The Shy Dominant (10 page)

“I don’t know.” He carefully pulled her into his arms. “You could have any man you wanted.”

She gripped his T-shirt. “After all these months of coming in here, of talking to me, of sharing and becoming friends, you think I want anyone else?”

“I think right now you want
anyone
else.”

“Okay, yeah.” Now he had her laughing again.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you. It’s that you’re so beautiful and experienced and… I’m just a guy.” He dropped his head.

“My guy.”

“Yeah?” His face lit up like a sunbeam.

“What do we do now?”

“Well, I’ve been thinking about it. Would you come to the wedding?”

Dharma stiffened. “Your ex-wife’s wedding?”

Fred rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m hating it without you. And I need to show up because I’m not going to force my girls to go…”

At that, Dharma grinned. “They have other plans, huh?”

“They
hate
the idea. All week they’ve been making my life hell and I thought…why should they go? Is there a scoreboard out there saying they aren’t good daughters, good people if they skip their estranged mother’s wedding?”

Dharma sagged against the counter. “No scoreboard. So you’re just going to let them be kids and not try to force them into a mould? And you ask why I’m”—she swallowed—“crazy about you?”

“Unfortunately, I’m an adult, so I have to attend. Make it bearable and come with me? I’m useless without you, baby.”

His head was against her neck and she loved the feel of him, all big and masculine and needing her. She felt encompassed by him, as if this was her place.

“Yes, I’ll go. I didn’t like both of us reverting to being single again.”

“Because after what we did…we aren’t.”

She nodded. As crazy-fast as it had happened, the kinky sex, the decision to take a risk had bonded them in a way that she didn’t quite understand. She only knew she craved more.

“You’re feeling insecure with me, so why not find a way to be sure?” she prodded, wrapping her arms around his neck.

His eyes widened, then grew calculating. “Taz suggested I bring you over to a special place he visits sometime soon.”

Just like that she felt herself getting wet. It was his tone of voice, like he’d down shifted into a more primal part of himself, channelling his dark side.

As if to prove her right, he slid one hand under her skirt. She gasped when he reached her panties. He cupped her, squeezed, and she moaned, trembling, her legs opening wider for him.

He slid his hand under her thong and smirked when she soaked his fingers.

“You can’t wait for me to dominate you again.”

“No,” she whispered. “After Taz used that crop on me, I looked at my ass in the bathroom mirror until the marks faded.”

“You liked them?”

“I did like them. I surprised myself.”

“Me too, by how hot it was to watch him giving them to you.”

Their breathing had picked up.

“How soon before you have to open?” Fred demanded.

“Five minutes.”

“Enough.”

He strode to the front and drew down the screens. When he turned around, Dharma’s panties were on the floor. His eyes flared. He grabbed her by the hips and put her on the counter.

“How do you feel about getting fucked hard, right now?” His voice was hoarse.

She whimpered.

He pushed up her skirt and spread her wide. “You’re not pregnant?”

She shook her head.

“Rationally I’m glad. It’s too soon.”

“I know, I know.” But she’d wanted to be pregnant. She couldn’t understand the overwhelming want of it. It swamped her now.
Down, hormones,
she ordered. This wasn’t the time, not yet. She wanted Fred with all her heart, but they couldn’t just be together so easily. Could they?

He fished a condom out of his wallet and pushed down his shorts, wasting no time in covering himself. Freed, he was long and thick and she couldn’t stop from reaching out and stroking him, wanting him to come home inside her.

“Oh, fuck, don’t do that, or I’ll come.”

She smiled.

He lifted a brow. “Do I have to order you to stop?”

“Probably.”

He jerked her to the edge of the counter and thrust into her.

Dharma screamed, her legs wrapping around him.

Fucking—it was fucking in the crudest and most wonderfully delicious sense of the word.

He used love names, sex names. He pulled one of her thighs open. “I need deeper in that sweet little cunt.”

“Yours.”

He reached between them and gave her a possessive squeeze. “Damn straight. When”—he frowned, panted—“does your shift end today?”

“Uh…five.” She couldn’t think. She was on fire, living for every drag of his big cock. The only thing that could have made this better was if they’d had time for him to give her a spanking before he fucked her. At the thought of that, she groaned, almost feeling the impact of his hand on her ass, seeing her offering it to him, pink from his swats. He’d take her from behind so she could feel her spanking, could feel how he owned her.

“I’ll come back tonight. Don’t put the panties on. I want you to feel where I fucked you all day. I want the air to touch you and remind you that when you close I’m going to do you again. In fact, you better get used to me bending you over this counter after work.”

Her body was luscious and wet, receiving him slickly. He pinched her nipples—hard—and she arched her back. “Need it…from you.”

“
Only
from me,” he growled.

“Yes.” He caught her hands above her head and held her gaze as he fucked her. He wouldn’t let her look away for a second. She could hide nothing from him, not her thrill in her submission, not her body’s reaction to him, not the way she burned between her legs to come.

“You want to be outrageous, Dharma? You do it with me. If I decide I want to watch another man touch you or even fuck you, it’ll be on my terms, at my command.”

His words touched her off, sent her flying so she contracted tightly around his cock, over and over again as she groaned, giving it up for him.

Chapter Nine

Dharma sucked in a breath before smacking the golden lion door knocker against the black lacquered door.

There was a long pause then the door to the discreet club where Fred had asked her to meet him Friday night opened. A young man raised an eyebrow and Dharma told him she’d been invited by Taz, using Taz’s real name—Norman.

No wonder he preferred his nickname. It didn’t suit him, unless you thought about Norman conquerors, medieval knights and broadswords. That was the kind of Norman that fitted Taz.

“You’re expected,” the man said and Dharma took in what he was wearing. Black leather pants and no shirt. His hazel eyes were sober but gave the impression he’d break into a smile at any time. When he turned his back to lead her into the mansion, she saw red welts on his back.

“All you need for tonight’s entertainment is in this room.”

She was shown into a small bedroom off the foyer. There was a brocade covered bed, a painting of a seascape and the suggestive perfume of white lilies on a dresser. Somehow the room felt hotel-like and anonymous although it was very classy.

On the bed she saw two scraps of pink, and not baby doll pink but fuchsia, one of her favourite colours. She remembered telling Fred in one of their endless conversations at the coffee house how she liked colours that were alive.

He’d laughed and said he wished he had her courage. He just stuck to beige and black. She’d leaned over close to him and whispered that he didn’t need
clothing
to look good. In fact, she bet the opposite was true.

He’d blushed, of course.

She smiled now at the memory. “Thank you. After I, ah, change, what do I do?”

The young man shrugged. “Wait here. Someone will come for you. Oh, and your car and clothing will be delivered to your home if you’re not, um, in the state of mind to deal with it later.”

Very intriguing
. Dharma put down her purse and pulled off her red halter top and bra. Too bad Fred wouldn’t get to see it—yet. When she was nude, she picked up the first piece of lingerie and another memory hit her. It was the duplicate of something she’d seen window shopping in town, a sexy peek-a-boo set she’d actually confessed to Fred she had a weakness for but couldn’t afford—and this was months ago. Had he bought it for her way back then? He must have.

She slipped on the panties, which were a ring of frothy pink that accented but in no way concealed her sex. The bra came up to her nipples, lifting and cupping her breasts as if for a man’s hands. Looking at herself in the mirror, she had never seen herself look more frankly sexual. She looked like a rich man’s toy.

Her hair was up. On impulse she tugged out one of the pink ribbons she’d used free, leaving it messier and more suggestive. The ribbon she tied around her neck, making her look like a gift.

A knock at the door. It opened a second later, revealing Taz and Fred.

Both men were dazzling in black turtle necks and jeans, hinting at the superb conditioning of their bodies and showing off their darkly tanned skin, but Dharma automatically took her cue from Fred.

He looked grim with his skinned blond hair, his blue eyes focused on her with hungry intensity. His gaze ran over the bra and panties and the way they showcased her assets.

Fever burned, making her nipples harden, aching for the first touch of his mouth, making her body slick, wanting his fingers.

The atmosphere pulsed, dark and anticipating.

Going with instinct, Dharma went directly to Fred and fell to her knees, wrapping both arms ardently around one leg.

She heard him suck in a shaky breath, then felt his hand cup her head, big and callused and full of possession. “Oh, baby, you look good like that. I want to see you like this all the time.”

His hand messed her hair up even more so it fell around her. He nudged her with one boot so she was riding the leg she’d been hugging. She gasped at the ruthless feel of cool impersonal leather against the most intimate part of her body.

“Like that?”

“Yes.”

“So hot for it.” Taz also caressed her hair, making no secret of the burn of appreciation in his dark green eyes. “She’s the perfect sub for you, Fred.”

Dharma felt a thrill at their appreciation. She decided this was part of what she liked about the games she and Fred were playing, the way she felt worshipped, as if he would do anything to please her.

As if he were reading her mind, he said, “I think I’ll call you Aphrodite when you’re dressed like that. Christ, you stop this old man’s heart.”

“Old?” She cocked a brow. “Experienced, tempered,
male
.”

He closed his eyes, his face tightening. “You make me feel all those things.” His eyes snapped open. “
Only
you.”

His gaze again demanded more than her submission, but her commitment. Her throat dried because it was a holy-shit-I’ve-never-done-this kind of commitment. The kind that would make her his woman, on a roadside when he took her, at the office when he pulled her onto his lap in his office and kissed her, on rainy winter nights when she had the flu so she slept in late in their bed.

Their bed.

Whoa.

What was she thinking?

She didn’t do this kind of commitment. She played, she had fun, she invited men or the occasional woman into her bed for a hot tumble.

She didn’t live with a man with two daughters.

She didn’t make a baby with that man.

But hadn’t they almost done that?

What had Fred done to her with his shy smile and his rock hard body and his steely determination, giving her more pleasure than she’d ever experienced?

Wily male.

There was a sharp mind behind that sweet smile, behind her friend. And tonight was more of the taste of the forbidden he was carefully offering her. As if he planned to make her addicted.

“Here are the rules,” Taz said, folding his muscled arms. “Fred will allow you to be touched and spanked. Everything else requires his approval.”

Dharma’s heartbeat accelerated. She wanted to ask questions, but she was also dying
not
to—because she liked the suspense of not knowing what would happen. She’d never been to a club like this.

Fred reached down and helped her to her feet. He cupped the back of her neck firmly so that she felt collared by his touch. Taz led the way down a rich cherry-panelled hallway, fragrant with the same white lilies.

Dharma was conscious of the lustful looks she garnered from both men and women as she walked past wearing her peek-a-boo underwear. Fred didn’t let go of her neck, as if he needed to assert his ownership.

They entered a large great room with a state of the art stainless steel kitchen to one side and a sunken living room with a towering beach rock fireplace. A couple of young men were sprawled on the couches. They straightened immediately when they spotted Taz. Dharma saw respect and a touch of apprehension in their gazes, as if the younger firefighter inspired both.

Then she noticed something else about the strangers—they bore an uncanny resemblance to Andrew and Anton, her favourite models.

She frowned at Fred, but he was being careful to avoid her gaze.
What are you up to?
She wondered. Did he feel a need to recreate the night they’d fought but maybe this time deliberately place himself in the picture?

“No one else will enter the room while we’re here,” Taz spelled out and Dharma snapped her attention back to him, appreciating that he was listing the rules for tonight’s game. She also appreciated the pause that always followed his announcements, as if he were giving her and Fred time to talk if she was uncomfortable about something.

Her gaze flashed to Fred and she saw him watching her quietly, even as he continued to blush. He tapped one foot, letting her know he was both restless and slightly embarrassed by the force of his anticipation.

But he wanted this. He wanted her spanked and touched and looked at by other men, all while he watched, all while he alone had the power to grant or deny her favours.

It hit her then that this was new to him too. Why else would he be working with Taz? He wanted everything safe and consensual for her, and on the job, he had to rely on Taz in life and death situations. There couldn’t be a deeper trust than what the two men already shared.