Chapter Twenty-Three
Stand Your Ground
Carter
In what had to be the wildest emotional moment of my life, I was naked and on my knees in front of the large mirror in my bedroom, and I’d never felt stronger, sexier, or more powerful than I did then.
Which was insane — because I wasn’t the one in charge.
Livia stood behind me, tall and composed, her hand tangled in my hair, her gaze locked with mine in the reflection.
It was magical, how quickly she’d transformed.
One moment, she’s this cozy, comfortable woman wearing my t-shirt with her feet in my lap, and the next, she’s wearing nudity like a ballgown and commanding my attention, my obedience.
“This,” she said, her voice low and smooth and completely unhurried, “is where we see exactly what you’ve learned.
Everything I’ve taught you — without fear, without hesitation.
You’re not hiding behind the game face, or a joke, or what you think people want from you.
You’re owning it. You’re claiming it. This is where you stop waiting for permission and start demanding what you want. ”
I swallowed, heat prickling the back of my neck.
Her grip tightened in my hair, tilting my chin up until I was looking directly into my own eyes.
“Look at yourself,” she said. “Look how desperate you are for it. That’s good. That’s where we start.”
And God, it wrecked me — seeing myself like that. Not just on my knees for her but wanting to be there. She was right. I was desperate. My knees were spread, cock hard, chest heaving with anticipation.
I didn’t feel an ounce of shame about it.
All the fears I’d had when we’d first started, the embarrassment I’d felt… it no longer existed. Livia had snuffed it out with the structure she provided, with the way she made me feel safe to explore any want or need.
“Touch yourself,” she ordered.
I curled my fist around myself, every nerve ending lit, my own reflection suddenly foreign and raw as I watched the man in the mirror act without hesitation.
“Slower,” she soothed. “I want you to see what you look like when you can’t stand it anymore.”
Changing the pace took effort, my body crying out for me to keep going. I squirmed at the switch in sensation, looking up to Livia in the mirror for permission to make my next move.
“Don’t look at me — look at you,” she murmured. “Watch how you fall apart for me. That’s the face I want. Desperate. Hungry. Mine.”
Mine.
The word was like a nail to my coffin of hope.
She doesn’t mean it like that, my common sense tried to argue, but my desire overpowered that logic. I wanted to believe it. Even if just for now, I wanted to believe that Livia wanted me, that she felt possessive over me, that I was hers and she was mine.
I thought briefly of the text I’d sent her last night, teasing her about using what she’d taught me so far to get another woman in my bed.
Even if she’d granted permission, there was no way in hell I actually would have tried.
What started as a deal between us had grown into something so much more, I couldn’t see straight through the dizzying spinning of it all.
I didn’t want another woman.
I just wanted her attention.
I wanted to hear her say no. I wanted to hear her deny another woman access to me the way she had at The Manor.
And when she did, when she told me to come to her place instead…
It felt like a win better than any I’d experienced, hockey, golf, or otherwise.
Heat crawled down my spine as I snapped back to the moment, Livia’s nails stroking my hair. I obeyed, eyes locked on my own as I stroked and succumbed to the feeling of fucking my hand. When I groaned and let my head fall back, flexing into my grip, Livia sharply tugged on my hair.
“You don’t get to look away,” she said. “Face it. This is who you are when you’re mine.”
Again, the word punched through me.
It made it impossible not to move my hand faster.
Livia hummed as she moved to my side, kneeling, her fingers trailing down my jaw until I was leaning into her touch. “You’re growing impatient,” she mused. “You want to come.”
“Yes,” I breathed.
“Say it, then,” she whispered. “Tell me what you want.”
“I want to come.”
“Louder. Own it.”
“I want to come for you, Liv,” I said, breaking contact with my gaze in the mirror to look directly at her. “I want you to make me come.”
Her lips curled into a pleased smile. “There it is. Now, tell me how you want me. How do you want me to make you come?”
Fuck, the words were so obscene, and the way she stared right through my soul as she said them…
I hesitated, my lips parting without sound. Then I swallowed hard. “I want…” My voice caught. “I want you to… taste me.”
Her brow lifted, and like an unsure little boy, I backpedaled.
“I mean—if you want to—”
“Stand your ground, Rook,” she cut in, her voice slicing through me like a clean blade. “If you want it, own it.”
My chest tightened, pulse thundering in my ears. “I want you to taste me,” I said again, steadier this time.
“That’s not what you want,” she rasped, leaning closer, running the tip of her nose along my jaw. “You don’t want me just to taste you.”
I closed my eyes, letting out a long, slow, heated breath. In that moment of suspended time, I reached for my power, for the control Livia was offering me. It was so rare she shared it with me. I didn’t want to waste the opportunity.
I didn’t want to disappoint her.
With my next inhale, I gave in to the most wicked part of me, to the side that longed to bring Livia the pleasure she brought me.
I reached for her with the hand not still fastened to my cock, tilting her chin until she was looking at me. “I want you to stay right here on your knees, open this pretty mouth of yours, and suck my cock until I come in your throat.”
“Fuck.” The curse from her lips was just a whimpered whisper, like I’d drawn it from her unwittingly, and I couldn’t help but smile at the victory.
In a flash, she regained composure, her lips snapping shut before her gaze was hot on mine. “Good boy. I love when you talk to me like that, when you tell me what you need.”
“You’ll love it even more when I’m making you gag,” I shot back, encouraged. “I saw you when you went down on me last time — the way your hand floated between your legs, the moans you let me feel vibrating through me. You liked it.”
The words were a challenge, one that made Livia’s next blink stutter.
“You were wet from tasting me, and I may be asking for it right now, but you want it, too.”
“So how long are you going to make me wait?”
She punctuated the words with another arch of her brow, and that was all I needed.
I didn’t ask to kiss her.
I slid my hands into her hair, gripping behind her neck, and I pulled her into me like my next breath depended on that kiss. I inhaled the moment our lips met, breathing all of her in. My cock ached with need when her tongue found mine, heat spreading fast and untamed from that point of contact.
I wanted to lose myself in her. I wanted to pass this test and ask for another.
She made a comment about me graduating.
How could I tell her sincerely that the only next step I wanted to take was to be hers?
I snapped out of that spiral of thoughts before it could take me under, gripping Livia’s chin roughly as I ended our kiss. Then, I stood, towering over her, and offered my cock like it was made of gold.
“Open your mouth,” I said, fisting myself as I waited. When she did as I asked, I licked my lips, shaking my head at the perfect sight — the swell of her breasts, her parted thighs, that pink tongue out and begging for me.
I grabbed the back of her head and guided her to me, toying with her at first. I slid my crown over her tongue, in just an inch and back out. Over and over again, I teased and played until she was moaning, her hands reaching between her legs and spurring me on.
“That’s right, baby,” I said, voice husky and raw. “Play with your pussy while I fuck this perfect mouth of yours.”
The moan that earned me was paradise, like cool blue water and warm sand beneath my feet. The urge to fuck her mouth was too strong to resist now, so I moved my hands into her hair and started to take.
I flexed in slowly, all the way, holding her there as her eyes watered — but she kept them locked on me.
“Fuck, yes, Livia. Yes. God, you’re everything.”
I slid out and back in, again, again, picking up the pace each time until I had a steady rhythm that was coaxing my climax to the surface. When I groaned and pinched my eyes shut, Livia smacked my ass and pulled back, making me tremble at the loss.
“Watch,” she instructed, gesturing to the mirror. “And tell me what you want, Rook. Don’t back down now. You want to come in my throat? Tell me how to get you there.” I thought I saw just a split second of vulnerability when she added, “I’m handing you the control. You’ve earned it.”
A switch.
It was a true switch, and I knew without her having to say it that this was a rare fucking gift.
Still, even in the role reversal, Livia drove. She made me ask. She made me say exactly what I wanted. Every time I hesitated, every time my gaze flicked away from the mirror, she stopped.
And so, I watched, the visceral grip of it all so tight I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
It was too much, the flex of my abdomen as I rocked in and out of her mouth, the perfect slope of her back to the beautiful swells of her ass.
I watched her head bob, her hair in my hands, and I felt a roaring fire searing through me.
“Lick my balls,” I said with more confidence than I knew I had.
Livia hummed her approval with a smile before she did exactly what I asked, her eyes floating up to mine.
And fuck, I wanted to come. I wanted to spill right then and there, all over her. I wanted to paint her and watch the masterpiece unravel in real time.
But there was a desire that burned deeper.
And if this was the only time she was going to relinquish full control to me, I wouldn’t waste it.
“Stop,” I said, pulling away from her touch.