Page 46 of Whatever Lola Wants (Odyssey #2)

S he was going to gut him like a trout.

Lola seethed with fury and tried to drive her elbow into his solar plexus. He shifted her smoothly so it bounced harmlessly off the hard ridge of muscle covering his chest.

“If you drop me, I drop you,” he murmured, and the laughter in his tone made her nearly incandescent with rage.

They topped the stairs, but instead of turning to one of the bedrooms, he continued on to a door at the end of the hall.

He jostled her, bouncing her in his arms while still managing to keep his hand over her mouth tightly enough that her jaw was beginning to ache, and she realized he was unlocking the door.

Before she could gather her wits to take advantage of his split focus, the door was open, revealing a steep, narrow staircase. Simon shifted her again and started up, the door closing automatically behind him.

As soon as it did, he took his hand away from her mouth. “ We’re far enough away now, you can probably scream and nobody will hear.”

She didn’t bother to scream, but turned her head and sank her teeth into his chest.

“Fuck!” He gripped her shoulder and yanked, trying to get her to turn loose, but she hung on, working her jaw to sink her teeth deeper.

Cursing, he let her drop, and she automatically released her grip.

Her butt hit something soft, and she realized he’d dropped her on a bed.

“Goddammit,” he bellowed, outrage on his face as he hastily unbuttoned his shirt to examine his chest. He stared in shock at the perfect half circles left by her teeth, and the blood beading up where the skin had broken. “ You fucking bit me.”

“You deserved it,” she flared, scrambling off the bed to stand on the other side. “ Where the fuck do you get off manhandling me like that?”

“I told you. We need to talk.”

“And I told you I didn’t want to talk.” She wanted to leap across the bed and punch that arrogant look off his face, but that would put her within arm’s reach. She settled for one last fulminating glare before turning on her heel and heading for the stairs.

She’d taken two steps before a hard arm grabbed her around her waist, then she was airborne.

She let out a furious shriek that halted abruptly when she landed on the bed. Stunned , momentarily breathless, she lay still for a moment.

“This doesn’t have to be a fight,” he told her.

“Fuck you,” she spat back, shoving up again, and he shook his head with a sigh.

“Hard way, then,” he replied, and opened the trunk at the foot of the bed.

She moved fast, sliding off the bed to hit the floor running.

She was nearly at the top of the stairs when he caught her this time, wrapping his arms around her from behind and lifting her off her feet.

Her arms were pinned at her sides, rendering them all but useless, but her feet were free.

She kicked the whole way back to the bed, but her shoes had fallen off and her bare heels bouncing off the hard bones of his shins probably hurt her more than it hurt him.

The sheer injustice of it threatened to choke her.

This time when he tossed her down on the bed, he flattened himself on top of her. Her breath left her lungs with a whoosh, and with the bulk of him pressing down on her, she was well and truly caught.

She kicked, spat, wiggled, struggled and punched, all to no avail.

He held her down easily, grabbing first one hand, then the other, to force them up over her head.

She felt something wrap around her wrists and struggled harder, but with a soft metallic click, he had the cuffs attached to the iron headboard, one to each corner.

She let out a muffled scream of rage and yanked at her arms, cuffs rattling. She bucked against the weight on her body, surprised when he shifted off her, but before she could wrestle free, he was wrapping cuffs around her ankles and securing them to the footboard.

He had her spread and bound, and it had taken less than a minute.

He sat back on his haunches next to her hip and surveyed her with satisfaction. “ That’s better.”

Her response to that was a nasty snarl and a violent yank on the restraints. The bed shook, but the cuffs held fast. Simon lifted a brow. “ You can’t get loose,” he said mildly. “ You might as well calm down.”

“I’m going to kill you,” she said flatly, and he grinned.

“You brought this on yourself, sweetheart,” he said and laid a hand on low on her belly. “ I gave you a chance to come quietly.”

His hand on her stomach felt warm. Heavy . Right . Goddamn him. Her voice was harsh with pain when she spoke. “ Don’t . Touch . Me .”

He hesitated, then lifted his hand. “ All right. I won’t touch you. But I need you to listen.”

She shifted her gaze to the ceiling, tears of rage and helplessness filling her eyes. She battled them back, unwilling to give him any more of her tears.

“Lola? Are you going to listen?”

“I can’t go anywhere,” she pointed out, refusing to look at him.

The bed shifted when he moved. She resolutely kept her eyes pinned to the ceiling, her body rigid with anger.

“That’s not a yes.”

“You don’t get a yes,” she spat, still refusing to look at him. “ You think you can force me here, tie me down against my will, and get a yes?”

“I’m not hearing your safeword,” he replied, clearly amused.

She looked at him now, so infuriated she momentarily lost the power of speech. “ This is play to you? You think this is a fucking game?”

He sobered. “ No . It’s not. Lola , I’m sorry.”

“Fine. You’re sorry. Are we done?”

He cursed under his breath. “ You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?”

She yanked her arms, making the cuffs rattle. “ Is there any reason why I should?”

“I love you,” he said and shocked her into silence.

“You do not,” she finally managed.

“Yeah, I do.” He smiled down at her, his eyes swimming with emotion. “ I love you.”

“Why are you telling me this?” she whispered, her throat thick with tears. “ It doesn’t change anything.”

“Yeah, it does.” His hand hovered at her cheek for a moment, then dropped to the bed. “ For me, anyway. I guess you have to decide if it changes anything for you.”

She shook her head. “ You want a submissive,” she reminded him. “ Someone who needs you, remember?” Her voice took on a bitter edge when she remembered all the ways she needed him, and how they weren’t enough.

“You need me,” he said softly. His eyes were steady on hers, the deep gold color clear and bright.

“ You need me to take care of you when you get hurt, to hold you when you have nightmares. You need me to laugh with, to make love with, to sleep and wake up with. To tell you when you screwed up, and to help you make it right. To take you to ballgames, and argue with you over which movies to watch.”

Her eyes blurred with tears as she heard her own words, the ones that had spilled from her broken heart. He reached out then with gentle fingers to brush them away. “ You need me to dry your tears when I’ve been an ass.”

She blinked her vision clear, wanting to see his face. Wanting to believe, afraid to hope. “ I’m not a submissive. I can’t be in a D /s relationship, and that’s what you want.”

He shook his head, his hand warm on her face. “ I thought I did. I thought I should. But it turns out, what I want is you.”

He stroked her bottom lip with his thumb, stilling its trembling. “ Grant asked me the other day why I thought someone else would make me happier than you do. And I didn’t have an answer for him. Because the truth is, I’ve been happier with you than I’ve ever been with anyone else.”

She struggled with hope. “ What about the D /s?”

“It turns out it’s not that important.” He laid a finger over her lips when she started to speak. “ Hear me out. I thought it was. I was sure it was. But when you think about it, we have a fair amount of D /s in our play. It just doesn’t look like I thought it would.”

“That’s true,” she said slowly.

Then he grinned at her. “ You’ve even given me permission to punish you when you screw up.”

The urge to laugh took her by surprise. “ That was just for that one time.”

He shook his head. “ Nope . I understood that to be a blanket authorization, covering any and all infractions from that point on.”

His gaze softened, becoming so unbearably tender her breath caught in her throat. “ I can live without a full time dominant/submissive relationship, Lola . Quite happily, it turns out. What I can’t live without is you.”

“Oh, damn,” she whispered. “ That was a good one.”

“I love you, Lola .” He bent to brush her lips with his gently. “ Are you going to give me another chance?”

“I shouldn’t,” she managed, blinking back tears. “ It sets a very dangerous precedent to reward this kind of high-handed behavior.” She jerked her chin to indicate her bound form.

A glimmer of a grin hovered around his mouth. “ You like it.”

She narrowed her eyes. “ I’d have kicked your balls into your throat given half a chance.”

He chuckled, eyes sparkling. “ I know. Should make life interesting.”

She scowled at his grin, then sighed. “ Dammit . I love you.”

Shock showed in his eyes first, then a tentative joy that made her eyes tear up again. “ You do?” he asked, his voice hoarse.

She nodded. “ Yeah .”

“Fuck.” He closed his eyes briefly, relief and exhilaration stamped on his features, then opened them to look at her with shining eyes. “ If I try to kiss you, are you going to bite me again?”

She laughed, her eyes going to his open shirt, and the dried blood on his chest. The bite was beginning to bruise, which she found both highly satisfying and delightfully arousing. “ No . Are you going to untie me?”

His eyes gleamed, and he lowered himself onto her. She inhaled sharply as his heavy erection settled into the notch of her spread legs through their clothes. “ No ,” he replied. “ I like you like this.”

“Pervert,” she accused breathlessly, arching up into the press of his body. She’d missed him so much.

He chuckled against her mouth. “ Lucky you,” he rumbled.