Page 31 of The Red (The Godwicks 1)

Thenitdid.

Malcolm panted. He released her breast and wrapped that arm around her back again, pulling her roughlyagainsthim.

"What you feel for me is what I want you to feel tonight,” he said. "But you might hate meafter.”

"I could neverhateyou.”

"Don’t say things like that,” he warned. "Men like me take statements such as that as achallenge.”

"Will you beat me very brutallytonight?”

"Iwill.”

"Will Ilikeit?”

"If you letyourself.”

"I’ll try,” she said, scared but willing. Anything for Malcolm. Especially tonight. She’d never met a man who conformed so closely to her ideal. She felt the smooth leather of his riding boot against her bare calf. She rubbed her leg against it like a cat rubbing its cheek against a chair leg it wanted to mark. She ran her hands down the velvet of his broad back, cupped his firm backside and held it while he kissed her. Of their own accord her hips pushed into his again and again. Her sex was already open for him, wet and slick, hollowed out and waiting. If he put his cock into her right now, she’d come before he’d even bottomed out inside her on the firststroke.

But he didn’ttakeher.

"Listen to me, Mona.” He put his hands on her neck, lightly cupping it, his thumbs pressing into the hollow of her throat to force her to pay attention to his words. She dropped her hands to her sides and met his dark flinty eyes again. "You’ll be mine tonight in a way you’ve never been mine before. It’s one thing to allow a man to pleasure you. It’s quite another to allow him to hurt you. You’ll know real powerlessness tonight, real fear, true pain. And I will drink itlikewine.”

"You likemypain?”

"I love your submission to pain. It’s human nature to race toward pleasure and flee from pain. That you would fight your own nature to please me by suffering my crop arouses me more than anything you’ve done for mebefore.”

"I want to please you.” She placed her hands on his trim waist, feeling the heavy brocade cloth of his vest and the heat of his body under her hands. "After all, that’s what you’re payingmefor.”

"Oh…you will be beaten for that.” He eyes narrowed and she saw hemeantit.

"Good,” she said. "If I’m going to be beaten, I want to haveearnedit.”

"You earned it when you crossed the threshold. You earned it when you sold your body to me.” He stepped back from her, putting breathing room between them. She already felt cool without the heat of his body against hers. "Show me my property. Show me what I got for mymoney.”

Mona slipped the other strap of her gown off her shoulder and lowered the bodice. She gathered the fabric in her hands at her waist and pushed it all the way to her ankles. Naked but for the red high heeled shoes she wore, she stepped out of the dress and onto thefloor.

"A blank canvas,” Malcolm said as he walked a circuit around her naked body. "I’ll enjoy painting you redandblue.”

She quaked in her shoes with fear and arousal. She’d never been with a man as beautiful as Malcolm and she would have walked barefoot across a pit of red coals to please him tonight…but he was right. Reason called to her, telling her to run fromthepain.

She ignored its voice. It sounded too much like her own. She’d far rather listen toMalcolm’s.

"Put your arms behind your head,” he said. "Clasp your fingers and keep your elbows open. Like a butterfly’swings.”

She did as she was told. The move made her arch her back, thrust her breasts forward. Malcolm stood before her,inspectingher.

"Legs wider,” he said. He touched the floor with the tip of the riding crop in two places—here and there, showing her where to place her feet. She moved her feet wider apart, a foot and a half, and stood quivering inplace.

"Very nice.” Malcolm raised the crop and tapped her left nipple with it. Then her right. He caressed the underside of each breast with the triangle of leather on the crop’s end. He ran the shaft of the crop down the sides of her body from each elbow to each ankle and back up again. It tickled and made her shiver. She would have given anything to feel Malcolm’s body against her right now. She craved it and with every passing second she craved it more. No doubt this was theintention.

He stepped close again. It was torture to be so close without touching. He brought the crop up between them and pressed the flat side of the tip to his lips. Then he pressed the opposite side toherlips.

"Think of it as a kiss,” he said when the leather lay against her mouth. "That’s all it is. Just a kiss from metoyou.”

"Most kisses don’t leave welts,” she said. "I prefer Frenchkissing.”

"Well, I’m English. This is Englishkissing.”

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