The Dom's Dungeon (18 page)

Why was
she stewing about this anyway? Dawn arrived in another hour, and there were
guests here, and…she was wide awake. She should never have let her mind dwell
on sex with Alex. She could feel how wet she'd gotten. Heaven help her.

She heard
a chuckle, and then Alex's hand squeezed her breast, making her gasp. He slid
his hand down between her legs to the betraying wetness.

“I've
created a monster,” he murmured and bit the back of her neck. The unexpected
sharpness sent a sizzle straight to her pussy, and she jolted.

His tongue
laved the tiny hurt. “I'm too lazy to move right now, but no matter.” His hips
slid down a little ways, and when he moved back up, his cock pressed against
her. He slid the arm underneath her down until his hand gripped her hip,
securing her in place as his thick cock pushed into her.

She
stiffened against the unexpected burning pain of his entry.

He made a
sympathetic noise, but both hands held her hips securely against his groin, not
letting her move away. She could hear the amusement in his voice when he said,
“After twelve years without, you might be a bit sore.”

“You
sadist,” she hissed, ignoring the way his possessive hands made her body
thrill.

He
laughed. “Oh, not really. When we go to the club next, I'll show you the
difference.” He moved inside her, and the pain disappeared under a wave of
pleasure. And then he moved one hand to slide over her clit. If she'd thought
her pussy was swollen before, she was so, so wrong. She could actually feel her
clit engorge and stiffen under his skillful fingers.

He began
to thrust, using one hand on her clit to drive her mad and the other to anchor
her so securely, she could only take it.
Be
taken
. And the pleasure built into a frenzy, shocking her when it broke
over her in an overwhelming orgasm. Her hips bucked uncontrollably against the
restraining hands. “God.”

He moved
his hand off her pussy and nuzzled her neck before murmuring, “That was too
fast and easy, little sub. I'm going to want you to come again and much longer.
I'll give you…oh, a minute to recover.”

She
whimpered.

* * * * *

Mac had
come the second time as demanded—not that he'd accept anything less—and then
again when he walked right into her shower. He soaped her down, shoved her legs
apart, and licked her into a knee-buckling orgasm before pushing her against
the wall to take his own pleasure. When his tongue stroked into her mouth in
the same rhythm as his thrusts, she felt invaded, top and bottom. And came
again.

Afterward
he'd dressed and gone downstairs while she knelt by the suitcase, trying to
decide what to wear.
The sadistic jerk had slapped her butt on the
way out of the room, reminding her how sore parts of her anatomy still felt. In
fact, she had a lot of tender places today. Breasts and mouth and private parts
and bottom. Muscles in her legs and stomach that hadn't worked out like that in
years. If ever.

She
dressed, still smiling, and walked through the kitchen door into the midst of
the entire group.

“Perhaps
if we—” Leaning against the counter, Alex broke off his conversation with Peter
to watch his little sub walk into the kitchen. Her mouth was swollen, her
cheeks beard burned, and her big brown eyes held a languid glow. She'd chosen
to wear jeans and a blue T-shirt with a pile of kittens displayed on the front.
Barefoot and tousled and sexy as hell.

His cock
hardened, which should be an impossibility considering he'd just fucked them
both silly in the shower. He grinned, remembering how her legs had buckled when
he released her.

She smiled
at the subs seated at the table and the
Doms
at the
stove, and then her cheeks flushed. Probably remembering last night and how
they'd seen her bare assed and being spanked. “Good morning.” Her voice had the
huskiness of a woman well used.

Beside
Alex, Peter nodded to her. “Good morning,
MacKensie
.
Bacon's on the stove; eggs are on the table.”

She nodded
and walked to the stove. After giving Alex a quick glance, she averted her gaze
and reached for the pan.

Alex
frowned. He didn't like how she placed herself at a distance rather than within
his personal space. It showed her insecurities when it came to male-female
relationships. He rubbed his jaw and considered. She'd been sixteen the last
time she had sex; had she even attempted a relationship since? What the
hell
had happened to her back then?

Something
to work on later.
Right now… Well, each relationship ran on a
different track, but he could show her how theirs would go, and it didn't
include acting indifferent to each other in public.

When he
tucked a finger into the waistband of her jeans and pulled her between his
outstretched legs, she gave him a startled look. Ignoring the stiffness of her
body, he lifted her up against him far enough that he could enjoy her lips. He
dallied, taking pleasure in the lingering taste of mint toothpaste as he coaxed
her into responding. Slowly her muscles released the tension until she sagged
against him, and then her body filled with a different kind of tension.

When he
set her back on her feet, her face was flushed, her breathing fast, and the
uncertainty was definitely gone. She shook her head at him, giving him a look
that held both exasperation and delight. And when she reached for a plate, her
hip rubbed against his.

Much
better.

A few days
later, Mac stopped just inside the door of Alex's office. “I made some stir-fry
if you want some.”

Seated at
his desk, Alex didn't move. She walked into the office and stopped behind him,
enjoying the scent of leather and books and his subtle aftershave. “Alex?”

He looked
up and blinked, and then his eyes focused, the blue intensifying. He took her
hand. “
MacKensie
. I'm sorry. Were you speaking to
me?”

She
laughed. “Breaking your concentration is like hitting a brick wall with a
pencil. Can't even dent it.”

“Sorry,
sweetheart.” He pushed the chair back and pulled her into his lap. One thorough
kiss later, he asked, “Now, what can I help you with?”

Would she
ever get used to him? He never asked,
What
have you done for me?
It was always,
What
can I do for you?

“What are
you working on?” She stalled to give her body time to settle down. Damn him,
he'd sure grabbed her a lot over the past few days, and this morning, she'd
realized his purpose: to make her give up her instinctive flinching away from
men. He'd seize her, then follow the sudden move with the comfort of a kiss or
hug, but nothing else.

No, when
he wanted sex, he didn't grab, he moved on her smooth and slow and… She bit her
lip against the onrush of warmth.

His eyes
narrowed, and he murmured, “Now that must have been an interesting thought.”

“Well…”
She grinned. The stir-fry could keep, right? But then her stomach rumbled.

Before she
could think, he set her on her feet and rose. “Time for a little vet to eat.”
He cupped her cheek with one big hand and ran his thumb over her lips, making
her crave the feel of his lips over hers. “We can play later.”

When he
took her hand to lead her out of the room, she shook her head with a sigh of
exasperation. Did he give off some sort of pheromone that made her thoughts go
immediately to sex? It seemed like whenever she touched him, her head entered
some sort of sexual fog.

“I made
stir-fry. That's what I came to tell you,” she told him as they left the
office. “What were you working on that had you so oblivious?”

“A
senior-services company.
They send aides to help elderly people with
medications or getting dressed or shopping, whatever they need. They're trying
to figure out whether expanding would be worth their while.”

“And they
asked you?” As they entered the kitchen, the smell of food made her stomach
gurgle again. She'd forgotten to grab lunch. “I thought you just gave little
companies money so they could get started.”

“No.” He
took plates from the cupboard. “We tried, but too many went belly-up. Having great
ideas doesn't guarantee having business sense. Now when we stake a start-up,
they get me or another consultant as part of the package. Since we started the
hands-on approach, the failure rate has dropped by half.”

“Makes
sense.”
She
poured them each a glass of wine and followed him to the windowed breakfast
nook where they took most of their meals. She loved this room. The Sound never
looked the same, and when the massive Olympic Mountains peeked out from their
cloud cover, they took her breath away. “When the new guy bought Jim's vet
clinic, he made quite a few mistakes that either Jim or I could have warned him
about if we'd known.” Come to think of it, she needed to call Brent. He owed
her one last check, and she'd need it to pay the utility bill.

Lights
across the water flickered on as twilight settled in. Tail wagging, Butler
trotted in from the backyard, never one to miss a chance at tidbits from the
table.

Alex took
a bite of stir-fry, and his eyebrows rose. “This is excellent.”

His
compliment created a warm glow inside her. The housekeeper came in every other
day to clean and always left something in the refrigerator to heat up for
supper—and wasn't that so cool?—but Mac enjoyed creating meals, especially
here, where fresh fish and vegetables abounded. And she did make a hell of a
stir-fry, if she said so herself.

“Who is
Jim?” Alex asked.

“He owned
the vet clinic where I worked.”
He saved
me, loved me like a daughter, taught me how honest and caring some men could be
.
She swallowed. “When he died, I had nothing to keep me in Oak Hollow.” Except
his house, and that would go up for sale as soon as she had somewhere else to
live.

Alex
studied her for a second. “That's why you're relocating?”

“Pretty
much.”
Emptiness welled up inside her as she remembered the aching loneliness after
Jim's death. But being with Alex had lightened the desolation, at least for
now. She needed to remember what he'd said—that he didn't want a girlfriend,
just the appearance of one—and not let herself get used to being with him. Her
eyes burned suddenly, and she slid off her chair to pet Butler until the need
to cry had passed.

When she
returned to the table, she saw the curiosity in Alex's eyes. But anything she
told him about Jim and Mary would open the way to more questions, and Alex
would find out about her past. She couldn't bear to see the disgust on his
face.
 
The past needed to stay in the
past. “I—”

“What made
you pick Seattle?”

She
blinked at the unexpected question. “Uh, I…I heard some people talking about it
once.” At a vet convention. Mac had waited in a corner while Ajax rounded up
business, and she'd overheard some Seattleites talking about home. It had been
her last night as a whore; maybe that's why she'd remembered their conversation
so well: “
Lakes and mountains and the
ocean. I didn't want anywhere dry and brown, and I didn't want to shovel snow
anymore
.”

Alex
grinned at her mock shiver.

“I wanted
to try a city.”
Big enough to get lost
in. As far away from Iowa as possible, without drowning in the Pacific
. She
smiled at Alex. “So…you want to watch a movie tonight, or are you returning to
work?”

“A movie.”
A
corner of his mouth curved up. “Since it's my turn to decide, we'll watch
Patton
. Or possibly
The Thin Red Line
.”

“
Frak
that. It's not your—”

“I keep
forgetting to ask,” he interrupted. “What is
frak
?”

Could
anyone have lived in this century and not seen
Battlestar
Galactica
?
Really? She eyed him
uneasily. Maybe he was really an alien, here to take over the world and—

“
MacKensie
, pay attention.
Frak
?”

“Uh, right.
From
Battlestar
Galactica
,
the new one. They used it in place of…uh…
fuck
.”

“Ah.” His
finger rubbed his lips, and she could see him smothering a smile, undoubtedly
because of her red face.

Considering
all the times he'd…fucked…her, why should the word be so hard to say? She
frowned at him. “Anyway, it was a TV series. And when it came out on DVD, Jim
and I watched it again.” She smiled at the memory. “God, I love that show.”

“I'll add
it to the library, then.”

She jerked
her gaze back to him. “You will not.”

“Excuse
me?”

“You don't
like science fiction, so you'd be buying it for me. And you're not going to do
that.”