stuff.”
Huh. She guessed she had. It wasn’t like she’d left him waiting too long, but she thought she probably shouldn’t point that out. “Well, I was talking about orgies and swinging. Not BDSM. I’ve spent tons of time in physical therapy, so the torture that leads to something good doesn’t seem weird to me at all.”
She could feel his cock under her belly. It was thick and hard, and she wanted to see him naked. Want. Need. She was filled with it, and it felt good. She’d lived in her head for years now, ignoring her physical needs. All she’d cared about had been her research and building her lab. Just as she’d decided to make a concession to her other needs, she’d met this man and he was rocking her world.
His hand came down on her backside, a sharp shock to her system. “Noelle. Safe word.”
“Chuckles.” She shot that sucker out of her mouth fast because maybe she wasn’t…it had hurt, but now, not so much. It hadn’t taken more than a few seconds for heat to spike through her, and she was now in a weird place where she both dreaded and anticipated the next slap of his hand. But her safe word wasn’t sexy. Should she have picked a sexy one? “Sorry. It was the name of my childhood dog. We named him that because he had the weirdest bark. It sounded like a laugh. I can pick…”
Another smack shut her mouth because she had to concentrate on breathing.
“You need to learn focus,” Hutch proclaimed. “Oh, I’m sure the science whiz kid knows how to focus on a problem, but when we’re alone together you’re going to focus on me, and I’m damn straight going to focus on you. We’re on the same page now. You’re interested in the lifestyle, and I’ve been in it for a long time. Though you should understand I’m not even close to being full time. I like to play.”
That worked for her. “The couple I know are pretty much play partners in the bedroom only. Though Remy will get bossy from time to time.”
That big hand kept moving over her skin, stroking her. “I’ll have to thank Lisa the next time I see her because I had no idea how I was going to play this vanilla. Now be still unless I hurt you or scare you.”
“You’re not going to scare me. I want to explore this, and you are so not scary.” He was adorable and hot and sexy and…
She bit back a shriek because he’d meant business with that slap. It had been hard and sharp and sent a bolt through her system.
“That’s right,” he said, his voice going low. “Keep quiet or your neighbors are going to wonder what’s happening. Do you think they’ll be surprised that the sweet, innocent genius next door likes to get her ass slapped? Do you think they’ll be horrified when they find you out in the open with a man fucking you with his fingers? Eating your pussy on your balcony in the middle of the night? Because I intend to do all of those things. If you don’t stay quiet, I can always find a gag for that pretty mouth of yours. How scary am I now, Noelle?”
She thought about starting a lecture on how she was only beginning to explore and wasn’t all that interested in gags of any kind, but his hand was right there, and Lisa had told her that there came a point in time when a sub had to indulge the Dom. “Very scary. Why don’t we go to the bedroom?”
She had lots of neighbors. Sure it was dark out, but there was the possibility that someone had binoculars and happened to be up at this time of the night.
“It’s too late for that.” He pulled at the waist of her pajama bottoms and exposed her ass to the cool air. “Fuck, you’re pretty.”
He was looking at her ass. Staring at it and likely ignoring the fact that she had a bunch of scars. Some from the initial accident and many from the subsequent surgeries. She’d seen them in the mirror, contorting herself so she could get a glimpse after she’d been able to stand long enough to manage it.
But if he was saying he thought she was pretty, why shouldn’t she believe it? His cock hadn’t wilted at the sight. A woman didn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.
She felt…sexy.
She wriggled on his lap,