Page 32 of His Dark Hunger

“There was…” Kyle reached for the stem of his wine glass. “But we’re well beyond that now. Do you think contractual law can compel a grown woman to strip for me on command?”

Kyle scanned the two rows of intrigued faces. They were used to having twenty-somethings on their arms and, if they were lucky, on their laps, but they’d never wielded so much influence over any of the pretty young things that the women would do what they asked. As far as Kyle had seen, the moment the financial donations to labels such as Armani and Gucci ran out, so did the women. The fuckers at his table had clearly never seen anything like Amy before. They didn’t understand what they’d found.

Amy.

Amy, with her humble beauty and understated subservience. Amy, who was only just discovering the joy of submitting to a man like him—a man who could not only degrade but also cherish her. A man who would hang her over the precipice but never let her go.

Amy had become everything.

“It seems unlikely,” Shaun agreed. “She must like you one hell of a lot.”

Kyle’s smile widened at his friend’s analysis. “We’re getting to know each other, and we’re having a lot of fun.”

“So, is this a relationship?” Nigel placed down his cutlery. “Because you said you were paying her.”

“It’s complicated.” That was one way of putting it. “She is working for me, and I’m paying her for that work, but whatever else is happening, it’s…” His voice trailed away as he tried to find the appropriate words.

“What?” Roger prompted sarcastically. “Nigel’s right, isn’t he? You’re falling for her!”

Kyle’s mind whirled at the accusation, but rather than the curt retort he’d expected from his mouth, he noticed his lips twitch. Perhaps hewasfalling for her? Kyle couldn’t imagine a day without her in his life anymore. There was only monochrome without the color she brought.

The thought was interrupted as Amy swung the door open at the other end of the room. Carrying another plate, she began the slow walk toward him, her embarrassment at being topless illustrated by the burning blush on her cheeks and the way she stubbornly refused to meet his eyes.

“Did Chef have a plate for you?”

There was no need for Kyle to ask. It was patently obvious that Leonard had, as was the fact she’d had to ask him for the dish while still being helplessly exposed. His cock strained at the delicious idea. Kyle had no clue why humbling her in front of other people was so damn hot, but God help him, it was. There was something exquisite about taking a beautiful woman and owning her so entirely that she’d allow him to parade her in front of his peers. It only proved what he reflexively knew to be true—Amy was perfection… or as close to it as he was ever going to discover.

“Yes, sir.”

Her chin rose as she rounded the top of the table to join him, and fleetingly, their gazes collided. Amy’s smoldered with a dizzying array of unspoken emotions—that she loathed him for making her behave that way, as well as the revelation she was increasingly struggling to come to terms with—that he really wasn’tmakingher do anything she didn’t want to.

“Good.” He pointed to the floor between him and Shaun, intentionally drawing her away from Nigel’s prying eyes. “Put it down here.”

“On the floor, sir?”

There was no defiance in her tone anymore, only that sexy air of resignation he’d come to adore. It was the same timbre he heard every night in his office when she served his nightcap and acted as his footrest. It was a sound he lived for.

“Yes.” He rose to his full height as she walked behind his chair, shrugging out of his expensive jacket and draping it by her feet. “You’ll kneel on my jacket while you eat.”

“Thank you.”

Fresh emotion flashed in her beautiful blue eyes, though he couldn’t immediately discern its roots. Arousal, perhaps, and certainly gratitude. The moment was over too quickly as she lowered to place the plate beside his jacket and fell to her knees as requested.

“You’re making her eat from the floor?” Stuart clapped his hands together as though it was the best idea he’d ever heard, and watching her gorgeous form at his side, Kyle was inclined to agree.

“She knows her place.” His hand moved to stroke away the loose strands of her hair from her face.

“I fucking love it.” Roger grinned enthusiastically. “I’d like to put them all down there where they belong.”

“No.” Correcting Roger, Kyle’s fingers stiffened in Amy’s hair. Trust Reynolds to misconstrue his meaning. “Not like that. She’s not less than me. Submission isn’t aboutworthiness, gentlemen. It’s only about being two sides of the same coin. She excels at following where I like to lead.”

Her focus flitted to him for one protracted second, her pupils dilating as she waited on his order to move.

“It looks like subjugation to me.” Roger shrugged. “Plain and simple.”

“It would.” Kyle rolled his eyes at the man farthest from him. “You never could see what was right in front of you.”

It was why his marriage to the beautiful Nadine was doomed to failure. A woman like her was never going to put up with his shit for too long.

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