Page 17 of At Her Pleasure

“I don’t wallow in the past.” Her sharpness was defensive. It annoyed her.

“I get that.” He continued to hold it out.

She couldn’t explain how his understanding pushed past her safeguards. Any more than she could explain how she accepted the gesture of comfort she wouldn’t have accepted from anyone else.

She took the gift, her nails scraping his palm, his open fingers. The doll had a crooked smile, crooked eyes. Whimsical and sweet, with a touch of the macabre.

“Want to take a ride?” he asked again.

She met his gaze. Hell, those blue eyes packed a punch. “Where are we going?”

“I have a spot in mind you might like.” His gaze pointedly tracked the path Sy had taken. “If you’re not too tired.”

“Sleep is a sign of weakness.”

“Or a basic physical requirement to function. And live. Like food and water. Damn, woman. You look good.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

He bent forward and inhaled, making her blink. “I like your shampoo.”

She chuckled. “Yes. I’ll take a ride with you.”

“Great.” He tilted his head toward the closest exit.

As they moved toward it, he fell in just behind her in that way men did, usually to put a hand to the small of a woman’s back. He didn’t, but his proximity made it feel like he did. She didn’t normally appreciate protective gestures, but feeling him that close wasn’t offensive to her.

Under the light outside the door, she sent Vera a quick text. Good session with Sy, bailing for one of my drives. See you at the office.

Mick had stopped at her shoulder, and read the screen. After she hit send, he plucked the phone from her hand and pocketed it.

“So no one knows you’re with me. Or expects you to show up until tomorrow.” He showed teeth, like a wolf. “Which means I can take you where I want, do what I want.”

He put it out there as they stood in view of a busy parking lot, both aware she could blow him off and go back in.

His energy told her he was initiating a scene, here and now. No safe words, no pre-agreed structure, nothing guiding them but the past and the strength of their desires.

She locked gazes with him. “You could try. Anyone know where you are, or expecting you to show up somewhere anytime soon?”

“No.”

“So if I leave your corpse wherever you’re taking me, I have time to develop my alibi.”

An attractive curve came to his mouth, but it didn’t dilute what was in his gaze. “I’ve dreamed of hunting you for ten years, Mistress. Fighting you again, overpowering you. Does that scare you? Losing control?”

He wasn’t taunting her in that passive aggressive way some men did. “You have to have all the control because you’re afraid of a real man.” Male Doms got the same crap. “You can’t get it up for a woman who stands up for herself.” All of it bullshit. It was why they found gathering spaces like this, where they understood what it was really about.

“What’s your scene now, Mick? Dom, switch, sub?”

"In a world about open boundaries, everyone always wants to classify themselves. I've done some of all of it."

She laughed. "You've perfected some evasive bullshit. Beyond fucking, what's the thing you want to do most?”

When his attention slid back over her again, she could see the amount of time he’d spent imagining her naked and wet. An intriguing shudder went through her body, and his gaze darkened.

"Primal play. As far as fucking you, I want to earn that.” That dangerous light in his steady gaze grew fangs. “Did he fuck you tonight?”

“No. I fucked him.” With a strap-on, while the choke collar she’d transferred from her boot to his cock dug into his erection, with the help of her grip. When she pulled it off of him and let him come into a condom, Sy had blacked out for a couple seconds. She’d roused him by trailing light fingers up and down his spine. The body woke up first, the nerves coming to life and then firing up the brain.

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