Page 39 of Ashley
"Yes."
"Good. Thank you for telling me you want that. For being honest." He rubbed her hands between his and then reached out, smoothing a hand lightly over her hair and brushing a thumb across her cheek. "I want you to call me Sir."
"Okay." She nodded and raised her eyes to see him looking at her expectantly. "I don't want," she swallowed and looked down at her hands, "I don't want you to hurt me. I don't think I'd like that."
"Then, I won't," he replied, hands now on her knees and rubbing them gently. "But you will be punished."
"I understand." She paused again, licking her lips before adding, "Sir."
The groan that word pulled out of James almost made her moan. She felt that low and throaty purr of approval right down to her core and felt herself grow more aroused. There was no doubt now what James would find when he pulled up her skirt. He'd find her wanting and eager for his touch. He leaned forward from where he was still on his knees and looked up at her.
"Do you know why you're being punished?"
She chewed on her bottom lip. "Natasha told me you'd be mad when we drank."
"It wasn't that you drank. It's how much and how fast," he told her, reaching out to cup her cheek. "It's also where you were. It wasn't safe there tonight."
"I was with the dance production."
"Do you know how many men I saw watching the two of you, watching you, specifically; you're too sweet to be out there like that."
"I wasn't…no one was watching me," she whispered, feeling uncertain under the frown he was directing her way. She wasn't used to attracting attention. That was reserved for the prima ballerinas, for the stars of the show, for women who were leggy and beautiful, not her. She shook her head. "No, that—"
James sighed, fingertips rubbing gently at the back of her neck. "Honey, every single man in there had eyes on you."
She blinked in surprise. "What? But I didn't see. I mean, I didn't see that."
"That's because you were looking at me."
"I was," she admitted. There was no use in lying about where her attention had been. James didn't miss a lot, and the fact that she had been entirely focused on him was no secret. Where he went, so did her attention and focus. She gravitated toward him without even knowing. Even now, she was leaning into him, a happy sigh escaping her at the feel of his hands cradling her cheek. "No one else exists when you're near me."
"I know, honey." James' fingers moved to card her hair, his fingers tugging on the strands lightly. "I don't see anyone else when you're in front of me."
"I don't know why," Ashley whispered, surprising herself.
"What do you mean?"
"You're beautiful."
He chuckled, and his lips turned up in a slight smile. "I'm not."
"You are to me."
James' eyes fluttered closed, a deep sigh escaping his mouth. "You're too sweet to me. Too good for me."
"I don't think I am. You're about to punish me."
He opened his eyes then and raised an eyebrow. "Because you deserve it."
"I...do," she admitted after a tense moment.
"You need to be more careful," he told her, tugging her close to him and surprising her when he picked her up off the couch with no effort. "Natasha had a hand in this, but she's paying for it now, with Silas."
"Is he doing what you're going to do to me?" she asked when he carried her out of the living area and into the bedroom.
"And maybe more," he said, nudging open his bedroom door and striding toward his bed. The furnishings around her passed in a blur, and before she could get a proper look around, she was being upended into James' lap as he sat down on his bed, her cheek and face pushed close to the mattress where she landed across him.
"Why?"
