Body Politics Read online

  He unwrapped her vase and set it on a side table along with their gift certificate for a very expensive getaway, then tossed his jacket over a chair.

  “Thank you for the weekend.” Touch me, already, damnit.

  “You’re welcome.” He stalked toward her, and blood roared in her ears.

  He grabbed her face in his hands and crushed her mouth under his, and she swooned against his chest. He plunged his tongue in and probed while he took his fill; then he gentled, coaxed what had already been given, and she swooned again.

  She clutched his shoulders and pressed her pelvis against his cock, rigid once more. Did he yearn for her the way she throbbed for him?

  He broke off the kiss and lifted her into his arms. Her shoes thunked to the floor, and she settled against his chest as he shouldered down the hall. Beside the bed he lowered her to her feet, then stripped her and himself. His cock stood as proud as a drum major’s baton. “Bend over the bed. I’m going to remove the plug.”

  Her stomach fluttered. She vividly remembered the searing insertion. The foreignness. The arousing discomfort. She wasn’t sure she wanted to give it up yet. But she obeyed.

  “Push when I pull,” he said.

  At the first tug, she did as he instructed, the widest part passing first, searing once again, and then it was out. She heard him disappear into the bathroom. Water ran.

  Was she expected to stay in this position? What plans did he have for her? She sagged and rested her face against the mattress. Her heart hammered; her mind counted the seconds.

  A half growl alerted her that he’d returned. “You were supposed to get into bed.”

  “Oh. You didn’t say, so…” She moved to crawl in, but he grabbed her hip.

  “Stay here now.”

  A warm, wet cloth was dabbed against her, wiping the lube residue. With disregard for the carpet, he flung the cloth aside. “Pull your knees up onto the bed, and spread your legs—like you’re straddling the spanking bench.”

  Everything solid liquefied.

  Did he intend to spank her again? When he’d stripped her, she’d caught a glimpse of her ass in the standing mirror, and it glowed like neon cherry. Her skin was hypersensitive, the ache extending to the bone. She remembered his warning that a second spanking on a sore ass hurt even more, but she scooted onto the mattress, knelt, and rested her forearms and face on the bed. Normally a protective position, this crouch was anything but when she was naked, her thighs spread to expose everything to this stone-hard man who’d upped the ante in a single evening.

  No, she didn’t feel the least bit protected—she hummed with excitement, vibrated down to the marrow.

  He wasn’t saying anything, but he hadn’t told her she couldn’t look, so she peered around her shoulder. Mark’s eyes were molten, his facial muscles as rigid as his cock. A pang sharper than the plug going in pierced her.

  He palmed her still-tingling ass cheeks and knelt. With his thumbs, he parted her folds and licked.

  She jerked before going limp. Rapture. He employed the full use of his mouth and jaw, plunging his tongue into her channel, sucking on her folds, nibbling and nipping, then soothing the pain into sweetness. His stubble grazed her flesh.

  But again he avoided her clit. He knew female anatomy like a book, so what was up?

  She held her breath when he pulled back the protective hood, but he continued to tease by blowing on the bud.

  Not enough. Not enough. “Mark, please.”

  And then he swiped his prickly chin against her. Hot needles of ecstasy jabbed at her, and she moaned. He dragged his face across her clit, ravishing it with zings of pleasure-pain. Fuck, he’s going to make me come with his face.

  Every nerve cell readied to fire. She bucked to escape the agony, then ground her sex against his face to seek the ecstasy, but he—and not she—controlled both. Mark dug his fingers into her hips, curtailing her movement. Her clit drew tighter and tighter, burning, burning, burning…

  She cried out in desperation when he stopped, but then heard the tear of a wrapper, felt a nudge, and he surged inside. So satisfying, she could have died right then.

  He fucked forcefully, hitting her womb, driving her to the edge of discomfort and rapture.

  And he talked, his words and breath on her nape searing. “Thought about”—thrust—“that plug.” Thrust. “The way”—thrust—“you looked”—thrust—“at me.” Thrust. “Wanted to”—thrust—“fuck you”—thrust—“all night.”

  Her joints protested, and her legs spread like a wishbone being torn apart, but she lifted her hips for more.

  With a light tap, he smacked her mons with his fingertips, catching her clit. “Come, now,” he commanded and lightly tapped the nerve center. Tap. Tap. Tap. The burning intensified and exploded outward in a fireball.

  She came, and he fucked and tapped, and she came again, screaming his name as he shuddered his release.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Stephanie glanced at her watch and called Mark’s cell. She had fifteen minutes to spare.

  Damn board meeting. Damn staff meeting. For five years she’d lived and breathed WAN, arranging her life around its needs. She’d never resented its demands until now. If not for WAN, she would have been able to spend the entire five days in Kansas City with Mark instead of just an overnighter.

  Mark picked up on the first ring. “Hi, kitten.”

  Her throat tightened with longing. Both their jobs had been consuming, and after a weekend wrapped in each other, they’d been unable to get together again until last night, when he stopped by her apartment on his way to the airport.

  “Hi, yourself,” she said.

  “Are you all set?”

  “Got your ticket in my purse. Packed my bag this morning. After the board meeting, I’ll zing home to freshen up, grab it, and catch the red-eye.” With the time change, her midnight flight would put her in Kansas City Saturday morning.

  “I’ll meet you outside Security.” He lowered his voice. “How’s your ass today?”

  Before he’d left on Thursday, he’d informed her she would be receiving maintenance spankings starting that night. She’d flung herself across his lap with an eagerness that made him roar with laughter. He’d spanked her then, a light paddling with the flat of his hand, pausing in between to play with her clit, until she was wet and moaning, and then ended with a couple of hard spanks before letting her finish with an orgasm. Then he fucked her until she came again.

  She rose from her desk and shoved her office door closed. “My ass misses you. So does my pussy.”

  “Talk like that will get me hard.”

  “I’m already wet.” She was. His voice alone stirred her libido.

  He growled. “You know I’m going to spank you when you come to Kansas City.”

  “I hope so.” She tightened her buttocks. The pleasant soreness had dissipated overnight. She didn’t like the harsh, painful, punishing spankings, but the erotic ones? Tell her where the queue formed so she could leave early and be first in line.

  “You know last night was more for fun than maintenance. You’re so damn cute when you’re butt up over my lap, I get distracted.”

  “Sounds like you need to be a bit more disciplined,” she purred.

  “Kitten, you don’t want to play with the tiger,” he threatened mockingly.

  They teased each other for a while longer, and then Stephanie had to end the conversation to run to her board meeting. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning. I miss you,” Mark said.

  “I miss you too.”

  She gathered the agenda she’d directed Evelyn to prepare and distribute, some notes she would need, a pen, and a yellow pad. The board member who served as secretary recorded meetings and sent out minutes, but she jotted her own notes.

  Her boots tapped lightly as she strode down the corridor to the conference room WAN shared with other organizations. Idly she perused the agenda. She slowed her pace. “Huh?” The executive session was listed at the start r
ather than the end. “That’s odd.”

  A standing item, executive session was reserved for personnel issues or other confidential matters. It concluded the meeting so anyone who wished to sit in on the business portion wouldn’t have to wait, although Stephanie usually was the only WAN employee in attendance. And since WAN had such a small staff, rarely were there any personnel issues to discuss.

  Evelyn must have goofed. She’d seemed a little distracted this week. Come to think of it, all the staff had, but that wasn’t that unusual due to female hormones and the synchronization of cycles.

  Stephanie pushed ahead and rounded the corner, then stopped at the sight of Bethany, seated on a bench outside the conference room. She got to her feet.

  Stephanie approached. “I didn’t know you were going to be here.”

  “Gladys called and told me to attend the meeting.” Bethany toyed with a pencil, then stuck the eraser in her mouth. She went through more pencils than anyone, and not because she used up the lead.

  “She did? When?” Stephanie frowned.

  “This afternoon. I found the message a little while ago on voice mail.”

  Stephanie shrugged. “Maybe the board has some questions about the communication class.” She inclined her head toward the meeting room. “Well, come on in.”

  “No. When I arrived, they asked me to wait here.”

  “I’ll find out what’s going on.” Stephanie stepped toward the meeting room.

  “When I called Gladys to inform her about the delay in the communication class, she asked me a bunch of questions.”

  Uh-oh. Stephanie pivoted. “What kind of questions?”

  Bethany’s gaze skipped off the bridge of Stephanie’s nose. “She asked me to evaluate your leadership.”

  “What did you tell her?”

  Bethany stared at her feet. “I was still annoyed about the communication class. Not everything I said was positive.”

  “Shit, Bethany!” Stephanie raked a hand through her hair. She and Gladys had never seen eye to eye. They had some sort of anti-chemistry that caused their personalities to spark. “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?” She hated not being prepared, not knowing what she was facing. She glanced at her watch. Two minutes late now.

  “I meant to, but I was hustling to get the class running, and you zoomed out of here every day right at five, sometimes earlier.”

  She had. A few times she’d sneaked out early, wanting the time to freshen up before she met Mark.

  Stephanie sighed. “Well, don’t worry about it. What’s done is done.” She twisted the door handle.

  “Um…”

  “There’s more?”

  “Evelyn’s inside.”

  Stephanie stared. “Evelyn? She’s never attended a board meeting since she’s been here.”

  “She was already here when I arrived.”

  “I’ll get to the bottom of this,” Stephanie said, then entered the boardroom.

  Something was very off. All seven directors and her receptionist-office manager were seated at the table. A couple of them wouldn’t meet her gaze but focused on her nose. An odd curve touched the corner of Evelyn’s mouth. Elizabeth wore a grim expression.

  Foreboding slithered up Stephanie’s spine and coiled in her stomach. Her hands and fingers went cold. She lifted her chin. “What’s going on?”

  “Be seated, Ms. Gordon, and we’ll get started,” Gladys said.

  Ms. Gordon? Since when did they stand on ceremony? Stephanie took the chair at the end of the table. Board members flanked the sides. Why did she feel like she was staring down a gauntlet?

  “A very serious personnel matter has been brought to our attention by Ms. Chambers.” Gladys inclined her head toward Evelyn.

  Stephanie glanced from Gladys to Evelyn, who now radiated the fervor of a Temperance crusader denouncing demon rum. Stephanie racked her brain to figure out what the issue could possibly be and came up with nothing. She sneaked a peek at a frowning Elizabeth, who seemed to simmer with both anger and sympathy. Stephanie’s already pounding pulse rate shot up. Her cold hands were now clammy.

  “WAN’s goal is to empower women,” Gladys said as if making a grand announcement. “To do that, we must ensure our own house is in order. If word got out about how poorly WAN’s staff was being treated, it would damage our reputation and our ability to secure funding. Not to mention it is simply unconscionable. Every woman deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.”

  On occasion Stephanie had lost her temper, but all the women at WAN got a little snippy at times. What had Bethany told her? Evelyn?

  “You and I have had our differences,” Gladys said, her eyes glinting with unsettling triumph. “But I’ve learned that your hostility extends to your staff, Ms. Gordon, and that raises even more fundamental concerns.” She nodded at Evelyn. “I want to thank Ms. Chambers for having the courage to step forward and bring this matter to our attention.”

  Stephanie snapped her gaze to her office manager. “What issue? Evelyn! What is this about?”

  “Ms. Gordon, please direct your comments to myself or another board member.”

  Stephanie pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. “Gladys, just tell me what’s going on. What specifically am I supposed to have done?” The president clunked an object concealed in a brown paper bag onto the conference table. “Excuse me, Ms. Chambers.” She looked at Evelyn.

  “Of course,” she answered.

  Gladys whipped the butt glass out of the bag.

  “Is this yours, Ms. Gordon?”

  Stephanie’s ears buzzed as the edges of the room blurred. She struggled to focus on the object that had served as a source of disparagement, amusement, and lastly, fondness. This couldn’t be happening. This had to be mistake, a joke, a something.

  “Is it?” Gladys grated.

  Stephanie inhaled and exhaled. “Yes.”

  “Can you tell the board where you found this item?” Gladys looked at Evelyn.

  “Stephanie kept it on her desk in full view of everyone,” she answered.

  “For all of about five minutes!” Stephanie gaped at her. “And then I stowed it in my desk.”

  “But you didn’t do it for me. You did it for Bethany,” Evelyn muttered.

  “No, I put it away because you made it plain that it made you uncomfortable.” Stephanie corrected her.

  “So you admit that you knew the glass was offensive to your staff,” Gladys said, “but you didn’t remove it from the premises, did you?”

  “I repeat: I put it in my desk. Which raises the issue, why do you have it when it was concealed in my drawer?”

  “How did you come by the glass, Gladys?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Ms. Chambers was asked by Ms. Laurent to retrieve a roster from Ms. Gordon’s office and was again subjected to the offending article.”

  Stephanie always had an open-door, team-oriented approach to management. There were no secrets at WAN. Though she had a private office, she’d never treated it as such and allowed her staff to use it as needed. Openness had leaped up and bitten her in the ass.

  “The fact that Ms. Gordon put the glass away after being informed it was bothersome indicates she had no desire to offend anyone. Her performance, leadership, and character are exemplary,” Elizabeth said.

  “The facts speak otherwise.” Gladys sniffed.

  Stephanie looked at the office manager. “Evelyn, you know I never intended to—”

  “Please address your comments to the board!” Gladys glowered.

  “She’s still my employee,” Stephanie pointed out.

  “That’s the open issue.”

  Elizabeth glared at the president. “Since this is a personnel matter, if no one has any questions for Ms. Chambers, she should be excused from the proceedings and cautioned that what has been discussed is confidential and not to be shared with anyone.”

  Several board members nodded, and Gladys tightened her lips but did the same. “Thank you, Ms. Chambers
. You may leave us now.”

  “Thank you,” Evelyn said. “I appreciate that you took my concerns seriously.”

  “Of course we do. If you have any further issues, don’t hesitate to call me,” Gladys said.

  Anger burned in the pit of Stephanie’s stomach as Evelyn swept out of the room.

  “If your hostile management style weren’t serious enough, your outside interests cast doubt on your suitability to run this organization.”

  “Run this organization? I founded the organization!” Stephanie snapped. She had no idea what outside interests Gladys could possibly be talking about. Until she started seeing Mark, WAN had been her only interest.

  Gladys turned over the glass and peered through her bifocals at the underside. “Bottom’s Up? Is that a place you frequent often?”

  Stephanie’s heart froze. From the corner of her eye, she saw Elizabeth jerk. She’d never looked at the bottom of the glass to know that the name of the bar was printed there.

  “I did some investigating. Would you care to explain why the administrator of an organization that promotes equality between the sexes would hang out at a bar frequented by proponents of adult spanking?”

  “With all due respect”—Elizabeth cut in with a disdainful tone—“you have no proof that Stephanie hangs out anywhere. That glass could have been given to her as a joke. Second, her private life is that—private.”

  “It’s not private when she brings evidence of it to work.”

  Stephanie took her cue from Elizabeth. “You can’t assume—”

  “Did you not tell your staff you’d gotten the glass from a bar you had visited?” Gladys’s eyes gleamed.

  Shit. She had told Evelyn that.

  “It’s no small matter to dismiss the administrator of a nonprofit organization with as much visibility as WAN has.”

  Dismiss? Gladys’s words shot through her like a poison-tipped arrow.

  The president continued. “Any perception of organizational chaos or instability can weaken public support. However, we must consider our image first and foremost. Your recent actions, were they to become public, would be catastrophic to this organization and everyone associated with it.”