totally Damon’s fault. He hasn’t figured out how to distract his sub, and Emily’s singlehandedly keeping us at the top of the leaderboard. Which is quite the trick when you’re a pretty woman in a demure green dress sitting on a team couch full of Doms who’ve clearly failed every acting class they ever attended.
I shake my head as Scorpio’s team takes possession of the velvet bag and Ari gets up again. She looks at her strip of paper, and then something odd crosses her face and she walks over and whispers into the ear of her Dom.
He gives her a look I can’t read and nods. Permission granted, for whatever it is.
She ditches her high-heel boots and latex leggings and lets down her hair, and suddenly she’s Ari in floaty red lingerie, looking young and ethereal and dreamy.
I have no idea what word she’s going after. It doesn’t matter. My eyes are on my sub. She hasn’t moved, hasn’t done anything obvious to grab my attention. But she’s watching Ari, and only Ari, and Scorpio’s eyes are yearning and running scared again—and the spell doesn’t break until the one Dom in the room who clearly didn’t fail his acting classes bends Ari back in one of those swoony kisses that looks like it belongs on the cover of a romance novel.
Then Ari snaps back into being Ari, her Dom pushes whatever evil button he has in his pocket, and she comes in his arms, hard enough to cause an earthquake and cursing a blue streak, and Scorpio’s laughing along with everyone else as the boldest sub in the house loses her bet and plants a huge kiss on the cheek of the man who made it happen.
I’m still stuck in the moment where my sub’s eyes went all soft and haunted. It’s the second time in two days I’ve seen it. Fear and longing.
Fuck. I just want to hold her tonight. I don’t want to push her.
But that’s the man talking.
The Dom can see her need.
There’s an edge coming, and we need to face it, and I’m going to need to help her. But she asked more of me, and somehow I need to give her that too. The fun and the safety and the deep goodness of the in-between. To spank her and tease her and make her come and then tuck her in next to me and hold her while she sleeps.
Even if that makes tomorrow harder for both of us.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Scorpio
O ne minute I’m sitting on the couch laughing, listening to Ari curse and mutter, Marla still shaking with merriment beside me. The next I’m slung over the shoulder of an impatient caveman and watching all my new friends laugh upside down as he storms out of the room.
I’m damn tempted to swat his ass and make him put me down. “The fuck?”
“That can be arranged too.” He sounds far too pleased by that thought.
I sway for a moment when he puts me down. We’re in the dungeon, and that’s about all I have time to register before he sits down on a spanking bench, grins at me, and holds up two fingers. “Two more for the smart-ass thoughts you had as I dragged you in here.”
He’s definitely gone all Dom on me—but there’s a lightness to it. A teasing. And damn if it doesn’t make me want whatever’s coming next. I glance over at the door and the big ears I’m sure are on the other side.
“Eyes on me, beautiful.”
My head snaps back to him before I can even think.
“There are consequences to yanking on your Dom’s chain.” He pats his leg. “Drop your jeans and bend over my lap, ass in the air.”
A whimper sneaks out, and I slap a hand over my mouth at the raw desire in that sound and what it must tell him.
He reaches up and pulls down my wrist. “Never try to hide what you feel. Not from me.” The corners of his lips turn up. “Looking forward to this, are you?”
I suck in a breath, not sure whether to shake my head or nod. “Maybe. I think so. I don’t know.”
He chuckles, and then his eyes do that stern thing again. “Pants down. Ass up.”
I thought this might feel like being a kid in the principal’s office. I’m so
I shake my head as Scorpio’s team takes possession of the velvet bag and Ari gets up again. She looks at her strip of paper, and then something odd crosses her face and she walks over and whispers into the ear of her Dom.
He gives her a look I can’t read and nods. Permission granted, for whatever it is.
She ditches her high-heel boots and latex leggings and lets down her hair, and suddenly she’s Ari in floaty red lingerie, looking young and ethereal and dreamy.
I have no idea what word she’s going after. It doesn’t matter. My eyes are on my sub. She hasn’t moved, hasn’t done anything obvious to grab my attention. But she’s watching Ari, and only Ari, and Scorpio’s eyes are yearning and running scared again—and the spell doesn’t break until the one Dom in the room who clearly didn’t fail his acting classes bends Ari back in one of those swoony kisses that looks like it belongs on the cover of a romance novel.
Then Ari snaps back into being Ari, her Dom pushes whatever evil button he has in his pocket, and she comes in his arms, hard enough to cause an earthquake and cursing a blue streak, and Scorpio’s laughing along with everyone else as the boldest sub in the house loses her bet and plants a huge kiss on the cheek of the man who made it happen.
I’m still stuck in the moment where my sub’s eyes went all soft and haunted. It’s the second time in two days I’ve seen it. Fear and longing.
Fuck. I just want to hold her tonight. I don’t want to push her.
But that’s the man talking.
The Dom can see her need.
There’s an edge coming, and we need to face it, and I’m going to need to help her. But she asked more of me, and somehow I need to give her that too. The fun and the safety and the deep goodness of the in-between. To spank her and tease her and make her come and then tuck her in next to me and hold her while she sleeps.
Even if that makes tomorrow harder for both of us.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Scorpio
O ne minute I’m sitting on the couch laughing, listening to Ari curse and mutter, Marla still shaking with merriment beside me. The next I’m slung over the shoulder of an impatient caveman and watching all my new friends laugh upside down as he storms out of the room.
I’m damn tempted to swat his ass and make him put me down. “The fuck?”
“That can be arranged too.” He sounds far too pleased by that thought.
I sway for a moment when he puts me down. We’re in the dungeon, and that’s about all I have time to register before he sits down on a spanking bench, grins at me, and holds up two fingers. “Two more for the smart-ass thoughts you had as I dragged you in here.”
He’s definitely gone all Dom on me—but there’s a lightness to it. A teasing. And damn if it doesn’t make me want whatever’s coming next. I glance over at the door and the big ears I’m sure are on the other side.
“Eyes on me, beautiful.”
My head snaps back to him before I can even think.
“There are consequences to yanking on your Dom’s chain.” He pats his leg. “Drop your jeans and bend over my lap, ass in the air.”
A whimper sneaks out, and I slap a hand over my mouth at the raw desire in that sound and what it must tell him.
He reaches up and pulls down my wrist. “Never try to hide what you feel. Not from me.” The corners of his lips turn up. “Looking forward to this, are you?”
I suck in a breath, not sure whether to shake my head or nod. “Maybe. I think so. I don’t know.”
He chuckles, and then his eyes do that stern thing again. “Pants down. Ass up.”
I thought this might feel like being a kid in the principal’s office. I’m so
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