Page 98 of To Catch a Sub

No. Please no.

Landon leaned down, his face mere inches from hers, and that was enough to break the spell, yanking her out of the past and into this moment.

She sucked in air as if she’d just clawed her way to the surface after almost drowning.

Remembered terror no longer locked her body, but she was trembling.

Landon’s lip had been pulled up in the start of a sneer, but now he frowned, gaze moving over her face feature by feature.

“Please…” she whispered, words barely audible. “Don’t hold me down like this.”

Landon surged to his feet, letting go of her and stepping back, his eyes narrowed. She could see him thinking, assessing.

Colette sat up, gasping as she put weight on her ass. Even against the soft mattress the pressure made fresh pain throb through her. The plug was thick inside her.

She wanted to slip to her knees. To sink back into subspace where she didn’t have to think. Where she was completely safe.

“Is that one of your hard limits?” he finally asked. “Being on your back on a bed?”

Colette couldn’t look at him. “It sounds ridiculous when you say it.”

“You don’t have to justify your limits, but I need to know what they are.”

Colette realized that for Landon, they were still in the scene. She hadn’t used her safe word—she’d called him an asshole and backed away, neither of which officially ended it. She should use the safe word now.

Instead, Colette hugged herself. “I guess it is a hard limit,” she agreed softly. “But it’s new. I didn’t realize how bad it would be…”

She hoped he’d jump in, save her from any more explaining, but he merely watched her with a quiet readiness. She really should use her safe word to end not only the scene but this conversation.

She couldn’t do it.

Nothing had changed as far as her needs. The spanking had been glorious and she’d feel it for days, but instead of satisfying her, it had only amped up her craving.

“You stopped breathing for a minute,” Landon said softly. “That’s more than just a hard limit, that’s remembered trauma.”

She could make something up, could prevaricate and keep her secrets. But she was so tired of trying to hold it all in.

Colette raised her head, holding his gaze. “I don’t want to be helpless on my back because that’s how Damien had me chained up when he used the knife.”

* * *

He saw it in his mind’s eye—a terrified, naked Colette chained and helpless on a bed, screaming as a knife was methodically dragged down her side.

White-hot rage punched through Landon’s system. The adrenaline dump as his body readied to fight made him almost light-headed.

Except there was no one to fight. The enemy, the man who’d hurt her, wasn’t here.

“This Damien fucker, that’s who hurt you?”

She nodded once.

Landon stalked across the room, crouched so he wouldn’t loom over her, and gently took her hands in his. Her fingers were cold.

He wanted to wrap her soft, naked body in a blanket and hold her on his lap until the sun rose, but the rage coursing through him made his muscles shake. Gentle would have to come later.

“Give me his full name, now.” He could be in Russia by mid-afternoon tomorrow.

“I gave you information on him and his people. I gave you everything you need to arrest them.”