Page 53 of The Inquirer

I wanted to believe it could be that simple, that Bradyn and I could actually do this, but I still had doubts. He was being protective now, but how long would that last?

“You haven’t answered my question,” he said. “What brought you over tonight?”

I gave him honesty since I didn’t have anything else to give. “You. I wanted you. Not for a distraction. Not because something’s wrong. Just because I wanted you.”

I couldn’t decide which was sexier. The heat in his eyes or the way his entire face lit up.

“Is that wanted, like past tense?” He was teasing me, but I understood what he was really asking.

“Not past tense.”

“Good.”

He pulled me toward him, crushing our mouths together. I grabbed the front of his shirt, letting everything else wash away. I hadn’t come here to use him to get past my mental torture, and I wasn’t going to let my few minutes of insecurity turn this into that.

Fortunately, I had a pretty good idea what to do.

I tugged at his bottom lip with my teeth, then pulled back to rest my forehead against his. “Be in charge.”

He didn’t move, but his eyes widened with his surprise. “Say that again.”

He was giving me an out, but I’d meant what I said, so I did what he wanted. “Be in charge.”

The trip from the couch to his bedroom seemed to both take forever and be over in seconds, but however long it really took, he carried me the whole way. Our mouths stayed fused together until we reached his bed, and he tossed me down with an abruptness that startled me.

I didn’t mind, though, because as soon as I was out of his arms, he was stripping, and I got to watch all that muscle and tanned skin appear like magic. I let my eyes run over a set of abs that looked like they’d been airbrushed, following that line of curls and those v-grooves at his hips down to that thick, slightly curved piece of flesh.

“Clothes off, and then I want you on your knees next to the bed.”

I was tempted to make a smart remark about how it’d been pointless to put me on the bed if I was just going to be on my knees on the floor, but this power dynamic between Bradyn and myself was a new thing for me. We were still feeling things out.

One of the lessons the different rooms at Club Privé had taught me was that, when it came to floors, a carpet might be soft, but you’d probably end up with rugburn. Or it could be like this floor, hard but smooth. It all depended on the type of pain you either wanted to receive or wanted to inflict. I’d used both kinds for myself – knees on either side of a sub’s head for oral – and for my subs – a variety of positions and reasons.

The bed was at a perfect height for me to bend at the waist and lay my upper body flat across it. The feel of the slightly scratchy blanket against my nipples made me shiver, and I wondered if Bradyn had bought it for that reason or if it was just an added benefit. Thinking about why he’d bought it made me wonder how many women he’d brought in here, which wasn’t what I wanted to be thinking about right now.

Then his hand was on my back, sliding down the length of my spine to my ass. He lightly smacked one cheek and then ran a finger between them. When he brushed over my anus, I inhaled sharply, and he stopped.

“You remember your safe words?”

I nodded.

“Good.”

I didn’t have to ask what he meant. If I used my safe word, he’d stop. If I didn’t, then he’d continue with whatever he had planned.

“I have a toy I’m going to use,” he said as the tip of his finger rubbed over that muscle. “It’s only a little bigger than my finger, and it’ll slide in there nice and easy.”

When he pushed the tip of his finger inside, I made a whimpering sound that I would’ve hated if I hadn’t been so caught up in what he was saying.

“Once that’s inside your ass, I’m going to fuck your pussy.”

Oh.

“Yellow.” The word came out before the memory could surface and that alone was enough to hold back any fear. He knew to be careful, to listen for the word to make him stop.

“Nice and slow, firebird.” His finger came out, and I heard a familiar sound that was easy enough to place, even before the cold trickle of lube hit my skin. One hand settled at the small of my back with just enough pressure to let me know that I wasn’t supposed to move…but if I did, he’d stop me.

“You’re going to take my finger first.”

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