“You seem to have forgotten your place. Do you need to be punished?”
“Stop playing.”
“Strip off your clothes, then either be a good boy and put on your blue swimsuit so we can head to the pool, or I will toss you on the bed and fuck you into submission.”
“Marco, I’m warning you—”
“Go with it. You’re going to play along with me in front of everyone. Try it out here. Now.”
“Stop fucking with me. I’ll get enough of that from Arlington and the others.”
“No. None of them will fuck with you. I will make it very clear that you’re mine. No one touches what’s mine.”
I shouldn’t like hearing him say that. I didn’t need him to protect me. He probably needed protection more than I did since this type of field work was new for him. He thought he was badass. He thought he knew how to handle this, but I was scared he was in over his head, and I knew I had the potential to freeze. Were we both going to die?
“Stop thinking so hard.”
“I can’t.”
“Then I’ll help you.” He wrapped a hand around my neck and rubbed his thumb over my Adam’s apple and back down, pressing against me just enough to show his strength.
I resisted the urge to fight and blew out a shuddery breath.
“That’s better,” Marco murmured. “If I let you go, are you going to get out of those clothes and give me what I want?”
I shook my head. “I…”
He brushed his thumb over my lips. “Come on, baby. Don’t be difficult. I brought you here so you could enjoy the island, get some more sun, go for a swim, and show me a good time. You like pleasing me. I know you do.”
“Fuck. You’re good at this.”
“I am. Now all you have to do is give in.”
“That’s not something I’m good at.”
He huffed. “No shit, but I’m going to teach you.”
I was being pulled under his spell. I needed to fight. “I don’t need lessons or anything else from you.”
“Don’t piss me off. You won’t like what happens if you do. I’ll send you back home and find someone else to take your place.”
“Jesus. Do you actually treat your partners like this?”
“Only when they like it.”
“Well, I don’t.” Liar.
“Yes, you do.” He moved his hand and replaced it with his lips, kissing his way down the front of my throat, then nudging my shirt open and nibbling my collarbone. My cock was fully hard now, threatening to tear its way through my shorts.
Marco let go of me and stepped back.
He didn’t say a word. He just let his gaze slide down the length of my body and back up, clearly noting my cock pressing against the form-fitting shorts.
Giving into what I’d known all along was inevitable, I untucked my shirt and began to unbutton it. Marco watched as I let it slip from my shoulders and drop to the floor.
I reached to pick it up, but Marco told me to leave it. “Arlington has staff to clean the rooms and do the laundry.”
“We shouldn’t—”
“We’re going to make use of all the amenities here. That’s what an actual guest would do.”
I hated him telling me my job, yet I had to consider he knew the type of men who would take part in a trafficking ring as well as I did or better.
I unfastened my shorts and shoved them and the silky, minuscule briefs I wore underneath—even my underwear matched my persona—over my hips, letting them drop before I stepped out of them.
Marco sucked in a breath when I stood before him completely naked.
“Are you ready to obey?”
“I’m not wearing that swimsuit in front of people I’ve never met.”
“Baby, I bought that for you to wear for this occasion, and you will wear it.”
I met his gaze and held it. “No.”
He glared at me. “I won’t have you defying me.”
I didn’t move. I wanted to find out what would happen. Would he really try to manhandle me?
My first undercover mission in years, on a private island, in the house of a fucking trafficker was not the place to discover that maybe I wanted to explore all my submissive fantasies after all. Did I actually want to try all the things I’d only imagined when I was alone with my own hand wrapped around my cock?
No, I couldn’t do that. “Marco, this isn’t the time for games.”
“It’s exactly the time. We don’t know when we’re going to get a stretch of time alone again.”
“We’ll be alone at night.”
“Arlington will likely keep us out late, and by the time we come back to our room, we’ll be too exhausted to do anything but sleep.”
Somehow I didn’t imagine Marco would ever be too tired to order me around. He was reveling in his role. I wanted to hate him for it, but I couldn’t. It was like he’d seen into my fantasies and was playing the role of the man I’d never had the nerve to pursue.