She didn’t want to think about what kind of a man Hutch was. Good. Loyal. True.
Had it all been a lie? If it had been, why would he be here now? What did he gain?
Hutch pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it to the side.
He picked her up, her cane clanging to the floor. “The good news is you selected the Rumpus Room. That’s what we call this room. There are several privacy rooms we also use as bedrooms if we need to, and you picked the one with the spanking bench.”
She’d walked into the first door she’d come to, but it was obvious Hutch thought it was destiny.
Where would she be if she hadn’t met him? Things would have played out the way they had, and she would have been alone. She wouldn’t have had someone to hold her the way Hutch was.
Was he the only real thing in this world she found herself in?
Hutch strode over to the spanking bench and set her on her feet in front of it. He gripped the neckline of the dress she wore and she gasped as he ripped it open, exposing her in an instant. She didn’t complain about the loss of the clothing. She liked the sound of the fabric tearing, enjoyed the savage look in his eyes. She shrugged out of the remnants of her dress, letting them slip to the ground. Her body was starting to heat up, nipples already stiff and wanting.
This was what she needed. She didn’t need to cry. She didn’t need to shout out her pain. She needed his hands on her. She needed to forget everything for the next hour, and then she would decide what to do later.
Hutch moved into her space, his mouth a flat line as he gripped the nape of her neck with one hand. The other hand found the back of her bra and twisted it off with the ease of a man who’d been taking bras off women for years.
She let that thought go because he seemed to want her. It didn’t matter what he’d done before. He seemed to need her.
God knew she needed him.
He tossed her bra away and his hand found her breast. “You’re strong enough to handle what happened today and what will happen in the future.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk.”
He tweaked her nipple, a hard twist that made her knees go weak. “We don’t have to talk about you and me, but we will talk about this. We will talk about the fact that you are not stupid.”
Or she could say her safe word and make him go away. She could curl up into a ball and be the fragile thing she’d always worried she was deep inside.
He tightened his fingers, pushing her to the point of pain.
“I’m not stupid,” she said on a breathless whisper.
He eased back. “Good. You are young and so fucking smart, and you made a mistake. Lay down on the bench. Your breasts go on either side, your ass will be in the air.”
“Should I…” she began because she was still in her underwear.
“You know what, brat? If you’re going to question me, then stand right there and don’t move. You want extra punishment? I can do that. You’re in my house now. I know exactly how to deal with you.”
She was stripped down and should feel more vulnerable than ever, and yet something had calmed inside her. It was the fact that she knew she didn’t have to think about anything but her body for the next few hours. She would get rest. Hutch would spank her and she would cry, and then she would sleep and figure it all out in the morning.
Yes, that was why her hands weren’t shaking anymore. She was going to get sex and she would feel better.
Hutch was back, standing in front of her and holding something in his hands. He held up small clamps and her breath hitched. They were tweezer clamps meant for her nipples.
“You seem to require a big bite of pain tonight. Do you remember your safe word?” His voice had gone deeper than before, his eyes losing their softness. Hutch had found his top space, and she realized that perhaps he needed this as much as she did.
If she worked on the assumption that Hutch cared about her—maybe even loved her—then today had been hard on him, too.
“Yes.” She didn’t want to think about him as anything but the man giving her what she needed. It wasn’t good or kind of her, but she wanted to be selfish for once.
“Then we should begin. Hands behind your back. Present your breasts to me.”
She reached her hands around and threaded them together. The hold made her breasts thrust out, nipples puckering. Hutch palmed a breast and then took the nipple between his thumb and forefinger.