Rougher Than Ever by JT Holland Page A

don’t need one.”
    She proceeds to take a long swig straight
from the bottle before pulling it from her lips and holding it out
towards Eric.
    Smiling, he grabs the bottle from her. “That
wasn’t a very polite thing to do,” he says before proceeding to do
the exact same thing.
    “ Nobody’s ever accused me
of being polite before,” Jasmine replies, matching his
grin.
    “ Which is exactly why
you’re here tonight instead of Jasmine,” Eric says.
    “ Fair enough,” Tory says.
“She says hi, by the way.”
    “ Who? Jasmine?”
    Tory nods.
    “ You told her you were
coming to see me?” Eric asks.
     “ Of course,” Tory
says. “We talk all the time.”
    “ Is she upset?” Eric
asks.
    Tory laughs and shakes her head. “No. Not at
all. She understands.”
    “ Really?”
    “ Yep. She’s flattered,
even.”
    “ Is that
right?”
    “ It sure is,” Tory says.
“Personally, I think it’s kind of pathetic, but that’s just
me.”
    “ Pathetic, huh?” Eric
says, smiling ruefully. He’s not sure if Tory means what she’s
saying or just playing a role, and he doesn’t really care. Either
way she’s helping him get in the right mood for the
evening.
    “ Yeah. I mean, we are escorts, in case you
didn’t remember,” Tory continues. “It’s not like she’s your
girlfriend or something.”
    “ Maybe not,” Eric says,
undoing his belt and slipping it off his waist. He grips the buckle
in his fist and rolls the belt over his hand until only six inches
are still sticking out. “But I do have feelings for her. Which
means I’d probably subconsciously take it easy on her. But you I
hardly even know. So I won’t have those same issues.”
    He slaps the belt on the palm of his hand.
The sound fills the room like a gunshot but Tory doesn’t even
flinch. Apparently she’s used to this sort of thing. Eric smiles,
his excitement overflowing already.
    “ Are you ready to get
started?” Eric asks, slapping the belt against his hand again, hard
enough to leave a red mark this time.
    “ Whenever you are,” Tory
replies.
    In lieu of a reply Eric smacks her across
the ass with his belt.
    Tory yelps in surprise and takes a small
step forward to maintain her balance. She flashes him a dirty
look.
    “ Surprised you a bit
there, didn’t I?” Eric says, his mouth turned up in a wicked
smile.
    “ A little,” she
says.
    He smacks her across the ass again, a little
more forcefully. But Tory was expecting it and bites down on her
bottom lip instead of making any sound. She glares at him with
defiance in her eyes.
    “ You’ve got a little bit
of an edge to you, don’t you?” Eric says, laughing softly. He’s
thoroughly enjoying this.
    Tory doesn’t bother with a response. She
just continues glaring at him.
    “ That’s good,” he says.
“It’ll make it more gratifying when I break you.”
    Tory scoffs. “Break me? You?” She shakes her
head. “It’s never going to happen.”
    “ We’ll see,” Eric says. He
smacks her ass again, even harder.
    A flash of pain crosses Tory’s features for
a moment and she makes a little gasping sound. Fortunately her
breath is quickening and her face is starting to flush too, which
means that the pain brings her some pleasure along with it. Which
is exactly what Eric is shooting for.
    “ That one stung a bit,
didn’t it?” he says.
    “ Nothing I haven’t felt
before,” she replies, her mouth turned up in a sneer.
    “ So it’s not too much for
you?”
    “ Not even
close.”
    “ That’s what I like to
hear,” Eric says. “Because we’ve got a lot further to
go.”
    “ Bring it on,” Tory
says.
    “ Oh, I intend to,” he
says.
    He unrolls the belt from his fist and runs
the tail through the buckle, creating a loop. Standing face-to-face
with her, he slips the loop over Tory’s neck and tightens it. Not
so much that it’s choking her but not loosely either.
    “ Take your jacket off,”
Eric says.
    Tory does as she’s told. If she’s at