Come here, push me down onto a desk, and pull my skirt up and my panties down. I had one shocked moment to realize he’d actually done that before he thrust into me.
He didn’t tease me this time. He drove into me in fierce, deep thrusts.
“You want to be mine? You want me to take you like this whenever I want?”
That thought made everything else go out of my head. No one has ever taken you like I’m going to take you. I remembered setting my lips on him last night, the rush of pleasure when he came—when I knew I had pleased him. I melted, my hips rocking back in a silent plea for more—more of everything he wanted to do to me.
What was happening to me?
“Is that what you want, Lily? Or did you think you could tease me and I wouldn’t take what you offered?”
I whimpered, and stifled the sound with my palm. I could hear people in the corridor, people who wanted to get into this classroom. What if someone had a key? What if they came in and saw us—
The thought nearly made me come right there. I was gasping with it, arching my back to take him deeper, wetter than I’d ever been. I was still sore from last night, whimpering with each thrust, and I didn’t know where the line was anymore between pleasure and pain. That only made it better.
“Tell me the truth.”
“I’m yours.” It was true. It was the truest thing I had ever said in my life. I was so fucked. “I’m yours…sir.”
I felt him come without warning, a burst of heat as he groaned. His fingers dug into my hips as he slammed into me, filling me.
“You are.” He hauled me up to stand, one hand pressing softly against my throat, his other hand guiding mine between my legs. “You’re mine. Now come for me, Lily. Come on my cock.”
His lips came down on mine as I obeyed without volition, my cry muffled by his mouth, his cock stretching me as I shuddered around him. I swayed against him and he held me up. His fingers pressed gently against my throat, a makeshift collar—
Oh, God, I couldn’t even think. My mouth opened under his and I let the pleasure take me. I couldn’t resist it.
I didn’t want to resist it.
When he drew away, it was with a laugh and a last, deep kiss.
“I can’t…” I braced myself on the desk. I could hear students trying the door and felt reality return in a slow trickle. “We should really, um…”
“Come with me.” He looked as composed as he had while he waited for me; only the gleam in his eyes betrayed what had just happened.
He swung the door open before I could protest, and the angry chorus of complaints outside stopped in the face of his pleasant smile.
“Thank you all for waiting.” He adjusted his cuffs, and I saw the women’s eyes widen and the men take note of every effortless, commanding gesture.
I would have laughed if I wasn’t so disheveled, so flushed with the certainty that the must know exactly what we had just been doing.
Donovan, however, didn’t seem to care in the least. He took my hand and led me through the group as if they meant nothing, and nothing inappropriate had just happened, and guided me out of the building. He was so self-assured that it took a moment before I even thought to ask:
“Where are we going?”
“My car.” He looked over at me, and he looked serious now. “There are…precautions we’ll need to take now.”
I felt a chill and bit my lip.
“Such as?”
“You will tell me where you are at all times.” His look cut off my protest. “At all times, Lily. I need to know that you’re safe. This is non-negotiable. In addition—”
“Oh, my God.” I froze, my blood turning to ice.
“What is it?”
“It’s Chris. It’s my ex-boyfriend. I can’t—I can’t—“ Panic flooded me in an instant. “He can’t see us.”
Donovan didn’t even pause. He didn’t ask why, and he didn’t argue. He grabbed my hand and pulled me down the slim alleyway between two buildings, his hand solid and strong around mine. He looked at me once, and I saw questions there, questions I didn’t even know how to answer.
“We’ll detour back to my car,” he said, his voice calm as we emerged back into the sunlight.
I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding, and let my eyes drift closed in relief. When he stopped short, I ran into him and stumbled.
Then I saw why he’d stopped.
“Mister White.” The man tipped his hat, smiling broadly. His accent, I noticed, was almost entirely for show. His suit brought to mind the gangster movies of the thirties and forties. It was a comparison he was drawing on purpose, I knew.
“Sheng-li.” Donovan’s voice was flat. His eyes were narrowed slightly, assessing. Measuring. Weighing a threat.
“And this,” the man said, transferring his smiling gaze to me, “must be the lovely Miss Harris.”
Book 2: Dangerous Lust
Chapter 9
Donovan
Sheng-li’s smile was like poison. I’ve outplayed you, his eyes told me. Did you really think you could keep her a secret from me?
Hayden was going to have some questions to answer, and so help me, God, if he’d put Lily in danger—
But it was me. I had put her in danger. I was the reason she was frozen, still as a statue at my side. Her eyes were wide with fear.
“Yes.” Her voice was very small. “I’m Lily Harris. Your name is Sheng-li?”
“Sheng-li Tat.” He swept his hat off his head and bowed gallantly. When he came up, his smile was genuinely delighted. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Harris.”
“And you.” There was no way she had missed what his delight meant—my blood ran cold to think of it—but she was scrupulously polite.
My heart swelled with pride at her courage, but fury came close behind.
“What are you doing here?” I knew the threat in my voice, and I knew I would pay for it, but we both knew what was going on.
“Just out for a stroll. I admit, I was curious about Miss Harris, here.” Sheng-li’s eyes were as flat as stones, even when he smiled. He leaned in, as if telling Lily a secret. “He’s quite a catch, you know. Often chased, never caught…until now, of course. Something tells me he cares for you very much.”
Lily, in what I was beginning to sense was a rare moment from her, held her tongue. She gave him a little smile, and then she squeezed my and looked over at me. She was playing the game, I realized.
She was playing it surprisingly well. I pushed back a flicker of discontent.
“I see.” I kept my tone level now. I was accustomed to awkward silences; I used them often to my advantage in business. I stared at Sheng-li, a smile playing around my lips, and waited for him to speak next.
I was pleased to see a hint of worry in his eyes, but he recovered with aplomb. He set his hat back on his head with a jaunty whistle.
“A pleasure to meet you, Miss Harris. Mr. White.”
Lily murmured her goodbyes as he strolled away, his hands in his pockets.
“Who—”
“Not here.” I barely looked up as my driver pulled the car around smoothly. “Get in.”
“But I have class.”
“You need to come with me now.” My voice brooked no argument. I laid my hand in the small of her back to urge her along.
The burst of heat that ran from the touch was unexpected. Her resistance was showed everything about her, I saw now: she was scared, but she wasn’t intending to hide behind me; she was scared, but she wasn’t just going to go somewhere without asking me where. Her eyes met mine and she flushed, and I knew that she was thinking of what had happened the last time I took her somewhere.
I knew I was smiling, despite everything.
“I’m taking you to my office, not my apartment.” For now. She could see that I meant it, too, and she took a deep breath.
“Why?”
“I’ll explain in the car.”
“He’s already seen us, and he alre
ady knows who I am.” Her voice was light. “It’s not like we have to hurry. Why?”
I gave her a look that said she was going to pay for that, and she swallowed hard.
She wanted to play this game? I would enjoy teaching her.
“Because I have some business to attend to.” I pitched my voice for her ears alone. My fingers skimmed her bare arm and she shivered. “And I want you to be safe for the time being. After that, you and I have a great deal to…” My thumb skimmed over her lower lip. “…Discuss,” I finished lazily.
“I…see.” She was trying to hold it together, she really was.
And I was going to enjoy breaking every last drop of her composure. “Get in the car.”
She obeyed.
She was silent on the ride, biting her lip and staring over at me. She was waiting for me to make a move, waiting for me to give her a command. I adjusted my cuffs and stared out the window, trying to hide my smile—and my growing sense of unease. Half of my mind was assembling a list of instructions for Colton, including finding out just how Sheng-li had tracked Lily down, but the rest of my mind was solidly on her: every fidget, every nervous breath that pushed those perfect breasts up against her shirt.
She wasn’t supposed to get under my skin. No one was. My fingers drummed on the armrest and I had to choose, consciously, not to sigh, not to sink my head into my hands.
They were only passing urges. I had learned long ago that I was always being watched. The aftermath of Evangeline’s betrayal had only hammered that home, cameras clicking every time I left my apartment, colleagues watching me for any sign of fatigue, hurt…weakness. I hadn’t given them the satisfaction then, and I wouldn’t give Sheng-li the satisfaction now. I would find my way through this.
But by the time we pulled up at my office, I still didn’t have even the faintest idea how I was going to manage it.
Chapter 10
Lily
“What is it?” Donovan looked over at me, frowning. He had been silent in the car, and lost in thought as the elevator climbed through the heart of the building.
For a second, I was too ashamed to speak. Then I forced the words out:
“I don’t really belong here.”
He looked genuinely confused by that statement and I tried not to roll my eyes. I gestured at my flip-flops, my t-shirt, my ponytail. Everything about me was wrong for this place. All the men wore suits, and all the women wore sheath dresses and shoes that probably cost more than my rent. Their lipstick was tasteful, their skin was flawless, and their hair somehow managed both to stay perfectly arranged and to bounce as they walked. It was remarkably unfair.
It was a whole building of women Chris would have liked. The thought came to me unbidden and I looked down at my shoes.
I’m going to fucking ruin your life, Lily!
“Lily. Look at me. What’s going on?”
“It’s nothing.” I lifted my chin and managed my politest smile. “Just show me somewhere to sit that’s out of the way—” I knew better than to try to convince him to let me go home “—and I’ll be ready to leave whenever.”
“What’s going on?” There was a warning in his voice now. “When I ask you questions, I expect answers, Lily.”
I looked at him and saw the utter impossibility of really explaining any of it. Men like Donovan didn’t need to understand this sort of thing, so they didn’t. He’d probably been brought up with a trust fund and an assured spot at Yale. Nothing was ever going to go wrong for him, no matter what he did. He didn’t understand what it felt like to be the person scrabbling their way up, desperate to earn something in a world that didn’t like people to try too obviously. He didn’t understand why I could laugh at the fact that he’d end up with someone Chris would have killed to be with, while at the same time it felt like my heart was getting torn out—and, with the few scraps of pride I had left, I found that I didn’t want to explain it, anyway.
So I cut to the chase.
“You’re going to get tired of me,” I told him. “You know it. I know it. This is your world. I’m not part of it. So why don’t we just skip to the part where you go back to women like them?”
Something flashed in his eyes, and I recoiled. I didn’t know if it was desire, or anger—or, terribly, some sort of black humor. I just knew that it hit me like a tidal wave, lashing out from him, and he crossed the elevator in two strides to stare down at me.
I gulped, and tried not to let my knees go weak. He had fucked me over the desk in an empty classroom, I remembered, and no matter how much I wanted not to think about it, I felt my face heat at the memory. His lips curved and he brought them down a scant inch from mine.
“You’re mine,” he said, almost conversationally—except that his voice was for me alone. There was no mistaking it for casual. “Every thought goes out of your head when I fuck you, doesn’t it? Except that damned stupid defiance of yours.” His fingers slipped between my legs to drift over my panties and he smiled when I whimpered. “And I do like that defiance, Lily. I like breaking it. I love watching you realize you want to be my good girl more than you want to defy me. I love watching you come with me inside you. I’m not going to get tired of that.”
His voice was like magic, driving everything else out of my head—Chris, Sheng-li, all of it.
And then the elevator dinged and I stepped back hurriedly as the doors opened, in case someone should see me with Donovan’s hand up my skirt. He laughed, a low sound that made what was left of my rational thought disappear for a moment, and then he took my hand and led me down the corridor to two sets of heavy wooden doors, holding each for me in turn.
Where his apartment was spare, this was plush—and it suited him just as well, I realized. The carpets were thick, old books lined the walls, and at a hardwood desk—
“Colton!”
“Hello.” Donovan’s assistant stood as we came in. “So he did find you. That’s good. He was—”
Donovan cleared his throat, and Colton stopped talking, a faint flush hitting his cheeks. Colton blushed easily, I had noticed that in the car this morning. He flushed with self-consciousness when he caught me looking at him, he flushed with true conviction when he started talking about his interests, and now he flushed under Donovan’s cool—and slightly amused—stare.
“Colton.” His voice was like silk. “I received several calls from Hayden. Would you go schedule a time for him to meet with me? While you’re there…” He disappeared into a side office and came out with a folder. “Drop these with Everett. Her team needs to have the copy back to me in time for the board meeting this afternoon.”
“Of course, sir. Anything else?”
“Have you had breakfast?” Donovan asked me.
No, I was too busy becoming homeless. I swallowed. “No.”
“And a bagel for Miss Harris.” Donovan paused. “Bagel? Yogurt?”
“A bagel is fine. Um. Whatever kind. Cream cheese.”
“I’ll get you a coffee, too.” Colton smiled as he disappeared, sneaking one glance back at us while Donovan ushered me into his office and closed the door behind us.
“He’s very nice,” I offered.
“Mm-hmm.” Donovan stripped off his suit coat and looked me over. “Bend over. Put your hands on the desk.”
“What? I thought we had to…” I swallowed. “I thought we had to discuss things.”
He adjusted his cuffs and waited until I bent over, and then he gave me a hard, swift slap on the ass. His fingers wrapped in my ponytail, dragging my head back.
“When I give you an order, what do you do?”
“Obey it?”
“Do you wait? Do you ask questions?” Another smack.
“No, sir.”
He leaned over to kiss me, and as my eyes fluttered closed and I melted against him, I saw satisfaction in his eyes. “Very good,” he murmured against my lips.
He drew away and considered me. My skirt had ridden up, and I fought the urge to push it back down. I was ve
ry aware of the feeling of air in my lungs, of the press of the desk against my hands. When he dragged my panties down, I jumped, but kept myself rigidly still.
“Very good,” he said again. His fingers trailed over my ass and he gave it another slap before, without any warning, he slid three fingers into me.
I gasped and arched.
“Still wet,” he murmured. His fingers were working inside me and my hips had started to move. “And you’re right, Lily—we do have things to discuss.”
He would do it like this. I struggled to focus. “Like what?”
“Rules.” His fingers twisted. “Shall we start at the beginning?”
“Yes—sir.”
“Very good. You will address me as sir, you will obey me immediately, and you will not question my orders. Do you understand, Lily?”
“Yes, sir.” My hips were moving on their own, begging for more of him.
“Good girl.”
I moaned softly, and he laughed.
“You will make sure that I know where you are at all times.” His fingers might be stirring something deep inside, but his voice was hard and flat.
I hesitated, and got a slap on my ass for the trouble.
“Answer me, Lily.”
“At all times?”
“Yes.” He growled the words, and his fingers withdrew. His other hand was at the back of my neck, forcing my head down to the table, and he held me there with an iron grip. “Do you understand, Lily?”
“Why?” I bucked against him.
“Because I said so,” he growled at me. “Because you just promised to obey me.”
“When you’re fucking me,” I gritted out. “Not when—”
His fingers were inside me again, fucking me hard. “They’re not different.” His breath stirred my hair. “Not for me. If you’re mine, you’re mine.”
“I—” I struggled against him, hating how wet I was, hating that he could claim me and my body responded without any sense of propriety or shame.
When I stopped struggling and started moving against his fingers, I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that I was getting close, and—
Dark Lust: An Alpha Billionaire Romance (Books 1-5) Page 5