Page 4 of Take Her

I felt her nod again, and let go of her. “All right—if you’d like. Just one last question, then: what do you want to get out of tonight?”

That made her blink with surprise. And then she inhaled, as if to say something, but then fell back, swallowing whatever words had been on the tip of her tongue, as her gaze jumped everywhere but at me. “I—I don’t know.”

“Don’t know—or would rather not say?” I pressed.

“Can’t say,” she answered quietly.

“Brave enough to get spanked in front of strangers in public, but too scared to tell me why?” I asked with bemusement.

“Something like that,” she said, looking down briefly at her pedicured toes—before raising her chin back up defiantly. “What is it that you want?”

“For you to call me sir,” I said simply.

She groaned at that, as I hid a grin. Then she sighed heavily, before asking, “And what is it that you want, sir?” in a falsely congenial tone, like each of the words pained her.

I gave her a Machiavellian look—the same kind of look I gave suited men in boardrooms before I stole their companies from them—and instead of taking a highly appropriate step back, she took a challenging step forward, so brazen she almost made me laugh while giving me a hard on.

She was the exact type of woman I shouldn’t have been playing with. She ran hot, then cold, she didn’t know the rules, but was determined to win the game. And she had to be less than half my age. I considered lying to her, but seeing as I had already had a more interesting night with her than I’d expected, if I were honest with her and she backed down now, then either I’d sorely misjudged her, or it wasn’t meant to be.

“Well?” she demanded, staring up at me, completely fearless, so I decided to reciprocate.

“What I want, little Lia, is to make a pretty spectacle of you.” The women on the throne were moaning louder, and the scent of sex was heady in the air—so I took her chin again and leaned down and in, so she could hear me, and I would only smell her honey-scented shampoo. “I won’t tell you how beautiful you are, because you surely know it,” I said quietly into her ear, “but I like the idea of you strewn across my lap, your heart-shaped ass in the air, you mewling with each stroke as I spank you, preferably until you cannot breathe, and possibly until you cry.” My desires became more cogent as I gave them voice, and then they outstripped rational thought entirely. “I want you to dredge through whatever brought you here tonight and leave it behind as I beat it out of you, until there’s nothing left of you but the pride that you’ve survived me.”

I heard her breath catch in my ear. “Are we playing now?” she whispered.

“Yes.”

“Then . . . I want that.”

“Which part?”

“All of it,” she said, before adding, “Daddy.”

I made a dissatisfied sound as I rose up, releasing her. “I’m not sure whether or not that makes me feel old, or like a monster,” I said, giving her side-eye with an arched brow.

But then she was there, her eyes wide and her expression begging me for something I already knew I couldn’t give her. “Why not both?” she said, with absolute sincerity.

The acridity of cleaning products cut through the air. The women on the throne were through, and some of the club’s new members were doing their service hours, quickly preparing it for our show.

And Lia was still . . . hoping, I thought, was the best verb.

Wanting me to be something for her that I could never be. My only consolation was knowing that no other man in the room could manage it either—so it was just as well that she was with me.

I heaved a sigh. “Fine. I can call me that. You cannot call me that. And this is just one scene. Nothing real. After that, I don’t owe you—and you don’t know me,” I said quietly.

She nodded quickly. “I understand,” she said just as quietly back.

“All right.” Everyone in line knew we were next, and the throne was empty.

Waiting.

I centered myself, ignoring everything else, settling my full attention on her like a heavy cloak, and I watched her accept it, frighteningly receptive, ready to respond to all of my cues. She was like some kind of filly indeed—one who’d been searching for the right rider—and so I gave her a somewhat wicked grin. “Lia, would you like everyone else in this room to see what a good girl you can be for me?” I asked her with utmost indulgence.

She gave me the sweetest, most trusting smile I’d ever seen, one that made me feel like an asshole for sins I hadn’t even committed yet. “Yes, please,” she said, beaming.

I offered her my hand, and she took it.

I let her lead the way to the throne, so that I could watch her ass—might as well pre-game some, since I was back here—and so that everyone else would see her acting of her own volition.