Dungeon Games (Masters and Mercenaries #6.5)(10)

“Or he’ll get scared off.”

“That’s better than the alternative.”

“What alternative?”

“He actually kills you.”

She snorted, an entirely unfeminine sound that he should have found offensive. Should have. “Like I would let that happen.”

“Amanda was a cop. She might have had a nasty personality, but don’t think for a second that she didn’t know how to handle herself. She’d taken all of her self-defense courses. She was perfectly fit. And she’s dead. So I don’t give a damn what you think you can handle. You can handle working with me or…”

She snarled a little as she finished the sentence for him. “…go into protective custody. You’re starting to sound like a broken record, Brighton. You need to get some new material. Damn it. You see what you push me to? I am not this girl.”

“Whichever girl you are, she’s racking up the punishment.” He pushed his chair out a little, giving himself room to work. “I’m going to give you the earlier rude remarks. But it’s time to begin as we mean to go, so I’m going to demand payment for the last volley. Twenty over my lap. Let’s get this out of the way and then we can get something to eat and talk about this like adults. We need a contract in place. I’d like to go over your hard and soft limits.”

He was going to sign a contract with Karina Mills. Earlier it had seemed like the worst idea in the world, and now he couldn’t wait to get her signature. It would be proof that she belonged to him for however short a time.

Karina stood, but she wasn’t moving toward him. She backed away. “You can’t be serious, Brighton. You can’t expect that I’ll let you spank me right here.”

Patience. He needed an enormous amount of patience to deal with her. That was what he’d forgotten during earlier encounters. Karina required patience and a very firm hand. He hadn’t been patient with her the one time they’d played before. He’d been awkward. He was going to handle her better this time around. “I don’t merely expect it, Karina. I require it. You’re going to unzip your pants, push them down, and settle your bare ass over my lap. You’re going to allow me to discipline you because that’s what Doms and subs do. Are you trying to tell me you don’t enjoy a spanking? Or is it just that you think you won’t enjoy one from me?”

“I didn’t…I didn’t think I would get one from you. Ever.”

“Ever, Sir,” he corrected.

Tears pooled in her eyes. “Are you trying to humiliate me?”

He softened slightly. “I wouldn’t do that. I take the lifestyle seriously, and it would please me if you would call me Sir in intimate situations. I’m trying to keep you alive, Karina. And don’t you want to know? I know I do.”

“What do you want to know?”

“I want to know just how good it’s going to feel to f*ck you. I want to know if we can take all the energy between us and turn it into something that makes us both feel good for a change. I’m going to be honest with you, Karina. You are not my type. I can’t see anything working between us, but god I can’t get you out of my head. I can’t stop thinking about you, and it’s affecting my life.”

She stared at him for a minute. Just when he thought she was going to tell him to go to hell, she sighed a little. “I think about you, too. I don’t want to. I don’t want a relationship with you.”

He was a little surprised at how much that hurt. He didn’t want a relationship with her either. He meant what he’d said. She wasn’t even close to his type. But for some reason she called to him. “I’m going to offer you a deal, Karina. For the duration of this investigation I want to top you. I want to get you out of my system.”

“You want to sleep with me?”

“Yes, but I’m not going to require it. I do intend to do my damnedest to seduce you.”

“And when the case is done?”

“We try to be friends, maybe? We can at least be friendly. I don’t like the friction between us. We see each other too often to keep on the way we have.”

Something infinitely sad passed across her face, and he was sure he’d lost her. In that moment, he would have done just about anything to take back the last couple of moments and start over.

She nodded suddenly and crossed the space between them. “Yes, Sir. I think we can make that work.”

Her hands went to the button on her jeans and Derek felt his cock jump. He stared as she began to push her pants down and wondered if anything would ever be the same again.





What the hell was she doing? She couldn’t actually be thinking about shoving her jeans off her hips and offering her ass to Derek Brighton. Because that was insane.

So why were her fingers working the fly of her jeans? Why was she dragging the zipper down and trying to remember what kind of underwear she’d put on this morning. Clean. Yeah, they were clean, but she doubted they were sexy. She tended to wear utilitarian clothes when she was working, a sort of armor that reminded her she had to be tough to do her job.

“Do you need help?” His voice was deep, dark, like rich chocolate. God, just the sound of it made her body light up.

What the hell would she do when he turned that voice on her during play? Likely anything he wanted.