Текст книги "Harrow Duet"

Автор книги: Scarlett Finn

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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 38 страниц)

Chapter Nine

Taking a long drink from the ice-cold bottle, Dax went up the stairs and into the bedroom. Lowering the bottle from his lips, his surprise at the vision she presented must have registered, but the Minx said nothing about it. She remained where she was, lying in the middle of their bed, naked, with her knees pulled up and far apart giving him a sweet view of the snatch she was juicing up for him.

Her fingers toyed with her clit then moved south to circle her opening, which she then probed with the tip of her index finger.

‘Don’t be shy,’ she purred, sliding her finger out of herself, she brought it to her lips to lick the length of it. ‘Come over here.’

If he’d needed any more evidence that he’d failed in his task of whipping her into shape then this was it. She wasn’t supposed to be seducing him without fear, he was meant to be intimidating her into submission, and with most women his act worked. How she had seen through him and embraced his nature, he wasn’t sure, but this was the proof that she had.

‘Not a chance,’ he said, and he didn’t even try to stop his smile. Unfortunately, the scorch of blood flooding his dick brought him to an aching arousal, that he needed to loosen his jeans to alleviate, but he couldn’t do that now or she’d think that he had plans to use the organ he liberated.

The real torture came in watching those fluttering eyelashes tempting him, and the mountains of her gorgeous tits calling for his hands, and that cunt… already it was swollen and wet enough for him to slide in without any prep time. He could see the glisten of her delicious nectar coating the ripe, pink flesh begging him to sink his cock into it.

‘You said I’d come to crave you, that I’d be addicted to your spunk, and here it is, Dax, that day has come. I want you. I need it. I need you to fuck me now. I need your dick—‘

‘What is going on here?’ he asked, putting the beer bottle on the dresser and crossing to the bottom of the bed.

That move didn’t earn him any break though, she rose onto her knees on the end of the bed and hooked her arms around his neck. ‘Come to bed,’ she said, pouting those lips and murmuring out her words. ‘Get rid of your clothes and come to bed with me, please tough guy.’

Her husky whispers did nothing for the blood going south but this was too suspicious for him to give in to, she’d never been this easy even when she was horny as fuck… and those times he loved to take advantage of. ‘You’re supposed to fight with me, Minx. You’re supposed to be here against your will.’

‘Is that what you need?’ she asked, unbuttoning his jeans for him, and sliding her hand into them. Coiling her fingers around him, she used her whole arm to massage his shaft. Her shoulder pressed into his chest as it bobbed up and down so the rhythmic motion vibrated through his whole form. ‘Do you need me to beg for release? Please let me go, Master, please, please.’

‘Ok,’ he said, snatching her shoulders he gave her such a shove that she bounced on the mattress when she landed on it. ‘What’s going on? You think you can keep me here all night? That if I get into bed with you we’re going to be there until morning and you’ll miss the party?’

‘No.’ She shook her head and got back onto her knees, but the act was gone.

‘You’re supposed to be up here ironing shirts.’

Pointing behind him, he turned to see that there was a black shirt hanging on the closet door. ‘Wear that one, you look hot and dangerous, and it makes the colour of your eyes more intense.’

Usually he picked out her wardrobe, and now she was doing it for him. The funny thing was that he didn’t care, because he wasn’t really bothered about clothes. Her picking something out gave him a break on making the decision himself. He told her what to wear, what to eat and when, he told her when to sleep and when to open her legs, giving her this tiny bit of control meant nothing.

‘And the act?’ he asked, scrutinising how she sat with her hands curled around each other on her lap and her eyes lowered to the bed.

‘How many men are coming over tonight?’ she murmured.

‘I don’t know. Could be five, could be ten, could be fifty. I really don’t know.’

‘Ok, we don’t have very much time. Do you have any lubricant?’ she asked and when her eyes came up to his, he read fear in them for the first time.

Scratching the side of his neck, he tried not to be affected by this rare vulnerability that she was showing him. ‘You looked pretty lubed up there already, babygirl. I don’t think you need—‘

‘It’s not for that.’

‘I’m not following.’

‘You said… you told me once that when the guys came over I’d have a lot of cocks to keep happy. It’s my guess that the men who are coming over tonight won’t be as understanding about my reluctance as you have been.’

‘Reluctance,’ he said, he’d fucked her every way that had been invented and she’d been the one to kiss him first. She had never been reluctant about anything, except one thing.

She got up off the bed and went to the dresser where he’d put down his beer, she picked up the bottle and downed the liquid, one long gulp at a time until it was all gone.

‘Do you have anything stronger?’ she asked him, putting the bottle down. ‘Or maybe some Valium? If you have a mickey—‘

‘You want me to drug you before I have sex with you?’ he asked. ‘Isn’t it a bit late for that?’

The fear was gone and replaced instead with a pleading determination. ‘I want you to drug me before they have sex with me. I’ll drink anything you give me, Dax, take anything. I trust that you’ll—‘

‘You’re getting ahead of yourself, babygirl,’ he said, taking her hand and leading her back to seat her on his side of the bed. ‘No one will be having sex with you.’

‘No one?’ The fact that she was actually genuinely shocked angered him for some reason that he couldn’t decipher.

‘Well I’ll still expect you to put out when I bring you up to bed. But I’m the only guy who’ll get to touch you. If anyone else tries it, you come to me, and I’ll deal with him.’

‘Oh, Dax!’ Her exuberance almost knocked him sideways when she leapt forward and wound her naked form all around him, burying her face in his shoulder. ‘I was so worried! I really thought they’d all be trying to take a piece of me, and if there were a few of them who wanted me at once… I’ve never done the anal thing and… I thought I was… I was going to ask you to take me that way now, to ease me into it, you know, maybe to make it easier for me tonight when I had them all inside me at once.’

‘I opened my mouth too soon,’ he said. ‘I just did myself out of a chance to fuck your asshole.’

Much to his surprise, she laughed and increased the grip of her arms around his neck. The manoeuvre felt too intimate, to be holding her like this, without expectation of sex, and for no purpose other than to make her feel better, or rather for her to show him her gratitude.

Gripping her elbows, he tugged her away from him, but she remained in his lap, seemingly unaware of his discomfort. Touching his forearms, she rubbed her hands up until her fingers disappeared up the sleeves of his tee-shirt, it was too intimate, this touching each other and holding each other. But he had no time to get away, she frowned and his anxiety vanished to make way for his curiosity.

One of her hands dropped away, and the other slid down until she was tracing the shape of his tattoo, examining the dragon he’d had inked a decade ago. But it wasn’t the dragon that fascinated her, what had her attention was the plant coiling itself around the dragon’s feet. The nest of vines from which the dragon emerged when it had to hunt for sustenance, and the place it would always return to as it’s sanctuary.

‘What?’ he asked.

‘Is this where the dragon lives?’ she asked.

‘Yeah.’

‘When I first saw it I thought it was pulling the dragon down, that it was trying to hold him back.’

‘No,’ he said, bringing his arm around to show her the full picture he pulled up the short sleeve of his tee-shirt. ‘That’s the dragon’s lair, where it hides so that predators can’t find it. The plant offers him the chance to peek out, to see what’s going on without being seen. It’s his refuge.’

A smile became a whisper of a laugh, and she continued to trace the shape of the leaves. ‘That’s funny.’

‘Why is that funny?’ he asked. He’d been accused of his tattoos being a lot of things, and funny was not one of them.

‘It’s ivy,’ she murmured, her amused expression brought those long lashes back to him.

‘So?’

The smile became wider and she shook her head. ‘Nothing.’

‘It’s something.’

‘Nothing you have to worry about,’ she said, and when she lifted her arms this time the embrace had promise of more.

He didn’t shy from her kiss, and though it was slower and much less urgent that the kisses he was used to sharing with her, it was just as stimulating. Already his jeans were open, so when she climbed up onto him and coiled her legs around him she had complete access to slide herself onto his dick. Yet, when she did, it was a surprise because he was still basking in the new sensation of such a tender, mellow kiss. His clothed body held her naked one and splaying his hands on her back he felt for the first time how small and fragile she truly was.

This woman acted as though the world was no formidable force. She acted like she was the equal of, or superior to, any adversary. The glaring truth was that he could identify with her bull-headed stubbornness and refusal to show vulnerability. Because he was a man who knew how to fight and how to handle himself, he could get away with being arrogant and few people would have the balls to call him on it. As such, he didn’t have many vulnerabilities. This kiss was teaching him that his female was fast becoming one of them.

What he had said to Bruno was true, every word. But he hadn’t said it with Trystan’s best interests at heart, he wasn’t even sure he’d said it with his female’s interest at heart either. The idea of watching other men paw her, or make love to her…

Breaking their kiss stopped the rhythmic motion of her hips. Her tempo had been the same lazy pace, drawing more intimacy into the moment as her pussy swallowed and released him with each undulation.

‘What?’ she asked, her mouth was red and puffy, the rasp of stubble burn on her chin and lips heightened their rosy colour and her eyes were glossy, swimming in a dream. ‘I don’t feel good?’

Elevating her ass, she relaxed and her core enveloped him again. He hissed when she squeezed and caressed him from within her tight passage.

‘No,’ he said, though she felt better than incredible.

‘Ok,’ she said, undeterred.

The hitch of breath that left her lungs when she expelled him out of her slick channel rustled every hair on his body. But when she slithered off the bed and onto her knees on the floor, he tensed.

Her complete focus was on the engorged head of his cock, she licked him like a lollipop then sucked him deep and slurped her way back. Stroking the length of him with one hand and tickling his balls with the other, she smiled and kissed the tip of him.

‘I taste so much better on you,’ she said and opened her mouth, but he pushed her away.

‘Fucking stop it.’

Bounding off the bed, he had no chance of getting his jeans done up again, so he tugged his tee-shirt down over his groin.

‘It’s ok,’ she said.

A woman who had just been fucking a guy and had been told she didn’t feel good, shouldn’t be understanding. Nor should one who had been shoved away when sucking a guy off.

Spinning around, he saw her on her knees where she’d been before. ‘What the fuck?’ he asked.

‘Performance anxiety is probably normal in a guy who has spent his life taking drugs and partying. You’re already hard,’ she said, walking on her knees across the floor. ‘If you relax and let me—‘

‘I don’t fucking think so,’ he said, marching to her he got hold of her hair and hauled her back to the bed.

Sitting down he turned her over his knee and began to spank. She yelped and whimpered, clutching his calf and trying to lift her head but he held her down reining blow after blow on that tight ass watching it grow pinker and redden, but he kept going.

He’d never thought of making love with a woman and he’d never consoled one, thus doing himself out of a sex act he craved to complete with her; like fucking her up the ass. This woman took him into her body as though she had some sort of claim on him, but he was supposed to have claimed her.

The hot body that mesmerised him and the sassy mouth that tormented him shouldn’t belong to a man like Trystan, but it was her destiny. Trystan wouldn’t appreciate her, he would want to change her and no one should be allowed to alter this sexy, dynamic woman who was capable of miracles.

Except it was thoughts like that which made Dax push her away and act like he was now. He wanted her to remain the same because he couldn’t imagine a better woman and that thought was dangerous. She didn’t belong to him and she never would. He couldn’t let himself believe otherwise, not for a second.

Rolling her off his lap, she went to the floor and he stared at the glow of her abraded flesh. ‘What was that for?’ she panted, remaining face down and still at his feet.

‘Making me want you,’ he confessed. When she tried to move he put a boot on her ass and pushed down. ‘Don’t move.’

Rocking his foot, he made her body oscillate and though he witnessed a wince of pain cross her expression he kept going.

‘You wanted to get me off, what if this is what it takes?’ he asked. ‘What if I want to roll you over and piss all over you until you stink of me? Then whip those hefty tits ‘til they’re crimson, would you let me do that?’

‘Is this a test?’ she asked. ‘Like you said earlier, to find out what I’ll do for you?’

Dragging his boot off her, he rolled her onto her back and squatted down over her. ‘You’ll do anything your damn well told by me. If I tell you to spend all night buck naked serving beer to me and my friends, you’ll do it. If I deny you the right to use the bathroom until you piss all over yourself, you’ll do it.’

‘What’s with the sudden obsession with peeing?’

‘Still don’t know when to quit, Minx.’

Despite blanching with discomfort, she pushed up onto her elbows. ‘And you worry too much.’

‘It’s in the job description.’

‘Of thug for hire?’ she asked. ‘I’d think it’s just your job to show up and kick the shit out of the person your boss points at.’

‘In my line of work you can never trust anyone to watch your back. Sometimes you have to assume that everything will go to shit.’

‘And if life has taught me one thing it’s that you never know what is around the corner. I didn’t choose to be here and I don’t think that you did either.’

‘I wasn’t the one who planned to bring you here, or the one to decide what we did with you now that you are here.’

Extending his legs, he came back to full height and offered her a hand, which she took so he could haul her to her feet.

‘I know that,’ she said. ‘But I’m happy you’re the one sharing my bed and not him.’

‘Bruno? He can’t get it up,’ Dax revealed. ‘He’s Mauri’s right hand man, he trusts him with everything.’

‘But Mauri doesn’t trust you?’ she asked

‘He trusts me, Brad and Trystan are another story.’

‘You said something, that night in Vegas, about teaching me a lesson about my attitude.’

‘I think I just did,’ Dax said, taking her hand and lifting it above her head to make her twirl one-eighty. ‘I do love punishing that ass.’

‘Do you spank me so hard because I won’t let you fuck it?’

‘I could fuck it if I wanted to,’ he said, stroking the cheeks.

‘Are you Trystan’s bodyguard?’

‘In a way, though more like his mess fixer and problem solver. You’re not the first person he’s pissed off while he’s high.’

A wash of guilt prickled him when she reacted to a spot he caressed on her ass. Crouching to his haunches again he began to cover the red handprints he’d put there with kisses.

‘What are you doing?’ she laughed and twisted to rest a hand on his head.

‘Would you ever tell me to stop? When I hurt you—‘

‘You don’t hurt me,’ she said, rotating all the way to crouch facing him, taking both of his hands. ‘I’m… trouble. I know I’m difficult, but… I’ve never met a man who rises to it, embraces it… not like you do. I didn’t know I wanted a man who would challenge me… until you found me.’

‘Don’t,’ he said, shaking his head and bringing them both up to full height. ‘Don’t think this is more than it is. You’re my prisoner, here against your will and—‘

‘Where would I go?’ she asked. ‘I know we won’t be here forever, I know there’s a deadline. Bruno is a pig, but… I’ll put up with that if it means I have the chance to be close to you.’

Every curse word that Dax knew ran through his mind in new combinations until he’d exhausted them all. In coming to terms with his own growing attachment to this female he hadn’t figured how she might be feeling about him. Women fancied his body and were attracted to the glamour he could show them through Stark money, but then he’d had his share of the Stark female groupies too.

But for someone to care about him, it was so unimaginable that it hadn’t occurred to him. Maybe he thought this girl would be happy knocking boots with him for a while, but he hadn’t figured that she’d link him to any kind of emotion. Most of the women he knew always had ulterior motives of the practical, or material, variety. The others he kicked to the kerb long before they could latch on.

‘I’m using you for sex,’ he stated.

‘I know. I’m using you too. What woman wouldn’t want to use that body?’ Locking her fingers between his, she altered the angle of her hands so that her palms pressed down on his. ‘Lift me up.’ She locked her elbows.

‘Why?’ he asked at the same time he bent his knees then straightened, taking her off the floor and balancing her miniscule weight using his upper body strength alone.

She dipped her head to kiss him and with the taste of her tongue he forgot all about tomorrow’s worries and began to traverse to the bed.

‘When we get back to the city, can I come and see you fight?’

‘Not a chance,’ he said, lowering her onto the bed. When she was lying down he knelt astride her to grab the neck of his tee-shirt and haul it off.

‘Why not?’ she asked, sitting up to stroke his chest with such esteem that he felt the need to puff himself up. ‘Women aren’t allowed?’

‘They’re allowed, though most of them are in bikinis or hooker boots.’

‘I think I could handle that.’

He stood up to shirk his jeans. ‘I’m still not taking you.’

‘Why not?’

‘You’re too much of a distraction,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t be focused on the fight if I was more concerned about you being out in the crowd getting hit on.’

‘I can take care of myself.’

‘So you’ve said in the past,’ he said, snatching her foot when it moved towards his cock. ‘But there’s no fighting allowed outside the ring. It will get you barred, or worse.’

‘That means that even if you were in the crowd with me and I got hit on there would be nothing you could do about it.’

‘Oh, there’s plenty I could do, babygirl,’ he said, imagining the ways he would make a man pay for ogling, or upsetting, his female.

‘Can I ask you a question?’ she asked, opening her arms to him when he came down on top of her.

‘I wish I knew a way to make you stop asking them.’ Except he sort of did know a way and he proved it by tracing his lips on her jaw, over the tiny scar he’d seen there, and her creamy neck. ‘What is it?’

‘What would you do for me?’

This made him falter. ‘What?’

‘You asked me earlier, in the shower, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. So I’m asking, what would you do for me?’

‘Win,’ he said and then did the most effective thing he knew to keep her quiet, he kissed her.

Chapter Ten

They’d spent far longer naked than they should have. While she was with Dax she didn’t have to worry about disobeying Bruno’s commands, this felt real, and she wanted to stay in their private shelter for as long as they could. Regardless of whatever the hierarchy was in their day jobs, where she was concerned Dax overruled Bruno every time.

After sex, they’d showered – where there was more sex – then he’d brought her back to bed and told her to wait while he went into the closet.

‘If you hate the shirt I picked out, I will iron another for you,’ she called out, wondering why he had gone into the walk-in closet they shared, but denied her entry.

A few seconds later he came back out of the closet and tossed a ball of material at her. ‘Put that on.’

Unwinding the blue fabric that was almost the colour of his eyes, she fathomed that it was a short, backless, cowl neck dress that would show off plenty of bosom without attaining slutty levels.

‘I’m grateful that I won’t be nude,’ she said. ‘Do I get underwear?’

‘No,’ he said, yanking on a fresh pair of jeans and then donning the shirt she had selected for him.

Music was already blaring from downstairs, meaning the party had started without them. She quickly dried her hair, knowing it would settle in waves, and Dax was kind enough to reveal a makeup kit in one of the dresser drawers.

For the first time in a month, she felt like a real, ordinary woman again. Slathering on the gloss, she finished then spun to face him where he stood, waiting by the door.

‘What do you think?’

‘Great, whatever, can we get out of this room?’

He could’ve left at any time, but he waited so that she wouldn’t have to enter the party alone, although he didn’t explicitly say that.

‘One second,’ she said, approaching him and unbuttoning his shirt from the top.

‘Why are you doing that?’ he asked. The obvious tent in his jeans betrayed his lack of offense at her actions. ‘I’ll give you more sex later.’

She spread her palms on his chest, opening his shirt as much as she could. ‘It’s going to be hot down there.’

‘It’s California, but it’s night time.’

‘Things might get intense downstairs, or I might get anxious and need a distraction, and this is it.’ She kissed the width of his chest.

‘If I get anxious will you flash your tits at me and let me kiss them?’

He took her hands out of his shirt, but didn’t button it, so he was obviously happy for her to have her distraction.

‘Yeah,’ she said, much to his surprise. ‘If you bring me up here first.’

‘Whatever, let’s go.’

‘Wait. What should I expect down there?’

‘You’re not expected to fuck any guy or suck any cock, except mine,’ he said, taking a front length of her hair between his first two fingers.

‘That’s it? That’s the only information you can give me?’

‘Expect everything else to go wrong,’ he shrugged. ‘Do as you’re told, don’t contradict anyone, and make every guy down there want you.’

Trust Dax to drop a bomb like that at the last second. ‘What? How am I supposed to do that?’

‘Just walk in the room, babygirl. Every guy will have a hard-on.’

‘That I’m not supposed to attend to, right?’

‘Be sexy, be flirty, but don’t cross the line into slutty. You’ll have them all drooling, that’s what we want. But you make sure they know that you’re my female and you love it. You’ll have to adore me, let them think you’re infatuated.’

‘Addicted to your dick?’ she asked, not fooled.

‘Right on.’

‘Oh, you’re going to pay for this later,’ she mumbled, but she followed him out of the bedroom and down to the party.

She didn’t stay long in Dax’s wake, or even in his company. The music was constant, the alcohol was flowing, and lines of coke were available on the bar at the outer deck. Twenty guys had shown up and they’d brought a posse of women who were happy to show off their figures around the pool when one man suggested skinny-dipping.

Dax was on a lounger, flanked by women and surrounded by men. Though she didn’t see him talk much, most of the partygoers were just happy to be in Dax’s presence. Bruno took up another corner of the back patio, he had more women adoring him than men, but she figured that was by his request.

Ivy, on the other hand, wasn’t here to enjoy the party at all. As soon as they reached the bottom of the stairs Dax wandered off because Bruno had commandeered her. He told her to keep the guests happy. Her job was to be hostess, she topped off glasses, and cooked at the grill. She stocked the fridge, made cocktails and cleaned up the messes. All of her work experience to date came in handy.

The party guests were getting louder, but because they were in the middle of nowhere there were no neighbours to bother, so it didn’t matter. By the time they reached the wee hours the party was still going strong and didn’t appear to be letting up any time soon.

For the first time all night when she entered the kitchen it was empty and she was alone. Halfway through her task of filling the canapé trays she glanced at the kitchen door and wondered if anyone would notice her making a break for it. If she was lucky enough to find the front door unlocked, as she never had before, then she could get a head start.

Just then, someone came in off the back deck into the kitchen and her opportunity was gone. ‘Do you need any help?’

She hadn’t expected the tall stranger to ask her that, nor did she expect him to come around the island to her side.

‘No,’ she said, happier to be occupied than have to mingle. ‘I’m almost finished.’

‘I’ve seen you running around tonight. You haven’t had a chance to sit still. Let someone help you and you might have a chance to enjoy yourself tonight.’

His hand covered hers when she reached for the box of crackers. ‘I’m happy to stay busy.’

‘You’re quite the pick,’ he said.

All night people had been making comments such as this. Their statements included things like, ‘he’s a lucky guy,’ and, ‘I see why you were chosen.’ She just assumed they were talking about her and Dax.

‘Dax knows what he wants,’ she said, finishing her task. There were daiquiris and margaritas to mix but when the stranger discarded his drink and rested back on the counter, he was in her way.

‘Dax does what he’s told. He didn’t pick you.’

‘I don’t know what—‘

‘I know what’s going on, everyone here does, and you won’t catch a break like this again.’

Meeting his green eyes, she forgot about the task ahead. ‘Who are you?’

‘Your chance to get out,’ he said. ‘I’m your chance at freedom, probably your last one.’

‘Maybe you’re not as clued in as you think,’ she said, thinking of the deadline.

‘If you want to get out of here, you have to come with me. Now.’

‘You expect us just to turn around and walk out of here?’

‘Yes,’ he said, twining his fingers between hers. ‘This time tomorrow you could be far away from here and never have to see Bruno or Dax again.’

Except she was sure that she wanted Dax in her life. ‘Is this a test? To see if escape is in my mind.’

‘No test and there’s no time to waste. Do you want to be free?’

Freedom sounded like bliss, but she wanted it with Dax, not with this person. ‘I can’t just walk away from him.’

‘Dax doesn’t want you. Don’t make the mistake of falling for him. He’s here to fuck you into shape and to win your trust and obedience. And by the sounds of things he’s doing a damn good job of it. Being with you, here, wasn’t his choice but if he succeeds in this mission and makes you compliant, he moves up in the organisation.’

‘What?’

‘Those guys out there worship him because he used to be one of them. Hell is where Dax came from and he’s done everything Mauri ever asked of him to make sure that he never ends up back there. To him, you’re a stepping stone, nothing more.’

‘And you’re here to save me? Forgive me if I don’t believe it,’ she said, but when she tried to remove her hand from his, he increased his grip and tugged her body to his, smoothing his disused fingers down her cheek.

‘I don’t want you to forget this conversation, Ivy. Now there’s no hope for you. You’ve passed the point of no return.’

‘What’s going on?’

She whipped around to see Dax enter the kitchen, a suspicious scowl spread on his face. ‘Nothing,’ she said, returning to her canapé job only to be reminded too late that the tray was full because she’d actually completed the task.

‘I was just getting to know Ivy. She’s some woman.’ Ivy realised for the first time that this stranger was using her name.

‘Ivy,’ Dax said, locking his eyes on hers and obviously thinking of earlier, upstairs, when she’d smiled at his tattoo.

‘Geez, Dax, you’ve been fucking the woman for how long and you never asked her name?’ The stranger laughed and rounded the isle to pat Dax’s shoulder. ‘That’s what I love about you, man, you could never be confused for a guy who cares. Dax takes not giving a shit about anything except himself to a new level, Ivy, wouldn’t you agree?’

‘Thanks for the input,’ Dax said. Before she could question him on the statement, the stranger began to head for the exit.

‘You’ve got that thing to do,’ the stranger said to Dax, taking on a sterner air.

‘I’m on it,’ Dax nodded then the stranger was gone. ‘You just can’t behave yourself, can you?’

‘What?’ she asked, set off-kilter by Dax’s new anger.

Storming toward her, he swept an arm across the counter sending all her neatly trayed snacks cascading over the floor.

‘I just—‘His grip on her arm jolted her in front of him and he crouched to slide his palms up the backs of her thighs under her dress. ‘What are you doing?’

Bringing his lips to the shell of her ear, he whispered, ‘What do you get when you’re a naughty girl?’

‘You’re not going to—‘The buzz of his hand slapping her ass cheek shut her up.

‘You know that I like to hear the answer. What do you get, Minx?’

‘A spanking.’

‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘Bend over the counter like a good girl.’

‘No, Dax, not here. Please don’t—‘

Shoving her down over the counter to gather up her skirt, he exposed her ass. From here she could see the door to the back deck where the party was going on and anyone could walk in at any minute.

‘Still looks tender,’ he said, smoothing his hand on her butt with increasing pressure.

His hushed, throaty timbre didn’t give her confidence in them not being discovered. ‘That’s because you already gave me a hiding earlier. Haven’t you noticed that I haven’t sat down all night?’

His hand left her and came back with a harsh thwack sending a spear of pleasure into her guts. ‘Oh, Dax, not here,’ she whispered but he hit her again.