Page 54 of Tamed

Naughty girl. Goading me, flirting with me.

It’s working, too.

Yeah, it was working, and I couldn’t say I wasn’t already thinking of turning her over my knee again, smacking that ass and then taking it with my cock. Making her break again. And again. And again. Until she was screaming my name the way she’d screamed it when I finally told her that she could come.

But I also needed to get some goddamn control back and so none of that would be happening no matter how much she goaded me.

In fact, it was more than time to put her firmly back in her place as Ten’s daughter, remind her of what we were to each other and that wasn’t lovers, no matter how much she wanted it to be.

Ignoring her comment, I held my hand out. “Give me your phone.”

“What?” Her eyes widened and she paused lifting the other strap of her dress over her shoulder. “What do you mean give you my phone?”

“You heard. I’m confiscating it for the night.”

The smoldering look in her eyes became sharp like glass, in one of her quicksilver changes of mood. “What the hell? I’m not giving you my phone.”

“Don’t fuck with me, Isabel. Not tonight.” I stared hard at her. “Not when you’ve already proven that you can’t be trusted.”

She glared furiously back, and I could see her debating the merits of flat out refusing me.

“Give it to me or I’ll take it,” I said, helping the process along. And I would take it. I wouldn’t hurt her, but I’d get her phone from her one way or another.

She let out a breath, a certain amount of calculation crossing her pretty features. Then her jaw firmed, and her shoulders squared. She went over to where she’d left her purse, beside the armchair I’d tied her to, and bent, picking it up and taking her phone out. She came over to me and presented the phone. “Fine. Here it is. I assume you’re going to check my messages so would you like my password to save you the trouble of breaking into it?”

I almost laughed. She was far too sharp for her own good and I couldn’t resist a dig back. “Is your password my name?”

She flushed, then crooked a finger at me. “I’ll whisper it.”

Like a fucking idiot, I lowered my head, but her mouth didn’t get near my ear. Instead that beckoning finger touched my cheek and her lips found mine, and she kissed me, soft and sweet.

I should have pulled away, I really should. But I didn’t. I let her kiss me, because that kiss, like the one she’d given me earlier, hesitant, and gentle and warm, like summer rain…. Christ, I’d never had anything like it.

I almost touched her then. I almost cupped her face between my hands and kissed her back. Kissed her the way she was kissing me.

But she was the one who pulled away, looking up at me, wickedness dancing in her eyes. “Thank you, Caleb,” she said. “For the sex, I mean. And of course, it’s your name. What else would it be?”

Then she turned and headed straight for the door, leaving me standing there, staring after her.

15

Isabel

Iknew Monday was going to be a bitch.

I spent the whole weekend trapped in Caleb’s apartment, restless and not sleeping, unable to stop thinking about what had happened between us on Friday night.

The sex had been a whole thing, but he’d also taken my phone, knew my dumb password, and now probably also knew that I’d been in contact with whichever Hamilton had been texting me, and that I’d lied to him when I told him I hadn’t. Also, that I’d missed that meeting because, well…. I’d been with him.

I could only assume what he thought about all of this since after delivering me back to the apartment on Friday night, I hadn’t heard from him. Not a single fucking thing.

He hadn’t said so explicitly but given his silence it seemed clear that he didn’t want to talk about what had happened between us that night in Arcadia, and I was furious about it.

After I’d handed him my phone and kissed him, I’d already decided it wasn’t going to end here. He’d wrecked me. He’d wrecked me utterly and then stomped on the pieces and I couldn’t let that go.

He wanted me, he did, and maybe it was only physical, but I didn’t care about that. Now I knew he wasn’t indifferent, I wanted to wreck him the way he’d wrecked me. Because it wasn’t just physical for me. It was more.He’dmade it more.

He’d given me a taste of him and one night wouldn’t be enough. Perhaps it would never be enough. I just had to figure out how to get more.

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