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Her eyes bulge, and she swallows. “I…” Her eyelashes flutter as her slightly dazed gaze tracks my torso till it hits my belt.

My hands itch to release the belt and get on with what we both need, but I give her a chance to answer. “Yes?”

“I have a problem with thewithout hesitationpart.”

I shake my head. “That’s non-negotiable. I won’t let you overthink every request. Trust that I’ll think about it carefully before I demand it.”

“You mean like the way you requested your sex toy to not come until you were ready to let her?”

My fingers tingle and I know I’m at the edge of my endurance. “That was different. You and I aren’t quite there yet.”

Laughter trips from her lips and strikes me somewhere in my midriff. I rack my brain and honestly don’t remember when a woman has laughed at something I said that wasn’t a deliberate joke. Normally, they’re either afraid I’ll take it the wrong way or just afraid, period.

Keely’s brazen response makes my cock harder, and the need to teach her another lesson pounds through me.

“We’renevergoing to get there.”

I pause in my pursuit of her. “What makes you say that?”

“Oh, I don’t know, because I have more self-respect than to be treated as apetor atoy? I don’t intend to be one of your brainless minions,” she snipes.

“Brainless implies you think the women aren’t cognizant of what they’re doing, or that only women with low self-esteem subject themselves to submission. Is that what you think?”

She blinks, and I catch a raw flash of emotion before her eyes slide away from mine. “I don’t really give a damn how other women prefer to get their kicks. All I know is that sort of thing isn’t for me.”

“And yet you got dressed exactly as I asked you to do today,” I point out softly. “What if I told you that you’d already taken the first step?”

Furious green eyes meet mine. “I’d tell you go f—” She catches herself and I try not to let the triumph surging into my body show. “I’d tell you to check yourself before you wreck yourself. Agreeing to wear pants and boots for you is a far cry from allowing me to be tied into one of your inventions, begging to be whipped.”

Her back touches the door and the realization that I’ve been slowly stalking her lights her eyes. Her pulse is now racing like a freight train, and I’m close enough to smell her anger and arousal. Like the most potent aphrodisiac, I’m helpless to resist its lure for one second longer.

“We’ll table this discussion for later. But here’s your first test. I promise it’s an easy one. Do you want me to fuck you, Keely? Yes or no?”

“Yes,” she answers without hesitation.

I smile and she quickly inhales.

“What?”

Green eyes, dark with swirling lust, meet mine. “You look different when you smile. Different hot,” she adds, and a hint of color touches her cheeks.

I give in to the frantic urge and touch my finger to the rapidly beating pulse. Electricity zaps me from the point of connection straight to my cock. “You’re hot when you smile, hot when you’re not smiling. You’re hot regardless of what you’re doing, and I very much want to fuck you, too.”

Her eyelashes flutter, and she trembles beneath my touch. “Can we… get on with it then?” Although her voice is husky with lust, it still holds that snap, like a crack of a whip across willing flesh. The sting brings more fire to my veins, and the roar in my blood is almost overwhelming.

I lean in until my mouth is almost on her neck. I savor the anticipation of tasting her skin. “Here comes the next command—unzip my pants.”

Her gaze drops to my crotch and her hands start to follow, but she stops at the last moment, and a look flashes across her face.

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” I growl.

She gives a tight little laugh. “I’m thinking I’m alone in a strange but beautiful house with a man I barely know, who’s just asked me to unzip his pants.”

“But you’re not afraid of me.” It’s not a question because I don’t sense that sort of fear from her.

She confirms by shaking her head.

I move my finger from her pulse to her chin and tilt her face to mine. “I’m the same man who rescued you from the icy ocean,” I cunningly remind her. Whether she wants to admit it or not, she owes me her life. I don’t intend to claim it, but I’m not averse to using it to suit my needs right now.