Mastered (The Enforcers 1)

Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. “He wasn’t teasing me?” she squeaked.

“Does Silas strike you as the type of man to tease?” Drake asked dryly.

“Point taken,” she muttered.

Then she glanced up at him, a gleam in her eyes that made him go instantly hard.

“What is that look for?” he asked suspiciously.

“Well . . . I did promise to be creative in the way I expressed my gratitude,” she said solemnly, though the too-innocent expression on her face told him she was anything but solemn.

“Oh you did, now didn’t you? Just how creative are you, Angel?”

She flashed a shy smile and peeked up at him from beneath her lashes. Then she reached up and twined her arms around his neck, having to stand on tiptoe to elevate her diminutive height.

She looked adorably shy and color rose in her cheeks. “I don’t want to disappoint you, Drake. Ever. And you know I have no experience except with you.”

He was inordinately pleased with her assertion that he was her only experience and that no reference at all was made to her shithead ex. He wasn’t so pleased with her statement of not wanting to disappoint him, but he didn’t interrupt her, because she was obviously struggling with what she wanted to say.

“What I would like is for you to teach me how to please you. Only you. You said the other night was for you, but in reality, it was all about me. Tonight . . .” She sucked in another breath. “Tonight, I want it to truly be all about you. I want you to have absolute control and show me how to pleasure you in any way you want. I want you to make me do whatever it is you want me to do to you—for you. And I don’t want you to hold back for fear of hurting or scaring me.”

She paused for a moment as she stared into his eyes as if gauging his reaction.

“I want you. Just you. Nothing else. Just you, your control, your dominance, the man you are, the man I know you to be. I’m not trying to change the rules, I swear. I don’t want control tonight. I only want for you to be selfish for once and to take what you need from me, however you want it, need it, like it. I just wish I knew enough not to have to ask you how to give you all that I want to give you.”

She finished in a whisper, a thread of regret in her voice.

He was shaken. He, a man who was unshakable. But her sincere plea cut to the very core and uncovered parts of his heart that had long ago been shut off, never to be opened or to bleed again. For anyone.

He framed her beautiful face in his hands, cradling it gently as he stared down into her eyes, losing all sense of himself.

“I’m glad you don’t have the experience to know all there is to know about pleasing me,” he said in a savage tone. “There is nothing more beautiful than a woman asking her man to guide her and teach her how to pleasure him. You make me feel like I’m the only man who’s ever even entered your world, Angel. You can’t imagine how that feels.”

She smiled, her eyes glowing warmly. “Then you’ll do it? You’ll take me the way you want to take me tonight? Rough, hard, long, sweet. It doesn’t matter, Drake. Because pleasing you, bringing you pleasure, gives me the same and so much more. So very much more.”

Dear God, what she was doing to him in such a short time. He was in way over his fucking head and he damn well knew it. He was helpless to keep his defenses rigid and erect around her, and God help him but he didn’t want to.

For the first time in his life, he wanted to let someone in. He just prayed that when that happened, and she saw the monster he truly was, that he wouldn’t lose the precious gift staring at him as though he were her entire world.

He looked at her sweet smile, going over every single word—gift—she’d given him. Did she know how dark his desires ran? Did she fully understand the things that aroused him sexually? Somehow, he didn’t think so. In her innocence, how could she?

He had no doubt that she was utterly sincere and here, in this moment, she would give him anything he wanted. Would do for him anything he wanted. But would she understand, or would she see his dark fantasies as a betrayal of his promise to protect her and always take care of her?

“Be very sure of what you are offering me, Angel,” he said, his tone low and serious.

“I’m sure,” she said with no hesitation.