Rule Changer

by Deena Patel

  “I love how you taste,” I announced, and then traced the throbbing vein running the length of his cock with my tongue. I teased him like that for a few moments, tracing, circling, and licking.

  “Please, Mistress,” Thomas begged with his head tilted backward into the sofa cushion. “It’s been too long. I won’t last.”

  I smiled, knowing he was on the verge of losing control. A thrill shot through me, soaking my thong completely. He was a Dom who was giving me his submission. If he desired, his strength could overpower me at any second; hopefully, he wouldn’t.

  I decided to end his torture and engulfed him in my salivating mouth. I slid down and then slowly up, savoring his incredible length and flavor and rubbing my tongue against the thick vein underneath. I sucked and licked, following my lips with my hands.

  His hands slid down from where I had positioned them, into my hair. I could have pushed them away, but I liked the feel of them cupping my head. I continued my ministrations, taking him deeper as my own arousal intensified.

  I hadn’t had any form of release since the last time we were together, and the need to slip my fingers between my legs tugged at my control. This wasn’t about me. A Mistress gives pleasure before she receives hers, even if her submissive desires to give her release.

  What would it be like to allow Thomas control over me again?

  The thoughts evaporated as his grip tightened and his breath grew harsher. “Mistress, stop. Or I’m going to come.”

  My lips curved as I slid down his cock again. I wanted him, the taste of him, his essence inside me.

  All of a sudden he pulled out and flipped me onto my back and hovered over me.

  The look in his eye told me the tables had just turned. No matter what he said, he could never submit completely. I should be upset he went back on his word, but this, whatever it was, felt right.

  “I want your pleasure first. You won’t deny me.” He sealed our lips, and our tongues dueled once again.

  I tried to push him back, but he grabbed my wrists in one hand and positioned them above my head. My heartbeat hammered into my chest.

  Thomas grasped the zipper of my jumpsuit and slid it down from the base of my throat to just above my pussy. His lips followed the path of the opening, pausing at the juncture between my breasts. His jaw nudged the fabric to the side, revealing my nipples.

  “I love how you’re always naked underneath these bodysuits.”

  He took one bud into his mouth, sucking and biting.

  I arched up. “Harder,” I called as I tugged my arms against the grip of Thomas’s hand.

  He obliged, allowing his sharp teeth to pinch the bundle of nerves into a tortured peak. He tightened his hold on me and then moved to the other puckered tip. His hand trailed down my body and then into the opening of my suit at the top rise of my pussy. He slid between my lower lips and circled my clit.

  “T-Thomas,” I cried as white-hot need fired to life inside me.

  “That’s it. You aren’t going to hold out on me. It’s never been that way between us and I won’t allow it now.”

  I thrashed my head as he pushed his fingers into my core and curled upward. His touch melted all my defenses, making me weak to anything but the pleasure spiraling through my body.

  “Let go, baby. I’ve got you,” Thomas crooned as he covered my lips again.

  My pussy quickened, and another flood of dampness poured between my legs. I rode his hand as tears blurred my vision.

  “Come now, Carmen.”

  I detonated, causing every nerve in my body to scream with pleasure. My pussy contracted around his fingers, and I bowed off the couch.

  Before I could come down from my orgasm, Thomas had my suit off my body and pooled at my knees, where my boots held it on. He lifted me and positioned me with my stomach against the back of the sofa.

  His cock traced the seam of my ass and then between my folds.

  “God, you’re so wet,” he said and pushed in deep.

  We both groaned.

  It had been so long. Nothing felt like him, hard and pulsing inside me.

  “Oh God,” he moaned. “This is like coming home.”

  My heart clenched.

  That’s exactly how I feel.

  He kissed my shoulder and nuzzled my neck. I wasn’t a small woman, and he made me feel tiny and delicate. His body covered mine as his hands came to grip the edge of the couch on either side of me. The zipper of his jeans scraped the back of my thigh as he withdrew and slammed back in, reminding me he held the controls. I jarred forward, and my hands covered his to keep my balance. He rode me hard, giving me everything I knew he’d held back for so long.

  My pussy rippled and contracted with each thrust. The urge to beg for release pushed at me ever more. I shook my head, but his hand came up in front of me grabbing my jaw, tilting it up.

  His desire-glazed eyes bored into mine. “Ask me.”

  A refusal touched my lips, but my words ignored my mind. “Please. Let me come.”

  He smiled, holding my gaze as he continued riding me and his other hand moved to my clit and rubbed. “Come for me, Mistress.”

  I held my breath as my core contracted around his cock and my mind clouded. My skin prickled and then my whole body spasmed, forcing me to exhale.

  “That’s it, baby.”

  A bead of sweat trickled down his face, and I realized I wasn’t the one holding back. But I knew he was doing it for my pleasure, to give me what my body needed.

  My orgasm continued to roll inside me as I cupped his face and stared into his passion-hazed eyes. He brought me over the peak one more time before clenching his eyes and allowing his release to wash over him.

  CHAPTER TEN

  My heart had barely calmed when Thomas shifted us on the sofa, lying with my back against his stomach. His softening cock still throbbed inside me. Neither of us was ready for the end of the connection.

  This was how it had always been between us. It didn’t matter if our sex was vanilla like now or with all the aspects of kink. The confusing dynamics of our relationship worked.

  No matter what I told myself, what Thomas and I shared was what I needed, even if it made no sense.

  The boys deserved a chance with their father. Family meant everything to Thomas, and with the uncertainty of what the future held with Christof, Leo and Simon would be safe with him.

  I shook the thought of Christof from my mind. This wasn’t the time to think of that asshole. Right now, I had to figure out the next steps with Thomas.

  His fingers drew circles over my stomach and the fading stretch marks left by my pregnancy.

  “We have to make this work, Carm. If not for us, then for our sons.”

  I closed my eyes at his words and responded. “Yes, we have to figure this out.”

  No matter how much I hated acknowledging it, this all-consuming and confusing attraction between us wasn’t going anywhere.

  One of his hands flattened against my abdomen, and the other played with the hair on my forehead. “I’m sorry, Carmen, for everything. I want you as much as I want the boys.”

  I lifted up my shoulders to sit, but my bodysuit restricted my movement. Thomas pulled me back against him, but his cock slipped out of me, followed by a stream of wetness from his cum.

  All of a sudden, I stiffened. We hadn’t used a condom.

  “Thomas. We didn’t use protection.” I couldn’t keep the panic from my voice.

  Thomas held me tighter, forcing me to say where I was. “Calm down. If it happens again, it only means our sons needed more siblings.”

  I elbowed him in the stomach, and he released me. “Are you out of your mind? We aren’t together, and we forgot to use a condom. Once wasn’t stupid enough, but twice?” I climbed off him and covered my face with my hands.

  What was I going to do now? I sighed. Whatever happened, I’d handle it. People joked that only a fertile Myrtle got pregnant on the first time; well, that girl was me.

 
; Arya couldn’t get pregnant no matter how hard she tried, and I got pregnant by sharing a glass of water with a guy.

  Thomas stood, jarring me out of my self-pity. He tugged on and buttoned his jeans, then crouched in front of me.

  He took my hands in his. “Carm. We’ll figure it out. For us, our boys, and any other children we have. Whether you want to admit it or not, you agreed that we’re together again.”

  “The hell I did.” I stood, pushing him back.

  I shrugged my bodysuit on, zipping it, and then paced. “I will allow you into the boys’ lives, but don’t hope for anything more from us. I won’t repeat what you put me through last year. This won’t happen again.”

  He raised a brow in response, and we both knew what I said was a lie. The attraction between us was beyond my comprehension. He was a Dom who said he wanted to submit to me, and I was a Domme who couldn’t help but submit to him.

  No. I can’t do it. I won’t ever submit again.

  “You aren’t a submissive, Thomas, and that’s what I need,” I whispered, and turned my back to him and stared at the mahogany fireplace in the large room. No matter how much I wanted or needed him, I had two boys to protect, and the only way to do that was to set parameters from the beginning.

  “What we share can’t be defined. It doesn’t make sense, but it fits us.” He approached me from behind and gently grasped my shoulders.

  “I won’t let you accuse me of forcing you to be something you’re not.” The memory of the confrontation we’d had when we broke up flashed in my mind.

  One week we were planning our future together, and then the next, after a visit to his family’s ranch, I was disposable. God, he’d accused me of so many things, including pushing my will on him.

  “I was wrong. I shouldn’t have said any of the things I did. Carmen.” He shifted to face me. “I was an idiot. Growing up, I was told a man is a man and never allows a woman to tell him what to do, and then here I was, willing to let a beautiful, tall Domme dominate me. I got scared and said things to cover my pride. I used the secrets you told me and the hurt from our families’ pasts against you. I promise to spend the rest of our lives making it up to you.”

  I stared into his pleading eyes, wanting to believe him, but I wasn’t ready. The hurt from the last year was too fresh.

  “I can’t do it, Thomas. Maybe one day, but not now.”

  “I’ll do my best to wait until you’re ready.”

  I guessed that was the best I was getting out of him. He was offering me what my heart wanted more than anything else. If only I could trust him to stand by me and not run when things got complicated, or in our case, family interfered.

  “Carm, there is one thing I want to ask you to do for me while we wait to see where we’re headed.”

  “What?”

  “I’d like for you and the boys to come to my home. To my family’s ranch. I want my sons to see the other half of their family.”

  “We can’t.” I stepped back.

  A crease formed between his eyes. “Just like that? Why not? They have a right to get to know their family.”

  I folded my arms around myself and rubbed my shoulders. How do I refuse without letting Thomas know what happened with his grandfather?

  “I can’t leave right now. I just got back, and I have a business to run.”

  “Bullshit!” he exclaimed and ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

  “Believe what you want.” I tried to move past him, but he grabbed my wrist.

  “Tell me why you don’t want to come to my home or meet my family.”

  I hadn’t told anyone but Arya and Milla what Thomas’s grandfather had said to me a year and a half ago. Thomas’s words back then had broken my heart, but his grandfather’s had sealed the decision of keeping the pregnancy to myself.

  “Why would I want to subject myself or my boys to the man who called me a thief and a whore like my father?”

  “When the hell did that happen?” Thomas demanded.

  I jerked my arm free. “After you rescued Milla and me from Christof. Seeing Diego at my office door made no sense. You and I weren’t on speaking terms.”

  Thomas visibly cringed, then shook his head as he sat on the sofa. “I shouldn’t have called you a puta. I’m sorry.” He closed his eyes for a second. “I was angry that you allowed another man to submit to you. I didn’t think that the only reason you’d do that was to save Milla and yourself.”

  “I get it, Thomas, but it doesn’t change that it was said or that we can’t be together. Just like it doesn’t change the fact your grandfather came to see me.”

  He ran a frustrated hand through his hair as his gaze bored into mine. “I don’t believe you. He doesn’t leave the ranch unless it’s for an auction. He would never fly across the country to New York without one of us.”

  My lip trembled, and then I squared my shoulders.

  I will not cry in front of him. A Domme remains in control even when her world falls apart.

  “You proved my point. This is why you and I will never work. I will never be first; hell, I’ll never be fourth.”

  “I want to know every word that was said.”

  “Why bother? I gave you a brief synopsis. You didn’t believe me. End of story.”

  “Carmen…”

  His Dom voice washed over me, and a tingle shot up my spine, but I stood my ground and smirked at him.

  “Do you really think talking to me in that tone is going to make me shake in my pants?”

  No need for him to know how he affected me.

  “Just tell me what the hell he said.”

  “Fine. Diego said I was like my father and he will die before another member of his family succumbs to a Dane. He brought up everything Dad had done to destroy his family. Then he went into great detail about how I was manipulating you and filling your head with lies so that I’d gain access to your fortune. He ended by telling me I was trash and spitting on my face.”

  Thomas stood, his face reddening with anger. “He wouldn’t do that. My aunt’s death hurt him, but he would never treat any woman that way.”

  He was never going to choose me before anyone else.

  I held my breath, holding in the pain piercing my heart, and then shrugged my shoulders and paced away from him. “Like I said, you wouldn’t believe me. You’ve placed him on such a high pedestal, and nothing will allow you to see what he did. The best I can now offer you is a chance to be in Leo and Simon’s lives, but whatever we had is over. I won’t ever be last on anyone’s list again.”

  I held my head high and walked toward the door. I hoped that I wouldn’t break down before I made it to the car. No matter how hard I tried to pretend I could handle Thomas, it was a lie. He still held my heart and continued to crush it.

  Thomas grabbed me and held me against him. A tear slipped past my eyes and dripped onto his bare chest.

  “I’m sorry, Carmen. Please forgive me. I just reacted to the news. I never expected anything like this from him.”

  Does he believe me, or is he saying that to keep me here with him?

  I remained quiet. There was no point in saying another word. Nothing would change.

  He pulled back, cupped my face in his hands, and thumbed my stray tear. “We have to move on from the past. Please give me a chance. Let me prove to you that I want you and will put you and our boys first.”

  I closed my eyes. There wasn’t any moving past the things Diego said to me. And I couldn’t trust Thomas wouldn’t flip on me again.

  “I can’t give you more than a friendly relationship.” I stepped out of his hold, and he released me. “I won’t lie. I loved you more than I ever loved Andrew. But then again, you hurt me more than he ever did, even with his cheating. Our boys deserve you in their lives. I know you’ll be a good father.”

  “I’ll be a good husband to you, too.”

  I shook my head. “No, Thomas you won’t. I can’t give you what you need, and you can’t do the same for
me. I won’t pretend even for the boys’ sake. Eventually we’ll both find people more suited of us.”

  With those words, I walked to the door and opened it.

  “Carmen,” he said behind me, a tinge of anger in his voice.

  I paused and braced myself for his words.

  “Remember, it’s my cum coating your pussy. No other man will ever give you what you need. You belong to me as much as I belong to you.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Get up, lazy bones. I’ve come all the way from Boston to Carmen-nap you.” Arya’s cheery voice called out from the threshold of my home office.

  “Sorry, beautiful. I have work obligations,” I responded as I reviewed a proposal from a company that had been courting MCD for the past five months.

  “You could at least look up when rejecting me.” Arya pouted and walked in, pulling the prospectus from my hands.

  “Hey,” I yelled, scowling at her. “I don’t have time for this. I have to get all my work in before Thomas comes over to meet the boys tomorrow.”

  My heart skipped a beat. It had only been two days since I left Thomas at the party. We’d communicated about the boys but nothing else. It was as if he didn’t want to touch the subject of us with a ten-foot pole, and I was grateful for it.

  I hadn’t told the girls about what happened, but with the way the rumor mill worked, I was sure it had taken less than thirty minutes to reach their ears. The fact that they hadn’t pumped me for information surprised me.

  My hormones were a mess, and sleeping with Thomas hadn’t helped. Every time my pants rubbed against my pussy, I remembered the feel of him pounding into me. I was so desperate at times that I pulled out my long-forgotten battery-operated boyfriend. But I couldn’t reach the release I craved. Damn Thomas and his magic cock.

  “Ms. Hermit, we have to get you out of here.”

  “Whatever,” I mumbled.

  She frowned at me. “Don’t try to blow me off. Let’s get moving.”

  “Look, I’m freaking out about everything going on with Christof, so I refuse to leave the building until the security around the boys and me is locked down tight.”