The deep wine color enhanced the rich shade of her shiny brown hair, which she’d curled and clipped back with a long flat barrette. The bodice of the dress was silky, with an embroidered pattern like feathers. It fit her upper body perfectly, molding the sweet lines of her small breasts, the nip of her waist. The skirt flowed over her hips and fell to mid-calf, the fabric so light it swirled around her legs and hips as she moved.
A wide sash outlined her waist, a bow embellishing the hip. Overlapped cap-like short sleeves showed the bare lengths of her graceful arms. The dress’s sculpted neckline wasn’t low, but it did expose her collar bones and a wide crescent of skin beneath. She wore a silver necklace with a tiny wine-colored rose as the pendant. Wisps of hair curled around her brow and forehead, framing her face.
She’d put on makeup. Lightly, thickening the already thick lashes and making her luminous hazel eyes capable of piercing a man to the bone when she lifted them to look at him. Her lips were a delicate pink that picked up the wine color of the dress.
He’d rarely seen her in anything but sneakers or flat sandals. The silver strappy shoes she wore were wedges, a couple inches high. He motioned and she did a slow full turn for him, so he viewed the contours of her waist from the back, the outline of her shoulder blades against the thin fabric. The skirt flowed like water, highlighting the flare of her hips, giving him glimpses of shapely calves and ankles. She wore filmy silver-gray stockings.
Her underwear might be her usual practical cottons, but if Julie and Les had bought her something to coordinate with the dress, he might owe them a fervent thank you. He’d let himself find out later. Right now, he wanted to tell her in a million different ways how damn humbled and amazed he was to be her escort. Yet babbling like that at a woman wouldn’t really reassure her that he was a Dominant in control of his own emotions, as well as her well-being.
So he held out an astoundingly steady hand. Everything in him tightened up at the way she immediately came to him. He kissed her knuckles, found her hand cold. Just like that, his uncertainty melted away, as it often did when he could focus on making sure she was okay, rather than his own confidence, or lack thereof.
“You are beautiful,” he told her. “The most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
Now she flushed and her lips parted, but he cut across her. “Think carefully before you tell me I’m wrong. I’m dying to know what you’ve got on under that dress, and a good spanking would answer that. Plus make us late.”
She pressed her lips together, her hazel eyes flashing with a mix of emotions. He squeezed her hand. “Let’s go.”
The sun was setting, offering some pretty scenery as he drove them out of their rural location to the main highway. It would connect them to another lush area of marshlands and maritime forest outside the city. Tyler’s place was more northwest of Tampa.
She was quiet on the drive, and he didn’t talk a lot either, staying closely attuned to her body language. Some tension, her hands curled in her lap. Fingers twitching. Back straight. He noted each time she swallowed, the movements of her lips.
It was that which finally clued him into what was going on. It punched him hard in the center of his own desires for her. So far, he’d seen it at this level only when they were fully into a moment intended for that, like in the hammock or in her room.
She was really aroused.
He’d gotten her hot and bothered at the kitchen table and deliberately left her that way. Then she’d fixed herself up in an outfit intended to be attractive, to appeal to him. They were both hyperaware they were headed for a party attended solely by Dominants and submissives.
And she would be at the party as his.
When Rory saw a pull off with a good view over the marshes, he took it, putting the van in park. He unlocked the driver’s seat so he could turn it toward her, which put him closer, his knee brushing the side of her leg.
“Look at me, Daralyn,” he said.
She did. The sun was fast disappearing over the horizon, making her pupils even darker, her face shadowed, but