Dangerous Ride Read online

  Climax? No, not yet, she ordered although masturbating was bringing her close. Lisa’s sounds alternated between pleasure-screams and exhausted whimpers as her forced climax went on and on. Even as she stroked and teased her own clit, Maita envied the noisy woman. At the same time Kade’s insistence on a prolonged sexual explosion unnerved her. Lisa had had enough. She couldn’t take much more.

  Neither could she.

  Under her own relentless assault, Maita’s muscles clenched and unclenched. She felt herself drawing upward and into herself, her body tight and shaking all at once, heat stroking her flesh. In her imagination, she’d been stripped naked and existed in raw woman form. Nothing mattered except sensuality and pleasure.

  Her climaxes had always been inwardly directed, near silent affairs designed to protect her at her most vulnerable. Nothing changed in the dimly lit room as a combination of self-work and Lisa’s bellowing example threw her over the edge. Maita sheltered and tortured her cunt, pushed it until it could take no more—until it brought her lonely pleasure.

  * * * * *

  Maita smelled of sex. But her expression gave away nothing as she walked over to him and Lisa. Because he’d had enough of listening to Lisa beg for mercy, Kade had stopped playing with her and removed the hook by the time Maita joined them. Lisa sagged in her bonds.

  “Was it worth it?” Maita asked and began rubbing Lisa’s shoulders to ease his captive’s discomfort. “Was the pleasure worth the pain?”

  “God, yes.”

  “And you’d do it again?”

  “Not tonight.” Lisa gave a shaky laugh. “But ask me again once I’ve rested.”

  He unlocked the padlocks and separated the sections of stocks so Lisa could free herself. Apparently uninterested in putting an end to her naked state, Lisa sat on the carpet, removed her blindfold, and touched the marks the wood had left on her ankles.

  “Forget my damn boss,” she said. “I’m quitting my job and coming to work for you. You wouldn’t even have to pay me, just bring me in here every few days.”

  “Can you load Brahmas or calculate how much feed to order or hire and fire wranglers?”

  “Shit, no. But I’d keep you happy.” Lisa acknowledged Maita for the first time. “Unless I’m too late and you’re already being satisfied by her.”

  “No,” Kade and Maita said at the same time.

  “I just met him,” Maita explained. “He invited me to watch tonight. I hope you don’t mind.”

  Lisa laughed. “The truth? I was much too self-involved to give a damn what else was going on. So.” Lisa turned her attention back to him. “This is what I have to get used to if I’m going to be allowed to climb to the top of the corporate ladder?”

  “In that corporation and with that particular boss, yes.”

  * * * * *

  “Do you think she’ll do it?” Maita asked once Lisa had dressed and left.

  “What?” Kade asked. “Stay with her job?”

  “Yes. How often does this go on in the corporate world?”

  Although he hadn’t finished putting away his equipment, Kade left what he was doing and joined Maita who’d perched on the edge of the narrow bed that served as one of his props. When he sat down, his weight caused her to lean toward him, unfortunately not close enough so they touched. He tried not to look at her thighs or imagine what her legs under the spotless shorts would feel like.

  “Not much, I hope,” he admitted. “I don’t like the idea of companies acting as fronts for this shit.”

  “But you benefit from the desire for that kind of behavior. I’d think you’d encourage—”

  “What people do in their own worlds isn’t my business.” His tone sounded sharper than he’d intended but damn it, Maita was touching on something he didn’t much like examining and particularly not tonight. “I provide a service. If they want it, fine. If not, fine.”

  She continued studying him. Her hands remained folded loosely in her lap, telling him nothing about what she was thinking, whether she’d judged him or what conclusion she’d come to.

  “It’s more than a service,” she pointed out. “You’re hardly supplying office furniture.”

  He laughed, an open and spontaneous reaction. “True. So?”

  She boldly met his gaze. “Are you asking if I want to experience what Lisa did? I haven’t decided.”

  “Are you afraid of anything?”

  “Not anymore,” she said and leaned back on the bed, supporting her upper body with her elbows. She looked so vulnerable and open, accessible. But much as he ached to touch her, he didn’t.

  “But once?” he prodded.

  Again her attention latched onto him, making him glad for the dim lighting. “You aren’t the only one who doesn’t want to talk about certain things, all right.”

  Although she’d spoken softly, he clearly heard the we’re not going there behind the words. “What about when you’re in a chute sitting on the back of some horse who’d love to bash in your skull?” he demanded. “In the seconds before the gate opens, your heart rate remains normal? You aren’t so much as apprehensive?”

  She stretched out and laced her hands behind her head. Despite her deceptively casual stance, he had no doubt she’d react to any move on his part. Her body language served as a silent message—don’t step over the line.

  “I’d be a damn idiot if I thought I was immune to getting hurt,” she said. “A healthy dose of caution keeps my skull intact. Besides, if a bronc’s hooves find my head, it’s an accident, not deliberate like it is with a bull.”

  “In other words, you stick to horses because they’re prey animals, not predator. They’re ruled by flight, not fight.”

  “And because they smell better than bulls.”

  “It’s a matter of opinion. Having been up close and personal to the ass end of both, I prefer neither.”

  Maita chuckled, the sound sliding over his belly and touching his already erect cock. “Good point. Do you ever compete?” she asked.

  “Used to. Now I’m too old.”

  “No, you’re not. Kade, I pay my entry fees because I get high on pitting myself against something physical and because, so far, I haven’t been hurt bad enough to have a good reason to quit. If I can be honest, so can you.”

  She’d seen past the BS he’d tried to hand her. He’d be wise to remember her ability to cut through to the truth of a person. “I’m a businessman,” he told her. “I’ve been around the rodeo world for years and seen it both make people rich and destroy them. I opted for rich—particularly after I broke my knee.”

  She winced but didn’t offer sympathy probably because in her book people got what they deserved—adults anyway. “You want to tell me what happened?” she asked.

  I’d rather fuck both our brains out. Shaken because he truly wanted to have sex with her, not repeat what he’d done to Lisa, he forced himself to concentrate on providing her with a decent answer. Keeping his tone level, he sketched the innocent summer day of his twenty-second year when the brash, testosterone-laden buck he’d once been had climbed onto the back of a Brahma innocuously named Sammy Q. His head and other parts of his anatomy had been full of memories of the night before spent at a bar and the woman he’d taken back to the trailer he’d hauled to this particular rodeo, the hours spent lost in her body.

  “I didn’t have my mind on business,” he told Maita. “I should have concentrated on my rope work, but I didn’t.”

  “And when you were thrown, your hand got hung up?”

  He stretched out on his side beside her and supported his upper body with his bent arm so he could look down at her. “Yeah. I did the whole rag doll thing. Finally the clowns freed me, but by then I’d hit the fence a few times and been knocked out. To finish the job, Sammy stepped on my knee.”

  She touched the side of his neck. “Which one?”

  “Right.”

  “You can walk all right, can’t you?” Her fingers remained on him.

  “The on
ly time it bothers me is if I put too much strain on it. It gets tired easier than the rest of me.”

  “And it’s not much good for clamping around a bull’s ribs, is it?”

  “Not worth a damn.”

  Despite the throb in his cock, he’d have stayed like he was, letting her feather her fingers over his flesh for as long as she wanted. But that was before she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down onto her. Her mouth found his, soft and full, her lips slightly parted.

  Something stirred inside him, something separate from his so-ready cock. He didn’t want to examine the new reaction. Hell, he had no interest in acknowledging it.

  Concentrating on familiar territory, he bracketed his body over hers and held her head in place to deepen their kiss. She gave his tongue entrance, arching toward him despite the weight of his body. They remained unmoving except for their mouths, the contact shaking him. He understood laying claim to a woman and the hard, familiar ache of relentless need. Having the woman free to give and give and give… How long had it been since he’d experienced this?

  “How do you do it?” she whispered. “Unless you finish by fucking your clients, how do you handle your reactions?” She lifted her hips off the bed and ground her thighs against his cock for emphasis. “You’re turned on. You can’t just jerk off time and time again.”

  He didn’t often. With rodeo groupies free for the asking, frustration seldom lasted long. He told her that, then tried to gage her reaction. “I limit my clients,” he heard himself say. “By controlling the sessions, I control me.”

  “From what?”

  I don’t know! “Do you want to fuck or not?” he snapped. “It’s been a long day.”

  “Yeah.” She made a small sound, maybe a sigh. “I want to fuck.”

  He’d wanted to bed her since the day they met, but her strangely unenthusiastic response bothered him. If he didn’t have his starving libido to deal with, he’d make her explain what she was thinking about. However…

  Lessons learned from countless experiences kicked in. He began by rolling off her and positioning himself on his knees next to her. She started to reach for him, but although he wanted—needed—her touch, he took hold of her wrists and positioned her arms above her head.

  “The whole submissive thing,” she whispered. “Is sex with you always like that?”

  Half angry, he squeezed her breasts through blouse and bra. “What the hell do you care about always? This is now.”

  Her shrug galled him almost as much as her small, knowing smile did. Determined to wipe it off her mouth, he deftly unbuttoned her blouse and pulled it away from the lush body underneath. He’d seen countless breasts and midsections and had long ago stopped trying to keep them separate in his mind. This body, however, would remain with him.

  Rolling her away from him, he drew an arm out of one sleeve, unfastened her bra, and then placed her on her belly. He had to pull her other arm behind her to finish the undressing and nearly apologized for causing her discomfort. Instead, he once again placed her arms over her head and started walking his fingers over her shoulder blades and spine. The snug shorts waistband stopped his exploration. He leaned low over her and used his tongue to bathe the base of her spine.

  “Oh god,” she whimpered. “It feels so good.”

  Yes, he admitted. It did.

  By turn he lapped at the wonderfully soft flesh and pressed his thumbs into the tiny hollow. In his mind, he reached through flesh, bone, and muscle to her cunt. She twitched under him and breathed as if preparing for a race. Her skin felt flawless. She’d been made for beds and sex, not risking her life on the back of some damn powerful animal.

  Most times he had little knowledge of and even less interest in what his women did with the rest of their lives. Knowing as much about Maita as he did complicated things. Confused by his reaction to the complexity, he allowed his fingers and now the heel of his hand to transmit his emotions via ever-greater pressure. Her twitching increased. She now sounded as if the race had begun.

  “Kade!” She braced her arms under herself and pushed away. “You’re hurting—”

  “You don’t know the meaning of the word!” Acting on instinct and self-training, he dropped on top of her and pinned her to the firm mattress. “You’re turned on. Hell, we both are.”

  Although surely she knew how useless it was, she continued to struggle. “You revved me up, you bastard! Now either treat me like an equal or get the hell off me!”

  Not tonight. Not before we’ve burned each other out.

  She tried to kick him. “Why the hell do you have to be so damn strong?”

  Determined not to go there, he switched tactics. Taking his time and studying her reaction, he lifted himself off her but kept a hand on the middle of her back. “Stay there,” he ordered. After patting her on the ass, he slipped off the bed and undressed. Because he’d left her with her head turned away from him, she couldn’t see what he was doing, but she must have heard the zipper.

  Back with her, he rolled her onto her back. Her eyes widened and ran slowly over him, touching him with heat and shared desire. Licking her lips, she repositioned her arms over her head. “Take me,” she quipped. “I’m yours.”

  “For tonight.”

  “Yes, for tonight.”

  He wanted to draw out the process, but the moment he took hold of the button on her shorts, he knew only one speed. Almost before he’d finished unzipping her, he yanked the sturdy white fabric down over her hips. She helped as best she could by lifting her lower body and separating her legs. His nails lightly raked her flanks in his haste to rid her of her nearly nothing underpants.

  Maita, naked. On his bed. In the house he’d built for the lessons of domination. He couldn’t stop staring at her, both grateful for the lighting that kept his own features in shadow and wanting to see her in full daylight.

  He’d keep her here until morning, then take her outside and have her stand with the sun beating down and kissing her with heat, the image burying itself deep in him. He needed to watch her reaction to a breeze on her naked skin, to study the nuances of movement as she turned for him, as she reached deep into his mind and heart and soul and learned what he wanted of her.

  But if the sunlight bathed her, it would do the same to him, and he needed darkness. He wanted no more of her probing eyes searching his for the truth of him.

  Angry at both of them, he slid her around until she was in the middle of the bed, then again flipped her unceremoniously onto her belly. As she’d done before, she tried to look at him, but this time when he pressed her flat against the mattress, she stayed where she was. She gripped the sheet.

  Her fingers became his barometer. His aching cock and heated belly told him more than he needed to know about his own readiness for sex.

  In his fantasies, he licked women to climax, but the actual act was too intimate. Better to allow an object to become his tongue, emotionally safer. Drawing once more on experience, he separated her legs. He went unerringly to her pussy, collected some of her juice and lubricated her from mons to asshole. Her knuckles whitened. If her nails had been longer, she might have ripped the fabric. She again lifted her buttocks toward him, which pressed her head against the bed and stopped his concerns about her being able to watch him.

  “You don’t… You go right for the kill, don’t you?”

  “Why not?” He slapped her cheeks. “It works.”

  When she didn’t respond to the light slap, he spread her buttocks which increased his access to her pussy. Much as he’d like to see her reaction to a butt plug, he couldn’t bring himself to leave her long enough to select one. Besides, he wanted to feel her—he.

  With his forefinger poised at the entrance to her rectum, he changed his mind although in truth he didn’t remember making a conscious decision. Rather, he went with instinct, dipping into her pussy, feeling her wet heat, her cunt muscles clenching his finger and trying to suck it deeper.

  She moaned, the sound m
uffled. She presented him with more of her sex by spreading her legs further and bending her knees slightly. Another time, he’d splay her—or ask her to splay herself—so he could study everything. Tonight, however, he needed to lose himself in her sex.

  Not yet ready for the act of surrender and, yes, trust, he worked his middle finger in next to the first and simply experienced as her muscles pressed his digits together. Soft, warm, wet, her delicate flesh nevertheless might swallow him.

  Could his cock become lost in her? Despite his expertise with ropes and chains, was it possible—could she brand him with what was woman about her?

  “Damn, damn, damn,” she hissed. The last damn echoed.

  He didn’t dare fuck her after all, at least not with his cock. Safety—and he knew a great deal about the word—lay in dictating her responses, not the other way around. How could he have forgotten that!

  Forget intimacy. He’d wear her down and force her to spend herself. Then when she was all but unconscious from his practiced handling, he’d tell her she could leave because he had no more need of her. He’d show—

  “Kade, Kade?”

  “What?”

  “I want…I want this to be for you, too.”

  Chapter Five

  Although Kade’s fingers remained buried in her, he’d stopped moving them. In the energized silence, Maita sensed his disquiet. Instead of asking for an explanation, she held herself in readiness.

  “For me?” he repeated.

  “Yes.” She clenched and relaxed her cunt muscles to demonstrate what she had in mind. “I’ve seen you at work, remember. The way you handled Lisa—it was rough but what she wanted. Everything you did was for your client, but I’m not one of them.”

  “No. You aren’t.”

  He sounded unsure of himself, perhaps because he was trying to find her place in his life. That made two of them. “I want sex,” she admitted. Hell, I’m already being fucked. “But you deserve the same.”