Need You Tonight

  Kade knew he was pushing it as he ran the dull edge of a knife along Tessa’s skin. Fire was still running through his veins from earlier. And he needed this more than Tessa could even understand. But he also was acutely aware of how wrong this could go if he wasn’t one hundred percent on his game.

  He’d learned early on that when a submissive dropped an unintentional hint or said something then wanted to take it back, more times than not, it was a desire that scared her. Which meant it was what he most needed to give her. And Tessa had slipped when she’d said she didn’t want him calm. His anger had affected her in a way she may have not understood, but he’d seen the reaction.

  The little whisper of roughness, of violence, had made her challenge him instead of shrinking away. And it’d flipped every single one of his dominance switches. He’d been keeping his sadistic side mostly in check around her because he didn’t want to scare her. But she’d shown the most important component of all tonight. She trusted him. At the most basic level, she knew that she was safe with him.

  And then she’d asked for it. Asked for what he so needed in that moment after Doug had left. Maybe I don’t want you to be calm. It had broken open something inside him and the part of him he usually kept locked away, even at The Ranch, had trampled through the door.

  So now when he ran the knife under her bra strap, he prayed that he hadn’t misjudged her signals. Because he was pushing her far beyond where they’d ever treaded before. But when he turned the blade, careful to hold the sharper edge away from her skin, and sliced through the bra strap, the quiet whimper she made was the perfect kind of fear.

  “Brave girl,” he said softly.

  “Or a stupid one,” she murmured, her body as still as a stone but her tone sardonic.

  He smirked and smacked her across the fleshy part of her thigh. “Not nice to talk back.”

  But in truth he loved that her defenses were rushing up. The more sarcastic she got, the more he was getting to her and the more what had happened outside was becoming a distant memory for him. He hooked the band of her underwear with his finger, pulling them away from her waist, and ran the knife through them. Yes, he could’ve just taken them off of her. But he knew well how powerful a mental image could be. Cutting her clothes off sent a clear message—your things and normal protections are worthless right now, you own nothing, only I can give and take away. He set the blade on the dresser and then tugged the scrap of panties away. The satin was soaked against his palm.

  He had to swallow back the groan at the victory. His instincts had been right. “Do you know what it does to me to see how wet you are right now?”

  “You’re a bad, bad man, Mr. Vandergriff.”

  He pressed his lips together, trying not to smile, and unhooked his belt buckle. “Keep up the sarcasm and see how that works out for you.”

  At the sound of the leather belt pulling out of the loops, she lifted her head and peered back over her shoulder. He looped the belt and tucked the buckle into his hand. All shreds of attitude fell away from her, self-preservation kicking in. “Kade . . .”

  “Do you have a vibrator, Tess?”

  She blinked. “What?”

  “Simple question.”

  She pressed her face back into the comforter as if she were too embarrassed to say it to his face. “Bedside table, top drawer.”

  He headed over and pulled the little pink bullet out of its clear box. Simple and utilitarian. Perfect. What he was about to do to Tessa was not meant to be a punishment. Even if she didn’t realize that yet. But it certainly would be better with a little extra motivation.

  He walked behind her again and gave her a little pop on her left ass cheek. “Lift your hips.”

  She pushed up on her toes and did as she was told. He rubbed the rounded tip of the vibe against her slick folds and her fingers curled into her comforter. He hadn’t even turned it on yet, and already she was desperate for it.

  “Put your hands beneath you and hold this against you. Don’t move it away unless I tell you. Understand?”

  “Yes.” She nodded against the sheets and slipped her hands downward, pinning her arms beneath her body and taking the vibrator with her. She adjusted into a position that allowed her to hold it where she needed, and he turned it on. She jolted and her knees buckled slightly before she regained her balance. “God.”

  “So keyed up already. But no coming until I tell you.” He coasted his hand over the curve of her ass, while the belt buckle warmed in his other palm. “Now, ask me to hit you.”

  “What?” Her voice held disbelief. “Why would I ask for it?”

  He ran the loop of leather along her spine, barely brushing her skin, and smiled when she visibly quivered. “Because it’s what you want. You didn’t goad me outside and tempt me while I was angry, so I’d come in here and be sweet and cuddly. Correct?”

  Her back rose and fell with quick but deep breaths. “No.”

  “Then ask for what you want, and you may be lucky enough to get it.”

  She was quiet a few long seconds, only the soft hum of the vibrator filling the room, but then she rallied her nerve. “Please hit me. I want you to.”

  His blood surged at the admission, his cock throbbing against his zipper and his heart knocking against his ribs, but he didn’t make a move yet. “Why?”

  “Goddammit, can’t you just do it?” she asked, defensiveness edging her voice. “I don’t want to think about why.”

  But he wasn’t in the mood to let her get away with that. What he wanted to do with her was not for the faint of heart. He needed to hear that this was more than just curiosity or some show of bravado. “Nope. Try again.”

  He could almost hear her gritting her teeth. So stubborn, his Tess. He backed up a few steps, making sure she could hear his retreat, and that got her. She shifted restlessly against the bed but started talking. “All my life, everyone’s treated me with white gloves, like I’m some porcelain doll to be left in the box or I’ll shatter. With foster parents, they were scared I’d snap and become crazy like my mother. With Doug, he wanted the untarnished trophy.”

  His heart squeezed in his chest at the honest words, and it took everything he had not to reach out and caress her, but he could tell she wasn’t done.

  She turned her head and looked back at him, her gaze stripped clean. “I want you to hit me because being with you like this makes me feel less fragile. You aren’t afraid to push me, to break me. And sometimes . . . I wonder how it’d feel to be broken.”

  The admission reached inside him and twisted things around into something new, opening up an ache that echoed through his deepest chambers. He walked forward again and pushed her hair away from her face. It’d be the last bit of tenderness he’d show her for a while, but he needed her to know that he’d heard her. Really heard her.

  She’d gone through life and no one had bothered to leave a mark.

  Well, that was about to change.

  He let his hand slip away from her face, raised his other arm, and let the belt stripe across her ass. The sharp curse she made was one of the sweetest sounds he could ever remember hearing.

  He gave her a breath to call a safeword if she needed it, but when none came, he landed another lash on her backside, creating angry parallel marks on her skin. So fucking pretty.

  “You still with me, girl?” he asked, purposely using a term that had a humiliating tone to it. He knew she’d never admit it, but verbally taking her down a notch did something for her. He’d seen it when he teased about the word slut being an endearment in his world. And he’d seen it when he called her slave that night at The Ranch.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Good, because I’m not even near done with you.” He let the belt come down again, this time across the backs of her thighs. “I want you to be thinking of me every time you sit down f
or the next few days at the office, remembering how badly you wanted to be my pretty little slut tonight.”

  She groaned with such gritty desire that he had to pause for a second to reel in his own stampeding desire. He unfastened his jeans to get some space before he had a permanent zipper imprint on his cock and tugged off his shirt.

  “I can just picture you there in your office, my dear brother droning on about some PR initiative, and you’ll be squirming and wet in your seat while you remember what it felt like to be under my belt.” He hit her again. “And Gibson will know. Anytime you wince, he’ll know.”

  A soft gasp escaped her.

  “Does that bother you?” he asked, his tone teasing as he landed another lash across her back.

  She bowed up at that, and he could see her arms shift to get the vibrator back in place. Her skin was fully flushed now, a gloss of sweat coating her, and her breath had gone choppy. She was fighting that orgasm hard. Good.

  “Answer me, girl.” He punctuated it with a quick pop on the ass with his free hand, catching her off guard.

  “I—I don’t know if it bothers me.”

  He set the belt aside for a second and pressed one palm to her lower back, reaching between her legs with his other hand. Hot, wet arousal coated his fingers as he tucked two inside her, the device vibrating against his knuckles through her inner wall. She clenched around him and whimpered.

  “Does it bother you or does it turn you on? Knowing that others know how down and dirty you can be? That you like to be used?”

  She was rocking against his hand as he pumped his fingers slowly into her. He’d wondered if he’d get a reaction to calling her dirty, but any shame had apparently been left two near-orgasms ago. “It makes me feel embarrassed . . .”

  He could tell that wasn’t the whole answer, but she seemed reluctant to say the rest, so he helped her out. “And the embarrassment makes you hot.”

  She made a desperate sound as he moved a third finger inside her. “Yes. God, none of this makes sense.”

  He smiled. His girl had quite the exhibitionist streak. The things he’d put her through already would’ve made most girls die of panic. He loved that she could lose that fear and be free in front of his friends. “Don’t be too embarrassed. Gib’s no stranger to this world. Your secret is safe with him.”

  Without giving her warning, he slipped his fingers from her and picked up the belt again.

  Earlier tonight she’d given him a gift so amazing, he could never repay it. But that wasn’t going to stop him from trying.

  She may be his slave right now, but he would forever be in her service.

  And tonight, he’d start with her first request.

  It was time to break the porcelain.

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  The belt came down on Tessa in a ruthless pattern of blows, never quite hitting the same spot, but sending a continuous wave of burning, humming energy over her body. She wouldn’t be surprised if she glowed in the dark. Pain had become something unrecognizable by the fourth or fifth swat, and now the throbbing kept time with the pulsing ache in her clit. Everything was sensitive and on high alert, even the parts of her that hadn’t been touched.

  She wanted to claw at the sheets, but her hands remained trapped beneath her, desperately shifting the vibrator from spot to spot so as not to explode in orgasm. She’d never felt such a grinding need to come. But Kade seemed to be in no hurry to give her the go ahead.

  She peeked back at him, hoping to distract her from all the sensations, but seeing him looming above her in nothing but an unzipped pair of jeans had another flood of arousal slicking her thighs. Her gaze drifted down the planes of muscle in his chest and abdomen to the thick outline in his boxer briefs and back up to his face. God, every part of him was beautiful. It was as if the universe had forced him to bloom late because high school girls wouldn’t have known what to do with this version. But she’d sensed it in him back then, beneath the stringy hair, hunched shoulders, and stutter. That quiet intensity and unshakeable strength had always been there. She’d been drawn to it even when she hadn’t quite been able to pinpoint what was drawing her.

  His focus flicked over to her face, his eyebrow lifting. “Enjoying the view?”

  “You have no idea,” she said, her voice strained from the still coiling tension inside her.

  He dipped his hand inside his underwear, freeing his erection. He gave it a long, slow stroke that nearly sent her over the edge just from watching. “This is what you do to me, Tess. Seeing you like this, knowing it’s turning you on, too.”

  He set the belt aside and glided his hand along her fevered skin. She could picture the welts rising on her back beneath his fingers, but somehow the image didn’t appall her. Instead, every sensation racing through her amplified, her entire being ready to burst open. “Please, Kade.”

  His hand grasped the back of her neck. “All the way on the bed. Grab the headboard and get your ass in the air for me. Legs spread.”

  His movements were rough, his commands coarse, as he guided her along the mattress, but the manhandling was kicking up some unknown hunger inside her. Her mind was tumbling down a path she didn’t understand, one where she pictured taking it even further, imagined him grabbing her hair, tossing her down, holding her against the bed and making demands.

  But before she could get freaked out by where her mind was scampering off to, Kade gave her a pop on the thigh right over the angry belt marks. “I said, legs spread.”

  She gritted her teeth at the sting, wishing the vibrator was still against her, but managed to get in the right position.

  “Good girl,” he said, as he pulled his pants and boxers off. He donned a condom and climbed on the bed with her.

  She expected him to immediately enter her, wished for it—because Lord, she needed to come—but instead the soft, wet heat of his tongue ran over her. She jolted and almost lost her grip on her headboard.

  “Mmm,” he said, his breath tickling her labia. “You have the sexiest cunt—so sexy and pink. I could spend all night torturing you with my mouth.”

  At that, he parted her with his thumbs and his tongue slid inside her. Everything broke apart. She couldn’t stop it. Orgasm, bright and powerful, overtook her and she cried out with the force of it. Kade didn’t let her squirm away. He worked her harder, holding her against his mouth as he fucked her with his tongue, the scent of her arousal filling the room.

  She gripped wood slats of the headboard with all her might as she let the orgasm envelop her and take her down.

  Kade pulled back after her gasping breaths ended. “I don’t remember giving you permission for that.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said, her voice cracking. “I tried. I really did.”

  “You’ll find another one for me. He leaned over to her bedside table and grabbed something else from her drawer. He gripped her thighs and positioned her again since she’d sagged to the mattress.

  “I’m not sure I can—”

  He gave her thigh a smack, and the sensation went straight to all her throbbing parts. “I wasn’t asking you. I’ve been waiting to claim this ass since the first night. You’re about to be very, very happy that you keep that little bottle of K-Y in your drawer.”

  Oh, God.

  Without preamble or finesse, he dripped the cold lubricant along her back entrance. She clenched automatically but when he pushed a finger in, everything went quivery inside her. Good God.

  “Reach down and grab the vibrator to hold against yourself. That will help things.” He held her steady while she got into a workable position. She pressed the vibrator lightly against her clit, still too keyed up to take the full stimulation, and Kade positioned himself behind her. He felt huge and like there was no way he’d ever get inside her.

  “Kade—”

  But the pressure in
creased as he moved forward. “I need you to relax and push back against me, baby. Let me in.”

  She closed her eyes and focused on doing what he said. The vibrator hummed softly against her, making the discomfort bearable as he pushed past the ring of muscle. If she hadn’t been so keyed up with arousal and near orgasm again, it probably would’ve hurt. But as soon as he got past the initial resistance and slid deeper, she knew he’d been right when he’d said she could come again. Every nerve in her system roared at the edgy invasion. Sensations she didn’t know existed crackled through her with every inch he added until he was seated all the way inside her. She had to breathe through the fullness of it all, the sexy forbiddenness of the act.

  He didn’t ask if she was okay. This was not about her. But she wouldn’t have told him to stop if he’d asked anyway. She felt overtaken in the best way possible.

  Instead of thrusting into her, he gripped her hips with harsh fingers and dragged her back and forth along his cock in a slow glide, handling her like she was simply some inanimate object to use as he pleased. Her one-handed grip slipped from the headboard and her muscles turned rag doll as he handled her. Her chest lowered to the bed, her nipples dragging back and forth along the comforter with his motions. Every part of her felt both alive and separate, a thousand entities trying to cooperate at once. Her mind began to fuzz, launching her into some dreamy, sensation-filled state.

  “I can feel your fucking surrender, baby,” Kade said, his voice roughened with his own restraint. “You’re all mine now, aren’t you? All you’re here for is to give me what I need.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said in her haze, the words sending desire coiling tight inside her.

  He pulled her thighs from under her and put her flat onto her stomach, then worked the vibrator between her and the bed. He braced a hand next to her and pressed the other to her face, his palm spanning the side of her head. The move made her feel pinned and insignificant, like he couldn’t even bother to look at who he was fucking. And the idea should’ve pissed her off, somewhere in her foggy brain she knew that, but instead the hold, the vibrator, and the feel of him filling her had her barreling into hyperspace.