Page 13 of Ryder

He squeezed, and his rumbly purr deepened.“This dress is fucking alpha bait.I knew you would be trouble and was trying to ignore the pull, but you marched on over, didn’t you, baby?Teetering in those ridiculous heels and not spilling a drop of the cocktail you were waving around.I wanted to put you on your knees and see if you had the same skills when it came to sucking down my cum.”

Heat pooled in my belly as I stared at his lips.

“I could tell from fifty paces you were a brat, and I have a weakness for brats.Makes me want to tame them, to put them over my lap and spank them until they drop the attitude and then make them come.Do you want that, Emma?Want me to spank you until it stings, until the sting turns into a fiery pain that makes your pussy drip with need?”

His words had a mesmerizing quality, sending mind and body reeling.No one had spoken to me like this before.No one had ever spanked me.I’d always presumed it was something I wasn’t into.Sure, it sounded interesting when I’d read about it in books, but that was as far as my curiosity had stretched.Yet Ryder was alpha, and I thought he could put his hands on me in any way he wanted

I was his to command.

“Do you want me to do that?Because if you do, I need the fucking words.”

“Yes, I want to feel your palm against my ass.No, I don’t care if it hurts.”

His lips tugged up, and he pinned me with an indecipherable look.“Remember what I said.If you want me to stop, you only need to say.This is something I enjoy.”His fingers dug into the flesh of my ass, almost painfully.I pressed my thighs together, trying to ease the growing ache.“But if you’re not into it, if it doesn’t also excite you, then you must tell me.Never be afraid.I won’t be angry.Contrary to popular opinion, not all alphas are beasts.I brought you here.I promised you a birthday present.Whatever you want, baby, I’ll give you.”

I expected him to kiss me or tug up the hem of my dress and set about my spanking, but instead, his big hand skimmed down my leg all the way to my ankle.He slipped my shoes off one at a time and tossed them to the floor, the movement deliberate and sensual.Having liberated me from the painful heels, he paused to work his thumb into the ball of my foot.The pleasure of his hands on my sore feet was near orgasmic.As if to seal my fate, his other hand moved to the back of my neck and massaged the nape.The two sensations—the soothing pleasure as he worked over the muscle of my calves and the shivery bliss of strong fingers playing in my hair—warred against one another.

A groan escaped my lips, and like a trigger, I found myself flipped over onto my belly.My squeak was one of a rude awakening.There was something vulnerable about being sprawled out on a man’s lap, especially one you’ve never met before.But no, he wasn’t only a man—he was an alpha.I needed to remember that.

Beneath my cheek, the gray leather couch was cool and buttery soft.The decision of what to do with my hands was taken from me when he gathered them up and pressed them into the couch above my head.

“Keep them here,” he said.After, he brushed my hair back from my face, exposing me to his eyes.The subtle lighting was enough to illuminate the stark lines of his face.

I would question what I was doing, but I was already too far gone.

“You okay, baby?”He traced his fingers over my cheek.

“Yes.”

“Good.I’m going to pull your dress up now.”

My tummy turned over slowly at his words and the way his fingertips traced over the seam of my lips.At the same time, his other hand tugged the hem of my skirt up.His eyes were on mine the whole time, watching me, observing my reaction.My breath hitched.There was a certain decadence about his broad hand skimming under the skirt before tugging it out of the way.“I was wondering what was underneath this pretty little dress.”

“I thought you weren’t interested,” I said.He’d admitted his attraction to me, but earlier, I hadn’t known that.

“Baby, if I’d been any more interested, you’d have been flat on your back in the middle of the dance floor and I’d have been rutting you the way only an alpha can.”

His words reminded me that he wasn’t a normal human.I thought back on a news article I’d seen a couple of days ago.A newly revealed alpha went crazy in the local shopping mall.Even young, he’d possessed an otherworldly power.I wondered how old Ryder was.I guessed his late twenties to early thirties.Certainly, compared to the young alpha who’d approached me in the private bar, he was mature.There were shadows in his eyes that spoke of brutality and dark happenings.

I remembered what he said a short time ago.There was no easy road to Desparion.

He pinched my ass through my panties, and I yelped.

“You got somewhere better to be, baby?”

“No!”I almost tacked on, ‘sir.’

But I was out of my head and my focus split between the thumb brushing back and forth over my lips and the palm cupping my ass, only my silk panties separating him and my heat.

“I want to pull your panties down,” he said, stroking a fallen lock back from my forehead.“Can I do that, Emma?”

“Yes, I want you to.”

I wanted a lot more.

I wanted him to strip me naked.

I wanted to get my hands on the thing I saw bulging the denim of his pants.I had no shame, had never been reserved about sharing pleasure, yet with Ryder, I had a strong notion I’d bitten off more than I could chew.His thumb hooked under my panties, and he tugged them down, the movement shockingly abrupt.

---