Page 99 of Stand Your Ground

Mine.

The word was like a nail to my coffin of hope.

She doesn’t mean it like that, my common sense tried to argue, but my desire overpowered that logic. I wanted to believe it. Even if just for now, I wanted to believe that Livia wanted me, that she felt possessive over me, that I was hers and she was mine.

I thought briefly of the text I’d sent her last night, teasing her about using what she’d taught me so far to get another woman in my bed. Even if she’d granted permission, there was no way in hell I actually would have tried. What started as a deal betweenus had grown into something so much more, I couldn’t see straight through the dizzying spinning of it all.

I didn’t want another woman.

I just wanted her attention.

I wanted to hear her say no. I wanted to hear her deny another woman access to me the way she had at The Manor.

And when she did, when she told me to come to her place instead…

It felt like a win better than any I’d experienced, hockey, golf, or otherwise.

Heat crawled down my spine as I snapped back to the moment, Livia’s nails stroking my hair. I obeyed, eyes locked on my own as I stroked and succumbed to the feeling of fucking my hand. When I groaned and let my head fall back, flexing into my grip, Livia sharply tugged on my hair.

“You don’t get to look away,” she said. “Face it. This is who you are when you’re mine.”

Again, the word punched through me.

It made it impossible not to move my hand faster.

Livia hummed as she moved to my side, kneeling, her fingers trailing down my jaw until I was leaning into her touch. “You’re growing impatient,” she mused. “You want to come.”

“Yes,” I breathed.

“Say it, then,” she whispered. “Tell me what you want.”

“I want to come.”

“Louder. Own it.”

“I want to come for you, Liv,” I said, breaking contact with my gaze in the mirror to look directly at her. “I wantyouto make me come.”

Her lips curled into a pleased smile. “There it is. Now, tell me how you want me. How do you want me to make you come?”

Fuck, the words were so obscene, and the way she stared right through my soul as she said them…

I hesitated, my lips parting without sound. Then I swallowed hard. “I want…” My voice caught. “I want you to… taste me.”

Her brow lifted, and like an unsure little boy, I backpedaled.

“I mean—if you want to—”

“Stand your ground, Rook,” she cut in, her voice slicing through me like a clean blade. “If you want it, own it.”

My chest tightened, pulse thundering in my ears. “I want you to taste me,” I said again, steadier this time.

“That’s not what you want,” she rasped, leaning closer, running the tip of her nose along my jaw. “You don’t want me just to taste you.”

I closed my eyes, letting out a long, slow, heated breath. In that moment of suspended time, I reached for my power, for the control Livia was offering me. It was so rare she shared it with me. I didn’t want to waste the opportunity.

I didn’t want to disappoint her.

With my next inhale, I gave in to the most wicked part of me, to the side that longed to bring Livia the pleasure she brought me.