What He Bargains (What He Wants, Book Nineteen)

by Hannah Ford

  “How were you bad?”

  “I threw out my ring.”

  Another stinging slap on my ass, this time so hard I cried out. I could feel the smart of the blow, the tingling bite of my disobedience against my skin.

  “What else, Charlotte?” Noah’s voice was still low and throaty, and the raw desire I felt for him overtook my body as I felt myself give in to him, to his wants, his demands. My body existed only for his pleasure.

  “You saw me with another man.”

  Another slap, even harder, so hard I reached down and braced myself against the floor, the cool linoleum smooth against my palms as I bit my lip to try and distract myself from the pain.

  “What else, Charlotte?”

  I closed my eyes, trying to think of what else I’d done.

  “I don’t know, sir.”

  “What did you google this morning, Charlotte?” His hand was moving down between my legs now, spreading my pussy open from behind.

  “Sir?”

  “Think hard.”

  I closed my eyes and tried to think, but it was hard when his hand was all over my pussy. His finger rubbed my clit softly, the touch designed only to tease, and I pushed my palms into the floor as hard as I could and tried to focus.

  His other hand was placed on the small of my back, holding me steady. Every time I tried to squirm away, it did no good. He held me down, pushing me tighter against his hard cock.

  “Charlotte…” he said warningly.

  I swallowed. And then it came to me.

  Lameuix.

  I’d googled him this morning.

  “Lameuix,” I said. “I googled him.”

  Noah kept his finger circling and swirling around my clit while his other hand slapped my ass again.

  I cried out again.

  “Why do you insist on disobeying me, Charlotte?”

  Another slap.

  “I’m sorry, sir.”

  Another blow, so hard my ass cheeks jiggled as Noah pushed a finger inside of me.

  “Oh,” I whimpered, and he pulled his finger out of my pussy and slid it to my mouth, making me taste myself on him.

  “Why do you insist on disobeying me, Charlotte?” he demanded again.

  “I don’t know, sir.”

  He spanked me again, over and over, changing the force and angle of the blows as his other hand worked my clit, his finger sliding in and out, fucking me, while he held me down with his forearm, immobile, not able to move.

  “You’re so wet, baby,” he murmured, his fingers sliding into my hole and spreading me. “You like being punished, don’t you, baby girl?”

  “Yes.”

  “Look at yourself,” Noah commanded. I glanced up and saw my reflection in the shiny metal of the desk, my hands on the floor, my pants pulled down. I watched as Noah slapped my ass again, and the sight of myself, so submissive to him, his body and hands so big, making me feel small and helpless against him, caused raging desire to overtake my body.

  I felt my pussy clench around his fingers, signaling that I was about to come. Noah must have felt it too, because he immediately took his fingers from me and then pulled me up until I was sitting on his lap.

  He adjusted my body until I was straddling him, but he held me by the ass, firmly in control of my body.

  He reached behind me and opened the top drawer of the desk, rummaging around until he found a black marker.

  “Do you remember the first night we met, Charlotte?”

  I nodded.

  “Do you remember the X I drew on your arm?”

  I nodded again.

  He took my wrist in his hand and turned it over, very slowly, then drew another X on me now, branding me, the ink sliding smoothly over my skin as he marked me.

  “You are mine,” he said, his eyes a dark tornado. “I own you.”

  He reached up and grabbed the back of my neck, pulled me toward me, kissed me full on the mouth, his tongue pushing past my lips. I tasted him, minty and dark. He hadn’t shaved that morning and his stubble brushed against my chin, rough and raw. I pushed into him, wanting to feel the roughness against me, wanted him to bruise me, to leave marks all over my skin.

  For once, he let me have my way, or perhaps it was just that my own desires were matching up with his, because he deepened the kiss, so hard and deep that when he finally let me go, I was gasping for air.

  He wrapped his hand around my hair and pulled back hard. “Take your shirt off.”

  “Someone will see,” I whimpered.

  “I don’t give a fuck.” He sat back in the chair and placed his hands on my thighs, his grip firm, his eyes shining bright. I was sitting right on his cock, and my pants were still pulled down in the back from when he’d spanked me, and I could feel his erection buried between my ass cheeks.

  I reached down and pulled my shirt off, the fabric tangling with my hair. I shook it out and my hair brushed against my bare shoulders. I shivered and gripped the t-shirt tight to my body as I glanced nervously at the door. What if someone came in and saw me here, my ass out, my shirt off? Noah hadn’t bothered to lock the door.

  “Eyes on me.” Noah pulled the shirt from my hands and placed it behind me on the desk. “Now your bra.”

  “Noah.”

  “Now. Your. Bra.”

  I took it off and immediately went to cover myself, but he took my hands and placed them behind me on the desk.

  The position thrust my bare tits out toward him, and Noah leaned down and blew a short hot breath across my nipples. They hardened instantly, my response to him automatic, my body betraying my mind and my reason.

  He took the marker and began to write on me, right across my chest.

  “Noah –”

  “Shhh.” He slapped my tit and I groaned and leaned back further, my hands on his thighs, my fingers twisting around the material of his crisp dress pants, as I fought the urge to cover myself.

  I looked down, watching as he wrote on my skin with the marker.

  BAD he wrote on one breast and GIRL on the other.

  I closed my eye and took in a long, slow breath. I was a bad girl, I realized. I was bad and I needed to be punished. I no longer cared about anyone coming in and seeing me here, topless, my tits hanging out, my nipples hard, my ass raw with Noah’s handprints. He was breaking me down, I realized, was making me his submissive, a true submissive who wanted to be degraded, to be owned.

  He handed me the marker.

  “Write,” he demanded. “On your other wrist. Property of Noah Cutler.” “Yes, sir.” I wrote the words on the inside of my wrist, wondering if my shirt would cover them once I was dressed or if everyone would see them. The thought filled me with a thrill. When I was done with the last R, Noah took my wrist and blew on it, drying the ink. His breath tickled my pulse point, the gesture so erotic I almost couldn’t take it.

  “Do you want to be fucked, Charlotte?” he asked wickedly.

  “Yes.”

  His hand was down the front of my pants, back on my clit now, his touch so slow, so sexy that it burned me from the inside out, the need for him roaring through my veins and sending hot shivers in its wake.

  “Take my cock out.”

  I did as I was told, unbuckling his belt, unzipping his pants, letting his cock out. He took my hand and placed it on his shaft and I began to stroke him, up and down, while he gazed into my eyes and rubbed my clit.

  Finally, he stood me up and removed my pants, then picked me up, easily, like I weighed nothing, my legs wrapping around his waist as he pushed my back up against the whiteboard that hung on the wall behind us. His cock found my pussy and pushed into me, fucking me, taking me. I wrapped my arms around him, gripping the strong muscles of his upper back, my nails digging into him through his shirt as he took me.

  He wrapped his hand around my neck, his forehead against mine as he screwed me senseless.

  “Your pussy is so wet,” he groaned. “You liked that, didn’t you, being spanked like a bad girl?” He took
one of my tits in his hand, using it as leverage, squeezing and pulling on my nipple as he fucked me.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Come.”

  His words, so out of nowhere, sent ripples through me, and on his next thrust, I did come, my orgasm rushing through me in a wave, pulling me out to sea, pulling me under the riptide that was Noah.

  A second later, I could tell he was getting close, but he pulled out of me.

  “Spread your pussy.”

  I spread myself open for him, leaning back and watching as he came all over me, shot after shot of hot cum, the ropes hitting my clit and covering my slit. He was branding me, making me his, and I wanted him to, wanted to be bad and dirty and do all the things he wanted.

  When he was done, his grip on my ass loosened, and he slid my legs down to the floor.

  He kissed me softly on the lips and held me to him for a moment.

  I squeezed my eyes shut tight, wanting the moment to stretch into forever, the two of us high on each other, his body warm against mine. But I knew it couldn’t last.

  Now that the adrenaline rush was over, now that he’d worked out his emotions and desire on my body, there were things to deal with.

  Major things - the fact that I’d throw my ring away, the fact that Noah was still keeping secrets from me, the fact that the school was starting an investigation into our relationship, the fact that Noah apparently thought it was okay to leave me last night and then show up the next morning and pretend as if nothing had happened.

  This time, I wasn’t going to let it go.

  I wanted to submit to him sexually, needed it even. It stirred something up in me that was natural and instinctual, and it made me feel close to him. But in order to submit, I needed to trust him.

  “Charlotte,” he murmured into my neck. “Oh, Charlotte.”

  The two of us stood there like that for another long moment, his arms wrapped around me, neither of us in a rush to deal with the realities of our situation.

  But then came sounds from the hallway -- the squeak of someone’s shoes against the floor, laughter, the soft hum of voices.

  It was almost time for classes to start.

  Noah pulled away from me and began buttoning his pants.

  He reached down and picked my clothes up off the floor and began to help me get dressed.

  “I can’t…” I said, once I was back in my clothes. “I can’t be seen with you.”

  “What?” Noah asked. He pushed a strand of hair off my forehead and looked at me with concern.

  “There was a complaint. Filed with the school and maybe…maybe the bar.”

  He nodded, his expression grim but not surprised, and I could tell his mind had moved past any emotions he might have around my revelation and was already formulating a plan, figuring out how he would get me out of this.

  “I’ll go out first,” he said. “Wait two minutes, then meet me at the car.”

  “Okay.”

  He kissed me again, and then he was gone.

  I waited two minutes, my mind spinning, and then I went to the car.

  * * *

  When I slid into the backseat of the town car, Noah was waiting there, looking flawless despite what we’d just done. His black suit was still impeccable, his tie in the perfect knot, his shirt crisp and unrumpled.

  “Hi,” I said softly.

  “Tell me about the complaint,” he said immediately.

  I shook my head. “No. Noah, I … first we need to talk about last night.” Jared started the car, and we began driving through the streets of Manhattan. It was full-blown rush house now, and the traffic was stop-start, which I somehow found very fitting. “Where are we going, anyway?” I asked.

  “To the office. Clementine is bringing Lilah Parks over for a meeting so we can get more details about the night of her boyfriend’s murder.”

  I nodded. “Okay. I have to be back by noon for class.”

  “Fine.”

  He reached over and took my hand, his fingers rubbing the place where my ring used to be. “We’ll get you a new ring.” He shook his head, and then his voice caught with emotion. “Charlotte, why…why did you do that?”

  “I thought you’d left me.”

  I saw the guilt flash over his face, saw the harsh truth – the he’d tried to leave me, that he’d been trying to get away from me but hadn’t been able to. This time. But what if one of these times, he left and never came back?

  “Noah,” I said. “I’m scared. I don’t want it to be this way with us.”

  His hand tightened around mine. “I need to keep you safe.”

  “Stop saying that!” I was mad now, annoyed, and I pulled my hand from his. “I’ve stuck to my end of the bargain. I will submit to you sexually, Noah, I want to. But you have to tell me what the fuck is going on. Who is Lameuix?”

  “I can’t tell you that.”

  “Stop the car,” I said, sitting up straighter on the seat and pulling away from him. “Stop. I’m done.”

  “No, Charlotte.” Noah reached for me, but I struggled against him. He gripped me under my legs and pulled me onto his lap. I pushed my hands against his chest, but he was too strong, too solid, for it to have any effect.

  “I can’t do this anymore, Noah,” I said, and I was crying now. “I can’t have no power, no information. I just can’t.”

  “Jesus,” he said, and his hands were in my hair, his lips on my cheeks as he kissed my tears. “You think that’s what’s going on here? That I have all the power? You have the power, Charlotte. Without you, I am nothing.” He pulled back and looked into my eyes and I saw the vulnerability reflected there, true and deep. When he spoke again, his voice was tender. “You are beautiful and full of promise. Any man would be lucky to have you. You are it for me. You are the only one I will be happy with, the only woman I could ever spend my life with. You have all the power, Charlotte. The power to destroy me, because it is you, and you alone, that holds my every happiness.”

  “Then why can’t you tell me who Lameuix is, Noah?”

  He jawline hardened, and I could feel his walls coming back up.

  “Don’t shut down,” I said, frustrated.

  “If I tell you these things, Charlotte, then you won’t be safe. You have to understand what a difficult position that puts me in.”

  “Fine,” I said. “I get that. But there are other things, things that have nothing to do with my safety that you won’t tell me.”

  “I am willing to make some compromises, Charlotte. We can talk about other things, but this thing with Lameuix...” Noah shook his head. “It’s not something I can compromise on. These people…” he trailed off. “I’m sure they are behind the complaint to your school.”

  “What?” I straightened up on the seat, my heart pounding. “What do you mean?”

  “It’s a warning.”

  “What kind of warning?”

  “A warning to stay out of their business. And they won’t stop until you do.”

  His words sent a shiver up and down my spine. Who were these people? They obviously had Mikayla, but it seemed to go beyond that, beyond just some crazy psychopaths kidnapping girls from a club. It went deeper than that, more dangerous. How did Noah know about them, what they were capable of?

  “How do you know that?” I asked. Noah’s hand was on the small of my back, holding me against his body, and I reached up and grabbed at the knot in his tie, running my finger over the smooth, silky fabric, tracing the design.

  “I can’t tell you that, Charlotte.”

  “Why not?”

  “I told you why not. Because the more you know about these people, the greater danger you will be in.”

  “Like you can’t tell me about Lilah,” I said, shaking my head in exasperation.

  He hesitated. “That is something we might be able to compromise on.”

  I looked up, hopeful.

  “I will tell Lilah today that unless she agrees let me share every detail of her case with you, the
n I will not be able to work with her.”

  “You would do that?”

  “I would do anything for you.” He tipped my chin up, and gazed deep into my eyes. “But you have to meet me halfway, Charlotte. You need to stop this thing with Mikayla.” He pushed my hair off my forehead, and his hand was warm and strong. I closed my eyes, enjoying the feel of his touch.

  He pulled me toward him and kissed me, and I wrapped my hands around his tie, feeling the twist of the fabric, anchoring me to him, my love, my safety, my everything.

  “I will take care of it,” he said. “But you need to stop.”

  I nodded. “Okay.” He was right. I’d been acting crazy, gallivanting around the city like some kind of insane person. I thought I owed it to Mikayla, but at what expense? My safety, my career, the love of my life? It wasn’t as if I was any closer to finding her than I’d ever been.

  And I would have promised Noah anything right then, would have promised him whatever he asked, just so we could go back to the way things were.

  He took my hand and brought it to his mouth, grazing a kiss across my knuckles.

  “I love you so much,” he said.

  “I love you, too.”

  I rested my head against his chest as the city rushed by us, enjoying the feel of his strong body against mine and knowing that under my clothes were the mark of his hands, the seed of his cock, filthy words scrawled across my skin that made me his.

  It was our dirty little secret.

  And I loved it.

  * * *

  The meeting with Clementine and Lilah was to take place at Noah’s new office space. The staff hadn’t been brought over yet – they were still using the old offices. So when Noah and I arrived, we had the place to ourselves.

  “There are fresh clothes in the closet in your bathroom,” Noah said as we walked down the hallway toward my office. “Lilah and Clementine will be here in an hour. You can freshen up and meet us in conference room B.” We stopped outside my office door, and he turned my hand over in his and inspected my wrist, where he’d made me write Property Of Noah Cutler on myself in black sharpie. He skimmed his finger over the words, and my pulse quickened. “Do not wash this off.”

  And then he was gone.