the clack of Lena’s shoes against the floor and then the door swung open. Kai stood there still wearing yesterday’s clothes. Somehow he made the walk of shame look so damn good. The shirt he wore was slightly wrinkled, but she couldn’t help but think about the chest underneath it. His hair was pulled back now and his glasses were perfectly placed, but she knew what he looked liked right before he bit her, when he was predatory and fierce. And she knew what he looked like when he was mad.
Like now.
“Are you all right?” His voice was quiet, but she could hear the edge to his tone.
“Kai, I was telling her off. She was being a bitch. That was all there was to it.”
He held a hand out. “I need you. I’ve had a disturbing morning. I need…you.”
Her body already ached. She wasn’t sure she could take more. Still, she found herself reaching for his hand and letting him lead her to his office. What was he going to do? Spank her? Bring out his whip?
She’d agreed to a D/s relationship with him. This was what she was supposed to do. She was supposed to give him what he needed even as he gave to her.
She could handle it. Hell, she might like it. If she spent the rest of the day not being able to sit down, maybe she would remember that she shouldn’t even joke about using Kai’s brother to further her own ends.
He strode through the door and right to the big couch in his office. He sat down and she was certain he would command her to lift her skirt and let him spank her. Instead he dragged her down, laying her out before wrapping himself around her.
“Stay with me for a while.” His head found its way to her breast and he sighed as though he needed the contact. “Did you think I was mad about what you said to Lena?”
Almost immediately all her stress fled and she found herself relaxing. He wasn’t the only one who needed this. They’d been disrupted this morning. They hadn’t spent enough time exploring the new intimacy between them.
Because she had to face the facts. She hadn’t simply started a new D/s relationship with Kai. She’d started a relationship with Kai. A real relationship where they played and worked and relied on each other. One where he needed comfort and could ask it of her.
She smoothed her hand across his head and kissed his forehead because it was her right now. She cuddled against him. “I didn’t mean it. And yes, I was worried you would punish me.”
“No punishments,” he said with a sigh. “I don’t want that, baby. I want to play but I don’t want to be responsible for you. Not in that way. Shit. I’m fucking this up.”
He wasn’t. He was saying all the right things. She kissed him again. He was responsible for so many things, so many people. He needed a safe place. She could be his safe place. “I want that, too, Kai. I’ve been in a relationship where I bowed to the Master. I can’t do it again. I want to play with you but I also want to be your partner. I want you to value me and what I have to say. I want to be able to say it whether you want to hear it or not.”
He brought her free hand to his lips. “I don’t think you could be any other way, baby. As for what you said to Lena, I knew exactly what you were doing.”
“How?”
“Because I know you,” he replied. “Now cuddle with me until my next appointment. Talk to me. I want to know about the scripts you wrote.”
“You heard too much.”
He looked up at her. “If you don’t want to talk, we don’t have to.”
Didn’t he deserve to know who she’d been? And what was so wrong with who she’d been? “All right, but it’s not all pretty.”
Kai settled against her again and she began to talk.
CHAPTER NINE
Kai closed the door to his office as Case and Ethan Rush took their seats. It had been days since his last meeting with Ian and he hadn’t been looking forward to this instructional session. Not at all. He’d been kind of praying it wouldn’t have to happen.
“I assume since you’re here that you’ve been unable to tag Mia’s phone.”
Now it was Tuesday, the night he was supposed to run his “op.” There was only one