For a second I thought she would argue with me, but she glanced down at Nathaniel and something she saw made her change her mind. I couldn’t see his expression from where I sat, but then again, I didn’t need to. We’d been together long enough, I was certain I’d seen every single one of his expressions. If not all, then at least ninety-nine percent of them.
Though it was impossible for me to know for certain which one he gave her, I had a few guesses. There weren’t many people who would dare to cross any of them. For certain, Snow Bunny didn’t have the fortitude. It hadn’t been an out-and-out bluff when I told her she was too delicate for his tastes.
Not that he’d be interested if she could handle him, but she had no way of knowing as much. Left with very few options to choose from, she gave a dismissive noise in her throat and spun on her heel. In less than ten seconds, she’d already cozied up to a newly arrived gentleman. Good riddance.
The bartender arrived with our drinks. Nathaniel lifted his and took a sip. “So Abigail,” he said. “What are your plans while you’re in Switzerland?”
It took me a second to catch on he wanted to keep up the charade. My belly tightened in anticipation and excitement. It had been years since we’d done anything resembling public role-play. Not only that, but he was allowing me to decide on some details.
“My plans?” I asked, and bit my bottom lip as more of a delay tactic than anything else, but I didn’t miss the way his eye darkened in response.
“Yes,” he replied. This time the tone of his voice and the set of his expression made several things clear. It didn’t matter I wasn’t wearing one of his collars nor did it matter we hadn’t decided beforehand that we’d play tonight. At the moment, he was no longer Nathaniel. He was my Master.
My heart pounded hard, and I knew he was aware. My mind raced, trying to come up with something reasonable.
“I was supposed to meet someone here for dinner, and it appears he's stood me up.” I shrugged. “He said we’d get together in the bar before our reservation time, but that was almost thirty minutes ago.”
“I seem to be without a date as well, since you ran mine off.” He gave me a wicked smirk. I was glad I was sitting down. I doubt my legs could have supported me after his next words turned them to jelly. “That was a very naughty thing to do, Abigail.”
6
Nathaniel
Her eyes grew dark with arousal at my words. She wasn’t the only one. Fucking hell, watching Abby take that obnoxious woman down a few pegs was one of the hottest things I’ve ever witnessed. The unknown woman had appeared at my side only three seconds after I sat down to wait for Abby. I’d flashed my wedding band a few times, but if she saw it, and I’m not sure how it could be missed, she didn’t seem to care I belonged to someone else.
I hadn’t been prepared when Abby appeared. The two of us hadn’t role-played in a long time. Longer still was the last time we role-played in public. When my wild and wonderful wife sat down by my side and pretended not to know me, it was the exact kick in the pants I needed. Her reaction to my extension of her act, the way her breath caught in surprise, and how I could almost see the submissive inside her melt?
I gave serious thought to canceling our dinner reservations and taking her back to the chalet. To go on and give in. To take both her and the pleasure offered me.
But that would be too easy for both of us. So much better to draw out the anticipation and have her on edge for most of the night. Her unintentional addition of the role-play would only increase her need.
Perfect.
“If that’s the case,” she said, recovering from her shock quicker than I’d expected. “I offer you my most heartfelt apology. I didn’t intend to be naughty.”
“Perhaps not,” I told her. “But that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, now does it?”
Her eyes simmered with a heated need. “No.”
I tilted my head. “Try again.”
“Try what?”
I leaned close to whisper in her ear. “Address me correctly and we’ll go have dinner. Continue the petulance and we’ll leave right now and take care of that spanking you desperately want.”
“I think that’s an awful forward thing for you to presume, Sir.”
I grinned at how she said Sir in a tone that made it both a form of respect and an insult at the same time. “Yet you presumed I had no interest in the woman talking to me. I can therefore only presume that you did so because you knew I could handle your ass the way you crave.”
Her face flushed a pink. “Do you have reservations already, Sir?”
I took her avoidance of the question and attempt at changing the subject to mean she recognized the futility of arguing with me. And that I was right about the spanking. “I do, and it’s almost time. Will you come have dinner with me, Abigail?” I held out my arm.
“How very gentlemanly of you, Sir,” she said, allowing me to help her off the stool.
“Don’t let the manners fool you,” I warned. “There is nothing gentlemanly about the plans I have for you tonight.”
“I certainly hope not,” she quipped, as we made our way out of the bar and up the stairs to the floor where the restaurant was located. “That would be a bore and a half.”
Dinner was lovely. That particular restaurant was one of our favorites and we hadn’t been in a long time because even though Elizabeth and Henry are typically very well-behaved children, they were, in fact, children. Could they sit through a long boring dinner in a space decidedly not designed with children in mind? Perhaps. But why put them through it?
Whenever we were in Switzerland, we were on vacation. If the four of us were there, it was a family vacation. No kid under ten I know of wants to spend any time dining for over an hour with adults. That goes times one hundred for a kid on vacation.
We hadn’t been able to keep up our play during dinner. Once we were seated and handed menus, Abby recognized they had the entrée items we’d ordered at our first visit on our honeymoon. The menu had changed the last time we ate here, and they’d taken them off.
“I wonder if it’s seasonal?” I asked her. “The last time we were here alone, it was summer. Before that, we usually came around this time of year.”
“Yes,” Abby said. “But always after Christmas.”
Exactly, because that would be in time for our anniversary, but that wasn’t why she mentioned it. I narrowed my eyes at her. “You aren’t bringing that up again, are you? Because if you are, I’m going to take my earlier threat seriously.”
I was only half joking. I would never dream of Abby not feeling safe enough to tell me when she didn’t like something. But hell, we’d beat that horse to death, and no CPR in the world would bring it back to life.
“No,” she said. “I only meant this was the first time we’ve been here alone before Christmas.”
She was right. A few years ago, we’d spent a few weeks before the holidays in Switzerland with the kids. Christmas Day, however, we were always at home at our Hampton Estate. That way we could spend time with family.