Page 75 of Red Flagged
Her words were a line in the sand. One she dared me to cross. We both shivered, but she stayed pliant in my arms, as if she was daring me to do something reckless. Almost like shewantedme to.
I knew what she wanted. She wanted to take the reins, flip the script, and turn every inch of pain and betrayal we’d just dredged up into something she could control—me. She wantedto tame the beast with her own hands, to make me answer to her. Because that was how Aurélie loved: not softly, not passively. By owning it, claiming it, andmasteringit.
And fuck, I needed her to.
“You want control?” I growled, low and feral, squeezing her waist. “You can have it.”
I shoved her back against the hood of the car with a thud. She gasped, her palm landing flat on the metal hood behind her, her back arching, the swell of her tits fucking pornographic in this goddamn dress. And to think this was the safest option.
“But if you’re gonna take it,” I continued, crowding her, towering over her, “thentake it.Stop teasing. Stop threatening. Own it, baby.”
Her eyes flared, molten with shock, arousal, and fury. “You think I don’t?” she hissed. “You think I don’t own every fucking inch of you?”
“Prove it,” I snapped. “Because right now, I see a brat who’s running her mouth instead of doing something with it.”
She slapped me.Hard.The sound was louder than the thunder rumbling in the distance.
My head snapped sideways. My cheek stung, but fuck me—I was harder than I’d ever been in my life. Every nerve ending alive, my love for her snarling in my chest like I was both a sadist and a masochist. I felt the sting of my lip splitting, the quick bloom of heat followed by the unmistakable metallic taste of blood.
I turned back to her. Breathing hard. Drenched.
“Again,” I rasped, lifting my fingers to my mouth. They came away red.
The sight nearly fucking undid me. The pain, the blood,her… it was all too much, too hot, too honest. I felt the cut pulse with heat and I wanted her tongue on it again. I wanted her to markme everywhere. Fuck, I was in love with a woman who could kill me and I’d beg her to do it slow.
“If it helps, hit me again,” I muttered, almost to myself as something deep in me—dark, depraved, hers—likedit. I didn’t want her to go easy on me. I wanted to bleed and beg and crawl. For her. Only ever her.
She blinked. One, two, three seconds passed, her expression unreadable. But she didn’t slap me again. Instead, she grabbed my face, fingers digging into my jaw, and dragged my lips into her mouth. She kissed me like she was claiming the blood she drew, tongue swiping the cut on my lip, devouring my groan like it was her fucking right.
Then I grabbed both her thighs, spread them over the edge of the hood, and stepped between them with lethal intent.
“Oh, baby,” I whispered, smiling. “You’re gonna regret that slap.”
Her pupils dilated, but she didn’t back down. “I’m not afraid of you,” she said.
“You fucking should be,” I breathed, lowering my head until my mouth was at her ear, hot and shivering. “Because I’m not playing games tonight. You want to keep pushing, keep testing me? Fine. But there are consequences.”
I let my palm slide up her thigh, fingers curling around the sensitive dip just above her knee.
“Take my privileges away. Take your power. But just remember, mon amour,” I nipped at her bottom lip, “if you’re going to treat me like I’m not your Dom—don’t expect to come like I am.”
She gasped—sharp, ragged.
I could feel the tension snap inside her. That twist in her core when the words hit her spine. Her hands flexed on the hood behind her.
“Because this?” I whispered, hand rising to her throat, thumb pressing beneath her jaw just enough to tip her head back. “Is earned. And Iwillearn it. But don’t think for one fucking second that I’ll let you forget who you belong to.”
Rain lashed around us. We shivered against each other from both the cold and the unbearable, volcanic heat simmering between us.
“Maybe that’s not the control I want…” she said, her hips lifting just slightly into mine. “You already own my body. You always have.” Her fingers slid up my ribs, curling around the open collar of my shirt. “But I want the part of you that you keep locked away. The part you think no one gets to touch.Iwant that.Iwant your surrender.”
I huffed a laugh that sounded more like a groan. “You want the part of me no one gets?” My fingers dragged down her spine and pressed my forehead to hers. “You already have it, baby. That part of me isn’t locked away anymore. It’s crawling to you.”
She blinked up at me, smudged mascara and all. That devastating, defiant look melted into something softer and desperate.
“Don’t make me beg for what’s already mine, Cal. I don’t just want the man who takes control. I want the one who’s terrified I’ll leave if he lets go. Je veuxhim. Theyou-you.”
I chuckled, brushing my lips against hers. “You want me to surrender?”
