Page 120 of Renard's Deliverance

“Don’t know where you just went, Gem. But you stay the fuck here with me, hear?”

“Didn’t go anywhere.”

Ouch!

He smacked her ass several times until she was breathing heavily and nearly in tears.

“Ouch! Shit! What was that for?”

“Lying,” he growled. “I should take my belt to your ass.”

Fear welled inside her. “No belts.”

He froze behind her. “Shit, Gem. Hard limit?”

“Yes,” she managed to force out.

He rubbed her back soothingly. “Any other hard limits I should know about? You said no whips and canes.”

She still felt bad, though because she knew he liked those things.

Then again, he could still use them . . . just on other people.

Only, she wasn’t sure she liked that idea.

“Don’t worry so much, Gem. Everything is going to be all right.”

Yeah. That had never been her experience. Most of the time, everything went to shit.

“I know you went somewhere else in your head before and I gotta say, I didn’t much like it. So every time you drift, I’m gonna bring you back, however I have to, got me?”

“Got you,” she whispered.

“So tell me about any more hard limits that you have.”

“No humiliation. Don’t speak badly about my body or my . . . my brain. Or my clothes. Or my personality.”

He spun her around and kissed her. Hard.

And when he drew back, she could see how dark his face was.

He was furious.

Opal swallowed heavily, expecting the next words out of his mouth to be censure. To tell her that he could no longer be with her.

“How about I just don’t speak badly about you at all? Ever?”

“That works,” she told him.

“Yeah. That fucking works all right.” He ran his hand down her ass and between her legs. “Fuck, this ass.”

She tensed slightly.

“Best ass I’ve ever seen. First time I saw it in a pair of jeans . . . nearly lost my mind. I should get you to wear a sack when you’re around other people. I don’t want other men looking at what’s mine.”

He was full of it.

But she couldn’t say she didn’t like it.

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