by Lexi Blake
“Trev, what are you doing?”
Beth’s voice came out as a squeak. He could feel the trepidation coming off her in waves. He knew he should slow down, but they needed to make a few things clear.
“I’m giving you the lay of the land, darlin’.” He found the old sofa in the living room. He’d nearly tripped on it earlier because apparently the overhead lights didn’t work in here. He pulled her over his lap. Bethany Hobbes’s round ass was right over his knee.
Yes. This was exactly what he needed to get his mind off everything. When he was balls deep in Beth’s ass, he wouldn’t be thinking about a drink. He would only be thinking about how long he could last and how many times he could take her.
“I think the land is laid out enough. Now let me up, please.” Even across a man’s knee, she was polite.
Damn, but she needed a keeper.
“Call me Sir.” He wanted to hear it again. She said it to be polite. She couldn’t possibly know what it did to his dick.
“If you’re trying to show me all the bad things that could happen to me, then I get your point. You’re bigger and stronger than I am. You don’t have to make a fool out of me.”
He heard the slight hitch in her voice. He had been trained to read women. Beth wasn’t even close to being aroused. She was sad. Her body was slumped over as though she was merely waiting for whatever happened to her.
The discipline would have to wait.
He helped her to her feet.
“Thank you. I think you should go now. I promise I won’t get into trouble again.” She smoothed down the skirt of that fluffy, yellow sundress.
There were a few problems with that scenario. “I told you I can’t go. I can’t leave you alone here.”
“This is my home.”
His dick didn’t like the idea of leaving her, but if he had to, he couldn’t simply walk out. “What’s your dad’s number?”
“My father passed away.”
His heart clenched. She was truly alone. She didn’t have anyone to watch out for her. What the hell was he thinking going after a woman like Beth? She was soft and sweet and deserved way more than he would be able to give her.
And yet, it was so obvious there wasn’t a decent prospect for her on the horizon.
He liked her. He should treat her the way she should expect to be treated, and that meant getting her out of a house that was obviously dangerous. His only other option was to stay here and watch over her. But if he stayed with her, he wasn’t sure he would be able to control his baser instinct. His cock was already aching.
“I’m sorry to hear about your father.” He forced the Neanderthal inside him to take a break. He reached over and flicked on the lamp, praying it worked. It didn’t offer much by the way of illumination, but it was better than nothing. And then he caught sight of the monstrosity over his head. “What the hell is that?”
She looked up and a smile curled her lips. He was happy to see it since her face had paled when she’d mentioned her father. “It’s Maudine Bellows’s version of high art, I’m afraid.”
It was a chandelier of sorts, only where there should be crystal dripping down, someone had made the whole damn thing out of deer antlers. They pointed up, down, and every which way, as though the “artist” hadn’t been able to decide on a direction and simply shoved a mass of sharp antlers into a bundle, parked some lights here and there, and hung it from the ceiling.
It sort of creeped him out. “I think that’s a whole herd.”
Beth simply shrugged. “She didn’t have the best taste, I’m afraid. And the actual lights don’t work. I’m going to replace it with something more modern and less dead.”
That seemed like a good idea. Now that he had a real look around, it was obvious the house needed a lot of work. It looked like the set of The Addams Family. Beth was a ray of sunshine in amongst the gloom. And he couldn’t leave her. “Why don’t you get some things and I’ll take you back to Shelley’s with me?”
He hadn’t intended to go back, but he would for Beth. Tomorrow, after he’d met with Aidan and set everything up, he would install a new door and bright, shiny locks.
And maybe he could take her to dinner if she honestly didn’t care what people thought.
She shook her head. “I’m staying here.”
“That’s a bad idea. Anyone could walk in.”
“I’ll be fine. Nothing happened. It was probably the wind. I’ll move one of the bookshelves in front of the door, and it will be safe.”
“I can’t leave you here alone.” He took a deep breath. Honesty was always best. “And I can’t stay with you, either. If I stay in this house, I’m going to end up in bed with you.”
Her eyes flashed to him and then back down, but not before he’d seen the interest there.
Damn. He needed to walk away. She was so naïve. So fucking innocent, but she wasn’t a girl. She was a woman. She was a woman on her own.
He should walk the fuck away.
His hand came out and lifted her chin up. “I would love to spend the night with you, but you have to understand what that means to someone like me.”
“I suspect it would mean sex.” She said it quietly, but there was a sparkle in her eye.
He loved the way her eyes lit up. She wasn’t thinking about everything she’d lost now.
“I need to be in control. I wanted you the minute I saw you, but you should know that going to bed with me tonight would be about more than simply wanting you.”
“You want the distraction.” And she wasn’t a fool. His Beth was smart.
His. Sometimes he was sure he was two utterly different people. There was the dumbass addict who didn’t care about anything beyond his next high, and the caveman who thought everything belonged to him. Those two sides of him fought constantly for control. He needed to make her understand.
“Every second of the day is a fight. It’s my first night on my own and I ended up sitting in front of a bar. If you hadn’t come along, I don’t know what would have happened.”
“I do,” she replied with surety. “You would have kept pushing the decision out until it was too late. You would have sat there until the bar closed.”
She had more faith in him than he did. “Why on earth would you say that?”
“Because you’re here. Because you did it. You went to rehab, and you’re sober. You fought it.”
“I fight it every day, baby. You have to understand that. This isn’t something that goes away. I’m an alcoholic and an addict, and I will be until the day I die.”
She seemed to think about that for a moment. “I think we all have our flaws. I’m way too shy.”
“It’s not the same thing. Your shyness never caused you trouble.”
“My shyness never did a thing at all. And I’m addicted to it. I can’t quite give it up. I don’t even try. So don’t say it hasn’t caused me trouble. It means I’m a twenty-five-year-old virgin who can’t stand up for herself. You had to change or you would die. If I don’t find a way to change, I’m never going to live.”
She stood there, the moonlight from the window making her skin seem translucent, and Trev knew there was no way he was going to walk away from her. He wanted her. He needed her.
And it appeared she might need him, too.
“If I scare you, you have to tell me. No safe words tonight. A simple ‘no’ will stop me.”
Her eyes went wide. “Safe word? Like in Lexi’s books?”
He felt himself smile. Lexi’s BDSM romances had become quite popular in the erotic community. He could see Beth reading one. If she was curious, that was all the better for him. “Yes.”
“You really were going to spank me, weren’t you? That wasn’t about trying to teach me a lesson. You wanted to spank me.”
His cock pulsed at the thought. “Yes, darlin’. I wanted to flip that skirt up and push your panties down. I would have tangled them at your ankles so you couldn’t fight me. Your ass would have been in the air. I woul
d have touched you, and then, oh then I would spank you. Over and over, you would have felt the slap of my hand against your flesh. Yes, Beth, I wanted it. And I was absolutely trying to teach you a lesson, just not the one you think.”
“I think you would spank me to teach me that you’re the Dom.”
Such a smart girl. “I am. Make your decision. If you want to think about this for a while, I’ll understand. You can go and pack a bag and sleep out at Shelley’s. Tomorrow, I’ll make arrangements for some sturdier doors and better locks. And we can have dinner. Like a normal couple.”
He could do normal. He could treat her like the sweet virgin she was. He didn’t have to spank her and tie her up and teach her what it meant to take her Dom’s cock up her ass.
No. He didn’t need that at all.
“And if you stay?”
He swallowed. If he stayed, it would get serious. “I want you kneeling at my feet. I want you obedient. I want you submissive.”
Now she would be the good girl she was and let him off the hook. She would go and pack her bag, and he would take her someplace nice. His cock ached. His cock thought he was being an imbecile. He was going to sit up all night wishing he could have a beer when he could have lost himself in Beth.
She sank to the floor, the hardwoods creaking slightly as she fell to her knees. The yellow sundress belled around her as she allowed her hands to find her knees. She turned them over, palms up.
“Like this?”
Fuck yeah, like that. All thoughts besides the woman kneeling in front of him fled in an instant. His cock firmly took control, and the idiot who always wanted a beer in his hand went completely silent.
It was the Dom’s time.
“Very nice, love.” He let his hand find her hair. He pulled the pins that held the bun out, and her soft hair flowed out like a gorgeous sable cloud surrounding her face. “Better. You’re not to wear your hair up when I’m around. It’s beautiful, and I want to be able to touch it.”
He shoved his hand in, fingers twisting lightly, and he raised her head to face him. “And, Beth, if you disobey again, the spanking won’t be erotic. It will be a reminder to you to mind your Dom.”
He didn’t miss the way her eyes had gone soft, and her mouth couldn’t seem to close. She was responding beautifully.
“Is this only for the night?” She asked the question with a slight frown. She seemed to be expecting an answer that wouldn’t make her happy.
And he was going to have to give her one. He felt such a deep connection to the woman at his feet. He’d never quite wanted anyone the way he wanted her. But he had to be honest. “I don’t know that I’m good for anyone in the long run, darlin’. And I don’t intend to stay here. I’m working here for a year, and then I’m leaving. I’m going out west. I’m buying into a ranch, and that’s where I’ll live.”
“That doesn’t answer my question. Are you going to disappear in the morning? It doesn’t change my answer. I still want this. But I would like to set my expectations.”
He was going to have to teach her a thing or two. And that would take more than one night in the sack. “I’ll be with you in the morning. And we’ll talk. I think we could spend some time together, if you want to.”
A Dom was worth more than just an orgasm. He could teach her how to stand up for herself. He could teach her to not need him.
He didn’t like that thought, but it might be the best gift he could give her.
Trev sat back on the creaky sofa. He was going to spend the next year here in Deer Run. He’d have to work most of the time, but the thought of spending his off time with Beth teaching her about BDSM made his heart lighter.
He had a year until he got the money from his contract. He had a year to spend with her. “Come up here. Sit on my lap.”
Now that the decision was made, he could take his time. His cock still throbbed in his jeans, but even that beast had quieted a bit. It would get its way. He would bury that cock deep inside her pussy and not leave for a really long time. He could be patient with her.
She took his outstretched hand and placed herself on his lap.
Trev looked at her. “Now, tell me how you like to be kissed.”
Chapter Four
Bo drank down the beer and wished he was somewhere else.
Jimmy Nixon slapped another beer in front of him. “Damn, man, you’re getting lucky tonight. Have you seen the way Clarissa is looking at you? I wish I was in your shoes.”
He’d seen it. It was the way she looked at any man she hadn’t gotten into the sack yet. There was nothing special about him to Clarissa except that apparently it was his turn. She’d gone through most of the men in the county who had a lick of money. She’d apparently discovered he had a trust fund he’d recently come into.
He hadn’t bothered to explain to her that there was no way he was spending the eight hundred thousand his father had left him on anything except buying back into his own damn ranch. That codicil in Conner O’Malley’s will had been the old man’s last attempt to drive a wedge between his sons. Causing trouble between Bo and Aidan had been one of the old fucker’s favorite pastimes. Giving Aidan the ranch but not the money to run it had been Conner’s way of punishing Aidan for not sticking around. And giving him the money but not the land he loved had been his way of punishing Bo for not being Aidan.
Now he had access to the money, and he knew what he should do with it. So why was he hesitating?
“I think her tits are going to fall out of that shirt. Do you think those are real?” Jimmy asked.
He turned back to his friend. “No. She had them done last year. You didn’t notice she went from next to nothing to Pamela Anderson?”
Clarissa’s breasts were big and perfectly round, and he was kind of afraid they’d explode if he touched them too hard. They were like a water balloon someone had filled to the point of bursting. They weren’t soft like…
What was wrong with him? Earlier in the day he’d been damned excited about getting in that girl’s pants, and now he wasn’t interested. Now he was sitting around moaning into his beer because he couldn’t get the sight of Mouse’s sad eyes when he’d dropped her off out of his mind. She’d seemed resigned and done with it all.
Was she done with him?
“I heard her talking to Melody in the hallway. They were going out to have a smoke. I think they’re going to initiate you into their little club.”
He fought to not roll his eyes. Melody and Clarissa thought they were wild because every now and then they shared a guy for the night. Bo didn’t see the attraction. He only had one dick. What was the other girl supposed to do? Give him a foot massage?
In this particular case, his brother had the right idea. A woman could handle more than one guy. A woman had a whole lot of parts that required attention. She had breasts and a mouth and a soft pussy and a round ass she tried to hide under clothes that didn’t fit. Fuck. He was thinking of Mouse again.
“I don’t know. I might pawn her off on you tonight,” he said, sliding the beer away. He’d only had the one, and now he didn’t feel like getting even the slightest bit tipsy. He wanted to be able to drive. Maybe he should go talk to Mouse. He hated the way he’d left things with her. It made him nauseous. He’d acted like an ass around her all day.
Jimmy’s mouth was turned down, and his brother, Brian, joined them. Brian looked like he was on his fifth whiskey. “What’s wrong with you, man? You haven’t been the same lately.”
Maybe he wasn’t the same because he was growing up and his friends seemed to want to stay the same. They were still the same redneck idiots they’d all been in high school, except some of them had wives and kids. Jimmy had two kids by two different women, and here he was looking for baby mama number three when he didn’t pay support to the ones he had because he couldn’t keep a job.
This was why he spent a lot of nights at Mouse’s place watching TV while she worked on other people’s taxes or read a book. He told himself it was because hi
s house was too quiet, but he enjoyed her company. She could talk about anything.
“I’m fine, man,” Bo said. “I’m tired. It’s been a long week.”
It had been a long week. He’d had to completely reinstall a large portion of the east fence after straight-line winds tore it up. His shoulder had been aching for days. Mouse had fussed over him and made him put a heating pad on it.
Damn, his brother was right. He was such an asshole. He’d been using her for years. He’d gone to her for comfort and love and offered nothing real in return.
Brian snorted. He was older than Bo. He’d been in the same class with Trev.
Sitting next to Trev and having dinner had been a weird experience. Bo had always liked Shelley. The dark-haired woman had been popular, but in a sweet way, nothing like Clarissa’s mean girl. She’d always been nice to Mouse. Bo had gotten to know her pretty well when George had gone into the hospital for his final days. Apparently Mouse had helped Shelley through her mother’s final days, and Shelley had shown up to pay the favor back.
Sitting with Mouse and Shelley and Trev tonight at dinner had been a revelation. He hadn’t been forced to laugh at dumb jokes or compare women’s breast sizes. They had talked about politics and things happening in the world. Sure, he’d mostly listened, but he’d enjoyed that meal more than he liked to admit.
He’d missed Trev. Asshole.
“Bo’s been spending too much time with that group out on his ranch, if you ask me. They think they’re better than us because they came from the city.” Brian had a real problem with anyone who hadn’t been born in a town the size of a postage stamp.
“Aidan was born here,” he argued, but there wasn’t a lot of heat behind it. He was starting to get damn tired of this conversation.
“Yeah, well, he left as fast as he could.” Brian tossed back his drink, swallowing the contents and slamming the glass on the bar when he was done. “And he’s brought back those two. City snobs. Did you know that woman of his is trying to force the city to spend thousands of dollars so she can wash her hair in artesian water?”