STORY EXCERPT

Are you outside my apartment right now?

A smiley face was his response.

Maria raced to the doors. Peering through the blinds—thank God I shut them when I got home—she searched the street below her second-story apartment of the three-story building. A car rolled down the street in front of the building and a couple crossed from her side to the diner on the other side. Several people sat in Corner Time Diner, but that wasn’t unusual. And none of them were staring up at her apartment. The houses that sat on either side of the diner seemed empty, aside from Mrs. Persky’s home. The elderly lady was always peeping out from behind her curtains. Although at times it seemed rude, right now she was happy that the woman was a snoop. But even having Mrs. Persky on watch didn’t ease the tension stiffening her neck.

Where is he? She dragged in a rough breath, refusing to let herself believe he wasn’t there, and searched again. But still nothing.

He’s playing with me.

She hurried back to the computer and slid into the chair she’d scrounged from off the side of the road and refinished. She’d covered the seat with a material using the same colors of her sofa.

Her apartment was small with two tiny bedrooms and an open area that served as a living room and dining room combination. Only two or three people could fill the galley-style kitchen, but she loved the place anyway. It was hers, and after sharing a bedroom with her sister until she’d moved off to college where she’d shared first dorm rooms then apartments with various friends, she was happy to have a place of her own.

But living alone hadn’t come about until recently. She’d tried sharing the place with a roommate to help with expenses, but once Sharron Watkins had accused her of stealing her boyfriend, that was the end of that. Sharron had moved out less than a month earlier, still owing last month’s rent. But Maria didn’t care. She’d paid Sharron’s part of the rent, then turned the second bedroom into an office. She loved living all alone. At least until the e-mails had started.

Now she would’ve welcomed even Sharron’s blunt and sometimes hurtful way of talking and even the fact that she’d rarely bought food or cleaned the place. Having someone else with her would make her feel more secure.

She drew in a breath then let it out as she typed. “You’re not outside. Where are you?”

“Does that mean you’ll come to me? Will you meet me now?”

Now she answered fast. “No.”

“Ah. So you want me to come to you. In due time, my sweet. In due time.”

She jerked her hands away from the keyboard. Will he take my refusal to come to meet him as another invitation to come to my home?

“Maria. Ah, how I love the name, Maria. It is so much lovelier than Torrie.”

“But the person you fell in love with is Torrie. I’m not Torrie. Nothing about me is like Torrie. She just used my photograph on a fake Friends Face page. She’s the woman you fell for.”

“I know that now. But it doesn’t matter. Words are only words. Your beauty transcends everything else.”

She’d been wrong to answer him, to try and find out about him. “But I don’t want to have anything to do with you. Please. Stop e-mailing me.”

Her body grew stiff, her fingers aching with the need for him to leave her alone.

“But why? We are having a wonderful discussion. I don’t ever want to stop.”

“You don’t know me and I don’t want to know you.”

When he didn’t answer for several minutes, she dared to hope that she’d finally gotten through to him.

“I’m sorry, my sweet. But I love you. And, in time, you will learn to love me. I’ll make you love me.”

Her hands shook as she typed. “You can’t make someone love you. Now leave me alone, or I’ll call the police.”

“You already did.”

She gasped. He knew she’d gone to the police? She sat back, her hands fisted in her lap. What do I do now?

“Maria, I like the way you wore your hair today.”

Her breath caught in her throat. She usually wore her hair tied back so she could lean over her students’ shoulders and check their work without it falling in her face. Today was one of the few days she’d worn it loose.

“You’re watching me?” She’d paused before adding the question mark. After all, didn’t she already know the answer?

“Of course I do. I watch you all the time. How could I not watch someone as captivating as you? I must say, you’re so good with children. Perhaps we can have one of our own someday. Or perhaps one of each? You’re going to be stunning carrying my child.”

Her stomach did a sickening flip-flop. “Are you watching me now?”

“Yes.”

She let out a cry and pressed the back of her hand to her mouth.

“How?”

“I have my ways.”

“You have to stop. You have to leave me alone. Don’t e-mail me again. Stay away from me.”

“I can’t and I won’t, Maria. I’m coming for you soon. Once I do, we’ll be together forever.”

She clicked the e-mail program closed, then moved as fast as she could to the purse on the kitchen counter. Digging through the contents, she searched for the card the woman had given her.

“Please. I know I put it in here.” A whimper escaped her. “Find it, damn it.”

She almost wept when her fingers found the small rectangular card and held it up. Grabbing her cell phone, she punched in the numbers and then held her breath as the phone on the other end started to ring.

“Please pick up. Please pick up.”

At last, she heard a deep male voice.

“Gabriel here. Talk to me.”

ADULT EXCERPT

Mike jerked up, saw the spatula, and laughed. “So you like to spank, huh?”

Maria flicked it against his arm for her answer.

“Do you like to get spanked?”

She told him the truth. “I don’t know. But I’d like to find out.”

He pulled her over onto her side, eliciting a small yelp of surprise from her. Taking the spatula out of her hand, he whacked it against her butt. The sting was sharp and more painful than she’d expected. But what was more unexpected was the wonderful, sinful sensation it gave her. She let out a small moan and reached for him, but he held her down.

“Tell me, Maria. Have you been a bad, bad girl?” He spanked her again, hitting a little harder.

She cried out, keeping her body upright by leaning on one elbow as she grabbed hold of his arm for leverage. “Not as bad as I’d like to be.”

He laughed and added another spanking to her butt cheek. “Then, darlin’, be as bad as you want.”

“I don’t know how.”

He paused, his hand in midair. “Now that is a damn shame. But it doesn’t mean you can’t learn. You’ll be the student and I’ll be your teacher. Let’s start the lessons with an easy one. Come on, darlin’, talk dirty to me.”

She opened her mouth. “I’m not sure how to do that, either.”

“Just tell me what you want to do to me.” He slid the hand still holding the spatula along her back to grab her hair. He yanked it hard.

She whimpered, but it was a whimper of delight. “I want to fuck you. I want you to shove your big dick deep inside my pussy.”

“Go on.” He leaned forward and slid his hand between her legs.

His fingers found her clit and massaged her, working the massive muscles in his arm. “I want you to put your mouth down there again. I’ve never had anyone do that before.”

He paused, his jaw dropping. “You’re kidding. I guess the men you’ve dated didn’t know how to treat a woman.” He rubbed her clit harder and tightened his hold on her hair. “Tell me you want me to eat your pussy.”

“I want you to eat my pussy.”

He flipped her back onto her butt again and pushed her legs wide. “Don’t come again until I tell you.”

She gasped as he put his head between her legs and drew her clit in between his teeth. He pushed two fingers into her pussy as she leaned back on her hands and spread her legs even wider.

If he’d said he could do magic with his tongue, she would’ve believed him. His tongue alone was an instrument of wonder as he licked her, then sucked her clit in again before thrusting his fingers deep inside her.

“Ooh, Mike. I can’t…”

Her words were lost as the climax ripped into her. The sounds of him drinking her juices overwhelmed her, and she rode her body’s shudders to the end.

He straightened up and wiped his mouth. With a wicked grin, he brought the spatula down on her leg. She squealed and jumped.

“I didn’t tell you to come.”

She nodded, but couldn’t speak anything but his name. “Mike.”

Now it was his turn not to talk. He stared at her, his eyes clouded with lust and a quality that reminded her of a wild animal.

With a groan, he tugged her close and shoved his cock into her pussy again. Amazing her, his cock seemed to get even bigger as he pounded into her. He dropped the spatula as his fingers dug into the flesh of her butt cheeks. She rocked over the tiles that were warm now with her juices.

Once, twice, three times more, he thrust into her as the storm of another climax brewed inside her. Then, when she couldn’t hold back the whirlwind any longer, he stiffened, the body that had reminded her of granite growing as still as an unmovable stone wall.

With a roar that echoed around her small apartment, he ground into her one last time and let his release go. Her orgasm met his, her juices mixing with his cum, as their bodies shuddered together.

His body trembled, jerking through the last vestiges of his climax. Yanking his jeans up, he then pulled her into his arms. She clung to him as he carried her toward the hallway.

“Which one?”

She swept the hair out of her face and pointed to her bedroom door. He banged it open, yet, instead of taking her to her bed, he stalked to the bathroom and put her down outside the shower.

“You’re a dirty girl.”