“I can say no at any time.”
“Jeez, baby, yes. Of course. Always. Forever. Any moment you want me to stop, you call it and I stop. You can ask me to stop, or you can use the word red.”
“I don’t want to disappoint you.” Her voice was weak, but she needed to say those words. They were true.
He sighed. “You’ll never disappoint me. Never. I’m not an asshole. I’m a Dom. My job is to make you feel good. Take you to new heights in whatever manner works for you. Explore your boundaries. Push them. Not with force, but subtle nudges.”
Then why won’t you make love to me…
“This is new to you. I’m giving you a taste.” He smoothed his hand down over her butt cheek and squeezed it gently. “Does it feel good?”
“Yes.”
“Then go with that for now. Don’t worry about anything else except how you feel right now.”
“Okay.”
“Are you wet?”
“Very.”
“May I check?”
“Yes.”
He slid his hand lower and cupped her sex, trapping the warmth before stroking his middle finger through her folds. “Ah, yes. That’s what I like to feel. As long as you’re wet, I’m doing my job.”
“I’m always wet when I’m with you. In fact, I’ve been wet since I met you. Probably even that first night while I was lying on the bathroom floor.”
He chuckled. “Good. That’s about how long I’ve wanted to own you.”
Own…
What did that mean to him?
He clarified. “Make you mine. Show you how I felt. Let you know how good we could be together.”
“We are pretty good together.”
“Yes. Can I continue now?”
“Sure.” She squirmed, squeezing her knees, reminded of how open she was.
He removed his fingers from her pussy and massaged her thighs, his hands traveling up to her lower back and then higher. When he reached her shoulder blades, he eased his palms around her sides to cup her breasts where they hung in front of the pillow at her belly. They grazed the bed, but there was plenty of space for him to fondle them.
It felt odd when he caressed them in this position, hanging from her.
He tugged on her nipples until she writhed. “So responsive.” His hands left her breasts to return to her back and then her butt. He molded the globes, spreading them open over and over while she stiffened at the idea of him seeing her rear hole.
He tapped the tight entrance with one finger. “When I take you here, I’ll blow your mind.”
She gasped, shocked by her response. Instead of being appalled, she was intrigued. What would it feel like to have him inside her rear hole? Nothing seemed as taboo as it would have before she met him.
He was corrupting her. She smiled at the realization.
When he slid his hands between her outstretched legs, she moaned, needing the contact with her pussy. Anything would be better than nothing at this point. “Please…” she begged.
“I love the sound of that so much I might not ever forbid it.”
She panted at his praise.
As he slid his finger around and around her clit, he spoke. “Where does it feel best?”
“Huh?” Everywhere. Anywhere. Even her earlobe got aroused when he touched it.
“Your pussy. Your clit. Which spot is most sensitive?” He let his finger trail around while he spoke. It flicked over her swollen nub. “Here?”
She nodded.
He eased the finger lower to stroke her outer lips. “Here?”
She didn’t respond. Surely he didn’t intend for her to.
He pushed his thumb into her core. “Here?”
Dammit. So close.
When he drew his thumb back out, he set his pointer beneath her clit and pressed.
She arched, moaning loudly.
“Ah, that’s right. My girl likes this spot the best. How could I forget?”
He was teasing her? Now?
Her arousal built, infuriating her with the need to come and the desire to clobber him for his verbal taunt when she really wanted him to shut up and let her come.
“I could do this all night.”
He wouldn’t dare.
She was so close. So very close.
He rubbed the spot she loved over and over until she thought she might explode. And then he shocked her by thrusting two fingers into her pussy at the same time he commanded her, “Come.”
The orgasm rushed through her body, shaking her frame and making her forget everything but the way he played her perfectly.
It took long moments for the pulsing to subside, and he slowly eased his hands from between her legs, kissing her lower back and her butt cheeks. “So fucking sexy. You have no idea.”
She was super clear. Sexy. But not sexy enough for him to fuck her.
She craved his cock inside her so badly she was about to lose her mind.
What more could she do to convince him? It was futile. The man had a will of steel. If he didn’t want to make love to her by now, what made her think he ever would? He’d been sharing her bed for several days.
Neither of them had mentioned the couch or the possibility of the other room. He slept with her as a given. But he didn’t have sex with her. Not in the fullest sense of the term. Not the way her body craved.
Soon she was going to have to confront him. If he wouldn’t sleep with her, he needed to stop toying with her. Because she was falling for him hard. And it was already going to hurt like a bitch when he left her.
And he would, right? When this was all over, he would leave her, right?
It seemed like he was super into her at times, like earlier tonight with her family. But maybe it was a game to him. Or maybe he’d done it to help boost her self-confidence around her cousins.
What she knew for certain was once again he’d played her like a finely tuned piano and left her wanting more.
It actually hurt. Inside. In her belly where the knot wound tight and never got full release. A sort of permanent cramp. A reminder that she hadn’t quite proven she was submissive enough for his taste.
She’d given him everything. She didn’t have more to give.
Like he said, she held the power. That made more sense now. And she’d given him her power day after day. It was time for him to acknowledge it or get out of her bed.
But not tonight.
He removed the thing between her legs first and put it away before she ever saw it. Then the ropes, then the blindfold. When he tugged the pillow out from beneath her belly she collapsed to the side.
As he padded from the room, she wiped a tear from her eye. She held back the sadness as if she’d already lost him. And then she closed her eyes and controlled her breathing to give the impression she was dead tired.
It worked. He returned quietly, flipped off the lights, and climbed in behind her. As he wrapped himself around her body from behind in the same way he did every night, he kissed her temple. He inhaled a breath as if he meant to speak but then didn’t. Perhaps he thought she was already asleep or too far gone to interrupt.
Either way, she was glad. She could confront him later. Tomorrow.
His breaths evened out long before she found rest herself. But finally she succumbed.
»»•««
“What do you need, Dayton?”
“If this is a bad time, we can talk later, sir.”
Anton rubbed his forehead, leaned back in his father’s favorite wing chair in his office, and sighed. He swirled the glass of vodka in his hand, letting the ice tinkle along the sides. “You’ve got me now. Might as well continue.”
It was late. After midnight in New York. Anton hadn’t bothered to turn the lights on in the study. He’d been sitting in that chair so long he hadn’t noticed.
“Followed Nikolav and Belinda Gallo tonight.”
“Yeah?”
“They went to a party at some Italian restaurant. Turns out her parents own it. It was
her brother’s birthday.”
Anton sat up straighter. “She close with her family?”
“Seems that way.”
“Excellent.” That could work in his favor. Information was power.
“You need anything else, sir?”
“Not right now. I’ll call you.” There was no sense mixing his personal life with business. Dayton and Milling didn’t know Anton’s father was dying. And he didn’t intend to share that information. None of their damn business. He set the phone on the table beside him and downed the rest of the vodka in one long drink.
Chapter Twenty
The next night Nikolav drove to the speakeasy in silence.
He watched Belinda out of the corner of his eye multiple times. She’d been quiet all day.
Granted, she’d also been at work most of the day, insisting she needed to be at the office even though it was the weekend. Something was bugging her, but he didn’t want to force her to tell him if she wasn’t ready.
It made him nervous, though. Had he pushed her too far last night? Had she misunderstood everything he told her about her holding the power?
It was possible she just needed time to process the information and her reaction to his dominance. It was conceivable she was unnerved by the way she responded to restraints. He needed to back off and let her think it through.
He hoped.
As he pulled over near the back entrance to the venue, she turned to face him with a fake smile. “This is it?”
“Yes.” At least she’d agreed to wear what he chose for the evening. Jeans, a pink T-shirt, and her cute boots. The T-shirt was V-neck and too tight, but it didn’t seem she owned anything that wasn’t. Or maybe it was just him. Probably every other woman on the planet was dressed similarly. He just found her sexy in anything. Besides, once she added a jacket, she was more fully covered.
She glanced around. “I don’t see anything.”
He chuckled. “You will.” He looked out every window with great caution before climbing from the SUV and rounding to her side. He took her hand and led her to the narrow green door. Two sharp knocks and it opened. “Hey, Bruce. How’s it going tonight?”
“Place is packed. You’ll make a lot of dough if you win.” He grinned as Nikolav passed by him with Belinda at his side.
“Let’s hope I do.”
He led her down a long, narrow, dimly lit hall.
“It’s so quiet,” she muttered.
“Yeah. The place is sound tight. As soon as you step out of this back hall into the main bar, you won’t be able to hear a word without screaming over everyone.”
“Wow. Impressive.”
“Mikhail and Haley are going to meet us here in a minute. You’ll go with them to watch. Do not leave Mikhail’s side for a second.”
“Okay.”
“I mean it. I don’t want to worry about you. I need to know you’ll be okay while I’m fighting.”
“I said I would, Nikolav,” she snapped. “I will.”
He frowned as he wrapped an arm around her waist and leaned against the wall next to the locker room with her between his spread legs. He kissed her, but she barely returned the gesture. “You okay?”
“Yes. Just nervous, I guess. I’m not sure this is something I can stomach.”
Was that it? Could be. He didn’t think so, but maybe she was being so quiet and snippy out of concern for him fighting. “I’ll be fine. I can beat this guy blindfolded.”
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
“You don’t believe me?” He tried to lighten the mood with a little humor. “Wait until you find out what my fighting name is.”
“What is it?”
“Mmm. You’ll find out soon enough.”
“Badass? Tough guy? The dominator?” Her words were meant to be funny, but he didn’t think she was completely kidding. There was a lilt in her voice that told him she was being overly sarcastic.
“No. None of those.”
The entrance they came in opened again, and soon Mikhail and Haley stepped down the hall.
“Hey.” Haley smiled as she took in the way Nikolav held her friend.
Interestingly enough, Belinda pushed herself out of his embrace to stand on her own. “Guess we’ll see you in there.”
“Yes…” He grabbed her hand. “You sure you’re okay?”
“Of course.”
She so was not.
∙•∙
Belinda followed Haley and Mikhail to another door farther down the hall and around a sharp corner. The damp mustiness of the narrow corridor made her feel like she’d stepped back in time. In a way she had. This place was built about a hundred years ago, and from the looks of it, it hadn’t changed much in all that time.
When Mikhail opened a nearly hidden door on the right, the hall filled with noise. He leaned his head into the room and then grabbed Haley by the hand and Belinda by the shoulder to usher then inside.
Belinda was surprised by a number of things at once. The place was filled with smoke, mostly from cigars she surmised, and the stench of alcohol. The noise came from wall-to-wall people all screaming on top of each other—shouting words Belinda couldn’t begin to hear with any specificity.
The floor was sticky. With every step she took, her shoes clung to the uneven floor. She glanced down to see the original stones still in place, the dirt between them having worn away with time.
“Come on. Let’s try to get a little closer,” Mikhail shouted over the roar of voices. He wormed his way between the patrons, a firm grip on both women, until he was within yards of the fenced area in the center.
Belinda rose onto her tiptoes to see what was happening. She had no idea who was fighting. She didn’t recognize either fighter from the gym Nikolav went to. Nevertheless, she watched, hoping to better understand the sport before Nikolav came into the ring.
Futilely, because unlike practice, a real fight was brutal. The men looked like they intended to fight to the death.
Haley and Mikhail spoke to each other behind her, but she couldn’t hear more than a few words now and then over the volume of the patrons.
When the fight ended, one man lay on the ground nearly comatose, and the other man lifted his hand in victory. The crowd got louder, half of them cheering for the victor, half of them groaning over the loser.
It took a while for two men to wipe the sweat and blood off the floor with their mops, and then the referee returned and announced the next fighters.
The first guy lifted his arm as his name was yelled through the microphone. “Rodrigo ‘Lightning Bolt’ Sanchez.”
Mikhail leaned forward to speak near Belinda’s ear. “He’s new to the Chicago circuit.”
She nodded, watching intently as Nikolav lifted his arm next.
She didn’t hear much of what the announcer said after “Nikolav ‘The Impaler’ Andropov.”
She twisted around to ask Mikhail, “Why do they call him that?”
Haley giggled. “As in Ivan the Impaler. He’s a vampire. Don’t you think Nik looks like a vampire?”
Belinda laughed. Of course. No wonder he’d left that detail for her to hear at the last second. Good one. She sincerely hoped his name was strictly related to his looks and he didn’t intend to actually impale someone.
A bell sounded, and the two men began to bounce around each other as if sizing up the competition before Nikolav threw a left hook at his opponent.
The guy dodged to one side to miss the blow and spun around in a circle to come at Nikolav with a high kick to his bicep. Maybe it was called a round house.
The two of them bounced around in the fenced area for several minutes, each throwing an occasional punch or kick but neither making any substantial progress.
Haley said something about wanting to see better, which made Mikhail laugh. “Nik will have the guy in a submission hold in no time. It’s his shtick.”
Belinda squeezed Haley’s arm, using her as leverage to lift onto her tiptoes. “That’s so viol
ent. I can’t believe you guys enjoy this.”
“Pays the rent,” Mikhail stated.
“Lots of ways to pay the rent.” Belinda couldn’t bring herself to glance away from the cage. “Looks like he’s going to kill that guy. Aren’t there any rules? Why is the referee just standing there?” Abram had told her there were no rules, but she hadn’t believed he was serious.
Mikhail chuckled. “Few rules in this sport. Especially the underground. Best not to severely injure the guy or gouge his eyes out. Also in Nik’s best interest not to go for the kidneys or the balls. Fighters frown on that. If you piss them off in the ring, they’re liable to retaliate out of the ring.”
“Jesus. Why did I agree to come watch this?” A shiver raced down Belinda’s spine.
“Because you think Nikolav is sexy?” Haley giggled. “It was your idea to have Mikhail hook you up with one of his friends.”
Belinda swatted at Mikhail’s arm. “Yeah, about that. When I suggested you set me up, I didn’t mean while I was leaning over the toilet vomiting my guts out. Do you know how humiliating that was?”
Mikhail shrugged. “Hey, it was the best choice at the time. And besides, you needed someone for protection. I was uneasy about you being in your apartment alone.”
“You could have waited a few days until I was coherent. That man held my hair, for Christ’s sake. While I puked. Dozens of times.” She twisted back to watch Nikolav in the cage.
Mikhail chuckled. “Women. I’m quite sure Nik doesn’t give two shits about you being sick.”
Belinda rolled her eyes. “Men.”
Haley leaned close to Belinda’s ear again. “MMA is kinda sexy, though. It’ll grow on you.”
Belinda cringed. “I’ve been to their practices. Gross.”
Haley laughed. “Yeah. Okay. That too. But a room full of freakishly hot men with huge muscles, not an ounce of fat, and sexy tattoos. How can you go wrong? Who cares about the smell of sweat?”
Belinda lowered to her flat feet to give her calves a moment to recuperate, and the crowd shouted louder. She strained her neck and lifted back onto her toes to find Nikolav on the ground. He had one arm wrapped around Sanchez’s neck. It looked so awkward with Nikolav on his back, Sanchez against his stomach, and Nikolav’s legs wrapped around Sanchez’s chest.
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