Perception (Club Destiny #6)(82)
Author: Nicole Edwards

God, she’d come completely undone right there in his office. The memory was enough to heat his blood and send it pooling south. He wanted her.

Then again, he was certain he was nearing sainthood since he’d refrained from taking her a million different ways throughout the day.

As he stared at the television screen, not seeing anything other than the bright glow of the images, he thought back to the first time he’d asked Mercedes to dinner all those years ago. The setting hadn’t been exactly what he’d hoped for, but all in all, it’d been interesting to say the least.

From the moment he met Mercedes, he’d been intrigued by her. Even if he had come to accept there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that there would ever be anything between them. Mainly for the fact that she was a Domme and he was in no way submissive.

He wouldn’t lie, he had never really come to terms with it. It had just taken him a little while – nearly a decade – to find a way to show her just how he felt about the whole thing.

If his memories served him correctly, it had been during their first dinner out – unfortunately that had been business, not pleasure – which he found himself seeking a way to get under her skin the same way she had him.

They hadn’t been alone that night either. They’d been joined by the Realtor of one of the clients Xander had been working with and the man’s assistant. He hadn’t been happy to find out they had chaperones, but at the time, he figured Mercedes had invited them on purpose. To protect herself from him.

He was right because that night she’d made her feelings on the subject crystal clear.

“You don’t know what a submissive is?” Mercedes asked skeptically. She was speaking directly to Tim Johnson, a high profile Realtor who was working for the seller of a property Xander was in the process of acquiring.

As they sat in the upscale restaurant, the waiter having just brought out baskets of bread for the foursome congregating at the table, Mercedes had apparently latched onto one little comment that Tim had said jokingly.

“Nothing more than the glorified stuff I’ve seen on television,” Tim admitted, his full attention on Mercedes.

Xander watched Mercedes, waiting to see what she’d say. How they’d gotten on the topic originally, he wasn’t sure, but it was interesting to see that Mercedes was completely open to the discussion.

Mercedes seemed to study Tim for a moment before she continued. “Do you like to be in control, Mr. Johnson?”

Xander grinned, hiding it behind his wine glass. He noticed the way Tim shivered outwardly, an obvious reaction to Mercedes’s very sexy voice. Xander could only imagine the fantasies the man was having where she was concerned. Hell, he’d had a few of his own in recent weeks.

Tim glanced over at Xander, who was sitting beside Mercedes, but his gaze didn’t linger elsewhere for long. The man was probably trying to determine what he wanted to say.

Xander leaned back in his chair and watched things play out between the two of them.

“Depends,” Tim finally admitted, his voice lower than before. “If we’re talking business, I do. When it comes to other things, I could be persuaded to give up control.”

“Persuaded?” Mercedes asked seriously, sipping her wine as she stared back at him. “Or is it something you prefer?”

Xander had a feeling that the question was loaded. He got the impression there was only one correct answer where Mercedes was concerned.

“It’s something I prefer,” Tim’s assistant stated firmly.

Xander’s gaze darted to the pretty young woman sitting to Tim’s left. She wasn’t looking at her boss, which was probably a good thing because her open admission seemed to have shocked Tim somewhat.

Based on Mercedes’s reaction, she hadn’t expected it either.

“Do you play at a club?” Mercedes asked casually.

“I have, yes,” Clarissa Tinsley admitted, her cheeks turning pink.

“Well, Xander here,” Mercedes glanced over at him, “is a Dom.” He wasn’t sure why, but somehow she had successfully pulled him directly into the conversation. He fought the urge to laugh at that.

“Is that right?” Clarissa asked sweetly, her eyes glazing over slightly.

“Mercedes is being too kind. She’s a Domme herself, but she doesn’t like to brag,” he said with a smile. “I’m a member of Kink,” he admitted, sipping his wine and making sure they all noticed his casual disinterest in the conversation.

What he wanted to do was to talk to Mercedes directly. Preferably about something other than business, but until today, she’d managed to keep their brief relationship on a steadfast professional level.