from her neck, down her chest, palm rubbing over her right nipple. She arched into the touch, offering herself.
He palmed her breast, kneading her flesh. “And who are you in this story?” There was no hesitation in his touch.
“Maybe I’m the local bawdy tavern wench?”
“No. You are too elegant.”
“Maybe I’m—” She choked to a stop as he gently pinched her nipple, rolling it ever so slightly.
“Master Alexander.” Lillian placed a small sheaf of papers on the table beside their glasses.
“Thank you, Lillian.” Alexander turned to look at the other woman while continuing to roll and tug Alena’s nipple.
“Alena.” Lillian inclined her head Alena’s direction.
“Lill—” Alena broke off with a yelp as Alexander pinched hard and pulled.
Her nipple slipped from between the vise of his fingers and Alena’s yelp turned to a moan.
Alexander picked up her new papers and started to read. Alena’s fingers trembled as she reached for her champagne glass, finishing it off as he reviewed the updates she’d made.
“You’ve allowed penetration with both toys and my fingers, but no sex. With sex being defined as my cock penetrating either your ass or pussy.” Alexander set down the papers and looked at her.
“I thought about removing all the restrictions,” she said softly. “But I…”
I can’t, because no matter how much I tell myself that our scening together, my submitting to you, is entirely separate from my using you for the job, even my powers of compartmentalization aren’t that strong.
Fucking him would cross a line, even for her. But she wanted his hand on her, in her. Wanted him to fuck her with his fingers and a dildo, wanted him to plug her ass and put a gag in her mouth.
“Sex, at least by your current definition, does not include my cock in your mouth.”
She smiled. “No, it doesn’t.”
She expected him to grin, but he remained serious. “Last chance.”
Alena reached out to cup his face. She didn’t think about it, just did it. “I’m not running, Alexander. Whatever it is, I can handle it.”
His eyes widened, then closed. He turned his head into her, his breath hot against the inside of her wrist.
Alena’s heart clenched. What was she doing? She’d never given up on a job before. She’d lost a game or two in the past, but not because she forfeited.
“Alexander, I...”
One night with this man, a hint of vulnerability mixed with the aggressive dominance and a soupçon of danger, shouldn’t be enough to make her abandon a plan months in the making.
But when he leaned into her touch, she knew she couldn’t go forward. Couldn’t lie to him, use him. She’d have to back out, to find another way.
She took a breath, feeling sick at what she was about to do. “Alexander, there’s—”
“That’s the third time you’ve used my name.” Alexander’s eyes opened, and there was nothing soft or vulnerable in his gaze. The predator was awake, looking out at her through Alexander’s green and gold eyes.
He grabbed her wrist, pulling her hand away from his face. “We’ll start with a punishment.”
“We haven’t started,” Alena stammered out, her planned confession short-circuited by the possibility of punishment.
“I said not until I got your papers.” Alexander’s face was a stern mask, but there was a hint of sadistic pleasure in the way the corners of his eyes crinkled. “When Lillian set them down, we began.”
“Well, that’s just not fair,” Alena murmured. “Semantics.”
“I warned you to run.” Alexander stood, not letting go of her wrist. “Now it’s too late.”
It’s not too late. You have your safeword, and you’re not going to have sex with him, at least not in the most heterosexual traditional sense. It’s not too late.
But when Alexander pulled her away from the table, her dress forgotten on the floor, Alena knew that wasn’t true.
It was too late.
But too late for what?
Chapter 6
Alexander guided her to a spot in the dungeon equidistant between a kneeler and a large, rustic platform with a tall post jutting up from the center.
Alena was breathing fast with apprehension, and her sex was wet with anticipation.
Alexander stopped and turned to her, ran the back of one finger from her bellybutton up between her breasts then higher, tracing her neck up to her chin and finally tipping her face up.
She stared into his eyes, waiting for his command, needing the scene to start so she could fall into that place of mental peace he’d brought her to last night.
Alexander smiled, and it was a wicked expression.
Alena’s blood heated, her body relaxing, accepting. Use me. Hurt me