He could almost hear her gritting her teeth. So stubborn, his Tess. He backed up a few steps, making sure she could hear his retreat, and that got her. She shifted restlessly against the bed but started talking. “All my life, everyone’s treated me with white gloves, like I’m some porcelain doll to be left in the box or I’ll shatter. With foster parents, they were scared I’d snap and become crazy like my mother. With Doug, he wanted the untarnished trophy.”
His heart squeezed in his chest at the honest words, and it took everything he had not to reach out and caress her, but he could tell she wasn’t done.
She turned her head and looked back at him, her gaze stripped clean. “I want you to hit me because being with you like this makes me feel less fragile. You aren’t afraid to push me, to break me. And sometimes . . . I wonder how it’d feel to be broken.”
The admission reached inside him and twisted things around into something new, opening up an ache that echoed through his deepest chambers. He walked forward again and pushed her hair away from her face. It’d be the last bit of tenderness he’d show her for a while, but he needed her to know that he’d heard her. Really heard her.
She’d gone through life and no one had bothered to leave a mark.
Well, that was about to change.
He let his hand slip away from her face, raised his other arm, and let the belt stripe across her ass. The sharp curse she made was one of the sweetest sounds he could ever remember hearing.
He gave her a breath to call a safeword if she needed it, but when none came, he landed another lash on her backside, creating angry parallel marks on her skin. So fucking pretty.
“You still with me, girl?” he asked, purposely using a term that had a humiliating tone to it. He knew she’d never admit it, but verbally taking her down a notch did something for her. He’d seen it when he teased about the word slut being an endearment in his world. And he’d seen it when he called her slave that night at The Ranch.
“Yes, sir.”
“Good, because I’m not even near done with you.” He let the belt come down again, this time across the backs of her thighs. “I want you to be thinking of me every time you sit down f
or the next few days at the office, remembering how badly you wanted to be my pretty little slut tonight.”
She groaned with such gritty desire that he had to pause for a second to reel in his own stampeding desire. He unfastened his jeans to get some space before he had a permanent zipper imprint on his cock and tugged off his shirt.
“I can just picture you there in your office, my dear brother droning on about some PR initiative, and you’ll be squirming and wet in your seat while you remember what it felt like to be under my belt.” He hit her again. “And Gibson will know. Anytime you wince, he’ll know.”
A soft gasp escaped her.
“Does that bother you?” he asked, his tone teasing as he landed another lash across her back.
She bowed up at that, and he could see her arms shift to get the vibrator back in place. Her skin was fully flushed now, a gloss of sweat coating her, and her breath had gone choppy. She was fighting that orgasm hard. Good.
“Answer me, girl.” He punctuated it with a quick pop on the ass with his free hand, catching her off guard.
“I—I don’t know if it bothers me.”
He set the belt aside for a second and pressed one palm to her lower back, reaching between her legs with his other hand. Hot, wet arousal coated his fingers as he tucked two inside her, the device vibrating against his knuckles through her inner wall. She clenched around him and whimpered.
“Does it bother you or does it turn you on? Knowing that others know how down and dirty you can be? That you like to be used?”
She was rocking against his hand as he pumped his fingers slowly into her. He’d wondered if he’d get a reaction to calling her dirty, but any shame had apparently been left two near-orgasms ago. “It makes me feel embarrassed . . .”
He could tell that wasn’t the whole answer, but she seemed reluctant to say the rest, so he helped her out. “And the embarrassment makes you hot.”
She made a desperate sound as he moved a third finger inside her. “Yes. God, none of this makes sense.”
He smiled. His girl had quite the exhibitionist streak. The things he’d put her through already would’ve made most girls die of panic. He loved that she could lose that fear and be free in front of his friends. “Don’t be too embarrassed. Gib’s no stranger to this world. Your secret is safe with him.”
Without giving her warning, he slipped his fingers from her and picked up the belt again.
Earlier tonight she’d given him a gift so amazing, he could never repay it. But that wasn’t going to stop him from trying.
She may be his slave right now, but he would forever be in her service.
And tonight, he’d start with her first request.
It was time to break the porcelain.