Auctioned to Protect [The Spectrum Auctions 2] (Siren Publishing Allure)

by Doris O'Connor

  “Show me,” Scarlett interrupted him and he stopped dead and scowled at her.

  Damn infuriating woman. He lifted his left arm, and she stepped closer to inspect the fine line left behind. That blade had punctured his lung and put him out of action for a while. He sucked in a breath when she followed that line and used just enough force for her long fingernails to score his skin.

  “Anywhere else?” she asked.

  Their gazes locked as she continued to run her hands over his naked skin, and he had to clear his throat to get the words out.

  “My back.”

  She stepped away and around the table and then her soft little hands were back, tracing a line down his spine this time, until she found the mark just underneath his kidneys. He grimaced at her sharp intake of breath, and then closed his eyes when something soft and supple touched his scars there. Had she kissed him? Sure enough when he risked a look over his shoulder, she was in the process of straightening up, her expression unreadable.

  Their eyes met again and she smiled at him.

  “I can see why this would freak you out, but I never break the skin—never. In the right hands a knife can bring the ultimate erotic pleasure. I’ll show you, if you let me.”

  It was on the tip of his tongue to blurt out a very emphatic no, but something in the quiet way she studied him stopped him.

  “You mean I get a choice?”

  This time he could read her expression all too well. Irritation radiated off her in almost palpable waves, and he knew he’d goofed up again.

  “Forget I said that. I know it’s my choice. Laura screeched that at me often enough. How it’s her choice to do all this, and to jump at Slade’s bidding.” He couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice, and Scarlett narrowed her eyes and shook her head.

  “And yet you clearly didn’t hear her, did you? What you describe is not the way this works. Laura and Slade’s relationship is far more complicated than that. Your sister is a strong, independent woman, and her submission to her Master is entirely her choice. Submission is a gift any Dominant treasures, and it’s a responsibility none of us take lightly.”

  “So you say,” Mike grumbled under his breath.

  Scarlett went very still and when she finally looked at him, her previously warm green eyes were icicles of steel.

  “Then there is really nothing else to say, and I’ll escort you off the premises.”

  “Oh no you won’t. I have a job to do here.”

  “Then fucking do it, and open your closed-off mind to the possibilities. There is no place for you here otherwise, and Laura will have lost a brother as well as her parents.”

  Her voice could have cut steel, and the ice-cold disdain with which she still regarded him cut through his protective layers of indifference as though she had cut him with that damn knife.

  “Keep my fucking sister out of it. I’m here to protect you on order of the commissioner himself, and I’m not moving until I get the bad guy.”

  Scarlett moved so fast he never saw it coming. One minute she was stood glaring at him, the next she had her whip in her hand and the end of the damn thing missed his head by inches. Only he got the distinct impression that she didn’t miss him at all. Every crack of the whip rung in his ears, and the air whooshed past his face, yet she never touched him. Mike didn’t dare move, too caught up in watching Scarlett swing that whip with such deadly precision.

  When she finally stopped, a fine sheen of perspiration marked her skin and she let out a slow exhale.

  “Does that look as though I need protecting?” she asked.

  * * * *

  Oh the damn man was utterly infuriating. She’d expected him to do something, anything, yet he’d simply sat there, stock-still, not uttering a word. Sure he’d gone pale under his tan, and his hands were balled into fists, his blue eyes blazing with some undefined emotion she couldn’t quite decipher, and that pissed her off even more.

  “You won’t always have your whip handy, or are you telling me you sleep with the damn thing?” His voice was deceptively calm and measured, and she could see him using that tone as he reasoned with some offender. “And even if you did, we both know that I could tuck you under one arm if I wanted to. Like it or not, My Lady, one well-placed punch and you’d go down.”

  She flinched at the intonation he put on My Lady. Rather than a title, it sounded more like an insult.

  “Do you honestly think, that the sick guy who sent you blood-soaked underwear is going to be put off by your whip? You need room to swing that thing for starters, and I get the impression he’d get off on being hit by that, so that’s not going to put him off, now is it? Stop being so goddamn difficult and let me do my job.”

  “That’s an impressive speech, Officer Anderson, but I’ve no idea what the fuck you’re talking about. I received a few crank letters that’s all, I didn’t—”

  His vicious curse froze the words of disdain on her tongue.

  “He didn’t fucking tell you, did he?” Mike asked.

  “Tell me what? Stop talking in goddamn riddles.”

  A shiver of unease went down her spine when Mike pushed himself off the table and stepped toward her. He took the whip from her, took her hand, and steered her toward the settee in the corner.

  “Sit down and I’ll fill you in.”

  She would have protested, but the grim expression on his face stopped her. This wasn’t good news, that much was clear.

  “Fill me in on what?”

  Mike sat down next to her and put one large hand on her leg, as though to reassure her. Under normal circumstances she’d have bitten his head off for that presumptuous move, but these weren’t normal circumstances and he was not her sub, auction or not. Besides, she quite liked the heavy weight of it on her leg. It emphasized how very male he was and made her wish with every fiber of her being that he was hers, and they weren’t just pretending. Regardless of what her hormones were screaming at her, this wasn’t real, could never be real. Mike was only here to do a job as he’d stated often enough. She had to remember that.

  He tightened his hand briefly on her thigh and then sat back and looked at her warily.

  “Perhaps we ought to start with what you think you know.”

  Scarlett groaned and he smiled.

  “You’re not pulling that routine on me. Tell me what the hell is going on,” she said. “What is this nonsense about underwear?”

  Mike sighed and removed his hand.

  “Do you recall a break-in about a month ago?”

  Scarlett frowned.

  “Of course I remember that, but nothing was taken. We had all the locks changed, and Slade employed a new security firm. It was odd, but…” She paused as the truth dawned on her and red-hot anger coursed through her veins. She jumped off the settee and paced the length of the play room, aware of Mike’s watchful gaze on her as her stiletto boots clacked across the stone floor. To his credit he kept quiet and let her mutter under her breath.

  “He had no damn right to keep that from me. Let me guess, some sick bastard broke in and left this underwear? It could have just been a prank.”

  “You didn’t see the underwear, My Lady.”

  The softness of his tone and the use of her title made her stop her rapid pacing, and the sudden quietness of the room seemed menacing.

  “It was made worse by the fact that the items were soaked in human blood. Lab reports confirmed it, and he did take something.”

  This was yet more news to Scarlett. What else had Slade kept from her?

  “What did he take?”

  “Enough evidence to link the commissioner to the club and to you,” Mike said. “It seemed there were some incriminating pictures of the commissioner and yourself in…err…well…”

  “In a scene. Spit it out, Mike. It’s what I do, after all.” She had to smile at the flush staining his cheekbones. “Have you seen them?”

  “No, I’m not privy to the particulars. I had no need to know. I was just told
about them. That was bad enough.”

  Scarlett could just imagine what his reaction must have been. What most people’s reactions would be to see the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, a staunch family man, dressed in a nappy, and being fed by a bottle by hers truly. Their play was never sexual, but no one outside of the lifestyle would believe that, let alone the commissioner’s wife. And certainly not the man sitting in front of her now.

  “I have to wonder why there were pictures in the first place. For a man in his position coming to the club is risky enough, without adding pictures into it.”

  Scarlett chose not to answer that, and Mike shrugged his huge shoulders and sighed.

  “I get it, none of my business, but the fact remains that the Commissioner is pretty keen on getting those pictures back. He’s been getting blackmail threats, and when he refused to acknowledge the demands made, the threats became more specific. It seems whoever the sick bastard is, he is rather affronted that you’ve been doing those things with the commissioner and not him. His last note said that your time was up. That your blood was on the commissioner’s hands…Whoa, there, I’ve got you.”

  The walls seemed to close in on themselves and from far away Scarlett heard Mike’s voice. She blinked to get her gritty eyes to focus, and when the world came back to her she was sat on the settee, safely ensconced in Mike’s beefy arms, his heartbeat a reassuring thud under her ear. Immediately she pushed away from him, but he tightened his hold on her.

  “Not so fast, My Lady. You went so pale then, I thought you were going to faint on me. I knew you weren’t as tough as you made out to be.”

  Her elbow in his solar plexus wiped the infuriating smirk off his face, and he released her.

  “Keep that up, brass, and you’ll find out just how tough I can be. In fact, I’ve had enough of this. I want you under that suspension kit now. It seems I’m stuck with you and it’s time you learnt who’s in charge here. And once we’ve done that, I’m going to find Slade and kick his overbearing ass for keeping this from me.”

  Chapter Four

  She didn’t think for one minute that her tough-guy cop would do as he was told, and her stomach tightened into a painful knot of disappointment the longer he sat there and just looked at her. She stared him down, painfully aware that this meant far too much to her. Why should she care about this overbearing asshole? They could just pretend when they were out in public. No one need know that they weren’t really in a D/s relationship.

  Even as she thought that, Scarlett pushed that thought away. With anyone else that plan might have worked, but she was too attracted to this man, had been from the first minute she’d laid eyes on him and they’d locked horns. Her close friendship with his sister didn’t help either. As much as Laura rallied and cursed him, she loved her brother and had told Scarlett many tales of their childhood that had shown a different side to Mike. The siblings might not be close now, but they once had been, and Scarlett had promised Laura’s Master to take Mike down a peg, to make him understand.

  She clenched her hands so hard that her nails dug into her palms, and Mike finally moved. With a grace that seemed out of sorts for his huge frame, he knelt on the stone floor in front of her and grasped her hands. Heat arched up her arms from the simple contact, and she put up no resistance when he uncurled her fingers one by one and then pressed kisses along the crescent moons left behind by her nails. Scarlett knew she should stop him, but the reverent way he worshipped her hands left her breathless and wondering. By the time he stopped and sat back down on his haunches to look up at her, her heart was trying to beat itself out of her chest, and the raw lust she saw in his heavy-lidded gaze took her breath away.

  “Why?” he asked.

  The single question hung in the air between them, heavy and expectant, and she took a step away from him, to stop herself from reaching out to touch him.

  “Why what?”

  Mike laughed and gestured around the room, and with a self-deprecating glance down at himself shook his head.

  “This. All of it. Why do you need this? I really want to understand this, but I just can’t wrap my head around it. Why the fuck am I even down here? I mean I’m all for going along with what turns a woman on, but this is just…”

  He let his words trail off and she had to smile at the bewildered expression on his face.

  “How do you feel down there, right now?” she asked and he frowned again.

  “Stupid.”

  “Why?”

  Mike’s groan trembled through her, and she had to fight the urge to clench her thighs together.

  “Because usually the only reason I’m down on my knees in front of a woman is because I’m going to eat out her cunt, okay? And something tells me you’re not going to let me do that anytime soon, so yeah, I just feel stupid.”

  He glared up at her, every inch of his large muscular frame tense and looking uncomfortable, but it was the look in his eyes that made her blood sing.

  “And if I told you that you could do just that? What would you do?” she asked.

  Her question had the desired effect as he visibly relaxed and some of his usual cockiness returned.

  “I’d rather show you than tell you.” His voice had taken on that sandpapery feel again. Every syllable of his deep baritone seemed to scrape along her nerve endings and settle deep inside her core. It made her want to take him up on his offer so badly she had taken several steps toward him before she even realized what she was doing. He flinched when she dug the pointed toe of her boot into his groin and groaned when she ran it along his hardening dick.

  “I’m sure you would, big boy, but I want you to use your words. After all, how am I supposed to know if you’re any good at it otherwise? I might be wasting my time.”

  He crunched his teeth together and balled his hands into white-knuckled fists on his thighs. When he looked up at her again, his eyes were almost black with need. Seeing her own lust reflected in his eyes pitched her arousal one step higher and she was suddenly desperate to take this to the next level.

  “I’d start by grabbing that damn zip end with my teeth and pull it away until I could reveal your cunt layer by layer. I’d take my time and drive you crazy, as my breath teased your moist folds, and I would lap at your cream. I’d lick and nibble my way around the outer lips and then delve deeper inside until I found your sweet spot. I’d coax that little nubbin with my teeth until it swelled and peeked out of his hiding place proud and strong. Then I’d use my hands to spread you wide, so you opened to me, and I’d blow across your moist flesh, until you’re so needy for me that your hands yank at my hair and push me into your cunt. Then I’d lick you all over, without touching your clit and then I’d use my tongue to fuck your sweet hole. You’ll be gushing for me and I’ll take you right to the edge and then I’ll leave you hanging until you can’t stand it anymore, and you scream for me to make you come. Then and only then I’ll suck your clit so hard you see stars whilst my fingers fuck you into multiple orgasms, and if you’re a very good girl I’ll even let you have my cock.”

  Blood rushed in Scarlett’s ears at the erotic images his words provoked. Though in her mind’s eye, he was Shibari tied and unable to move whilst she sat on his face and he worked his magic with his lips and tongue alone. His goatee delivered friction where she needed him most, and she came in a big gush all over his beard-roughened face as he lapped at her juices like a man starved of water for days.

  The hand closing around her ankle brought her out of those lust-filled musings and she had to grab onto his big shoulders to stop herself from toppling over when he flung that leg over his shoulder. Hands digging into her hips, he pulled her close enough for his hot mouth to do exactly what he said he would, and she closed her eyes against the sensuous slide of the zip as he pulled it open with his teeth.

  Cool air hit her heated cunt and Mike inhaled sharply against her bared mound.

  “I knew you couldn’t be wearing anything under there. Fuck, you’re so
hot.”

  He flipped her until she fell onto the settee with a gasp, and before she could react, his lips closed over her clit and sucked it into the warm cavern of his mouth. Tingles of awareness spread from that bundle of nerves all over her body and Mike grunted against her as he settled into the task.

  Oh he was good, too good, in fact. Already Scarlett’s body climbed the rungs of bliss, and when he pushed first one and then two fingers into her pussy hole, the world tilted and narrowed to just the feel of those thick digits pumping in and out of her. Her vaginal walls clenched and unclenched around that invasion and he fucked her harder, adding a third finger, whilst his mouth and lips worshipped her labia. He circled her clit with his tongue and the appreciative groans of delight coming from this big man eating her out as though she was the sweetest candy added delicious vibrations.

  Just as he promised he took her to the edge and then let off, looking up at her with a sinful grin. Goatee covered in her juices, he looked like the cat that got the cream and she did push him back between her legs and rode his face with wild abandon.

  Breath coming in short agonized gasps, she nonetheless managed to bark out an order.

  “Don’t you dare stop again! I need to…God yes, just there, harder, harder…Yes. Yes, I’m…”

  An orgasm so intense it took her breath away rocked through her body and she bowed off the settee and ground herself against his face, eager to prolong the sensations holding her body in their firm grip. Mike stepped up his suckling and found her sweet spot deep inside with an unerring precision that had her tumbling over that sweet cliff again and again.

  When he finally let up, Scarlett collapsed back against the settee, dimly aware of the infuriating man’s satisfied grin as he looked up her body and wordlessly zipped her back up.

  * * * *

  Fuck, she was utterly beautiful when she fell apart. All that tight control she held onto obliterated by the pleasure he’d been able to give her, and she tasted divine. Mike knew he was taking a risk, and no doubt retribution would be swift and painful for him once she caught her breath, but man, that had been worth it.