Slave To Love (17 page)

“Taren, wait.”

She wanted to wait. She tried stopping her body. She continued moving like a woman on a mission. She bolted through the door and ran toward Jace’s SUV.

“Are you okay?” Jace used his key fob to unlock the door.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. I need to get back.” She hopped into her seat and secured the belt around her body.

As soon as Jace settled himself behind the wheel, he took no time in taking off for the house. “I hope that scene back there didn’t overwhelm you.” Jace spoke in low, soothing tones. “I wanted you to see what you could expect.”

Taren nodded, afraid that if she spoke she would blurt out her true feelings, that the whole scene aroused her. She pulled on her seatbelt, this time wanting to feel the pressure against her breast and body.

She pressed her knees together but it didn’t help. She needed to touch herself or be touched. She glanced at Jace. When he looked back at her, she averted her gaze.

“What’s going on with you? Tell me the truth.” Jace’s forceful voice along with Taren’s honest nature pushed her to blurt everything.

“I liked what I saw.” She exhaled. “It all turned me on. Is that strange? I feel like that should be odd or something.” She ran her hands over her thighs and down her legs. “I need to get to my room where there’s a Jacuzzi tub with strong jets.”

Taren didn’t care if she embarrassed herself with her admission. She told the truth. If Jace thought that that made her immature or weird, she would take that. For now, she had bigger fish to fry, and an orgasm that crested on the edge.

Jace pulled into the driveway. Instead of going on the circular driveway and pulling up in front of the house, he continued on the long driveway down the side of the house to get close to the guesthouse in the back.

He jumped out of the truck as soon as he turned it off and made his way around to her side.

Taren already had the door open and had been prepared to jump out and go in the house to take care of some business. “Thanks for the ride and the tour. I appreciate—”

“There is something wrong with you.” Jace glared at her.

Taren hadn’t expected to hear that from Jace. “What are you talking about?”

“BDSM is more businesslike than anything else. There are contracts. You agree to certain types of play. Although Doc Doc inserted something into that play bottom, sometimes insertion is not a part of the play. All parties have to agree on that.” He held Taren’s upper arm. “If you’re still expecting to find your Prince Harming in all this, you’re going about it the wrong way.” He pulled her to the front door.

“I don’t need you to lecture me.” Taren pulled out her house key given to her by one of the associate producers.

Her hands shook so much from a combination of anger and excitement that she could barely get it in the lock. “Shit.”

Jace snatched her keys from her and unlocked the door. “You’re too young for this. Grow up. Realize that you can’t fall in love with a lifestyle or idea.”

Taren tried to ignore Jace’s negative words as she stumbled up the stairs. “I don’t know what happened to you in your past, but your experience and mine may not be the same.” She glanced down at him as she made her way up to the top.

It could have been the distance between them or her heightened sensual state, but it looked like Jace’s breathing had increased. When she glanced down below his belt, she thought she saw a distinct bulge in his shorts. Even if she had imagined it, the sight didn’t help her current state. If anything, her skin felt even more alive.

A shower. She desperately needed to feel something hitting all parts of her body at once to relieve this ache.

Taren turned her back on him. “Thanks for the experience.”

She made it to her bedroom and slammed the door behind her. With each step to the bathroom, she stripped out of her clothes. First went her top and bra. Her shorts, panties, and shoes got removed next.

Her hands trembled as she turned on the shower. No hot water for her. She needed something to cool her body down. Taren stepped into the glass stall with its stone floor and walls.

She stood under the water while she cupped one breast with her hand and buried her other hand between her legs. Before she could get in a good stroke, a voice stopped her.

“No.”

Taren looked through the glass door and saw Jace standing at the bathroom doorway. In her haste, she’d forgotten to lock the bedroom door.

“Get out.” Taren turned back to the streaming water.

She didn’t care if the man wanted to stand there and watch her masturbate. Hell, if cameras had been in the room to catch the action, she still wouldn’t have stopped. This stranger had no chance of regulating her actions right now.

“Don’t you fucking do it.” Jace still stood outside of the bathroom, but his words shook Taren to her core.

Anger filled her body. She removed her hands and slammed the water faucet off before stepping out of the stall.

She stood in front of Jace, dripping wet and piping mad. “You have no right to come in here and tell me what to do.”

He nodded. “I do. Until you’re collared, I’m the closest thing to you having a Dom.” Jace moved in closer to her, which forced her back up against the sink. “I don’t want you playing with yourself and reinforcing the idea that this lifestyle is romantic or sexy. You’re going to be someone’s submissive. It could be a woman. You need to learn to submit.”

Taren could barely breathe. She heard every word Jace had said, but her body interrupted her common sense to notice everything else around her, like the way he smelled like a summer rain, or that his eyes looked like the brightest blue sky, or that she desperately wanted his mouth on her pussy.

“You’re right.” Taren nodded. “I need to treat you like you’re my Dom until this show starts. And if you don’t want me masturbate, I won’t.”

Jace looked like he exhaled. “Good. I knew you would see it my—”

Taren turned around and placed her hands on the counter. “Punish me.” She looked back at him. “Spank me.”

Chapter Eleven

Jace stared at her firm ass. One cheek could fit in his hand.

He knew her trick. She baited him to get him to get her off. Too bad her plan worked on him. He stormed to her. Jace had planned on giving her a hard spanking, one that she couldn’t mistake for something sensual.

He slammed his hand on the counter on top of hers. The connection made her gasp. She panted as she gripped the counter with her other hand and arched her back to raise her hips in the air.

“I’ll count out the hits.” She turned to him. “Do it until you teach me how bad I am, how wanting this is wrong.” Taren leaned her head against his chin. “Please. Just touch me. I don’t care if it hurts.”

Jace pulled back from her. She’d said what he’d wanted to hear from a woman. So why had it scared him?

“Go to bed.” Jace left the bedroom and closed the door behind him. It took him no time to coast down the stairs and run over to the guesthouse.

He didn’t bother turning on the lights. The one light in the bathroom that he’d left on gave him enough illumination to make his way to the bed. He needed space between himself and the virgin flesh he left in his bedroom. He had a feeling that had he spanked her, he would have been the first. He could have either gotten her more excited about being a submissive or totally turned her off to the lifestyle.

Jace didn’t want to think about the third scenario, which was that he would want her in the process. He thought about her wet skin and her pink lips. He ran his hand over his chest as he paced the floor.

Jace shouldn’t have done it. He shouldn’t have taken Taren to the club, and he definitely shouldn’t have barged into the bathroom. As soon as she’d bolted during the scene, he knew that she either hated what she saw or liked it.

On the ride home, he’d noticed how she’d looked at him. She didn’t seem revolted. The way she wriggled like a worm on a hook, she seemed turned on. Then she’d told him the truth.

His guess had been right. Being right this time didn’t feel good. He tried squelching her desires by telling her what Eagan had told him the first time he’d started training as a Dom. Don’t expect to fall in love. Don’t do it for sex. Don’t mistake the sensual play for anything else.

A knock sounded on Jace’s door before the person tried to open it. He didn’t make the same mistake Taren had. He did lock his door.

“Jace, talk to me.” Taren knocked on the door again. “I need you. I need to talk to you.”

He heard her clawing at the door. Fuck, what had he done? He approached the door, but didn’t open it. If he did, everything would change. He had promised Ananda that he wouldn’t get involved with anyone related to the show. Fucking Taren would definitely break that promise. Damn, he wanted her.

“Go back to the house. Go to sleep.” Jace put his hand on the door. “Your head will be clearer in the morning.”

A pause lingered before she started pounding, not knocking like before. She sounded like she had both fists hammering against the door.

Jace could have let her continue doing that. He could care less what his neighbors thought. If only her actions didn’t echo his feelings.

He opened the door. He found Taren standing on the other side with her arms in the air as though ready to continue hitting the door.

“I told you to go back to the house.” Jace wanted to still maintain control even though he’d lost that as soon as he refused to spank her in the bathroom.

“I know.” Taren stepped into his space. “My behavior needs to be corrected.”

Her wet hair stuck to her forehead and face as she approached him. She covered her body in the white silk robe that she’d worn the first time he’d seen her in his house.

“You do need to be punished.” Jace grabbed the sash around her waist and undid the tie.

He ripped the robe down to the floor to expose her nude body. Taren gasped but remained standing. That would soon change.

Jace grabbed her arm and pulled her to the small living room area. He sat down on a chair and pulled her face down onto his lap. “Count out the spanks.” He rested his hand on her ass. “You’re going to get ten hits, understand?”

She nodded.

Jace fisted her hair and pulled her head back. The motion blew the dust off of his latent need to control. “Say it.”

“Yes, sir.” Taren held onto his leg.

Jace landed one hit on her cheek. The sound echoed off the walls.

“One.” She tightened her hold around his calf.

He spanked her again, on the other cheek this time.

“Two. Yes.” She tried nodding, but with his grip on her hair, she couldn’t.

He continued the spanking. With each hit, he felt his cock getting harder and harder. He knew she could feel him under her, growing. She ran her fingernails over his leg. At the tenth hit, he heard her uttering something. His pounding heart thudded in his ears and prevented him from hearing her clearly.

“What did you say?”

She turned her head and stared at him through a heavy-lidded gaze. “Green.”

She knew the safe word to keep the punishment going. Jace pulled her off his lap. He didn’t know if she couldn’t stand or wanted to be down by his crotch, but she remained on her haunches on the floor.

He stood. “Up.”

Taren rose to her feet and faced him. Jace glanced down at her breasts. He brought his hand up to hold one, stroke her nipple. As soon as he caught her wanton look, he knew what he had to do.

Jace held her breast. Taren’s knees buckled and her breath caught. To remove all of her romantic notions, he pinched her nipple between his index finger and thumb.

Taren gripped his arm as he continued the pressure.

“Breathe,” he said when he noticed she started to hold her breath.

Jace shouldn’t have said anything. Just because he wanted her to look at BDSM for what he knew it to be didn’t mean that he had to become an irresponsible Dom.

Taren took a deep breath but continued holding her breath in while he inflicted his punishment.

“If I have to tell you to breathe again I’ll—”

She cut him off. “Yellow.”

Jace didn’t increase the pressure. He kept it the same to see if that would make her submit.

Taren gripped his shirt. After a few deep breaths, her body seemed to relax. She peered up at him. “Green.”

Jace released her. Her reactions had him floored. After a spanking and aggressive breast play, he hadn’t dissuaded her from being a submissive. If anything, she’d convinced him of becoming a Dom again.

Unable to fight the feeling anymore, Jace grabbed the hem of his shirt to remove it. Taren tried helping him, but at her short stature, she couldn’t get the garment above his head. He removed it and tossed it to the floor.

By the time he pressed her back against the wall, Jace worked on his shorts. She used her nimble fingers to try and help him, but he pushed her aside.

He glared at her. “I want to fuck you.”

Taren licked her lips and brought her head up to kiss him.

Jace jerked back. “No. No kissing.”

He didn’t want the moment ruined with anything intimate. He worked on pure adrenaline. He didn’t want to stop. It had been far too long since he’d felt a touch of a woman.

As soon as Jace’s shorts hit the floor, Taren wrapped her hand around his shaft. The touch rendered him immobile for a moment. He braced his hand against the wall and savored the sensation. 

“Is this okay? Can I touch you?” Taren brought her hand up and down his shaft. “Can I kiss here?” She got on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his neck, then moved down to his collarbone and chest.

He had to stop her before her lips touched his nipple. Jace lifted her and carried her to the bed. He needed to be close to the new box of condoms he’d purchased when he ventured out after breakfast.

Jace opened a drawer in the nightstand next to the bed. He removed the box of condoms and shredded the box to get to one. Before he could roll it on himself, he watched Taren crawling backward on the bed on her elbows. Her body looked perfect.