Page 49 of Wanted
The club safeword leapt to her lips, but refused to go any further. She locked her jaw before she embarrassed herself or Eth—Marcus. Marcus!
This was ridiculous. She squeezed her eyes shut again, struggling not to squirm as Anders worked his now deeply uncomfortable touch up the backs of her legs to her ass. She grabbed the padded edge of the table when he slid both hands up over her ass, cupping her there, squeezing and very deliberately spreading her ass cheeks apart. He held her like that for just a second too long for it to be an accident or a massage.
Her breathing quickened. She tightened, snapping her head over on her arms to stare into the crowd. She schooled her features, hiding her fast-rising panic the way only a good menagerie girl could.
“Are you sure you don’t like spanking?” Anders asked, adjusting his grip on her ass as he rubbed. “You’ve got the perfect butt for it.”
He squeezed again, prizing her open again, sending the panic spiraling wildly as his thumb skimmed the rim of her anus.
“Beautiful pussy too.”
He slid his hand between her legs and suddenly, Anna broke free. She scrambled to sit up, but every instinct screaming inside her—stop, wait, red—was broken. It wouldn’t come up to her mouth.
Anders looked at her in surprise. “What’s the matter?”
She’d never felt more stupid in her life. She was ruining his scene. He’d been doing everything right and she was ruining it.
“Did I do something wrong?” he asked. “Do you want to stop?”
She needed to apologize, but she couldn’t make the words come any more than she could make herself call the safeword. She was a failure.
He grabbed her arm when she damn near fell off the side of the table because she was shaking so badly. Her oiled feet slipped on the tiles. If not for his tightening grip on her arm, she’d have gone all the way down on her butt.
“Whoa, whoa,” Anders said, his tone dropping into the realm of the soothing. “If you need to stop, we can call it right here, okay?”
“How about I fucking call it?”
Anna snapped around as Marcus came out of the crowd. He looked furious, and in her sky-rocketing panic, she didn’t even notice that none of that fury was fixed on her.
Anders put up his hands, backing away from both her and the scene. “I’m done,” he announced. “I came here to have a good time, not to get my ass beat.”
“Clothes,” Marcus told her.
She didn’t need to be told twice. She fled back through the crowd, running on slippery feet all the way back to the bar where her things were still folded neatly, albeit on the floor by the couch where they’d been sitting. Another couple was there now.
“Excuse me.” Humiliated beyond bearing, knowing this was all her fault, she couldn’t even look at them. She scrambled into her dress, yanking her panties up and fumbling to get her shoes back on as fast as she could.
“Pony?”
Anna whipped around when she felt a timid tap on her shoulder and bumped straight into Cynthia, knocking the full tray of drinks balanced on the shorter woman’s arm to the floor. Everything broke.
“I’m sorry!” she blurted.
Oh God, and now here came Spencer, called forth from his office by the sound of shattering glasses.
“For fuck’s sake, Cynthia,” he snapped.
“I’m sorry!” Anna burst into tears, not noticing how he’d already stopped the instant he’d seen her face. “It was me! I’m sorry!”
She dropped to her knees, scrambling to grab the tray and as many of the broken pieces as she could find.
“Enough, girl.” Spencer came at her.
“You’ll cut yourself!” Cynthia dropped to her knees too, trying to catch Anna’s wrists.
It was Marcus’s voice that cut through the storm. “Anna, stop!”
The command froze her, and then cut her to ribbons. She had ruined everything. For Marcus, for Puppy. Anders. Everyone. She was worse than useless.
