Chapter Five #5
An imperious eyebrow lifted. “Do I look like I’m in a submissive mood to you, Bennie?”
With an insolent yawn, she shrugged. “The contract—”
“Fuck the contract.”
Well now, wasn’t this a pleasant turn of events? It hadn’t taken long for him to get bored of the facade, had it? Maybe Lady Luck was going to be kind today.
Violet scoffed and shook her head. “It’s no skin off my nose if you want to break the damn thing.
Hell, set fire to it for all I care. Be the highlight of my day, and it’s only just started.
” She sat up and stretched, delighted at the prospect of being free of him.
“Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out. ”
He followed her lead, sitting up without his eyes straying from her face. “Getting ahead of yourself, Violet. The only thing I’m gonna do with the contract is bronze it and hang it on my office wall, next to our wedding portrait. Rules are rules, be them yours or mine.”
Some of her elation faded. “Goddamn it, Reaux, just fuck off. Pack your shit, make your excuses to Evander, and get it through your thick, braindead head that whatever this ruse is trying to achieve won’t work.”
His lips twitched. “Yeah, it will, and that’s why you’re fighting it so hard. If you truly believed you were over me, that I’ve got no power here, you’d sail through the next month without a care. However, I’m willing to be… magnanimous.”
She’d rather get bit by a rattlesnake than take his word.
“Answer me a question, just one, honestly. No hesitation, no half-truths.”
Confused, Violet frowned at him. “You’ll put an end to this bullshit if I answer a question truthfully?” It was too early in the goddamn day for this, she thought. “What’s the catch?”
“No catch. Give me the truth and I’ll do as you ask.
Tear up the paperwork, say my goodbyes, go home to Louisiana and stay there.
” Something wicked sparked behind his eyes as he ran the tip of his tongue over his bottom lip.
“Lie to me and, well, I guess that rulebook you’re writing is gonna have a co-author. ”
Didn’t that sound lovely and ominous?
Craving coffee and a potentially swift end to this hell she was living in, Violet threw her hands up in surrender. What did she have to lose? “Ask the stupid question.”
“Are you sure?”
“Ask it or go get me coffee,” she snapped.
Reaux waited for one second, two. It wasn’t until she flicked her impatient gaze to his that she felt the trap settle around her, that powerful blue-green stare sucking her in and holding her prisoner; a tactic he’d used often during her initial training, the tool he used to read her thoughts before they even formed fully in her head.
“How many men have had what belongs to me in the time since you left?”
It blindsided her, although she really shouldn’t be surprised.
Reaux preferred being direct, liked to hit hard and straight, dig into the meat of something rather than pick at the bones.
He was well-versed in subtleties, knew how to use them to his advantage when it suited, but in general, he went straight for the heart.
Lost in his eyes, she understood the question but couldn’t bring herself to give him what he wanted. Her brain was blank, offering no communication between her control center and her voice.
How the hell could she admit there’d been no one since him?
It handed him a victory he didn’t deserve—and he would gloat, she was sure of it.
“No hesitation, Violet. We both know the answer.”
Oh yes, he would gloat. Hold it over her head for the next four weeks, use it at every opportunity to sway her back to him because, God forgive her for thinking it, he was right.
She might hate every inch of his body, abhor the clever brain smirking smugly at her from behind the most stunning pair of eyes she’d ever seen, and despise him for every single second of heartbreak he’d caused her…
but she still craved that body, admired his brain, loved the man who’d ruined her.
She was her own enemy here, and she was fighting a war on two fronts.
It was exhausting, and in the end, she would lose. She was stronger now than she’d ever been, more confident, more self-assured and aware of her own power, yet the last two years were underscored with doubts, loneliness, and the grief of a submissive who’d been shunned by her Dom.
The problem was, she couldn’t even brush him off with a glib retort. One wrong word would be construed as a lie, and yet her silence was just as damning.
A predatory gleam illuminated his eyes. “Are you going to say it?”
Violet bared her teeth. “My numerous lovers are none of your business.”
“Liar, liar, gorgeous pussy on fucking fire, Bennie,” Reaux said in a sing-song voice as he gripped the flannel shirt and ripped it open, shooting buttons in every direction, exposing her breasts.
“Hardly a wonder she was so tight, milking my cock for all she was worth, when you’ve neglected her for two years. ”
She swallowed hard when her back hit the mattress and he shifted to rip the duvet away. Her core clenched in preparation, understanding what her procrastination was bringing down on her. “I’ve hardly neglected myself.”
Reaux moved to the foot of the bed, leaning forward to hook his fingers into the waistband of her pajama pants. “If the only thing you’ve given her is an undersized rubber dick, you’ve done worse than that.”
“It was adequately sized, thank you.”
The flannel whisked away down her legs, leaving her open and vulnerable. She barely restrained a yelp when he locked his fingers around her ankles and wrenched her ass to the edge of the bed.
“Shameful, Bennie. She’s designed to take a good, hard fucking, not an adequate stroll to a mediocre orgasm.
” Sinking to his knees, he set his hands on the insides of her thighs and shoved them wide.
A heavy sigh of contentment escaped him as he dropped his gaze to her pussy.
“There she is. Don’t worry, la princesse, I’ll take care of you now. ”
“Boudreaux—”
“Quiet.” The word was softly spoken, yet louder than a gunshot.
“New rules, Violet. Amendments to the contract, shall we say. The days and evenings are yours to do whatever you want with me. I will be your adoring submissive, your obedient bitch, whatever you desire. But from night until morning, our roles will be reversed. Equality,” he said firmly, “in equal measure.”
“No. I’m not submissive—”
“Just as I am not, and yet I submit to you and only you.” When she tried to close her legs, he slapped her inner thigh sharply, then ran a fingertip along her slit. “I’ll do anything you ask of me, and you will do the same.”
She didn’t need to see the triumphant gleam in his eyes to know she was wet. “I draw the line at anal.”
“That didn’t stop you from shoving a steel hook up my ass,” he reminded her, parting her labia with his thumbs and humming in approval. “The law of reciprocation, Violet. Keep that in mind.”
“You mean law of retribution. What I do to you, you’ll return in kind.”
“Tenfold,” he corrected. “I’ll make you scream until you’re hoarse, come until the sheets are soaked and you’re limp in a puddle of your juices.” His dark head bent, his breath wafting over her wet flesh. “Hope you didn’t have anything planned for this morning.”
“Housekeeping…” She moaned when his tongue swiped through the wetness.
He chuckled. “Yeah, Darlene won’t be bothering us.”
“Oh God, what did you do?”
“Do you really want to know?” He spoke each word between languid licks.
“I… yes?”
Reaux replaced his tongue with his thumb, idly brushing back and forth over her clit. “She thought it acceptable to poach what didn’t belong to her. I made my stance on that very clear. No one disrespects my queen without consequences.”
“I’m trying to hate you, Boudreaux. Why are you making it so hard?”
“Because you don’t hate me, Bennie. You think you do, you’ve convinced yourself you do, and I don’t blame you for it.
” His other hand soothed the trembling muscles in her thigh.
“I fucked up. I knew it then, just didn’t realize the full extent of the damage I caused by trying to do the right thing.
I came here intending to take you home with me, but now I understand I need to heal the hurt caused by my actions and earn your forgiveness. ”
Violet curled her fingers into the sheets, squeezing her eyes shut. It was a challenge to stay angry at him when he was so bluntly honest about his failures, especially with the motion of his thumb undermining her ability to think. “Annihilating my heart once isn’t enough for you?”
He eased a finger inside her, sliding in and out without urgency.
“This is the wall we’re up against, Bennie.
Until you’re willing to listen, really listen to my side, we’ll continue to lock horns.
Hurting you was never my intention,” he said sternly when she tried to argue.
“My mistake was believing I needed to let you go to explore your Domme, when in reality I should have kept you close and guided you.”
An ache blossomed in her chest. She didn’t know what was worse—that he hadn’t figured it out during two years of absence, or that it took him less than forty-eight hours to come to that conclusion in her presence. “Bull—”
Pain lanced the tender flesh of her thigh near her knee, followed by a wave of indignation as she realized he’d bitten her.
“We’re still on my time,” he admonished, “whether you’re willing to listen or not. I’m assuming not, so we’ll return to this conversation when you are. Now, you can be a good girl and come on my tongue, or a stubborn one who comes with my fingers tucked snugly in her ass. Choose wisely.”
“We are far from done—” Violet yelped as her body jerked down the sheets, her hips jacking up with the help of Reaux’s hands.
She clenched her ass, trying to keep him away from her hidden rosebud, then moaned when he rubbed his stubbled cheek gently along her thigh.
“Just you wait. Payback is a bitch, Reaux.”
“And her name is Violet,” he mocked, grinning at her without remorse. It appeared he was severely lacking in self-preservation skills. “Tongue or fingers, beignet? A simple choice, no? Of course, my cock is on offer as well, only you might not appreciate where I put it.”
She was getting tired of losing these little battles. It didn’t matter that she was going to win the war, no matter what, because each of these insignificant losses were a slap in the face of her control. And yet, she felt no desire to safeword, no urgent need to escape the situation.
How galling was it to admit—even to herself—that he still felt like home? After two years, his touch should be that of a stranger’s, yet her body simply melted into it as though it was simply hours instead of years since he’d last run his hands over her—which, technically, it was.
Learning a new lover’s rhythm, scent, methods took time. Days, weeks, months.
Violet didn’t have that luxury. One brush of his skin against hers summoned ten years’ worth of memories humming beneath her skin, vibrating through her muscles, penetrating deep into her core.
It was the epitome of unfairness.
Knowing he would make the choice for her if she didn’t use her voice, she squeezed her eyes shut and elected the least invasive option. At least if she kept some degree of control, she stood a better chance of protecting her heart while Reaux assaulted it with tender words and familiar dominance.
She could survive sex as long as her heart didn’t capitulate.
She could even enjoy it if she fortified her defenses to maximum level.
When the orgasm was over and he was satisfied, she was going to win the goddamn war.