Stealing His Thunder (Masters of Adrenaline 1)

“Come on, Addison. If you’re a good girl this all stops, but if you’re bad . . .” He made a sound of regret as he trailed off, like he was sorry he had no other choice. “I just want to lick that pretty clit and suck it into my mouth—to make you scream with pleasure when you come for me, but I can’t do that unless you answer the question.”

Her entire body shook, feeling like it was going to shake itself to pieces. Tears dripped from the corners of her eyes, dribbled down her temples, pooled in her ears.

“Okay,” she whispered. “Okay.”

He squeezed her knee. “Where is it hidden?”

Crap. This wasn’t going to go over well, which was a big part of the reason she’d tried to hold out.

For a moment her mouth worked, as she tried to get the words out. “It was under your bumper.”

He scoffed, frowning. “That was the first place I checked.”

Part of her wanted to gloat, but she was still too desperate and vulnerable to fuck with him, safeword or no. She couldn’t take another second of torture.

“When I got to the club, before I went in, I took it off your car and shoved it in my purse.”

At his dumbfounded expression, she wished she found this funny.

“You little fucking bitch.”

She shut her eyes, waiting for him to slap her, or worse. A hoot of laughter made her reopen her eyes.

“God, if I didn’t want to fuck you so bad I’d just untie you and kick you out horny, to get even with you.” He laughed then made a pained noise. “Fuck, the guys will never let this go.”

“Please, Fox,” she begged, not even sure what she wanted. The plan had been to mock him about this, but considering what he’d just done to her, and how raw her mind felt, joking had become an unfamiliar concept. Quiet tears still slid down her face. She felt disgusting—sweaty and tear-streaked and itchy. Dirty, and not just in terms of her appearance.

His gaze refocused on her, roamed over her. Maybe she felt dirty, but the glow in his eyes suggested she was exactly his kind of dirty.

“Please what, clever girl?”

She sniffled and squirmed even though her muscles felt leaden. “I need you.” Surely, he hadn’t forgotten he’d promised to let her come? But what if it had slipped his mind, or he didn’t want to follow through? What if he wasn’t done tormenting her?

The safeword she’d chosen would stop him from making things worse, but it wouldn’t make him ease her. She imagined him doing what he’d said—untying her and telling her to dress. Then she’d walk out of the room and out to her car.

When she’d seen the pieces of the torn-up car, she’d had a momentary pang of regret that he’d gone so far and done so much damage for nothing. What if, between that and her screwing up the script at the dealership, he didn’t want her anymore? She couldn’t think of a more humiliating scenario than creeping out of the house, trembling with need. Having to stop on the side of the road to masturbate would be mortifying.

Everything in her brain shut down except whatever valve controlled her tears. Those wouldn’t stop.

“Oh, hey. Shhh.”

She could feel him tugging at the ropes, untying her. It was true. He was going to leave her like this.

“Shh, Addison. It’s done now.”

The ropes fell away, his quiet voice repeating comforting things, but nothing he said could soothe her.

The bed dipped behind her, and he pulled her into his arms, wrapping his body around hers like a cocoon. “It’s okay, pretty girl. I’ve got you.”

Although the heat from his body felt good, his clean, masculine scent made her arousal worse, reminding her of what she desperately needed but couldn’t have.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, rolling over to look at him. “I didn’t know you’d wreck your car looking for it.”

He wiped her tears away with his fingers, but there were too many, had been too many, and his hand just ended up smearing them around.

“I’m not angry, baby.” He chuckled. “You tricked me, but it was all in good fun. You had no way of knowing how far I’d go to avoid losing, especially since winning would have landed you in my bed.”

She frowned up at him. “But I ended up here anyway.”