Page 16 of The Devil’s Submission

Eliza didn’t smile back. “Oh, Grayson,” she said softly. “What really happened between you and him?”

Rage and pain surged and twisted through his body, so powerful he shoved himself away from the desk and crossed the office to stare blankly out the window. “Nothing worth repeating. But it is a bridge that is well and truly burned, and I have no desire whatsoever to reconcile. Shall we go? I feel a desperate need for some fresh air.”

“Grayson…”

He didn’t turn around. Maybe in the future he might speak of the time Reyburn and his valet had nearly killed him “to make a man out of him” after his submissive tendencies had come to light.

But that day was not today.

…

So much pain.

Staring at her husband’s rigid back, Eliza attempted to swallow the barrage of questions on the tip of her tongue. Whatever happened might have been years ago, but it had to be far worse than she imagined for the bitter estrangement to continue so long. Grayson had rarely talked about his father during their marriage, and Lord and Lady Reyburn hadn’t attended their wedding. Back then, Grayson explained away their absence with an expensive wedding gift and an apology note stating they were in Italy.

“They were here, weren’t they. Your parents,” she said slowly. “Did they choose not to attend our wedding, or did you not invite them?”

It shouldn’t have been possible, but Grayson tensed further. Then he let out an audible breath. “I invited my brother; he refused. I didn’t invite my parents. But they wouldn’t have come even if I had. We haven’t spoken in nearly ten years.”

Shocked to the core, she couldn’t muffle a gasp. Ten years?

Nearly sprinting across the room, Eliza wound her arms around his waist and rested her cheek against his back. His lean, muscular form felt like a statue against her and, dismayed, she began stroking his chest. “It must have been something awful.”

Abruptly, he turned in her arms, his green eyes glittering. “Don’t push me, Eliza.”

She hesitated, weighing the words against the challenge, the naked plea in his gaze. “Ten years ago you would have been at Cambridge, mastering mathematics. Learning about the world. And…yourself. Was university where you discovered your preference for a woman being in control?”

“I…fuck. Perhaps. Can’t we save this for another time?”

“No,” Eliza said, lifting her hand to cup his cheek. Then, on a moment of impulse, she threaded her fingers through his short-cropped hair and tugged firmly on the silken strands.

Grayson moaned, the sound so intensely sexual that moisture gathered between her legs. “You’re going to make me tell you, aren’t you?”

“Yes, darling, I am,” she replied in the steeliest tone she could muster, the relaxing of his shoulders and stark relief in his eyes giving her the courage to add: “Because I am in charge here. I’ll have it the way I like it. But first, I want you to kiss me.”

Her husband’s lips crashed down onto hers, not with cool finesse but raw hunger, as though the darkness that had been suppressed for so long was finally bursting free. Then his arms closed around her waist like steel bars, and he lifted and pressed her against the office wall, spreading her thighs and wrapping them around his hips. The wall was chilly and unforgiving against her back, but she didn’t break the scorching kiss, just held him tightly and continued to stroke and tug at his hair. This could be it. The moment that defined whether their marriage might succeed or fail. And she wanted it to succeed more than anything in the world.

Eventually Eliza leaned forward, scraping her teeth along his earlobe and biting down ever so slightly, just enough to leave a small imprint. Grayson still didn’t speak, but his engorged cock jerked against her mound, and when she slid her free hand between them and unfastened his trousers, the head of his erection spilled out, wet with pre-come.

“Now you may answer me, Grayson,” she said softly but sternly, curling her fingers around his cock and caressing him.

He shuddered. “God. Please let me come.”

“I want to. I want to so badly, darling. My pussy is wet and aching, and I know you will fill me so very full. I love it when you are deep inside me. But you are holding on to a terrible hurt right now, and I cannot allow that between us.”

Gasping, he nuzzled into the side of her neck, his lips hard and smooth, his jaw slightly scratchy. “What do you want to know, Eliza? The friends I didn’t make because I hated the usual lordly pursuits of hunting and shooting? The rumors that started about me because I didn’t go into the village and fuck every woman I saw or leave a trail of bastards in my wake?”

“Yes, that’s it,” she crooned, holding him close as the words spilled out. “Very good. What else?”

“I tried. Fuck, I tried. But the women were so…so deferential. They were in awe of my father’s title, and mine, even though it is just a courtesy one. They wanted to serve and be owned and ordered about by me.”

“And you didn’t want that at all,” she said, squeezing the base of his erection in reward.

He panted, arching his back slightly so his cock pressed harder against her fingers. “No. Then one day I met Charlie. She hosted parties you see, for men, ah, exploring. Some enjoyed both male and female lovers, some just male. But a few of us were gifted the opportunity to learn about submission.”

Ignoring the sharp twinge at the mention of Charlotte, too proud and relieved that Grayson was finally sharing these deeply personal memories, Eliza shifted so the head of his cock rubbed against her swollen, wet labia. “I am very pleased with you. I know it is hard to share the times you don’t wish to speak of, but it makes me admire you more, my brave darling. Now you are going to make me scream and fill my pussy with come. I want every drop you have.”

He kissed her cheek, then in one lightning fast movement, he fitted his cock to her sheath and drove deep. They both moaned at the friction, the sheer bliss as her inner walls clamped around his length, holding him inside her. Grayson’s mouth trailed down her neck and across the tops of her breasts as he thrust and withdrew, grinding his hips against her, the wall ensuring she didn’t have to do anything but wrap her legs tighter around his waist to bring him even closer.