From Sanctum With Love (Masters and Mercenaries Book 10) (22 page)

He crossed his arms over his chest. “What am I still doing here? I was making you and your friends some breakfast. I was attempting to be a good…houseguest.”

She was almost certain houseguest wasn’t what he’d meant to say. What other words would he have used? Boyfriend? Dom? Master? Every single one of them got her heart racing. Was she thinking of trying with Kai? Could her heart handle that? “How did everyone else get here?”

“My brother seems to be stalking me and Case came over because he was worried about you. Apparently he knew about someone vandalizing your car.”

That was news to her. “He did? I didn’t tell him.”

“Who did you tell?” The question came out with an edge of irritation.

“Sarah and Mia. I decided to wait until this morning to call someone because it was late last night.”
And I’d been trying to avoid you only to end up having the best sleep of my life because I was wrapped around you.
Yeah, she wasn’t going to say that.

“How about the police? Were you going to call them? If you’re going to make an insurance claim, you’ll need a police report. Or are you going to claim that your tires died of natural causes?”

She held her hands up, attempting to placate him. Why did her room seem so much smaller when he was in it? It was a good-sized room, but Kai took up all the space. “You’re right. I should have called last night, but I was tired and I wanted to get home and get in bed.”

His gorgeous eyes narrowed. “You weren’t in bed. You were sitting up with your friends drinking wine. Try again.”

“Kai, what’s going on here? It’s a couple of tires.”

“You were supposed to call me if you got in trouble.”

“I wasn’t really in…” What was she doing? Before yesterday she would never have lied to Kai. Not right to his face. “I was nervous about seeing you after the scene.”

“Finally some honesty. I’ll handle it. I’ll deal with the police and get you what you need for your insurance. The boys from McKay-Taggart will set up some discreet surveillance cameras around our parking lot.”

There was a reason they didn’t have that. “I thought you didn’t want the patients to feel like they were walking into a secure zone.”

Some of them had serious issues with people watching them. They dealt with a lot of PTSD patients.

“I will deal with them. Your safety is more important. Now turn around, pull your pants down and place your palms flat on the bed. It’s a count of thirty.”

She could actually feel her womb spasm. “What?”

Nothing about his face or stance conveyed that he was anything but dead serious. “This was a condition of your employment. It has been from the beginning.”

If she wasn’t careful her damn jaw was going to hit the floor. “I remember the conditions of my employment. Are you saying if I’d been late and hadn’t called, you would have spanked me?”

“I suppose we should be happy you’re a very prompt girl. And you tend to be good about calling. We’ll never know. What I do know is that after last night, I will definitely spank you and you’ll enjoy it. You might start showing up late just so you can walk into my office and present that juicy ass to me.” He moved in front of her, staring down at her with heat in his eyes. “I want you to think before you tell me no. I want you to question which side of the Kori I know is going to win this battle. Is it the funny, happy, brave Kori who never stands down from a challenge, or the one who’s denied herself for years because some idiot asshole Dom made her feel small. I won’t ever make you feel small. My job in life will be to lift you up, to help you be strong.”

His words cut through her. “What are you saying, Kai? Is this about you being my boss or acting as my play partner?”

She thought they’d worked it out last night.

His hands cupped her cheeks, forcing her to look up at him. “I’m acting as your Dom, Kori, and you know it. You can pretend all you like. You can call it whatever you want to, but you know how this ends. This ends with you and me.”

She shook her head. “Kai, yesterday we were nothing more than friends.”

“Yesterday I didn’t understand you. Today I do, and I want you more than I want my next fucking breath. I’ll go slow. I’ll give you all the time you need to wrap that gorgeous brain around the idea. I’ll be indulgent as hell with the exception of two things.”

“Do I dare ask?”

“You play with me and only me. I won’t play with anyone but you. And when something goes wrong, you call me. You give me the chance to protect you, to shelter you.”

“I thought we agreed to keep it to the club.”

“I didn’t agree to that and why should we?” He sounded so reasonable. “What does scared Kori say?”

“Scared Kori thinks this is all moving too fast, but she’s kind of drowned out by Wants to Kiss You Kori.”

His lips curled up in the sweetest smile. “I know who I’m voting for. Come on, baby. We’ve been dancing around this since the day we met. I’ve put up stupid boundaries because I was scared, too. I’ve pushed away a lot of good in my life because I couldn’t trust it. I cuddled you last night and all I could think about was the fact that I trust you. Of all the people in the world, I trust you most. I want to be with you. When I’m with you I’m not lonely.”

The man knew exactly what to say to shut Scared Kori up. When she was with him, she didn’t feel the hole in her soul the way she did before. Somehow even simply being friends with the man had filled her in a way no one had before. Was she going to let him go because Morgan had been a giant massive asshole?

If he hadn’t been, she wouldn’t have found Kai.

She went on her toes before she could talk herself out of it and brushed her lips against his. Warm, soft. Those lips were plump and sensual and he somehow made them masculine. They were like the rest of Kai. Utterly beautiful and on someone else perhaps a bit feminine, but Kai was all man.

He was still as she kissed him, her lips moving softly over his. It wouldn’t last long. He was giving her this time. He would take over and her whole body thrilled at the idea. He was right. They couldn’t go back after last night. They’d connected in such an intimate way that she didn’t want to. Yes, she was still afraid, but this man was worth the risk.

When she eased back down, he was smiling at her. “Do you know how long I’ve waited for you to kiss me?”

“Probably since last night.”

His hands smoothed back her hair, making her feel so wanted and cared for. “Since the day I met you. I was too stupid to understand that. Now, we have the issue of your infraction.”

Yes, they did. Why had she ever thought they should keep this to the club? She turned, her hands shaking as she shoved the pajama bottoms and bikini panties off her hips and down her legs. Leaning forward, she found the position he’d asked for, palms flat on the bed, her ass in the air.

“Look at that,” he whispered. “I thought I’d been rough with you but this morning your backside is fresh and perfect. It’s like no one spanked you. Just this one tiny mark here.”

His fingers brushed over a spot on her left cheek that made her gasp. He might not have left marks, but damn she was sore. She was about to be sorer. God, this was going to hurt. Her whole body softened at the thought.

She’d denied herself for so long.

“I’m going to give you the choice this time.” Kai’s fingers scraped lightly along her flesh, sending shivers up her spine. “Normally I love hearing you scream for me, really the more the better. Some tears and pleas and I’ll be a very happy Dom, but there are still people out in the living room. It’s not going to bother me at all, but I want you to be comfortable.”

“Please gag me, Kai. Please.”

“With pleasure, baby.”

She could hear him moving around behind her, and when he came back he had a fresh pair of her undies in his hands.

“Unlike a lot of Doms, I personally enjoy pretty panties. They make such good gags when we need to keep our games private. Open. Since you won’t be able to talk through this spanking, all you have to do to get me to stop is hold up your left hand.”

He was giving her a way to safe word without speaking. She had to admit that the idea that her friends were right down the hallway and Kai was about to do dirty things to her aroused her unbearably. “I can do that.”

“Stand up and ask me to gag you again. Does my sub need a gag in her mouth so she won’t cry out?”

Her nipples were rigid against her tank top. “Yes, Sir. I need it.”

“Open your mouth.” His right hand caught her, forcing her head up. “And I damn straight meant what I said about stopping me if it’s too much. I know you like it, but I won’t damage you for anything. Take it.”

He was rough as he shoved the panties into her mouth. She would never be able to look at those the same way again. He pressed them, filling her mouth and making her jaw ache. It was the right side of pain, exactly enough to start up the chemical reaction in her brain. Some people got runner’s high. She found such peace in this place.

And it was better this time because she could trust Kai.

Because Kai was the one.

“Back down,” Kai ordered.

She turned again, placing her hands down on the bed. She could scream as much as she liked now. For the first time in forever, she could actually let loose.

“Have I ever told you how beautiful you are? I like having you gagged because you can’t talk back and argue with me. Did you think I didn’t notice that every single time I give you a compliment, you negate it somehow? When I told you that dress was lovely on you last Monday, you told me you had borrowed it from Sarah and I should see how she filled it out.” His hand smacked on her ass, fire skimming her skin. “I don’t care how Sarah fills it out. I care about you. I watch you. I fantasize about you.”

They were not words she’d ever expected to hear from him. Not once. She’d dreamed about him, but she’d convinced herself that nothing could ever happen between them. Tears pricked her eyes, sweet and pure emotion running through her.

He rained down on her skin, the soreness from the previous night making every strike more visceral. She groaned around the gag.

“So that’s a new rule. When I tell you how pretty you are, you’ll thank me. Maybe if you hear it from me enough, you’ll start to believe it, though I think you should know that while you’re gorgeous, it’s not the thing that attracts me to you the most.” Another long volley where all she could hear was the sound of his hand hitting her flesh and then the flash of heat that sank into her bones.

Fuck but she felt alive.

“No, what attracted me to you was the fact that you are the single kindest person I’ve ever met.” He smacked her on the underside of her ass, making her jump slightly, the sensation so close to her rapidly moistening pussy. “You try to hide it, but I see you. I see how you treat people, how you protect them and take care of them. I also see how you never ask for anything yourself.”

He made her sound like a martyr, but it wasn’t like she could defend herself. There was nothing to do but take Kai’s discipline and listen to his words. Over and over her skin lit up and she took in the pain before shaking it off and letting the sensation change deep inside her body. Metamorphosis. It was how she always felt when playing. Like she began as one person and changed somewhere in the middle into someone else—someone stronger, more at peace.

“I’m going to take care of that because I’m going to take care of you and you’re going to let me. You’re going to trust me to take care of you emotionally the way I’m taking care of you physically. I know that’s hard, but I promise I won’t let you down. After last night, after the connection we had, I can’t let us go back to what we were.”

She could see that now. How had she thought for a second that she could breeze back into the office and pretend nothing had happened between them? What happened the night before was more meaningful than simple play. They’d needed each other, filled something that had been missing deep inside.

The pain focused her, helped her to push aside those voices that always seemed so close to the surface. All her nasty doubts and self-loathing melted away when tested against Master Kai’s discipline. She knew so many people who would judge her a freak for needing this, but she’d learned long ago that smart people accepted who they were, what they needed.

She needed Kai and in more ways than one.

Her backside was on fire as he continued, his rough voice keeping a count. Ten and then fifteen. Twenty and more. Somehow he knew exactly what to give her to make her ache for more.

“Thirty.” His hand moved over her skin, holding the heat in as he stroked her flesh. “I don’t want to be finished with this, Kori.”

Neither did she. There was no reason to hold him off. They’d had years of friendship to build a trust like nothing she’d known. She wiggled her ass against his hand because she couldn’t talk and hadn’t been told she could move yet. Rubbing against him was the only way she had to communicate that she wanted him.

He hauled her up, turning her to face him. “You know what I want. I believe I told you the first rule I wanted to change.”

Kisses. He’d claimed he wanted kisses. He gently pulled the panties out of her mouth, tossing them to the side. He lowered his mouth to hers, lips pressing down. He didn’t allow her to control this kiss. His hands sank into her hair and tugged her head back, giving him full access to her mouth. His tongue plunged deep, rubbing along her own in a silky glide. He kissed her over and over again, sinking deeper. She didn’t give a crap that her pants were still around her ankles. All that mattered was the feel of his lips on hers, the way his hands gripped and dominated her. There was power in how he held her, how he moved her, and it made her submissive and willing.

“Please, Kai,” she whispered. She’d spent years without and it had been all right. She’d survived and not even thought about sex. Now she couldn’t stand the thought of him not being inside her. Not one second more. She needed him.

“Tell me you want me.”

“I want you.” She could feel how much he wanted her. His erection rubbed against her belly, long and thick and so enticing. Her whole body hummed in anticipation. He was her Master, her natural match.