But we couldn’t live together, either.
I closed my eyes and tugged at the straps of my lace top. The triangles covered my breasts, but they were sheer, the ends looping around my neck in a halter that gave me decentcleavage. Hey, what was the point in making my legs numb for two hours if I didn’t also make him drool for me? The scalloped edges reseted just below my ribs in the other direction. A short skirt of similar, sheer material fluttered around my waist, baring my butt cheeks and the absent underwear beneath. I had zero intention of making thingstoodifficult tonight. No matter how much I bratted it out for Ward, I did intend to get laid, seeing as it was the only time in any twelve month period either of us ever did.
That was the flip side of the stalker/anniversary coin we tossed each year when we both pretended not to care and hate each other every time we passed in the halls at work.
Neither of us touched or looked at another soul. Not once.
That was how I knew he was still mine.
“Come on, ten o’clock,” I muttered under my breath.
My day had been long enough and Ward was right; I’d be asleep before he let himself into my townhouse later tonight. The thought of him coming in and finding me curled on the floor, out of the position I promised him I’d be in, semi exposed and unaware sent a thrill through me. Hell, at this rate, I'd be soaked before he even arrived.
Focusing on the extra levels of policy Mickey requested of me at lunchtime drew my need back a fraction. The distraction was needed for now. I straightened my outfit and pinned my hair back. Ward liked to see my shoulders bare, and tonight, I wanted that too. If he touched me…the thought of his bare skin on mine wiped bare any thought of policy and work. I flushed hot and wet all at once, the scent of my arousal rising around me.
Damnit.
He’d barely have to walk into the room to know how much I wanted him.
Denial might be on the cards, after all.
My knees were already sore and I’d only been on the carpet facing the foot of my bed for ten minutes. I squiggled around, urging circulation into my legs for the last time. Once I settled, that was it. The last things I needed were the blindfold and the restraints.
Neither were necessary, and both were an offering.
Because this year, it seemed as though something changed between us.
Ward assailed me with his usual barrage of presents in the week leading up to our anniversary night. Expensive gifts I either accepted, or more likely didn’t, depending on who was watching at the time, or how obvious he was.
And this year, he hadn’t hidden his intent at all.
But also, his gifts had been a little…different.
Expensive jewellery. Plastic jewellery.
Crystal figurines from my favorite shop I wanted for my shelf at home. That he knew I would want.
Plastic children’s toys left in cheap boxes right alongside his gifts.
Running past my house, and changing his habits to toss cheap crap through my mail box. Fixing my office after the break in, and being a silent asshole the entire time. Teasing the lift out of me in the boardroom, then walking away. Something we’d never done before.
It was as though I was watching the actions of a man I no longer recognised. And as much as I always hoped—somewhre, somehow—that this time would be the year that we fixed what we broke so long ago, what if…
This was the year it broke altogether? Or worse—
What if there is something wrong with Ward?
I closed my eyes, letting the single tear glide down my cheek, marring my makeup without fixing it. I placed the blindfold over my eyes, black silk to match the lace, knowing hewould like it. My makeup would be ruined before we started, especially if I cried now, but the Ward I knew would love that. Love that I cried for him. Revel in the fact he could taste the tears from my cheeks and fuck me with my salt on his tongue.
I moaned softly as that first sense was removed from me. My nipples pebbled against the soft, stretchy lace that he could tug at or rip away altogether.
Dealer’s choice.
His choice, tonight.
Or mine, because I gave him that when I made sure I was home for him. Not out, or away. He’d find me anyway, and then it would be terrible. And wonderful. But I was here because I wanted him.
And our game started now.
