by Maren Smith
“What on God’s green earth are you laughing at?” Terri demanded, stomping over to him with her hands on her hips. “There is nothing funny about any of this. It’s serious.”
He held back a chuckle. This was precisely the reason he hadn’t tried to introduce her to kink when they were dating. He had known exactly how she would take it. But this wasn’t their love life, this was a job, and he was going to enjoy it. If he happened to change her mind in the process, that would just be the proverbial icing on the cake. Either way, vacationing at the Castle had been a dream of his for many years. He hadn’t ever thought he would be visiting there under these circumstances, but he would take what he could get.
“You aren’t acting very submissive,” he teased with a wink. “Might want to work on that.”
“Oh my God, I hate you so much right now.” Her cheeks tinged red, and her eyes sparkled with emotion, but he couldn’t tell if it was embarrassment or anger. “I’m not a doormat. How am I supposed to act like one?”
Sighing at her misconception, Nick clicked his tongue against his teeth and shook his head. He had been mid-daydream about her bent over a spanking bench in the dungeon two minutes ago, but with the way she was acting, and her reaction to the situation, a daydream was as far as he was going to get, it seemed. “You need to do some research. You’re making assumptions, and something like that could blow our whole cover.”
Terri wasn’t ready to listen to reason. “Why else would someone bow to a man? If I would have known exactly what Cap was sending us into I would have told him to shove it.”
“Sure you would have.” He rolled his eyes. Terri put up with a lot in order to prove her worth to Cap and the other guys at the station. It pissed him off because she was worth more than several of them put together. “It’s only pretend, T,” he spoke evenly, reminding himself as well as her. “It’s a job, and Champ and I will be with you the whole time.”
She fell heavily into the chair across from him and huffed. He bit back a smile. He wasn’t stupid enough to tell her, but she looked adorable when she pouted. “This is not what I signed up for, Nick.”
Her obvious reluctance and disdain for the Castle and the assignment as a whole irked him. “Knock it off. This is exactly what we signed on for, and you know it, T. Think of it this way, once this is over and that woman is safe, you will be proud of yourself, and you will earn more respect from the asshats at work.”
Her head rocked back against the chair with all of the dramatic flair of a spoiled teenager. “Fine-uh. But there is no way in hell we are going to participate in any of that shit.” She sat up and glared at him. There was something in her eyes that gave him the smallest glimmer of hope. Defiance, but there was something else, a hint of a challenge maybe? Nick suppressed a smirk. He wasn’t one to back down from a challenge, no matter how small.
“You better be a good girl then, because I’m not going to let you make me look bad.”
Her eyes widened, and her throat quivered as she tried not to gulp at the implication of his words. She stared at him in silence for a full minute before she recovered. When she did, her eyes narrowed into tiny slits, and her lips pursed in anger. “That’s enough out of you!” she sputtered. “How do you know so much about this crap, anyway?”
He hesitated for a split second, wondering how much to reveal. He needed her to go on this job with him, so honesty was the only choice he saw. He shrugged nonchalantly and gave her a guilty-looking half smile. “Well, I was a teenage boy at one time, and between my hormones and technical skills it wasn’t impossible to find things on the internet.”
“Back during the time of dial-up?” She squealed, her voice making the sounds of a computer connecting to the web.
“Yes, brat, dial-up and no Wi-Fi. Can you imagine?”
He was only a few years older than her, but she never let him forget it.
“The horror!” Her sass and smile were back as she dramatically threw the back of her hand across her forehead and let her head fall against the back of the chair again.
“Enough dramatics, brat. You need to look at all this stuff with me and answer these questions so I can send it to Leaf.”
Her cheeks puffed out, and her lips curled in disgust. Her eyes couldn’t have rolled any farther back into her head if she tried. “I really couldn’t care less. It’s all Greek to me. You fill it out, and I will just play my part.”
“That’s not how this works. I need a little cooperation at least,” he growled.
“How about I make you some of your favorite pizza, and you just take care of it?” She clasped her hands in her lap and tilted her head. It was the sexy-as-fuck batting of her eyelashes that did him in.
“Oh, now you’re playing dirty.” He shook his head. It wouldn’t be too difficult to fill it out for her. He knew her well enough to answer most of the information. The rest he could match to his answers. “Fine, but if there isn’t extra cheese and pineapple, we will be having a practice spanking session right after dinner,” he teased, only half joking.
“Try it,” she murmured with what was an obvious dare. “I will kick you in the balls.”
He knew her well enough to know that she probably would and wanted her enough that he just might risk it, he mused to himself, watching as she stomped to the refrigerator and started throwing ingredients onto the counter.
He laughed out loud. “Don’t tempt me,” he countered, just to watch her squirm before turning his attention back to the paperwork in question. He finished the second page and started on the third, when she cursed loudly, interrupting him. “Fuck!”
He looked up to see her rummaging in the cupboard, obviously agitated. “What’s wrong?”
She slammed the door closed and turned, pinning him with an accusing glare. “I’m out of pineapple.”
A loud burst of laughter escaped from him before he could stop it. “Wait, where are you going?” he asked as she stomped by him.
She looked all kinds of pissed as she tugged her purse off the hook on the wall. “To get some damn pineapple, where the hell do you think?”
“You know you really should clean up your language,” he advised with a smirk. “The other subbies are going to think I’m soft.” The look she gave him told him she couldn’t give a damn about what he or anyone else at the Castle thought. “Put your purse down. I’ll go pick up some pineapple.” He couldn’t hold back his laughter as he walked by and kissed her on the head on his way out the door.
She glared at him. “I hate when you do that.”
“I know.” He winked and walked out to his car, still chuckling over the damn pineapple as he turned the key in the ignition and backed out of her driveway, lost in thought.
The way he was feeling right now, this weekend would either be pure magic or pure hell. He could expect one thing and hope for the other, but what he couldn’t do any longer was deny the fact that he was in love with her. The writing had been on the wall for a while now. They had dated on and off over the years, but he had never been able to bring himself to fully admit his feelings or let his bedroom proclivities be known. Ultimately, his secret had probably been the catalyst that tore them apart, but they had remained friends, growing closer as time went on.
Nick sighed heavily as he pulled into the small grocery store in the center of town. It was time to fish or cut bait. If he didn’t fess up, she would move on and find somebody else. It would kill him.
He thought about the Castle and all of the possibilities it opened up. If he was ever going to show the real him, that would be the place to do it. Besides, she knew him well. His dominance wouldn’t come as that much of a surprise, would it? He sat in the car for a moment before entering the store, pondering the dynamics of their relationship. She definitely defaulted to him when they weren’t at work. She seemed to have an innate need to serve and please those around her. It was evident in the little things she often did, like making his favorite pizza or bringing him leftovers after she ‘cooked too much for
herself.’ She made too much on purpose, but he would never complain or even point out how often she did it.
In turn, he loved taking care of her. Bringing her coffee when she dragged her butt into work in the morning, buying her lunch when she refused to eat because of some new fad diet she was trying. He loathed her diets. No matter how many times he reassured her, her self-image was terrible, and she was constantly on some kick about ‘shedding a few pounds.’
Huffing to himself, he got out of the car and strode into the store. “Just for that, I’m also buying dessert,” he mumbled to himself.
She could not resist pistachio ice cream, especially if they had it in her favorite brand. He walked down the aisles grabbing what he needed and then headed to the beer cooler. How could he fully enjoy his special pizza without beer?
He got in line to pay and his cell phone chimed. He looked at the screen and chuckled. It was a text from Terri.
I’m locking the door and not letting you in unless you have ice cream and beer.
I have a key.
I will burn your pizza!
Calm down, brat. I’m already in line. You will have to deal with what I got.
Just remember, your pizza’s life is on the line.
He shook his head and pocketed the phone. He loved her fire and sass. There were definitely times he would have liked to tip her over his knee and spank some sense into her, but she would never have let him. Not until this trip at least. She wasn’t going to have a choice in the matter any longer. He would make sure of that.
Chapter 2
“I can’t believe I’m doing this. How did I let you talk me into this?” Terri paced back and forth in front of the luggage area, giving Champ the opportunity to check out the bags and cases stacked at the bus stop in Granger. It was only about the thirty-seven thousandth time she’d asked the same question, but she still couldn’t wrap her mind around the whole thing.
Nick ignored her, sitting on the bench reading through the paperwork again. He had been studying it like his life depended on it, and she felt guilty about not having looked at it since the captain’s office. She owed it to her job to at least have some idea of what she was walking into, but this was all so crazy and so not what she had signed up for.
Sighing loudly, she dropped onto the bench next to Nick and Champ sat in front of her, laying his head in her lap. The dog hadn’t left her side since they left the precinct the day before. He could feel her stress, and if he wasn’t right next to her, his eyes were trained on her.
“I’m okay, buddy.” She scratched him behind the ear. “I never finished looking through that packet,” she confessed under her breath to her partner.
“Are you kidding me?” Nick didn’t bother to hide the surprise in his voice. She didn’t blame him. It was not like her to half ass her job, but this was so different than anything they’d ever done, and he was so intrigued and invested in it, she figured he could handle this part.
“I asked you to at least go over it once, T.” He closed the folder and set it in her lap. “Read.”
She opened it without a word and started reading.
The more she read, the more agitated she became. This place was unreal. They didn’t leave any stone unturned when it came to guests’ wants and needs. They provided everything, right down to underwear. It was so weird. She skimmed the section that listed programs because most of it made zero sense. She could definitely make enough assumptions to know that she did not want to be a part of any of them.
The paperwork Nick had filled out for them was in the very back, and when she saw what program he’d actually chosen for them, her head spun.
“Maid? You think I want to be a maid?” she screeched, smacking his shoulder as she yelled.
“Lower your voice,” he warned, looking around at the crowd who gathered in the waiting area. “I gave you the chance to help me, and you chose not to, but think about it. It’s the logical choice for the mission. It will give us access to rooms and places other programs would not.”
“Us? Are you going to be a maid too?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I will be watching over you to make sure you are behaving and getting your chores finished in a timely manner, young lady.” He raised a brow and gestured to the crowd with a nod of his head. “You need to get in character or stay quiet until we get to somewhere more private,” he whispered close to her ear.
The warmth of his breath hit her skin and she shivered. “Okay, I’m sorry,” she mumbled. No one was anywhere near them or paying any attention, but Nick was right; it was better to be safe than sorry.
He sighed and scooted closer to her, putting his arm over her shoulders. “Do you trust me?”
“You know I do.”
“Then read the information and absorb what you need for the mission, I will take care of the rest, okay?”
She nodded, feeling slightly more at ease. It was like he said all along, this was part of their job and nothing else, she reminded herself, breathing deeply.
So why was she freaking out? She looked down at the papers in her lap again and her stomach turned. Her strong gut reaction to everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours left her unsettled. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t seem to look past all of the sexual fantasy stuff and focus on the job. And Nick with his jokes and good-humored threats wasn’t helping. Ever since the pineapple debacle last night, visions of Nick spanking her had flowed through her brain on a repeat track, and she didn’t know what to think about that. They had been intimate when they’d dated, of course, but this was entirely different. This was work, but with sex. Kinky sex, to boot.
That was what was making her the most nervous. She was no virgin, but she wasn’t the most experienced either. To be surrounded by nothing but pure sex and fantasy for days, while working in close quarters with Nick and posing as a married couple… She still really liked him and found him sexy as hell, so how was that going to work? She didn’t want to fall into bed with him because it was convenient, knowing that a relationship between them was a dead-end road, but she could already feel her resolve weakening at the thought of sharing a room with him. Especially a room at a kinky sex resort. She needed to forget Nick and his gorgeous dimples and sexy abs and focus on the job. The quicker they could find the bad guy and get him out of there, the quicker they could put this mess behind them.
They weren’t dating anymore, she reminded herself, and there was a reason for that. As close as they were as friends and partners, they had never been able to make it work between them romantically. There had always been a disconnect, something missing, and she had never quite been able to put her finger on what that was. She finally gave up and assumed that Nick just wasn’t that attracted to her, which sucked, but was the one thing she couldn’t really control. The break-up had rocked her world, and the pain she had felt was not something she was interested in revisiting. Like ever. Only by sheer determination were they able to repair and maintain their close friendship and solid work relationship. She was adamant about not going there again, so why was she all of a sudden thinking about letting him do all sorts of delicious things to her naked body? Delicious kinky things to her naked body.
That was the part that was really bugging her if she were being totally honest. She wasn’t like these other women. She didn’t need pain to get off. She didn’t need to bow to some man and act like he was above her. She had worked her whole life and career to be considered a man’s equal, and the idea that she could lose it, even for the sake of sexual satisfaction, was terrifying. She didn’t want to crawl around on her hands and knees, begging for attention, and doing everything Nick told her to. And she definitely didn’t want to let him spank her.
He snuck up on her from behind, his hand closing over her mouth as she stood in front of the full-length mirror critiquing her body, clad in only her bra and panties with a matching garter belt she had bought on a whim.
Her muffled scream was trapped in the thickness of his han
d, the reverberation echoing back at her. She could feel the vibration as it kicked back against her parted lips.
Equally angry and terrified, she met her captor’s reflection in the mirror.
When she recognized his face, she didn’t know if she should be outraged or relieved.
He didn’t give her time to be either. “Not a word,” he whispered gruffly into her ear. “I’ve had quite enough of your bratty whining and complaining. From here on out, what I say goes. You are mine for the duration of this mission. You do what I say, when I say, and how I say to do it. If you have an opinion or complaint, choke it down, because the next time you open this pretty little mouth, I’m going to shove a ball gag in it. Understand, brat?”
Her eyes wide, she nodded, saying nothing else.
“Good.” Grabbing her roughly by the shoulders, he turned her body, and before she knew what was happening, he had her pinned against the wall.
Her mouth was free from his covering, but she instinctively knew better than to speak.
His eyes raked over her nearly naked body, and she fought the urge to cover herself in shame.
He opened his mouth, and she braced herself for the words of beratement that were sure to follow. If only she exercised a little more, ate a little less, tried harder…
“Very nice,” he murmured. One hand kept her pinned to the wall, but the other raked roughly over her body, starting at her breast. He squeezed and pinched and poked and prodded. It hurt, but she willed herself not to react.
His head bent, and he bit the exposed flesh at the top of her breast. His teeth left dull bite marks on her soft skin.
Her eyes filled with tears as she looked down at the small bruises already forming.
Rough, calloused hands continued their trek down her small frame, seemingly claiming every inch of her with his punishing touch.
She gasped when he tore her sheer black panties down the middle, neatly exposing her freshly shaved pussy.
Her hand flew to cover herself, but he caught it and slapped it away. “No,” he growled. “Mine.”