Page 33 of Nikolai (Kansas City Reapers)

“Oh, really? How do you figure that?” I leaned back in my chair, crossing my arms over my chest as I regarded her. Her hair was down, loose waves flowing down her back like silk in the wind. The tank top she wore left little to the imagination, as did the tiny shorts that went along with it. But I remained diligent in my attention to her words, versus that ripe ass that was already begging for my hand again. If I squinted, I swore I could see the faintest reddened mark just below the hemline of her shorts. The smirk that lifted the corner of my mouth could not be contained.

“Well, for starters, you are acting like this is going to be a relationship. And let me be clear, it’s not. I’m not interested in a relationship. Hell, I just got out of one.”

I had forgotten that key detail in her police report.

“Second, if you had bothered to stop and actuallytalkto me instead of just dictating how things would be, then you’d know that I fully intended this to be short-term fun. Nothing more. Nothing less. Something to…” she trailed off, searching for the right words.

“Scratch the itch?” I offered.

“I was going to say relieve some stress, but the point still stands. So, give me one good reason why you think this is a bad idea. And don’t give me thatdon’t mix businesswith pleasurebullshit. We’re both adults and can manage a fucking expectation, don’t you think?” She turned, halting her pacing as she placed her hands flat on the top of my desk, her eyes narrowed down at me. It wasn’t a position I enjoyed, but with her? Well, I couldn’t stop myself from letting her have the win.

“There are other things that make this complicated, Maddy,” I said carefully. It would do me no good to poke the bear. At least, not right now. After last night, I had learned thatpoking the bearwas quite fun, in more ways than one.

“Seriously, name one legitimate reason. I dare you.” Her eyes sparked with that delightful brat energy, and while it was nearly impossible not to rise to her challenge, I stayed calm and handled this like the professional I was.

“Well, how about the fact that you are going to be here for an unknown amount of time? If you are here for a long while, things could get complicated easily,” I answered calmly.

“Oh, right. I forgot men don’t know how to communicate effectively. Well, if it’s too hard for you to handle, you should have just said that,” she laughed humorlessly.

“This isnottoo hard for me to handle,” I spoke clearly, my voice going deeper as she began pressing the buttons she had located far too easily within me.

“No, no! I understand completely. Using big boy words can be hard for lots of boys.” She adopted a patronizing, child-like tone that had my hackles rising and my palm itching to spank her. Still, I held back. Shewas trying to get a rise out of me, but I knew this game. I knew it well. Some would say I was aMasterat it, in fact.

“Maddy, this is a complicated situation. Plus, there’s —” I cut my words off sharply, realizing what I was about to say. While I wasn’t ashamed of the fact that I lived in the BDSM lifestyle, that wasn’t a bone I wanted dug up by her, not in this situation. This situation was dicey at best, as it was.

“Oh, yes, I see it now. Words are hard, aren’t they, big guy?” That baby talk had every hair raised on the back of my neck, had my hands tightening into fists on the top of the desk just to ensure I didn’t grab her and throw her over my knee. The desire to handle the brat in front of me was so overwhelming it took every ounce of restraint I had to hold myself back.

“Enough,” I growled, standing to my full height and slamming my open palm down on the top of the desk. Better the desk than her ass right now.

“I get it, Niko. You were right. This isn’t going to work. Because I’m not interested in being involved — inanyway — with a man who can’t communicate. And communication is key. So…” she trailed off with an insolent shrug.

I slammed my hand down one more time, quickly skirting the edge of the desk as I stormed over to her, grabbing her by the upper arms and refusing to allow myself to shake some sense into her bratty little brain.

“If you think a Dominant like myself doesn’t know how to communicate, you have another thing coming,” I hissed, inches from her face.

Her eyes popped open wide, and I realized what I had done.

I had crossed the line in the sand I had drawn for myself.

“Nikolai,” she said, her tone completely changed from before. Now soft where she had been full of sass, her eyes held something akin to an understanding that I simply refused to acknowledge.

“I said, enough.”

And with that, I stormed out of my office, leaving her standing there, likely with far more questions than answers.

That made two of us.

Chapter 9

Maddy

I stood there,mouth hanging open, as Niko stormed out of the room. What the hell had just happened?

It took me a solid minute — okay, maybe closer to five minutes, if I was being honest — to gather myself and follow him, but by the time I entered the hallway, he was long gone. I crept out towards the kitchen, just as Jax was making a bee-line to his office at the end of the hall in the opposite direction.

“Looking for Niko?” he asked with a curiously knowing smirk.

“How did you know?” I replied, throwing him a small smile of politeness.

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