Page 79 of Strictly Forbidden

“I see you find it impossible to be a good girl.”

His voice was definitely huskier than normal. A heated tremor shifted straight to my core, a wave of desire sweeping through me that was entirely different. “What does that mean? I told you I was taking a bath. Is that against the rules?”

“No but playing with yourself without permission is.” His smirk grew, the candlelight doing nothing more than illuminating his gorgeous carved features. Damn it.

“Whoa. Hold on here. You never added that to the list of rules. I knew all about trying to escape and daring to attempt to steal your truck again. I also was told point blank stealing one of your weapons would result in a hard spanking, but never did you say I couldn’t play with myself. Now, if you were a smart man, which I thought you were up until a day or so ago, you wouldn’t have pushed me into playing with myself.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Oh, yeah. You’re actually the person to blame for this. You should be angry with the sexy man standing there looking like a brooding giant. Maybe you can figure out a way to discipline that bad boy inside of you.” Boy, I was hot and heavy, more vehement about something so ridiculous than I’d ever been in my life.

He was staring at me and for a few seconds I felt even more self-conscious. “Brooding giant? Are you finished?”

His voice was doing exactly what he wanted it to, driving me batty. I rubbed hair from my eyes, trying to think about how best to address the situation. When it came to me, I offered my own version of a wicked yet calculating smile.

“Why yes, yes, I am.” That was a mere blip in time before I grabbed the front of his shirt with both hands, yanking him into the water.

As the full weight of his body fell on top of mine, water sloshing onto the floor, the air was knocked from my lungs. But there was nothing that could replace the shock in his eyes or the way my sassy move made us both laugh.

He immediately gasped, his eyes lit up like I’d never seen them before but when they narrowed, a growl erupting from the very deepest part of his core, I had a feeling I was in for it.

His hand was suddenly wrapped around my throat, squeezing more as a reminder of his dominance in my little world than attempting to retaliate. I sensed his playful mood had returned.

Meanwhile, I was hot and bothered.

Taking his time, he lowered his head as he rubbed his thumb very slowly back and forth across my lower lip. “I’ve asked myself a dozen times what the fuck I was going to do with you now that I had you.”

God, his voice was even gruffer. It reminded me of a man who’d smoked one too many cigars and drank too much whiskey, but that obviously wasn’t the case. “What did you figure out?” I was so drawn to him, especially since he had soap suds all over his scruffy chin and shirt. I took my time sliding my finger just under the top of his shirt, toying with the chest hairs that had also attracted me since the beginning.

He lowered his gaze as well as his head by a couple of inches, the growl he issued deeper than before. “That I just need to fuck you senseless after spanking you every. Single. Day. Maybe I should even keep you chained to the bed.” Before I had a chance to say my usual line of retort, he shoved his thumb into my mouth.

The little bit of suds should make me gag but I found myself caught up in the luxurious if not sinful moment, sucking on his thick digit without being told to do so. Just the way he was smirking at me was far too seductive, easily allowing me to read his mind.

Not that I was going to be easy for him to get.

The thought almost made me roll my eyes.

I allowed myself to thoroughly enjoy the moment, twisting one hand around his wrist while I sucked, making filthy sounds every few seconds.

He was slowly shaking his head and I could swear I heard him muttering under his breath. When he finally did remove his thumb, his chest was heaving and holy cow, his eyes were dilated.

A slight crooked smile came after his upper lip curled. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

“Mmm… but I did. What are you going to do about it?” I rolled my eyes on purpose.

I honestly wasn’t certain any longer what I was expecting but as he started peeling off his wet clothes, tossing his boots across the room until they hit the wall with a hard thud, all I could do was laugh.

If only we could continue being this way at least the majority of the time. I could only imagine how… happy we could be as a couple. What was I thinking?

A couple?

That wasn’t going to happen.

He nearly ripped his shirt trying to remove it and jerking off his wet jeans turned out to be real disaster. Somehow, he managed to get more water on the floor than remained in the tub. I only hoped we had enough towels to soak it up. His grin remained more like a ferocious lion than a human and he started the water once he was completely naked.

I couldn’t help myself, giggling because the bubbles were covering him in very creative works of art.

“What are you laughing at, sunshine?”