Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Laila nibbled at her bottom lip, then shook her head. “I am fine.”
“You’ve barely eaten all day, and we’ll fix that soon. I’ll insist you eat something.”
“I will be all right until morning.”
“You think that, but you’ll need to keep up your strength and stamina for what I have in mind.”
She swallowed nervously. “Trees—”
“No. I gave you chances. You flung them back in my face, so we’re moving on to punishment. How’s your headache?”
“Gone.”
“Good. Do you need the bathroom?”
She shook her head.
He lifted her chin in his grip. “When we’re in my dungeon, nonverbal answers aren’t allowed. Yes or no?”
“No.” Her voice quivered.
“Anything else you need?”
She hesitated, and Trees suspected she was thinking through her options and deciding how best to combat him. “An explanation.”
“You’ll get one as soon as we’re downstairs. What’s your safe word?”
“It’s red. Trees—”
“Come with me.” He wasn’t arguing with her anymore.
He was getting the truth.
Taking ahold of her elbow, he led her forward. She seemed to gather her courage, like a prisoner facing a firing squad, and headed for his closet. As he swept his clothes aside on their hangers, he motioned her to turn around. “Face the wall.”
Trees made sure she couldn’t see his security code. He’d learned from his past mistakes.
As soon as she obeyed, he tapped in the digits and the door to the dungeon popped open. It wasn’t lost on him that Laila would be the first person he played with in the kink paradise he’d built for himself and his eventual missus.
Trees gathered her by the elbow, led her to the opening, then leaned in to flip on the light. “Inside. Watch your step.”
She descended with quiet grace. Trees shut the door behind them. It clicked closed with a satisfying thud.
Let the games begin…
“Strip.”
Laila choked. “Excuse me?”
“Anytime you’re in my dungeon, you’re naked. I want you completely bare to me, body and soul.”
She blinked up at him, trembling. Trees knew she wasn’t as afraid of a beating or torture as she was of him getting under her skin and seeing the real her.
“Tick tock, Laila. You’re only making things harder on yourself by procrastinating.”
“Why do you demean me?”
The loaded question would only lead to a mind game he wouldn’t play. “I’ll make everything clear once you comply. But I’m seeing a pattern here. You argue. You refuse to answer. You twist my words. You try my patience and do your best to wear me down in the hopes that I’ll get frustrated or tired of dealing with you and give in. That won’t happen. I’m single-mindedly focused on you, Laila. I will get the answers I want. Last time I’m going to tell you. Strip.”
She bit that lush lower lip that drove him insane in obvious indecision, then she swallowed, lifted her chin, and kicked off her shoes. “If you wish to beat me into some sort of submission, you will not be the first. You will not be the last.”
Nice try. “You can’t guilt me into backing down. I’m not going to beat you.”
But I’m going to use your body against you.
She slid the little white sweater that clung to her breasts off her narrow shoulders and set it on a nearby table. Her stretchy dress followed as she whipped it overhead and tossed it haphazardly beside her cardigan. Her indifferent stare was meant to goad him, but no matter what her face said, he didn’t believe that getting naked for him meant nothing to her. He also didn’t buy that it did nothing for her. Her pebbled nipples poked her bra like twin nubs begging for his attention. She couldn’t blame the cold for that. As he’d waited for Laila to wrap up her conversation with Valeria, he’d used the controls on his phone to pump up the heater in the dungeon to a comfortable seventy-four degrees.
“Shall I keep going?” she asked as if she didn’t care how he answered.
He raised a brow at her. “Are you naked yet?”
Laila gritted her teeth, then quickly smoothed her expression, as if she refused to show even the tiniest vulnerability. Instead, she slid her bra straps down her shoulders and reached behind her to unclasp the garment before tossing it away. Then she shot him a challenging glare, as if to say, I hope you’re enjoying gawking at my tits, asshole.
Trees merely smiled—and felt the blood rush to his cock. “Beautiful. Now the panties.”
A part of him hated to lose the transparent lace perched on her lushly curved hips. The silky fabric clung temptingly to what sure looked like her swollen pussy, delineating the engorged curves of her labia and the crease in between. But for what he had in mind, the lacy scrap needed to go.
With a huff, she worked the undergarment down her hips, then bent and stepped out of them, rising in all her naked glory to stand before him, seemingly detached and unafraid.