Uncollared by Nona Raines Page A

ground his teeth, trying to hold back. His cock ached to explode, his climax so close his vision blurred, but he needed her to come first. He needed to give her this.
    “Yes. Come on, baby. Come for me, please.” It was a request, not a command. Mia’s gaze captured his as she bumped her pelvis against his one last time. She stiffened in his arms. Her mouth went slack while her pussy rippled around him and her fingers dug into his flesh. That was all he needed. A few more hard pumps and he was gone with her.
    Gone. Too far gone to ever get back.
    * * * *
    Mia lay in the dark, her eyes wide open. It was early morning—she’d slept all night. Chess lay beside her, the rhythm of his breathing telling her that he was sound asleep. But she couldn’t sleep. Thoughts were twirling like a tornado in her brain.
    She’d arrived the night before wanting to be punished, to be mastered by him. And she had been mastered, in a way she never expected. She’d been overpowered not by Chess’s dominance, but by his passion. Last night the two of them had not “played.” They had made love. They were not Top and bottom, or Dom and sub, or Master and slave. They were lovers.
    Lovers was serious. Mia never meant for things get to this point. Yet when she needed someone, she’d called Chess. And he’d been there for her.
    But what was she to Chess? Just another play partner? Or a challenge, perhaps, a chance to wipe the stars from the eyes of a BDSM newbie.
    She was in trouble. After last night, her feelings for Chess were far more complicated than they should be. She liked him. She cared about him. She cared for him.
    And she’d called him Master.
    She edged out of bed and found her shirt draped over the seat of a chair. As she picked it up and fumbled for the rest of her clothing, Chess spoke. “What are you doing?”
    “I need to go home. I’ve got work in a few hours.”
    “Take the day off. You’ve been through too much.”
    She’d been through too much? It was Serina who’d been through too much, Serina and her little boy. “I can’t.” The office would be in mourning, overwhelmed with sorrow and disbelief. They’d all need one another’s support. “I should be there.”
    He turned on the bedside lamp, and Mia squinched her eyelids in the brightness. Chess sat up in bed, the comforter bunched around his waist. Mia couldn’t look at his naked chest, his broad shoulders, without wanting to climb back into his bed and burrow against his warmth to feel safe.
    Now that the room was lit, she spotted her bra and panties and scooped them up. Plain old cotton—she hadn’t dressed to impress last night, hadn’t even thought of it. She’d come to him because she needed his help.
    And he had helped her.
    “Mia.” His voice stopped her in the midst of scrambling haphazardly into her clothes. “Come here.”
    Damn . The authoritative timbre of his voice made her want to melt. She was on the verge of making a complete fool of herself because all she wanted to do was fling herself at him and beg him to never let go.
    Didn’t you learn anything from the fiasco with Philip? You were too needy, Mia, too clingy. A pesky burr he only wanted to shake off.
    Slowly she walked to the edge of the bed where he sat completely unembarrassed by his nudity. Even mussed from sleep, heavy lidded and whisker stubbled, he could steal a woman’s breath. Mia set her jaw. Her mouth watered to lick every inch of his exposed skin.
    “Right here,” he told her, widening his legs and indicating that Mia should stand between them. As she did, he then gestured for her to go down on her knees. She obeyed, her tongue cleaving to the roof of her mouth.
    Chess looked down at her face, caressed her cheek with his hand. Then he bent down and kissed her, his mouth claiming hers. Making a point.
    When he pulled back, he said, “You know everything’s changed now. For both of us.”
    She gazed at him, trembling with excitement and fear.
    “I’m your