A Pinch of Sugar Read online

  He approaches me slowly and stops, right in front of my crate. His belt winks at me, mere inches away from the red tip of my nose, and shivers inundate me.

  Sebastian lifts a hand and cups the side of my face.

  Oh God, he’s so warm. So steady.

  I whimper and lean in, the inner walls of my femininity contracting wildly.

  “Shhh, Alice. It’s only one cake.”

  More tears roll down my cheeks, big and sloppy. I don’t know what’s happening to me. I’m usually so in control, but my senses are being overwhelmed from all sides. The adrenaline spike I experienced while baking for my life while a timer ticked overhead has faded. Another, more poignant one is taking its place now. Being touched by Sebastian Cove is flooding me with sensation. One press of his palm to my cheek and I’m exposed. Needy. Raw and wet and pliable.

  My breath comes faster and faster until I’m basically hyperventilating.

  Oh God. Make it stop.

  Sebastian’s warmth leaves my cheek, his fingers delving into my hair. His fist turns slowly, winding my hair around his wrist. “Stand for me, darling.”

  My body does as he says without hesitation. On wobbling legs, I reach my full height and I’m still only eye-level with his carved granite chin. The stupid moisture won’t stop raining down my cheeks and he seems extremely troubled by the sight of it, a groove deepening between his ice blue eyes. Then he nods as if he’s seen something important in me.

  “Were you serious when you ended things with him?”

  “Yes,” I gasp, my nod vigorous. “It’s over.”

  Relief radiates from Sebastian. “Good.”

  On the other side of the small, dark backstage corner, there is an old dressing table and he leads me to it now, turning me gently so I’m facing the unlit mirror. I’m still sobbing, gulping air and trembling, but I gasp and hold my breath when his lips open on the nape of my neck. “Lean forward,” he rasps, guiding me down until my cheek presses to the cool surface. “I know what you need. I know what we both need.”

  “What?” I ask through swollen lips, my fingers curling into my palms.

  He doesn’t answer. Not directly. “Tell me what I’m going to find under your skirt when I lift it up, Alice.”

  Heat slicks my flesh. I started getting damp when he walked out onto the set, leaving my inner thighs sticky and sensitive now. “Panties,” I breathe. Is this really happening? Holy crap. Holy crap. “J-just panties.”

  “Not just panties.”

  After a moment, I shake my head. “No.”

  He pinches the hem of my skirt. “Are there frilly, little girl panties under this skirt, Alice?”

  My vision winks at the words little girl said in his clipped British accent, and I know if I wasn’t leaning on the piece of furniture, I’d be kneeling at his feet. Unable to do anything else. “Yes. Pink.”

  “Pink, are they?” he murmurs, inching up the garment, higher and higher until the bunched material is settled around my hips—and for the first time in my life, I’m sharing my secret with a man. I’m showing Sebastian panties that aren’t meant for women. Not really. They have ruffles on the backside and bows on the hips. They’re not meant to be sexy, they’re meant to be innocent, but…

  They’re the only underwear that make me feel sexy.

  That make me feel like Alice at all.

  “Fuck me,” he breathes.

  I tense. “Do you…like them?”

  “Yes. God, yes.”

  “How did you know I was wearing them?” I whisper.

  “I have no idea,” he admits, his voice thick, deeper than before. Like he can’t swallow. His fingertips graze the ruffles, drawing a sob from my throat. “Just like I have no idea why I need to pull them down and spank the tears right out of you. Only that I sense how much you need it.”

  Do I need to be spanked?

  Joyful little pinpricks are spreading from my belly, up to my breasts where my nipples peak excitedly. The mere suggestion of his palm cracking down on my bottom eases the anxiety inside me. The anxiety I’d been feeling since I was ambushed on the baking show, which only got worse when I lost in spectacular fashion. There’s been a knot of tension in my middle and I didn’t realize it until now when his hand on my backside starts to loosen it.

  I lift my chin and meet his glittering eyes in the darkness, my heart thumping over the intensity I find in his expression. All of it focused on me. “I’ll take whatever you think I need, Sebastian.”

  He appears rocked by hearing his name on my lips, his unsteady hand fisting in the waistband of my underwear. “Yes, you will.” His jaw flexes as he yanks down my girly, pink panties, letting them catch around my knees. “By God, this perfect, round little ass will feel the strike of my hand and when I’m finished, your tears will be dried. Won’t they, my sweet darling?”

  It’s so perfect. Exactly as I’ve dreamed. How have I known all along it would be like this between us? “Yes.” I drag my breasts side to side on the dressing table, desperate for friction, but it’s too smooth and I whine in frustration. “I promise I’ll be all better…” Daddy.

  I clamp my lips together before the word can escape, but it burns in my throat, dying to be let out. What would he think of me if I called him that?

  In the mirror, I watch Sebastian rear back with his hand, connecting with my right ass cheek with a precise swat—and it’s like I suddenly have twenty-twenty vision in a world that’s always been blurry. My mouth falls open and my hips tilt up shamelessly, as if my body has been waiting for this. There’s a ripple of completion traveling from my head, down to my toes.

  Oh Lord. Again. Again.

  I don’t have to beg out loud to get what I want. Sebastian simply gives it to me, harsh slap after harsh slap, wetness spreading in the folds of my sex and coasting down the insides of my legs. I can breathe. I can breathe for the first time.

  On the fifth swat, Sebastian leans down, breathing heavily in my ear. “It upsets me to see you cry.”

  There’s a twist in my chest at his honesty. “I’m sorry.”

  “When you cry…I want to comfort you.” I catch his frown reflected in the mirror. “I also want to feel your tears sliding down my stomach.”

  If he can be honest with me, I can do the same. I feel so free and myself right now, I don’t know if I have any other choice but to say the words bursting free of my mind. “You want comforting me to turn into…more. Even if it’s…wrong. Or if we pretend it’s wrong,” I whisper, my cheeks flaming. “You want to dry my tears and make more of them at the same time.”

  “Yes.” His forehead falls to my shoulder, his voice raw and hoarse. “What are you doing to me? How the hell do you know this?”

  I whisper my confession. “I’ve been dreaming about it since I…”

  “Since you were a little girl,” he finishes in a growl. “Is that the way of it?”

  I nod contritely, meeting his wolfish gaze through my lashes. “You can spank me more, Daddy. You can do anything. I won’t tell anyone.”

  We make blistering eye contact in the mirror, his expression intense, mine vulnerable. Hopeful. Maybe even a little desperate, because I’ve been pining for this feeling since I can remember. Being at the mercy of a man. This man. My needs and wants and desires all tied to a string and wrapped around his big finger.

  Sebastian opens his mouth to say something—

  “Mr. Cove!” A male voice yells from the set. “We need you for the wrap-up interview.” Then quieter, “Do you know where he went?”

  “Back there, I think,” someone answers. “Far corner.”

  We move quickly and at the same time, pulling my panties and skirt back into place, his hands far steadier and more capable than mine. One look in the mirror tells me nothing can hide the fact that I was hovering on the edge of an orgasm. Just from being spanked. Whoever comes around that corner will know it, though, and Sebastian seems to realize it, too.

  “I don’t want anyone to see you like th
is,” he says, his hand hovering over my hair for a second, then stroking it once, before his touch falls away. “Alice, I—”

  Footsteps draw close.

  Really close.

  “Mr. Cove? You back here?”

  With a biting curse, he spins away and intercepts the man just before he can invade our little corner of the backstage area. “Right. I’m here,” he snaps. “Let’s get this nonsense over with.”

  Their footsteps fade. And then I’m alone.

  The high I was experiencing a minute ago drops and shatters like a glass on concrete. Did I just…call Sebastian Cove…Daddy?

  Did I just essentially confess that I want to be his little girl, like I’ve always dreamed?

  He said he wanted it, too, in the heat of the moment, but as I understand it, men will say whatever it takes to get sex from a woman. I was so ready to give it to him, too. Maybe he was secretly laughing at me. There’s a reason I never get physical with the men I date. I’m afraid of being told I’m a freak.

  Maybe I am a freak and Sebastian thinks so.

  I look around in the darkness. The silence falls like a heavy drape and suddenly I’m freezing cold. Just another failed reality show contestant.

  You should go.

  He didn’t even say he was coming back. What am I going to do? Stand here and wait, hoping Sebastian motherloving Cove wants to return and satisfy my Daddy issues? Am I serious?

  Before I can talk myself into doing something stupid and staying, waiting around like a lovesick puppy, I lunge for the emergency exit and blow the joint.

  4

  Sebastian

  As soon as the absolute knob of a host finishes asking me the final interview question, I rip the microphone off my lapel and make for the backstage area. There is a rather unsettled feeling in my stomach and I’m not used to being anything but calm. Confident. As soon as I sat down for the interview, though, I got a terrible feeling that I shouldn’t have left Alice.

  I was torn between two instincts.

  Keep the other man from seeing her and getting my mouth on her gorgeous body. I reasoned that I could accomplish both, just not at the same time. After all, there needs to be an order to things. When I make my famous amaretto genoise, there is a step-by-step process to achieving the end result. I start by beating the egg yolks on medium speed and slowly adding the sugar, at a very precise rate. Order. Directions. Recipes. That’s how I live my life.

  Alice has only been in my life for less than a day and already, I’m questioning my actions. Worrying I made the wrong decision when I’ve never once second guessed myself with a woman.

  Alice isn’t just any woman, is she?

  She’s the female I took one look at and needed to possess. Yet I had no idea the level of possessiveness I would reach when we met face to face backstage, in the dark, in the absence of cameras. Just breath, hands and the kind of honesty that threatens even now to steal my sanity.

  You can spank me more, Daddy. You can do anything. I won’t tell anyone.

  A low groan leaves me the farther I move into the darkness backstage. Most of the action has died down and I don’t like that. I don’t like the fact that I’ve been gone long enough for people to start leaving. If Alice isn’t where I left her, what the fuck am I going to do?

  I never expected the types of things she said to me to make my dick so hard. To make me feel like I was standing in the exact right place, with the exact right woman, but her words opened up a door inside me and there’s hunger on the other side. There’s more than that. There’s…responsibility. Alice needs a man who will touch her, speak to her, treat her a certain way—and I need it to be me.

  It will be me.

  With anticipation tightening my gut, I turn the corner into the area where I left Alice…

  Gone.

  She’s gone.

  A headache roars home, right between my eyes, and the moisture in my mouth evaporates. No.

  Helplessness pours into my stomach like wet cement and I turn, kicking over a garment rack. “Fuck!”

  On some level, I knew she wouldn’t be here, though, didn’t I? Goddammit. Was I daft leaving her when she’d just been so brave and open with me? I don’t know where these new instincts are coming from, either, but I know with dead certainty that spanking her and walking away was a huge mistake. She needed soothing and it was my duty to provide.

  Refusing to be defeated, to be without her, I find the closest grunt in a headset, grabbing him by the elbow. “The girl, Alice. The contestant. Where has she gone?”

  His face is bone white. “I-I don’t know. We took care of the release forms during the first break. She had no reason to stick around, so she probably left.”

  The hell she didn’t have a reason to stick around.

  I was about to take her from behind against the dressing table.

  I was…yes, I think I would have taken her home with me. Maybe even permanently. Which might have taken quite a lot of convincing, considering we’re in New York City and I live in London.

  Am scheduled to return there tomorrow, in fact.

  Dread and urgency are thorns in my side. “Release forms,” I bark. “Does that mean you have her contact information?”

  He’s already shaking his head. “I’m not allowed to give out—”

  “Oh. You will.”

  I extricate my wallet and start counting out bills. When I press them into the young man’s sweaty palm, his eyes light up. “She used her work address on the forms. I only remember because I took a date once to the restaurant she manages.”

  Impatience makes me want to shake him. “The name of it, if you please.”

  “Landmark. It’s downtown. Real nice place. I had the lobster—”

  I turn on a heel and walk away, cell phone in hand so I can check the time. It’s almost dinnertime. If she’s not working tonight, I suppose I’ll have to pay off someone at Landmark to give me her home address. And I’m more than willing.

  You’re not going to enchant me and then disappear, Alice.

  I hope you’re ready, because I’m coming to get you.

  * * *

  When I walk into Landmark, I immediately know it’s a well-run establishment and it pleases me to know my Alice has a hand in making it so. The low, intimate lighting is perfect, the music is the right volume, the wait staff’s uniforms are clean and starched. There isn’t a wrinkle to be found on the white tablecloths, the overhead chandelier making the silverware shine.

  It’s a large restaurant. Two levels. And it’s packed full of customers.

  But it only takes me ten seconds to spot Alice.

  The sight of her shuts down everything around me until all I can hear is the shuddering intake of my own breath. All I can feel is my cock stiffening in my trousers. She’s magnificent in a short, black skirt that makes her legs look like sin, her tits jiggling underneath the starched white of her tucked in dress shirt. She’s making her rounds through the sea of tables, smiling and asking the patrons if everything is to their liking. To anyone looking at her, she appears to be a very intelligent, independent woman—and I’m sure she is. Secretly, though? She wants her tight ass backhanded by the man in charge.

  I’m that man.

  These tastes she’s woken up inside me are unexpected, but Lord, I don’t think I could deny them even if I wanted to.

  “Oh my God. It’s Sebastian Cove,” someone says in a furious whisper as they pass. Heads are beginning to turn in my direction. I notice this only in my periphery, because I can’t take my eyes off Alice. When she finally notices me standing off to the side of the hostess station, she stops in her tracks, her cheeks turning a deep shade of pink. In my mind, I imagine kissing that blooming spot of color while holding her in my lap. Telling her not to be embarrassed about the wet spot on her panties that’s blooming just as fast as the two on her face.

  Alice visibly gathers herself and comes toward me. Before she can reach my side, however, a man steps in between us. He takes
my hand in an enthusiastic shake, trying and failing several times to form a bloody sentence. “I-I don’t believe it. It’s…you’re Sebastian Cove. In my restaurant. No one told me you were coming. Well we must get you a table immediately—”

  “That won’t be necessary,” I say briskly, cutting him off before he can start recommending entrees. “I’m here to speak with your manager. Alice.”

  His brows shoot to his hairline. “Alice?”

  “Yes.” She stops behind the restaurant owner, seeming to balance on the balls of her feet and something inside me goes…soft. Like the center of a lava cake when it’s been sliced open. This effect she has on me is as alarming as it is addictive. “In fact…if you’ll kindly give her the night off, I would be happy to return the favor.”

  The owner turns and looks at Alice, then back at me, his eyes as wide as an owl. “I suppose I could step in tonight…in a managerial capacity…if you would be willing to tweet about Landmark and its delectable dessert menu?”

  On the inside, I’m rolling my eyes. Everything these days is about social media. Thank God I have people on the payroll to handle that nonsense on my behalf. “I’ll have my assistant contact you.” I move past the man who dares to block Alice from my view. “Shall we?”

  She blinks several times. “Just like that, you expect me to walk out of my job? On a Saturday night?”

  I raise an eyebrow. “Yes.”

  A sound puffs out of her. “Have you considered the fact that you’re the second man today to decide the course of my fate without even consulting me?”

  “This is not the same thing,” I growl, moving into her personal space. The scent of sugar wraps around me and I momentarily lose my train of thought. Where was I? Right, she compared me to that wanker ex-boyfriend of hers. Is she serious?

  I press my mouth to her ear and despite the sparks in her eyes, she goes pliant immediately and moans, the pointed tips of her breasts grazing my stomach. By God, if I don’t get between her thighs soon, I’m going to go insane.