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  “Damn it,” she spat. “Oh, damn it, damn it, dam— Ohhhh!”

  One smack. With a decided notch up on the impact.

  “Bastard!”

  A crisscross this time. Thap. Thap.

  “Fucking bastard!”

  Thap. Thap. Thap. And because she shrieked so prettily as a result, two more. The deep red stripes across her buttocks and thighs were just as beautiful. “Christ,” he uttered. “So perfect.”

  “No!” Tess protested. “Not perf— Owwww!”

  Thap. Thap. Thap. Harder. Harder. Harder.

  “Fucking rat-ass bastard!”

  “With taffy?” he taunted.

  “Shut up.”

  “And do what?”

  “And toss that thing out!”

  “You can take this, rose.”

  “I can’t.”

  “You can. For me. And for you.” He caressed her skin with a full palm, making her jerk a little. “Do you trust me?”

  She huffed. “Damn it, of course I do. But—”

  “Then breathe.” He stamped it with half a bellow this time. The twin blows he rained to finish were just as harsh. “And take it, damn it.”

  Breakthrough.

  She didn’t fling any anger or snark. Instead, her shoulders sagged. Her body softened. A desperate sob of surrender sliced from her.

  As her resistance faded, her welts rose. Dan gazed at the wild, wonderful hashes across her flesh, while clenching his stomach against the fresh surge between his thighs. He cupped his crotch, struggling to convince the whole gang down there to get along, but wound up aggravating himself more. His dick was ready to be inside her, period. His balls yearned to be slapping her flesh as he screwed any remaining senses out of her head. Any alternate plan to that was futile.

  Thank fuck that was the only futility happening here.

  After another trio of smacks, easing off on the pressure now, he skirted around to view her face. As he’d hoped, her head lolled down. Her eyes were closed. Her lips were slightly parted, giving and receiving breath in unthinking little spurts.

  He smiled.

  Control tower, the shuttle has reached sub space.

  He laid the cane on the table with the other toys, exchanging it out for a new item. It was easy enough to strap the little vibe onto his right forefinger and have it out of the way as he unlatched the stockade. Tess moaned a little but didn’t move. Fine with him. He clicked the vibe on and then took his time rolling it over her shoulders, down her arms, and to her wrists, even using it to gently massage her fingers. While it didn’t stop his mind from clamoring for the vibe’s ultimate use, every inch of his spirit was fed by the privilege of taking care of her this way.

  “Mmmmm,” she finally sighed. “Feels…good.”

  Dan let a low sound vibrate up his chest. With just a breath and three words, she’d sneaked her way into his soul too. He kissed the curves of both her shoulders, stroked his fingers through her hair, delighted in all the ways she melted even more for him. He could have done it for hours. Maybe he did. Time was a nuisance right now, mattering as much as dust, sifting past in the corners of his consciousness. Christ. Taking care of a subbie had never felt so damn good…

  Because it had never meant so much?

  No. Damn it, no.

  “Meanings” are for normal people, remember? People who have their heads screwed on straight. Who don’t hire out whole teams of private mercenary crews just to chase bad guys across Mexico and are comfortable enough with their burn scars that they can function in public without pulling a fucking Batman.

  “Meanings” are for the rest of the world, asshole. Not you.

  She moaned deeper as he trailed the vibe down the shallow valley of her back. By the time he returned to her ass, her wistful sighs had become full moans once more. The flesh beneath his hands undulated like dark-pink tides pulled by an unseen moon. There was no way for him to resist the sight. He leaned in, licking the lines of each bruise he’d given her.

  “So beautiful,” he whispered against her marks. “This ass is so fucking beautiful. And it’s all mine tonight, isn’t it?”

  Tess visibly shivered. “Yes. All yours.”

  He snarled softly once more while spreading her thighs, exposing the pathway to her deeper erotic treasures. “Even more stunning.” He pushed the vibe back in, making tiny circles, teasing his way toward the sweetness of her pussy. “More red. More wet. Mine as well, sweet one?”

  “Ohhhh.” Her head jacked up as her spine dipped, showing him exactly what effect the vibe had on her most tender flesh. “Damn. Don’t stop…don’t…oh…” She shrieked louder as he slid the vibe away. “God! Please, Sir Sexy!”

  That was sure as fuck an attention-getter. “Pardon me?” he laughed out.

  “On the back burner?” she begged. “As in, later? Please?”

  He pushed the vibe near her slit again—but not any farther. “That depends.”

  “On…on what?”

  “On your answer.”

  “My answer to what?”

  He might have swatted her for the backtalk if her desire didn’t drench each word. How could he discipline her, when she made every one of his wet dreams come to life from her lust alone?

  “Is this all mine tonight too?”

  She laughed too. The richness of the sound made its way far beyond his cock, burrowing into his soul like beautiful music or an inhalation of morning air. “If not, then they may have to cart me out of here on a stretcher.”

  Dan couldn’t contain another chuckle. It prefaced the lusty bite he sank into her shoulder. “That’s the idea no matter what, little girl.”

  As he shoved her hair out of the way, repeating the invasion into the column of her neck, she rasped, “You don’t say.”

  “I do say.” He worked a finger into her hot, welcoming body—stretching out the vibe, starting to tap it at her clit. “I also say I’m going to fuck this. I’m going to do it as hard, as deep, and as long as I want. While I do it, you’re going to come for me. Probably a few times. Only after that do we talk about the stretcher. Understood?” When she only nodded frantically, he bit her deeper. “I didn’t hear you.”

  “Yes!” She exclaimed it while shifting her hands, pushing up to grip the curves of the stockade cutouts instead of being trapped by them. Dan looked on, not immune to the symbolism of the move. Though every inch of her was still submissive to him, she was glorious as a tigress, attacking the awareness—and acceptance—of her sexuality. “Yes. Yes. I understand. I do. Oh, please—damn it—just fuck me!”

  Magnificent.

  She was so goddamn magnificent.

  Yeah, even when girl-growling at him.

  Hell. He could no longer compose himself. He set himself free from his leathers, groaning in torment and delight while rasping the zipper down. His grip slipped a couple of times over his thick-veined flesh, now slick from precome, but he finally managed to free everything, including his throbbing balls. He wasted no time in digging into a back pocket and hauling out the square packet inside.

  His tense moan mingled with Tess’s urgent mewl.

  “Hold on, sweet one,” he promised. “Hold on, hold on.”

  He ripped the condom open with his teeth and yanked the rubber out like a starving man with a T-bone. Rolling the fucker on over his swollen flesh was another thing altogether. His cock strained at the latex as she pushed her ass even higher, exposing her pink, sweet petals even more.

  Dan took a step. Seized her waist with one hand. Guided his cock to her entrance with the other.

  And was finally complete.

  Her sheath pulled him in as if it had been months since he last fucked her, not days. “Damn,” he growled. “Damn.”

  She was snug and hot and soaked, her walls closing around him, forcing him to feel every constriction of her arousal. He leaned forward, strapping his arm all the way around her waist, forcing her body harder around him.

  “Shit!” Tess exclaimed. “Oh, God�
�I’m…I’m…”

  “I know,” he grated. Her visit to sub space had already opened her so much. In seconds, he felt her climax stirring in her abdomen, quivering her ass against him, turning her hips into turbine pistons against his. “I know, little one.”

  He didn’t want her to wait. Hell, he didn’t want to wait. While plunging his cock deeper and deeper, he worked his other hand between her thighs again, stimulating her from the front. Her clit was waiting for his touch, erect and wet, making her buck harder as soon as he made contact—

  Then flicked the vibrator on again.

  “Oh!” Her whole body quaked. Her knuckles went white against the stockade pads. “That’s…oh, that’s…that’s—”

  “Your order to come.” His own lust turned it into an animal’s sound, raw and low, a few octaves short of being a full snarl. “Do it for me, rose. Now!”

  Her sex clenched him tight, tighter, tighter, as the climax slammed her. A scream ripped from her throat. Her head fell back against his shoulder. Dan locked every tooth in his head to keep from following her over into the flames then and there, concentrating instead on the exquisite pressure up and down his dick.

  Squeeze it back. Save it up. Think of how good it’s going to feel when you detonate deep inside her.

  “Oh. My. God.” She dropped her head again, her shoulders heaving hard. “So good. Thank you, Sir. That… was…”

  “Not over.” He let the command resonate before changing his hold, clawing his hand to her hip, digging into the juncture between her hip and thigh. “Stay with me, red. It’s going to be even better.”

  Her breath hitched. “Wh-What…do you…mean?”

  “Stay.” He raised his other hand into her hair. “With.” Twisted hard. “Me.”

  “Ahhhhh.”

  It curled off her pain-twisted lips. But the next second, another expression took hold of her gorgeous face. The agony gave way to ecstasy, brought on by a fresh recognition: he was screwing her in a new way. Clarification: screwing her. He focused on gyrating his hips in new angles, experimenting with a sole goal in mind. He watched every nuance of her body and face, needing to know when he reached just the right—

  “Oh, my God!”

  Target acquired.

  He smirked in sensual triumph before angling in the exact same way. Then again. Again. Again. Every time, her scream proved he’d found the Holy Grail of Tess Lesange’s sweet pussy—and he’d be damned not to dip his cock into that magical chalice as many times as he could.

  “My— Holy— Wow— Gggaaahh—”

  He grinned wider. It was official—the toughest part about seeing her again outside this place would be forgetting this moment and her adorable dive into the bathtub of speechlessness. And knowing that he’d thrown her there.

  “You’re going to come for me again, rose.” He didn’t leave a millimeter of opening for argument. His maddening little ruby tried, anyway.

  “I… Please…I can’t—”

  “You can. You will.” He braced his hips harder. Thrust in deeper. Started to hold position at the peak of each lunge, driving in his point with his point. “Feel that, babe? Do you feel me? That’s the head of my cock, adoring your sweet little cunt from the inside out. That’s how you’re going to come for me, rose—from the inside out. Clench me now. Tighten it for me. Feel every inch of me, fucking you…needing you to come hard around me.”

  He watched her thighs clench. That caused a chain reaction through her buttocks, still painted in fiery tones from the wicked pleasure he’d given to them. In turn, her body clamped him harder, squeezing his dick…and all parts beyond.

  The parts that weren’t supposed to be getting involved in all this.

  The parts that wouldn’t slide out as fast as his cock or get tossed away as easily as the condom.

  Shit. Shit.

  Too late. Too late.

  He needed this now.

  He needed her.

  He wound his hand tighter into her hair. His balls swelled to excruciating pressure. His chest worked to get air. His abdomen drew tight. His ass clenched and shuddered.

  Heavier. Harder. Deeper. Fuller. His lust built and pounded, hammered and thundered, climbing as he read all the signs in Tess’s frame too. Her coiled arms. Her high, hurting pants. The twin points of her nipples, hardened to the realm of fantasy-come-true.

  Suddenly, she screamed without sound. Threw her head back with eyes squeezed shut, her body vibrating hard around him, milking the hot, mindless explosion up his cock and out of his body.

  It flowed forever yet only an instant. Consumed him yet detached him. His senses rocketed but floated. Where was he? Who was he? What day was it? He seriously wondered if he’d ever be capable of linear logic again.

  He seriously questioned if he ever wanted to be.

  With that dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream weirdness, a scythe of all-too-real horror swooshed in.

  If he wasn’t going to be the same after this, what had it all done to Tess?

  What had he done to her?

  And how the hell was he going to fix it—without completely ruining her?

  Chapter Twelve

  “Sir?”

  “Hmmm?”

  “I’m onto you, you know.”

  He halted his caresses on the curves of her shoulders, and sucked in a sharp breath. In most situations, Tess would gauge the reaction as alarm. This wasn’t most situations. Not by a long shot.

  “I’m…not sure I follow.” His tone turned as stiff as his stature. Yeah, she could tell even with her eyes closed and her brain half-baked.

  Guilt invaded her. It wasn’t fair, turning him the texture of an icicle while she had become a ball of hot mush—because of him.

  She came clean by teasing, “You think I don’t know that aftercare isn’t always like this?”

  His tension drained. “Hush and eat your strawberry.”

  “Huh? What straw—” She was silenced by a mouthful of perfect sweetness. The berry tasted so good that she nibbled to get more, moaning in ecstasy. “Oh, wow,” she finally mumbled. She didn’t remember seeing any food when they first arrived, but half her brain was still back in the dungeon, lost in the tangle of sensations he’d rained on her in the scene.

  She’d never, in her life, experienced anything like it.

  Now, she just didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

  “Another?” Sexy ran a second berry along her bottom lip. Tess opened and dutifully bit the fruit. She yearned to help him out, to at least pick up her own damn strawberries, but convincing her body it really wasn’t a noodle? New tune altogether. Like her limbs could be blamed after he’d peeled her off the whipping bench, gathered her into his arms, and then refused to set her down until stepping into this opulent chamber, slipping her into the heated waters of this subterranean bathing pool. If she’d regained any rational thought in her head since her orgasms, it vanished as soon as the eucalyptus steam filled her senses and the lavender bubbles nipped at her body.

  Doubling the whammy was the man himself, instructing her to lay tummy-down on the pool’s seating shelf while he ran a natural sponge from her shoulders to her ankles. She damn near fell asleep on him like that but protested and sat back up—only to have him frame her from behind, leathered legs in the water to either side, as he flowed vanilla and rosemary leaves over her shoulders. And now, the hand-feeding with the fruit…

  Paradise.

  The Native Americans liked to say that it was captured in the small moments of life, often so tiny that they went missed. Tess closed her eyes and chewed, grateful she’d been looking closely enough to recognize this one. So perfect. So profound. So complete.

  With a man she barely knew.

  But had known forever.

  Of course.

  The concept crashed in, broadsiding her psyche—exploding her heart. The helpless thing didn’t know what hit it, thrashing against her ribs.

  This is insane. Just a result of all the c
hemicals from the scene colliding in your brain. The high is going to bring you an even harder drop than last weekend—both so freaking worth it.

  Maybe Mother and Father were always right. Maybe you’re just a dreamer who simply wants perfection too damn much.

  But what if it was the only explanation that really made sense?

  What if she hadn’t just met Griffin by accident?

  What if some crazy “higher power” had really brought him across the room to her that night—when others had had the chance for two nights before that? How else could she justify how instantly right it felt to be standing at his side? And following him to private dungeon space? And surrendering to him without fear or hesitation? How else had he known exactly what needs she had as a submissive…all the dark, wicked parts of herself that wanted to be tested, pushed, shattered?

  And why else was she lingering in the warmth of this moment and the heat of him, instead of asking for her clothes and seeking the nearest exit back to the safety of reality?

  Because reality didn’t feel so safe anymore.

  Because he began that dribbling water thing over her shoulders again.

  Because it felt so damn good.

  Because it felt safer to lean into the broad strength of his chest once again, challenging in a murmur, “You didn’t answer my question.”

  This time, his fingers didn’t stop. “Which one?”

  She splashed him. His leathers were already drenched to the calves; a little more H2O wouldn’t hurt. “How about the only one?”

  “Wasn’t that rhetorical?” After she sent more water flying up, he chuckled. The sound, filtered by the voice disk, was as decadent as the kiss he lowered to her nape. “Shut it off, babe. Typical aftercare is for typical submissives. And you are far, far from typical.”

  Her lips parted to reply. No words brimmed. Not a syllable. Damn it, she needed just one go-to line, something coy and smooth and elegant. In the last couple of hours, she’d shown him more of herself than most people saw over years. It was more than just the steamy naked stuff. It was the baring of her soul—the parts of her that were womanly and vulnerable, a little scared yet yearning to break free from those limits too.