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“And how do you know I don’t?” she asked, pressing those gorgeous soft curves up against him. Rick nearly groaned as his body reacted immediately and her eyes got wide. She knew damned well he had a hard on now, not that she needed any encouragement. “It’s not like I’m asking you to be my boyfriend, I’m willing to experiment... and we can have a good time.”
Now that pissed Rick off. He didn’t even need to pretend to glower now. As if she realized she might have misread him, she took a tiny step back. Not far, but just enough, as a slightly puzzled expression went across her face.
“And what makes you think I’m just looking for a good time?” Rick demanded, torn between the desire to shove her out the door or drag her back to his bedroom and show her just exactly what she was asking for.
“I mean... you’re a guy… aren’t guys always up for a good time? And… I mean, look at you. Guys who look like you do… they’re… usually players,” she said, but her voice was hesitant. As if she was remembering the last time she’d made an assumption about him and how wrong she’d been then. Maybe even remembering the way he’d pressed her against the wall to prove he absolutely did find her attractive and he had no problem with her curves.
Rick truly wanted to hunt down every male she’d had an interaction with throughout her life and beat the daylights out of them. What made this gorgeous, confident woman have all the stereotypes about men that she did?
Unfortunately, he had a feeling her life experiences probably backed up all those stereotypes.
At one time in his life, he might have too. A sexy curvy girl showing up on his doorstep and offering a good time would have seemed like Christmas. But that wasn’t what he wanted now, and it grated on him that he’d apparently already been assessed and judged by her.
“Well I’m not,” he said, stepping forward and slightly to the side, forcing her to change her position so her back was to the open doorway. He knew he was crowding her, trying to herd her toward the door, but she didn’t back up as much as he thought she would. His voice was low, fierce, because he didn’t want the neighbors to hear what he was saying if they were home, but he wanted her to know he was one hundred percent sincere with everything he said. “I’m not the kind of guy who’s going to fuck a woman he doesn’t want to be seen in public with. I’m not the kind of guy who’s just looking for a good time. I’m not interested in being someone’s experiment. And I’m not interested in flirtatious little teases who are just looking for a cheap thrill.”
With every sentence he took another step toward her, forcing her to back out into the hallway as her big eyes widened even further. She was finally out of his apartment, out of his space, and part of him was incredibly disappointed by that. He needed to give her a damned good reason to stay away from him.
Deepening his voice, deliberately making it rougher and more forceful, Rick stared directly into her eyes, packing his pent-up frustration and heat into his gaze.
“If you knock on my door again, Maria, I will put you over my knee and spank your ass until it’s a hot cherry red. And I’ll enjoy every second of it.”
With that he slammed the door practically in her face.
His chest felt tight as he turned away from the door. Damn, but he’d hated doing that. Hated intimidating her, hated threatening her, hated how his cock had been rock hard the entire time he’d been doing it. At least he’d given her just enough information to indicate what exactly it was he liked to do in the bedroom, which should scare her off. Especially with the manner he’d delivered it in. He hadn’t imagined the shock and spark of fear in her eyes before he’d closed the door.
That kind of response, as long as it was tempered with excitement, was like manna to a Dom. He hated the part of him which had enjoyed that, because he knew it wasn’t going to be followed up with a hot scene that would temper her fright with pleasure.
What he hated most of all, was the disappointment sweeping through him when he realized she would probably never darken his doorstep again.
5
Holy crap... holy crap holy crap holy crap holycrapholycrapholyCRAP!
Maria’s knees actually felt weak as she slammed her own apartment door and then pressed her back against it. Her heart was pounding. Not like he was chasing her or anything—he’d made it pretty clear he wouldn’t be doing that—but Maria had so not been prepared for that kind of confrontation.
He wants to spank me?
If it hadn’t been for the way his eyes had sparked and flared with interest as he said it, she might have thought he was just trying to scare her away with something outrageous. But there was no mistaking the fact that even just saying the words definitely got him hot and bothered. The question was, did it get her hot and bothered too?
She didn’t know. It was one thing to contemplate getting it on with a hot guy who might want to lick her feet or maybe wear her panties, but Rick had made two things very clear: he wasn’t just looking for a good time and he wanted something which had never been on her menu. Like... seriously... spanking? People actually did that?
Okay, she wasn’t a complete idiot, she knew people did that, but somehow his golden boy, Greek god good looks didn’t lend itself to the way she would have pictured a spanker.
How did she picture a spanker? Well, she’d seen that movie, Secretary, so maybe a little bit like James Spader. Or maybe some Goth kind of guy who dressed in leather and chains. A super conservative throwback to the 1950s guy who wore pressed suits and considered himself the Head of the Household. None of those descriptions came anywhere close to Rick though.
Man, she was really good at stereotyping and she hadn’t even realized it. Not a pleasant realization. She always hated when people stereotyped her, and she’d now done it to Rick multiple times. Even knowing she’d already wronged him once.
And he had given her a lot to think about.
Dammit.
She really needed more female friends. More than ever she needed to talk through some of this stuff with someone, but her choices were rather limited. She could either fess up to Ava (ha!) or Lara about what was going on or she could go back to Jackie, but she didn’t know how any of her sisters would react to the idea she was interested in a guy who wanted to spank her. Or that she was tempted to let him. Sure, they’d all talked sex before, but not like this.
As the oldest, she also felt like she was supposed to be the mature, responsible one, never mind that they had all gotten married before her. There was something inside of her saying she had to set a good example. Somehow, getting spanked just didn’t seem like it would send that message. She was supposed to be strong and independent and all that good feminist stuff.
So why did she feel more excited than outraged?
When Brooke, one of her servers, came looking for her the next day at work with a call of distress from Janet, the hostess, she was glad to get out of the office and away from the paperwork, even though it meant dealing with a pain in the ass woman who insisted on a window seat despite the fact she didn’t have a reservation.
