by Em Petrova
Fuck. He dropped his head forward, power and joy rushing through his veins. Three deep breaths and five heartbeats later, he began.
* * * * *
Amaryllis’s nerves felt like they’d been draped over an electric fence. A thousand watts of need blasted her system as Aiden brought what felt like a paddle down on her ass cheek.
The hard smack sent her reeling, her breath gushing from her lungs.
And her clit swelling.
He made a guttural noise. “Again.”
“Thank you, Master.”
“Face forward, sub. Push your ass up.”
Oh God, her panties were soaking, her pussy aching for his fingers, lips, cock. Who knew this lawman from small-town Wyoming was a Dom with all the skills to light her on fire? He must have gotten involved in some kinky shit in the service.
Another crack had her stiffening. The sting blasted through her panties and into her skin. She cried out and was rewarded with a brush of his fingers over the spot he’d just spanked.
She clung to that softness. If he’d give her more of that, she could endure a hundred more swats.
Well, maybe not that many.
“What do you say, sub?”
Her mind caught up. “Thank you, Master.”
He made a contented noise. “You don’t listen to me in the field and that’s okay. You do your job and you’re damn good at it, Amaryllis. But in this room, I am your Master and you will listen to everything I say.”
She nodded. Panting hard. She needed another spank. Oh God, had she just thought that? What had she turned into?
A third smack had her rising onto her knees, pushing back. “Thank you, Master,” she said on a moan.
“Jesus God,” he groaned.
Did that mean he liked her reaction?
Another spank came down harder on the other cheek. Three for each and her bottom was beginning to feel swollen. Even through her panties, she knew her cheeks were red and warm. Between her thighs, her clit pulsated to the rhythm of his paddle.
He delivered several more swats to each cheek and then stopped. Her heart seemed too loud in the silence—could he hear it?
She dragged in a shuddering breath. “Master?”
“Yes, sub.”
“I need your touch.”
As if he’d been waiting to hear just that, he let out a hasty breath. Something wooden—probably the paddle—hit the floor. When he touched her, she expected to feel his wide palms and long, rough fingers, and was shocked by his lips.
Soft kisses roaming over her cheeks, spattered down to the undercurve of her ass and back up. She shook with desire. If this was what giving herself up to Aiden meant, then she’d made the best decision of her life. Her mind was blanked to any worries. Cattle rustlers, ranchers, her brothers and the prospect of owning her own small farm all fled her mind.
She lived right here, right now in this room with Aiden.
He slipped his tongue under the elastic edge of her panties. The warm wetness spread up to the place where he’d spanked her left cheek. He walked his fingers up her inner thighs, and she tugged her bonds so hard that the bedframe rattled.
He chuckled and continued to torment her, almost skimming his fingers over her needy pussy but backing off enough to drive her crazy.
“Please. Touch me.”
“When I say you’re ready.”
She wanted to put her arms around his neck and draw him down for a deep kiss. To feel his strength wrapped around her. Passion rose up and consumed her. She wasn’t going to walk away from this experience the same person. She had changed since meeting Aiden. In a very short time, she had found something she hadn’t known she wanted.
Needed.
He hooked his fingers in her panties and yanked them down. A beat of silence followed but she felt his gaze on her backside.
“Cherry red for me. Your skin’s so easily marked. I knew it.”
“It’s the red hair in me.”
He spanned his hands across her bum, letting her feel where the edges of the paddle had marked her. Her skin felt fiery hot and she was so turned on.
His hands left her, and he got off the bed. The mattress dipped under her. What was next on this roller-coaster journey into the unknown?
The rough bite of hemp around her middle made her gasp. She pushed to her knees again, twisting to try to see him. Not seeing what he was doing only made her more aware of her vulnerability, but it filled her with sudden calm.
She went still.
“Good sub. I’m going to tie this rope around you and suspend you.”
“Oh God.” How would that even work? She was no dainty flower. She was muscular and curvy. Would ropes support her weight without cutting her in pieces?
She had to trust him.
He worked the rope around and around her, up to her ribs and down to her hips, creating a net. Then he strung the first corner to the bedpost. She felt her upper body rise off the bed.
“This shouldn’t hurt. If it cuts into your skin at all, you say the word and I’ll stop.”
Oklahoma was her safe word. But she was fine—better than fine. She was fucking fantastic and ready for more.
“Yes, Aiden.”
“Master,” he corrected in that deep voice that was like the river flowing over rocks.
Somewhere on the floor, her phone tinkled a ring tone. Aiden stopped and turned from the bed. She heard a plastic sound as he set her phone back down. Whoever had called was definitely not reaching her tonight.
When Aiden worked her other side off the bed, he was slightly rougher. Could he be feeling the same desperate need she was? When they finally came together, neither would be able to hold back and she knew part of him wanting her this way was to pull that out of her.
With her upper body suspended off the mattress, she waited. He couldn’t work quickly enough.
* * * * *
Aiden didn’t want to see that fucking name flash across Amaryllis’s phone screen. JD. Who the fuck was he?
Aiden kept telling himself that she was here with him, wearing his ropes, his red paddle marks and soaking wet for him. Yet some other man was calling her.
He freed her legs long enough to remove her panties and then winched her off the bed completely. She hung there, inches from the mattress. Her belly dipped lower, and he didn’t want her back to suffer for it, so he found a pillow and eased it beneath her. That would help stabilize her for when he fucked her too.
“All right, sub?” His quiet question sounded harsh.
“Aiden. Master. I need to see you. Please.” Her words were choppy and his heart contracted at the sound of her uncertainty. She was asking for a connection, and he could not deny her.
He walked to the head of the bed and knelt to look into her eyes. One glance and he was a goner, thoughts of JD fled. He leaned in and kissed her forehead, her cheeks, her lips. She turned her face up for his kiss.
When he raised his head, his throat was tight, aching with emotion. She was knotting him up as much as he had her with his ropes.
She issued a shaky breath. “I want you so bad I can’t think.”
Her admission sent him into full Dom mode. He stood. Knotted her hair in his fist and guided his cock toward her mouth. He skimmed it across her lips, back and forth. She opened for him, but he resisted sinking into her sweet heat. Two pumps and he’d be a goner.
Need exploded inside him, but somehow, he managed to draw back and move behind her.
The sight of her ass, hiked up, her cheeks reddened from his paddle, and the shadow of wet pussy between her thighs dragged a groan from him. He didn’t hesitate—he crawled onto the bed and buried his face between her legs.
She cried out as he sank his tongue into her wet folds and thumbed her clit at the same time. The bed shook with her trembles—or were they his?
Her flavor coated his tongue, driving him to give her the best orgasm of her life.
It didn’t take long. She started to contract around his to
ngue. He flicked faster, deeper. She issued a loud moan and then juices gushed over his lips as her release struck. Her circled her clit with his forefinger, extending her pleasure. When she started to pant and gasp, he raised his head.
* * * * *
She’d never seen a man in real life wear a cock ring, and it was fucking hot as hell. She’d ached to take his length into her throat and feel that ring against her lips, but he’d denied her. As he was so fond of doing.
Bastard, she thought with extreme affection.
Now he’d just given her an earth-shaking orgasm and wouldn’t put his cock in her fast enough. She half expected him to paddle her some more, but that never came.
She didn’t know if she was disappointed or not.
“Can you come with a cock ring?” she asked.
“Hell yeah. Makes it much more intense and lasts longer.”
“Mmm.”
“Curiosity satisfied, sub?”
“Yes. Aiden… Master. Fuck me.”
“You want me to fuck you? Like this?” He thrust two fingers into her pussy, high and deep. She screamed as bliss washed over her like a tidal wave. With his digits in her snug depths, she lost all sense of reality and only felt.
He withdrew, dragging her wetness with his fingers, and then plunged back in.
“Oh God.” Not feeling the bed beneath her, only the prickly ropes and the soft pillow, gave her a sense of floating. She was only anchored by his touch. Those two fingers working their magic in and out of her pussy.
“You’re so fucking ready for me. You need my cock.” He bit off the words.
“Yessss.”
“You want me buried deep in you, splitting you with my thrusts.”
“Oh God, yes. Please.”
He speared her again, pressing a spot that made her flood with juices. He groaned. A second later, he pulled his fingers free and his cock entered her in one hard shove.
Filled completely, her mind, heart and soul all wrapped up in the moment along with her body, which was singing for more. He grasped her by the hips and burrowed into her. His hips slapped her body, the sound mingling with their combined groans.
She’d never been so consumed by a man or, well, by anything in her life. She closed her eyes and let Aiden have all of her. When she felt him stiffen, she knew he was close. Helplessly strung, she couldn’t move to get what they both needed.
But he did that all by himself.
With a harsh grunt, he slammed into her, and her inner walls contracted with an orgasm so fierce it stole her breath. A rush of liquid heat bathed her insides as his own roared release shattered the air.
For long minutes, she floated on a haze of ecstasy. When he rocked his hips into her one last time, they shared a moan.
“You were right,” she whispered.
“About what, doll?” So she was no longer sub. Their session was over. Now they were entangled in brand new ways.
“Good thing we didn’t do that at the B&B.”
Chapter Twelve
Aiden meticulously recorded all the findings of the past two days in his notebook. Each detail from their last trip to the slaughterhouse, where three of the cows wore ear tags that belonged to one of the ranchers with stolen cattle. That the animals had been returned to the owner, but God knew how many more had already been processed in the facility.
His mind kept returning to his night with Amaryllis. He’d made her come so many times. She’d worn his ropes like the beautiful sex goddess she was.
And he was fucking falling in love with her.
She also had more than one call from JD that night. Whoever the fucking guy was, he was persistent. As far as Aiden knew, she hadn’t returned the calls while at his house. After a long night of passion, they’d showered together, finding release in each other’s arms under the spray of water.
Then he’d taken her to the B&B for a set of clean clothes. She’d insisted on him leaving her there and driving herself back in that monster truck of hers while Aiden took the latest call on another slaughter. This time a calf.
He ground his molars back and forth as he stared at his notebook. Part of his case was in the county where Judd was sheriff, and without his twin’s input, he felt he was missing too many pieces of the puzzle.
He picked up his cell and texted Amaryllis.
Where are you?
Crossroads.
You coming to the office?
He wanted to ask who JD was.
Be there in two.
He tapped his pen on his desk. He had to find out where her mind was. If she felt the same as he did—if she couldn’t think or even see straight since their night together.
When he heard the rumble of the big diesel truck, he launched to his feet and strode outside. By the time she’d scaled her way to the ground, he stood in front of her.
“We’re going to Eagle Crest.”
Her eyes widened. “Right now?”
“Yes.”
“What’s there? What is happening?”
“Judd has a couple guys in his county that have dropped names and given information on our case. We need to go talk to him.” He didn’t want to say that he needed to see how she acted around his brother and cousin, if Wes could even get there in time. He was down south on the trail of a criminal who’d broken bond.
What would his family think of Amaryllis? She was breathtaking, and that air of confidence was something all three Roshannon men admired in a female. But no way was he sharing with Wes like he had years ago. Amaryllis was his alone.
He looked into her warm brown eyes and wondered if he was making a mistake. Staking his claim by taking her home wasn’t exactly a good idea, was it? Part of him hoped it would show him that his heart was on the right trail.
Minutes later, they were in his truck, each with an overnight bag. Amaryllis was focused on her phone, her thumbs working across the screen.
“Who’re you texting?”
“Guy from the auction. He says he has surveillance video of something we need to see.”
He swung his gaze to her. “Does that mean we’re driving over there now?”
She nodded. “A short detour. I know you’re eager to get home to Eagle Crest.”
He drew his brows together. “Why do you say that?”
“I know you love your home. But I think you should make your place here in Crossroads feel more like a haven, a place where you can relax and unwind.”
Directing his attention to the road again, he thought about what she said. During his years spent in the military, he didn’t have much to call his own. Now that he could, he hadn’t bothered. He didn’t feel at home anywhere except Eagle Crest. But being there once a month wasn’t enough.
Her phone rang, and she shot him a sideways glance before answering. “What’s up, JD?’
Aiden’s spine stiffened. She surely wouldn’t take a call from a lover in Texas while in the truck with him—and after a night like they’d shared?
“Yeah, I got the information you sent. I haven’t done anything about the mortgage yet. I’m feeling a little up in the air about the decision now.”
Aiden fixed his attention at her.
“I’m not sure I want the responsibility of a farm. I’m more of a free spirit, on the road chasing criminals.” She met Aiden’s stare. Was it his imagination or was there something else in her eyes? Something unsaid?
While she finished her conversation, he pondered everything. Including why he was so damn upset that she was talking to another man and what that look she’d sent him was all about.
When she hung up, she leaned back in her seat with a sigh. “Why does family think they always know what’s best for you?”
He jerked his head around. “Family?”
“Yeah, that was my brother, JD. He’s been helping me with my idea about buying that small farm, and now that I’ve told him my misgivings, he pours it on thicker, saying I need something of my own, a home base, a place to raise a family, blah blah. What if I
don’t want those things?”
Aiden’s heart had leaped into his throat at the word brother. It took him a full second to focus on the other things she’d said. “You just lectured me on having something of my own, but maybe the farm isn’t for you. Do you want a family?”
“Well, sure. Someday. But I’m happy with my work and I don’t think I can shimmy through windows with a big, pregnant belly.”
“You shouldn’t be shimmying through windows at all.” Making her follow the rules was like asking a pig not to eat—impossible.
She made a face and he chuckled. Suddenly he sobered, a picture of her ripe with a child popping all too easily in his mind. “Amaryllis, we need to talk.”
“What about?” Her voice held a note of hesitation.
“About us.”
She twisted her fingers together. “What do you want to discuss?”
“Well, my family’s going to ask plenty of questions, which I’m sure you can guess. We are work colleagues, firstly. But I want you to know that I’m feeling more for you.”
Her gaze flew to his. He held it for a long second before glancing at the road again to keep from having an accident.
“I’m not sure how you feel,” he said.
She tugged at a tendril of hair. “I’m not sure either. Been thinking about us a lot, especially since last night. What happened… it broke down some barriers in us and I feel like I learned more about you in one night than I could have dating a man for a year.”
He nodded. “Domination has a way of doing that. The trust, the giving.”
“It draws you closer,” she whispered.
He nodded, his chest stuffed full of emotion he had no idea how to put into words. He gave a nod to cover the moment. “Seems we’re on the same page then.” Though neither had said much at all, he felt more at ease. He reached across the console and covered her hand with his, squeezing.
“We’ll go to the auction to view that video and then on to Eagle Crest. I promise not to let my family scare you too much.”
She chuckled. “Takes a hell of a lot to scare me, Roshannon. Besides, how can I possibly meet anybody more complicated than you?”
* * * * *
Turned out she’d spoken too soon. All three Roshannon men—four if you included their father—were as serious as the next. When she’d set eyes on Judd walking across the yard from the barn, she’d nearly had a heart attack, thinking Aiden had somehow cloned himself. Then when Wes pulled into the driveway and got out of his truck, she’d believed she was seeing in triple.