open the wine, but he kept an ear tuned to the one part of the phone conversation he could hear.
“Yes, everything went great.” Lynne had taken the phone to the opposite end of the kitchen and stood looking out a window. “I know I should have called sooner. I had a bit of subdrop, so we went out to eat and then I took a walk when I got back here. Yes, I’m much better, but can you have Abby call me when she gets home?”
He wasn’t surprised at all that Nathaniel knew she was playing with someone, though it would have been nice if he could have told him that when he’d stopped by Simon’s office to give his stay-away-from-Lynne speech.
“I invited a friend over,” she said. “We’re going to have dinner and then work on a jigsaw puzzle.”
When she started talking to Elizabeth and Henry, Simon let his eyes drift to the window. He tilted his head and looked closer at the buildings. It was almost the same view Faye had from her bedroom window. He couldn’t say with any certainty that they were the same buildings, but the look was similar. His heart raced. Did Faye live in this building, too? What were the odds?
No, that would have been way too much of a coincidence. She probably lived in a nearby building, but there was little to no chance it was the same one the Wests lived in. She was close, though. That’s why the view out the window looked familiar. He’d have to pay closer attention next time he chatted with Faye.
Tomorrow night.
“Thanks, Nathaniel.” Lynne had turned back and was watching him. “No, I don’t think that’s necessary. I think I’ll be fine now.” She laughed at something he said. “Already heard about that? Yes, I’ll be sure to tell him.”
She hung up and cocked her head. “Did you see something interesting out the window?”
“No.” He took one last look at the skyline and focused his attention back on Lynne. “I just saw a similar view the other day, and I was wondering about how close the other building was.”
A strange expression crossed her face, but it was gone before he could get a good enough look to identify it. In its place was the sweet smile he’d always associated with Lynne.
“Excuse me for a minute,” she said, and didn’t even wait before scampering down the hall. He heard a door close and assumed she’d gone to the bathroom. Several minutes later, she returned, her cheeks a bit flushed. “Sorry about that.”
“Quite all right. Everything okay?”
“Yes. Ready to eat? I made Italian.” She didn’t explain further, but went straight to the cabinets to get plates out. He wondered if she remembered Italian was his favorite.
“I’ll get the wine.”
Lynne didn’t take the plates to the dining room. Instead she carried everything over to an intimate dining nook beside the kitchen.
“I love eating here,” she said. “I hope you don’t mind. The view is fantastic. Besides, I think the dining room is too stuffy.”
Once he saw the space, he had to agree. It was surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows and offered an amazing view of the city. “This is something else,” he said, putting the wine on the table. “If I had a view like this, I’d spend all my time in this spot.”
“I know, right?” Lynne waved toward the outside. “From up here, it looks so peaceful. Busy, but peaceful.”
Freed from the expectations of a date, Simon found himself enjoying the dinner with Lynne. She’d grown up in the time since they’d been together. Granted, she’d never been childlike, but there was a certain maturity about her that hadn’t been present before.
She didn’t appear ill at ease or awkward, which he’d feared, especially considering their accidental meeting in the jigsaw puzzle store. Gone was that woman. Here, in this penthouse, she appeared settled and secure in who she was. And damn, she could cook.
He set his fork down. “That was the best lasagna I’ve ever had. Thank you for cooking for me.”
Her cheeks blushed the slightest bit of pink, and she ducked her head at his praise. Lovely. “Thank you,” she said.
“Any way we can bring the puzzle to this table?” He started clearing their places to make room.
“Only if you pour more wine.”
He cleared the table and got the wine while she put the dishes in the dishwasher and retrieved the puzzle. Moments later, they were back at the table, and she opened the box.
“So tell me, Simon.” Her eyes danced when she was playful. He loved that about her. “Do you do the outside first or the inside?”
“Outside first. Once you have the edges, you’re set.”
“Would you call that edging?” she asked.
At her mention of the word “edging,” his mind formed a perfect image of her on her back and him above her, thrusting into her with just enough power to make her moan, but not nearly enough to bring her to release.
“What would you know about edging?” he asked, his voice rough, even to his own ears.
“Sometimes at night, I play with myself. See how long I can stay on the edge without coming.” She spoke as if she were mentioning the weather or the lack of parking in the city. She’s tipsy. Has to be the wine. He could think of no other reason for her to be so uninhibited.
“Is that right?” he asked, almost afraid to speak for fear she’d stop talking. “How long can you go before you come?”
She looked mildly surprised, as if she couldn’t believe she’d spoken her thoughts out loud. “I don’t come.”
“You don’t?”
“No.” She shook her head. “The Dom I’m with won’t allow it.”
The Dom who had whipped her back so expertly. Of course, he would also have claimed ownership of her orgasms. He tried not to show how her words affected him. “I take it you’ve been a good submissive?”
“Yes, Sir,” she whispered, and her eyes grew dark.
He clenched his fists. Fuck. What those two words did to him when they came out of her mouth. “Dammit, Lynne.”
He stood completely still, knowing if he didn’t, he would walk the five steps to her, take her into his arms, crush his lips to hers, and damn the consequences that would follow.
The Lynne he’d known before would stutter through an apology, flush a few shades of pink, and not look him in the eyes for the rest of the evening. But as he’d ascertained earlier, this was a new Lynne, and the new Lynne didn’t seem to be embarrassed by sharing what was on her mind.
She gave him a sultry smile that told him she knew exactly what her words did to him, and in a smooth and graceful motion, she slid into the chair and sat down.
“Now I’m going to show you how to put a puzzle together,” she said as if he weren’t standing there with an erection so hard and uncomfortable he might just bust his jeans wide open.
He took a deep breath and sat down, but in his mind, he wasn’t putting a puzzle together with Lynne; he was taking apart the puzzle that was Lynne.
• • •
Lynne groaned and leaned back against the door as soon as she closed it behind Simon. What the hell had she been thinking acting the way she did? It had to be the wine. She wasn’t used to drinking, and they’d gone through the entire bottle he’d brought over.
Not to mention, the view from the window was something that had never crossed her mind. Not in five hundred years would she have thought about Simon looking out the window. She’d have to add that to her list of things to worry about the next time she had a video chat with him. And how the hell had she forgotten to close the bedroom door? Thank goodness he’d brought up the view, because it had been that comment that had triggered her to go make sure he couldn’t accidentally come across Faye’s room.
In a moment of weakness, and because she couldn’t stand the idea of not seeing him again, she’d asked him if he wanted to come by later in the week to work on some more of the puzzle. He’d hesitated so long, she expected him to say no. But all at once his face broke out into a rare smile and he told her to name the date and time and he’d be there.
Now she was really
in a mess. Tomorrow night she would be Faye and video chat with Simon, and the next night she would be Lynne and would work on a puzzle with him. If she’d only waited, maybe she’d have found her way back to him without becoming Faye. But it was too late to think like that now.
The fact was, she didn’t want to give up Faye. Simon was doing the demo with Faye, and even though he’d been surprised by her actions a few times tonight, she had no doubt that he would never do a demo with Lynne.
For now she would have to keep up her split personality.
Her phone rang, and she jogged over to the table they’d been doing the puzzle on, expecting to see Simon’s name, but instead found an unknown number.