FIVE
T he clink of a glass touching wood wakes me up.
I’m in the hotel suite Rowan booked for us in Colorado Springs, where he instructed me to eat, sleep, and wait for him in our bed while he met with the Deputy Director of Operations at the command center. I barely had it in me to eat anything at all from all the nerves, but he said something about there being consequences. And because we didn’t have much time to talk about it in detail, I figured I’d be better off doing what he asked.
Besides… I think… I think I like doing what he says. Listening to his commands. Pleasing him to draw praise and affection from him. It’s like a game where all I have to do is be a good girl for him, and he’ll give me anything I want. Easy enough.
The room is lit, and I see Rowan place a glass of something that looks expensive down on the nightstand.
My heart starts pounding harder in my chest, but I don’t get up. I let him come to me instead, simply because I think if I tried, I wouldn’t be able to walk toward him . My legs wouldn’t work at this moment.
I fist my hands in the covers as I feel his eyes assessing me again. It’s not any less intimidating than earlier in the car or on the private plane. Except here… it really is just the two of us. No one waiting for us, or demanding any more of his time.
“You ate,” he confirms, dropping his military jacket to the floor and rolling up the sleeves of the shirt beneath it. “You slept. And you waited for me in our bed, just like I asked.”
“Yes,” I gasp.
“Good. I want you to keep doing that. Listen to my commands. Do you think you can?”
I nod, my pussy throbbing with need and begging to be touched.
Like a panther moving through tall grass, Rowan stalks closer to me, until he’s hovering right above me. He found me—the predator found me, and now there’s no escaping his deadly fangs. He looks like he’s about to devour me. And I make no effort to deny him the prey he hunted down.
His eyes roam over my body, darkening with the claws of the demons residing inside… as if they’re now crawling out of him, licking their lips in anticipation to take a bite.
“You shouldn’t have agreed to come here,” he says absently, trailing his knuckles up my bare legs.
“I wanted to.”
“You should ask me to take you back.” His fingers touch the crease between my thigh and my pussy, pushing a trembling exhale out of my lungs.
“You don’t scare me,” I lie, letting out a nervous, hushed laugh.
I might only know Rowan from the news articles I read about him, but he was Cole’s best friend. And he comforted me that day when he gave me the news of his death. He’s not going to hurt me. He’s not—
“Pity.” He presses the tips of his fingers into my warm pussy, through the thin layer of my panties. I showered and changed into new ones when I got to the hotel suite and saw they were laid out on the bed for me. I moan softly, then quickly close my mouth shut. “Though I promise you’ll scream when I start taking what’s mine. Because you are mine now, aren’t you, angel?”
“F-For tonight,” I whisper, feeling my pussy drench my panties in the exact spot he’s touching me.
He peels his gaze off my body to meet my eyes with another one of those stern looks that has me trapping the air in my lungs “We’re going to have to fix that.”
“What?”
“Your self-doubt.”
I close my eyes, my body arching for him, needing him like I need my next breath of air.
“It wasn’t hard to hear it in your voice when you told me you’d come. You think I called you in for a quick fuck?” he drawls, sliding two fingers inside me through my panties, denying me the feel of his skin rubbing against my walls. With his other hand, he squeezes my cheeks together, pursing my lips and making me open my eyes again. “No, no, no, angel,” he smiles.
His fingers scissor inside me, pushing deeper, and deeper, until the panties get so wet I can practically feel the pads of his fingers and the creases of his knuckles sliding in and out. I part my thighs for him while he makes sure there’s no way I can escape his questioning eyes.
My face flushes hotter at the gesture. It’s too intimate—way too intimate for two strangers who got together for just one night. But he doesn’t seem to care about any of that.
“This skin. This scent ,” he groans. “I’ve gone years trying to remember every single detail of how fucking good you felt in my arms. My hunger runs deeper than whatever you are willing to offer me tonight. I’ll have you now. And I’ll have you tomorrow. And I won’t be able to let go after that, even if I tried.”
Hand still in my pussy, Rowan’s nostrils flare as he stares me down—raw and vulnerable, and fully at his mercy. My whole body trembles when he slides his fingers out of me, leaving me empty and wanton. I want to beg him not to stop, but I’m scared… ashamed of what he might think of me if I do.
“Besides…” He hooks his fingers behind the edges of my panties, slowly pulling them down to my knees. “I bet this gorgeous pink pussy would enjoy being worshipped more than once. Am I wrong?”
“Please.” The word comes out against my will, as molten need burns through me and through the sheets under my body. I’ve never realized just how much of me Rowan claimed that day when he held me. Right now, it very much feels like he claimed it all.
“Pick a safe word first, angel. I need to be careful with you.”
Christ .
“A safe word,” I nod, biting my lower lip, “Is… is the word ‘pink’ good enough?”
I blush, knowing that the word came from what he said earlier—about my pink pussy wanting to be worshipped.
A moan echoing from his chest tells me the chosen word will do as his attention returns to my pussy. “Say it anytime you want, and everything stops. No matter what we’re doing. Do you understand?”
I nod, though I don’t really understand. I’ll never want him to stop.
“What a good girl. So sweet and eager to please me. But I do think something’s missing. Do you know what it is?”
I shake my head against the pillow.
“Take off my belt.”
“M-Me?” I whimper. I don’t think I feel confident enough to do that.
His hand comes to the top of my head, caressing my hair in gentle strokes.
“Take off my belt, angel. Don’t make me ask again.”
I gulp, getting up higher against the headboard as I pull the leather strap through his belt loops with trembling hands.
“Around your pretty neck now.”
I hesitate initially, but I’m not about to call out my safe word just yet. Not until I get a real taste of him—until I know what he’s really made of.
“Just like that. Here, let me help you,” he says, the warmth of his hands against my sensitive skin as he works the strap through the buckle, fastening it as tight as it can go around my neck. It’s already hard to breathe, but the forceful sensation is doing something to me… it’s making my body come alive for him.
“Rowan…” I utter, my eyes open wide from struggling to breathe as he smiles down on me.
“Tell me your safe word, and I’ll remove it right now.”
It’s not easy, but after calming myself down, I manage to take back control of my lungs, even under the pressure of the belt. So I just shake my head, feeling my pussy drip with arousal across my thighs.
“No? Then let’s get you out of bed. On your knees.”
Like a genie newly released from a bottle, I obey my new master, draping my legs over the edge of the bed and lowering myself to the floor until my knees feel the hardness of the boards.
Rowan takes the leftover belt hanging around my neck, pulling it up like a leash, until it tightens just a bit more on my flesh. My pussy pulses at the action, and I try to hide my blush by lowering my gaze.
“I’m going to go into the kitchen. And you’re going to crawl, following me around, until I get you some sweet relief for your aching little cunt. Is that understood?”
“Y-Yes. Yes, sir,” I mutter. I don’t know why I addressed him like that, but I don’t dare call out his name again. I expected a lot of the man who has haunted my dreams for so long, but this? I never expected him to be so intense. So… in control, and sure of himself.
He starts walking, tugging on the leash just enough to get my knees moving. I get down on my hands, lifting my gaze to see the backs of his suited thighs walking in front of me. I’m so wet, I can feel the normal air temperature caressing my pussy through the drenched panties as if it’s ten degrees cooler than it actually is. It’s a small relief, but I need so much more than air caressing me against my throbbing clit.
Reaching the open-space kitchen feels like an eternity and a half. But when we do, Rowan opens the door to the freezer, pulling out a small tray of ice. He flips it up, making the cubes fall flat onto his opened palm before he closes the door and turns to face me.
“Open,” he commands, pointing an ice cube at my mouth.
I stick my tongue out, but he doesn’t immediately place it there. Instead, he just looks at me for a few moments with that same hunger flashing in his eyes.
“So fucking pretty. I could watch you like this forever.”
I smile at the praise, my tongue still out as saliva builds up in my mouth. I want to close it, but I don’t think I’m allowed yet.
“Now,” he says, placing the first ice cube in my mouth. It’s cold and wet, and I can already feel it melting, droplets of water sliding down along the sides of my tongue.
He lets go of the leash he improvised, and brings his index finger under my chin, lifting it up.
“Hold this in your mouth while you crawl to the couch. You’ll have to be fast. Because if it melts before I get to push it inside your pussy, you’ll give me no choice but to spank that beautiful ass. Do you understand?”
“Yesh,” I say, the word slipping out awkwardly past my opened lips.
“Good girl,” he smiles, then lets go of my chin.
I close my mouth, rushing to the couch that’s only a few feet away from us. He wants to… spank me? God. What is this man made of? And how is he making my pussy pulse with just his words and nothing else?
I get up on the couch, sitting on my heels and pushing the ice cube back out on my tongue. The more it stays inside my mouth, the faster it will melt. I’m not even sure how much of it is left at this point.
Rowan, on the other hand, seems to be taking his sweet time as he collects a few more ice cubes before finally making his way toward me. Taking a seat next to me, he taps his lap and says, “Come here. Give me your pussy.”
Fuck . I whimper in anticipation and shame as I go to sit on his lap, the position so intimate it makes my cheeks flush. I’ve never held him before. Never felt the wall of muscle beneath his shirt other than that one minute five years ago. I want to lean into it, I want my hands to roam all over his body, but it doesn’t seem like I get a say in it just yet. Plus, the ice cube is fucking melting.
I lie back on the couch, positioned with my hips in his lap. His hand tugs at the white, lacy undergarments he bought me and rips them open to expose my swollen pussy.
“There. Now open your mouth and give me back the ice.”
There’s not much left of it at this point. But I sprawl out my tongue and he takes it, the warmth of his fingers clashing with the coldness of my lips.
Without any warning, he places the ice in the middle of my clit, pushing it with his finger as I arch my back and gasp out a moan.
“Quiet,” he commands, letting the ice slide down, then pushing it inside my pussy. “I’m not anywhere close to being done, and you’re distracting me with your pretty moans.”
What is he doing to me? What is this man doing to me—ahh.
I melt down into the couch, biting my lip to stop from crying out.
My pussy swallows up the cube, and I can feel it melt down inside the warmth of my walls. It slides against them, making me move my hips up and down.
Another cube makes it inside me, Rowan’s finger smearing me with both my wetness and the melted water. They slide in easily, cooling me down, but making practically no difference in how utterly aroused I am.
“Please, please, just…” I plead, but the rest of the sentence trails off. Why isn’t he fucking me already? Why is he torturing me like this?
“You want more, angel?”
“Yes, yes, I—”
“You haven’t earned it yet, I’m afraid. You’ll take what I’m giving you for now.”
I close my eyes and he pushes past the folds of my dripping pussy, entering me as far as his fingers can go, until they touch whatever ice is left in my channel. As soon as I feel him inside, I moan so loudly I have to bite my lip to quiet down.
My eyes crack open when he pinches my nipple between his fingers. I arch and I wiggle and I whimper-moan, his sleek fingers sliding in and out of me with ease.
“That’s it. That’s my good girl,” he whispers, his other hand moving from my breasts to my neck, pulling on the belt and taking away my air. “Don’t come yet, angel. Hold on for little bit longer,” he says, his fingers stuck inside me as I struggle to breathe through an incoming orgasm.
The pain around my neck isn’t helping—it’s turning up the pleasure tenfold—and I’m this close to coming all over his hand and lap. “Breathe for me. Hold it,” he says, finally releasing the belt.
“Jesus…” I moan, taking huge breaths of air as my pussy clenches around him, begging me to come. “I can’t. I can’t—”
“Rowan,” he says, sliding another finger down into my ass. “That’s the only name you’ll scream when I fuck you.”
My orgasm explodes like a tsunami, sending shockwaves all throughout my flushed body. At the same time, Rowan’s hand thrusts faster, both in my pussy and in my ass, making me lose complete control of myself. I come all over his thigh, clenching down on his fingers, a trickle of sweat beading my forehead from the intensity of it.
“So fucking perfect. So beautiful,” he praises as I twitch under his hands.
“Rowan…” I mewl.
“You did so well, angel.”
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t wait.”
But he isn’t angry. Or disappointed. Or disinterested in the slightest. Instead, he smiles and starts working on my overstimulated clit with his thumb again. “We have all night to work on that.”
“I don’t think… I don’t think I can do that again.”
“Oh, but you will. You’ll come over my tongue and hands for as long as it takes to quench my thirst for tonight. And then tomorrow, we’ll go again. And again. And again. Until you’re a pleading mess covered in cum and drool, and begging for my cock.”
After showering together and making me come more times than I can count, my back is pressed against Rowan’s chest as he cradles me in bed. I’m numb—my pussy is numb, my nipples are overstimulated, and my ass feels like he’s already fucked it with everything he’s got. I wince at knowing he hasn’t even truly started.
The sheets no longer smell just like me, from when I waited for him earlier—they smell like us. And I can’t help but let a sheepish smile spread on my face at the fact.
He’s real. This is real.
And so is the erection caging my ass from behind.
Rowan caresses my hair, breathing me in as he groans into my pebbled skin.
“I can’t believe you’re finally mine. It’s been so lonely, Dove. So fucking hard thinking of you but knowing I couldn’t have you.”
“I know,” I murmur. “I thought about you for so long, Rowan…”
“So when did you stop?”
“What?”
“You said it in past tense. So when did you stop thinking about me?”
Oh . I pause, gathering my thoughts, while he hugs me tighter into his naked chest.
“I thought… I thought it was insane. Thinking about you like that. You were a fantasy I’d made up in my mind. I had to let you go, Rowan, I didn’t think you’d—”
“I’m glad I wasn’t too late, angel. That’s all I care about.”
“I don’t think I ever really gave you up. You were always there, in the back of my mind. All you had to do was show up…” I smile.
He presses a kiss to my head, and my legs go weak.
But when silence drifts in between us, my thoughts torment me instead. What happens now? Will he just call me in to fuck me whenever he feels like it, while I go about my life? Will he want to see me again after tonight?
Doubt creeps in and my body goes taut in his arms.
“I, um… I have to go,” I say. “Early in the morning.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Yes,” I press on. “It’s about my job. I have to be at court on Monday, and there are still things I need to prepare tomorrow...”
“Cancel it,” he says, very matter-of-fact.
I turn around, facing the sleepy, sexy-as-fuck face of the most important man in the country right now.
“I can’t,” I laugh, my confidence slowly returning. “Miss Pratt would kill me. And then you wouldn’t be able to do what you just did to me tonight.”
He scoffs, smiling with closed eyes. “You underestimate me, angel. Being bat-shit crazy was a prerequisite for earning the highest rank in the military.”
“Sure it was,” I laugh.
“Who’s the judge taking your case on Monday?”
“It’s Miss Pratt’s case—and I can’t tell you that. You just told me you’re bat-shit crazy. What are you going to do? Kill the woman?”
Another smile, and a kiss that lands on my nose this time.
“Answer me.”
“Judge Lydia Davis.”
“Okay,” he turns over to the nightstand to get his phone, the sheets rustling with him.
“What are you doing…?” I ask, a concerned scowl on my face. “Rowan!”
“Quiet, angel. I’m working.”
I watch in shock and awe as Rowan dials a number on his phone, pinching his eyebrows together as he squeezes his eyes shut to readjust to the light.
“Yes, hello. This is Commander Rowan King. I’m sorry to disturb you at this hour—”
“Rowan,” I whisper-shout, but he brings his finger to his mouth, tapping his lips while giving me a stern look.
“There’s a case on Monday under Judge Davis—Lydia Davis. Yes, I need it postponed. To…” He looks at me. “Friday?”
I give him a blank stare. I can’t believe him right now!
“No, that wouldn’t work actually,” he resumes. “Can you— Yeah? Perfect. Thank you. Have a good night.”
“Rowan!” I get up to a seated position, anger and shame and, I guess, a fuzzy feeling coursing through me all at once. “You can’t just do that. That’s abuse of power!”
“No point in having power if you can’t abuse it from time to time.” He puts his phone back on the nightstand. “You’re sleeping with me tonight. And tomorrow. And the night after that. Period.”
“Rowan…”
“What’s the matter, angel?”
My phone dings on the other nightstand, and I lean over to swipe it open while Rowan grabs my naked ass from behind. I bite my lip in response, but I’m glad he can’t see it right now. I’m mad at him. And I need him to understand.
“It’s Miss Pratt. She just said…” I shake my head. “Our case has gotten postponed to next Tuesday.”
“Perfect. I love it when things move fast in this country,” he smirks.
“Rowan! You can’t just do that. People were planning for this trial. It’s not right…”
“A billionaire and a rival corporation? Please ,” he scoffs. “They have enough money already. They can wait until next Tuesday while I fuck my girl at least a couple more times.”
“And then what?” I scowl. “I go back and you call me in whenever you feel like it again?”
Not the time, or the place.
Fuck, Dove, you’re fucking this up.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
But Rowan’s face doesn’t falter. Nor does it tense up. Which is why I don’t expect it at all when he turns over to face me, grabbing my neck and squeezing tight enough for all the air to come out.
“I told you we were going to fix it, but I didn’t think we’d have to start in the middle of the night. Your self-doubt is going to have to go, Dove. Because my good little angel is perfect, and I will not allow her to degrade herself like that. Nod if you understand.”
I nod. I fucking nod, butterflies coming to life in my belly and in my pussy.
“Good. Now.” He squeezes harder, and I reach down to touch my already pulsing clit. “Nuh-uh-uh. Take your hand out of your cunt. You’re not touching it again until I say so. And right now, you’re going to sleep like the good girl I know you are. And in the morning, if I’m feeling generous, I might play with your ass a little bit until I let you come. Do. You. Understand?”
I nod hard and fast. His hand is still wrapped around my neck, my lungs about to explode from the lack of oxygen. He smirks, releasing me, and I take in huge heaps of air like I’ve never breathed before in my life.
He presses me to his chest once more, his head resting on top of mine.
“Sleep well, angel,” he says, while I blink hard and fast through whatever the hell just happened.
It’s at this moment that I realize… Rowan King is not my hero, as younger me would’ve thought.
He’s my monster. And now I serve under his command.