Page 51 of Vienna Betrayal

Alena yelped as she slid across the slick fabric, coming to rest with her butt nestled up against the side of his thigh, her knees bent.

Alexander laughed, and for a moment he seemed young and carefree. A man unmarked by life’s stresses and strain, wearing a simple gray t-shirt while he teased a girl.

Alena wiggled her ankle out of his grasp, then hooked her leg around his neck. His laughter died as his gaze turned hot. His attention drifted from her face to breasts, then to the apex of her thighs. He turned his head, breath fanning her leg as his hand skimmed down her thigh towards her pussy. Alena let her other leg fall open, her body splayed for him, every worry and dark emotion that had plagued her since he’d taken her off the spanking bench forgotten.

His fingers stopped a millimeter away from her soaked panties.

“You’re right,” he murmured against her skin. “This is aftercare. I shouldn’t play with you.”

“Oh, that’s just mean.”

“You enjoy mean.”

“I do.” Alena tightened her leg, forcing his head down. “Clearly neither of us is totally, fully satisfied. Why don’t we scene again tonight, while we still can?”

Alexander closed his eyes and turned his face into her leg. His teeth grazed her skin, causing goosebumps.

“We can’t. I can’t.”

“Why?” Alena rubbed her hand up and down his forearm, which was in easy reach since he’d planted his hand on the couch beside her waist.

“I’d want more. I told you that— I told you that I’d… The things I would do to you…they’re dark things.”

His quiet, halting words, laced with conviction, gave her pause. She hadn’t been scared when they talked before the scene. During the scene, even as he hurt her, even when he’d described doing things that were far beyond her personal limits, she hadn’t been scared. She’d been sure they were just dirty talk, not real possibilities, and as aroused as she’d been they’d sounded sexy and amazing.

She hadn’t been scared before.

But now she was.

Alena unhooked her leg from around his neck and scooted away.

He cleared his throat and looked at the far wall while she repositioned herself, once more reclined on the pillow, keeping her weight off her ass.

He seemed so far away, so sad. She stretched out one leg, resting her calf across his thighs.

“Alexander, this is a safe place to think about those things. Sharing a sub, BDSM in an office setting… they are hardly taboo fantasies in a place like this.” She gestured around them, smiling softly, while inside she wondered if he really would put a permanent collar around a woman’s neck, force her to service and fuck his friends and acquaintances.

No. Surely not.

That flash of fear had been a result of dealing with too many different feelings and juggling too many opposing needs.

“I know I haven’t been a member long, but I bet at some point the Orchid Club had an auction.” Her teasing tone hid the undercurrent of unease. “Slave auction is one of my favorite fantasies.”

“I am a cruel man.”

Alena’s heart clenched at the self-loathing she heard in his words.

“Alexander, sugar, there’s nothing wrong with you.” She was aware her accent had thickened, dropping the “r” and turning “sugar” into “suga’”. “Or if there’s something wrong with you, then the same thing is wrong with me, with all of us.”

“You’re lovely and...and radiant.” He exhaled heavily. “A Dom should tend to the needs of a submissive. I should want to take care of you… not— And I do. Want to take care of you. Now, in aftercare.” He turned his head away from her, lips pressed together as if he were trying to stop himself from saying more.

Alena swung her legs to the floor and stood.

He closed his eyes, as if he didn’t want to watch her walk away.

Alena straddled his legs, knees beside his hips, her still-aching ass perched on his leather-clad knees.

Alexander’s head whipped around and his brows were halfway up his forehead in surprise that she was sitting on his lap.

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