Cherished: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella

by Lexi Blake

  He stood up. Hell, he didn’t need clothes when they were alone either.

  “I can’t get over your lap if you’re standing up. Your lap disappears.” Her logic was impeccable.

  “Brat. You’ll get your spanking, but you’re going to ride my cock while you do it. It’s a game. We’ll see if I can get all thirty licks in before I explode.” There was another thing he wanted to talk to her about. He kicked his jeans off and pulled his shirt over his head. “Bridget, I’m clean. You know Sanctum requires medical tests and I use condoms for casual affairs.”

  “I thought this was casual.”

  How did he get her to understand? She seemed to want something from him and he wasn’t sure what that thing was. “I told you it’s not. I’m going to be monogamous during our contract. I can go across the hall and grab some condoms. Unless you have some here.”

  She shook her head. “No. I don’t have any and it’s fine. I took all my tests and I’m on the pill. I know Big Tag is hard on the single guys.”

  He made them test once a month during their probationary period. Will didn’t mind. Tag took his club seriously and Will admired that. He’d been to too many places where no one gave a shit. “He wants to make sure everyone’s safe.”

  “So it’s okay. I’m protected. You’re clean. We’re both going to be faithful during our fling. Let’s play, Sir.” She was staring at his cock, looking like she could eat him up.

  He kissed her. He hadn’t meant to. He meant for this to be hard and fast and satisfying. This encounter was supposed to prove to her that he was the Master and she was the sub. But he couldn’t resist worshipping that mouth of hers. He dove in, letting his tongue slide against hers because she immediately flowered open for him. His hands delved into the silk of her hair and he brought their bodies together. Yeah, he liked being naked with her. He liked how soft she was against him and he couldn’t feel her properly with a layer of clothing between them. He couldn’t feel the hard nubs of her nipples against his chest, couldn’t rub his cock against the soft curve of her belly.

  He broke off the kiss and pulled her close, hugging her tight to him. “You won’t regret it.”

  Her arms came around his waist. “I’m sure I will, but I don’t want to back out, Sir. I want to be your sub for a while.”

  Then it was time to show her what that meant. He sank back down on her couch, spreading his legs. “Come here. Take me.”

  His cock was about as hard as it could get. The damn thing pointed straight up, practically begging her for attention.

  “I don’t know how this is punishment, Will. And I’m in control.” She started to straddle him.

  Oh, she thought she knew how this would go, did she? It was going to be fun to prove her wrong. “You think because you’re on top that you’re in control?” He could feel the heat of her pussy hovering over his cock. “You think you can torture me with that sweet cunt of yours? Let me prove to you that I don’t need to be on top to top you.”

  He wrapped his hands around her hips and pressed up, filling her in one hard thrust. She was tight, but she was also wet. She could take him, but he bet she’d planned on taking him slowly. That was not how this would go.

  “Oh, my god,” Bridget breathed. Her body flushed with arousal as he held her hard against his cock. “You’re so damn big. I needed more time.”

  “You get what I give you tonight, sweetheart.” He had to work to keep his tone even because she was squeezing him, making him want to forget about everything except fucking her hard. She felt so good. What he hadn’t told her was that he’d never not used a condom. Not once in his fucking life. Never. And yet he’d wanted to know what it felt like with her. He’d wanted to know there wasn’t anything in between them. Good. It felt so damn good. Warm and wet and safe. It was stupid but that word ran through his brain. She felt right.

  But he had a job to do and he intended to get it done properly. He smacked her ass and she wiggled. It was going to be a test of his will not to come inside her before he finished. “Do you leave our damn bed without saying good-bye?”

  He smacked her again, right on the gorgeous, fleshiest part of her ass.

  She gasped and he could feel it on his freaking dick. “Nope. Although, again, I’m not sure how this is punishment. It feels so good. I don’t think a spanking is supposed to feel this good.”

  He slapped her other cheek, three times in rapid succession. “Tell me how it feels.”

  He wanted to hear it from her. He started a rhythmic succession of spanks. One after another, each one causing her to wriggle and writhe on his dick, bringing them both pleasure.

  “It hurts at first, but I even like that part. I like the fire on my skin. It wakes me up and makes me feel alive. Oh, I’m going to come,” she breathed the words out.

  He couldn’t let that happen. He reached up and twisted a nipple, a tiny wrench to bring her back. “No, you’re not. You will not like what happens if you come, Bridget. And don’t think I can’t tell. You are one of those blessed females who can’t hide it or pretend because when you really come it gets messy.”

  She’d left a gorgeous wet spot where she’d come that first time. He loved the fact that she didn’t hold back, couldn’t fool him. When Bridget Slaten came, she screamed and dug her nails in and left evidence of her pleasure.

  “That is the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever heard.” She’d gone from a nice pink to a deep scarlet.

  He got back to spanking her. He slapped at her skin and then held the heat there. “It’s not embarrassing. Good sex is dirty and messy, and the night we spent together was the best fucking sex of my life.”

  “Seriously?” Her eyes found his as though looking for the truth.

  He could show her the truth. He lifted her off his cock, almost all the way before slamming her back down. “You fuck me, Bridget. Ride my cock hard and make me forget what it felt like to wake up without you.”

  He wanted to forget everything but the way she felt when she clamped her pussy around him.

  Bridget seemed to come alive. She’d held on to him before, but her eyes found his and her hands balanced on his shoulders as she started to ride him. Her hips found a rhythm that got those gorgeous tits bouncing. “That was only fifteen. You promised me thirty. You promised.”

  “You fucking gorgeous brat.” If she wanted everything he had, he would give it to her.

  It was a race. Will smacked her ass as she rode his dick like a jockey on a racehorse. She groaned and slid up and down, her body moving in a sensual rhythm.

  He didn’t get this from one-night hookups with club subs. They’d all done what he asked, allowing him to bring them to pleasure and find his own, but Bridget challenged him. Bridget was going to make him earn her submission, and he wasn’t sure he ever wanted her to simply lie back in bed. He loved the fight of sex with her, loved the fucking heat, loved the fact that he wasn’t sure he was going to win.

  Five more. Only five more.

  She rotated her hips and he nearly went over the edge.

  Three more.

  She leaned back and he realized she was watching his cock slide in and out.

  Fuck, he was going to die. As fast as he could, he laid the last three and then took control. “There. You got your thirty. Now I want mine. You come for me. You come all over my cock. You don’t hold back a fucking thing.”

  He lifted her up and slammed her back down, and that was all it took. Her head fell back and she moaned as he felt her pussy clamp down around him.

  The hot clasp of her cunt was enough to send him into overdrive. His whole body tightened as he came, pouring himself inside her. He fucked into her over and over until he was spent, having given her every ounce of come he had.

  She fell on top of him, her head finding his neck. She was a limp doll draped around his body. “If that was punishment, Sir, I think I might be a bad girl.”

  He wrapped his arms around her. He suddenly had a thing for bad girls.

 
Chapter Seven

  Bridget looked up as the door opened. It was weird. She hadn’t quite gotten used to Will walking in on his own, but it seemed silly to not give the man a key when he showed up all hours of the day or night. His schedule sucked. During the time they’d been together, he’d gotten called into work twice in the middle of the night. Every other night, he’d spent in her bed or he’d taken her to his. If he wasn’t working, he was with her and she’d found a comfort in it. They talked, really talked, and she found herself opening up to him. He’d finally asked her about the scar on her belly and she’d told him the story. He’d kissed it and then promptly gotten on the phone trying to track down her surgical records to make sure the doctor hadn’t screwed up. Everything was perfect—except she was waiting for it to fall apart.

  “Hey, I didn’t expect you for a couple of hours.”

  He strode in and it was obvious he’d already stopped by his place. He was without his ever-present briefcase. Instead, he was carrying a bottle of champagne and two glasses. When he grinned at her, she was pretty sure her heart was going to explode. “I finished up early. Skaterboy is on the road to recovery and I am off work for two whole weeks. Do you have any idea how long it’s been since I took two weeks off?”

  The way he worked, maybe never. She gave him a smile, but she kind of wished he’d waited another hour or so to come by. The day had left her restless and she hadn’t worked herself up to company mode. She’d been writing a sad passage of the book and then there was the fact that she knew their time together was coming to an end. She forced herself to try. “It sounds like you’re looking forward to it.”

  His smile was steady. “You have no idea. We spend one in Hawaii and then…hell, why don’t we spend two weeks in Hawaii? I’ve never been. I’ve heard it’s beautiful and I want to spend the next fourteen days lying on a beach, drinking alcohol and fucking you. What do you say?”

  “Our contract ends before then.” It had been bugging her. Another thing that had her on edge. They had an end date. She’d read through that contract three times, telling herself she was doing it for research, but her heart always clenched when she saw the date written in.

  “It doesn’t have to.” He set the bottle on the counter. “It’s just a contract. We can amend it. I think we’re working quite nicely.”

  Too nicely. They’d settled into a happy routine that she was worried she already needed to be content. He’d figured out how disorganized she was and spent four hours redoing her desk and making sure all her notes and series bibles were easy to find on her computer. They spent the evenings watching some movie or the news while he rubbed her feet or her scalp as she lay with her head in his lap. He didn’t seem to be able to sit without having a hand on her, and she’d gotten used to being petted for hours every night.

  How could she go back to being alone?

  She knew she should let it be, knew she should do what she’d been planning on in the beginning and live in the moment. Unfortunately, she couldn’t stop thinking about the future and when he was going to leave her. “So we amend the contract once a week?”

  He popped the cork with an expert hand, but then he did everything with exquisite control. He poured her a half a glass. “I think that would be obnoxious. Let’s go for a month this time. Here you go. Are you packed?”

  He seemed so settled, so satisfied, when she was restless. She forced her irritation down. It wasn’t his fault. She was worried about seeing her parents. It had been over two years since she’d had to do it. She’d only seen them then because her grandmother had died. Her father had made sure to let her know what he thought of her books. He’d found her pen name and without reading a single word, decided she was a purveyor of porn and wouldn’t her grandmother be ashamed. She’d pointed out that Nana had been her first and best beta reader and that set off an awful fight.

  Thinking about being in the same room with her self-righteous prick of a father unsettled her, and Will was acting like it was going to be a fun vacation.

  “They won’t like you. They don’t like anyone. I think we should talk about how to handle them. Maybe we should go over some worst-case scenarios.”

  His lips curled up. “Maybe you should let me handle them. I’ll take care of you, sweetheart.”

  She felt her fists clench at her sides and tried to force herself to relax. “You don’t understand how nasty they can be.”

  And once he did, would he lump her in with the rest of them? She got even bitchier when she got around her family. He thought he’d seen Bratty Bridget? What would he think of Bitchy Bridget?

  He stood in front of her, staring down with a calm affection that should have made her feel better. “I’ve dealt with meth dealers coming after my mother for money. I think I can handle one rich asshole. So calm down and say yes to staying with me and taking some real time off.”

  She shook her head. It seemed awfully dangerous to spend more time falling in love with the man. “I have a deadline.”

  “You have a deadline that’s months off. You’re ahead of schedule. I’ve already talked to your agent. She agrees with me. She loves me by the way. I told you, parents love a doctor.”

  “You called Maureen?” He was right about her agent. She kind of had been a mom to her for the last year. Since her first agent had died, Maureen had tried to take care of her, even bugging her to date again. She bet Maureen adored Will.

  “She called and you were in the shower. I answered. We had a very nice chat about the fact that you need to take more time for yourself. You also need a PA. I talked to Chris about sharing one with you. Between the two of you, you could keep an assistant working full time. Maureen sent a list of qualified applicants. She’s going to interview them while we’re all in Hawaii.”

  “That was presumptuous.” He was invading every part of her life, making her dependent on him when he was going to walk away at some point. He was like the rest of them, except worse because she needed him.

  He stopped and set his glass down. “You know you need help.”

  “Then I’ll find it myself.” She had to be independent.

  He stepped up and sighed, putting his hands on her face. “All right, I’ll back off. I thought I was helping. Part of the whole Dom sub thing is that the Dom often decides he knows what’s right and acts on it, thinking the sub will look at him like he’s some kind of hero for butting in where he shouldn’t.”

  Damn it. She did need one. She’d been putting it off because she had so much to do. If he were really her boyfriend, she would likely think nothing of it, but he wasn’t staying around forever. Hell, after he met her family, he wouldn’t want to stay the extra time.

  “What’s got that look on your face? Is it your family?” He leaned over and kissed her.

  He was so fucking perfect, and she was waiting for it all to fall apart because she couldn’t trust it. “I don’t think I can stay the extra week.”

  He stepped back. “Why?”

  He’d dropped the grin and now he stared at her in that same academic fashion he’d used before they’d signed their contract. She could feel him pulling away from her.

  Maybe it was for the best. She could stay quiet and enjoy her last few days with him and then get out of the relationship with her dignity intact. She would move, naturally, because she couldn’t watch him come and go every day and not be able to touch him, but he didn’t have to know he’d broken her heart. She would also leave Sanctum and absolutely never return. She didn’t have to write BDSM books. She would stick to ménage and vanilla romance. The point was, he didn’t have to know what an idiot she was. She was going to tell him it was all about work and leave it at that.

  Somehow her mouth and head weren’t in synch on this one. “It all feels settled, Will, and I know it’s not. You can amend the contract for a month and it buys me some time. I know you’re comfortable living in the moment, but I’m not built for it. I need to know where I stand.”

  He leaned against the counter casu
ally. “I told you where you stand. I want more time with you.”

  “A month.” She knew she should stop, but something was pushing her. His actions told her one thing. That stupid contract said another, and she couldn’t quite reconcile the two.

  “We can start with a month and see where it goes from there. I don’t understand why this bothers you. We’re just having fun.”

  Did he not get it? She was on the verge of tears and she wasn’t doing that in front of him. No way. “That’s why it bothers me, Will. Exactly that. It doesn’t feel like fun. It feels serious to me. You spend every night with me. We sleep together. We eat together. We play together. For god’s sake, I’ve been wearing a butt plug for days so you can screw my ass. I don’t know how much more intimate we can get but you still say we’re just having fun.”

  “What more do you want from me?” His voice went hard, frustration evident. “I’m willing to sign a contract. I’m willing to spend time with you. I’m faithful to you. What the hell else do you want?”

  “I want to know we’re going to be together past the next month, damn it.”

  “I can sign a contract with you and then leave you tomorrow. You understand that, right? We could get married and I could divorce you. Nothing holds me to you, Bridget. Even that contract is only a piece of paper, but I’m willing to sign it and honor it. It won’t hold me if I want to leave.”

  “But love would.” She wanted to call the words back even as she said them. She was so stupid.

  He groaned. “Do not throw that ridiculous word in my face. God, I thought you were more mature than that.”

  She could feel her skin flushing with embarrassment, but what had he expected? “I write romance novels, Will. My whole fucking life is about trying to find love.”

  He rolled his eyes and when he stepped away, he ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “And I was very explicit about what I wanted.”

  She was going to lose this fight. She’d known it in the back of her head, but her stomach dropped anyway. “Yes, you wanted a couple of weeks of sex.”