In the Moment Ch. 01

A new series I started just today. I welcome feedback so do drop a line.

*****

He watches the woman from almost a thousand meters away.

In the cool shadows of the mission-style complex, her fire-orange miniskirt stands out amid a mass of blue denim. He sees a flash of white white under the unbuttoned camel blazer.

She walks with her head bowed. That head is usually jaunty, a little haughty. People often step aside at her approach. It is her work persona.

He wonders if she is thinking of what awaits her tonight. She must be nervous. But even from a distance, he can sense the slow roll of her hips.

It was the walk that betrayed her the first time they met, at a meeting that tried to breach a stalemate between her union wards and his investment clients. Business lost some money in that war.

Lex smiles.

He'd pay twice the price for Kaine.

She doesn't see him yet, doesn't see the hazel eyes crinkle with pleasure on seeing that thin silk barely hides the lace chemise that leaves her breasts unbound, softly dancing, and gives a hint of the mix of pink and sienna of her areolas.

Now he is sure.

That blazer had been buttoned in class.

Kaine's students, colleagues and activist friends have always referred to her as the ice princess. For such a small woman, she intimidated many folk. She could stare down cops and university deans and rowdies. Tycoons and activists fidgeted, their bluster tapering off to silence as she regarded them with cocked head and raised brows, her quirked lips a contrast to cool eyes.

She is different with him.

Kaine takes a hand off the strap of her leather hobo and flicks a strand of hair behind an ear.

She is oblivious of the chatter around her. Her thoughts are on the email she sent this morning.

After every night with Lex, she has to write an essay and relieve every sensation and emotion. It is his way of stripping away what he calls "little dishonesties."

The first time he used the phrase, she had trained a cold blaze of anger on him. Yet she could not stay away.

By their fifth meeting, on her knees and sobbing, she had begged for the first time in her life. Only then did he make her cum on the carpet of her living room.

He sat on the floor, back to the sofa, and pulled her over his lap. Bent over, on her knees, ass in the air, Kaine had her initial brush his real pain as his hand bore down on flesh, striking globes and thighs again and again.

She had tried to pull away at the third slap, tried to escape, only to give in to the angry growl that challenged her to use the safe word.

She had jerked with every blow, felt her juices flowing and saw jiggling breasts reflected on mirror panels that covered one wall. She had howled in anger and shame. But she also saw herself arching up to meet his hand.

The face in the mirror had been slack with desire even as her womb tightened. She saw the woman throw her head up and lick her lips between moans. He had gripped her hair, forcing a Kaine to confront her lust, her screams of ecstasy. She was shocked but finally, instantaneously, understood, because his hand wasn't gentler, if at all it was rougher.

And then she had brought her breasts to the floor, pressed her forehead on the antique Afghan carpet and heaved flanks high to offer her cunt. Kaine wailed out her submission in a hoarse voice. She forgot about pride as she writhed and wept from need, begging for more, more, more, until she erupted in a spray that soaked Lex's entire shirtfront.

He hadn't penetrated her at all. Not that night.

He'd picked her up and carried her into the bedroom. He laid Kaine down and dragged her legs so they dangled over the bed. And then he had lapped and lapped at her opening like a hungry wolf, slapping against vulva and clit. He nibbled and chewed and bite and sucked at her thighs and her plump, shaven mound, before his fingers stretched her sides and his tongue came back to whack and slide around her clit until she convulsed in orgasm.

Later, he had comforted her. He took no delight in having anyone grovel; she knew that now. But he was right in pointing out that pretense for the sake of pride was a game no sub-Dom relationship would survive.

Lex had always known she could and would obey orders. He had also known it was more pride and courage than submission.

That was what he slowly stripped away over the months - topping from the bottom, something Kaine had excelled at all her adult life. He allowed it some nights as a reward, always informing her in advance.

Kaine pauses. She rolls tight shoulders forward then back. She feels like she'd crammed a month's work into a week.

The long hours had made her turn in this assignment two days late.

She feels her loins flutter. There will be a price to pay.

"There is always a special thrill in that first moment, when your hand grabs me. There is that great divide - the civilized conversation, your modulated voice, our calm demeanor, and then a sudden leap into the wild."

"It is mostly when I least expect it. Always, I brace for it. Always, it surprises me."

"In that split-second my stomach lurches, fear sweeps over me. And yet there is great relief that swirls within and a silent, grateful 'Yes!' in my mind."

Lex frowns as Kaine exits the shaded quadrangle and makes for a green bench. Then he remembers. He is half an hour early.

He watches as Kaine taps out a cigarette, lights it and turns her face up to the sky with the first exhalation of smoke. It is such a sensual move; it stops a pair of male students who stare for several seconds before their peers jostle them.

"My recent flashbacks have to do with your eyes. In the RV, with your iron grip on my breast hurting enough to nudge near the red zone, I hold on and look into your eyes like my life depends on it, and the ache morphs into erotic heat."

Kaine blinks into the late spring afternoon sunlight.

She spies Lex sauntering across the lawn.

He is a big man, a little over 6" and big boned like his German-Dutch forbears. But he is light on his feet; he can still run rings around younger guys during soccer games.

She sees the glitter on his eyes and shivers. Immediately, she is wet.

His yellow shirt is tucked into stretch khaki. Her eyes alight on his belt.

The belt... memories of the belt comfort her when he is off on yet another business trip.

Just today she wrote, "That image keeps coming back... your hands grasping my thighs, fingers digging as I am spread wide. I see and feel leather coming. It is all a blur, like the wind, because what I am locked on are your eyes and the look in them and it is my anchor until you tell me to fly."

Lex is smiling down at her. She wets her lips and swallows.

Kaine makes to stand but his hand keeps her down. He sits and tips his head to one side to hold her gaze.

As she opens her mouth to say hi, he kisses her, full-mouthed, his tongue sliding in to make languorous swirls around hers.

Kaine moans. Her hand cups his jaw. A brief thought flashes about students but is swept away as he nips her lower lip.

Then she is free and he is back to smiling at her, stroking the baby-fine russet hair that hugs her waif's face.

He lets her smoke as they chat about his trip to Spain and her joining him next month in Ireland. With glee, she recounts and latest success against his "capitalist" friends.

Lex laughs and ruffles her hair. It is her last case as labor lawyer, at least for a year. In two weeks Kaine is taking a sabbatical. She has agreed to lease out her converted loft and move into his "silly" estate with the ten bedrooms.

He teases that his pals will send her a thank you card and a huge bouquet of roses for getting out of their hair.

Lex is still chuckling as he gives Kaine a tight hug. His voice deepens.

"I miss you, Imp."

He catches her chin before it dips. She is forced to meet his eyes again.

He is stunned when a tear slips out.

"I hate it when you're away," she whispers.

The confession shakes Lex. In the year he has known her, Kaine has always proclaimed she is "not a clinger".

He keeps his arm around her until they reach the green Mercedes coupe. There is a brief silence as he heads for San Francisco.

They speak at the same time.

"When did you start hating...?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."

Lex holds up his hand and then nods at Kaine.

She tries again.

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to crowd you."

He frowns at her.

"Why would you think that?"

Kaine looks away as she struggles to frame her answer.

"Look at me, Kaine!"

The curt tone steels her. She turns to Lex, chin in the air.

"You made your priorities clear early on."

His jaw drops. A honk behind them makes him turn to a side street.

He parks the car beside a grove of oak trees.

"That was a year ago, when we first met, Kaine. I've asked you to live with me."

"What were you expecting?"

Kaine's face tells him the answer.

It angers Lex.

His eyes turn cold.

"Since when did you start accepting the role of a sex slave?"

It is Kaine's turn to gape.

He tenses.

Lex doesn't show his desperation. Kaine is not above lashing out verbally. She has clearly misunderstood his cues and it is either he has failed or she is again withdrawing into herself.

He counts ten seconds of silence.

Kaine erupts in laughter.

Lex is stupefied but as his lover clutches her stomach, he also starts to chortle. Soon he is roaring with mirth at the ridiculous thought of Kaine as slave.

Each time one of them tries to speak, hilarity overtakes them. Kaine curls into him, giggling between hiccups. Lex gasps at the effort to stop laughing.

They take 15 minutes to calm down.

It is Kaine who raises her head and brings his down. Her soft kiss is both an apology and a token of forgiveness.

She looks straight at him.

"Honey, I just didn't want you to think I resent your business trips."

She blushes and bites her lower lip. But she does not take her eyes from him.

"I know we can't always be together every night."

"But can we now call each other before we sleep?"

Lex fondles Kaine's cheek. A finger traces the right side of her lips until a dimple breaks.

"This year, the only time you won't be with me is, when you choose not to."

Kaine raises a brow.

"I can't afford... "

Lex cuts her off. His eyes are soft.

"You know I can."

She can see him choosing his next words.

"But you can go off anywhere anytime you want, Kaine."

A finger reaches out to caress her lips.

"You will always be free."

Kaine's smile widens. She flings arms around his neck and kisses him. Fully. As an equal. Her hands grip his head. Her tongue draws his into her mouth and she drinks of him, luxuriating in his groans, swirling her tip around him as her lips purse to suckle.

One hand takes his and wraps it around her breast.

Kaine squeezes it and bows back as heat bathes her chest. She trails kisses along his jaw. He bends to lick a shoulder. He bends her backward and closes his mouth on a silk-covered nipple. Kaine's cry reminds him they are by the roadside. He takes a small, firm bite to coax a shudder and slowly backs off.

As Lex straightens her clothes, Kaine's eyes travel across his face; the blonde lock that falls across his forehead, the straight, darker brows and calm, green-brown eyes, and the square jaw that lessens the sensuality of his full lips.

She locks her gaze on him as he fondles her breast. Her tongue peeks out of cherry lips as fingers rolls both nipples, her brown eyes turning a darker shade and flashing as he announces.

"Tonight, we're going to The Sanctuary."

(To be continued)