Page 21 of The Dom with the Clever Tongue

The stare she hit Reece with was intimidating enough to reinforce his idea of their real dynamic. When Reece quivered, but managed to return the stare, her neck still bowed backward a fraction. From the tension lines of her muscles and the widening of her eyes, the girl seemed to be responding as submissively as he’d expect her to when they hadn’t established rules. The two of them had chemistry all right. It just needed clarifying.

This whole crop thing might backfire.

“Are you going to call me your bitch?” Scarlet asked, still glaring.

“Uhhh, no?” She backed up and gently tugged the crop away from Scarlet. “I guess not. Not if you’re so darn determined about it. I was joking!”

“That’s what I thought.” Scarlet smiled on an otherwise unamused face. She turned to him. “I’ve got a thong on. Let’s do this.”

While she unbuttoned and slipped off her jeans, Malachi attempted nonchalance.Down boy, down. Long legs...long naked legs. Women had sure been given all the pretty when god had doled it out.

“Just, uh, bend over the arm of the couch?” Reece indicated where with the crop.

“No.” After looking around, Scarlet strode to a blank section of wall. “I’ll lean on this. You won’t hit anything here, other than me.”

He went and perched on the armrest of the sofa. “You’ve used it before, Reece? On her? You know where it’s safe to hit?”

“Yes. Her ass. Her thighs. Upper back, but not too hard. And yes, I know you can use either the rectangle at the end or the stick bit. That’s what she likes more.”

Her frown said that maybeshedidn’t like using the shaft, which was understandable. Her whole attitude sucked for someone who claimed to be a top.But who knew? She might get the hang of it.

“Good. Get into position, Scarlet.” He pointed, watching as she put both hands to the wall with her body angled out so her butt was a good target. He spoke to Reece. “Now remember, she wants you to do this. She likes pain. Do you have a safeword, Scarlet?”

“Just red for stop, and green for go, and yellow if I want it harder.”

“Really? Yellow usually means the opposite. Slower or less painful.”

“I know.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Reece knows why.”

“Shush. I can do this. Ready?”

“Do it.”

He nodded too then folded his arms.

“I’ll do ten warm-up ones. Here we go.” She sucked in a breath. The first hit barely made a sound and Scarlet didn’t move at all.

After five hits he figured maybe he needed a hearing aid because he could barely hear a thing. Scarlet sighed. “Yellow. Harder, please. On my thighs.”

“Okay.” The next five were harder, but still Scarlet looked bored and exasperated while Reece was clearly not using much muscle.

He shoved to his feet. “Show me the crop.”

She handed it to him.

“You know you can use a wrist flick with this, or just brute force. But a flick can gain so much speed that it’s invariably better and more painful, as well as more accurate.” Then without much more warning than moving his stance, he smacked one onto Scarlet that cracked.

“Uh!” Reece flinched and stepped away. “That hard?”

“Yes.”

He noted Scarlet had shuffled her feet out a few inches, sticking her ass out further, making a nice round, perfectly feminine target.

Mmm. Though she wanted it on her thigh, he had an exquisite and sudden need to hit that roundness.

“Again.” The next five went to the left cheek then five on the right cheek. She was breathing faster and the last one made her gasp. Good. Malachi eyed therectangles of red that were appearing where once had been white. Nice. He resisted stepping in and caressing the welts.

Damn this was hard. He couldfeelthose welts almost. The heat, the softness of her skin.

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