From Sanctum with Love (Masters and Mercenaries #10) - Lexi Blake Page 0,70

she doing? Before yesterday she would never have lied to Kai. Not right to his face. “I was nervous about seeing you after the scene.”

“Finally some honesty. I’ll handle it. I’ll deal with the police and get you what you need for your insurance. The boys from McKay-Taggart will set up some discreet surveillance cameras around our parking lot.”

There was a reason they didn’t have that. “I thought you didn’t want the patients to feel like they were walking into a secure zone.”

Some of them had serious issues with people watching them. They dealt with a lot of PTSD patients.

“I will deal with them. Your safety is more important. Now turn around, pull your pants down and place your palms flat on the bed. It’s a count of thirty.”

She could actually feel her womb spasm. “What?”

Nothing about his face or stance conveyed that he was anything but dead serious. “This was a condition of your employment. It has been from the beginning.”

If she wasn’t careful her damn jaw was going to hit the floor. “I remember the conditions of my employment. Are you saying if I’d been late and hadn’t called, you would have spanked me?”

“I suppose we should be happy you’re a very prompt girl. And you tend to be good about calling. We’ll never know. What I do know is that after last night, I will definitely spank you and you’ll enjoy it. You might start showing up late just so you can walk into my office and present that juicy ass to me.” He moved in front of her, staring down at her with heat in his eyes. “I want you to think before you tell me no. I want you to question which side of the Kori I know is going to win this battle. Is it the funny, happy, brave Kori who never stands down from a challenge, or the one who’s denied herself for years because some idiot asshole Dom made her feel small. I won’t ever make you feel small. My job in life will be to lift you up, to help you be strong.”

His words cut through her. “What are you saying, Kai? Is this about you being my boss or acting as my play partner?”

She thought they’d worked it out last night.

His hands cupped her cheeks, forcing her to look up at him. “I’m acting as your Dom, Kori, and you know it. You can pretend all you like. You can call it whatever you want to, but you know how this ends. This ends with you and me.”

She shook her head. “Kai, yesterday we were nothing more than friends.”

“Yesterday I didn’t understand you. Today I do, and I want you more than I want my next fucking breath. I’ll go slow. I’ll give you all the time you need to wrap that gorgeous brain around the idea. I’ll be indulgent as hell with the exception of two things.”

“Do I dare ask?”

“You play with me and only me. I won’t play with anyone but you. And when something goes wrong, you call me. You give me the chance to protect you, to shelter you.”

“I thought we agreed to keep it to the club.”

“I didn’t agree to that and why should we?” He sounded so reasonable. “What does scared Kori say?”

“Scared Kori thinks this is all moving too fast, but she’s kind of drowned out by Wants to Kiss You Kori.”

His lips curled up in the sweetest smile. “I know who I’m voting for. Come on, baby. We’ve been dancing around this since the day we met. I’ve put up stupid boundaries because I was scared, too. I’ve pushed away a lot of good in my life because I couldn’t trust it. I cuddled you last night and all I could think about was the fact that I trust you. Of all the people in the world, I trust you most. I want to be with you. When I’m with you I’m not lonely.”

The man knew exactly what to say to shut Scared Kori up. When she was with him, she didn’t feel the hole in her soul the way she did before. Somehow even simply being friends with the man had filled her in a way no one had before. Was she going to let him go because Morgan had been a giant massive asshole?

If he hadn’t been, she wouldn’t have found Kai.

She went on her toes before she could talk herself out of it and brushed her lips against his.