From Sanctum with Love (Masters and Mercenaries #10)(32)

He missed her on the weekends. He would sit alone and wonder what she was doing, who was taking care of her.

Why hadn’t he played with her? He could tell himself all day long that it was about being a professional, but it was wrong. He knew the truth now.

He was afraid of losing her.

What if she was afraid of him? What if she couldn’t handle what he needed? What if they played and she hated it?

He knew she played with other Doms and he also knew she didn’t have sex with them. He knew she’d asked some of her Doms to go easy on her.

He went hard.

“I won’t hurt you.” He would hold back. He wouldn’t give her a reason to fear him more than she did. “It’s for Jared’s education. I’ll go easy and we’ll use the stoplight system.”

Green meant keep going. Yellow meant the sub needed the Dom to slow down, and red put a stop to the play.

He didn’t intend to get her to say red. He could control himself.

Her hand moved over him, stroking him. Somehow he could feel her warmth seeping from her skin to his. “Are you all right? Do you think he’s here to hurt you again? He told me he slept with your fiancée. Kai, I’m not going to sleep with Jared. I’m not going to walk away from my job to be some Hollywood type’s girl on call for a few weeks. That’s the furthest thing from my mind, so if you want me to go and find a sub for you, I will. Mia’s in the lounge. She’s in the training program so this would be like extra credit for her.”

She was giving him an out. An easy out at that. She’d seen right through him, gotten to the heart of the issue, and was now allowing him a free pass. He could go firmly into teaching mode and that would help defuse the situation and nothing would change between them.

“I would rather use you unless you’re afraid of me.” The words were out of his mouth before he could think to keep the damn thing shut. His inner caveman was super talkative and made bad choices. Well, maybe not bad exactly but certainly not the most expedient decisions.

He waited for her to explain all the ways he frightened her. Since she’d come to Sanctum, she’d played around in what Kai liked to call the shallow end of the pool. She stuck to Doms with a light touch, the friendly ones who winked and never brought their subs to tears. She seemed drawn to suspension play and loved rope bondage, but any impact play he’d seen her participate in had been restrained, light. So she would tell him to go pound sand and they would go back to their nice, safe, comfortable relationship.

Kori’s eyes flared. “Afraid? Of you? Do you honestly believe that?”

Maybe she didn’t understand what he was talking about. “Scared of my sadistic side. I can be rough on a sub. I would keep this scene very restrained. I would respect your limits and try very hard not to hurt you. This isn’t about my needs. It’s about teaching Jared, so you’re safe.”

Her arms crossed over those round breasts of hers. In her corset they were shoved up and on display, as though she was presenting them to him. He knew it wasn’t true, but it looked like if she took a deep breath her nipples might pop out. They would be right there begging him to twist them and turn them a pretty red color before he would soothe them with his lips and tongue.

“You think I’m a wimp. You think I can’t handle a spanking.”

Something about the way she was standing, the tone of her voice, brought out the Dom in him, and he found himself moving into her space. “I am attempting to respect your limits.”

“You have no idea what my limits are, Sir.” Though she put that polite “Sir” at the end, there was no way to mistake the challenge in her voice.

That challenge got his dick humming. He towered over her, meeting her eyes. There was something happening between them, something that hadn’t happened before. Electricity seemed to crackle in the air and he couldn’t find the will to step away. “Why don’t you explain them to me, Kori? Do you think I’m such a novice Dom that I can’t read your body language? I think I can tell when you’re enjoying the play or when you’ve had enough. If I can’t you’ve always got the power of speech.”

“Unless you gag me. Then I’d be totally helpless and at your mercy, Mr. Sadist.” She inched closer to him, her chest almost brushing his. “You don’t have to go easy on me, Kai. I can handle anything you can dish out.”

“You’ve splashed around in the kiddie pool.” His voice had gone deep and low, his inner caveman utterly squashed by his Dom. She was challenging him in a space where that wasn’t acceptable. At the office she could run his life all she liked. He welcomed it, needed it, and honored her for it. But here. Oh, here, she did not get to be in charge. “You’ve waded in to your ankles with your water wings on, little girl. If you scene with me you better know how to swim.”

How had they gone from polite to damn near sexual intercourse in point three seconds. Oh, yeah. It was because she’d leaned in, lowered her voice, and opened all sorts of doors that should have remained closed.

“I’m a freaking Olympic gold medalist when it comes to this particular pool, Sir. And I’m a woman, not a little girl, as you’re about to find out. Where do you want me?”

Where did he want her? On her knees. Bent over the couch in his office. Bound to his bed, her legs spread and waiting for his penetration. “On the spanking bench eventually, but first I think you should show Jared how a proper submissive greets her Master and prepares for a scene. Does your gold medal cover that?”