Page 41 of Love & Rockets

“You said under the right circumstances you’d be my slave. What circumstances?”

Again, his brows arched in surprise, but this time the excitement of a challenge shone in his dark eyes. “Well, I imagine you’d have to break me.”

“Break you?” Running her fingernails along his shoulder, she studied him closely. “Define break.”

“The first one to beg,” he answered without hesitation.

Amused by how quickly he answered, she smiled up at him. Apparently, he’d been giving this a little thought. Sliding her other hand suggestively down his abs, she stopped shy of the promised land. “You don’t think I can make you beg?”

“Oh, I know you can. The question is, can you make me beg first?”

“And after you beg, you have to do everything I say?”

“Once you say please, you’re all mine,” he confirmed with a nod. “Tonight and any other night we’re together.”

“Feeling pretty sure of yourself, Professor?”

His smile came slow, but she felt its impact in her bones. Her muscles burned hot. Her blood grew thick and dense in her veins. He skimmed a fingertip down the valley between her breasts and goosebumps rose on her arms.

“Fairly confident.”

She returned his smile with wobbly one, but her voice held true. “Hit me with your best shot.”

Lord, one of the man’s advanced degrees had to be in kissing. Slow, fast, soft, or deep. Didn’t matter. The second he ran his tongue along the seam of her lips, she was in terrible trouble. He issued no tentative request or imperious demands. No, those she could easily rebuff. So he hit her with a slick, sensuous slide that said he knew his tongue was meant to be with hers. How was she supposed to deny him when they both knew damn well he was right? She parted her lips, but the man was in no rush to conquer.

This kiss was a slow, sweeping waltz. His timing and control would have made Miss Celine so very proud. A swooping, swirling whirl of a kiss delivered with controlled passion. He drew her tongue into his mouth, then promptly relinquished her. Oh, it was a masterful performance. Almost enough to make her wish she’d gotten to wear a poufy cotillion gown and twirl across the polished oak floor at the Ft. Whiting Armory. To be the kind of girl he might actually marry one day.

But the kiss wasn’t what lit her up like a Roman candle inside. She could handle the kissing. The sweet way he finished each volley with a tender nip at her bottom lip or peck to the corner of her mouth made her a little weak, but she could withstand the onslaught. Barely. What she had no defense against were the gruff growls he made in the back of his throat when he slid his hand over her hip to her ass and pulled her on top of him.

How the hell was she supposed to guard her flank when he conceded the high ground straight off the bat?

Pressing her hands to his chest, she tried not to be too obvious about sneaking a squeeze as she rose up to straddle him. For the first time in a long time, she wished for long hair. A pixie cut didn’t leave a girl much of a curtain to hide behind. In an effort to mask her discomfiture, she doled out a dose by raking her fingernails, such as they were, down his chest and over the shallow bumps of his abs. “Giving in already?”

The grin he wore screamed pure, unadulterated rogue. “I wanna watch you say it.”

Sliding back, she sat down directly on his long, hard cock, trapping him between the damp lips of her sex, but outside the gates of heaven. With that thought in mind, she cupped her breasts in both hands and began to rock. Slow and steady.

“You forget,” she chided. “I’ve been a lonely single mom for a very long time.” She infused the reminder with wide-eyed innocence to make it clear she was taunting him. Her dear Dr. Dalton had no idea the games were only beginning. Lifting her breasts, she pressed them together, pinching her nipples as she slid along the length of him. “I don’t need you.”

He swallowed hard. “I know you don’t.” His gaze darted from her breasts to the spot where she sat and back again. “But you said you’ve been lonely.”

“I can take care of myself very well. I think I proved that earlier.”

Again he nodded, but this time his voice came out filled with gravel. “Beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“I could come like this.” As if her body felt the need to back up the smack, her eyelids grew heavy and she began to grind against him.

“Christ, you’re so hot. So wet.” Jake rolled his hips beneath her, matching her rhythm without missing a beat. “Do it.”

Her eyes drifted shut. She pressed the flats of her palms to the hard points of her nipples, trying to contain the ache. His hands moved restlessly atop her thighs, urging her on without doing one damn thing to help get her there. Frustration rose in her throat and came out in a squeak. “Help me,” she said from between clenched teeth.

“I thought you didn’t need me.”

Her eyes flew open, a flash fire of anger balling up inside of her. But her pique fizzled the moment she met his dark, steady gaze. Jake was neither smirking nor gloating. He was simply waiting. “What?”

“Ask politely.”

Darla scowled down at him. Then she caught on to his angle. “Not likely.”

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