Reaction Time (5 page)

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Alannah Lynne

Because of her independent nature and fierce personality, he recognized the enormous amount of time and patience it would require to get her to relinquish control in this area of her life. But he was encouraged because on a gut-deep level she already recognized her body’s need to submit or she wouldn’t have been dressed this way.

He watched the flutter in her neck and smiled. Despite the protests her mind might throw out, it was obvious her body wanted it this way and had already crossed over to the dark side.

His side.

He slid the bathroom door the rest of the way open and moved into the small space with her.

“Did you ever hear of knocking?” she snapped, as she twisted part way around and glared.

He dropped his gaze to her pink toes and his cock twitched and strained against the fly of his slacks. Underneath the incredibly rough and brazen exterior she showed to the world there lay a feminine soul. His inner beast growled with the impatience of wanting to bring her to the surface and stake his claim.

He had a reputation of being a good Dom, always in control and able to bring out the best in a submissive. But he’d never wanted anyone the way he did Nikki. Keeping himself under control tonight, while getting her to willfully submit, would be the true indicator as to whether or not he deserved his fine reputation.

He took a step toward her, but instead of sliding his hands across the flat plane of her stomach and up her sides like he wanted, he made a less threatening move and gathered a handful of silky hair. After letting it sift through his fingers and swish into place along her shoulders and back, he brushed his knuckles down the side of her neck. “You’ve pleased me very much, Nikki.”

The pulse in her neck fluttered and her breathing became harsh and labored. Her nipples pebbled, silently begging to be stroked and plucked. But she narrowed her eyes and hardened her stare. “Are you always this arrogant and presumptuous?” she spat out.

“The way I’m dressed has nothing to do with you. I’m simply getting ready for bed.”

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She turned her back to him and attacked her hair with the brush. “Well, did you make any great discoveries? Did you find who’s threatening me so you can leave?”

He positioned himself behind her and stroked a finger down the side of her neck.

Smiling at her reflection in the mirror he lowered his voice and said, “I discovered a whole lot more in here.”

She shifted away from him as far as the counter would allow. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Some in the BDSM scene might consider Nikki’s behavior that of a brat, a submissive who intentionally acted out against her Dom either for attention or for the enjoyment of the punishment she’d receive for her bad behavior. But Nikki wasn’t a brat.

She was confused and probably scared.

She was a take-charge-always-in-control-woman who participated in a dangerous sport dominated by men. Her dreams and fantasies would most likely reveal her sexually submissive nature but consciously, she’d probably never considered anything of the kind.

And the idea of submitting to anyone under any conditions, especially sexually, had to be scary as hell.

Every cell in his body shouted,
mine
, while his cock throbbed and his balls tightened at the thought of all the things he wanted to do to her. Taming this wildcat would be the greatest challenge of his life.

And if he succeeded, his greatest reward.

He clamped a steel lid down on his lust and pulled forth every ounce of control he possessed. She was off-balance and he needed to keep her that way. He took the brush from her hand and tossed it on the bathroom counter top, causing her to freeze and appear momentarily stunned by the quick motion.

Pushing his advantage, he grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her to face him.

“You may be getting ready for bed, Nikki. But if you were truly dead set on going against me, you would have waited until you were locked safely behind your bedroom door before you undressed tonight.”

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Alannah Lynne

She planted her hands hard against his chest and he felt her palms digging in as she tried to push him away. However, her fingers simultaneously curled into the fabric of his shirt, as she attempted to pull him closer.

She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep, shuddering breath as her muscles twitched and trembled. He knew she was fighting an internal struggle. Her mind wanted to push him away. Her body wanted him closer.

He rolled his fingers off her shoulders and down her arms, enjoying the sweet contrast of silky smooth feminine skin against his rough and calloused fingers. Gentling his touch, he wrapped his palms around her small waist and initiated a more intimate touch, stroking the pads of his thumbs across the sensitive skin below her breasts
.

She gasped at the contact and her eyes flew open, revealing an emotional mix of deep desire as well as fear and confusion. Seeing her struggle with herself, but not against him, he blew out the breath he’d been holding and continued the slow, sensual caress.

The key is to keep her feeling, not
thinking.

He wanted her excited by his touch, to acknowledge the chemistry between them and trust him to take her to places she’d never dreamed of. But in order for that to happen she needed to go with what her body craved and ignore the fear and confusion pounding in her head.

“You have no idea what you do to me,” he murmured as he dropped whisper-soft kisses along her temple and continued to stroke her skin, occasionally brushing the underside of her breasts.

Her fingers were still frantically clutching his shirt, but she’d closed her eyes and appeared to be relaxing, which gave him the encouragement he needed to inch backwards into her bedroom, pulling her with him. When he hit the edge of the bed, he eased down and pulled her to him. “Pull your knees up and sit on my lap.” Surprisingly, she did as he asked without a fight. He scooped his hands under her knees and lifted, then wrapped her long legs around his waist.

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His entire body throbbed with an almost overwhelming need to rip the thin strip of fabric disguised as underwear from her body and ram himself into her to the hilt. But tonight wasn’t about what he wanted. Tonight, everything was about Nikki.

He worked his hands under the curve of her ass and pulled her as close as humanly possible without actually being buried inside her. He flexed his hips and drove his steel-hard erection and the rough fabric of his slacks into the intimate folds of her body. “Feel how hard my cock is? That’s what you do to me.” He rotated his hips, grinding himself even further into her. “And once you’ve given yourself over to me, I’m going to fuck you seven ways from Sunday.”

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Alannah Lynne

Nikki gasped and forced her eyes open at the intimate intrusion and Adam’s words.

Holy hell, what was she thinking? The ravenous look in Adam’s eyes and the intense set of his jaw shocked her into realizing she obviously wasn’t thinking or she wouldn’t be sitting on his lap, thoroughly enjoying what appeared to be a rather impressive cock.

She’d stripped down to barely nothing in an effort to get him all hot and bothered—

sort of like he’d done to her in the car—with the idea of leaving him cold—sort of like he’d done to her in the car. She obviously hadn’t thought the whole stupid idea through very well or she would’ve easily seen how it might backfire.

As soon as she’d heard the door to the coach open, realized they were alone and she was barely dressed, she’d started to overheat. When she’d seen him step up to the bathroom door, the heat had turned to simmering lust. When he’d touched her and told her she’d pleased him, she’d suffered a total meltdown.

No one had ever looked at her with such desire. There was nothing subtle or covert about it. He wanted her. Her body and brain had instantly parted ways and it had taken all of her self-control to keep from launching herself at him and begging to be fucked.

His touch left trails of fire on her skin and his whispering kisses were hypnotic. His erection crushing into her caused her head to spin and his brutal honesty about what he intended to do to her made her want to scream
yes
.

But being reminded she’d have to give herself over to him had been the hard bite she’d needed to snap out of her lust-induced trance. Faced with the reality of the situation, allowing him to screw her senseless didn’t seem like such a great idea. In fact, it was probably very bad.

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She wasn’t good at one-night stands. When it came to romantic trysts she acted too much like a girl. She’d get emotional, then spend the next couple of months pining over him when she should be concentrating on racing and her mother.

And he’s a damn Dom, remember? Him in control. You not in control with no say
over what happens.

She swallowed hard. No, she would never allow that to happen. Determined to ignore how great his hands felt cupping her ass, and how tempting his hard body was pressed against hers, she let go of the death grip on his shirt. “We need to stop.”

He cocked his head to the side and studied her for a few beats, obviously trying to gauge her seriousness. Her mind was very serious, but her body still vibrated to his touch.

Even to her own ears, she’d sounded breathless, maybe a little desperate, but she hadn’t sounded like a woman who truly wanted things to come to a screeching halt.

A lopsided grin saying,
you’re in trouble now, in a good sort of way
, slid across his face and she beat down a whimper. She, Nikki Kincaid, did not whimper. And she didn’t fall for charming smiles, either. Not even ones on sensual mouths with full bottom lips that begged to be licked and sucked.

He leaned in and nuzzled her neck, then clamped his teeth onto her earlobe and tugged, sending chill after chill cascading down her spine. “We don’t
need
to stop,” he whispered. “But we do need to talk, sort of cover some basics.”

She closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to clear the cobwebs.
He wanted to
talk?
He’d basically hypnotized her with his magical touch, talked dirty to her, gotten her smoldering hot with his cock wedged against her and now he wanted to talk?

The man was hair-pulling infuriating. She should be glad all he wanted was to talk.

But her ego didn’t like that, once again, she’d been worked into a frenzy while he remained completely unaffected.

Okay, the raging hard-on pressing into her counted for something, but still. She squinted her eyes and shot invisible daggers into his lopsided grin. “I do not understand you.”

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Alannah Lynne

His grin only widened as he slid his fingers into the fine hair at her temples then pushed through the long tresses until he was at the nape of her neck. He gathered her hair into a ponytail and wrapped it around his fist, holding her securely in place while he stroked a rough finger along her exposed neck. “There’s a lot you don’t understand.

That’s why we need to talk. You have a distorted view of Dominance and submission and I want to make sure you understand it better before you reject the idea, and me, completely.”

A tingle crawled across her scalp from the slight tug on her hair. It didn’t hurt but she got the message. She wasn’t going anywhere until he decided she was. She should be terrified and fighting to get free, instead she found herself sinking into him even further.

Deep inside, she felt the pulsing hum of absolute certainty. Adam would never hurt her.

He brushed his callused fingertip across her shoulder. “It’s not about abuse of any kind, physical or emotional.”

Although her brain wasn’t quite yet ready to buy what he was selling, her body screamed
all systems
go
as her nipples tightened into hard buds and strained against the fabric of her bra.

He apparently noticed the silent invitation because his gaze dropped to her breasts and he licked his lips. With his eyes downcast, his long, dark lashes created shadows across the tops of his cheeks. His often intense, penetrating stare was blocked and his intimidating appearance was softened. He looked gentle, almost boyish, and she wanted to throw her arms around his neck and pull him to her in an embrace.

But this impression was false and misleading. As if to confirm the fallacy, he ominously traced the top edge of her bra. “You can be sure I’ll do wicked things to this body of yours, but it’s not about abuse. It’s about pleasure. Exquisite pleasure for both of us.”

It was wrong for his words to excite her, but they did and she couldn’t suppress the shudder rocketing down her body. God, she wanted his mouth on her but she wouldn’t 40

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allow herself to ask him for it. Or for anything. She reminded herself, she didn’t want this.

But her body yelled,
hell yes we do,
and her back arched, pushing her breasts toward him, causing her ass to grind down on his lap.

Ravenous desire spread across his features and his gaze consumed her. “Christ, Nikki, you are so beautiful. Look at how your body craves my touch. Let me take you where it wants to go.”

In a barely there touch he circled her nipple through the fabric of her bra. Try as hard as she might, she couldn’t hold back the moan inching up her throat.

“I bet if I locked you into my handcuffs and laid you across my lap you’d get hotter and wetter than you’ve ever been. And if I spanked your ass until it was a nice bright pink you’d come, wouldn’t you?”

Shit
. She was hot as hell already but at his words, the internal dam burst wide open and a flood rushed between her spread thighs. She knew he could smell her arousal and feel the moisture as it soaked through his pants. She tried to squeeze her thighs together to stop the throbbing and to hide her embarrassing reaction but it only increased the thrumming ache, scratching and clawing at her.