by Marie Harte
Owen nodded. “The statue affects lovers. It might have turned her homicidal if the instinct was already there, encouraging what was already inside her to begin with.” Owen grew quiet. “The Little Death is powerful. Its energy manipulates, as you’ve seen. I tried to keep it sequestered for that reason. Only a pure and lasting love can flourish in its presence. A woman like Linda would go off the deep end.”
Dane stared at Kitty, and not in a good way.
“What?” She frowned at him.
“Nothing. Owen mentioned unstable women, and I thought of you…”
“Well, aren’t you a comedian?” The smile she shot him told him she’d rather be choking him. The bastard had the nerve to grin back at her.
Owen glanced from Kitty to Dane. “I have my answers, so I’ll let you two sort this out. Kitty, payment has already been deposited into the account. I also gave you two a bonus.”
Dane nodded but didn’t look away from Kitty. “Thanks.”
“No problem.” Owen stood, and Kitty moved to walk with him. “No, don’t see me out. I think you and Dane have more important things to discuss.”
He left them staring at one another. The front door shut behind Owen, and they remained in silence.
Then Dane said, “It’s time.”
“Time?”
He closed the distance between them and glared at her, which eased the knot growing inside her. Dane annoyed or angry she could handle. She didn’t want him to be affectionate or charming.
His brown eyes looked closer to dark chocolate than amber, a sure sign of his irritation. “Time to stop avoiding the truth.”
“What truth is that?”
“That you want me, you like me more than is healthy, and you want more than anything to be my sexual sub for eternity. So where do we start first?”
Chapter Fourteen
Dane had been half joking, but the sheer panic on Kitty’s face intrigued him. A simple denial would have told him to back off. But this tension told him the exact opposite. He already knew the woman liked to submit. She apparently wanted to go deeper into surrender. He didn’t need to be a mind reader to understand her body language. The woman seemed frozen, trying to deny her needs while keeping the moral high ground.
He recalled what she’d said about her mother. If Kitty still equated surrender with being a victim, it was no wonder she rejected her basic needs.
Good thing Dane had a handle on her.
“Y-you’re full of shit.”
“Tsk, tsk. Language.”
She pushed away from him, and he let her go. For now.
“The mission is done. You’ve been paid—yes, yes, except for our dinner next week and the many bullets you took to save me,” she said sarcastically and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Stubborn. I can work with that.” He circled around her, trying to see how best to go in. Take her off her feet and force her to admit her feelings, whatever they might be? He wanted her willing, on her hands and knees, begging and giving in to him. Did she want the same?
The notion pleased him…a little too much. The sex between them had been great, but the emotion connected to it had told him there was more. Dane had thought long and hard about Kitty. He wasn’t sure exactly how he felt about her, but he knew she hadn’t bored him once. He wanted the woman. He’d put her in so many positions and made her come so hard he knew he could hold on to her with sex. But spending time together, talking and getting to know one another? He had no idea why that appealed to him as much as the sex did.
Now if only he could convince the woman to take the same risk, they’d see where they went from here. Too bad he didn’t have her gift. With her silver tongue, he could have forced her to experience the emotions she constantly denied.
“Try to read me,” he said on a whim.
“What?”
“I’ll open for you. Get into my head. See if you can feel what I feel.”
“Why?” She looked partly intrigued, mostly wary.
“Scared?” he taunted, knowing the woman couldn’t resist the blow to her pride.
“Of you? Please.”
No. You’re scared of yourself, aren’t you? He wanted to go easier on her, but a woman like Kitty needed firmness. “Let me ask you something.”
“You’re going to whether I want you to or not,” she muttered.
“The sex between us was good, right?”
“Yeah.” She eased her stance, her arms still crossed but not as tightly.
“And you trust me. You put your life in my hands.”
“So?”
“So why can’t we have sex, hang out, and take each day as it comes? I’m not asking to move in with you. And I know you want me for my body. What’s the problem if we have incredible sex together?”
She shrugged.
“We can fuck, talk together, you know, friend shit.” He ended with a curse to rile her, pleased when she raised her brow and cocked her head.
“I mean, friend stuff.” He grinned. “I’ll try to open up to you and let you experiment on me with your mental crap. You know you want a piece of me; admit it.”
“Well, yeah. I don’t like that I can’t read you.” She didn’t sound too sure of herself.
“You feel everyone around you, don’t you?”
She nodded. “Unless I’m shielding really hard. I’m used to it, so it’s kind of a buzz at the back of my mind. I normally have to concentrate to manipulate emotion, though.”
“Except with me.”
“Yes, you’re the exception.”
“So view me as a weird science experiment. You won’t have to shield so much, because I’m that nut you can’t crack. You come out to my place. We have some fun together, and who knows? Maybe I’ll draw more inspiration and make billions off my artwork, all because of Kitty Nelson.”
“You are so full of it.”
“I really am. It’s been six long days, kitten.” He glanced down at his semihard cock.
She groaned. “Why can’t you just call me Kitty?”
His gaze lowered to her chest, where her hard little nipples prodded the thin fabric of her shirt. With a grin, he teased, “You know what I think of when I hear the word kitty.”
“Dane.” She sounded breathless. Perfect.
“Pussy, baby. I think of that tight, hot pussy waiting for me.” He backed her to the counter and caged her between his arms. “Now let’s stop dancing around it. We do well in bed. I get hard around you; you get wet for me. Do I need to touch you to see?”
“No,” she groaned. “Half the time I’m not sure I even like you.”
He laughed and kissed her throat, then her cheek, her ear.
“But God, I can’t be around you without wanting you,” she confessed.
He nipped her earlobe and kissed her hard on the mouth when she gasped. “Good. Because I’m walking wood when I think about you. And that’s just embarrassing for any man over the age of eighteen.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Her tongue slid between his lips, and he let her play a moment. Then he took back control, not surprised when she softened immediately under him.
Dane didn’t want to wait. He eased her jeans and panties off, then lifted her onto the counter. He spread her legs and played with her wet pussy while kissing her. The woman knew how to kiss. All lips and sighs, each stroke of her tongue jolting bolts of desire through his body and making him harder than a rock. Especially when she stroked the nape of his neck with her fingers.
He opened his pants and took himself out, then prodded her cleft and slid inside, one inch at a time.
Kitty moaned and tightened her grip on his neck.
“You know, I really love your kitchen.”
She chuckled and sighed into his mouth when he kissed her again, following his lead as if born to it.
He pushed under her shirt and unfastened her bra. The wonderful contraption she wore had a front clasp, so he pushed the cups aside and had his hands full of her
large mounds. He thumbed her nipples and squeezed harder when she gripped his dick with her inner walls.
Kitty responded to a rougher touch, and when he thrust harder, she showed him how much she liked it by sucking his tongue, the way he wanted her to suck his cock.
Dane fucked her faster and deeper, his grip punishing. He ripped his mouth away to stare into green eyes clouded with lust. Fuck, but he’d never been so into a woman before, so drawn to her emotions. What she thought and felt mattered more to him than getting off, and though he’d had a few girlfriends, none had ever gotten to him like Kitty had.
“Dane?” she whispered.
“No. What’s my name?”
Her eyes glazed over. “Master.”
“That’s right. How quickly we forget. That’s being a bad girl, kitten.”
He pinched her nipples, and she squeezed down on him like a vise.
“I want you to come over my cock, little sub. Get me nice and slick with that cream,” he ordered and dropped his hands to her hips. He put his thumb over her clit while he took her, and she gasped his name when he rubbed the slick nub. “That’s it. Get Master all wet. I own you right here, right now.” He slammed into her and stilled, wanting acknowledgement. He rubbed her clit harder. “Say it.”
“God, yes. Please.” She tried to squirm, but he held her fast.
“Tell me. Say it, Kitty. Tell me you want it. That you want me.”
She looked directly into his eyes, and he wanted to believe what he saw there. The vulnerability, the softness, the adoration. What so many subs had felt when being owned. He wanted Kitty to feel that about him and only him.
“If you don’t want me, just say it,” he said quietly and placed his hands on the counter. He started to withdraw when she locked her ankles behind his back and gripped his forearms.
“No. Please, Sir. I want you. I really do.”
“What do you want?” he murmured as he pulled out and thrust back inside, slowly.
“I want you to fuck me.”
“Oh?”
Her eyes glittered, and the sheen of tears mirrored her distress. “I…please. Don’t go. I want you. All the time.” She paused. “Sir.”
“Good. That’s good, kitten,” he said thickly, praying she felt what he thought she might. “I feel it too. This connection,” he admitted, putting himself out there on a limb.
“Sir,” she breathed and stared into his eyes as he resumed thrusting while he rubbed her tight little clit.
Her eyes widened, and her breath grew faster. She neared her end.
“Come for Master, baby. Come all over my cock,” he commanded and pinched her clit.
She screamed and came, and he gave in to his own need and pounded into her, coming on the heels of her orgasm. The sensation of joining her in such bliss exceeded his expectations, and he stared into her eyes, awash in the joy of belonging to another.
He finished spending and remained within her, loving the heat surrounding him.
She panted, coming down off her high. Toying with the hair at the base of his neck, she seemed almost shy as she regarded him.
That vulnerable, hesitant expression turned his heart inside out, and unable to help himself, he cupped her cheeks and kissed her. Not to arouse or take, but to give. He showed her what he felt, and when she sighed and trembled in his arms, he knew everything had changed.
* * * *
Kitty didn’t know how Dane managed to get his way, but after that glorious episode on her kitchen counter—again, of all places—she’d agreed to pack a bag and spend her week off at his ranch. Despite Jack still being gone on a case, she’d decided to leave Chloe in charge. The woman had a head on her shoulders and somehow managed to keep Ian in line. Kitty should have felt guilty about taking time off. She’d always thrown herself into work, because there she could function and didn’t feel so alone. Yet she wanted to learn more about Dane, to be with him, so she took the vacation she’d been due.
As she remembered watching Dane working in his studio, she pondered the dichotomy of the grumbling autocrat and talented artist. His many facets intrigued her. Her appetite had left her, and she had a hard time sleeping anymore if she wasn’t in his arms. She thought about him constantly, but her obsession with Dane Hanson grew worse with time, not better.
Kitty had tried the friends-with-benefits routine but always ended up wanting more with men who couldn’t give her what she needed. So she’d tried to go without. And look at where that had put her. Hard up and dying to have Dane Hanson inside her. The man turned her into a raving nympho. Especially when she watched him work.
So hot, watching his big hands turn a lump of clay into beauty. It gave her the shivers, especially when he’d taken those dirty hands and forced her to do naughty things with him.
All in all, she liked the way they dealt with each other.
Five days at his ranch and they made love—had sex—all the time. The man was insatiable. But the last couple of times together he hadn’t pushed the D/s stuff with her, and she wondered why. She loved submitting to him. For the first three days, he’d had her on her back, her knees, in a sixty-nine. He’d used toys on her and whipped her with a soft flogger to put her into a weird, almost dreamy state while he fucked her ass hard.
But the past two days, nothing but easy missionary sex. It didn’t fit him or her, though she didn’t want to complain. He’d been tender and nice, but he hadn’t aggravated her or made her come so hard she nearly passed out. And she’d missed calling him Master.
She looked for him and found the source of her annoyance screwing around with a power tool in the barn. “I was coming to remind you that your sister’s dinner at the McKay ranch is in two hours. You might want to think about cleaning up.” She sneered at his mud-spattered boots. “Unless that’s the best you’ve got.”
Dane tried to stare her down. Instead of scaring her, he aroused her. And damn, he knew it.
He grinned and said nothing, just turned and walked away. “I’ll be in the bedroom getting ready.”
She waited a minute, telling herself she had no reason to follow him. She’d already had her shower and just needed to dress before they left. But after a few moments, she decided to give him what-for. He was playing some kind of game with her; she knew it.
She left the barn and entered the house. Upon reaching his large bedroom, she took a good look around. It wouldn’t kill him to lighten the dark gray on his walls with a lighter color of paint. But far be it from her to tell him how to decorate. He might get the wrong idea and consider them dating. Or something.
A hand yanked her all the way inside and slammed the door.
She screeched. Sometimes, on rare occasions like these, she hated that she couldn’t feel him.
“There you are. Took you long enough.” He turned her around and pushed her belly first against the wall. Nuzzling her neck, he said, “Well, sweetness? How do you want it this time?” He shoved his erection against her back, leaving no doubt as to his intent.
She wanted to hold on to her anger but couldn’t. He felt so good against her. She desired him yet wanted so much more. Why can’t I just take the sex and be satisfied with that? She wanted to chalk up her neediness to being alone, but she knew the truth. Her arousal, her hunger, existed for Dane alone.
“Kitty?”
She turned in his arms to face him and frowned. “I want you to tell me what you want.”
“Me?”
The crafty jerk. “Come on, Dane. Just tell me what you want from me. A fuck buddy? A girlfriend? A fun distraction between jobs?”
“Why? Am I confusing you?”
She smacked him in the chest. “You’re a huge pain in my ass. You’re so annoying. You tell me you just want to have sex and play master/slave games, and then you act nice and interested in me. We spent time together this week having fun. Admit it.”
He shrugged. “I like you.” He seemed surprised to admit that. “What’s the problem?”
“The problem i
s you. One minute you’re Sir, the next you’re Dane. You act like I’m a fuck buddy but treat me like a girlfriend. I swear, last night at the restaurant, you might as well have peed on the table and marked your territory.”
“That’s a little extreme, don’t you think?” His lips quirked.
“It’s not funny.”
“Besides, the waiter was flirting with you right in front of me. What the fuck was I supposed to do? He’s lucky I didn’t jack him up and shove his face through the wall.”
“Don’t you glare at me. I made it plain we were a…that you…ah, that we were together.”
“That we’re a couple, you mean. You and me. Funny you can’t say it.”
“Well, you can’t either.” Take that, big man.
“Fine. You want to hear it?” he snapped. “For some insane reason, I like you. You’re nice to everyone else but me, who you try to bully around. But you come apart in my arms, and you’re so goddamn beautiful it makes my teeth ache.” Though he snarled the compliments, she couldn’t help taking them to heart. “You don’t bore me. And yeah, I know we’ve only been together a few weeks, and nothing steady until lately. But being with you is nothing like any relationship I’ve ever had before. Unlike you, instead of pussing out, I’m willing to see how far we can take this.”
She just blinked at him. What was he saying?
“I want to put you through your paces. I need you to come around me and for me when I say so, because it gets me hard when you obey. You’re a lot softer than you think, and meaner than any of your buddies know. I like you being here all the time. And that’s fucking bizarre.”
“But you, uh, share the house with Karen.”
“She’s different. She’s my sister, and she’ll be leaving soon.” He sighed with disgust. “I’m pretty territorial about my own space. But you don’t feel like a stranger. It’s like you belong here,” he said gruffly. “Right with me. But if you’re too chickenshit to admit what you need and accept yourself, there’s not a whole lot I can do about us.”
She didn’t know what to say. This conversation hadn’t been one she’d expected. Maybe secretly hoped for, but to hear Dane talk about an us?
