FUNNY? NO I didn’t think any of this was funny.
Defiantly, I stared up into Nox’s eyes. The cold glacier blue of this afternoon was gone. Navy swirled in their depths. I was playing with fire, and I knew it. However, the longer we stood, our lips a whisper apart, his warm breath skirting my cheeks, and our hearts beating erratically against one another’s, I didn’t care if I got burned. No, I wanted to be burned.
“Your caveman routine is getting old. Unhand me. Now.”
His nostrils flared as the tendons in his neck flexed. Nox was a bull ready to charge and in the dress I purchased, I was the red cape. From the cyclone in his eyes to the force of his grip upon my arm, I watched the millions of thoughts swirling through his mind, thoughts that should scare me, but they didn’t. I was mad and hurt by his words. I wasn’t letting him off the hook that easily.
“What the fuck were you doing down there? You’re mine.” The last part came as a low, menacing whisper that reverberated through the elevator.
His declaration was both fire and ice, sending a chill down my spine while striking a match to the fire deep inside. Taking a step closer, his hard body pressed against mine to pin me to the wall, his chest flattening my breasts and his erection pushing against my tummy. Without warning his lips captured mine, their warmth setting my insides ablaze as our tongues battled. Tenderness was forgotten as he unapologetically took what he claimed to be his.
The emotion he’d tried to contain earlier in the day exploded in the fury, washing over us as we melted together. It was as if he’d needed to taste me, to know I was real.
When the elevator stopped, Nox stepped back, and I sucked my bruised lips between my teeth. His stare held me in place. In his eyes wasn’t the menacing gaze that melted my insides. This was different, new, unyielding. Without words, he dared me to speak, and I wanted to, but my mind and body weren’t sure what to say. At the moment they couldn’t reach a consensus. The doors opened. He seized my hand and wordlessly pulled me toward the suite.
As my feet hurried to keep up, I reached for the arm cuff and tried to twist. The cheap metal wasn’t merely around my forearm: it was painfully digging into my skin. His grasp had bent the fake gold, turning my arm the same color as my dress.
Once we were behind the closed door, Nox said, “Go wash that shit off of your face.”
Is he serious?
“What—?”
The word was barely out before he again had my hand and pulled me toward the bathroom.
“Nox, what the hell are you doing?” I asked as he turned on the shower.
Water rained from multiple directions as he turned his attention back to me. Pinching my chin, he lifted my eyes to his. His tone was a low rumble, and his words came clipped. “Mr. Demetri. Say it.”
I stiffened my neck as the grasp on my chin tightened. “Mr. Demetri,” I repeated.
“Apparently, this afternoon wasn’t enough for you to learn your lesson. Do we need to repeat it?”
“No,” I answered defiantly, though the thought of him spanking me again did something to me that I didn’t want to admit.
“Miss Collins, this is my year. I paid for it. When I tell you to do something, you do it. Do not question, and do not make me repeat myself. Is that clear?”
My lips were glued shut. I couldn’t answer if I’d wanted. His eyes never left mine as he removed his suit jacket and threw it on the floor. By the steam gathering upon the inside of the glass doors and mirrors, the water had warmed.
Nox reached under the spray, adjusted the temperature and reached for my hand. “You are so fucking stubborn. I don’t do stubborn.”
“Well, then you bought the wrong girl.” I didn’t know where the words came from, but they were out, and I couldn’t take them back.
Tension crackled through the steam-filled air as his defined jaw clenched and unclenched. Before I realized what happened, Nox stepped into the shower and pulled me in with him. Fully clothed, complete with shoes we stood under the multiple sprays.
Looking at our feet, I shook my head. I might be wearing cheap clothes, but he wasn’t. His leather loafers alone probably cost a thousand dollars. His sexy gray suit pants were getting wetter by the second as they clung to his body and revealed his growing desire beneath.
“You’re crazy!”
“You’re right,” he confirmed. “I’ve been fucking crazy ever since I met you.” He thrust a washcloth at me. “Don’t make me repeat myself, Charli. Wash that shit off your face. I’m barely holding on here.”
Charli?
My once teased hair was now soaked and lying flat against my head. I twisted the excess water from the cloth and did as he said. The more I scrubbed, the more the white cloth filled with black and sparkles. No doubt, with the excessive eyeliner I’d used, the shower had turned me into a raccoon.
When I was done, I handed the cloth back to Nox. Without saying a word, he wrung it out, covered it in bodywash, and gently cleaned around my eyes. As he did, the atmospheric pressure shifted. The storm of raging tension that had surrounded us since our eyes met in the bar changed. The intensity was still off the charts, but this was something different. Whatever it was affected us both. Our breathing suddenly took effort as both of our chests rose and fell.
“Take off that dress.”
Nox’s command echoed throughout the glass stall. I considered arguing, but common sense stopped my rebuttal. I’d already pushed him far enough. Starting at the neckline, I slowly exposed myself, inch by inch. His gaze followed the soaked material. As I revealed my breasts, my nipples hardened, and he let out a low growl. Down the dress went, exposing my tummy and red lace panties.
Shaking his head, Nox ran his finger along the edge of my panties. With his large hands now at my hips, he asked, “Did you do anything I told you to do in my note?”
“No.” My honesty left a trail of vulnerability and shame.
In one quick motion, Nox ripped the lace, and the shredded panties joined my dress on the shower floor. I blinked away the water as he tipped my face upward.
“No more disobeying. Do you understand?”
I nodded—not in acknowledgment of his words, but in response to the rush from once again being in his presence. Nox electrified me in a way I’d never known, and even in the absurdity of our current situation, he was doing it again. The way he scanned my nakedness as his Adam’s apple bobbed tingled my skin.
He hadn’t released my chin. “Say ‘Yes, Mr. Demetri.’”
My chest hurt. “N-Nox.”
His grip tightened.
“Yes, Mr. Demetri.”
He released my chin with a shove. “Undress me. I’m going to fuck you.”
I shouldn’t like his demands, but part of me did. As I started with his shirt, memories of Del Mar played in my mind. He’d told me that he didn’t usually ask for sex. He had in California. Nox had. But this wasn’t him—this was Mr. Demetri, and he wasn’t asking. By the way my insides twisted and thighs slid over one another, I wasn’t protesting.
The shower’s spray made his shirt transparent and the buttons slick. I released them one by one, as more and more of his muscular chest became visible. It was as if he’d spent the last six weeks upping his workout. Once the buttons were undone, I shamelessly ran my hands over his defined torso. My bright red nail polish contrasted with his tanned skin.
Seizing my hands, Nox stopped my exploration. “No. My rules. You’ll do what I say, when I say. I didn’t tell you that you could touch me. Now, get down on your knees and undo my slacks.”
Biting my lip, I knelt before him and found myself eye level with a prominent bulge. I reached for his belt.
“You’re lucky,” he said.
Turning my attention away from the task at hand, I looked up at his serious expression, unsure at that moment why he considered me lucky.
Nox’s hand covered mine, the one on his belt. “I was very close to using this on your ass.”
Even under the spray, my eyes widened as my heart rate skyrocketed.
He isn’t serious, is he?
He released my hand and caressed my cheek. “Oh, princess, I’m fucking serious.”
How does he do that?
“Keep working on that belt. I’ve decided there are other ways to punish you.”
My hands trembled as I continued working and asked, “Wasn’t that what this afternoon was about?”
When I lowered the zipper, his heavy erection sprung free between his muscular thighs. Saliva pooled over my tongue. Silently, I swallowed. With everything in me, I wanted to take him in my mouth. I would have, but he’d just told me not to touch him. My chest ached with indecision, unsure what he wanted or what I should do.
Nox opened the glass door, kicked off his shoes and threw his soaked shirt and slacks onto the floor. When he turned back around, my breath stuttered. The menacing gleam was back in his eyes.
“This afternoon?” he asked. “Princess, that’s a question. Something you’re not supposed to ask. Just to clarify, for the next year, I can punish you anytime I want for any reason.”
He reached for my hand and helped me stand. My high-heeled shoes slid on the wet tile.
Nox continued, “I can punish you simply because I want to watch that firm ass turn red.” He palmed my ass and pulled me closer. Even with the shoes on I had to look up. “But…” he continued, “…that’s not the current reason. Tonight I’m accumulating a long list of offenses, all equally deserving of punishment. Let’s start with that stupid stunt you pulled downstairs in the bar.”
I lifted my chin and straightened my spine. Granted, with the way my nipples stood at attention, I didn’t appear as convincing as I would have liked. “You called me a cheap prostitute. So that’s what I gave you.”
His head moved slowly from side to side as he backed me against the tile wall. “No.” His velvet tone rolled like thunder as he tweaked an erect nipple. “I. Said. You. Weren’t. Cheap.”
I gasped as he leaned down and nipped the sensitive skin behind my ear. His long fingers painfully dug into my behind as his erection prodded my stomach.
Looking down at me, he said, “I paid a fortune for you. Princess, you’re the most expensive whore I’ve ever known.”
He spun my shoulders toward the wall as his words demeaned me. His actions were fast and rough, mixing pleasure with pain. But that wasn’t what I concentrated on. It was his voice, the way it reverberated through the humid air to my core. I listened to the sound and timbre—not the words—as he found the silver packet and my new punishment began.
THE LAST FEW days had been too much: my parents, Infidelity, and Nox—Mr. Demetri. By the time we made it to bed, I’d lost count of the number of times he’d taken me to detonation. Physically unable to do more, I surrendered to sleep, too tired and emotionally spent to endure more of Nox’s unique and not at all unpleasant punishment. He’d said it was all about him, how now it was my job to pleasure him, not the other way around.
That was what he said.
It wasn’t what he’d done.
My body responded to Nox Demetri in a way I couldn’t explain. With mere words or glances from him, I was putty, and he was the sculptor. Yes, he had his share of orgasms, but I’m most certain that if it were a contest, I would’ve won.
During the night, I woke and instinctively cuddled closer to his warmth. The woodsy scent of his cologne lingered on the pillowcases while the musk of our passion saturated the air. I hated that he considered things different, and at the same time, I was in heaven being back in his arms. He’d told me more than once that my little stunt—as he referred to it—was juvenile and stupid, and he was probably right.
And then I began to remember how angry—livid—I was at his note and his afternoon show of force. If I were completely honest with myself, I was hurt more than anything else. Disobeying every directive in that damn note was my way to rebel. I’d been told for most of my life that I was defiant and had authority issues. I wasn’t and I didn’t. When I was at the academy or at Stanford, I had no problem with teachers or professors. I did, however, have issues with assholes. Assholes like Alton.
No longer wanting to be near Nox, I scooted away and rolled the other direction. In that note and yesterday afternoon, he’d been an asshole—a dick. In Del Mar I’d willingly given him control. I could do that again—give control to the sexy, seductive man who was also protective and sweet—but what he’d done and said yesterday was wrong.
Calling me a whore—expensive or cheap—was neither protective nor sweet. Mr. Demetri had no idea what had taken me to Infidelity. He didn’t know my dreams or goals. My signing at Infidelity wasn’t about money—not really. It was about the same thing as my dressing like a cheap prostitute. It was my refusal to play by unfair rules.
I’d willingly sold—or rented—myself for a year to spite my stepfather. Nox could demean me all he wanted—I’d lived through it before—as long as I had the ability to accomplish my goals. The more my mind pondered everything that happened, the more elusive sleep became. My body chilled with the realization that my consciousness had made a comparison that up until yesterday seemed impossible.
Nox was behaving like Alton.
He was. The difference was that I liked Nox.
Is that past tense?
Fine. If Nox Demetri wanted to punish me for taking the opportunity to achieve my dream, so be it. I’d take his damn punishment, one orgasm at a time, and in one year I’d walk away with my tuition money in hand.
If that made me a whore, then so be it.
Letting out an exaggerated huff, I threw back the covers. As soon as I did, my gaze shot to the other side of the bed, praying I hadn’t awoken Nox. I didn’t want to talk to him. For the first time since his shadow covered my legs in Del Mar, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be with him.
As I quietly made my way to the bathroom, I winced at the tenderness in my muscles. It was the same as I’d experienced in Del Mar. Damn, I should start running with Patrick. Maybe then my legs could handle Nox’s punishment.
Finding a plush robe hanging on a hook, I wrapped it around me. Despite being upset with myself and angry with Mr. Demetri, when I saw the woman in the mirror, I smiled. Her wavy hair was wild from the shower and then the bed, and she had a lazy, satiated glaze to her golden eyes. My mind told me that I shouldn’t want Nox as much as I did or like the things he did and said. Alex knew it was wrong, but the woman in the reflection wasn’t complaining.
As the memories came back, my body overtook my mind. I began wondering if he’d want to punish me again. Now that I’d had a nap and even though my body ached from the last round, I was pretty sure I was ready. Nox did that to me. Even if my mind didn’t agree, my body would always want more.
When I stepped back onto the plush carpet of the bedroom, Nox’s demanding tone cut through the darkened silence. “Don’t even think about leaving while I’m asleep.”
My feet stilled at his suggestion. “I-I’m not.”
By the illumination of a distant electronic glow, I could see Nox sitting against the headboard, blankets bunched around his waist and his arms crossed over his bare chest. The myriad of emotions that man evoked in me was perplexing. My lungs forgot to inhale as I studied his handsome face. His chiseled jaw, covered in the perfect amount of stubble, mesmerized me as it clenched and unclenched.
What is he thinking? And why does that question both scare and excite me?