Own (Command Force Alpha #1) (26 page)

She sighed something close to promises, but there were no words in her breath. Rolling over was difficult because her knees and elbows were so weak. She managed, before dropping her shaking arms. She lowered her face as he’d ordered. He knew. He knew exactly what she needed, down to the fact that she wouldn’t be able to hold her upper body.

A shudder worked down her spine. Maybe it looked like she shook her ass at him as a taunt. She had nothing so daring as a tease within her. She simply
was
. She existed within the instructions he wove around her like liquid silk.

He warmed her skin with both hands. Gentle and strong wrapped together. He rubbed over her thighs, down her back, across her ribs and around the softness of her belly. She closed her eyes and floated away on the sensation.

Until with one, resounding, painful crack, he smacked her right ass cheek. She gulped air, her eyes going wide. The response snapped out of her as if jerked by a string. “One, Sir.”

He growled an unadulterated sound of approval. “You’re a good girl, Katsu. You’ll continue.”

“Yes,” she said on a hissing gasp.

She was prepared for the next one, ass tense, which actually made it more painful. He alternated cheeks, this time her left. Heat bloomed across her skin. She counted it out anyway. “Two, Sir.”

He grunted. Not when he landed the blow, not when he grabbed her breast in a fierce grip in his free hand, but when she spoke his bidding.

These were head games of the deepest sort. She’d dive straight into whatever frigid waters he demanded so long as she got more of this. The air stretched like taffy between them. Without looking she knew that he was drawing his hand back for the next blow.

She breathed deep. Deeper still. Let her eyes close. There was no waiting, because it would come when he willed.

It hurt. There was no denying how it stung. But relaxing into the strike had made it easier to endure. She should know better than to fight him in this arena. “Three, Sir.”

His fingers dipped into her pussy, finding even more wetness than when they’d both been playing. “Do you want me to lick this tidy, pretty little cunt tonight?”

She made a noise that was an unabashed, pleading whine. “Please. Please, oh God, you were so good in the shower. Sir, you make me weak.”

She bit her bottom lip. She hadn’t meant to say that. Hopefully he’d interpret it only sexually.

Most of her feared that she meant it in every way possible. Much more of this, much more of those smiles she could tease from him, much more of the way he looked at her and truly
saw
her…and she’d forget her boundaries. She’d disregard the stupidity of volunteering to be left behind yet again. Boundaries could become smoke in the wind under a certain influence.

Under Evan’s influence.

“You’ll have to make me very, very happy to get that again so soon.”

“Anything,” she breathed, and she meant it like a vow. “Please, Sir, may I have the rest of my spanks?”

His hands clenched tight on her hips. “You’re vicious, aren’t you, shark? You know where to bite to get what you want.”

She twisted her head to look back at him. The triangular angles of his shoulders into his arms and around his chest were more than she could handle without getting woozy. But his expression did her in. His eyes were even brighter blue, and his mouth wasn’t pressed flat—it was curved in one of those smiles she would sell her soul for. “I don’t think I have to apologize.”

“Not for that.”

Abruptly, he smacked her ass two more times, alternating cheeks. The sharp pain stole her breath. In its wake was an overwhelming and rushing sensation. She was fully
in
her body. There was no escaping the way he looked at her, eyebrows rising micrometers by the second.

“Four, Sir. Five, Sir,” she managed to gasp.

She was rewarded—so wonderfully rewarded. His fingers sank deep in her pussy, two fingers stretching her opening to the point of a deliciously subtle burn. Her G-spot was his to control, just like everything else. He rubbed over and over, adding his other hand by finding her clit.

Where she’d expect him to be firm and direct, to match what he did inside her body, he was soft and gentle on the outside. He slipped through her wetness, fingers circling around and around her most delicate flesh, and dipped to trace through her lower lips. He was a tease. He was the worst.

And he knew it. He knew what he was doing. His grin had turned wolfish, and she couldn’t look away from the magnetism of his gaze.

“You’re a good girl, Katsu. Time to show me even more of what you can handle. You’re to come when I say. No sooner. But you know what, shark? If you
do
conquer this challenge…all I’ll do is fuck you. Hard. You know exactly how hard I mean. I’ll pull out and come all over this pretty ass, and pet my come over your skin. I’d lay money you won’t care, because I’ll have you seeing stars.”

Kat had no option than to let him win. He set out the challenge. She would meet it.

He twisted her into the perfect tied-with-a-bow package he wanted—all sensation and wanting. His fingers worked magic in her pussy. Her breathing jerked harder and faster as she tried to hold orgasm back and sought it out by instinct. She was pulled between the two extremes of what he did with his hands and what he demanded of her mind.

She wanted to snap that he was being unfair. But she wouldn’t dare. Not ever. There was no
losing
in this game. There was nothing she could do wrong.

It was a liberating gift.

Except, she wanted this night to go further. There was no telling how much longer they had, but she’d started to hear that time bomb in her head—like he did. She needed more than a finger bang. She wanted his cock in her. She deserved it.

“Sir, let me come. Let me come and you can use me however you want. My mouth. Fuck me. Whatever you want. Please, I want more. Whatever you’ll give me.” She talked fast and quick and practically begged him to sweep her away.

He laughed, which took her by surprise. The laugh could’ve been to make fun of her, but she could tell by the stunned and appreciative look on his face that he hadn’t meant it that way. He sank to his knees. Her heart—or something really near to it—clenched.

“Come now, shark. You can come, but remember this is all going to start again.”

She giggled helplessly, even as the orgasm crashed over her. The pleasure started inside her, wrapped around his intruding fingers. Then it splashed out to the gentle touch still teasing her clit. Her stomach warmed next, before tingles surged down her thighs and curled her toes.

Mind. Blown. There was nothing left of her.

She gasped for breath for a long moment and pressed her damp face into the comforter. Sweat had sprung up over her skin despite the perfectly adjusted climate control. Hers was a body gone haywire. She gasped and laughed again, and then went through another round. “Christ, Evan, if that was supposed to be a threat, you totally missed the mark.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

“Missed the mark? As in…I failed? Interesting concept.”

Evan should’ve been grinning. He was burning up inside, heady with the power of watching the impossible come true. That he’d played Kat so well was intoxicating and rewarding beyond anything he’d imagined. He knew her and what she wanted—what she craved. That knowledge gave him the strength to hide his satisfaction. They weren’t done yet, mostly because Evan was still hard as granite and throbbing with need. This was a breather in the middle of a tempest, but for the night, he was her Dom.

Her Dominant.

God almighty.

The thought was like wearing a new skin, but it was a skin that fit him perfectly.

He could’ve slipped on a condom and simply taken what he desired. That seemed so ordinary, although sex with Katsu should never be described that way. It fit, though. He’d fucked women for years. He hadn’t ever had this level of absolute control.

He wanted to test that control.

Just how far would she go? How far would
he
go?

“Explain why you feel the need to insult your Master,” he said, voice flat yet impassive.

Katsu’s expression sobered. Although her body practically hummed and shimmered with the orgasms he’d crashed over her, she fought—he could see it in her onyx eyes—to be his good girl again.

“I…” She closed her legs until her ankles crossed, as if that simple move could hide her vulnerable nakedness.

“Sit up. Turn to face me. And explain.”

Even her lethargy turned him on. He’d done that for her,
to
her. Every movement was determined but slow, as if she had washed away her sweet, satisfied sweat with honey rather than a bubble bath. Mmm… Kat in a bubble bath.

Later.

So prim on the bed, she hugged her knees and folded her arms around them. Although she’d followed his instructions, she was hiding from him in the aftermath of passion so strong that it should never be hidden.

“Heels together,” he said roughly. “Knees apart. Hands resting on your thighs. Don’t think about it. Just do it.”

She complied with gratifying speed. “Yes, Sir.”

A shiver worked up his backbone. The surprise that flickered across her expression told him what he hadn’t expected but had been secretly waiting for: when her use of
Sir
would become automatic.

“I…” she started again. “I was making a joke.”

“Was it appropriate?”

“Not at the time, no.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re Evan and I’m Katsu, but we’re…not.” She rolled her lips together before they parted on a soft, relaxed sigh. “We’re something bigger than us right now, and I shouldn’t have tried to back away from it. I think I was trying to break the spell.”

He found himself staring at the parted, wet, flushed folds of her sex where her splayed knees left her exposed. Her posture was perfect, which did amazing things to her breasts, which glistened with perspiration. Her face was flushed too, and her hair was a tousled mess. That would have to change.

“Do you want to break the spell, Katsu-kun? We can end this now. I’m ready for you. I know you could go another few rounds of straight-up vanilla.” He caught her chin and kissed her with all the possessiveness he shouldn’t feel and all the yearning he had that she’d give him the answer he wanted. “Last chance.”

“I want it all,” she said breathlessly against his lips. They were incendiary. “No more jokes. No more doing this because I know the sex will be great and you’ll get that gorgeous, strained look on your face.” She traced her fingers along his temples, where the skin around his eyes felt like crumpled sandpaper. She smelled of her body’s slick wetness. “Please, Sir. I’m yours.”

Evan banked another shudder. He was good at that. He could walk into a room full of mass murderers, and his hands would never shake. Steady as a fucking rock. He hadn’t known that about himself until the situation closed around him. He didn’t know he could clamp down so much excitement until right then, when Katsu’s words made him want to run, cheer, thank God, curse the devil, and hold her—just hold her—all night.

“Yes, you are,” he said instead. “Off the bed. On your hands and knees.”

After a flicker in Kat’s eyes that wasn’t strong enough to reveal doubt, he watched her sink into his words. He had that much control over her. The thought was as humbling as it was thrilling. He held such a huge responsibility. He did all the time, with his team members’ lives on the line. Why was this different? Maybe because the goal wasn’t survival but mutual pleasure. That didn’t lessen his compulsion to get it right, to make it amazing for them both. The trust she’d handed him was worth every ounce of concentration.

Katsu was on the floor, parallel to the bed, on all fours. She waited. Her head wasn’t bowed, but she didn’t look up at him with expectation. Just… Fucking Christ, she waited.

With his dick hard and jutting forward, Evan went to the bathroom and found items that sparked his imagination. He had the feeling it would always be that way. Give him a situation, and he spun straw into gold. In this case, he returned to Kat carrying a hotel-sized bottle of lotion, a tumbler of water and the tie from a bathrobe. Then he retrieved a hairbrush from Kat’s suitcase.

He placed the glass of water on the floor midway between the bed and the lush settee in the living room suite—maybe fifteen yards distant. He turned the settee to face where Katsu still hadn’t moved. He needed an answer before they left the topic. “Why aren’t you peeking? Look up. I want a serious answer.”

Slowly, her mussed hair framing her wide cheekbones and strong jaw, she lifted her face. “Because I don’t want to know. It’s part of the challenge.”

“More.”

“If I peek—in my head that means I doubt I can go through with what you demand. But I know I can, Sir. So I don’t need a preview. I’ll wait until I hear it from you.”

Evan firmed his knees before he nodded. His neck felt like rubber and rusted metal at the same time. He walked to her with the rest of his supplies.

Straddling her—and as hard as he was, goddamn that was a challenge—he said, “Head down.”

He arranged her hair around its natural part and used the hairbrush to untangle the snarls. A few strands at her nape were damp. Her quiet exhalation was a balm to his raging soul. He could do this. Fuck, he was born to do this. “Is that better? You like to look pretty.”