Chapter 15
CHAPTER 15
RUBY
N eed pounded in her veins, so hot and demanding it made her ache as she slowly turned her back to Beckett.
“Good girl,” he praised, the words a whisper against her skin before his lips trailed down the side of her neck. “I am so looking forward to rewarding you, Ruby. But first, we need to get all these clothes off you. I want you naked, in my bed.”
Something twisted in her stomach, and she silently lectured herself not to read too much into his words. Any man in his right mind would want the woman he was about to fuck naked in his bed. There was nothing more to it than that.
More to the point, she didn’t want there to be more to it than that. They were just here to scratch a mutual itch. That was it.
Just an itch.
An itch that was only getting worse as he slowly pushed her jacket down her arms, exposing her to the warm air. And to him.
Her corset suddenly seemed too tight, like she couldn’t get enough oxygen when she sucked in a breath. But she wasn’t sure it would have mattered if she’d already been naked, because the corset wasn’t the reason she couldn’t breathe.
No, that was all him.
“Sweet, beautiful Ruby,” he murmured, trailing his fingers along the skin he’d just bared. “You are the most stunning creature I’ve ever seen.”
“I doubt that, but thank you.”
Wrapping his fingers around her throat, again with that firm-but-gentle touch that promised retribution if she dared to defy him, he pulled her back against him. “Are you calling me a liar, little girl?”
There was just enough steel in his words to have her pausing, a sarcastic reply burning on her tongue. A reply she swallowed when his fingers tightened around her throat. “No, Sir.”
“Good.” Releasing his hold on her neck, he shifted away and a moment later she felt a tug as he pulled at the laces on her corset.
With every tug, the fire in her veins burned hotter, brighter. Until, by the time he pulled the corset from her, she thought she might actually burst into flames right there in his bedroom.
“Do these hurt?” he asked, his fingers tracing a groove left behind by the boning in the corset. There was something in his tone she could almost mistake as concern.
But that would require him feeling something for her, wouldn’t it? And he’d been very clear that was not what this was about.
“Not really.” She shrugged, looking over her shoulder to smile up at him reassuringly. “You don’t have to worry about me, Daddy .”
She’d meant for it to be a joke. A little something to lighten the mood.
It didn’t work.
One moment she was standing beside his bed, teasing him, and the next she was flat on her back with his body on top of her. With her wrists pinned to the mattress above her head while his free hand ran up the sensitive skin of her inner thigh to where she burned for him. Another tug, this time distinctly less gentle as he yanked her panties down her thighs, exposing her to him completely.
“You’re right about one thing, Ruby Red.” His words were a growl as he cupped her aching pussy and for a moment she thought she might die if he didn’t make her come soon. “If I were your Daddy, I wouldn’t be worrying about that stupid fucking corset. You know why?”
“Why?” The word came out as a cry, driven by the sudden burst of pleasure when his fingers speared her.
Working her furiously toward an orgasm, he tightened his hold on her wrists when she began to wriggle. “Because. If I was your Daddy, you wouldn’t be allowed to wear the damn thing. Because if I was your Daddy, the only marks on your body would be the ones I put there. Because if I was your Daddy, every fucking inch of this gorgeous body would belong to me. Come for me, Ruby. Now.”
She’d been teetering on the edge already, and the sharp command was all it took to send her flying. To send her careening over with a strangled cry as molten-hot pleasure poured through her veins.
Too stunned to move even when he released his hold on her, she lay on the bed, gasping for breath, vaguely aware of him moving around her.
Though she became keenly more aware when the bed dipped. When he nudged her thighs apart, the tip of his thick cock spreading her still-spasming pussy wide.
And then he was inside her. Caging her in with his arms as he fucked her, hard and fast, just the way she’d asked him to. There was a bite of pain as he claimed her for the first time, but the pain only made her want more .
“Sir, please.” Gripping the soft comforter beneath her in her fists, she arched up to meet his punishing thrusts. “Please.”
“Tell me what you want, Ruby. Use your words.”
How was she supposed to find words when she couldn’t think ? When he’d driven every rational thought from her brain with the delicious mix of pleasure and pain he was forcing on her? “Please,” she repeated on a sob, her head thrashing back and forth against the bed as he fucked her.
“Daddy can’t give you what you want if you don’t ask, Ruby.”
Alarm bells rang in the back of her mind, but they were quickly drowned out by pleasure and need and want. “I need to come!”
“ Good girl .” Shifting his weight, he reached between them, and everything inside her fractured when he rolled his thumb over her swollen clit. “Come for me, Ruby. Let me feel that sweet pussy milking my cock when you come.”
Need coiled inside her, tighter and tighter with every touch, every thrust. Pain became pleasure, pleasure became pain, until she could no longer tell the difference between them.
Until, finally, she shattered. With her screams echoing off the walls of his bedroom, she came undone as the pleasure exploded inside her.
And with a final thrust, Beckett stilled inside her, his cock swelling as she spasmed around him, milking him just like he’d asked.
“Fuck, baby.” Groaning, he dropped his forehead to hers, their ragged breaths mingling as they each fought for air. “You feel even better than I imagined.”
The submissive part of her, the part that longed to please, preened at his praise. “Thank you, Sir.”
With a laugh, he collapsed beside her, pulling her into his arms and pressing a kiss to her forehead. “That wasn’t exactly what I had planned. Just need a few minutes to recover. Maybe a sandwich.”
Snuggling into him, she giggled. “If you’re making sandwiches, I like bologna.”
“Bologna? You can’t be serious.”
The note of pure horror in his voice teased a giggle out of her. “I am. Bologna is my favorite.” And some weeks it was all she could really afford, so it was a good thing she liked it.
“Sorry to disappoint, but there’s no bologna in this house. I don’t think I’ve ever even had bologna.”
Pressing a hand to his chest, she raised herself up to stare down at him. Now it was her turn to be horrified. “You mean you’ve never experienced the absolute culinary delight of a fried bologna sandwich?”
She nearly burst into laughter watching him struggle not to show how he actually felt about her suggestion.
“I can’t say that I have.”
“Well, first chance we get, I’m going to rectify that.”
“That sounds… great.” Judging by his tone, it sounded the exact opposite of great. “For now, you’ll have to settle for mesquite turkey with chipotle aioli.”
“Fancy-pants Rich McGee over here.”
His brows drew together in clear confusion. “What?”
“It’s a social media… never mind. Turkey sounds great.”
“Good.” Rising from the bed, he crossed the room to a door, giving her the pleasure of seeing his rather exquisite body in all its glory before he disappeared into the closet. He returned a moment later and tossed her a giant fluffy white robe before pulling on a pair of gym shorts.
The wicked promise in the smile he flashed her as she bundled herself into the robe nearly drove her to her knees. “Food to refuel, and then I’m going to tie you to my bed and make you come so many times you forget your own name.”
Yes, Daddy.
Beckett
Having Ruby in his space, wrapped in his robe as she wandered from his kitchen to his living room and back again, was… interesting.
She seemed curious about his home but not surprised, which in turn surprised him. Between her multiple jobs and the visceral reaction she’d had to the tip he’d left her, he’d assumed she didn’t come from money.
But seeing her now, studying the Jasper Hale painting on his wall with her head tilted to the side, a slight smile on her lips, he was questioning his own assumptions. She wasn’t reacting like someone who had never been exposed to wealth. She was reacting, instead, like someone who was very comfortable in his world.
Very interesting.
“Sandwiches are ready,” he said over his shoulder, pulling her attention away from the painting.
They settled at the breakfast nook in the corner of his kitchen, each with their own sandwich and glass of water. “You’re going to drink all of that before we go back to bed,” he said, nudging the glass closer to her.
Rolling her eyes, she raised the glass to her lips. “Tell me you’re a Daddy without telling me you’re a Daddy.”
Ignoring the way his stomach twisted at the word Daddy, he raised an eyebrow. “Any Dom worth his salt would want you to properly hydrate. Drink.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Good girl.”
Pink infused her cheeks, and he was beginning to think he might be addicted to the sight of her blush. They ate in silence for a bit, with her sipping at her water between bites, then glancing at him as if waiting for his approval. Which he happily gave with a smile or wink every time, making her blush even more.
Jesus she was adorable. And a mystery. This Ruby couldn’t be farther from the badass bartender he’d been spending time with over the past couple months, but he was enjoying her just the same.
“Can I ask you something?” she said suddenly, placing her half-eaten sandwich down.
“Always.”
Leaning back in her seat a bit, she tilted her head to the side, studying him the way she had his painting. “Did you mean to call yourself Daddy while you were fucking me?”
Shit. Had he done that? “Ah… no. No I did not.”
“I see.” Her mouth turned down in a frown. “I don’t know what to make of that.”
Neither did he, if he was being truthful. “I owe you an apology. That was out of line, and I’m sorry.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that. But I also didn’t hate it.”
Shit, again. “Ruby…”
“I know, I know.” She waved a hand, as if swatting away whatever he’d been about to say. “You’re not looking for anything serious. Which works for me, because I’m not looking for a Daddy. But you said you wanted honesty from me, and if I’m being honest, it was really fucking hot. So, as I said, I don’t really know what to do about that.”
Hearing her say she wasn’t looking for a Daddy shouldn’t have been the stab in the heart it was. Because he wasn’t looking to be her Daddy, and they’d both made their intentions very clear. He was the one who had muddied things by slipping up in the heat of the moment.
Which meant he was in deeper than he’d originally thought if she was able to undermine his self-control so easily. The logical thing, the right thing to do was to put some space between them. To tell her she needed to go home and that this… whatever this was between them was over.
But that wasn’t what came out of his mouth.
“What if we put some boundaries around it?”
Her brows rose and curiosity lit the brown of her eyes. “What kind of boundaries?”
“When we’re at the club together, I could be Daddy. And maybe sometimes when you’re in my bed. Outside of that, we’re just Beckett and Ruby.”
“You want to be my Daddy?” Surprise, and more than a hint of wariness colored her tone.
“Not all the time. I’m not asking for any kind of exclusivity from you, and I’m not offering it, either. So if there’s a night you’d rather play with someone else, just let me know. Otherwise…”
“When we’re at the club, you’re Daddy.” Her eyes took on a far-away look, like she was seriously considering his offer. “I think I could be okay with that. With a couple caveats.”
“I’m listening.”
“For starters, I want aftercare. Ivy is lovely, but if you’re going to be calling yourself Daddy with the expectation that I submit to you at the club, I want all of it. I’m not sure I can handle the emotional whiplash of submitting all night and then having you pass me off to someone else for cuddles and chocolate.”
That was an entirely fair request, even if it made him a bit uneasy. Not because he didn’t want to give her aftercare, but because he did. More than he should.
But what was he doing right now, by making sure she ate and rehydrated after a good hard fuck, if not aftercare? Just because it looked a bit different than it might at the club didn’t mean it wasn’t serving the same purpose. “I can do that for you. What are your other caveats?”
“Just one more. When I’m on the clock, you’re just Beckett. I won’t have you interfering with my work, even when I’m at the club.”
That could put a bit of a damper on some of his fun, but he couldn’t fault her for it, either. “Fair enough. Do you work tomorrow?”
“No, Sir.” A smile bloomed across her face. “I actually have the entire day off tomorrow and I have big plans to do absolutely nothing all day.”
The fact that she was so excited about having a day off made him wonder how rare those days were. But that wasn’t his concern, he reminded himself. Daddy at the club did not mean poking into her personal business. “Were you planning to come to the club?”
“I wasn’t, but I could be convinced.”
“If you change your mind, I’ll be there around nine.” And already his imagination was churning, thinking of all the delicious fun Daddy could have with sweet little Ruby.
Slipping from the bench, he took her hand, pulling her up to join him. When she was on her feet, he bent and scooped her up in his arms before turning and heading for the bedroom.
“Beckett!” she squealed, her laughter filling the air. “What are you doing?”
“We finished our meal.” He grinned down at her. “Now Daddy wants dessert.”