Surrender by Marina Anderson Page A

darker side of sex, more pleasure pain than tenderness. Amber doesn’t do tenderness, as you’ve probably gathered.”
    “And table five belongs to her?”
    “Yes, unless someone wants to challenge her for the role of hostess here. The problem is that even if you do want to, and I believe you’d be a worthy opponent, it’s a full-time job running the Club. You already have a good career. You can’t want to give that up.”
    “I might,” said Grace. “I’d bring a lot to it, given my line of work. I’d be able to look at it with fresh eyes, make it even more exciting. After several years, Amber is bound to be stuck in a rut.”
    David knew that he had to be honest. “Not really, she’s very inventive.”
    “Don’t you want me to challenge her?” asked Grace, sounding hurt.
    “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I’m used to the Dining Club being a retreat from my everyday life. If you challenged her and won, then the two would merge, and…”
    “And you’d never be bored again!” exclaimed Grace. “I want to do it, David. I want to take the final step. Would it be like the other trials?”
    “No, it’s a head-to-head competition, and the result is decided by a vote.”
    “Who votes?”
    “The men who’ve taken part in the evening; they’re all connected to the Dining Club in one capacity or another. Andrew will be there of course, as he’s my manager, and Lucien, the man you noticed tonight.”
    “Don’t women take part in the evening?”
    “Only to assist with things; they don’t vote.”
    “How many times has Amber been challenged?”
    David thought for a moment. “Three times in all, but no one has ever come close to defeating her. In truth, I think you have a chance. You’re possibly more suited to the theme of the trial than she is, but Amber likes her job and will do anything to keep it.”
    “I only need to know one thing,” said Grace, and he could feel her body trembling slightly. “Do you love me, David? If you do, I need to hear you say it.”
    Caressing the nape of her neck, he kissed the top of her spine, and heard her sigh with pleasure. “Yes, Gracie, right now, at this moment, I do love you,” he said truthfully.
    Slowly she slipped to the floor, shrugged off her robe and then unzipped him, bending her head toward his rapidly hardening penis. “That’s all I needed to know,” she said. “I definitely want to challenge Amber for table five.” With that she started to run her tongue around the underside of the ridge below the head of his erection and with a soft sigh he gave himself up to the pleasure of her skillful tongue, and was equally aroused by the prospect of what lay ahead following Grace’s totally unexpected but exciting decision.
    * * *
    “She passed!” exclaimed Amber, hurling herself at Andrew and punching his chest with her fists. “No doubt David is telling her all about table five at this very moment too. Why didn’t you stop her? You said you’d help me!”
    “I tried to make her fail, but nothing worked,” protested Andrew, grabbing her wrists to protect himself. “She was pretty amazing this weekend. I don’t think anything could have stopped her.”
    Amber wriggled in his grasp, trying to free herself, but he was too strong for her. “What am I going to do?” she cried. “I hate the challenge for table five.”
    “Well you’re just going to have to learn to be more submissive, if it ever comes to that,” replied Andrew. “Personally I don’t think she’ll give up her career in the theater for the Dining Club.”
    “She might not want to, but she won’t fancy sharing David with me either, so what choice does she have?” retorted Amber, landing a kick on Andrew’s shins in order to break away from him.
    “That hurt!” he exclaimed.
    “Good, it was meant to hurt. You’ve let me down, and all because you’re secretly in love with that wretched girl too.”
    “Pull yourself together,” he snapped, pinning her to the wall