Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 114260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
I like poking the bear.
He growls low.
“What?”
“Strip.”
I stare at him in surprise, not expecting that command. “Strip?”
“You heard me.” He doesn’t move.
Oh, great. He’s pissed, and now he’s either going to fuck me to remind me who’s boss or use my body in some way to punish me.
“Okay, so let’s get this straight. You made me a promise. I made you one. I kept my end up, and now you’re… getting mad at me or something?”
“Do I look mad?”
I nod. “You look fucking pissed.”
He frowns slightly, then nods. “I am.”
I throw up my hands in exasperation. “You’re maddening, you know that?”
“Takes two, babe.”
“What? You think I’m maddening?”
“I do.” No reaction. He glances at the clock on his desk. “You have two minutes, starting right now.”
“Or what?” I throw back at him, even as my hands fly to unfasten my shoes.
“Or I’ll strip you myself, and I’ll strip more than your fucking clothes.”
Oh God.
My hands tremble as I remove my shoes, then stand up and quickly disrobe. The rest of my clothing falls to the floor in a crumpled heap until all I’m doing is standing in front of him wearing nothing but my birthday suit.
“You’re beautiful.”
I look away. I can’t handle praise like that. It makes me uncomfortable.
“Thank you,” I murmur. I shiver, though I’m warm in here. He pulls out his phone and talks into the speaker. “Tell everyone I don’t want to be disturbed until further notice.”
He slides his phone into his pocket.
“Come here, baby,” Cain says. He walks to me, sits at his desk, then pulls me onto his lap. Once again, I’m struck by the contrast of him fully clothed and clothed well, and me stark naked, straddling him.
He lives for an imbalance in power.
Thrives on it.
I’m not so sure how I feel about this.
“Are we… talking about avenging my parents while I’m… naked?”
“We’ll be talking about a lot of things with you naked on my lap like this.”
A glimmer of excitement rushes through me before I can stop it, and it aggravates the hell out of me because this puts him at a decided advantage. After only days with Cain mastering my body, I began to be conditioned to crave more.
And I like it. I like all of it. I love the way he is with me. But I wonder if this isn’t to his full advantage to “discuss” things when I’m not wearing any clothes.
“It sounds to me like you’ll be getting the long end of the stick on that one?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know. You might be getting the long end of the stick, too.”
Oh God. Men.
There’s a smile in his voice though.
He wants me naked and at his mercy, begging for him to touch me or allow me to come… because that’s when I’m at my most submissive with him, and he knows it.
I sit up straighter on his lap, as if to remind both him and me that I’m not going to cave so easily.
“I know there doesn’t seem to be a pattern about the cases I’ve been taking, but there is. You think I’ve been wasting time or taking random cases, but I haven’t. Every single one of these cases were related.”
“Were they?”
He nods, gently kneading my shoulders, and my rigid spine begins to soften. It doesn’t take long before I nestle up against his chest, and he weaves his fingers in my hair. “They were.”
“How so?”
“I’d like to see if you can put it together like I did.”
“Checking on my intellect and ability?”
“Violet.”
His tone is a warning he underscores with a sharp tug of a lock of my hair, but I don’t back off. I want to know.
“I’m serious. Are you checking to see if I’m as astute as you thought I was when you hired me?”
He leans in close, gathering my hair between his fingers, and pulls me to him so that his eyes bore into mine. “No. You’ve blown every fucking employee I have here out of the water. I want to go over the facts, because I want to be sure I didn’t miss anything.”
“Alright, then,” I say, very, very aware that I’m naked, and he’s not, and I’m at his mercy.
When he’s got me good and secured on his lap, he wraps his hands around my waist like a seat belt. The concept amuses me, even as my body thrums with need. His thick fingers graze the very edge of my sides. As he talks, he strokes the pad of his thumb down my side.
“You assumed I’d forgotten about your parents.”
“Well… no, I wouldn’t go that far.”
He stills the gentle massaging. “Why the tantrum then?”
I sputter. “I didn’t have a tantrum.”
“Babe, you stormed out of the house. You went to the training field. You grabbed a fucking cudgel.”
“I love working out with a cudgel.”
He holds still, his fingers still wrapped around my body before he continues. “You like working out with a cudgel when you’re angry.”