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  She managed to look indignant, even with his position—and hers. “Of course I am—but only because you brought it up!”

  He ignored her huffy finish. “Did you ask him to do this with you first?” he growled. “To bring you someplace like this and dominate you?”

  He sensed she wouldn’t lie about it—but also didn’t anticipate the speed of her honesty. “Yes,” she declared. “I did. I’m not an idiot. Dan’s a great guy, and fucking gorg—well, he’s nice-looking, we’ll leave it at that. So of course I tried. And for the record, he turned me down.”

  “For the record, then, he’s the idiot.” He meant it—now more than ever.

  “Probably.” She stunned him again with her soft laugh. “But that doesn’t diminish my gratitude to him for all this. Without his openness about BDSM and his encouragement that I be open about it as well, I’d never have come this far. It’s a gift I’ll never thank him for enough.”

  Well, shit.

  You asked.

  That didn’t ease the constriction in his chest. Or that the follow-up question to that was more obvious than the shine on her corset—as well as the last thing he wanted to speak. But avoiding it was even less an option. This would be his only chance to learn her complete truth.

  “So that’s why you asked him to do this with you? Because of gratitude?”

  “Uh-uh.” She jerked her chin up. “I asked him because I wanted him. And before you ask, I wanted him in any way I could get him, especially between my legs. If that makes things weird now, you just say the word.”

  Dan barely suppressed his laugh—and his whoop. Both temptations grew the next moment, as the weight on his chest transformed from lead to feathers.

  Weird?

  Okay, he saw how her logic went there, especially since she was so brand-new to all this—but his little ruby still had no concept of what a gift she’d given him, in more ways than one. The man inside him preened, floored by the idolatry she’d nourished even after half his face had turned into a burned omelet. The Dom in him glowed, proud of her for embracing honesty that most seasoned submissives wouldn’t possess in her present position.

  She amazed him.

  Humbled him.

  Hardened him.

  To an intensity he hadn’t experienced in a long damn time.

  “My brilliant little rose.” He pressed a kiss into the curve of her neck. “You have no idea how unweird this make things.” He suckled and nipped his way to the other side of her neck. “How perfect it makes everything.”

  As he expected—and hoped—his sensual abuse made her whimper. “Th-Thank you, Sir.”

  He flattened both hands, sliding palms down her sternum, over the swells of her breasts. As he slipped his fingers beneath her corset, Tess moaned. As he found her erect peaks, she gasped. As he squeezed those gorgeous nipples, she yelped.

  “Damn,” he grated. She was so responsive. So ready. So open. So submissive.

  Ohhh, fuck.

  Ohhh, yeah.

  Despite the torture of his zipper along his cock and his heartbeat against his ribs, this was going to be fun. A hell of a lot of fun.

  Chapter Six

  This is going to be fun.

  The man’s savoring growl all but said the words for him. The sound curled through Tess like incense, dark and exotic, aiding the fantasy that she was a sheikh’s plaything for the night, brought to his desert dungeon to be spread for him, awaiting her role in his pleasure.

  The thoughts brought on a hard shiver. Dread, joy, and anticipation coursed through her veins…and moistened the crevices between her thighs. She breathed in, forcing herself to absorb that this wasn’t a dream but truly happening. It still felt too huge to comprehend, almost too much to bear. How long had she dreamed of this, longed for it? And now that she was really living it, would all her expectations be fulfilled? What if this wasn’t as amazing as she’d hoped? What if she did something wrong and let this incredible man down in some way?

  So far, thank God, that didn’t seem to be the case. A pleased rumble rolled out of him as he pinched her nipples again, tighter than before. Tess cried out, sharp and high, turning his growl into an illicit chuckle. Almost instantly, she felt her pussy grow wetter. Hell. She was all kinds of messed up, with her arousal tied so closely to the man’s sadism, but hearing the pleasure she brought him was the most potent aphrodisiac she’d ever experienced.

  She lifted her chest, desperately hoping he did it again.

  And he did. Harder. Longer.

  “Ohhhhh!” she screamed.

  “Mmmm,” he murmured. “So good, little girl.”

  “Yes,” she rasped. “Oh, yes.”

  It almost came out as a question. How could it be that so much pain led to so much pleasure? In the wake of his abuse, her nipples tingled and warmed, developing into arrows of sensation with her sex as the target. When they struck, she moaned again.

  “Well, well, well,” he drawled. “My little rose has a penchant for thorns too.”

  “Yes, Sir.” The sensation of his fingers on her flesh, intensified by the pressure from her corset, was erotic, exquisite, incredible. “Ohhhh. It’s so good.”

  “And going to get even better. I promise.”

  He had a damn strange way of proving it. When he finished the vow by rising up and away from her, Tess whined in protest.

  “Breathe, sweet one.” Though underlined by gentleness, the words were nails of command. “And trust me.”

  He moved off toward her right with steps sure as a puma, making her head instinctually fall in that direction too. Nevertheless, Tess nodded and replied, “I trust you, Sir. I do.”

  His responding snarl pebbled her skin with fresh arousal. Then again as he uttered, “Perfect, little rose. So perfect.”

  The enjoyment was short-lived. As he slid a hand down her torso and across her waist, Tess fought not to tense up. Mattie and Viv had inherited Mom’s cute, curvy build, but she’d gotten her body type from Dad, meaning her figure had the sex appeal of a tree. With every new inch Sexy glided over her nonexistent figure, she took another breath to combat the feeling that it wasn’t enough. That she wasn’t enough.

  Damn it. Even here, even now, she wasn’t free from it all, was she? At least, thank God, he’d let her keep the corset on. There was hope, if she could impart the illusion of a figure…

  Until she couldn’t.

  “Wait.” His mandate, sharp but flirty, preceded the tug he gave to the cords dangling between her breasts. The corset fell free from her torso, returning her breasts to their flimsy normality. “Okay,” he growled, “now everything’s perfect.”

  She bit back the craving to scream. Was the mask fucking up his vision that bad? She wasn’t perfect. This wasn’t perfect. Not anymore. Not when he was so masterful and powerful and captivating, and she was so…

  Her.

  Just her.

  Not Odette the exotic, full of sex appeal and sass. Not even his cute little rose, witty and flirty, keeping things fun. Now that he’d stripped her bare, in more ways than the obvious, she didn’t even have the potential of being a beautiful submissive. She was just pale and trembling and embarrassed, as useful for turning him on as a pool cue. The burn behind her eyes confirmed the fact.

  “Rose.” His summons crashed into her mind, sounding like he’d issued it for the sixth time. He tweaked one of her nipples to emphasize it.

  “What?” Pain yanked the word from her, full of irritability and tears. Great. Barely into your first scene with a real Dom, and you hit him with that crap? Nice going. Real smooth. No wonder the world will never see you as anything more than the redheaded intel geek or the blank space of humanity between Mattie and Viv. You won’t stand out any more here than you do anywhere else. You can’t even get it right when there are clear-cut rules involved in the equation.

  Bright side? She already knew the back way out of this place. And tonight when she left, it’d be for good.

  Which couldn’t happen soo
n enough.

  “Shit,” she blurted. “I’m…sorry. I’m mucking this all to hell. I’ll just go. Just…just let me up.” She wrestled against her cuffs, but the only thing that actually moved was her blindfold. She grimaced and blinked as Sexy Beast pushed the covering off her eyes. The lighting in the play room wasn’t glaring, but it seemed that way after spending fifteen minutes in darkness. “Look,” she bit out, “we tried, okay? And—”

  And every thought in her head vanished as the sudden lighting change gave her a deeper look beyond his mask.

  Straight into his eyes.

  “Oh, my God.”

  How was his stare such an eerie match for Dan’s too?

  Okay, not an exact match. The color was a shade or two darker, but the staunch focus of those twin blues… It socked her in the middle of her chest, just as Dan’s always did. And ohhhh, yes…clenched at her sex exactly the same way too.

  “Oh, my G—” She couldn’t hold back the repeat button—until something jabbed into her right wrist. She looked to see that she’d reacted on pure impulse, reaching to attempt unveiling him again. The wrist cuff, secured to the chain, stopped her. In the same moment, Sexy jerked backward, as if trying to rip the thought out of her head.

  “I’m sorry,” she stammered. “You just… It’s just…”

  “Just what?” Sexy fanned his fingers over her abdomen as he softly prompted it.

  “Nothing,” she defended. “Nothing. It was crazy.” A breath whooshed out, thick with more tears. What the hell was wrong with her now? “Maybe this is all too crazy.”

  His fingers tightened. “Whoa. What?”

  “I mean it,” she stressed. “I’m not…just not…” Her eyes squeezed shut. Not having the help of her hands as a shield…it was scary. Intimidating. More unsettling than being naked. “Maybe…I shouldn’t be here,” she confessed. “Not tonight.” Not ever. “I’m all over the place. My head feels like it’s in a cloud.”

  There. Task surely accomplished now. It was lame enough to be sincere but still dumb enough to turn off any world-weary Dom wanting a drama-free play session.

  Which apparently, he was not.

  Well, hell.

  Tess’s chest flipped over as he lifted his other hand to her face, realigning her gaze with his. Other parts of her body took up the tumbling act. Ohhh, God. It was a replay of the first moment he’d approached her. Dizzy attraction. Swoony lust. Feeling small next to his bulk but huge at the same time, the sole center of his attention.

  “Clouds?” he murmured then, his voice a strange ribbon of sensual promise. “Ohhh, little rose. You’ve barely touched the sky yet.”

  Shit.

  She didn’t know she’d given the word volume until her dry rattle hit the air. “Ugh,” she followed in a murmur. “I’m real smooth now, right? Take foot, insert in mouth.”

  He shot out a gentle tsk. “Not on my watch, beautiful. I believe I have better plans for that mouth.”

  “Holy shit.” Forget blushing. Her face became a furnace. “Errr…for the record, that’s all good ‘shit,’ okay?”

  He chuckled. “You did sanctify it.”

  She shifted a little. Only a little. His fingers felt even better than his voice, so steady and warm against her skin. Letting her eyes slip shut again, she pushed her face closer toward his hand.

  “Holy fuck.” He gritted it while tucking his fingers into her hair, positioning her for his kiss. She let out a groan as soon as his mouth meshed with hers, and for good reason. It felt better, tasted better, resounded deeper than all his other kisses, searing her alive from the inside out. His tongue burned her like brandy. His moan turned her blood into mist. No. Into clouds. The clouds he promised to take her to…

  He pulled away all too fast. A whine crawled up her throat, but she managed to rasp, “Does this mean you still want to do all this?”

  He slid his hand from her hair, flattening it to the dais on the other side of her head. “Hmmm. What part of ‘still want to’ might you be referring to, sweet rose? The part about how I’m going to tear your panties from your incredible little body? Or the part about doing that just so I can stuff my fingers inside you, because getting inside your mind has made me need your body in the same way? Or the part about feeling your cunt soak my skin as I tell you it’s been a long damn time since I’ve met a subbie like you?”

  Shaky sigh. Searing lust. Both flamed through her nipples, her pussy, her toes, and beyond. Dear God, did the man know his way around pillow talk—and there wasn’t even a damn pillow in sight.

  “L-Like m-me?” she managed.

  “Gorgeous,” he clarified. “Fiery. Fascinating. Amazing.”

  “Can I pick the ‘all of the above’ option?”

  He dipped his head, grazing his lips along her hairline. “But you haven’t heard all the options.”

  Gaaahhh. “All the…options?”

  He pushed back a little, angling his head in contemplation. “Option may not have been the best word for it. Should’ve just used commands.”

  “Commands for what?”

  She didn’t expect the extended pause before his reply. Or the long strokes of his hands inside her splayed corset, framing her body in pure heat before arriving at the apex of her thighs. With his thumbs denting her panties, he finally said, “For the part where I tell you to pick which toy to use on you tonight, to make you scream the loudest for me.”

  Holy.

  Shit.

  It deserved an encore.

  “Oh,” she squeaked. “Right.” Only that part.

  His burnished hair gleamed in the light as he ran his hands down her inner thighs and over her knees—before leaning back and yanking one of the pins out of the spreader bar. With an accomplished tug, he lengthened the bar. A high gasp escaped Tess as her legs jerked wider too. New parts of her pussy, now exposed to the air, zinged to life. Her thighs constricted. Her womb clenched. Her mind spun and whirled, almost disengaging from her body, flying higher…higher…

  Little girl…you’ve barely touched the sky yet.

  Was he kidding? How much better could this get?

  “Well? Let’s hear it.” His charge was masterful, its gentle ribbon traded for a blade of demand. “Time to open up again, Odette.” He splayed his hands to her inner thighs. Opening her more. Exposing her deepest, hottest vulnerability to him. “Talk to me.”

  She swallowed. Okay, he really had to be kidding. Talk to him, when he had her quivering and needy and mushy like this? When all she could think about was getting those fingers back on her pussy again?

  “T-Talk? About what?”

  He gave her another dark hum. “You know what. It’s all inside you, aching to get out. It lives in the place where you hide all your deepest fantasies. Now open the door and tell me. In your most wicked dreams, the ones that fill your mind when you touch your pussy late at night…what’s your Dom doing to you?”

  “Besides what you’re doing?” Like teasing his fingers along the inner seam of her thong. Like brushing his fingers across her skin, strings of erotic butterfly kisses, dancing his fingertips around the bloom of her sex, driving her to the brink of sanity…

  Until delivering a swift smack to the tender triangle.

  “Oh!” Tess cried. “What the—”

  “Tell me.” Screw the blade. He lowered a full verbal scythe. “And don’t gape at me like that. You didn’t come here for the easy shit, girl. You could have bypassed Max’s intake process for any of the happy-shiny BDSM circuses on the Strip.” He cupped her now, smashing the fabric into her sex, making her moan from the illicit excitement. “You’re soaked, little rose,” he growled. “I feel this. Every drop of this. I smell it, too. You’re in heat from just the idea of what I can do to you after a trip to that toy cabinet. So hear this: if you don’t tell me what you want me to get when I’m there, I’ll fill in the blanks with my preferences. How about clamps for your gorgeous tits? Yeah. That’s a good place to start. I really like clamps…so maybe anothe
r set that’s made to spread your pussy wider for me, so I can tease every inch of it just the way I like.” His smile spread when her mouth dropped open. “Yes? Okay, both of those, then.”

  “Wait!”

  She blurted it desperately but not reluctantly. There was no point arguing what his suggestions did to her, since his hand was still mashing her panties against her core, proving him completely right about her arousal. The sharp silk of it scented more of the air with every passing second—heightened by his nasty words, his feral grin, and the power beginning to pour off him in discernible waves.

  Holy hell. A thousand wows. What he could do to her. What he was doing to her…

  She tried to swallow. Yeah, right. Her body barely remembered to breathe, it was so amped and hot and pulsing and turned on.

  She was either in for the biggest slice of heaven or the biggest splash to hell. And right now, the promise of the former far outshone the risk of the latter.

  “Flogger,” she exclaimed. “I mean…a flogger, please, Sir. That’s…that’s what I’d like you to use on me. Please. Oh, please.”

  He canted his head. “Beautiful, sweet rose.” He scooted back again but not before tucking a pair of fingers into the top of her thong and twisting. As he left the dais, the garment followed. Thwack. It snapped off her body in one sharp instant.

  Tess blinked, unable to hide her wonderment.

  Sexy smirked, spreading what remained of the panties between his long fingers. “Liked that too, did you?”

  Her jaw worked on air for a second. “That’s only supposed to happen in movies.”

  “That so?” His twisting lips pulled his stubble into roguish angles.

  She scraped her brain for something witty to fling back at that, but her brain stalled. What other explanation was there for the fact that he now stood at the end of the altar, braced legs positioned between hers, black leather flogger in hand—and a sinful smile on his lips?