He grasps my thighs, holds me while I shudder and shake and then he’s lifting me off the side, lowering me down his body. His mouth finds mine, desperate with his own hunger, his own need, and I’m lifting my legs around him, eager to have him fill me, eager for it all.
He trembles as he pulls back, separating us, dragging in a breath. ‘Condom?’
‘Dammit.’ I shake my head, they’re all the way inside and I don’t want to break this moment. But I’m no longer on birth control, why would I be, and...
He’s already lifting me in his arms and heading to the stone steps built into the corner.
‘You can’t carry me in.’
‘Wanna bet?’
I giggle like a teenager as I loop my arms around his neck and marvel at the flexing of his muscles as he carries me out. I feel safe. Really safe. And it’s as reassuring as it is unsettling.
‘You drop me, and I’ll be thinking up a suitable punishment.’
‘A punishment, hey?’ He chuckles as he turns to the side and steps through the opening in the glass doors. ‘Am I to take it you have your own supply of whips and chains?’
My cheeks immediately colour, my body flushes with a fresh wave of heat. I know he’s referring to Electra, but...
‘Perhaps.’
He stills as he eyes me, his arms tighten. ‘Did Nathan...did you...?’
He doesn’t quite finish and I wish I’d kept my mouth shut. It’s too much, too soon. My cheeks heat all the more as my brash confession burns through me.
‘I should get us some towels.’
He lowers me to the ground, and I hurry to the cupboard beside the panel that controls the pool. I switch the lights off, set the cover to roll back and pull out two towels. He doesn’t move.
I toss one at him, his hand flicks out enough to catch it, but his eyes are fixed on me and I know his brain is working overtime.
‘Did you?’
I take a breath, wrap a towel around me. ‘Nathan liked me to...you know...’
‘Be submissive?’ he grinds out.
‘No.’ My cheeks blush further. ‘He was...he was the submissive one.’
His eyes widen and my laugh shudders out of me, nervous, unsure.
‘Now who’s stereotyping?’ I turn away to pull out another towel and scrunch it through my hair. ‘Men are just as likely to enjoy it as women, you know.’
‘I know that, but... I’m surprised. He didn’t come across...well, he seems to have taken control over so much in your life I can’t...it just doesn’t fit.’
I’m quiet at the accuracy of his deduction. I wonder whether he thought that before he met me, or whether I have given him that impression, this house, what he’s seen.
‘So, when you went to see Electra...?’
‘I wanted to experience it from the other side.’
He swallows, his neck bobbing as his pecs ripple. ‘Did you like it? Dominating him, I mean?’
I shrug. ‘It wasn’t something that came naturally... He dominated our life in all other areas, but in the bedroom he wanted to hand that power over to me.’
‘And you relished it?’
I consider his question. ‘Yes.’ I surprise myself with my certainty and my honesty as I admit it out loud. ‘Ultimately, I did. Over the years it became a way for me to take back control, to find some balance.’
‘And you never wanted to submit to him?’
I meet his eye. ‘No.’
He stares at me, the moonlight highlighting the pulse working in his jaw. He wraps the towel around his waist, tucks it in and comes towards me. ‘But you want to play the submissive now?’
I straighten my shoulders against the little shiver that runs through me. A shiver that has nothing to do with the cold and everything to do with the way he looks at me, the way his gravelly voice works through me.
‘Yes.’
I don’t even have the brain power to analyse what it means, only that I want this. With him.
He reaches out, lifts my chin with his finger as he runs his thumb over my lower lip. I’m not even aware of the hair towel slipping from my fingers until it falls over my feet.
‘Do you want to submit to me?’
Oh, God, yes.
I try to speak and my voice fails, my eyes lost in the heat of his.
‘Do you want me to take control?’
I manage a nod.
‘Do you want me to command you?’
‘Yes.’ It’s breathy, a whisper, and his eyes flare at the sound, their depths glittering.
‘Have you ever submitted to anyone before that night with Electra?’
‘No. And we never...’ a small shake of my head ‘... I told you, we never got further than what you saw.’
‘So, I would be your first?’
I wet my lips, catch the tip of his thumb still there. ‘Yes.’
‘Fuck.’ His curse surprises me, its severity all the more. ‘Do you know how much I’ve thought of that night? Of you on your knees with that collar around your neck, your nipples clamped while she...while she stroked you with that thing.’
My need seeps between my legs, my clit pulsates. ‘I have a thing...a crop.’ Shallow breath. ‘Upstairs.’
His thumb and forefinger grip my chin. ‘You do?’
‘I do.’
He swallows again, his hand falling away. ‘Then lead the way.’
I go to walk around him.
‘Without the towel.’
My lips twitch as his command makes my pulse leap, my clit pound and I loosen it from around me, let it fall to the floor.
‘Very good, Little Kitten.’
CHAPTER TEN
Valentine
JESUS, I’M NOT doing this. We’re not.
Only I am. The beast in me is well and truly alive now. Four years dormant and now... Now I get to unleash it with a woman as willing, as appealing as Olivia.
I tune out the voice in my head telling me to stop as I follow her through the dark house. The only sound our bare feet against the hard white tiles and every breath too loud in my ears. She turns her head enough to check I still follow, in the hall, on the stairs... When she
