Master Me (3 page)

Embarrassed heat flooded up her neck. She should be angry except anger hadn’t even entered that equation. What was wrong with her? She couldn’t even think straight with him this close.

“I want to leave.”

“Then I guess we’re at cross-purposes. I want to hold you. Since I’m the Dom, that means I win.”

She closed her eyes in frustration, trying to figure her way through this. If she threw a big enough hissy fit, she knew he’d let her go. She didn’t want to throw a fit. Besides, would he even believe her? Max knew her and knew her well. She wanted him. He’d sense it even if she protested. Really most of all she just wanted to pelt him. He’d hidden this from her. And now, by showing her… Their relationship would never be 18

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the same again. So this was what it felt like to lose your best friend. He held her, the bands of his strong arms burning pleasure into her, yet a new hollowness inside her echoed with her pain. She’d always told him everything…

He pressed his face into her shoulder. “Relax, angel. This isn’t as bad as you’re making it.”

“And how’s that?”

“You want to learn this lifestyle. I can show you how. I’ll still always be here for you. I’ll catch you if you fall, although your new master, whoever he turns out to be, might object to that.”

New master? She couldn’t fathom it. If she let Max teach her—and she knew that would include sex—she’d completely lose herself to him. She’d never been able to fully commit herself to any relationships because Max already owned most of her. She doubted that after him she’d recover enough to move on.

His hands splayed and he moved one to cup her breast while the other spread on her belly. She’d never realized quite how big his hands were. They seemed to cover her, although she knew they didn’t really. It was the bliss radiating from his touch.

She was lost. Very, very lost.

“Max, I can’t…”

He sighed. “You need to think about it. I can help you explore what you’re looking for, however, I won’t force you. I won’t ever harm you, Ana. I don’t think you can say that about the guys you’ve been hooking up with.”

He was right. Her dating history read like a Who’s Who in the Loser Parade. It didn’t make the thought of submitting to Max any easier.

“Do you like the feel of my hands on you, Ana?” he asked, the deep rumble of his voice stroking her womb.

She tried to stay still. She wouldn’t admit it.

Helplessly, she nodded, her body overriding her mind.

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He rewarded her with a nip on her shoulder. A tremor ran through her. She had to get out of here before she sank to the carpet and begged him to fuck her. His insistent arousal prodded at her back, proving he’d be fully able to fill her need.

Slowly, he stroked both hands up and down her parted thighs. His thumbs repeatedly bumped against the damp cotton covering her pussy. How humiliating to have him know how aroused this made her and how weak she was to him. It occurred to her that he no longer held her captive. She could scramble away now that his arms weren’t around her.

She didn’t move.

As if he’d sensed her aborted thought one of his arms again locked around her waist. She immediately realized her notion of escape had nothing to do with it. She whimpered as one big hand slipped beneath her skirt and into the waistband of her panties.

He groaned as he slipped two fingers into her slippery folds. She erupted at his first touch.

“Max, no,” she pleaded. “I can’t. Not with you.”

“Of course with me. Oh God, Ana, you feel so good. I want to feel you fly apart in my palm.”

Insidious ribbons of delight stole through her, lifting her hips into his strokes. She couldn’t surrender to him. She couldn’t do this, yet her body seemed intent on giving him exactly what he wanted. Her cream flowed as the sensations continued and grew stronger.

“Max,” she groaned. Her fingers flexed where they were trapped behind her.

Inadvertently, she caressed the hard ridge in his jeans. Her hand didn’t come close to spanning its length. Mercy, he had to be impressive. Right now, she didn’t care about his size, she just wanted him in her.

“Call me Master,” he murmured, giving her aroused flesh a sharp tap.

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“Master,” she gasped.

He leaned against her back, silently urging her to bend forward, then pulled away just enough that she could pull her arms free. “Down on your elbows,” he commanded.

“Rest your head on your forearms.”

She did as he said. All the while his caresses continued to claim her needy cunt. As soon as she’d assumed the position he’d ordered, he dipped a finger inside her clenching channel. He shoved her panties to her knees. A surge of cream followed.

Right and wrong, can and can’t disappeared. This was Max. With Max she was safe.

At least, she always had been. She rocked against him as he added two more fingers to the one plowing into her channel. Her belly tightened as her release grew closer. He’d get his desire. It would be fast and hard. She’d wanted for too many years.

Her breasts tingled, growing harder within their confinement, her bra suddenly feeling a size too small. She wanted his mouth on them. She wanted his mouth everywhere. Her thighs burned with the need radiating to them.

“That’s good, angel,” Max said as he leaned over her and she frantically worked her hips. “Milk my fingers. Show me how much you want me. You do want me, don’t you?

You want my cock inside you, showing you who you belong to. Don’t you?”

“Yes,” she groaned. “Yes, Master. Please fuck me.”

Her release coiled, ready to explode. He had to feel it tightening around his coated fingers. Slowly he pulled them free, taking time to drag his fingertips over her exposed clit. Then he was gone.

She peeked over her shoulder to find him sucking her essence from his fingers.

“You taste fantastic, angel.”

She blinked in surprise when he didn’t come back to her. He moved to sit in the chair she’d earlier vacated.

“Kneel.”

What the hell?

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She scooted around to face him, taking the position he’d guided her into earlier. She knew the picture she must present. Breasts heaving, skirt bunched at her waist, panties tight around her spread knees. Yet he watched her dispassionately as if nothing had happened between them. The way his cock strained for release was all that comforted her and kept her from calling herself a thousand times the fool. She settled for nine hundred ninety-nine. Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. What was she doing? She knew she couldn’t invest in anything with Max, yet here she was half-naked on her knees before him.

His jaw clenched.

“You will not come today.”

He got that wrong. She was coming as soon as she got home to her vibrator.

“You are not to bring yourself pleasure,” he continued.

Damn it.

“I know you too well for you to lie to me. I’ll know if you’ve orgasmed.”

His words brought a fresh wave of arousal flooding into her pussy. She distantly wondered if he could see it glistening on the inky thatch of curls between her legs. He’d think of it when he masturbated later and she knew damned well he would. Max was the most sexual being she knew. He thrived on pleasure.

That didn’t stop her ire. She glared at his cock, trying to summon one of the gypsy curses her grandmother had taught her. He deserved a virulent case of crotch rot. A tiny voice inside her whispered not to do it and against her desire she reluctantly listened. She really didn’t want the karma that would accompany her curse. A naughty part of her whispered that he deserved it… A curse would assist the universe in punishing him.

No, a curse would just be Ana being vengeful.

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She clenched her fingers behind her, reining in the temper that had gotten one of her ancestors burnt at the stake. The universe—unfortunately—would have to do its own dirty work.

“Why are you doing this?” she muttered, knowing full well she shouldn’t snap at her self-appointed master. She bit back a wry grin. Another spanking wouldn’t be so intolerable.

“I want you to have something to think about. Every time you sit, probably every time you move, you’ll think of me.”

Like that was ever in question. She thought about him all the time anyway.

“I’m offering you a proposition, Ana. I’ll train you. I will be the Dom you’ve searched for and you’ll be my sub. At least, until you’re trained. Tomorrow, if you accept my proposition, you will present yourself here and give yourself into my keeping. Think about it. Think hard, Ana. Once you accept, I won’t allow you to turn back.”

* * * * *

Max’s words followed Ana home. She realized after he’d left the room and she’d gathered her things that he’d never given a scenario for what would happen if she didn’t accept his proposition. Could they continue on at work together? They worked in different departments of Cress Construction, she as the company’s equipment coordinator and he as the head of Conceptual Designs. Their paths rarely crossed professionally. Still, it wasn’t a huge company. They’d see each other.

Perhaps she should take the position she’d been offered at Cress’ competitor, Sissek.

She wasn’t fully utilizing her degree in project management. At Sissek Construction she’d oversee several of their supermarket construction projects. When the headhunter had contacted her, loyalty to Max and to Cress was the only thing holding her back.

Shoving a hand through her hair to push it off her face, she worked her key into the sticky lock on her apartment door. Max hated this place. He didn’t think it was safe 23

Brynn Paulin

enough. The apartment building was too run-down and the neighborhood was dangerous. She could almost hear his voice as he griped.

She pushed open the heavy wood door and flipped on the light, listening as it buzzed to life. She happened to think the building had character. Yes, the door stuck and the windows liked to swell shut in the summer but you didn’t find woodwork like this in modern construction. All around her, dark wood trimmed the walls and ceilings of her spacious apartment.

She knew it worried Max that crime was higher around here. Correspondingly, the rents were lower. Worked for her. Besides, not everyone could afford a sprawling four-bedroom-three-bath ranch house with all the comforts of wealth. She didn’t begrudge Max his nice house. She just wished he’d stop picking on hers.

She wandered though to her bedroom, the rooms lit only by the hall light and the neon from the store across the street. Max needed to stop worrying. Her cards would have told her if she needed to be concerned.

Absently, she pushed the button on her answering machine as she pulled off her clothes. Her body still throbbed with the aftermath of his attention. She could barely imagine trying to sleep tonight with this rampant arousal thrumming through her.

Would Max really know if she relieved the tension knotting her belly? Did it matter?

She wouldn’t say yes to his plan.

“Slave, answer this phone.”

Ana jumped at the nasty voice echoing through the machine’s speaker. What had she been thinking to align herself with someone so malevolent?

“You will call me immediately when you return. I did not give you permission to go anywhere. You will call me.”

A harsh noise broke the air of her quiet apartment as he slammed the receiver down. Four similar messages followed.

Ana made a face.

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You will call me
.

Not. She didn’t belong to him. She’d broken their contract, though he was choosing to ignore it. As far as she was concerned, if she never saw him again, it would be fine.

She’d never had an emotional connection to Tyler. It had been just sex—even though they’d never actually fucked. It was nothing like her connection to Max.

Ending their friendship would cripple her.

Naked, she flopped down on her bed, hoping she’d jolt some of her arousal from her system. Instead, her thighs rubbed together, stimulating her drenched folds. She needed to come. Badly. Rolling on her back, she propped one leg on the mattress while the other dangled over the edge. Slowly, she ran her hands over her ribs, cupping her breasts then gently squeezing her way up to her nipples. She moaned softly as she ran her palms over the points and imagined it was Max’s hands on her.

Picturing his hard body kneeling over her, she continued to massage one peak while her other hand drifted over her belly, in search of her cleft. She splayed her fingers through the springy hair covering her pussy and thought of his large fingers, one pushing inside to slide between the inner lips.

She’d wanted him so badly earlier. Needed him to fuck her. Oh God, she wanted that impressive cock parting her and driving deep inside. She gasped as she pressed her finger to her clit and wobbled it from side to side. Mild ripples of pleasure skipped through her yet nothing as strong as when Max touched her.

Still, she closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation.

Max would be angry if he knew what she was doing. It didn’t matter. He had no hold over her. She hadn’t agreed to anything and she wasn’t going to.

Little by little, the sensations built, stacking upon each other until her control threatened to topple. One more second, a few more strokes. Her lips parted. Oh, Max…

The harsh jangle of her phone ripped her from her daze and pushed back her release. She groaned, turning to her side and hugging her pillow. She just couldn’t get a break. All she wanted was a fucking orgasm.

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“Ana, please pick up the phone.”

Max.

Fumbling for the portable receiver, she clicked it on and brought it to her ear.

“Hullo?”

Please don’t let her sound as breathless as she thought she did. She struggled to slow her breathing so she wasn’t panting in his ear.

“What are you doing?” he asked, his low, knowing tone sending heat rushing through her.