling, though, what little bit of giggling that could slip through with her mouth occupied. From there she was much more well behaved, even finding a comfortable rhythm of bobbing her head as she sucked and licked every inch she could fit in her mouth.
That was about the only thing that was comfortable though, because between her thighs was throbbing almost in time with her heartbeat. With her squirming she could already feel the damp fabric of her panties shifting against her skin.
“Sit still,” he growled, when she wriggled a little too much. “Don’t you dare.”
Jay’s hips moved to meet her mouth again, fingers tightening.
“You do not get to come,” he told her in a voice that cut straight through her. “You’re going to sit here and take this like a good girl. I know you can take this, Nina, you’re doing so good.”
Nina made a very loud plaintive sound that might’ve been something akin to Then shut up Jay!, because now that he’d practically snarled at her not to, she couldn’t stop thinking about it and really wanted to. She dug her fingernails into her palms, hoping that’d help her focus on anything beyond his face where he was giving the sort of expression that sent shivers down her spine.
She’d quit her squirming, though the cost was her ever increasing staggered breathing and the faint breathy groans she’d make every time she shifted and had to stop herself.
“Jesus,” he swore, pressing his face against the stacks. Her hair was tangled around his fingers, his shallow thrusts timed with her bobbing rhythm. When she whined around him he made an answering noise in the back of his throat and pumped harder.
She felt him pulse on her tongue.
“You have about three seconds to decide if you’re going to swallow,” Jay said tightly.
That was barely enough of a warning, but Nina wasn’t about to hold anything in her mouth long enough to go running to spit it out nor was she she going to let him leave any evidence while she was at work. Didn’t stop her from making a surprised cry when he finally came or the way she jumped. Nor did it prevent the agonized sigh that escape after she’d swallowed. It was more painful staying still and staving off that warm flush of heat in her skin that any of his hair pulling. Nina was pretty sure she was going to pass out and Jay’d have a hell of a hard time explaining to her coworkers what happened without scandalizing the lot of them.
The way he was cupping her face as he shuddered through it was unmistakably affectionate. He pulled away from her and then crouched down to kiss her forehead.
“You okay, sweetheart?” he asked softly, still petting her cheeks and smoothing down her hair. His eyes scanned her face. “Gonna make it? Tell me what you need.”
Nina did not expect to suddenly start crying.
“No, no, I’m okay!” She had to gasp out, before he got the wrong idea and thought she was hurt or regretted any part of it. All of her feelings were a complicated jumble of sexual tension, an intense high from risky excitement, and his soft affection. Then the simple thing of asking her what she needed, somehow just sort of tipped her over the edge. A year of exploring different partners and positions and styles of spicy sex had all be amazing, but apparently the thing that was missing from her sex life was having someone ask her if she was okay.
And she still hadn’t come and it was freaking killing her.
She sucked in a breath and tried to let it out slowly, but just ended up with a hiccuped laugh.
“I’m okay, I just- Can you untie me so I can actually touch you, please.”
Without hesitation, he pulled the knots loose and slipped her wrists free of the scarf, then gathered her into his arms.
“Shh,” he told her, pressing a kiss to her forehead. With one hand, he tucked himself back into his pants and zipped himself up, but the other continued to stroke soothing circles against her back and wrists. His knuckles brushed at her tears. “It’s okay, Nina. I’ve got you.”
Nina squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face at his neck, slipping one of her arms around him under his jacket while her other hand rotated between tapping a palm lightly against his shoulder and balling up into a fist. It took her a few moments of sucking in a breath, counting to ten, and then letting it out slowly before her body eased off from it’s coiled tension and melted back to normal.
“God, I’m so glad I didn’t end up crying on somebody else, that would’ve been so mortifying,” she whispered, finally shifting to unhide her face. “I’m sorry! That really wasn’t about you, or any of this, I really liked this. I just-” Nina groaned and tilted her head back. She didn’t even know how to explain it.
“I know. It’s okay.” Jay just continued to hold her until she calmed, brushing her hair back out of her face. There was a small frown tugging at the corner of his mouth as he studied her, and Nina could hear the wheels turning. “I pushed too much. You need to take the rest of the day off if you can manage.”
“No, nope, you have to listen,” she protested, grabbing his head to keep it still and make sure she caught his eye. Nina gave him her best wide-eyed earnest stare. “Don’t start thinking you’re a Bad Daddy. It’s not about you and it’s not what we did. Please trust me, I promise it’s not.”
Nina pulled her hands away, but didn’t move from her comfortable little nook. She was going to take advantage of the moment for as long as she was allowed to, and if someone walked in and found them, well, that was fine. She’d have plenty of good reasons for why she looked a mess!
“I just realized no one had ever actually asked me if I was okay after or if I needed anything. Not before I got to the club. None of my dates had, not even in Shaun, and I was so worked up already it just kinda got me at a really weird moment! Okay? I swear I’m good. I’m- I’m probably better than I’ve been, really.”
That was good for her to know, because now, even if she and Jay never dated for real, Nina finally knew what she actually needed and was looking for and everything from there would be icing on the cake.
“I told you this would be intense,” he reminded her. His hands moved down her back, kneading out the knots. “You need to listen to me, too. You’re not going back to work today.”
Jay wasn’t pushing her away, either. He seemed perfectly content to let her hang all over him as long as she wanted to, while he soothed her with soft words and calming touches and just his solid, warm frame supporting hers.
“Let’s get you up off the floor,” he told her. “I’m taking you home.”