He laughed as a cover to his true intent. “All in good time, little Red. I need to eat your grandmother first.” Josef took her elbow and started to turn her toward the door, but her next words stopped him.
“I’d rather you ate
Did she mean what he thought she meant? Judging by the way her cheeks had turned bright pink, he thought she did.
“Carla…” He studied her face, which she had turned to him in challenge, despite her blushing cheeks. “We didn’t get off to a very good start this morning. I was cranky after a long plane ride and giving a presentation I didn’t want to give. This dinner was to be my way of making it up to you.”
“Not as a means to get me into bed?”
Was that hurt in her eyes? “Well…” he hedged.
“Josef, we’re two adults with a mutual friend who thinks she knows better than everyone else. Yes, we did get off to a bad start this morning. My head was still filled with all my current works in progress and the thought of starting another, especially one with—you have to admit—an overdone plot by romance book standards, just put me in a bad mood.”
He started to reply and stopped when she held up her hand.
“This is probably going to feed into your ego, but I find you a very attractive man, Dr. Josef Anderson. I’m generally not this forward, but you’re leaving for your dig in the Sahara shortly and I’ll spend the rest of my days kicking myself for not taking advantage of this moment if I don’t…” She trailed off as if trying to find her courage.
“Don’t what?” He wanted a particular conclusion, but it had to come from her. There could be no coercion if this was to be safe—for both of them.
She rolled her eyes and bounced on the balls of her sandal-clad feet. The heels made her a little taller but she still barely came to his chin. He took that petite chin in his fingers and turned her face toward his.
“Don’t what?” he asked softly.
She blushed furiously now. Taking a deep breath, her words came out in a rush. “If I don’t go to bed with you.”
“I’d love to see you tied to my hotel bed, ready and—”
“I knew it! I just knew you had to be!”
She laughed, and Josef, though enjoying the pure delight in the sound, also felt very confused. He was confessing his rather kinky sexual preferences and she seemed…elated?
“You knew what, Carla?”
“Okay, so I didn’t know, I hoped. Josef,” she tossed her head to indicate the door, “let’s bag this and walk for a bit, shall we?”
Josef shrugged, totally lost. “Sure, why not?”
“Which way is your hotel?”
He pointed and she turned. “Let’s talk and we can walk in that direction.”
The streets teemed with people enjoying a beautiful, sunny evening in New York, but for the two of them the streets might as well have been empty. They talked, and Carla confessed her own sexual preferences as they went along.
“So you’re telling me you’re a submissive, and Angie knows it.” The careful, scholarly side of Josef wanted to be sure he had all the facts straight before he took her up to the room he’d already prepared.
“Exactly. The two of us don’t tell each other
Again Josef gave himself a mental kick in the shins for not including a bookstore in his afternoon of shopping. “I’m almost afraid to ask, but what, again, do you write?”
“Erotic romance with a BDSM twist.”
Josef felt as if he’d been hit with a sledgehammer. “Why, that little minx…”
Carla gave him a look of confusion. “Excuse me?”
“Angie. Dr. DiPaolo. I should wring her pretty little neck.” He looked at Carla. “She set us up.”
Carla’s laugh rang true. “You’re just figuring that out?”
“She knows a bit about my sexual predilections, and she made up this whole cock-and-bull story of you needing to write the princess’s tale just to get the two of us together.”
Carla considered his conclusion. “She might actually want me to write the story. She’s a sucker for historical romance. But she also knows it’s not my forte, so you may be right.”
Josef stopped and indicated a small door squeezed in between a pizza parlor and an electronics store. “My hotel.”
“And I suppose the report is upstairs in your room?”
There was no mistaking the twinkle in her eye. Josef nodded and she grinned.
But he needed to be sure. He pulled her into his arms right in the middle of the busy sidewalk. “If I take you up and ask for your total obedience, you’ll give it to me? A stranger?”
“Angie talks about you all the time and she vouches for you. I trust her opinion.”
“Angie talks about me?” He frowned. “What does she say?”
“She’s been angling to get the two of us together for a while, always telling me how perfect you are for me.” Carla shrugged. “After tonight, I’ll know if she’s right or not.”
“I want you to have a safeword.”
“
“It’ll do. Green if everything’s okay, yellow if you need a break. Red only if you want the date to stop immediately. Limits?”
Carla didn’t hesitate. “No kids, no animals, no human waste products, no blood.”
He chuckled. “I’m on board with all of that.”
Carla took a deep breath, calming the sudden butterflies in her stomach. Giving him a long look, she took the plunge. “Perfect. I’m ready when you are.”
He tilted her head up, his fingers strong on her chin. “We’ve never even kissed, Ms. Braun.”
Her breath caught as his lips touched hers. A gentle kiss that deepened as his arms tightened around her waist to pull her closer. She raised her hands, sliding them along the crispness of his shirt, feeling the strength of the muscles underneath. Around them, horns honked, engines roared and people crowded. Carla felt nothing but his incredible presence encircling her, overwhelming her, protecting her.
And when his tongue pressed against her lips, demanding entrance, she opened for him, letting him possess her mouth, enjoying the incredible confidence and domination of his will. His arms tightened further and she eagerly returned his kiss, letting him know she wanted this.
“Get a room!”
They parted, Carla blushing furiously, Josef only grinning. The speaker was already gone but the sentiment hung between them.
Josef took her hand and bent to whisper in her ear.
“Come, little one.”
The words sent a shiver down her spine.
Putting her hand in his, Carla followed him into the building.
Chapter Three
Josef paused just outside the door to his room. He still held Carla’s hand and now he pulled her palm to his lips. Such delicate fingers she had. Long and slender, like his own, except she wore her calluses in different places. He rubbed his thumb over the permanent ridge at the top of her middle finger.
“You still write longhand?”
She nodded, her voice quiet. “When I get stuck. Getting away from the computer seems to access a different
