His to Take (Wicked Lovers #9)(48)
Author: Shayla Black

“But . . .” Thorpe prodded.

“I misread Bailey’s signals.” He shook his head, that crappy shame sludge slogging through his veins. “I was angry and I spanked her.”

The club owner rose to his feet, his brows drawn down in a glower. “You punished her while you didn’t have control of yourself and your temper?”

That voice more than suggested his answer better be no.

“I had control of myself,” Joaquin insisted. “I was pissed off, but I wasn’t a raving lunatic. The second she said no, I stopped.”

Sean sent Thorpe a stare, and the man sat again. “You didn’t have a safe word in place?”

Joaquin didn’t know exactly what that meant, but he could guess in context that it would be some word Bailey could say that would stop what he’d been doing. “I wasn’t aware that I should have one. None of this was exactly planned.”

“Next time, agree on a safe word, something she can easily say but normally wouldn’t during play or sex. If nothing else, go with a traffic light. Red for stop, green for—”

“There won’t be any ‘go’ between us. I’m pretty sure I shit in that mess kit.” He sighed. The thought of scaring her bugged him every bit as much as the idea of never touching her again.

“Why would you say that?” Sean asked. “You should never hit a sub in anger, that’s true, but I’m sure if you talked—”

“I . . .” Joaquin shrugged. “I don’t have any experience with this stuff. I thought she might be submissive, but when she pleaded with me to stop, I realized she must not be. While I was really digging it, she obviously didn’t feel the same.”

The guys exchanged a look before Thorpe frowned at him. “Not submissive?”

“She begged me to let her go like I was . . . torturing her. What else was I supposed to think?”

“She’s submissive,” Sean supplied.

“Absolutely.” Thorpe nodded.

Great. So it was him Bailey objected to. Well, they had met because he’d drugged and abducted her. Gee, wonder why she doesn’t want you to beat her ass, too?

“Well, either way, if she wants to submit to someone, it won’t be me.” He stood and rubbed his palms down his jeans. “I’ll talk to her this morning, promise not to touch her again, and get her to consent to remain here for her own safety until we can sort out these killers from LOSS.”

“What exactly did she say when you spanked her?” Thorpe wanted to dissect the situation. Why the hell wouldn’t he just leave it be? He’d explained and apologized. Revisiting this humiliation wasn’t exactly at the top of his bucket list.

“She said, ‘No. Stop. You can’t do this.’ The usual kind of stuff that means ‘get your fucking hands off me.’ I’m sorry. I got lost in my own head. Seeing the red my hand had left on her ass did something to me. I—”

“Felt somewhere between a hundred feet tall and invincible?” Sean supplied with a grin.

Joaquin hadn’t expected either of them to just get it. “Yeah.”

“Dom space,” they said together.

“You were into that place in your head where the act of topping your sub made you feel powerful and needed and like you had found not just a niche, but something you require. Does that sound about right?” Thorpe crossed his arms over his chest.

“Exactly.” Joaquin couldn’t believe it. The guy had pretty much reached into his mind and read it word for word.

“You definitely roll dominant.”

That didn’t do him a lot of good if Bailey wasn’t willing to submit to him. And he really couldn’t blame her.

Sean leaned forward in his seat, elbows on knees, and spoke softly. “She needs time, man. You didn’t meet under the best of circumstances. She’s in danger. She doesn’t know you. But there’s no way she isn’t interested in what you could give her.”

Thorpe nodded. “Bailey may not realize yet that she’s submissive. Your biggest issue, though, is trust. It may take a bit more time for you to get inside her walls so that she can let go with you. There’s a good chance the spanking shocked more than repelled her. Did you see if she was wet?”

“I wasn’t going to shove my fingers up her cunt when she was already crying at me to leave her alone,” Joaquin pointed out. He wished they’d stop with the third degree already.

“I understand,” Sean assured. “Consider that maybe her logic was telling her that she shouldn’t like ‘abuse’ from her captor. In the right circumstances, with enough trust between you, I can almost guarantee that girl likes a spanking.”