Page 5

Chapter Five

Emma

I t was quiet here. I could hear the faint drum of traffic coming from beyond the window, but it was distant. Inside my mind, the dark, sensual tune from the club played, wrapping around me, gathering me up, and taking me to a place beyond my understanding.

This man, this alpha, was more than anything I’d experienced before.

Instinctively, I knew I wouldn’t be the same after whatever came to be, that he would change me irrevocably, but I was all in now.

Perhaps in years to come, I would look back on this as a wild adventure, one I blindly stepped into.

I wanted the experience and didn’t care whether it left the kind of scars that never really healed.

I already knew no other man would measure up to Ryder. How could they?

I just wanted him. “I trust you,” I said again.

His stillness became absolute. I couldn’t see the color of his eyes through the reflection, but I felt the intensity of his gaze.

His big capable hand slid from my neck, skimming over my shoulder and all the way down my arm until he shackled my wrist. I liked men’s hands, and Ryder’s were enormous.

Having him touch me like this sent a thrill racing through my body all the way down to my pussy.

Beside him, I was tiny and breakable, yet I hadn’t lied—I did trust him.

His hold was gentle, but for reasons that escaped me, I tried to pull away.

I couldn’t. There was no pressure. His hand simply held.

How was it even possible without hurting me?

“If you want to be free,” he said, “just say so.”

But I didn’t say, and instead, I tugged a little harder…just as a small test.

“Do you like that, baby? Do you like being trapped?”

If the hitch in my breathing was any indication, I definitely did. I stopped fighting. “Yes,” I said. “I very much like being trapped.”

“Tell me to let you go.”

I shook my head.

“Tell me to let you go.”

I was confused. I didn’t want him to let go, yet his command was absolute.

“Let me go.” The words came out on a pant, and instantly, he released me. It was a lesson, it would seem. He wanted me to understand that whatever he did would always be on my terms and I could always tell him to stop.

“Do I need a safe word?”

He smirked and shook his head, eyes lowering as he claimed my hand and gave it a little tug, drawing me away from the window and toward the couch. “I’m not a Dom, baby. Just tell me to stop.”

“What if I want to tell you to stop but I don’t actually want you to?” Ryder took a seat on the couch, and with another tug on my wrist, I found myself in his lap.

Oh, this was nice. I was squished up against a big, warm body, feeling his muscles flex as he placed me to his liking.

“Then I guess we would need a safe word,” he said.

My heart was pounding unsteadily, and Ryder hadn’t even kissed me yet.

“We’re not doing that tonight.”

My eyes searched his. Tonight. The possibility of more floated between us. “What about on another night?”

“We’re getting ahead of ourselves, baby.”

His gentle admonishment was a douse of cold water. Had I overstepped my place and been presumptuous? I wanted another night. I hadn’t had this night, and already I knew I wanted more.

I wanted to play wicked games of dominance and submission.

I wanted him to hold me down, wanted to beg him to let me go and know that he wouldn’t because he also understood the parameters of the game.

Why did I desire that? Why did I get hot thinking about such a thing?

It was wrong, dark, even a little taboo.

It wasn’t something a sensible beta should need, but I hadn’t known I needed it until a moment ago.

Now I needed it more than my next breath.

Still, he’d said not tonight and told me not to get ahead of myself.

He cupped my cheek. “You’re so fucking beautiful.” Then his lips lowered over mine. They were warm and soft, and they rubbed lightly against mine. I opened to his kiss, my fingers fisting his T-shirt.

A groan escaped my tightly sealed lips. The hand he lowered to my throat was so massive, it spread out across my collarbone.

His thumb pressed hard enough to catch all my focus, holding me as we kissed, his tongue rimming my parted lips before delving inside.

I fidgeted, trying to get closer, but he merely held me where he wanted.

The kisses stopped and started again, over and over, each taste drugging me, taking me deeper under his spell.

I grew restless, wanting the kiss to deepen, sensing the wildness within him.

Yet on the surface, he was calm, while I was a bubbling, roiling sea.

As though sensing my rising desperation, he stopped completely and stared down at me.

“Please,” I said, although I didn’t understand what I was asking for, only that I needed something to assuage this ache. My mind went to sea, scrambling, overwhelmed by the sensations and his heady scent that was far richer now that he was close.

Alphas were different to ordinary men, intense, a little wild, dangerous maybe, undoubtedly addictive.

I’d thought I could handle this, but now?

He was too different to me, too worldly.

I sensed he knew things I’d only read about in books.

I wanted him to teach me, to take me down the dark path and enlighten me, to mold me. Only I didn’t think he would.

“Please kiss me.”

“When I’m ready, but first, I need to deal with your punishment.”

My tongue darted out to wet my dry lips, and his eyes tracked the movement.

“What sort of punishment? What will you do?” His gaze lowered, tracing over my little skimpy dress, lingering on my breasts before passing over my belly, my hips.

His hand followed, pausing to cup my breast, and his eyes lifted to meet mine as he brushed his thumb back and forth, making my nipple stone hard, setting all the tiny, sensitive nerves flaring to life.

“Does that feel good, baby?”

I nodded.

“The fucking words, Emma.”

“It feels so good.”

A deep rumbling sound rose from his chest and turned into a vibration. Was he purring?

I softened in his arms…like I was being drugged.

“Stay with me, Emma.”

My eyes snapped to his, only to find he wasn’t watching my face anymore. Now he was watching his thumb tease my nipple.

I felt it all the way down to my core, like the two parts of me were connected by a thread. Just as I became convinced I would climax from this alone, his hand moved down over my belly and across my hip to cup the cheek of my ass.

He squeezed, and his rumbly purr deepened.

“This dress is fucking alpha bait. I knew you would be trouble and was trying to ignore the pull, but you marched on over, didn’t you, baby?

Teetering in those ridiculous heels and not spilling a drop of the cocktail you were waving around.

I wanted to put you on your knees and see if you had the same skills when it came to sucking down my cum. ”

Heat pooled in my belly as I stared at his lips.

“I could tell from fifty paces you were a brat, and I have a weakness for brats. Makes me want to tame them, to put them over my lap and spank them until they drop the attitude and then make them come. Do you want that, Emma? Want me to spank you until it stings, until the sting turns into a fiery pain that makes your pussy drip with need?”

His words had a mesmerizing quality, sending mind and body reeling.

No one had spoken to me like this before.

No one had ever spanked me. I’d always presumed it was something I wasn’t into.

Sure, it sounded interesting when I’d read about it in books, but that was as far as my curiosity had stretched.

Yet Ryder was alpha, and I thought he could put his hands on me in any way he wanted

I was his to command.

“Do you want me to do that? Because if you do, I need the fucking words.”

“Yes, I want to feel your palm against my ass. No, I don’t care if it hurts.”

His lips tugged up, and he pinned me with an indecipherable look.

“Remember what I said. If you want me to stop, you only need to say. This is something I enjoy.” His fingers dug into the flesh of my ass, almost painfully.

I pressed my thighs together, trying to ease the growing ache.

“But if you’re not into it, if it doesn’t also excite you, then you must tell me.

Never be afraid. I won’t be angry. Contrary to popular opinion, not all alphas are beasts.

I brought you here. I promised you a birthday present.

Whatever you want, baby, I’ll give you.”

I expected him to kiss me or tug up the hem of my dress and set about my spanking, but instead, his big hand skimmed down my leg all the way to my ankle.

He slipped my shoes off one at a time and tossed them to the floor, the movement deliberate and sensual.

Having liberated me from the painful heels, he paused to work his thumb into the ball of my foot.

The pleasure of his hands on my sore feet was near orgasmic.

As if to seal my fate, his other hand moved to the back of my neck and massaged the nape.

The two sensations—the soothing pleasure as he worked over the muscle of my calves and the shivery bliss of strong fingers playing in my hair—warred against one another.

A groan escaped my lips, and like a trigger, I found myself flipped over onto my belly.

My squeak was one of a rude awakening. There was something vulnerable about being sprawled out on a man’s lap, especially one you’ve never met before.

But no, he wasn’t only a man—he was an alpha. I needed to remember that.

Beneath my cheek, the gray leather couch was cool and buttery soft. The decision of what to do with my hands was taken from me when he gathered them up and pressed them into the couch above my head.