The middle-aged, red-headed woman who answered the door looked him up and down suspiciously.
“What do you want with me?” she growled. Her eyes were the same cerulean blue as Aggie’s, but this tough-looking broad was no Aggie.
“Uh…” Thrown off his guard, Jace had lost his tongue.
“I ain’t got it yet, Maynard. Keep your dick in your pants.”
She slammed the door in his face.
Jace scratched his head. Checked the house number to assure himself this was Aggie’s house.
Who?
What?
The door opened again. Lovely Aggie appeared wearing her leather dominatrix costume. The embroidered design on the corset was different. Last night it had been red roses. Today it had mint green humming birds.
Aggie rolled her eyes at Jace. “Sorry about that. My mother is visiting. Unexpectedly. Against my will. And better judgment.”
That half hard-on he’d been sporting most of the day shriveled. “Your mother?”
“You’re just a client.” She gave him a stern look.
Just a client. So that incredible intimacy they’d shared the night before, that connection he’d never experienced with anyone, hadn’t meant anything to her? Why did that thought cut into his heart? It wasn’t as if he gave a shit. He didn’t. He didn’t give a shit about anything but his music. It was the only thing in his life that never let him down.
Aggie took his hand and led him toward the soundproof room where she’d whipped him so spectacularly the night before. And drawn blood. He shuddered at the memory.
“You know him?” Aggie’s mother stood in the foyer with her arms crossed over her chest, watching her daughter with disapproval.
“I told you I had a five o’clock appointment. Go back into the house.”
“I don’t trust him, Agatha. He looks suspicious. Like a member of the Mafia.”
Mafia? Probably the leather jacket. Jace hurried into the room where Aggie served her clients.
“He’s not Mafia. Go away, Mother.” Aggie slid the sanctum’s door closed behind her and bolted it. She turned to face Jace. “Sorry about that. She has… issues.” She fluttered a hand.
Jace shrugged and looked at the floor. He wanted to leave. He couldn’t do this with her mother in the house, especially not after the woman had told him to keep his dick in his pants. The sole reason he was here was to put his dick in her daughter. Repeatedly and in excess.
“I should go,” he said quietly.
Aggie moved to stand directly in front of him. Her large, succulent breasts entered his line of sight. He licked his lips. His cock stirred in his pants. This woman was positively luscious and chased every thought from his head. She cupped his face in both hands and eased his gaze up to hers. “What’s the matter?”
“Trey…”
“The guitarist in the hospital?”
He nodded. “I should go visit him.”
“How’s he doing?”
“He made it through surgery, and he’s awake now. I should be with him.”
“So he’s okay then?”
Jace shook his head slightly. “He can’t move his fingers right, or something.”
“You can go see him later. He’s probably resting.”
“Yeah.” Jace lowered his eyes to her full, ruby red lips. “Resting.” He stared at her lips, mesmerized by their sensuality. “Can I kiss you?” His hands moved to rest on the flare of her hips. He shifted her closer.
“Are you staying for a while?”
He nodded. Even if he was just her customer today, he still wanted to be with her.
“Then, yes. Kiss me, Jace.” She said his name like a gentle caress. It made his heart ache.
Don’t pretend you care. Just don’t.
He brushed his lips over hers. Her lips were soft. Yielding. He kissed her again. More deeply. He leaned away and looked into her eyes.
“I thought about you a lot today,” she murmured, wiping at the corner of his mouth with her thumb. He was probably wearing half her lipstick now.
He smiled. It felt natural to smile when he was with her. He never felt that way with anyone. He always felt on guard, but not with her. With her he felt… safe? Comfortable? Understood? Something. “Oh, yeah?”
She nodded. “Did you think of me?”
“Constantly.”
She tugged his shirt over his head and bent to press her lips to his collarbone.
“I’m afraid to look at your back. Are you sore?” Her fingers trailed gently over his skin.
He’d had a hard time crawling out of bed that afternoon, but he was ready for more now. “Not really. You’re not going to take it easy on me, are you?”
“Whatever you want, baby. You’ll do the same for me, won’t you?”
She wouldn’t ask him to hit her, would she? He didn’t have it in him.
“What did you have in mind?” he asked.
“Whatever you want to do to me—I trust you.”
Jace’s heart stumbled over a beat. She’d give him the freedom to do whatever he wanted to her? He needed to get her to the tour bus. His suitcase of pleasure-inducing implements was stored in a closet there. He’d been collecting things to inflict pleasure on a deserving lover for years. And every woman he’d tried to initiate had ultimately disappointed him.
Aggie unbuttoned the fly of his jeans. She squatted as she pushed his pants down his thighs. She placed a tender kiss on the head of his cock. It twitched, rapidly engorging, growing thick, long, and hard. Wanting to be buried in her voluptuous body—in her slick warmth—where it belonged.
Aggie wandered over to her table and selected a paddle. She turned to look at him and winced when her gaze fell on his back. “You’re really bruised,” she murmured. She moved to stand behind him and traced the thick bands of damage along his upper back. “The cane. Why didn’t you tell me I was doing that much damage to you? I would have stopped.”
“I didn’t want you to stop. I needed it.”
“I’m not hitting you with a cane again,” she said. “You’ll have to settle for a good paddling this evening.” She kissed his shoulder and circled his body to face him. She caressed his bare buttocks and then struck him on its fleshy cheek with her paddle.
It cracked against his tender flesh. Stinging pain shot through his ass, settling as pleasure at the base of his cock. That other pain—the pain in his heart, his soul—eased slightly. The only time it left him was when he was distracted by physical pain. The physical always hurt so much less than the emotional. It became a reprieve. Aggie struck him again. His toes curled in his boots. Again. His nipples tightened.
Ah God, Aggie. Hurt me.
Take the pain away. Hurt me.
Watching his face, she struck him again and then kissed him deeply, her tongue mingling with his. He didn’t usually experience a blend of pain and pleasure. In the past, he did his best to keep the two separate. But even the night before, Aggie had given him what he needed and hadn’t judged him for it. Jace’s excitement mounted quickly. He wrapped his arms around her, tugging her against him and deepening her kiss.
He groaned in her mouth when she struck him again. Fuck, he was hard. He wanted her. No, more than that. He needed her.
Like he needed air.
She turned her head, breaking their kiss, and spanked him again.
“You like that?”
He couldn’t form a coherent thought. “Huh?”
“A touch of pleasure with your pain?”
“Yeah.”
She slid down his body, settling on her knees at his feet. She licked the head of his cock. He shuddered, pleasure rippling through his flesh. She drew his cock into her warm mouth and sucked gently. When she struck his ass again, he cried out. She sucked him harder, rapidly bobbing her head to rub her plump lips over the sensitive rim. She paused frequently to swat him, before returning to pleasuring him with her mouth.