First Kiss (Emma's Arabian Nights, #1) Read Online Free Page A

comment struck all too close to how Emma was feeling about herself at the moment. She abruptly stood and grabbed her purse from the coffee table. “I need to go home and get some shut-eye before work.”
    Moira flashed an apologetic look. “Please don’t be mad at me. I just worry that you’ll never let yourself fall in love again.”
    “Do not say the ‘L’ word around me.”
    “Fine.” Moira rolled her eyes. “I’ve yet to see you get all giggly and excited about a man since you started working here. You pick the most boring, lame…”
    “Safe,” Emma replied as she took her keys out of her purse. “I don’t have to worry about anything becoming too serious.”
    “I’m just saying maybe it’s time you started looking for a man that is everything you do want instead of men you know aren’t right for you.”
    Emma twirled her keys on her finger as she made her way to the door, trying to maintain a casual air. “No thanks. I like my life how it is.”
    Not giving Moira a chance to respond, Emma walked through the office area of the dungeon and tried to ignore how terribly lonely she was.
     

 

Chapter Two
     
    Ryan Darwish took a deep breath and let it out slowly, incorporating some of the meditation techniques he’d learned in order to slow his pulse and calm his thoughts. That would work for about ten seconds, then he would realize he was going to see his high school crush and he’d start freaking out all over again. Sweet, feisty, and unbelievably gorgeous Emma Simonov, who’d been the star of his teenage and adult fantasies for longer than most marriages, was waiting for him and he was torn between running in there and driving away. Emma…his beautiful Emma with her golden blonde hair and killer curves.
    Fuck, even her name was sexy.
    He hoped Kiss of Blue didn’t have their parking lot monitored because they’d have a prime view of him sitting in his car, working up his nerve to go inside. Then again, the windows of his black custom ’78 Camaro were tinted enough that someone would have to have a high quality camera or thermal imaging to see him. He doubted Kiss of Blue had either. Unlike most pro-Domme businesses, theirs was in a nice part of town with an independent spa in the front section. The city knew what went on at the dungeon and taxed them just like any other business, but the front of a spa allowed them to blend in with their vanilla neighbors. The street entrance led to the spa, but the enclosed and gated side entrance to the building where he was currently parked led to the dungeon.
    Part of him was irked that Emma didn’t recognize him; then again he’d made a drastic change since they’d gone to high school together. He’d almost gotten up the nerve to ask her out their senior year when her fuckwad boyfriend had come into the picture. Not that he would have had much of a chance with her back then. To say he was shy when he was a teenager was an understatement, and Emma had been one of the most popular girls in school. This was before he’d gotten into weightlifting and boxing, and he’d still been all knees and elbows. Those activities and a late growth spurt during his freshman year of college had made him put on a good four inches of height and thirty pounds of muscle. Add to that his shaved head, and he barely resembled his high school yearbook photo, unlike Emma who looked as pretty now as she did at sixteen.
    He’d had plenty of women over the years, and had indulged in some rather kinky activities, but when he’d learned Emma was a professional Dominatrix, he’d almost passed out. In high school she’d been the popular, sweet girl everyone loved - prom queen and all that shit. She’d always been nice to him, but he knew she never saw him as anything other than a friend. When they’d spoken earlier she’d seemed as fresh faced as ever in her sweater with the coffee stain on its sleeve, but he’d seen her briefly during his tour last week in her full