Page 1 of Degrees of Power
CHAPTER ONE
The look in his eyesis mesmerizing, and as we lay naked, tangled in the sheets, the reality of what I’ve said registers.
“Katarina, you need to know what you are agreeing to,” Chase says, sitting up on one elbow, looking at me with an odd intensity.
I shake my head, holding his deep green eyes captured with my own. “Not this time. As I recall you said you needed my unbridled trust.”
“Baby, I do need that and the ability to control situations around us, but I don’t want it at the cost of you giving up something personally,” he says.
“How much control do you need?” I ask softly, watching the color of his eyes grow deeper.
“I want to control everything, right down to your orgasms. This is what transcends ordinary relationships. Total commitment, total trust, total power,” he says, pushing the strands of auburn hair behind my shoulders and kissing the sensitive skin of my neck right below my earlobe.
I shiver and push into the warmth of his touch. “Chase, you have my total trust and I’m working on letting go,” I say hesitantly.
“Control is hard for you to relinquish, Baby?” he asks.
“A little … possessive, always there when I need you, I love that. The bedroom, well it’s like every woman’s fantasy. I may even have learned to appreciate patience and anticipation,” I say, trying not to focus on the fingers tracing the curve of my neck.
He raises his eyebrows at that. “Indeed?” he asks, his mouth turning up in a quirk.
“Well, I’m working on it,” I concede, trying to contain the blush that I feel warming my cheeks.
“Tell me what it is that you find difficult to give up in the way of control?” he asks, continuing to trace patterns along my neck.
“Okay.”
“You’re blushing,” he says, his penetrating eyes holding mine.
“The conversations we have still embarrass me a little.”
“Baby, it’s not my intent to make you uncomfortable, but to ensure I can take care of all of your needs, emotionally and sexually,” he says, kissing my lips gingerly.
I nod. “I love that you want to understand my feelings,” I say, trying to decide how best to explain my thoughts. “We may have discussed a few of these things before, but I admittedly may not have been as forthright as I should have been,” I say.
“It’s important for me to understand whatever it is, Katarina. You can tell me anything,”
he says, encouraging me with the stroke of his finger against my cheek.
“It bothers me when you tell me to stop working, especially when I feel like I’m making a difference in patient’s lives. I’m proud of the work I do and at times it can be professionally stifling,” I say.
His eyebrows rise in genuine surprise. “Katarina, I have absolutely no intention of curbing your work, but I do want to control the time you have to spend on it personally. As a continuous improvement professional I’m surprised you’re not more open to alternative ways of getting the same work done, perhaps even more efficiently.”
“Really?” I say, rising to the challenge shining in his eyes.
“Perhaps we can agree on some ground rules related to this particular issue,” he says, rubbing my lower lip with his forefinger.
Just thinking about it makes my core clench and I feel myself begin to moisten. “Rules that I would need to follow?”
“Indeed,” he says.
“And what happens if I don’t follow them?” I ask breathlessly.
“Agreeing to a ground rule and then disobeying would most definitely call for firm punishment,” he says, stroking my bare thigh and lower belly under the cover.
“This may not be a great deterrent,” I say, recalling my pleasure when he’s punished me in the past.
“Oh, Baby. The punishment for play and that for infraction of ground rules have completely distinct intensity levels,” he says as his fingers find and heat the sensitive skin of my mound.
