Page 11 of Forces of Nature

Jared liked that too.

He set his hands on her waist and boosted her off his knee before rising. Picking up her pile of clothes and the plate of cheese, grapes, and chocolate, he took her hand and headed in an unfamiliar direction.

“Back entrance?” she asked with a cheeky grin at the double entendre.

Jared shook his head and bit back another smile. “I don’t know about you, but personally I don’t want to be stopped by half a dozen people who want to discuss that demonstration.”

“Isn’t that your job?” she quipped, even though she hurried along beside him like she also didn’t want to be interrupted.

Jared speared her with a look and had the pleasure of watching her physically quiver beneath it. “Right now,” he told her, in no uncertain terms. “My job is taking care of my submissive, and that’s something that always comes first.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Natalie felt as if every cell in her body was thrumming as Jared led the way back to her suite.

Her head was still a little spacey, rather delightfully so, like she’d perhaps indulged in a couple of glasses of wine. But she’d still been conscious, albeit in an abstract kind of way, of everything that had been said, if not the finer detail of what was going on around her.

The discussion about top drop had not escaped her, and she studied Jared curiously from the corner of her eye while they made their way through some narrow, utilitarian corridors and a back staircase that Natalie would never have found on her own, and which, she guessed, were primarily for staff use.

Outside the ambient warmth of the dungeon, and beginning to come back to full alertness, Natalie started to feel the winter chill, especially since she was walking barefoot on the glossily varnished, hardwood floors and was still wrapped only in a subby blanket.

Still, the shiver that rippled through her as Jared dug about in her pile of belongings to locate her key card had less to do with the cold and much, much more to do with anticipation.

He walked through the suite as if he were familiar with it, but Natalie suspected that was just because the structural set up was probably the same from room to room, as was the case in most hotels. But here, the interiors were all different, Natalie knew that, since Red Hills offered an impressive selection of themed rooms for every conceivable fantasy a guest might want to indulge in.

Putting the plate down on the nearest side table beside the bed, Jared then placed Natalie’s pile of clothes on a chair and drew back the bed covers before he crossed to the mini fridge and drew out two more bottles of water which he stood next to the plate.

Not knowing quite how Jared wanted to play this; if it was still an extension of their scene, if they were starting over with a new one which required formalities, or if they were just jumping each other’s bones to relieve the pressure which had built from the sexual tension and frustrations of their scene, Natalie stood quietly beside the bed and waited for Jared to clue her in.

Looking at him, even while he busied himself with the tools of aftercare, she couldn’t imagine he was the type to just spontaneously jump in the sack and chase satisfaction.

Certainly not until he knew someone very much better... maybe not even then. There was something about him that was so very specific. Like he planned out every last detail.

Natalie couldn’t deny that she’d like to witness him lose the control that seemed to fit him like a second skin. If she wasn’t quite so blissed out, she might have tried poking the bear… but that would have to wait. For now.

For the moment, she’d be his good girl. It wouldn’t do to inadvertently push him away after all, and she didn’t know him well enough, yet, to judge just how much of a brat she could risk being.

Besides, she was so damn turned on she was pretty sure Jared could ask virtually anything of her, and she would be a willing participant.

Right now, however, Jared was excessively careful. “Make yourself comfortable on the bed,” he told her when he realized she was waiting for instruction.

Then he sat down next to her and continued to feed her like he had downstairs.

Bringing yet another grape to her lips, Natalie took it in and closed her mouth over his fingers as well as the plump, sweet, fruit. She flicked out her tongue and licked them deliberately, her gaze never leaving his.

He growled low in his throat, his eyes darkening even more than they already were, and Natalie picked up a piece of cheese and offered it up to him. “You too,” she murmured, another shiver rippling through her as he nipped at her fingers before he took it.

They continued until the plate of cheese and grapes was depleted and they’d shared another bottle of water, Natalie conscious that she needed to look after him, and defend against the top drop she’d heard mentioned, just as much as he cared for her. And doing so brought a level of intimacy that she’d never imagined from something so simple.

Something she found herself craving.

Not just to be the kind of submissive who followed instructions like a good little girl - although she wanted that too - but to be the kind of submissive who actively cared for her Dom and looked out for his wellbeing as much as he did hers.

It was a new dimension she’d never experienced before. A facet Jared alone had brought out in her.

When he finally put the plate aside, his eyes bored into her with an intensity that made her breath falter. It was surely her imagination, but the air around them seemed to crackle, like they were generating their own brand of electricity.

She was desperate to touch him, but when her hands moved to his chest, eager to feel the tensile strength of muscle and sinew that was carved like some kind of Greek god, he captured them, dislodging the blanket from her shoulders and pulling it away as he pushed her back onto the bed.

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