AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He let her take it, his gaze upon her. She approached him, wary and intrigued, like an animal whose responses she was still learning. She just wasn’t sure if she was applying that description to him or her. Or both.
She put the towel against his back, drying the sweat there, moving down the valley of his spine, stopping above his waistband. This wasn’t about her copping a feel. It was about…
“Do you know the term for what you’re doing, Les?” He had his head tilted, keeping her in his peripheral vision.
“No.”
“Act of service.”
She liked the sound of it. Leaning in, she put her mouth between his shoulder blades. Brick reached around, finding her hand and bringing her in front of him, the towel still clutched in her grasp. As she looked up at him, his expression was so intent she had to look down. Needed to look down. Which was when she saw his erection, pushing insistently against his shorts.
Acts of service could take a lot of forms, and she was smart enough to figure out what one of them would be between a Dom and a sub. His hands tight on her hair, pushing her down on his length…
“Christ.” Brick tipped up her chin, held it. “I’m getting a shower,” he repeated forcefully. “You are going to go into the living room with your crackers and soda. Watch some TV. Something not about sex.”
A silly grin teased her mouth, bringing amusement into his own eyes, but his fingers tightened on her jaw. “You come near that shower while I’m in it, and I will unload that entire list on your ass.”
She lowered her lashes. “Yes, sir,” she murmured.
He snorted. His wrist snapped and the towel popped against her buttock, with enough force she felt the sting through denim. She yelped and glared at him.
“A smartass is a red ass,” he promised, heading toward the living room.
Rubbing the sore spot, she followed him. As he took the first few stairs to the second level, she was betting good money he’d lock that bathroom door.
He paused. The gray in his eyes had turned to steel, pinning her in place. “Les? Next time you call me sir, make damn sure I can hear the capital S.”
If she did that, she’d be taking another step toward the decision to be his submissive. He didn’t have to say that for her to know it.
All she was feeling toward him, exploring with him, was happening during one of the most difficult experiences of her life. She knew the dangers of that, too. But she could truthfully say none of that had anything to do with everything she’d imagined and thought of between them since she was twelve years old.
As their gazes held, she could hear her heart beating in her ears.
“Yes, Sir.”
If she thought he might not catch the significance, or not pin her on it, given her fragile emotional state, he thrillingly disabused her of any such wiggle room. No matter how well and chivalrously concealed, she’d affected him. He wasn’t in the mood to exercise forbearance.
He came back down the steps and crossed the room, a slow stalk toward her. She caught her lip in her teeth, a gesture of nervousness, of need. His gaze riveted on that.
“How’s your stomach feeling?” He asked the question like Dr. Jack or Redmond, wanting to know if she was ready to take the lead on a procedure.
“Like a popcorn machine.”
His gaze glittered. “We have a lot to work out, but I want you too damn much to put this off. If you’re ready to take another step in this direction, convince me of that. Before I do what I’m planning to do to you next.”
She gave him a lopsided smile. “Isn’t that sort of like holding out a cookie and saying I can have it if I say I like cookies?”
His chuckle had a male edge to it. Her hands curled at her sides, uncertain and restless. He seemed to see everything vibrating through her, intensifying that electricity. “You’re old enough to know when it’s best not to take that cookie. And the consequences if you do.”
His expression sobered. “If you convince me you’re ready for this next step, I’ll take over some of your choices, but you get them all back with the use of one word. You know what a safeword is, even if you’ve only heard it as a party joke. Between a Dom and sub, it’s damn serious. You use it, I stop doing what I’m doing, no guilt, no apologies. A protection for you, not a punishment.”
Usually when he was in this territory, he gave her little touches, tactile reassurances. His refusal to make contact increased the significance of his words. As well as the strength of her longing for his touch. “I’ll stop to make sure you’re okay, to see if we need to change track,” he continued. “But you don’t use it lightly. If you’re just scared of the way something is making you feel, you can tell me that without using the safeword.”
The laser intensity of his gaze increased. “I’ll watch for things you may not see yourself until it’s too late. Nothing’s more important to me than caring for you when this is happening. Nothing’s more important to me than caring for you, period. Not even my own desires or needs. If you don’t trust another single thing in this world, you can trust that. The safeword protects you. But so will I. Got it?”
What he made her feel was overwhelming, especially snarled up with everything else. She pushed her more difficult reactions aside, because she wanted to go where he would take her. Needed it.
“Yes. Yes, Sir.”
