Stepping back to create some much-needed physical distance, he dropped his chin to his chest. “On your knees.”
“Why?”
He looked up slowly, fighting the urge to rush. “Because I told you to do it.”
“But why?”
A dull throbbing took up a steady rhythm at the base of his skull.
Headache
. At least, he thought it was a headache. He’d never had one, had only heard humans bitch about them. He tried mentally repeating “uneducated sub,” but it didn’t stop the irritation from leaking into his tone. “You do what the Dom running the scene orders you to do.”
“Oh.” She considered him. “But what if I don’t want to?”
“Then you don’t want to do this badly enough, we say our goodbyes and I show you out so you can find someone better to play with.” Pain lanced his chest hard enough that he glanced down. Nothing there. Strange.
“You always threaten to pull out?” Realizing what she’d said, she blushed and looked away.
He grasped her chin tight enough he knew the hold wasn’t comfortable. Her eyes glazed slightly as he pulled her forward. “To answer the question as posed, I’ll tell you I’m not interested in breeding trouble, so yes, I always pull out if the long-term consequences aren’t worth the momentary pleasure.” He leaned in and brushed a soft kiss over her lips as he tightened his hold even more.
She whimpered.
“On. Your. Knees.” Taking her in as she knelt before him, he blinked, slowly and contemplatively. Poor little
miwsher
, or kitten. No doubt she’d get what she wanted. And then some. In the interest of sexual equality, though, so would he.
She eyed the brilliant Marker that labeled him an Otherworlder—a multihued flame springing from the root of his cock to climb up and lick at his belly button. When she opened her mouth to undoubtedly ask about it, he interrupted with, “It’s a tat,” and followed with a hard, fast kiss.
His fingers slid through her heavy hair, pushing the mass away from her forehead. Long bangs that had been swept to the side feathered across her eyes. When she reached up to move them out of her face, Seth tightened his fingers and stilled her head with controlled force. Tilting her face back forced her to meet his gaze. “You agree to the terms we’ve outlined?”
“Y-yes.” A satisfied sigh escaped her, her warm, moist breath whipping around the head of his burgeoning hard-on.
“I’ll put you through your paces once. If you satisfy me, we’ll take this upstairs.” He absently stroked the pad of one thumb over her temple, stilling his hand when he caught the affectionate gesture. “Understand?”
“Yes.” No hesitation this time.
“Good girl.” The heavy length of his erection stood out from his body, twitching and bobbing as he grew more turgid. Feet spread, he unbuttoned his shirt and fisted the silk, pulling it aside. “Let’s put that beautiful mouth to use.”
The nymph stared up at him, grey eyes dark with desire. The way they widened telegraphed her uncertainty in no uncertain terms. “You want me to—”
“Suck my cock, Red. I’ll issue your directives and you’ve got an out if the request is unreasonable. Otherwise? I don’t expect to have to spell out every single command.” Shifting his weight, he settled his ass on the edge of his desk and waited.
“May I touch you?”
“May I touch you, sir,” he corrected.
“May I touch you,
sir
.”
“Below the waist, above the knees. No damage. My definition of damage is anything that draws blood or leaves me with erectile dysfunction, physical or psychological.”
Her brow furrowed.
“It was a joke, Red.”
“Oh.”
Soft hands, feather-light and tentative, settled on his thighs. Fine vibrations ran across her palms and down her fingers, her grip on him tightening as she moved closer. The pointed tip of her tongue trailed up the underside of his shaft, tracing the ridges and veins and playing around the corona, teasing.
Seth settled more of his weight on the desk’s edge.
She settled back and peered at him through thick lashes. “Good?”
“It will be once you commit.”
“What do you mean ‘once I commit’?” She slapped a hand over her mouth, the “sorry” muffled but clearly contrite.
“Nope. On your feet. Bend over the desk. Grip the other side and spread your feet wide enough only your toes touch the floor.” He reached over and, with a single sweep of his arm, cleared the desk. Something broke as it hit the floor. “Now, Red.”
Scrambling to her feet, she stood bare from the waist down.
He didn’t remember her losing the shoes. Knew he hadn’t told her to. “Any reason you ditched the footwear?”
“I—” She paused then clamped her lips together before shaking her head.
“Put them back on. Clothes come off at my discretion.”
“And my acquiescence.”
He arched a brow but inclined his head slightly. “That’s two.”
Mutiny brewed in her eyes.
The heavy weight of his testicles made his entire groin ache. If he didn’t get control of the situation, the situation would end up controlling him. That’s how people got hurt. Flashes of memory were illuminated, shifting and drifting to pile up like Polaroids.
Snap. Flash. Remember. Hurt. Deflect. Try to forget.
Over and over the pattern repeated until he wrested control from his psyche and forced the unwelcome past from the promising present. Only fools repeated unsavory mistakes. That’s all Anahita had been—a mistake.
Cold sweat stole over his torso. The air conditioner kicked on with little more than a soft
tick
. Stale, refrigerated air moved through the quiet hush of the office, the only competing noise that of Red’s breathing and his own erratic heartbeat.
“Step it up.” The command was hoarse. He cleared his throat, parked his hands on his hips. If he couldn’t get it together any better than this, he might as well cash in his chips and leave her to play at someone else’s table, as promised. His pecs twitched, and he fought the urge to snarl at no one. And nothing.
Red studied him but kept her mouth shut.
Wise woman.
He wondered if she’d comply or go for more physical resistance. Part of him craved that—the physical act, and art, of dominance. He waited. When she didn’t move, he crossed his arms over his chest. “Three.”
One corner of her mouth curled.
The minor response whipped his passion higher. When she moved casually to assume the commanded position, he stepped in behind her and kicked her feet so wide her hips were forced to take her weight. Lying across her, he pressed the length of his cock into the seam of her sex. Short-stroking her, he rubbed forward and back. His hands closed over her wrists and stretched her out even farther. The head of his cock nearly breached her sheath with his next forward thrust. Seth struggled to hold his tongue. All he wanted to do was praise her, to lose himself in her body and find mindless release.
His element roared in his head, loud and demanding. Possessive.
Mine.
The moment Seth acknowledged the feeling, his element settled to a simmering burn.
Not this. Not now. She couldn’t be his
El Nar
, or Flame Keeper. “Oh, gods.”
His broken whisper had Red turning to look at him. “Do
not
tell me you’re going to puss out on me.”
The sound of his molars grinding together was amplified in the silence of his head. “Puss. Out.”
“Just sayin’.”
Stroking his middle finger through her wet heat, he grasped the back of her neck and ignored her soft mewl of need. The first crack of his hand on her ass, gentle as it was, made her gasp, the shuddering breath escaping her quickly. She focused on something Seth couldn’t see. The second swat quickly followed the first, but was stronger. Her skin pinked as beautifully as he’d anticipated.
He raised his hand again, but instead of delivering the third, stinging blow as promised, he found himself tracing the outline of his handprint. Such diametrically opposed sensations. The imprint radiated heat while the as-yet untouched globe of her other ass cheek was cool.
She couldn’t be his Keeper.
She just couldn’t.
* * *
Eden drifted, conscious but barely aware of what was going around her. The first swat had startled her, the sting immediate. Relaxation had set in before the second swat, endorphins flooding her system and rendering her entirely passive. She really should think about the why of it, and she would. Later. Right now? Her only thought revolved around the heated silk of his shaft as it moved against her. Light touch, sleek skin, branding heat—all combined to form the opening of what she wanted to be an erotic mélange of epic proportions.
Need curled through her core. Her sex ached. She craved him like a drug.
Fingers traced her ass, drifting slowly toward unmarked skin. “Beautiful.”
The reverence in his voice surprised her, pulling her out of subspace enough that the stinging became more pronounced and a bit less alluring. “What’s beautiful?” When he didn’t answer, she looked over her shoulder. “Seth?”
“You’ll call me ‘sir’ and nothing else.”
“I like your name better.”
The gentle yet stinging slap to her untouched ass cheek made her jump. Her eyelids slid closed. Such a radical response to his touch. If only he’d… “Please, sir.” Words heavy with innuendo, she found herself pushing her sex against the heated length of his arousal.
“You need more.” Another question disguised as a statement. He was good at those.
“Yes.” Gripping the desk, she lifted her hips.
“Son of a bitch.”
His snarled curse ripped through her, white-hot and scarring. She’d be marked for anyone who came to her bed after him.
After.
The idea made her stomach pitch and roll.
No. No one but him. Never again.
Disbelief struck her like a Taser set to incapacitation, shocking her so effectively she was knocked out of the moment. What was wrong with her? No one else? Ever again? She liked men, loved sex and wasn’t looking at Seth—
sir
—with any kind of permanence. He wasn’t programmed that way. Hell, neither was she. If she were going to get all psychologically involved, this might not be the best idea after all. She opened her mouth to call stop.
His cock breached her outer folds. The blunt, thick assault nearly split her in two.
“Goddess!” she shouted, clawing at the desk.
Hands grabbed her hips and, instead of holding her still, pulled her onto him with unrelenting force. All she could think about was the way he was filling her, stretching her farther than she’d ever been stretched. “Yes,” she hissed, trying to push back harder.
A stinging slap to the ass made her groan. Arousal flooded her sex.
“Sweet gods,” Seth said on a moan. “You’re tight.”
“Please, Se—sir. Please.”
“Begging doesn’t do it for me, Red.” The words were gritted out between clenched teeth.
“I need… I need….”
One hard shove seated him.
Eden’s animalistic cry echoed throughout the room.
“Again,” he commanded, pulling back and slamming home. “Because that does.”
She couldn’t help but comply.
The rhythm he set—fast, hard, demanding—put her at his mercy. She was on fire, burning alive. Something caliginous coiled inside her, dense and huge and uncontrollable.
Deft fingers sought out her clit and traced the very edges of that little bundle of nerves, teasing, never delivering the touch she needed that would send her over the edge. The harder she tried to maneuver him, the slower he thrusted, the less touch she received.
A near sob escaped her.
“Easy, Red. I told you I’d make you wait ten minutes for every minute you failed to obey me, did I not?”
Words were abstract. It took a minute for her to assign meaning. “Ten minutes?” It was all she could think. He’d make her wait ten minutes for release? She suddenly wondered if someone could be fucked to death. Or, in this case, die because they were
almost
fucked to death.
“I’m feeling generous.” He stroked her clit.
“Thank you, sir.” She didn’t know what else to say, couldn’t quite keep the sarcasm from her response.
He drove into her with several rapid, almost brutal thrusts. Then he slowed again. “You’re welcome.”
She fought not to beg. “I can’t do this.”
He froze. “Safe-wording on me?”
The thought crossed her mind, briefly illuminated as a possibility before sexual hunger squashed it flatter than a bug under a boot heel. “No.”
Slow strokes resumed, in and out with a roll of the hips. “Good girl.”
Without warning, he slammed into her with ball-slapping drives. The sounds of sex—the heavy breathing, words of encouragement and soft cries—combined to drown out the muffled thump of bass from the club. His free hand snaked up her front to palm her breast and pull her upright. Bending his knees, he pushed into her hard enough to lift her to her toes with every thrust. He was ruthless in his lovemaking. It was too much. She began to unravel in the most fundamental way.
He abandoned her breasts to grab her chin and force her head to his shoulder, arching her back to the very point where pain and pleasure met, winding around one another, weaving through each other. “Now, Red.”
He pinched her clit.
Eden’s scream ripped through the office. Her sheath clamped around his thrusting cock and bore down. She milked him, pulling his orgasm from him without mercy or regret.
He shouted in her ear, a base sound both carnal and pure.
Air whipped about, lifting and tossing anything not pinned down, from the shards of his pen cup to his desk. Nothing touched them, but the damage was impressive.
The earth literally moved beneath her feet.
Water sprang from the overhead fire extinguisher system.
The need for fire, to balance the three elements threatening to take her over, became too much to control. It flashed through her, burning her from the inside out. Another scream preceded her second orgasm.
“No!” Seth roared. Too late.
It was too late when she realized the flame she took came from him.
Chapter Four
Seth stumbled away from the woman. “What the hell did you just do?” The question was like sound dragged through shattered glass. Bone-chilling cold wrecked him. He’d never been so cold in all his long, miserable life. She radiated warmth so intense it felt like standing too close to an open fire, her skin glowing and healthy. Dragging a trembling hand down his face, he narrowed his gaze. Comprehension dawned, a blinding awareness over the confusion’s dark horizon. When he’d first smelled her, that smell of ozone and summer rains, it had been a warning. The calm before the storm. It was
her.
The witch.