River Walk: Ten Kinky Collaborations Read online

  I sit in a chair across from him, gawking, still confused as to why he’s really here.

  “So, what did happen last night?” I ask, embarrassed I was too inebriated to remember.

  “I saw you on the River Walk assaulting ducks with breadcrumbs. I must have startled you cause you nearly fell arse over tit into the water. Then we went for a walk so you could sober up a bit. To put it delicately, you were plastered.”

  Ah. Fantastic.

  I scan him up and down. I have a feeling he’s not telling me something, leaving out some crucial detail.

  “Anything else?”

  His lip twitches into a smirk.

  “You told me how much you…pleasure yourself at the thought of our sessions together.”

  Double crap.

  I know he’s telling the truth because it is. And it’s not like I go around telling everyone I get off on pain and being spanked. This isn’t common knowledge. I’m mortified.

  “I was completely out of line.” I lick my lips anxiously, my throat suddenly dry and tight. “I am so, so sorry, Dr. Landon. I swear…”

  “Oliver,” he corrects me.

  “I am truly sorry, Oliver. I know it was inappropriate. I was drunk, which I never do. I’m sorr…”

  “I’m not sorry you told me, Mila.”

  My eyes widen like two saucers.

  He inhales slowly and sits at the edge of the couch, leaning in slightly.

  “I have a confession myself, Mila. May I tell you my secret?” I nod my head. I can barely think let alone actually formulate words right now. “The only reason I volunteered to lead the study is because…I’m a sadist.”

  “You are?” I sputter out.

  “Yes. And I enjoyed spanking you as much as you enjoyed taking it. I saw how aroused you were when I would examine you. You were soaked through your tiny, white panties. Do you know how hard it was not to fuck you right on that table, not to spank you until your ass was raw and throbbing?”

  I release a held breath. But, I’m still unable to speak. I can only look at him like a deer in headlights.

  “Do you want me, Mila?”

  What kind of question is that? Isn’t it obvious?

  “Yes,” I reply honestly.

  He rises from the couch and extends his hand out to me. I take hold and follow him toward the hallway leading to the bedrooms.

  “Where’s your room?” he asks, glimpsing back long enough for me to point toward my door. He stops and swings it open wide.

  “What are you going to do to me?” I hear the tremor in my voice.

  “Everything you yearn for.” I whimper at the thought. “Now that I know your true nature, and you know mine...consider that little study a walk in the park.”

  A warmth ripples up my spine, spreading through my veins. He wraps me in his arms, sets his lips against mine, and kisses me rough and deep, nipping and sucking on my bottom lip ‘til it hurts. I moan, giving into the bittersweet sting of his teeth, and throw my hands into his silky black hair, gripping a fistful when his mouth begins to trail down my neck. His hands slide down my back, firmly clamping onto my rear, and lifts me up against him. Carrying me into the room, he slams the door behind us, giving me everything he promised and more.

  THE END

  HOSTAGE SITUATION

  CHAPTER ONE

  “It’s just another Manic Monday…” The Bangles blared from the phone on the nightstand.

  “I hate that song!” Kate Watson complained into her pillow, despite the fact that she had chosen that song for her alarm because nothing else would wake her up. To say she was not a morning person would be laughably understated.

  Until recently, anyway.

  Kate swatted the phone quiet and shot out of bed so fast the blanket was still wrapped around her legs when she stumbled into the bathroom. She stripped off the old T-shirt she’d slept in and hopped in the shower.

  Working at the bank the last few years had become monotonous. Used to be that every morning, she’d drag herself out of bed and through her morning routine muttering, “Same shit, different day.” She had some friends among her coworkers, but most of them were closer to her parents’ age. As a single girl in her mid-twenties, she’d feigned polite interest in countless hours of conversation about spoiled grandchildren and stale marriages.

  And then sweet old Walter, the security guard announced his retirement. It was time. He was almost eighty and so arthritic, Kate doubted he could even hold his gun, let alone use it. Still, she would miss the way he had greeted her every day with, “Well hey there, pretty lady.” It made her sad to imagine the bank without him.

  But Friday afternoon, she caught a glimpse of his replacement.

  As soon as her customer left, Kate had elbowed the teller beside her and whispered, “Um, Barb? Who is that?”

  The older woman grinned. “That, my dear, is the changing of the guard.”

  Both women eyed the way the new security guard’s tight ass filled out the khaki pants of his uniform, and how the standard-issue shirt fit snugly around his biceps. With a body that perfect, Kate was sure his face would be a disappointment. She was oh so wrong, she discovered a moment later, when the man looked over his shoulder and caught her staring. His sculpted cheekbones and chiseled jaw belonged on the covers of magazines. The hard line of his mouth softened to a slow, sexy smile before he turned back to continue his conversation with Roger, the branch manager.

  After spending the weekend with that smile in her mind and her hand in her panties, Kate was so eager to get to work early she skipped her Monday-ritual Starbucks run. Sure enough, the new guy was stationed just inside the glass doors when Kate arrived. He opened the door and held it for her with a low-murmured, “Good morning.”

  The way his baby blue eyes skimmed her body took her breath. It was all she could do to whisper, “Hi,” and continue walking to her station.

  Ann-Marie, happily-married and heavily-pregnant, leaned over from the next teller station. “Jesus Christmas, that’s a fine piece of ass,” she muttered. “If I weren’t the fucking Hindenburg right now, I’d ask for a hall pass for that.”

  Kate chuckled. “No kidding.”

  “Given that you’re neither attached nor a blimp, there’s no good reason for you not to take him for a spin.”

  “Shut up,” Kate grinned. “He could be married.”

  “No ring.”

  “I don’t even know his name.”

  “It’s Glen Morin. Recent Police Academy grad. Does some kind of karate that’s not karate, I forget what it’s called.” At Kate’s look, Ann-Marie grinned and added, “I might’ve taken a little peek at his resume.”

  “You’re unbelievable,” Kate laughed.

  Typical for a Monday, the bank’s River Walk branch got busy quickly. The tellers handled a never-ending line of customers, so there was no time to socialize. Kate looked forward to her lunch break for the opportunity to chat with her coworkers and stare at the sexy new guard. One of her customers needed a cashier’s check in an amount that required manager’s approval, so Kate excused herself for a minute.

  The manager’s office was all windows, basically just a big fishbowl adjacent to the lobby. Kate chuckled to see Roger standing at the wall of filing cabinets, searching for something. He was a nice man with five grandchildren and an infectious smile. The staff and customers loved him, but organization was not his strong suit. Kate knocked on the open door as she entered.

  “Hey Roger, I need your signature on a…” She trailed off as three men in rubber Halloween masks burst into the bank pointing guns and yelling, “Everybody down!”

  After a moment of frozen fear, the dozen or so customers in line dropped to the floor.

  Glen reacted so fast his movements were a blur. Kate couldn’t see what he did, but suddenly one of the robbers was on the floor with Glen’s knee in his back. The robber’s gun had skidded away, but before Glen could draw his own weapon another robber — tall and skinny, wearing an evil skull m
ask — had a gun to Glen’s head.

  “Don’t even think about it, cowboy,” he sneered and pocketed Glen’s gun.

  Glen remained on his knees and raised his hands.

  The robber he’d put down stumbled to his feet, straightening his grotesque vampire mask. Then he got right up in the third robber’s bloody clown face and snarled, “Old guy? Where’s the fuckin’ old guy? Huh?”

  “I dunno, maybe he croaked. But he was here last week, I swear!”

  The robber holding Glen — Kate mentally named him “Skeletor” — snapped, “Doesn’t matter. I got this guy. Do your job, morons!”

  Trapped in the window-walled office, Kate and Roger had been slowly inching across the room toward the desk. Kate froze as the vampire caught sight of them and headed their way. Before Roger could reach for the alarm button under his desk, the masked man had his gun pointed at Kate.

  “Try it and I’ll blow her fuckin’ head off.” The mask hid everything but his beady, red eyes and a mouth full of rotten teeth. He smelled like stale sweat and his voice sounded like twenty years’ worth of a pack-a-day habit.

  Roger raised his hands. “Yes sir. I understand. Please don’t hurt her.”

  At first, the robber ignored him. He used his gun to caress the side of Kate’s face. Her whole body shook as the barrel of the gun lifted her hair and he shoved his wet, nasty tongue in her ear. Then he traced her lips with the end of the gun, before he turned it toward Roger. “Stand up. Slow. You’re gonna open the safe, now.” He turned the gun back on Kate. “Unless you want her brains all over these nice, clean windows.”

  Kate gasped a terrified sob. Outside the office, the clown-masked robber stood over all the employees and customers who were face-down on the floor. She saw Skeletor nudging Glen to the rear of the building with a gun to his back.

  Roger stood as he was instructed. “I’ll open it. I’ll do whatever you say. Please, just don’t hurt anyone.”

  “Hands up and walk. You first, then her. Don’t do anything stupid.”

  Kate assumed the gunman wanted her to join the others on the floor. But as she began to kneel, he grabbed her hair in his free hand and yanked hard enough to bring fresh tears to her eyes. “Keep walking, bitch.”

  Her legs shook as they followed Roger down the windowless hallway toward the back of the building. When they reached the safe, Glen was lying face-down on the floor with a trickle of blood at his temple and Skeletor pointing a pistol at his head. Kate was relieved to see Glen was breathing, especially since his fist was bloody and Skeletor was dabbing at a bloody lip through his mask. It looked like the robber had knocked Glen out, not shot him. She hoped that boded well for their getting out of this alive.

  Skeletor gestured with his gun. “This guy got the combination?”

  “Yeah.” The vampire shoved Roger toward the keypad.

  Roger’s hand shook as he pressed the first three numbers. Then he hesitated, and Dracula tapped him on the skull with his gun. “We don’t got all day.”

  “I’m sorry,” Roger stammered. “I’m going as fast as I can, but the safe has a timing mechanism. The combination will only work if I wait at least five seconds between numbers.” He paused before pressing the next three numbers.

  Dracula made a rude noise. “Sounds like bullshit to me.”

  “Nah,” Skeletor said. “I’ve heard of that.”

  They all watched Roger enter the rest of the numbers. The safe opened and Kate let out the breath she’d been holding. The robbers could take what they wanted and leave, and nobody else had to get hurt.

  Skeletor gripped Roger’s shoulder in a threatening way. “You better be stronger than you look, ‘cause you’re about to be doing some heavy lifting.”

  Dracula shoved Kate toward Glen. “Get down and don’t move unless you wanna leave here in a body bag.”

  For minutes that felt like hours, Kate lay beside Glen’s body on the floor with her eyes shut tight. The sound of her own labored breathing muffled almost all other noise. She was still aware of Roger and the masked men rushing in and out of the safe, though, and hoped it would all be over soon.

  Skeletor’s voice said, “Time’s up, we gotta get outta here.”

  Dracula’s voice said, “Fuck that. I ain’t leaving all this.”

  “I’m telling ya—” He broke off at the sound of sirens. “Shit!”

  Dracula poked Kate’s ribs with his boot. “Don’t make a sound, don’t fuckin’ move!”

  With their arms loaded with bags of money, the two robbers and Roger headed toward the lobby, out of sight.

  Kate rubbed her ribs and rolled over to check on Glen. His gorgeous blue eyes were open and seemed fully cognizant as they stared into hers. She realized he had been conscious the whole time, eavesdropping on their captors.

  He whispered, “Are you okay?”

  She nodded and whispered back, “You’re bleeding.”

  “Just a scratch.” He winked. His slow, sexy smile rippled deep in her belly and was almost enough to make her forget why they were lying on the floor.

  Almost.

  “Do you think they’ll let us go?”

  He squeezed her hand. “Yeah. They got what they came for, so—”

  Just then, they heard yelling and banging and screaming. It sounded like the lobby had erupted in chaos. Then a gunshot.

  Glen jumped to his feet. “Stay here.”

  Kate stood up. “Alone? Don’t think so.”

  Before they could go anywhere, Dracula ran back toward them, muttering, “Fuck! Fuck! They fucking shot Eddie, man! What are we gonna do? Fuck!”

  Glen looked like he was going to make a grab for Dracula’s gun, but Skeletor appeared and jabbed his pistol into Kate’s back.

  “In the safe. Now!” Kate hesitated and he shoved her so hard she stumbled and fell.

  “Stop dicking around, we gotta get outta here!” Dracula yelled.

  “It ain’t over yet, not when we still got something to bargain with.” Skeletor waved his gun at Glen. “You too, asshole. Move!”

  Kate watched from the hard floor of the vault as Glen walked through the round doorway. Every muscle in his body was tense. Anger pulsed off him in waves.

  Skeletor continued, “We’ll send ‘em out in pieces if we gotta.”

  That’s all Kate heard before the heavy door swung shut, but it was enough.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The small space had wall-to-wall safe-deposit boxes and was otherwise empty, except for a tall, lonely table in the middle of the room that customers used when accessing their boxes. Roger had talked about exchanging the table for a small desk with a chair, but he had never gotten around to it. The vault was a claustrophobic’s nightmare, even without the gunmen outside. Tight spaces didn’t usually bother Kate, but she certainly felt that the walls were closing in on her, now. She hardly noticed her body shaking until Glen pulled her onto his lap and rubbed the feeling back into her hands.

  They sat like that for a long while, with Glen’s strong arms locked around her and his breaths coming in quick puffs against her hair. The only other sounds in the vacuum-like silence were the hum of the dim fluorescent light overhead and the pounding of Kate’s heart. She’d never been so terrified. Her breathing was fast and heavy, her stomach fluttered with nerves. And it must’ve been cold in the vault, because her nipples were so hard they tingled.

  “Oh my god.” Kate shoved her hair out of her face and blinked at the wall clock. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize— I don’t even know you and I’ve been crushing your legs for like an hour.” She didn’t want to leave the warm comfort of Glen’s body, but she refused to be a burden so she started to climb out of his lap.

  He held her tighter and offered his right hand. “Hi, I’m Glen.”

  “I know.” She felt herself blush as she shook his hand. “I’m Kate.”

  “I know.” His voice sounded deeper, Kate thought.

  “Your butt must be asleep by now.”

  “No
, nothing’s asleep.” He chuckled and his breath was warm on her ear. “Um… quite the opposite, to be honest.”

  Something twitched against Kate’s ass. Something big.

  “Oh…”

  “Sorry ‘bout that. You can move if you want.”

  “No-no, it’s fine. That’s a thing, right?”

  “Yeah. It’s my thing,” he grinned sheepishly.

  “You know what I mean. The fear gets your adrenaline pumping and… It’s a thing that sometimes happens in situations like this.” She tried to sound casual, which was a challenge since her clit was now pulsing in time with her heartbeat.

  “I learned about it in a criminal psych class, I think. People sometimes confuse fear and lust, because the body’s physiological responses to them both are nearly identical.”

  “Right. So you do know what I’m talking about.”

  “Not really. Not firsthand. This is the first time I’ve been locked in a bank vault with a gorgeous woman.”

  Kate coughed a surprised laugh. “Oh, please.”

  “You think I’m lying?”

  “I believe you’ve never been locked in a bank vault before,” she sassed.

  His lips quirked up in a half-smile. “So you’re calling bullshit on my opinion that you’re gorgeous.”

  “I’m not saying I’m a toad, but I own a mirror. I know what I look like.” Average height, average build, plain brown hair, plain brown eyes…

  “Ah. So you already know you’ve got eyes a man could drown in, and hair that looks so soft, I wouldn’t even mind if it fell over those eyes again, just so I’d have an excuse to touch it and brush it away from your face.”

  She sucked in a breath, unable to form words — not that she could think of any.

  “And since you own a mirror, you’re probably also aware that your top lip is just a little bit fuller than the bottom, which is both adorable and sexy as hell… and obviously, you know all your plain blouses and skirts do absolutely nothing to hide that luscious body, right?”

  Kate’s mouth went dry and her pussy grew wet. You’re an idiot if you take any of that to heart. He’s just being nice. She forced a weak laugh. “Very funny. You’re sweet to try and take my mind off things.”