Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Camden said nothing as I uncorked the champagne and poured bubbles into two flutes. I drifted back over to him, passing him a fizzing glass.
“You seemed so confident in the club,” he said. “I forget sometimes that so much of you is bravado.”
My eyes narrowed. We’d agreed not to argue. Under normal circumstances, I would have bitten his head off for that comment. I was not all bravado. Even if so much of me was in this moment.
“What does that mean?” I asked instead.
He set his glass down without taking a sip. “It means usually you are yelling at me. So, I can’t see that something else is lurking beneath.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I finished my drink and discarded it on a nearby table.
“Oh, Katherine,” he said faintly, sending a chill down my spine as he came to stand behind me. His hand ran down my vertebrae, one after the other after the other. “Underneath your hard exterior, you want me to take control.”
I swallowed. “Is that what you think?”
“No.” His hands moved to my shoulders, placing light touches across them and down my arms to my wrists. He grasped each of them, pulling my shoulder blades together and drawing my hands tight behind my back.
My breathing hitched. Oh god.
“It’s what I know,” he whispered against the shell of my ear.
He put both of my wrists in one of his large hands and then used the other to cup my chin and turn my head to the side. I could just barely look at him. I was caught in his embrace, completely at his mercy, and my entire body was singing.
“What are you doing?” I breathed, my voice betraying my desire.
“Giving you what you want.”
“What if I say no?”
He arched an eyebrow. “You and I both know that is not the word you have chosen.”
“I didn’t agree…”
“Do you not agree?”
I swallowed. That was the question. Did I want this? Did I agree? I’d given this to him once. Enjoyed his command in the bedroom. And then my trust had been shattered. Irrevocably. Was I willing to try to repair it? Would this even fix it?
And yet, I couldn’t say no. I didn’t want to say no, for fuck’s sake. My thong was already soaked under this minidress. He’d discover it soon enough. We’d been tiptoeing around our desire.
If I gave in now, it wouldn’t be a promise of forever. It would be a promise of for now.
I could always back out. I had a word for that. A safe word I’d never used. But it was there all the same.
“Yes.” My voice was rigid with emotion. “Yes, I agree.”
“Oh, how I do love to hear that word out of your mouth.” He drew his thumb along my bottom lip. I struggled slightly against where he held me, and his eyes darkened. “Don’t fight me.”
I stilled. My body reacted to him wholly. In a way that I never would react out of the bedroom. Usually, we were so at each other’s throats that the idea of submitting to his demands was impossible. But here… right now…
His thumb continued its perusal of my mouth. Gently stroking back and forth against my bottom lip before venturing in, parting me. I flicked my tongue out, caressing the tip. His hand tightened on my wrists, almost to the point of pain. I squirmed against him, but he held me firmly. A warning. Which only made me want to squirm more.
He continued pushing his thumb inside of my mouth. “Now, suck.”
I swallowed at the command and closed my lips around him as he withdrew slowly. His eyes were on fire as he removed his thumb from my lips, no trace of my blood-red lipstick on him.
“There. You do remember how to take direction,” he said with a faint smirk on his lips.
Something ached in me to lash out at that comment. Every fiber of my being wanted to fight him. And yet, I said nothing. Bit the inside of my cheek to keep from saying exactly where he could shove his directions.
His smirk widened into a smile when I remained silent. He surely could see the fire lit in my eyes.
“I think it’s time that I took care of you,” he said, finally releasing my wrists.
My shoulders ached as my hands returned to my sides. “Take off your dress.”
I eagerly reached behind me to pull down the zipper.
But his eyes narrowed. “Slowly.”
I huffed slightly. His hand found purchase on my ass. A not-quite-gentle smack that sent my entire body reeling. I could barely keep from moaning as remembered welts melded together with orgasms in my mind.
It wasn’t that I necessarily wanted him to spank me again. It was humiliating. And somehow, desire pooled even deeper into my core. My body pulsed with it as I slowly, ever so slowly, dragged the zipper of my dress down. When I finally reached the base, I let the straps fall from my shoulders, baring my breasts before sliding over my narrow hips to puddle at my feet.