Free Bound to Please by Lilli Feisty Page B

Ruby her Scary Stare over them. “How many times do you think Mark St. Crow gets booted after a quick fuck?”
    “It wasn’t that quick.” Ruby shifted in her seat. “And, not many, I’d suspect.”
    “So you’ve just turned the tables on him. It’s probably killing him. A guy like that, not being the one on top?”
    Ruby refrained from pointing out that last night, she had, in fact, been the one on top. On the chair, anyway.
    Meg gestured toward Ruby’s purse. “I bet he calls you today.”
    “No way. That is so not going to happen. I didn’t even give him my number.”
    “I’m sure that won’t stop him from getting it. And when he does call, you ask him to play this event.”
    Ruby just rolled her eyes. “Meg, you’re crazy.”
    Meg tapped her temple with a fingertip. “Crazy like a fox.”
    Swatting her friend with the menu, Ruby had to laugh. “Seriously, I really didn’t plan on seeing him again.”
    “And would it be such a bad thing to see him again?” Meg asked.
    “Actually, yes.” Ruby went back to hiding behind her menu.
    “Why?” Meg was nothing if not persistent.
    “Because. He’s just…”
    “What?” Meg asked.
    “Too much. It’s too intense.” He was too intense. The way he looked at her as if he knew her, the way he did know exactly what she wanted him to do to her. It was too much.
    “So?”
    “So? Meg, you don’t understand.”
    “Understand what?”
    “This is not a normal relationship. He’s not vanilla. And BDSM is more extreme; it makes you vulnerable. It makes me more vulnerable, anyway. And I just can’t go there with a twenty-nine-year-old musician who lives three thousand miles away, and that’s when he’s not on tour.” Ruby sipped her latte, hoping Meg would be satisfied with her explanation.
    She wasn’t. “So you really never want to see him again?”
    Ruby was dying to see him again. “Nope. Never.” She said, shaking her head vigorously.
    “Then I suppose this would be the wrong time to tell you the band is going to be recording at Emmett’s studio starting, like, now.” She put a hand to her mouth. “Oops! Looks like I just did.”
    So what Mark had said last night was true. Ruby’s heart skipped with a combination of fear and excitement. She was getting really sick of this particular feeling.
    This was so not good. She was at Meg’s all the time, and now Mark was going to be there, too? She felt sweat break out under her breasts. She knew that she’d never be able to look at Mark without remembering exactly how she’d let him dominate her.
    It would be torture.
    “So, aren’t you a little excited to see him again?” Meg asked.
    “Yes. No. I don’t know.”
    “What’s there to know? He’s hot, he’s into you—”
    “But—”
    “The sex was good.” Meg shrugged. “I don’t see any problem. None whatsoever.”
    “Meg. I barely know him, and I’m already in a gossip column. I don’t like that. I don’t even like him.”
    “Come on, Ruby. I saw the article. It wasn’t bad. In fact, it was awesome publicity for us. Next time do something scandalous so we make a national paper!” After a second Meg smiled gently. “You wanna know what I think?”
    “Not especially.”
    “I think Mark could really shake up your neat, orderly existence, and that freaks the shit out of you. I think you freak out whenever you get vulnerable, and something about Mark got you real vulnerable real fast.”
    “Give me a break. You make me sound like a control freak!” Just then their server, Bree, arrived with two plates of food.
    “Here ya go, girls,” she said, placing their plates on the table.
    Meg smiled warmly. “Got a minute to chat with us, Bree?”
    Ruby and Meg spent so much time at Savor, they’d gotten to know Bree pretty well. Still, Ruby recognized a diversion tactic when she saw one. Didn’t matter. Meg was wrong, and Ruby didn’t have the energy to argue with her about it.
    “Yeah, I have a few minutes.” Bree pulled a