Playing Hard to Master (Masters Unleashed 2)

He also resented women who expected a collar from him after a few good dates. Shae had made him gun-shy, and he didn’t like to feel rushed. Honestly, he doubted any other woman would suit him like Shae had.

Maybe Kate would have, but he’d known from the beginning that wouldn’t go anywhere. Still, it didn’t make it sting less.

“There’s a difference between disciplining a girl and breaking her,” he said. “Some men can’t handle a sub who has a personality of her own, but girls who are always well behaved bore me. Where’s the challenge in that?”

“Do you like disciplining?” she asked sweetly, gazing up at him with a feigned innocence that made his cock twitch. “I get into a lot of trouble, but no one wants to teach me to mind my manners.” Her lips curved into a half smile, daring him.

“And what kind of trouble does a sweet little thing like you get into?”

She blinked up at him. Her plump bottom lip disappeared into her mouth for a moment and came out glistening. What was worse—that he already wanted to kiss her, or that she seemed to be wanting the same thing?

“I sass a lot, I ignore rules if I don’t like them, and sometimes I squirm away or kick when I get a spanking.”

He let his lips hover over hers for a moment, and watched in fascination as her sexy golden eyes drooped shut.

“Do you, now?” he murmured, just loud enough to be heard over the people laughing and talking around t

hem. “I think I know how to deal with a young lady like you.”

“You do?” She opened her eyes again. “People don’t understand that I misbehave to be fun, or because I like being punished. Or they think I’m just playing at being submissive and not the real deal. The last Dom I had wrote out a list of rules. As a joke, I doodled on the page and made happy faces in some of the letters. He was so offended that he wouldn’t play with me anymore.”

He made a sound of disapproval. “Some Doms just don’t get the dynamic. Not everyone is equipped to deal with a little vandal. You just wanted to play.”

Everly nodded. “What would you have done?”

He pulled her knees toward him and shifted her legs over his own. She settled there as though it had been her idea.

“Well, it would depend on whether or not I was offended. It’s pretty hard to offend me, so you might have gotten what you wanted, or you might have gotten what I wanted.”

She scrunched her nose in mock offense. “Hey! That doesn’t sound like much fun.”

“It would be for me.” He grinned at her wolfishly, and she smacked his chest. “Do that again and you won’t like what happens.”

She cocked a brow. “Maybe I would.”

“You could try it and see.”

The wheels in Everly’s head were turning so loudly he could almost hear them. Did she really want to test him this early on? What would she do?

As for himself, Ambrose sorted through his options of how to deal with a brat he barely knew. He wasn’t going to treat her quite the same way he would if they were sleeping together. If he came on too strong, he might scare her off—and at this point he was too intrigued to chance that.

When the penny dropped, he saw it happen. Mischief lurked in her gaze and she raised her hand, threatening to smack him again.

“Are you sure?”

She bit her lip, then swatted him.

Of course.

Taking a firm grip on both of her upper arms, he pulled her to her feet and walked her across the room, where he positioned her face-first in the corner. She tried to back away, but he held her there, moving one of his hands to take a firm grip in the back of her hair, close to the scalp.

She gasped and tried to struggle away, but he didn’t allow it.

“Did I warn you not to hit me?”

There was a sound of disgust, but no safeword. When she tried to pry his hand out of her hair, he smacked the back of her thigh hard enough to make her squeak.

“Be good or I’ll make you like this less.”