Stiletto Sisterhood

Original Edition: *BONUS* Isobel | Let me...

Hideo shut the door behind them, flipped the locks as he swept an arm around her waist and steered her into the stunning living room. His apartment was a lushly furnished three-bedroom space with elegant wainscoting, high ceilings and large windows on one of the most expensive condominiums in Manhattan hitched to the Park Hyatt hotel. Isobel's eyes danced over the cream upholstered couch and Aubusson rug. She'd worked for a couple of years after high school as an assistant for an interior designer in Toronto who worked with rich clients and had her own reality TV show.

Isobel knew how to pick out and recognize quality, and an apartment like this would have cost well over a million dollars in décor alone. Whomever he worked for, to say they were generous was putting it mildly.

She checked her phone quickly, and smiled at Priya's text message, confirming she received all information Isobel had sent on the brief cab ride over.

Hideo flicked on a side-table lamp with a mosaic mother of pearl base, lighting the space enough so give warmth but still allowing for the private intimacy of shadows. She felt more confident in the dark, where the heat of the blush and glimmer of nerves in her eyes would go unseen. Shucking off his blazer, Hideo tossed it over the arm of the couch and reached for her. Even in her heels he was tall, but without them the top of her head brushed as far as his chin, smooth and angular, her eyes fixated on the fullness of his lips. Lips she had sampled and now craved to fully explore.

"Don't be shy. Here," he said, linking his fingers with hers, drawing her closer. "I'll go as far as you need me to. As slow as you want me to." Kissing the sensitive curve of her wrist, Hideo set her hand on his chest. Inches above his heart. She felt the steady rhythm rising to greet her in soothing, calming pulses.

"Shouldn't it be the other way around?"

"No. No, I think you need this. And that scares you. Needing something for yourself, something...as simple and honest as basic physical connection."

Isobel breathed in slow, panting breaths, the kind that made her head hazy and light. "And you think I shouldn't be scared?"

"No. Not of this." His hands stroked up her arms. Slow. Easy. "Not of me."

With the light spilling over her shoulder, his face came in clear and honest. Hand still weighing over his heart, she held his gaze, searched it. And saw only truth. No games or pretenses. No thinly veiled lies. The beat of his heart remained steady. Strong. Consistent. Whatever her hesitations, Isobel could see he stood by every word. Every syllable. And she knew, down to the deepest corners of intuition, she could trust him.

The last vestiges of her hesitation bled into desire, was swallowed up in the rush of thrill. "Okay."

His smile broke, swift and bright with a kind of joy that transformed him beyond handsome into something truly breathtaking. His lips descended to hers and he drank in her gasp of surprise, her moan of surrender. Firm, demanding but without urgency. This was the controlled seduction of a man who preferred to sip and savour. Not gulp. She tasted scotch and something entirely him. Rich. Heady.

That hand around her neck urged her closer with the slightest application of pressure guiding her to him and with each new point of contact her body sparked to life. Like lightning striking the ground in a storm.

Dazzling. Terrifying. Powerful.

Her fingers curled in his shirt before her hands moved of their own volition, sliding over the capped muscles of his chest, around wide shoulders, squeezing over strong biceps as his mouth worked miracles. God, his mouth. His touch. Head spinning, she clung to him. And a smile crept in around the edges of his kiss as she surrendered. A nip of teeth and glide of tongue. The vibrant potency of his allure was compelling. She could kiss him, just like this, for hours. Lost in endless waves of pleasure. Masterful. Each stroke and glide left her a little more dazed and breathless. As if he wove a sensual spell with lips and tongue. A siren, calling her deeper.