Total pages in book: 767
Estimated words: 732023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 3660(@200wpm)___ 2928(@250wpm)___ 2440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 732023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 3660(@200wpm)___ 2928(@250wpm)___ 2440(@300wpm)
Alexander growled—an alarming, sexy sound—and grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her back.
Had she gone too far? Her thoughts scrambled as she tried to figure out how to backtrack. She shouldn’t have been so aggressive. He liked submissive women, and while he’d seemed to respond well to her pursuing him last night, maybe—
Alexander hooked his fingers under the straps of her dress and yanked them off her shoulders.
Alena gasped, instinctively raising her hands to press the bodice to her chest, halting its descent.
“Drop your arms.” It wasn’t a request, but a command.
Again she shivered, even as she dropped her arms to her sides.
The satin slithered down her body, the friction hardening her nipples. As she stood trapped between his legs, naked except for a red-satin g-string, she had a sudden foreboding that what happened tonight would change her.
Alexander relaxed even more, as if the sight of her submissively naked calmed him.
“Your safeword.”
“Sherman.”
He looked around the dungeon, caught Lillian’s attention, and nodded to her. She inclined her head and hustled out.
“We’re playing now?” Alena asked softly.
“Not officially. Not until I have your list.”
“Then I’m going to keep talking to you. Keep asking you what’s wrong. Why you think I should be scared and run away.”
He stroked her stomach with the back of his fingers. “If you ran, I would chase you.” It sound like a threat.
“I chased you,” she reminded him.
“True. But if you ran from me, when I caught you I would punish you.”
The mention of punishment made her breath catch.
“You should be afraid, because every time I find myself distracted by thoughts of you, my plans become harsher.”
Alena felt a stirring of true fear, the words more impactful while she was mostly naked and trapped by his legs. He was larger than her, stronger than her. In a pure physical contest, she would lose.
“Scared?”
“Should I be?” she countered.
Alexander reached out and cupped her neck, running his thumb up and down her throat, from the notch where collarbones met sternum, to the underside of her jaw.
“If you knew the things I’d imagined, you would be.”
“Tell me what you imagined.”
His thumb shifted, pressing against the pulse point on the right side of her neck.
“If I do, you’ll run.”
“I won’t. And even if I did, you’d chase me.”
“Don’t run, then. Use your safeword. Walk away.”
“Who are you trying to scare, Alexander? Me? Or yourself?”
“Scare myself?”
“Do you scare yourself?”
He frowned, his thumb once more idly running up and down the front of her neck. “Perhaps I do. No man wants to admit they’re the beast rather than the knight.”
The mention of “knight” made her wince internally, since she’d dubbed him the black knight in the game she was currently playing.
She met men who reveled in being “the beast.” She’d suffered at their hands.
Alexander wasn’t like them. “You are most definitely a knight.”
“I’m not.”
“You are. Your armor is tarnished, and you might ignore the rules of courtly love…” Alena put her palms on his chest, the first time she’d dared to touch him like this, though she’d been snuggled against him last night in aftercare.
Alexander stared at her with an expression she couldn’t quite decipher. It was both remote and hopeful. As if he were simultaneously distancing himself from what she was saying, while also hanging on each word.
“And when you rescue the virgin princess…” Alena smiled “You drop her off at the nearest castle.”
Alexander’s expression relaxed into a grin. “I have no use for virgins.”
His hand slid from her neck, down her chest, palm rubbing over her right nipple. She arched into the touch, offering herself.
He palmed her breast, kneading her flesh. “And who are you in this story?” There was no hesitation in his touch.
“Maybe I’m the local bawdy tavern wench?”
“No. You are too elegant.”
“Maybe I’m—” She choked to a stop as he gently pinched her nipple, rolling it ever so slightly.
“Master Alexander.” Lillian placed a small sheaf of papers on the table beside their glasses.
“Thank you, Lillian.” Alexander turned to look at the other woman while continuing to roll and tug Alena’s nipple.
“Alena.” Lillian inclined her head Alena’s direction.
“Lill—” Alena broke off with a yelp as Alexander pinched hard and pulled.
Her nipple slipped from between the vise of his fingers and Alena’s yelp turned to a moan.
Alexander picked up her new papers and started to read. Alena’s fingers trembled as she reached for her champagne glass, finishing it off as he reviewed the updates she’d made.
“You’ve allowed penetration with both toys and my fingers, but no sex. With sex being defined as my cock penetrating either your ass or pussy.” Alexander set down the papers and looked at her.
“I thought about removing all the restrictions,” she said softly. “But I…”
I can’t, because no matter how much I tell myself that our scening together, my submitting to you, is entirely separate from my using you for the job, even my powers of compartmentalization aren’t that strong.