“Yes, Master.”

My lips press into hers, forcing them apart and melding with their heat. Two soft pillows provide a soft landing, and I take what now belongs to me with an overzealous hunger. Our tongues fuse and flick, a slow dance of the most titillating variety. I pull away, licking her exquisite deliciousness from my lips.

“Has anyone ever kissed you that way before?”

Her head shakes from side to side. “I’ve never had a kiss like that before, Master.”

“Then that was your first proper kiss?”

“It was.” Her tongue glides along the inside of her lower lip. “Master.”

“Would you like more?”

“Yes, please.”

“No, no.” I push a firm breath through my nose. “You will ask in the most refined and polite way possible at all times. Try again.”

“Please kiss me like that once more, Master.”

“Better.”

I step into her space again, gripping the back of her neck as I force her up against a nearby wall. My lips crush hers all over again, only this time I’m not hurrying. I’ll take my time, enjoying her sweet flavor and velvet tongue, fantasizing about what she’s going to feel like wrapped around my throbbing cock.

All in due time.

Her hands lift, reaching for my arms, and her fingers press into my flesh with desperate intensity.

“No, no, Angel,” I say, my mouth still locked with hers. I grab her wrists and pull them down to her sides. Before I come up for air, I take her full bottom lip into my mouth and suck before giving a tender bite. “You don’t get to touch me unless I say you can.”

“I’m sorry, Master.”

“Do you want to touch me?”

I lose myself for a moment in the sky blue haze of her eyes, and then I snap myself out of it. Distractions come in the form of a beautiful woman. It happens. But I refuse to let it tear us out of this perfectly lovely teaching moment.

“Yes.” She squares her shoulders with mine, keeping her arms flat at her sides. Fast learner. Love that. “Please let me touch you. Please tell me how I can pleasure you.”

“Do you want to pleasure me, Bellamy?”

“I live to pleasure you, my master.”

She sounds robotic. Unnatural. And I’m damn sure she’s just telling me what I want to hear because she has no clue how this works.

“I’ve got my work cut out with you.” My forehead wrinkles as I study her pretty face.

“Did I upset you? Am I doing this wrong?” Her shoulders slump. She’s coming out of this like an actor exiting stage left. “I want to learn, Dane. Tell me.”

“You’re doing fine, Bellamy. You’re still learning. I’d just prefer if it felt a bit more…organic on your end.”

“Nothing about this is organic for me.” She sighs like she’s upset with herself. “But I want to learn. I think I could learn to enjoy it.”

I knew training Bellamy would come with a few trying moments, but a woman who’s not desperately throwing herself at me is something I’ve yet to deal with.

“You say that, but your jaw is clenched tight.” I drag my fingertip along her cheekbone and let it fall. “Makes me think you’re telling me what you think I want to hear, and I’m quite certain you know damn well not to do that.”

“I mean it. I’ve never backed down from a challenge, and I’m not about to start now.”

“Not everyone is submissive material.”

I slip one hand in my pocket and head over to my mini bar, pouring myself a finger of single malt Macallan and dropping in a small handful of frozen soapstone.

“I thought you were, but now all I feel like I’m doing is making you extremely uncomfortable. Takes the pleasure out of this if I’m honest.”

“You’ve trained other girls, right? I’m not the first?”

“Right.” I take another sip, letting it burn as it sits on my tongue. After one fiery swallow, I add, “There was something different about you when I kissed you. You kissed me back. You reached for me, wanted to touch me.”

She shrugs. “Isn’t that what happens when people kiss?”

“I felt something from you,” I say. “I don’t want you to get emotionally vested in this, Bellamy. That’s the worst possible thing that could happen for you, and I’m not being glib. The last thing I need is you confusing my kisses with something they’re not. Next thing I know, you’ll be asking me to come home with you at Easter. And I just can’t do that. I’ll never be that man. Not for you, not for anyone.”

“Oh.” Her cheeks flash red. It’s instant. “Oh. No. No, no, no. You do not have to worry about that with me.”

My mouth cracks wide as I enjoy another sip. “If I had a share of Apple stock for every time I heard that…”

“I don’t do love or boyfriends or any of that,” she attempts to reassure me.

“Bellamy, everyone does love.”

Even a cold-hearted asshole like myself has considered it from time to time.

“It’s so far off my radar.” Her hands press against the air. “I promise you, Dane, you have absolutely nothing to worry about.”

Her fingers criss-cross over her heart, and a coy grin claims her pretty mouth. Her crystal eyes soften, and she lowers herself to her knees, tucking the fabric of her skirt over them first.

“Now, can I please service you, Master? It would make me a very happy woman, and there’s nothing more I’d rather do right now.”

SIX

BELLAMY

“Get up.” His command sends a rush of foolish warmth through my body. Either he didn’t buy anything I just told him, or he’s not in the mood. Maybe I didn’t sound genuine enough that time?

I tried.

I put everything I had into it.

I played Mary once in a church Christmas play. All I had to do was hold a plastic baby doll wrapped in muslin and stare at it like it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Three or four lines were all I had, but everyone came up afterward and told me my performance gave them chills.

Guess people need to get out of Whispering Hills more often.

When I rise, I brush my skirt and pull it straight around my waist. Dane seems to look at me as if he’s got x-ray vision that goes clear through to my soul.

“As much as I would love for you to take my cock in that pretty little mouth of yours, I don’t want to rush this. It wouldn’t be right, and I wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing my impatience ruined your training.”

That’s a relief.

“So you’ll give me another chance?” I clasp my hands together in prayer formation though I’m quite certain God has no intentions of stopping whatever he’s doing right now to ensure Dane will still keep me as his submissive-in-training.

“Let’s see how the rest of the week goes.” He sets his empty glass on the bar and slinks toward me, never releasing me from his stony gaze. “Grab your bag, Angel, we’re getting out of here for a bit.”

I don’t ask questions. I don’t think a submissive would do that. I simply scamper out of his double doors and duck into my office to grab my purse. He waits as I do it, and when I return, we walk side by side to the elevator.

After a few steps, I slow my pace, stepping behind him.

“What are you doing?” He stops short. I nearly pummel into his backside until the rough carpet catches my heels.

“I thought since you’re the dominant one that I should be walking behind you?”

His mouth curls halfway and he reaches for my hand, pulling me next to him once more. “When we’re out together, whether it’s for work or recreation, you’re to be at my right hand. You belong next to me unless I indicate otherwise.”

“Oh.”

He leans into my ear once we approach the elevator. “There are three places in which you will be expected to submit to me unconditionally: my office, my bedroom, and the Crystal Swan.”

“What’s the Crystal Swan?”

“That’s where I’m taking you right now.”

When we reach the main floor, Dane places his hand on the small of my back and escorts me through the swinging doors to the city sidewalk. I take long strides, matching his and elongating my posture.