Page 76 of Tamed

So, I stared back. “Do you?”

She blinked, hearing the demanding note in my voice, and realizing I wasn’t playing anymore.

“Don’t turn this into a test, Isabel,” I went on before she could reply. “This won’t work if you view everything we do together as a personal challenge. If you’ve got some boundaries, I need to know what they are. This is supposed to be about pleasure, not about forcing you into doing something you don’t want to do.”

Her mouth had compressed into a line again. She didnotlike being told off, that was clear. “I want to be someone you can do anything with,” she said at last, reluctantly. “I don’t want you to hold back because of who I am.”

“You still doubt, don’t you?” I searched her flushed face, because that was the truth, wasn’t it? “You doubt that you’re enough for me.”

She swallowed but didn’t avoid my gaze this time. “Maybe.”

“Well then…” I let my weight settle on her, so she could feel my intent physically. “If words aren’t enough for you, then maybe it’s time for me to prove it. Are you ready for that?”

“Yes.” Her voice was hoarse but very firm. “My light is green, Daddy.”

21

Isabel

All the lights were green. Every single one. With his weight on me, pressing me down into the couch cushions, anchoring me and surrounding me in his heat and his scent, how could they not be green?

He’d been right. I’d doubted him, been fearful of telling him about that dirty little fantasy of mine, and not because I didn’t want it, but because I didn’t think he want to do it with me. I didn’t want him holding back just because I was Tennyson Fox’s daughter. Much younger and much more inexperienced than he was.

Plus, I hadn’t been able to shake how disappointed I was that I’d failed his little challenge. That he’d had to put his hand on me in order to make me come. Stupid for it to feel like a defeat, I know, but I’d felt it all the same. I’d been angry with myself, so I’d kind of…pretended I’d been fantasizing about anal sex, again to prove myself to him.

God, I was never going to learn, was I?

Fundamentally though, I couldn’t keep doubting. At some point I had to accept that he was here because he wanted to be and that I was enough for him.

I had to trust him.

Except, now he wanted to do the thing I’d lied to him about and…well. Half of me was afraid, while the other half had gone hot with a weird mix of embarrassment and excitement.

My cheeks felt like they were on fire, but I wasn’t going to change my mind and tell him I was maybe a red light. That felt like yet another defeat and besides, it wasn’t as if Ididn’twant it. I was sure if anyone could make me like it, it would be Caleb.

I trusted him and I wanted him to know that.

His black gaze narrowed slightly, as if he could sense that I wasn’t totally on board, and my blush got deeper. But he didn’t say anything. Instead, he let go of my wrists and shifted moving off me to stand beside the couch.

I sat up, my heartbeat thudding, wondering if my unease had spooked him, yet he only grabbed the hem of his hoodie and pulled it up and over his head, discarding it carelessly onto the floor. Then he began taking off the rest of his clothes.

Okay, so he wasn’t spooked and if he was getting naked then that meant he was really going to do this with me. The thought made my heartbeat go rabbiting around in my chest.

It wasn’t helped by the fact that my mouth was going dry as I watched him strip and my fingers itching to touch him. Holy shit, he was beautiful.

“Can I…. can I help?” My voice was hoarse, and I sounded ridiculous, but every part of me ached to touch him.

“No.” He took his T-shirt off and dropped it onto the floor, the blackness of his eyes almost a tidal pull. “But you can watch.”

So, I did, my heartbeat hammering as I let my gaze rove over the bare skin of his magnificent torso. He was all broad shoulders and muscled chest, flat stomach, and chiseled abs. Against his olive skin the black lines of his tattoos were stark, abstract and curving and interconnected. They wrapped around the biceps and forearm of his right arm in a full sleeve, circling the biceps and shoulder of his left. There were stars and mandalas, the dark shadows of birds and tigers in a jungle, and a dragon across his chest…

I’d never seen them on display before and they were all so beautiful. I couldn’t drag my gaze away.

His hands dropped to the waistband of his jeans, and he undid the buttons, then he pushed them down along with his boxers, kicking them off so he was finally, gloriously, naked beside the couch.

I’d never seen Caleb Cross naked in my entire life and now I had, I’d never be the same. Narrow waist, lean hips, long, powerful thighs… He was perfect. There was nothing about him that wasn’t drop dead gorgeous, and the intense sexual energy he was giving off only made him more so.

He saw me watching, well aware that I was mesmerized, and he smiled a very masculine smile, full of satisfaction and heat. His hand dropped to his cock, long, thick and curving up to his flat stomach, and he gripped it casually, making my mouth water to taste him the way I had back in Arcadia that night.

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