Page 10 of Snow Bound (Odyssey #1)

Her blood was pounding in her ears, between her thighs. She felt almost high on lust. “ Whatever you need to tell yourself, bro.”

The arm around her waist loosened, and his hand glided towards her breasts. She caught her breath, anticipating, but he moved past them to settle his hand at the base of her neck. “ Are you taunting me, Anna ?”

She swallowed, her throat working against his hand. It was warm and heavy, the implied threat so close to her limit that panic spiked. Her hand flew up to grab his wrist. “ No choking!”

“I won’t,” he promised. The sly menace that had colored his voice was gone, calm reassurance in its place. “ Take a breath, Anna .”

She obeyed, sucking in air, nails digging into his hand. And relaxed, just a little, when she realized he wasn’t restricting her air intake.

“I’m just resting my hand here. I’m not putting any pressure on your throat, and I won’t. This is as far as I’ll go. Okay ?”

“Okay,” she agreed and, taking another breath, let her hand fall away.

His lips pressed warm and soft against her jaw in reassurance, in comfort. Then his teeth nipped, and when she jumped in reaction, he tightened his grip on her hair. “ Now , where were we? Oh , yes. You were taunting me.”

She swallowed, and this time the flex of her throat against his hand brought an escalating excitement.

“It’s a bad idea to taunt a Dom .” His tongue flicked out, followed by the scrape of his teeth. “ Didn’t anyone ever tell you that?”

It took every ounce of willpower she had to hold back the moan. “ No .”

“Hmm.” Lick . Nip . Scrape . “ That’s too bad. I guess you’ll have to learn this lesson the hard way.”

Holy shit. With the panic gone, the way he was holding her was tripping every kinky trigger she had. His arm between her breasts, his hand heavy against her neck. The fist in her hair tight, her head bent so far back she couldn’t see him at all.

But she knew damn well he could see her.

The press of his arm against her torso pulled the sweater tight against her breasts, and he could surely tell she wasn’t wearing a bra. He could see her face, the way the pulse in her throat pounded. He could feel the tremors racing through her, the gooseflesh on her skin.

She couldn’t hide a thing, and the stark vulnerability of the moment brought a flood of fear and lust so strong her knees nearly buckled.

His rough laugh danced across her skin, a sandpaper caress. “ You like this,” he said and it wasn’t a question.

She swallowed hard, her hands tightening convulsively on his forearm. The iron strength under her fingertips only added to the lust swimming in her blood. Dimly she realized it was her turn to talk. “ What are you going to do?”

His teeth sunk into her neck, just quick enough, just sharp enough to hurt. She gasped, arching under his restraining hands, and she barely heard his answering chuckle over the pounding of her heart. “ Whatever the fuck I want.”

The hand in her hair twisted, forcing her head to turn, and then he was kissing her, his tongue in her mouth, stroking and teasing and making her whole body come alive. Pleasure flooded her already befuddled senses, thick as syrup and just as sweet.

He tugged, using his grip to angle her head, and took the kiss deeper. He plundered her mouth, lips and teeth and tongue a delicious torment until she was writhing in his hold, trying desperately to get closer.

His mouth left hers, and she couldn’t stop the faint whimper of protest. She opened her eyes to stare into his, the pale blue so sharp, so bright it was nearly blinding.

She opened her mouth to say something—she had no idea what—then the world was spinning and when it stopped, she was staring at his ass.

“Hey!” she shrieked.

His hand came down on her ass with a crack of sound, sending fire blazing through her butt. “ Shut up,” he said and started up the stairs.

A little dizzy—and more than a little giddy—she clamped her hands onto his waistband, bouncing against his back as he walked upstairs with her slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

She caught a glimpse of Henry below, watching them with sleepy, curious eyes, and would’ve laughed if she’d had the lung capacity.

She watched the stairs give way to the wide planked wood of the second floor landing, then the world was spinning again and she was on her feet in her bedroom.

She shoved the hair out of her face to see him perched on the end of the bed. His eyes were glittering, his expression stone faced. “ Strip ,” he ordered.

“What?”

“Making me repeat myself will not go well for you, Anna ,” he advised. His face was stern, his gaze unyielding. “ Strip . Now .”

Feeling terrifyingly, deliciously on display, she reached for the hem of her sweater and lifted it over her head. Her nipples were tight, her breasts heavy. His gaze dropped to study them, his expression impassive, and the anxiety jittering in her belly kicked up a notch.

Then his eyes shifted back up to hers. “ The rest.”

Nerves humming, she hooked her thumbs in the waistband of her leggings and panties and shoved them down. She was acutely aware of her breasts, swaying and dangling as she bent to work the pants down her legs.

Naked, she straightened and kicked her clothes aside.

It was unbelievably awkward, standing bare in front of him while he was fully clothed.

She’d stripped down at the club, but so many people had been naked there it hadn’t seemed unusual.

Plus , there was so much going on—music, other scenes—that it had been easy to find a distraction.

But here it was just the two of them, in the quiet, intimate space of the bedroom, and the longer she stood there under his inscrutable, implacable regard, the more uneasy—and aroused—she got.

After what seemed like an eternity, his eyes lifted to hers. “ Come here.”

She stepped forward, her thighs rubbing slickly together. She tried to move slow, wanting to look sexy—and to minimize bounce and jiggle—but he ruined her plan for a slow, sexy walk when he grabbed her hand and yanked her forward.

“I said, come here,” he growled and, using her momentum, slung her face down over his thighs.

She blinked at the floor through the curtain of her hair. Her boobs were hanging down, all but smacking her in the face, and her butt was so high in the air her feet were off the floor. She tried to push herself up, but he put an end to that quick enough.

“Stay still,” he ordered and slapped her ass.

She’d known it was coming—what else was she doing face down over his lap?—but the bright sting was still a shock. Her legs bucked, an instinctive response to the pain, and he slapped her again.

“I said, stay still.” His hand rested on her butt, a hot, heavy threat. “ You’ve been a bad girl, Anna .”

She dug for a snarky, snappy comeback, but all she could come up with was, “ Nuh -uh.”

“Yes, you have,” he said with a muffled snort of laughter. “ And you’re getting spanked for it.”

“But I don’t want you to spank me,” she protested and proved herself a liar by pushing her butt up into his hand.

“Too bad,” he said cheerfully, and that was all the warning she had before his hand cracked down.

Somehow she’d assumed he’d start out slow, keep it light before building up to the big guns.

He did not. He peppered her butt with blows, giving her no time to process one smack before the next was landing, layering sting upon sting, pain upon pain.

It was big, much bigger than she’d expected, but along with the hurt came a deep, spreading heat.

And all the time he was spanking her, he was talking.

“Bad girl, taunting me.” Spank . “ Parading around in that see-through t-shirt.” Spank . “ Letting me fuck you on my mother’s kitchen counter, for Christ’s sake.”

“You were there too,” she reminded him, trying to sound righteously indignant instead of desperately aroused.

“Shut up.” He landed a trio of blows on the tender underside of her buttocks that had her literally seeing stars. “ You quit Odyssey . You disappeared . Bad , bad girl.”

If this is what being bad got her, she didn’t want to be good.

The heat was unreal, the need overwhelming, and every slap of his hand on her tender skin drove it higher.

Her pussy was slick and swollen, her dangling breasts aching.

There was a tension building in her belly, heavy and familiar, and she wondered wildly if she could actually come from being spanked.

Then his fingers delved between her slick thighs and straight into her cunt.

“Well, well,” he murmured over her strangled cry. “ What’s this?”

She hoped he didn’t actually expect her to answer that.

“This is a very wet pussy,” he went on, pumping into her with two fingers. They squelched audibly, bringing a rush of heat and embarrassment—which brought more heat. “ Did your spanking turn you on, Anna ?”

“Duh,” she said before she could stop herself.

He yanked his fingers free and slapped her ass. The wetness intensified the sting, and her pussy fluttered warningly.

“When I ask you a question, I expect a respectful answer,” he said sternly over the rushing in her ears

“Yes,” she choked out. Please , please, put your fingers back in my pussy.

Smack . “ Yes , what?”

“Yes, Sir ?”

Smack . “ Try again.”

Shit, what’s the right answer? She fought to think through the fog of lust. “ Yes , Sir , the spanking made my pussy wet.”

“There we go.” He shifted, pulling her to her feet. “ See ? You can be good after all.”

She’d been upside down so long standing up gave her a head rush, and she swayed in his grip. He stood, turning her with surprisingly gentle hands, and lowered her to the mattress. “ Lie down.”

She hissed and jerked when her butt made contact with the mattress, and he laughed. She tried to get back up but he held her down. “ Oh no, you don’t.”

She grunted, bucking against his hold. “ It hurts.”

“I know.” He forced her onto her back, pushing and shoving her into the middle of the mattress. “ I should’ve gotten a floor mat out of my truck.”

She blinked, momentarily distracted from her sore butt. “ Huh ?”

“Never mind,” he said cheerfully, and pulled her arms up over her head. Pinning them down, he settled his weight over her. She hissed again—her butt was raw —but woven in with the pain was desire, growing more urgent by the second.

Her butt burned, her pussy throbbed. He was hard and heavy on top of her, all but crushing her into the mattress. His chest flattened her breasts, his dick dug into her belly. “ Okay , I’m lying down,” she managed through the haze of lust. “ Now what?”

“I’m not done punishing you,” he said pressing down as she continued to twist under him, fighting to get loose.

And was thrilled when she couldn’t.

“What exactly am I being punished for again?”

“For being a bad girl,” he reminded her patiently.

“You were bad, too,” she pointed out breathlessly. She was rapidly losing strength, and he wasn’t even breathing hard. It was frustrating. It was infuriating.

It was so hot she could barely stand it.

He cocked his head. “ How so?”

She bucked her hips to shake him loose. He didn’t move so much as an inch. “ You didn’t have to fuck me.”

His grin was wide, and wicked. “ No , I really did.”

She bit back a laugh.

“And anyway, it doesn’t matter,” he continued, still grinning. “ I can be as bad as I want.”

She twisted this way and that, to no avail. “ Why do you get to be bad,” she panted, “and I don’t?”

“Because I’m in charge,” he reminded her. “ And you, pretty Anna , are very much not.”