A Little Harmless Submission(36)

“Wonder what?”

“They would wonder if I didn’t have complete control over you.”

She snorted. “Like that’s going to happen.”

His demeanor changed, his body stiffening. He turned to face her and then slowly backed her up against the wall. He let go of her hands and placed a palm on the wall on each side of her head. She lifted her hands to ward him off, but he had other plans.

“Put your hands against the wall. Do it.” His tone was harsh. This was not the soft lover she had met at the door. This was another man, her Dom.

She did it without thinking. Even his tone had changed and with it, her body heated. He was an attractive man, one that any woman would want. All hard muscle and dark, delicious skin. Then there were those hazel eyes that seemed to mesmerize her. But it was the way he spoke when he was being a true Dom that got to her. Even now, her body was warming, her nipples tightening against the cotton fabric of her bra. He leaned his face so close, she could feel his breath on her cheek.

“Let’s get one thing straight, Maria. By the time I’m done with you, you’re going to be the perfect little sub. You’ll know just how to act with your Dom. I’ll be the one who gives you the gift of pleasure, the one who makes sure you’re begging for it. Don’t doubt it.”

She swallowed. Just hearing the dark promise in his words had her yearning. Never before had she wanted anything more from a man.

“So next time you want to challenge me like you just did, I will make sure you pay for it.” He nuzzled her neck, and she felt the brush of his lips on her pulse point. The feather light kiss had her wanting more, but before she was satisfied, he was pulling away. The satisfied smirk on his face told her that he knew exactly what he’d done to her.

“I think you can suffer until we get to my house.”

She frowned at him. His voice had changed, his demeanor also. But before she could ask him, he was walking over to the table by her laptop. “Did you want to save this?”

“What?”

He was looking at the screen. “It’s asking if you want to save the document.”

Crap. Didn’t she shut it down? It had made the shutdown sound. “I’ll take care of it.” Before he could figure out what it was—or at least she hoped so—she stepped in front of him. The document was there, waiting to be saved. She saved it then shut down the computer. “I’ll just grab my purse.”

“And an overnight bag. I don’t want to have to come back into Honolulu tonight.”

She raised one eyebrow and crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “What happens if I say no?”

He gave her a sardonic look. “I think we just covered that.”





Chapter Nine



By the time they were clearing the dishes, Rome was doing his best not to crawl up the wall. It wasn’t easy. Not with her in his house. He had a lot of little toys he wanted to use on her, and knowing they were just a few steps away, well, it was almost too much to take. He had been systematically touching her, trying to gain her trust in that area. He’d never known such a jumpy woman. Every little brush of his hand had seemed to get easier for her to take as the evening wore on and harder on him. He winced at the word choice. There was a good chance he would end up passing out from lack of oxygen to his brain.

He set his plate on the counter with a definite clink.

“You don’t have to do this,” he said, slipping a finger down her arm. She shivered but smiled at him.

“You cooked. Rule in the Callahan house was that the person who cooked didn’t clean up.” She turned the water on and started rinsing off the plates.

He leaned against the counter and watched her. It scared him how much this seemed normal, as if they had been doing it for years. Standing in the kitchen, the sounds of water hitting the sink, and watching her.

Rome cleared the lump that had formed in his throat. “And I take it you did most of the cooking?”

She chuckled, and he tried not to cross his eyes. God, even something as simple as a chuckle had him wanting to howl. Worse, it made him think of the way she sounded when she moaned his name. Dammit, where was his control? She was talking about her childhood, and he was thinking about just how much fun it would be to bend her over the counter and take her from behind.

She shook her head. “How very chauvinistic of you, Detective Carino.”

“It’s just hard to see Big John puttering around the kitchen.”

She glanced at him, amusement dancing in her eyes. “My father was an excellent cook. I know how to make a soufflé thanks to him. Mom was one of the worst cooks put on this earth. Her meatloaf was considered a toxic hazard.”