Special Delivery: Special Delivery, Book 1 by Heidi Cullinan Page B

it tucked aside, and everything else is on me. You’ve got your exit if you need it, but other than that, you’re enjoying a side trip out of your usual life.”
    Sam balked. “You can’t do that.”
    “I can, and I will.” He gave Sam an arch look. “Would you care to tell me I’m stupid?”
    Heat in those blue eyes caught Sam up, and he nearly said the word to see if Mitch was bluffing. “Why are you doing this? Why would you do this for me, if not for sex?”
    He hadn’t meant it to come out so blunt, and he waited for Mitch to get angry, but Mitch shook his head. If anything, he seemed guilty.
    “No, Sunshine.” He wiped his hand over his mouth. “I wouldn’t do that.”
    “But—we are going to have sex. Aren’t we? Sometimes?”
    Now Mitch smiled, staring out at the road as if he were undressing it. “Oh, I have no objection to that.” He flicked his thumb absently against the wheel. “Let’s put it this way: I like you, Sam. I want to help you. I want to be the guy who, when you look back at this summer years from now, you think of as the friend who helped give you the space to figure out who you really are.” He winked. “If you think of me as a damn fine lover too, I will not be put out in the slightest.”
    Sam considered all this. It was surreal, what Mitch offered, which was probably why Sam could answer. “I wouldn’t have minded being your whore.”
    Mitch’s easy, sultry smile fled so quickly Sam blinked. He didn’t understand how he kept doing this, saying things that upset Mitch. He panicked and started babbling.
    “That’s what she called me. A whore.” Sam swallowed. “I shouldn’t want to be one, I guess, even with you.”
    Mitch could not look at him long, but he did so as frequently as was safe, and he studied Sam’s face carefully. His own expression was unreadable.
    He poked around in the dashboard for a few minutes, searching for something beneath the papers and wrappers there, but he eventually gave up.
    “Do you say that,” he asked at last, “because if I made you pay your way in ass, then it would put you off the hook for such a big decision, or because you get off on the idea of doing whatever I tell you, of having your body be at my command?”
    Sam thought about this. “Both.”
    Mitch’s thumb caressed the wheel for several minutes. The road was completely dark now except for the semi’s headlights, making it seem as if the whole world were gone as the silence stretched on and on and on.
    “Sorry,” Sam said at last. “I don’t mean to be awkward. We don’t have to—”
    “It’s not.” Mitch looked at Sam. “You really want to play with me?”
    Sam was glad it was so dark, because his face had to be scarlet. “Not if you think it’s gross.”
    Mitch’s laugh was velvet. “Oh, I don’t think that at all.” He rubbed his chin, still staring ahead at the road. “Okay.”
    Sam’s heart beat one hard thump against the wall of his chest. “Okay?”
    “Yep. So long as you want it, so long as you get it’s a game, that you can call it off at any time, I will take payment from you for your portion of this trip in ass and other acts of submission and general sluttiness.” He tapped his thumb on the wheel. “But it’s a game , and it only goes on so long as everybody is having a good time. You got that?”
    Sam nodded, trying not to look too eager. “Yes.”
    “The thing is,” Mitch went on, “these games need a safe zone. You need to give me boundaries, and you need to give me a word.”
    “Word? You mean a safe word? Is this BDSM?” His voice went up on the end of the acronym.
    “From your tone there I take it bondage isn’t your thing?”
    “It’s the sadomasochism part I’m not wild about.” Sam attempted to buck up a bit. “I don’t know about bondage. I’ve never done it.”
    “What have you done? Because I will tell you, I’ve done quite a bit.” It was weird, but Mitch looked chagrined, guilty. Then the look was gone.