Role Play Read Online Free PDF Page B

warily. As if unsure of what I would do next.
    “Are you okay?” I asked. “I’ll get you a cab to take you home.”
    She took a step away from me, warding me off. “I’m fine.”
    I watched as she stepped into the room, searching the crowd quickly. With a shake of her head as if disappointed, she headed to the exit.
    I followed her. She was a little unsteady on her feet, and I had put her into that state. I couldn’t let her wander off into traffic alone.
    Outside, I expected her to hold up her hand to get a cab—they were everywhere around here. But she turned and went to the corner.
    By the time I reached the top of the stairs, she was at the corner waiting for the light to cross the street. She was swaying a bit, staring off at one spot as if dazed. She was a slight form, closed in on herself in the moist summer breeze, pungent with the smell of the street. Slowly she pulled a tissue from her purse and blew her nose, wiping the smeared makeup off her cheeks with it.
    I passed behind her and ran across the street in the middle of the block to get ahead of her. I figured she was trying to hail a cab going in the other direction.
    But as Sierra crossed over and reached the other side, she turned and came towards me. I stepped back into the shadows of the doorway as she walked almost all the way up to me.
    I thought she had seen me and was mad that I was following her, but she didn’t notice me. She went straight to a black car parked at the curb and opened the door.
    “What took so long?” a deep voice demanded. “Why didn’t you answer my texts?”
    Sierra sank into the seat, clutching the red wig. “Just go. Take me home.”
    “What happened?”
    “N othing happened. Now, go.” She turned to the window, her fisted hand over her mouth. I didn’t move, afraid she would notice me in the shadowed doorway of the shop.
    The big blocky guy at the wheel kept complaining about keeping him waiting as he pulled out of the parking spot. He wasn’t the kind of guy I expected to see Sierra with. He looked like an ordinary Queens schmo.
    I had felt bad there for a second, watching her blow her nose on the street corner, but apparently she was pulling one over on that dude in the car, too.
    What was Sierra’s story? I couldn’t figure her out. At first, when I saw her walking around the Chamber, I thought she was a wanna-be dominatrix hoping to make enough money to put herself through grad school. When she hit me with the ruler, she showed real promise—a genuine intensity and connection with me. But her dominance was mostly an illusion created by a sharp tongue, a wig and some makeup.
    Really, she was a bedroom submissive looking for her sugar-daddy. She had judged me unworthy the first second she heard my voice. How could she hear the Jersey I thought I had buried deep inside of me? I would never know. But she did, and she had instantly rejected me for it, until Monica had gossiped about my wealth.
    Then Sierra had been plenty ready to play nice.
    So that made her fair game.
    W hen I whispered those threats to her, now that had been the mind-blower. I still couldn’t believe what a feeling it gave me. Power in the face of powerlessness. Not just because I was riding that dark edge that could swallow me up so easily, but because of her reaction, the way she gave in to me in the end. The way she looked at me as if she knew I owned her in that moment.
    So where did th at dude in the car come in? Did he know that Sierra was inside the Chamber?
    I looked back at the Chamber. I could go back inside if I wanted to. Find another girl, have another scene, maybe take her home and fuck her.
    The palms of my hands burned. Sierra had hit me hard.
    I didn’t want to go back to the Chamber.
    I set off on foot down 9 th Avenue. It would take forty-five minutes to walk home, but it would save me the fare for a subway ride. And nothing beat walking in the city.
    ...
    As I entered my small loft apartment, I suddenly thought about