Alex’s assistant once, but she was fairly convinced that she knew the woman’s type. “She’d probably ask you if she should bring you a cigarette and a glass of water for when you’d finished.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said. “I’m sure she’d at least offer me sparkling water.” He chuckled for a moment, and then his voice took on a much sharper tone. “Strip. Now. I want to see you naked.”
There was something very different about stripping off her bra and panties in front of a camera, even if it was a closed connection. Her mother had never exactly pulled her aside and told her not to sext with boys, but it had certainly been implied.
But the intensity of his eyes on her gave her the motivation to reach back, unhook the bra, and let her breasts fall free. Her nipples were pale pink peaks, taut against the cool air of the bathroom. She moved very, very slowly as she hooked her thumbs in her panties and pushed them down her legs. She stood there, her hands folded behind her back, pushing her small breasts forward, and waited.
“Have you done this sort of thing before?”
“No,” she said. “You’re my first.”
She liked the gasping sound he made when she surprised him. It made her want to do it again and again.
“How much do you trust me?” Alex asked, and Zoey found herself smiling again.
“I’m here, aren’t I?”
“Fair point,” he said. “Is the bath ready?”
She nodded without speaking.
“Then climb in,” he said.
She twisted her hair up off her shoulders, and slid into the water, pretending that it was his embrace. The heat of the water was intense, and she winced for just a moment as it surrounded her, scorching her skin. But after that first moment, the water seemed to soften, brushing over her skin like traces of velvet brushing over her most sensitive places. She let out a low moan as aches she hadn’t even fully felt gave over to the delicate caress of the water.
“Oh, that is nice,” he said.
“Can you see what you want to see?”
“Well enough to tempt me,” he said. “Do you have any idea how lovely you are?”
She couldn’t resist the urge to roll her eyes. “I hate that question,” she retorted. “If I say yes, I sound arrogant, and if I say no, it sounds like I’m digging for compliments.”
“You are something else,” Alex said with a smirk.
“Something awesome, I hope.”
“Something amazing.”
“I wish you were here with me,” she said, both because she meant it, and because it seemed like the thing to say.
“I wish I were too,” he replied. “There’s nothing I’d like more than to just slide into the water behind you, run my fingers over your heated skin. See what makes you whimper.”
“You make me whimper,” she said. She wanted to let her fingers wander the path he would take, but she didn’t quite dare. He’d been very firm, after all, about what he’d do if she didn’t play his game.
“I know I do,” he said. “But I want to see you come. I want to see you touch yourself. Can you do that for me?”
She squirmed just a little, the hot water caressing between her thighs. “I don’t—I don’t know what you want to see.”
“I want to see you, pleasuring yourself.”
Zoey squirmed again. Her face was bright red, she knew, and it wasn’t just from the heat of the water. “Alex, I—” She hated saying no, but she didn’t know how to start.
He smiled, and there wasn’t a hint of frustration in it. “That’s okay,” he said. “I understand. You enjoy your bath; I’ll go back to work, and we’ll pick this up when I come home. How’s that sound?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to,” she said. “I just—uh, I’m not sure where to start.”
He was quiet for a moment, and the speed of his hand slowed. “Well. Where would you start if I wasn’t watching?”
If it