Page 28 of Mistletoe Mistake
When he finally hung up, he placed his phone down on the end table and pulled the lid off the room service tray, revealing some kind of multi-layered sandwich and a couple of bags of crisps.
“I thought you were getting chips?” I asked, realizing as I saw the food that I might be hungrier than I’d realized, and the thought of a few warm, salty chips actually appealed to me quite a lot.
Cole gave me a funny look as he held up one of the crisp bags. “What do you call these?”
Realizing where the confusion lay, I laughed. “Those are crisps. I thought you meant chips, like French fries.”
“No, I meant chips, like chips.” He shook his head as his lips twitched in amusement. “Does that mean you don't want any?”
“No, thanks. Next time, I'll remember I'm talking to an American.”
He freed his arm from me to start eating his sandwich, and I shuffled back to give him more space. “Have you spent much time in the US?” he asked.
“A little bit. In uni, I took part in an exchange program where I got to do a term at Columbia. I enjoyed that a lot.”
“You lived in New York?” He sounded genuinely curious as he turned on the sofa to see me better.
“Just for four months.” The memory of it seemed bittersweet now. Although I had enjoyed it, I also spent half the time feeling bad about leaving Edwin behind and keeping in touch with him. If I'd only known then what I knew now, I would have made more of an effort to focus on myself and what I wanted. In any case, Cole didn't need to know any of that, so I kept my response more general. “I really liked the classes and the city, even though it’s very different from London.”
“What was your favourite building?”
Cole’s question made me smile; the perfect question for an architect, it reminded me how he asked me about the wall we'd removed at the Mayfair Mews. He seemed to have more than a passing interest in architecture himself, which not all developers did.
“It's cliché, but probably the public library. It's so beautiful and beautifully in line with its purpose.” His nod of approval sent a small ripple of warmth through me. “What about you?”
He gave his reply some real thought. “It changes regularly, but as you say, anything that's functional and beautiful. Was VIA 57 West completed when you were there? It's a great example.”
I knew of the residential building, but I'd never seen it in person. “No, they were still working on it.”
We chatted more about buildings in New York and here in London until his plate was empty, and I almost couldn't believe how comfortable it felt. While at first, I had been thrown off by his abrupt switch from sex to companionable chatter, now, it actually boosted my confidence. Asking me questions and showing genuine interest in my answers, Cole wasn’t treating me even a little bit differently because of the way I had 'performed' for him, and that appealed to me more than I realized it would.
It made me believe that we could go back to a professional relationship after all of this without things being awkward. Maybe that was what he’d been trying to show me?
But just as I’d started to feel almost too relaxed, he reminded me that this evening wasn't over just yet as he leaned closer to me, his eyes locked on me just as intensely as before.
“Well, Gemma, now that I've got my energy back, let's see if we can find a way to use it all up again."
~Cole~
Gemma's whole demeanour changed with the words I spoke. She'd returned to her confident, charismatic self while we'd been talking, but as soon as I made it clear I was ready to continue our earlier activity, I could almost see the meekness wash over her. She looked completely ready to follow my commands again, ready for me to take full control.
For me, that was an incredible turn-on.
I'd had plenty of women pretend to be submissive for me, but never anyone who'd done it so instinctively, so naturally. She obviously liked it too, and I couldn't help wondering about her previous relationships and whether the men she’d been with before had dominated her too. From the confrontation I’d witnessed in the park earlier, I figured she'd dated the man we ran into there, and he didn't seem like a good fit for her at all. The blonde woman he was with now clearly called the shots between them, so I couldn't see that he and Gemma in the bedroom would have led to many sparks for either of them.
At any rate, I couldn’t care less about her former lovers at this point. By the time I finished with her, I wanted her to have a new standard to measure any future lovers against.
Standing up, I pulled Gemma up with me and led her to the bedroom without another word while she followed behind me unquestioningly. Once we were in front of the bed, I dropped her hand and finally began removing my own clothes at a deliberate, unhurried pace.
“Take off the robe and climb on the bed,” I commanded as I pulled off my tie and started undoing the buttons of my shirt. Her hips swayed as she crawled up to the middle of the large bed and sat down, turning back to me to wait for further instruction.
My shirt came off and my pants quickly followed. At last, we were both naked, and I couldn’t wait to finally feel her skin against mine.
“Lie down.”
Obediently, she leaned back, still in the centre of the bed, resting her head against the pillows.
“Spread your legs for me, Gorgeous.”
