I kissed his jawline, feeling the thick hair brush against my soft lips. My hand dug into his hair as I kept moving, sliding down his cock over and over. I was the one on top, the one calling the shots, but it somehow felt equal, felt like we were in this together. I only conquered him because he allowed me to, wanted me to, was man enough to let it happen.
And I was about to do the same to him.
I already felt the orgasm starting, building in my gut as the sensations spread out everywhere. My nerves were on fire, my mouth parched. I felt my body tightening in preparation of what was about to happen. Hunt always made me come good and hard, even when I was the one doing all the work. He let me use his glorious body to fulfill my needs. He gave me exactly what I needed. “Yes…”
He stared into my eyes and watched the performance unfold. “Come all over my dick, baby…”
I rode his length harder, quickening my pace and losing my breath in the process. I closed my eyes and let out a scream that could rupture Hunt’s eardrums. Moisture sheathed his length all the way down to his balls and dripped onto the chair.
“When’s it gonna be my turn, Boss Lady?” he whispered against my mouth.
“Not anytime soon.” I was gonna ride this cock until I couldn’t handle it anymore. I wasn’t getting off him until my pussy was stretched and sore. I only had a few days left with him, when I had all the power. It would be a painful goodbye, a crippling transition of power. I wouldn’t be able to tie him up anymore, to whip him until his beautiful skin was marked. I’d be at his mercy.
So I was going to keep him at my mercy for a little bit longer.
* * *
We stood in the shower together, the warm water rinsing away the soap. I washed my hair even though it was in great shape after our rough rendezvous. I just loved being under the warm water, letting it comfort me in a column of white noise. Since I was just going to shower again in the morning, I didn’t see the harm. My mascara and foundation were washed away. My lipstick disappeared a long time ago, somewhere on Hunt’s mouth.
Hunt moved underneath the water, discreetly pushing me out of the stream of water with his size. The shower washed away his shampoo, and he turned his back to me. Lines of red marks were on either side of his flank. His flesh was irritated in the areas that covered the most muscle, the blood rushing to the surface to heal the injury. The sight turned me on, but it also made me feel guilty for what I’d done. “I have some cream you can put on that.”
“Don’t need any.”
“The marks will heal faster.”
He dragged his hands down his face. “I’m not in a hurry.”
He refused to show pain or discomfort in front of me, either because he was trying to prove a point or because he was truly resilient to the pain.
I respected him for it, and I knew he would expect the same from me once the tables were turned. “Not everyone reacts so calmly when they see that room. Some ask what’s wrong with me…others just walk out.”
He ran his hands through his dark hair, his eyes on me.
“But you didn’t seem to think anything.”
“I’ve heard of the BDSM lifestyle.”
“Not just because of that…but because I’m a woman.”
“You know exactly what you want, what you’re into. Why would I judge you for that?”
Was he the greatest man on the planet? God’s gift to all women?
“I obviously wouldn’t have participated in that unless I was getting something out of it.”
“So you didn’t enjoy it?” I asked quietly, trying to hide my disappointment.
“No, I did. Surprisingly. But I would have enjoyed it more if I were the one holding the whip.”
I was standing in the humid shower, but I suddenly felt ice-cold. An earthquake erupted inside me, my panic breaking through the crust of my skin. I felt the earth shake even though I was perfectly still.
I didn’t think. I just moved.
I walked out of the shower and pulled the towel around my body. My bare feet made wet footsteps all the way across the tile and into the bedroom. I pulled the towel over my shoulders, and I walked to the window where I had a clear view of the city.
I stared at the lights and blocked out all my thoughts. I meditated, seeing the slight reflection of my face in the glass. The lights twinkled just like stars in the sky. There were millions of people in this city, living their lives. I thought about the trains on the subway, the cars sitting in traffic, of people still getting coffee from Starbucks at ten in the evening.
I thought about nothing of significance.
Footsteps sounded behind me. They grew in volume as he approached me, walking across my bedroom to where I stood in front of the window. He came up behind me and pressed his forehead against the back of my neck.
I’d brought myself to a state of calm, but now I was charged all over again. My blood was pumping, all the veins in my body swollen. I was aroused anytime he was near, but now I felt something else entirely.
A feeling I never showed.
“Tatum.” His hands gripped both of my arms, just below the shoulder. He pressed his bare chest against my back, his heat hidden because of the towel wrapped around me. I could see him standing in just his slacks in the reflection, his hips narrow and his torso expanding into the powerful V.
I looked at his eyes in the reflection in the glass.
“Tell me.”
“There’s nothing to tell…” I’d let the fear get to me, but once I calmed myself down, I had returned to a state of serenity. I didn’t show anger, fear, or spite in front of witnesses. With someone as famous as me, one who represented womankind everywhere, the slightest hint of weakness was judged more harshly than the same sin committed by a man.
“I saw the way you turned pale. And now I see you…soaking wet in front of a window.” He squeezed my arms before he gently turned me in a circle, forcing me to face him. Now the city was in the background, and I was face-to-face with the man with the most captivating eyes. He was a warm morning on a fall day, his eyes espresso beans. Barefoot and bare-chested, he was nothing but solid man.
Looking at him made me forget what we were discussing. Made me forget what terrified me.
His hand grazed up my arm, over my shoulder, and up my neck. His large hand cupped my face, his thumb brushing across my bottom lip. It rested in the corner, his other fingers giving my neck a gentle squeeze. “Tell me what you’re afraid of.”
“I’m not afraid of anything.” It was practically my mantra, to represent strength and never weakness. Of all people in this world, I should be able to take down my walls for him. But even then, I still couldn’t do it. Only one person truly understood my fears, had witnessed them himself.
“We’re all afraid of something. You’re no different.”
“That’s where you’re wrong…”
He tilted his head slightly, getting a better look at me. “I’m afraid to let anyone get too close. I’m afraid if I do, it’ll just be another person that I’ll lose. I’ve lost my mother when she was too young to die. I lost my father when he turned his back on me. And I lost my younger brother when he chose to side with a ruthless man. I’m bored by the women who sleep in my bed, but I’m too scared to have anything real. If I ever fell in love and I lost her…that would be the final straw.” His thumb brushed across my cheek as he gazed deep into my eyes. He put his true self on a platter, opened himself up to me.
Now it was my turn.
But I couldn’t tell him. I couldn’t confess my secret, a secret I’d been hiding for nearly a decade. I did my best to bury it in the past, to let the winds of time cover it with dust. To stick a shovel into the soil and unearth it…was like opening Pandora’s box.
Hunt didn’t show his frustration. “If you tell me, I’ll understand you better. And if I understand you, I’ll know exactly what to give you.”
My eyes shifted to the floor, unable to meet his gaze. I refused to answer him, refused to part with th
e knowledge of that terrible time. I just wanted to move on and forget about it, to let it die in the past. If I didn’t, it would haunt me constantly. I had to get over it—and I had to do it now. “Thank you for your sentiment, but I’m fine.” I moved away from his embrace and patted my hair dry with the towel. I didn’t look at him as I tried to brush off the conversation and return the atmosphere to casual. “I should probably get to bed soon. I have a lot of work to do in the morning.”
“So, we’re gonna pretend that you didn’t just storm out of the shower?” Hunt walked up behind me again, his presence looming over me. There wasn’t a shadow in the bedroom at this time of night, but I could certainly feel one.
“Nothing happened, Hunt. I walked away.”
“You had a panic attack. I know you a lot better than you give me credit for.”
“That was not a panic attack.” I dropped the towel on the floor and grabbed a t-shirt and panties from my drawer. “If you classify it as that, you should see what I look like when I’m actually upset.”
“They’re one and the same.”
I pulled the t-shirt over my head and the panties up my legs before I turned around. “Hunt, I think you should leave.”
He smiled when there was nothing charming about this conversation. “And I think I just hit a pressure point.”
My entire body tightened at his aggression. “Excuse me?”
“I’ve known for you three months now, Titan. I’ve been fucking you for six weeks. I was under the impression we were friends. I was under the impression you trusted me.”
“Yes, but—”
“I was also under the impression that there was nothing but honesty between us. You obviously have some kind of trigger, but you refuse to share it with me—your partner. That’s dishonest.”
“It’s not a trigger…”
“Then what the hell is it?” he snapped. “What makes you run away every time I mention being in control?”
“I told you I just have control issues. It’s nothing I can’t handle.”
His eyes shifted back and forth as he looked into mine. “Why do you have to handle it at all, Titan?”
My lips pressed tightly together.
“Talk to me. I’ve told you everything about myself…but I still don’t know anything about you.”
“That’s not true.”
“Then prove it,” he said. “Tell me about your late boyfriend.”
I did a double take when I heard him hit the nail right on the head. He knew about my secret, just not the details. And face-to-face, he was asking me about it. He’d put me on the spot, making me feel more exposed than I could remember. I made sure that information was wiped from the news. I made sure all the details were covered up and hidden away. I made sure the judge sealed the documents. The only way anyone could access them was if they pulled some strings.
And Hunt could pull strings.
“I may have Googled you once or twice to know more about you, your business relationships and your ambitions. But never did I stick my nose into your private life. I never asked your brother about your mother. He told me that on his own. You have no right—”
“I’ve never done that, Titan. I’ve never dug around in your closet and searched for your skeletons. The only reason why I know about your boyfriend is because Pine’s father knew you at the time. Pine brought it up to me a few months ago. That’s all I know. I swear on my mother’s grave.”
Now that I knew my business was my own, my claws retracted back into my fingertips. I sheathed my anger like a giant sword. I controlled my temper, reminding myself that I genuinely adored the man standing right in front of me.
“I could access all of that information if I wanted to.” His voice turned quiet, his rage finally simmering as mine was. “But I don’t want a report on my desk. I want to hear it from you. And until you tell me…I’ll never know.”
Most people didn’t know about Jeremy because it was long before I’d made a name for myself. It wasn’t even listed on my Wikipedia page. It was something I hid inside a dark basement because it would change the world’s perception of me—for many reasons. The fact that he knew there was more there but refused to pry made my respect for him grow even more. “Thank you.”
His arms circled my waist, and he pulled me close to his body. “Will you ever tell me?”
The second I told someone, I risked that information coming back to bite me in the ass. I risked putting it out for the general public to know. What if Hunt and I had a fight, and he wanted to betray me? What if our business arrangement went south, and he wanted to hurt me? None of those scenarios seemed likely. “Maybe…”
“Maybe is better than no. I’ll take it.” He pressed his lips to my forehead, giving me a soft kiss filled with heat. His powerful arms turned into a cage around my body, protecting me from the outside world.
When I was in his cage, I actually felt safe.
“Four more days,” he whispered, like there was any possibility of me forgetting.
“Four days…”
* * *
I let myself into Thorn’s penthouse. “It’s me.” I told him I was coming by, but I didn’t want to walk in on him with a woman on the couch.
It had happened before.
“In the kitchen.”
I set my purse down then joined him. “What are you making?”
“Tacos. You hungry?”
“I’m always hungry because I don’t eat.”
He smiled before he turned off the stove. “Excellent point. Are you not eating now?”
The grilled chicken, rice, and beans looked delicious. “No, this looks pretty damn good.”
“Good. Because I can’t eat all of this by myself. The ladies wouldn’t like me if I did.”
We made our tacos before we took them to the dining room.
He grabbed himself a beer before he quickly threw together an Old Fashioned for me. We sat together at the table and squeezed the lime all over our food. “So, only a few days left, right?”
Thorn must have figured out it was on my mind. “Two days.”
“Are you ready?”
I took a long drink of my Old Fashioned, appreciating the whiskey as it traveled down my throat and into my belly. “As ready as I’ll ever be…I suppose.”
“I’m sure you’ll be fine, Titan. Just don’t overthink it. Enjoy it.” Thorn’s encouragement was somehow suspicious considering he was an eyewitness to everything I’d been through.
“What makes you think I’d enjoy it?”
“Because a lot of people do. You enjoy making him submit. And I bet he enjoyed having a woman overpower him like that. Imagine some hot man taking all of the control? Taking all the weight of decision-making off your shoulders? You would walk into that room and only be concerned with how much you were going to be pleased.”
Now my suspicions were at an all-time high. “Hunt told me you encouraged him to keep pursuing me, even when things seemed bleak.”
He shrugged. “You’re my friend. I want you to get laid.”
“But you also hate him.”
“Never said that.” He grabbed a taco with a single hand and ate nearly the entire thing.
“So what’s the deal, Thorn? Why are you pushing this so hard?”
“I’m not pushing anything,” he said. “I just think you need to move on.”
“Move on?”
“Yes. It’s been nearly ten years since that shit with Jeremy. Let’s leave it in the past and forget about it. Being a sub isn’t going to be anything like the way it was with him. It doesn’t seem like your relationship even resembles that.”
I mostly just teased Hunt, made him fuck me the way I liked. There weren’t many chains or whips, not like there were with my other partners. I was satisfied having him in my bed, taking it nice and slow so I could appreciate every inch of that hard cock. “Not really.”
“You’re just overthinking it. Hunt is a good guy. He’s not gonna hurt you.”
&n
bsp; “Maybe you do like him.”
“I never said I disliked the guy. I just don’t like the fact that he likes you so much. That’s my only problem with him.”
“Well, I asked him about it, and he denied your claims.”
“Then I’ve got nothing to worry about.” He picked up his other taco. “Worse come to worst, you can just walk away, Titan. He can’t keep you there, even though he stayed the whole time. You always have a way out.”
“But I don’t want a way out…” I didn’t want to walk away from Hunt, not when we had this special connection, not when I was getting incredible sex on a daily basis. If he left, I would miss him.
I couldn’t deny that.
“Then tough it out,” Thorn said. “I know you can do that.”
I hadn’t taken a bite of my food yet, so I scooped one taco into my hand. My eyes turned to the window, seeing the sky start to fade to black. “What’s new with you?”
“Nothing really. Mom keeps pestering me about proposing to you.”
“Wow, she really likes me.”
“She adores you.” He rolled his eyes. “You’re all she ever talks about. When she called me the other day, the first question that came out of her mouth was literally about you. No hi… No, how are you? Right down to business.”
I laughed before I took a bite. “That’s flattering.”
“And annoying.”
“Are you jealous?” I asked.
“Psh, no.” He kept eating. “But I told her it wasn’t going to be for a while. That’s when she started asking about grandkids and shit…gives me a headache.”
“Our kids will be cute.”
“Because they’ll look like me?” he teased.
“No. Because they’ll be loved so much. They’ve got you and me and two grandparents who will cherish them until it drives them crazy. They’ll never know what it’s like to be hungry or financially unsteady. They’ll have so much…and they won’t even know it.” Money had always been an issue for my father and me when I was young. Thorn was born into a rich family, so he had no idea what being broke was even like.
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