Hostile Takeover by Hill, W (best novels to read for students .TXT) 📕

and Dana had said about Ben taking a woman’s soul, never her heart, because that meant he had to give her his.

If she read all the signals right, it would be a mutual exchange tonight. Ever since the day on the dock, he’d been cautiously handing her pieces of his heart, of who he was, and she cherished all of it. Holding the white-chocolate strawberry now, she remembered helping him prepare for that dinner with the others. As always, he’d gone through her grocery selections with meticulous care, but he’d taught her well. Everything was fresh. While he cut a cucumber, she’d asked him, “What made you want to learn to cook like this?”

Instead of a casual answer, like “I like food”, he’d paused, knife in one hand, eyes on the vegetable he was slicing. “I know what it’s like to be so hungry you’ll eat garbage, Marcie. I know why Scarlett O’Hara felt the way she did.”

Quiet, matter-of-fact. Honest. It was all he’d said, but she was fine with that. She didn’t mind learning about his life in small pieces, if that was easier for him, and it gave her something new to discover every day. She’d slipped her arms around him, put her cheek to his back, just like she’d done on the balcony that night. Putting his hand over hers, he clasped them against his sternum, then he’d turned and fed her the cucumber piece, pleased when she said she liked the marinade he’d brushed over it.

The car stopped, bringing her back to the present. When the door opened, she sensed she was being studied. She lifted her chin, straightened her back.

“Take off the robe. Leave the slippers on for now. Come to me.”

Ben’s voice. It was like feeling rain on her face after the heat of a drought. She smiled at him, she couldn’t help it. Slipping the tie carefully, so she didn’t transfer the stickiness of her fingers to it, she shrugged the silk off her shoulders, let it pool on her hips. As she moved across the seat toward his voice, he touched her arm. Since she wasn’t allowed to speak, she couldn’t warn him about the chocolate. But he’d already seen it. He took her wrist, not her hand, and when he helped her out of the vehicle, he brought her fingers to his mouth.

It was incredibly intense, feeling that stimulation after a full day of waiting, imagining. The sight deprivation made it even more excruciating. She made a yearning noise as the wet heat of his mouth closed over each of the affected digits, his tongue swirling her clean.

“Did you taste any?”

“No, Master.” She was standing naked before him, with no idea where she was, except she was outside, not in a parking deck. In the distance, she could hear cars, so they weren’t in a secluded environment. The echo suggested they were surrounded by buildings…perhaps a side street. But it didn’t matter. With the blindfold on, she was entirely at his mercy, and her mind settled into that mode, completely his. His.

“Lift your chin. This is temporary.”

He buckled the slim collar on her, and she felt the tug of a tether snapped to it. “Follow my lead.”

“Always, Master.”

There was a pause at that, then the pressure increased. She stepped forward. It wasn’t easy to walk normally when she couldn’t see him, but she did her best, felt his hand brush her hip, guide and steady her to walk up two flights of steps. Then they were inside. The echo of the door closing suggested a large, open room. Maybe a loft? It had that old brick smell. Probably his place in the Warehouse District. She’d never been to that one.

“Take off the slippers. Kneel, submissive posture.”

Folding her legs beneath her, she put her hands behind her back, kept her spine straight. Opened her knees. He let the leash drop so it dangled loosely between her breasts, down into that spread area.

“I’m putting your mind in the right place for becoming my property, now and forever. I’m going to immobilize you in a latex vacuum bed. It’s like a cocoon, and has some nice modifications, thanks to Jon. I will decide when you’ve been in it long enough. I will not speak to you, but I will be here, watching you, checking your breathing. You will never be alone. You understand?”

She nodded. “Y-yes, Master.”

“A stammer. Miracles can happen.” His voice was amused, but it was also tender. She sensed him moving around her, wanted desperately for him to touch her, but she waited, holding the posture. “Are you scared, brat?”

“Yes, Master. A little.”

“Good. That’s the way I want you. Ass in the air, forehead to the ground.”

She used her stomach muscles to control her descent. His hands brushed her stomach and shoulder, making sure she got there safely. Then he put his hands on her buttocks, probed between them. Lube trickled into her rectum, and she moaned as his finger pushed in, stretching her. Her pussy wept, but he didn’t touch it. “You’ve been hot and wet a lot today, haven’t you?”

“Yes, Master.”

“Push out toward me. This is going to be thick, but you’ll like the lubricant.”

She complied, pressing her cheek into the floor as he worked the thick phallus into her ass. She moved her hips in eager response, wishing it was his cock, hoping she’d get that sometime tonight. When it was all the way in, and she felt split in two, he held onto it, rocked it as she shuddered and her pussy trickled a free flow of arousal down her thighs once more. He made a tsking noise.

“Sit up, slowly, reach in front of you. The vacuum bed is there. Lie down on it.”

He helped, lifting her off her feet and positioning her on the frame, covered with thin fabric. He made sure the plug stayed in until she had her hips against the solid surface, which drove it deeper. Then he pulled a second layer of fabric