Page 37 of Bought

I’d already been hard before her exquisite little performance and now I was even harder, and the thought of another man taking what I’d bought and paid for was…not happening.

You weren’t supposed to let her get under your skin.

I wasn’t and yet somehow it had happened anyway. Distance was the way I usually played it, and that was why I’d avoided getting to know the subs I played with. Why I only played with the club subs, never getting too close, never getting in too deep. The power exchange was limited in my case. A sub would give me their submission for a night and in return, I would give them the pleasure they craved. We both got something out of it. But I never hit Dom space the way a sub could go into subspace. I never got that high, the rush that some Doms got.

Yet just before, watching this little one fuck herself with her fingers as she obeyed my commands to the letter, her silvery eyes darkening as she came…

I was aware of nothing but her. The whole world, Caleb, Fox Tech, the Hamiltons, and even my worries for Isabel had fallen away. All there was, was this fascinating little sub and the pleasure I’d given her glowing bright in her eyes. And how I wanted to show her more, what deeper pleasure there was to be had under my control.

It was dangerous to feel this way about her — it was dangerous to feel anything at all — but one thing I knew: I couldn’t let her go searching for this from someone else. She was too new and wouldn’t know which clubs were decent or which Doms were good. She was also too vulnerable for an inexperienced Dom.

You can make it about saving her all you want, but the simple fact is you want her because you’ve made her yours.

I shoved the thought away, staring into her eyes, her pulse fast against my palm. She was very warm and smelled of sweetness and sex. The scattering of stars on her forearm was stark against her pale skin, and I suddenly wanted to know why stars? Why a little cat? Why that delicate flower on her side beneath her arm?

“Please,” she said, the fury dying out of her gaze and leaving behind it that sweet and unexpected vulnerability. “I’ve never belonged to anyone before and just for tonight I…I want to belong to you.”

A weight in my chest shifted at the bare honesty in her voice. This was the truth. This was a little piece of herself she was giving me, and I could already tell what a gift it was, especially considering she was so guarded and defensive.

You can’t refuse that, not when you want it, too.

I wasn’t a good man. I never had been. And while I certainly pretended, I was — I was nothing if not a hypocrite after all — I couldn’t pretend that I didn’t want her on her knees at my feet. That I didn’t want her to belong to me just as she wanted to belong, even if it was only for a night.

She’d done well tonight so far and leaving her alone would be a poor way to reward her.

I firmed my grip on her throat and held her gaze with mine. “You will be afraid, little one,” I said softly. “And I will use that fear. I will turn you inside out. It will all be mine in the end, all your secrets, all your passions. Everything that you are.”

She swallowed, her throat moving against my palm. “Only if I give it all to you. And I might not.”

She’s got your number.

Oh, she might think she did, but she didn’t, and the anticipation of the battle of wills to come was already making adrenaline flood through me in a hot rush.

She would be the distraction I needed tonight, the perfect focus. And perhaps if I had tonight, I’d be better able to deal with the question of Isabel and the danger to her from the Hamiltons.

So, I stared hard at the little sub kneeling on the bed in front of me, beautifully naked and still flushed from that orgasm she’d given herself under my direction. Her pulse raced beneath my palm.

She was still far too young, but better I show her what she really wanted than some other Dom who didn’t know what they were doing, especially young men who thought domination was all about them and what they wanted.

I stroked the side of her silky neck with my thumb, watching heat flicker in her eyes in response. “Some rules,” I said. “You will do what I say at all times. You will not speak unless spoken to. You will follow every order I give you and you will not protest. Talking back, speaking out of turn, any kind of disobedience will result in punishment and some of those punishments may be physical.” I stroked her again. “Are you sure you’re ready for that?”

She didn’t hesitate. “Yes. Yes, I’m ready.”

I searched her face to be sure, but there was no doubt in her eyes, so I took my hand from her throat and turned, going over to where her cloak lay on the floor. I picked it up, plus the purse that sat next to it, and brought both back to the bed. “Come here.” I pointed to the floor in front of me.

She slipped off the bed and stood where I’d indicated. I wrapped the cloak around her shoulders and fastened it at her throat, handed her the purse, then I took her chin between my fingers and tilted her head back, so she was looking straight up at me. “You will address me as ‘Sir’. Since you refuse to give me your name, I will continue to address you as ‘little one’. If you want another name, you’ll have to earn one, understand?”

She flushed as if embarrassed, but only nodded.

Satisfied, I gripped her arm and escorted her from the room.

My driver was still waiting outside the hotel, so I bundled her into the car and issued the order to take us home.

I didn’t speak during the journey, and she remained silent, her hands clasped in her lap, obedient for a change. I took out my phone to check my texts and had to restrain myself from texting Caleb to ask him what was happening with Isabel. I’d given care of her safety over to him and I had to trust that he’d make it his priority, but I still wanted to know what was happening.

He called me a control freak and he wasn’t wrong. I had a few small issues with trust. Then again, Caleb was like a brother to me — or at least, what I’d always imagined a brother to be like since I didn’t have any siblings of my own — and I’d known him since we were both fifteen and alone on the streets together.

He’d looked after Isabel a lot when she was a kid, because I didn’t trust Sir George, and he’d never let me down. He wouldn’t now.