Page 39 of Tamed

That I could handle him, no matter what he said.

He reached down and casually took my chin between his thumb and forefinger, tilting my head back. The press of his fingers against my skin made my breath catch.

“You really don’t know what you’re doing, do you, Isabel?” The dark, textured velvet of his voice made me shiver helplessly. “You’ve got no fucking idea.”

I hated it when he treated me like I was a kid who knew nothing, so I stared back at him defiantly, not willing to give an inch. “Show me, then. Show me what I should be scared of, Caleb. Or perhaps you’re the one who can’t handle it?”

The expression on his harsh, handsome face was unreadable, but his gaze was full of black fire drawing me in.

He said nothing, but then his thumb moved, pressing lightly on my lower lip as if testing it. And every part of me gathered tight, the ache inside me deepening, relief rippling through me. Because finally —finally— it was happening. He was touching me as if I was a woman, proving quite categorically that I wasn’t a child to him any longer.

His thumb pressed with more insistence, his gaze impossibly dark and just as impossible to look away from. And he kept on looking as he slowly eased his thumb into my mouth.

Electricity crackled through me, and I shuddered as I tasted his skin, a burst of salt and heat on my tongue. He was silent, watching me so intently I felt as if I was going to burst into flames.

Did he think I couldn’t handle this? That I didn’t want this? Was he watching for signs of fear or disgust? Because if so, he’d be waiting all fucking night. I might have been a virgin, but I wasn’t stupid. I knew what I wanted. I knew what I could handle, and it was time to show him.

I closed my lips around his thumb and held his gaze as I sucked it.

Something ignited in his eyes then. Something that hadn’t been there before, I was sure of it. A flame.

It hypnotized me. I couldn’t look away as it leapt, burning brighter. That was me, wasn’t it? He was responding to me. I was affecting him. I was getting to him.

A hot thrill flickered through me, intensifying the ache between my thighs, a heady sense of power making me feel dizzy.

I’d thought he’d never want me, that I was too much of a child to him, and even him putting me on my knees was more about scaring me than anything he wanted for himself.

But that flame said otherwise. That was desire. Desire for me.

So, I closed my teeth around the tip of his thumb and bit him. Not hard, just a nip. Enough to test him, push him, watch that flame burn even brighter. And it did, heat igniting like a solar flare.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he said roughly.

I nipped him again, because apparently, he hadn’t understood and I couldn’t answer him since his thumb was in my mouth.

The black currents in his eyes shifted and changed, and before I could figure out what they meant, he eased his thumb deeper. “Bite me again and I’ll spank you,” he murmured. “Suck it instead.”

The heat in his eyes felt as if it was burning me too, my skin far too hot and far too tight. I probably wasn’t supposed to like the idea of him spanking me. I was probably supposed to find that scary. Except, I’d already had illicit fantasies about him in that direction, so instead of making me afraid, it only turned me on. Oh, okay, so maybe therewasa bit of fear mixed in, but that only added a further edge.

Fuck, my feelings were so confused. I liked all this stuff I wasn’t supposed to like and about a man twice my age. A man I’d known most of my life. All of this was wrong, and yet, now, at his feet, it was the wrongness that was making me feel so good. I couldn’t make sense of it.

Bite him again. See what he’ll do.

As if I needed that thought in my head. Then again… He’d accused me of testing him, of playing up, of purposefully irritating him just to get his attention, and maybe he was right. Maybe that’s exactly what I was doing. Because Ididwant his attention. I always had. Except this time, it wasn’t only a smile or the way he’d muss my hair, or the conversations we used to have back when I was a teenager. This time it was his sexual attention I wanted.

So yeah, of course I bit him again.

More flames blazed in his eyes. “Brat,” he said in a low, rough voice that sent a streak of heat right through me. “That’s what you are, Isabel. A fucking brat. And you know what I do with brats? I teach them a lesson.”

He moved so fast I had no time to get away, pulling his thumb from my mouth and reaching to pull me to my feet. Then there was a weird moment of disorientation as I was tossed over his shoulder. I barely had enough time to appreciate the hard, muscled warmth of him beneath my stomach, before he stalked over to one of the armchairs in front of the fire, sat down, then slid me into his lap, turning me with firm hands so I ended up face down over his knees.

I panted, unable able to comprehend what the hell had happened as I stared at the carpet beneath me, my thoughts tumbling over themselves. He’d picked me up and…what? He was really going to do what he threatened and spank me?

You know that’s exactly what he’s going to do.

Oh shit.

His powerful thighs were beneath my hips, his heat burning through my dress, making me feel as if I was naked.

---