by Angel Payne
She dipped back down, attempting a little lick at his dark-red crown. “Lobster’s not what I want in my mouth right now.”
He’d been saving a teasing grin to give her along with the brow. It faded as his cock twitched, instantly telling him whose side it was on here. “I should seriously fill your throat with come for that.”
Her pupils dilated. “Sí. You should.”
He rebuked her with a thick growl. She’d deliberately stressed her accent for the comeback, which made his dick respond with another aching jerk. While they both watched, it sprouted a huge drop of precome. Ava stared as if his erection had turned into a bar of fucking Godiva.
“Go ahead,” he said, “but enjoy it well. I’ve got other plans for how you’re going to take my cock inside you today.”
He loved watching the color that flared to her cheeks as she bent her lips to his erection one more time. With her eyes still lifted to his, she rolled her tongue several times around the base of his glans, spurring a harsh hiss from between his teeth. Finally she moved back to his head, sipping off the liquid there with a needy moan. Holy fuck…
“All right.” He had to push the syllables out as he forced his cock back into his pants and feverishly zipped up. He didn’t bother with his belt, though. Very soon, it was going to come in handy for other purposes.
The same comprehension crossed Ava’s face while she watched him begin to pull the leather free from its moorings. As she emitted a breathy Spanish expletive, he let out a chuckle. This was one of his favorite parts about being the woman’s Dominant…these moments where he pulled an action that stunned her enough that she let go of herself, allowing him to play with her thoughts. Though real apprehension bolted itself on her features, he also watched her nipples bead harder and her tongue dart across her lips. A little fear went a long way when it came to moistening this woman’s pussy.
He rose but left her kneeling in front of his chair. She knew better than to move, but he also anticipated her stealing glances at him as he took the long way around the large conference table. In this case, he actually counted on it. He wanted her to see him picking up her purse from where she’d left it on the table and reaching in to retrieve the lube he’d stocked there—along with the tube of red lipstick she’d also tucked inside.
A grin sneaked across his lips as he watched the puzzlement that pursed hers.
After striding back around to the head of the table, he braced himself in front of Ava again. She kept her head down now, exhibiting a flawless submissive’s pose, stirring him to stroke the top of her head in appreciation. He sifted the tips of his fingers through the cascading curls of her ponytail. They were as curvy, silken, and perfect as the rest of her. That lush beauty, along with the generosity of her heart and the loyalty of her spirit, blew him away every day. How the hell could she ever lose sight of her own worth…not see the splendor that he did every time he beheld her?
He vowed to make her see that more clearly.
“Up,” he bade softly, using one hand to help her stand. With the other, he pushed a couple of buttons in the table. Two holes flipped open, clearly meant as cup holders, on the left and right of the big boss laptop bay. He eyed the distance between the circles and nodded, pleased with himself. This would be perfect.
Ava’s mind, which sometimes trumped his in the arena of kinky possibility, snapped to its own conclusion a second later. “Caramba.”
He smirked. “You know that shit only encourages me, baby.” Though he seriously wanted to fuck with her head a little more, keeping her off guard was the higher priority. Without preamble, he grasped both sides of her waist and swung her up, placing her ass perfectly in the laptop bay. Since that naturally hiked up her thighs, he slid his grip down to both her legs and then spread her wide. When he reached her feet, he shot her a teasing mope while easing off her heels. “Take a memo, Ms. Chestain. The next time we order a conference table, the cup holders need to accommodate high heels.”
“Of course, Mr. Archer.” Her breath chopped out of her in quaking spurts as he took off her other shoe and positioned her heel into that cup holder. She supported herself on her elbows, watching him with fervent focus as he glided both hands back up her legs…approaching the flower that was now spread and ready for him. “W-Will that b-be all, Mr. Archer?”
He took his time about shaking his head, instilling salacious intent to every inch of it. “Not by a fucking longshot, Ms. Chestain.”
“I s-see. All right, then. Wh-What else can I get f-for you?” She went on battling for breath as he traced his fingers up the seams between her pussy and her thighs. Christ, she was glistening for him. Her clit peeked from between the wet folds, begging for him to take a taste. “Coffee? Tea? Me?”
“Wrists,” he returned. As much as he longed to dive his face into her sex and devour her through the first of many orgasms, he stuck to his plan. That began with finishing pulling off his belt as she lay back on the table and dutifully held up her arms. She made him ten times harder as she emitted adorable little mewls while he wrapped the leather strap several times around her wrists. He finished off the bondage by leaving a sizable lead off the end. It always made sense to have a few ways of guiding one’s subbie, and he found the tongue useful right away, letting him yank her close for a tender but teasing assault with his lips on hers.
“Ay dios mio,” she rasped when he was done. Her gaze was hooded, her cheeks flushed, and her lips full with blood from kissing him…and sucking him. Ethan ran his tongue along the seam, sneaking in another taste along her smooth teeth.
“You taste like lust, sunshine. And come.”
“I want more,” she entreated. “Please, Sir?”
He pulled away reluctantly. “Lie back, Ava. We have a little lesson to go through first.”
She scowled, openly disgruntled—and suspicious. “Last time I looked, this was an executive office, not the training room.”
“Hush,” he admonished, straightening to stand upright between her legs again. “Extend your arms over your head.” As he trailed the tips of his fingers along her inner thighs, he emphasized, “You are open to me now, Ava. You are open for me. Tell me you understand.”
She let out another quivering sigh. She loved it when he caressed the insides of her legs, and they both knew it. “I—I understand, Sir. Ohhh, thank you, Sir.”
“You’re welcome, sunshine.” He invoked the words slowly, giving them all the force of three other words that resounded in his heart. I love you. I do, Ava. So much. “Does this make you feel good?”
Her skin shivered and pebbled as he explored around her kneecaps and down her shins. “Ahhh, yes. Really good.”
“And beautiful?”
“Yes…yes.”
“And special?”
“Yes. Always. With you, Sir…always.”
He stopped and clamped hard into her lower thighs. “No. Not always.” As her muscles tensed, he persisted. “Not last night. You were with me last night, and yet you fell prey to people who wanted to tear you down. And you let them.”
Her eyes closed. She turned her head, clearly trying to hide from him, which was impossible with her arms stretched out. “Last night was about a lot of things, okay?”
“I know that, baby.” He eased on his grip. After a second, he skated his hands up to her waist and tenderly held her there. “I know we had a massive curve ball thrown at us—”
She cut him off with a huff. “Try a whole inning’s worth.”
“That’s fair,” he conceded. “But it’s also life. It’s going to be our life, whether it’s my mother, or my job, or your job. You remember the first day we saw each other again, on the set? When Bella hijacked your day by sending you to the villa to coordinate her party?”
She realigned her head and opened her gaze back up to him. “How could I forget?”
“We managed to turn that curve ball into a homerun, right?”
“Hmmm.” She giggled. “Right.”
A smile roll
ed over her lips, breathtaking and bright. Its beauty spread to the rest of her face. She took his breath away when she looked like this, her dimples deep and her eyes alive, but telling her that wasn’t going to sink the lesson in. Making her see it, not just in her mind but in front of her face, was the only way to make it stick.
He could absolutely arrange that.
As he pushed his hands up to her breasts before slowly teasing her nipples, he gave her a new command. “Tell me how you feel right now.”
At first, she flashed him a saucy version of her are-you-fucking-serious glower. But when she looked harder and understood his deeper context, she visibly tamped her frustration. “You’re not making it easy to focus on that answer, Sir. Not when you…touch me like that…”
“I strongly beg to differ.” He let her see how the curves of her body made his teeth clench and his nostrils flare. He let her feel it by sliding his fly against her pussy, stimulating her with the hump of his straining cock. “Besides hot, horny, wet, and wanting, how do you feel right now?” He scraped his thumbs across the gorgeous red tips of her nipples, tormenting her, adoring her.
“Ohhhh! Mmmmm…”
“Lovely.” He squeezed her tips harder. Nudged his hips tighter inside hers. “But not answers. I’m waiting, Ava.”
“All—all right!” she retorted. As the storm howled harder at the window, her voice dipped into a raindrop-soft rasp. “You—you make me feel…treasured.”
“Treasured,” he echoed. “That’s good.” He kissed her softly in thanks. “Very good.”
“Thank you, S—what the hell?”
Her protest came too late. Not that he would’ve let it halt him. As he’d planned, her deep-red lipstick made an ideal marker for writing the word diagonally across her torso. From her right hipbone to her left breast, she was now branded: T-R-E-A-S-U-R-E-D.
“What else?” he prompted her again. Damn. Forming the words was harder than he thought—but so was his cock. Gazing at his writing across her body brought a surge of possessive lust he hadn’t anticipated but sure as hell wasn’t going to deny.
The change in his tone wasn’t missed by Ava. Her smile got wider, her tone huskier, as she supplied, “Desired.”
He rumbled his approval before writing the word up the inside of her left thigh. Ava lifted her head to watch him do it this time. Her eyes glittered, betraying her own decadent delight in his branding job. “How about bonita?”
He smiled and nodded. The Spanish word for “beautiful” was a perfect choice—and a great excuse to give his letters some fancy flourishes as he inscribed it to her opposite thigh. Ava rewarded his creativity with some throaty laughs, along with a little gyration of her hips that tempted his thinning self-control.
He didn’t help that effort by letting the lipstick continue a few inches past his finish point…until he started tickling the edge of her labia with it. Her breath hitched, acting like a thread around his cock. He must have been insane for worsening the pressure as he bent and inhaled the heady scent of her desire, but once he was that close to her essence, he couldn’t stop.
“Mui bonita,” he murmured while leaning in to kiss her tender tissues. “Te adoro, Ava. Me excites mucho.”
“Ethan!” All the muscles beneath his lips clenched. The aluminum cup holders clinked in their casings as she writhed. “Dios, please tell me we’re almost done with the vocabulary lesson.”
He made her endure a roguish chuckle as he nudged aside her labia with his tongue and then gently licked the hard ridge of her clit. “But why? You’re giving me so many interesting new words for the list, baby.”
Her thighs quivered as her pussy flowed. “Like exasperated? And frustrated?”
“Hmmm. More like lubricated.”
As he rose, he tossed aside the lipstick and opened his pants once more. He let out a ragged snarl as soon as his cock broke free, punching against her outer folds with throbbing insistence.
“And lathered,” he added. Dear fuck, wasn’t that the case. No matter how hard he fought it, her channel sucked his erection nearer with its hot, tight temptation. He was already an inch inside her by the time he grabbed for the lead on his belt, hauling her back up against him with one brutal pull.
“Perhaps…lewd,” he said with a wolf’s sneer, kissing her hard.
“And lickable.” He shoved his way into her mouth tongue first, jamming it along hers in time to the lunges of his cock into her sweet cunt.
“And loved.”
It spilled from him as he reached home deep inside her, the head of his cock welcomed by her deepest cave. He withdrew and plunged again. Ava screamed and let her head roll back. “Loved,” he repeated before jerking her close again, marking her neck with the force of his vow. “I love you so much, Ava.”
Every thrust took him in deeper, even as the climbing pressure in his shaft incited him to drive faster. He felt the lipstick smearing onto his own thighs, and as Ava tore off his jacket and then his tie, he knew the shit was getting on his clothes too. He welcomed the stains. He wanted them. In sharing them, he committed himself to the bond of their bloodlike color…pledged that for the rest of her life, this amazing woman would always feel branded by his desire and adoration, would always know how deeply he treasured her, how thoroughly he loved her.
“Te amo, Maestro,” she cried to him in return. I love you, Master.
“Then come for me, sunshine.” He swooped the lead over his head so her bound wrists were locked around his neck. “Come with me.” With his hands cupping her ass, he was able to slide her body tighter against his. He locked his stare to hers as he grinded her pussy harder on his hot, pounding length.
“Yes, Sir,” she said in a sweet whisper. “Oh yes, Sir. Oh…yessss…ohhhhh!”
As her mouth fell open and her climax washed over her, Ethan detonated too. He released his moan into her mouth as he jetted his seed into her body, the white-hot ecstasy claiming every inch of his skin, every tendon in his limbs. Her lipstick was everywhere on his clothes and body, her scent was everywhere in his head, and his deepened love for her was everywhere in his soul.
After their breathing evened, he reached back and unfastened his belt so she could move. He tenderly pulled her legs down too. As he helped her climb off the table, he cracked, “Well, I know who won’t be keeping a straight look on his face for any future meetings in here.”
She slapped his chest lightly, making him chortle. Though she snickered a little too, her features quickly sobered. “Are they really bringing lobster up for us? Because it looks like I tried to make you over or murder you and failed miserably at both.”
He gathered her back against him, savoring the feel of her body as he brushed tendrils of hair from her face. He’d only asked the kitchen to be on standby for lunch today because he honestly had no idea how open she was really going to be to his plan for their little “open and honest” summit. Since Ava had astounded him once again—and he hoped to God she never stopped for the lifetime he’d spend loving her—he decided to take another risk with their plans for the day. A pretty huge one this time.
“I have a better idea for lunch.”
She instantly picked up on the enigmatic underline in his tone. “Oh?” Her response was playful and light, almost injecting him with a frisson of guilt.
Almost.
He kissed the tip of her nose. “You trust me?”
“With my body, heart, and soul.”
Okay, now he felt guilty. But he also knew he was right. No matter how much she’d wish her lipstick was really his blood in another hour, this was the lunch she needed. The healing they needed.
Chapter Five
This was his “better idea?”
Ava held nothing back from her glare as Ethan drove the car through the private gates that led to his parents’ residential community.
She’d readily agreed to “sneak out the back” with him at the office, even though that plan included a chilly ride in the building’s freight elevator and g
etting curious looks from the workers at the loading dock. But after discovering that they all had genuine affection for Ethan and were less concerned by her lipstick all over him than by the joy of meeting her, it was fun to hang out and listen to him trade quick life updates with them.
After a few minutes, Ethan pulled her off to the car, that mysterious smirk still in place on his face. Yeah, the same one she wanted to slap clean off him now.
As he pulled the car around to what looked like a back entrance to the mansion, she intensified her glower. “You ever heard of a little something called too soon?”
He turned, resting his forearm atop the steering wheel, his dark cobalts pinning straight to her. “Sunshine, listen—”
“Dios mio. Are you really trying that again?” She jerked her head to indicate the chilled mist, rain, and wind that was pretty nasty, even for Central California. “Best as I can tell, there’s no sunshine around here for miles. Give up on the explanations, Sergeant.”
His gaze narrowed and his lips compressed. “Fine. If that’s the way you want it, no explanations.” He paused for a moment, releasing a measured breath, giving Ava a ray of optimism in thinking he might just restart the car and take her back to the hotel. But that was the moment she forgot he was a stubborn, unrelenting, I-always-achieve-my-goal member of the First Special Forces Group. “You know that leaves me no choice but to pull the command card instead.”
She angled her head back against the headrest. “Yeah, I know.”
Another breath left him, this time as a huff. “Ava, I’m not going to haul you bodily out of the car. The choice is ultimately yours. But I’m due back at base day after tomorrow, which means I’ll be on a plane for somewhere by the end of the week. Getting onto that bird will be a hell of a lot easier if I’m assured that you and my parents haven’t started off on the completely wrong foot.” He reached for her hand, wrapping his warm, long fingers around hers. “It was their wrong foot to begin with, but nonetheless—”
“All right, all right.” She yanked her hand back so she could use it to smack his shoulder. “You had to play the deployment card, didn’t you?”
