N is for... (Checklist Book 14) by L DuBois (latest novels to read TXT) 📗

immediately. When she’d turned her head to the side, he’d recognized her from the picture he’d received.

“However, we’re not going to,” he finished.

“Oh?”

“Your idea would satisfy the technical requirements, but not the spirit, of the game.”

“And what do you think the spirit of the game requires?”

His blood heated at the slight tremble in her words, in the way she was once more shifting restlessly. He wanted to see her let go, to hear her moaning in pleasure and sighing in emotional release.

Wanted her to give him control.

“You’re going to submit to me. You’re going to trust me enough to do that. You’re going to give me control of your body, and let me take care of you.”

“Take care of me?” She shook her head, strands of hair whipping her face. “You mean—”

“I mean take care of you. Of your needs,” he clarified.

“And your own.” There was a bit of snark in her tone.

He let it go. For now.

“Yes. This arrangement is mutually beneficial.”

She turned her head away, and he could see the tendons in her neck flexing. She was tense, tightly strung.

“Are you a switch?” he asked after a moment. He hadn’t had a chance to go through every page of her paperwork, so maybe he’d missed something.

“I’d be a good Domme.”

“That wasn’t what I asked.”

“It wasn’t, was it?”

She still wasn’t looking at him, and Daniel had a feeling that he wouldn’t get any more answers, any real answers, unless he asked his questions as part of the scene, when she was feeling her submission.

He stood and walked around to where she sat. He’d deliberately chosen to approach her from her blind side, so she was looking away from him, and would have to turn her head to see him.

She stubbornly kept her head turned away, even when he was so close to her that the crease of his pants brushed her bare knee. Daniel hooked a lock of hair around his finger, twirling it idly. Standing while she was seated meant he had a lovely overhead view of her breasts rising and falling with her now rapid but uneven breaths.

He released the lock of hair so that it fell forward over her shoulder, the ends brushing the top of her breast.

“Autumn,” he murmured.

“I don’t even know you. You’re a stranger,” she snapped. The hard words were at odds with her breathing, with the way her body was softening as she leaned into him.

“Yes, I am,” he agreed mildly.

“I would be crazy to agree to…”

“To submit to me.”

She pressed her lips together so tightly that they almost disappeared. But her breath hitched, and when she exhaled it was almost a moan.

“But you’re going to. Because you need to submit right now, don’t you? And the game means that you either submit to me, or you walk away.”

“Damn it,” she whispered. “Damn it.”

“I’m guessing that normally you play with Doms you’ve gotten to know over the course of time.”

“Yes.”

“You negotiate—how did you put it?—every moment of a scene.”

“Not always.” She sounded less sure.

“If playing with a partner you just met is one of your hard limits, then that is a different issue.”

“It’s not.” Her breasts heaved as she took a heavy breath. “I mean of course there are times when I come to the club and just…” She raised one shoulder, let it fall.

Daniel cupped the back of her head in his hand, spearing his fingertips through her hair and massaging her scalp.

“Sometimes you scene with a stranger, a new partner, because your need outweighs your trust issues.”

That got a small laugh out of her.

“Then,” he continued, “tonight will be one of those nights.”

She reacted to the words with a slight catch to her breath.

“You’re going to submit to me,” he murmured.

“I shouldn’t.”

He kept up the scalp massage until she tipped her head back, letting the weight of her skull fall into his hand. Her eyes were closed, her breathing slow and even. Her legs had relaxed, one now leaning fully against his knee, her thighs parted just enough that if he’d wanted to, he could have slid his hand between her thighs and touched her pussy.

“Why?” he murmured low and gentle. “Why shouldn’t you?”

“Because I’m attracted to you.”

Ah ha. They’d circled around. To a topic he found all too interesting. “And why does that matter?”

“Because I care what—”

He heard her teeth click together as her eyes flew open. She’d stopped herself from finishing that sentence, and as she looked up at him, her eyes wide as if shocked by her own near-admission, he knew she was about to close down.

Unless he did something to prevent it.

Daniel shifted, each movement sure and precise, because for the last several minutes he’d been planning how he’d touch her next.

He pivoted, sliding one foot between hers. His leg forced her knees apart. He braced his knee against the front of the bench as he tightened the hand tangled in her hair. He brought his other hand up and curled it loosely around her neck.

Autumn gasped and raised her hands to grip his wrist. But she didn’t try to tug his hand away.

Pinned in place as he stood over her, controlling her like this made Daniel’s dominant side rise. Dark needs slithered through him, whispering of all the delicious things he could do to her.

“Autumn, what is your safe word?”

“Pickle. My slowdown word is onion.”

“I don’t use a stoplight style system.” Some people chose to use the words red, yellow, and green as a safe word system. Yellow meant the sub needed to pause the scene, while “red” functioned as the traditional safe word which stopped the scene all together.

“If something is bothering you, if you need me to stop or slow down, tell me. I will always listen, I promise you that. I want open, honest, non-coded communication.”

She actually relaxed, her hands falling away from his wrist. “So if I say ‘oh no, your dick is just far too big, stop’ you’ll take it literally?”

Daniel let out a startled laugh. He adjusted his hands,