Perception (Club Destiny #6)(35)
Author: Nicole Edwards

She may never truly submit, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to fall for him.

“I want to touch you,” Xander mumbled against her ear.

He was touching her, wasn’t he? She didn’t speak the words out loud though.

“Come here.”

As he stood up straight again, her hands fell from around his neck. She let her arms hang down at her sides while she glimpsed the woman in the mirror one last time. She couldn’t help but wonder whether she would recognize the woman by the end of the weekend. She was sure if Xander had anything to say about it, she would.

Mercedes took Xander’s hand when he held his out to her. Following behind him, she allowed him to lead her to his bed. Seriously? Was he going to get down to business so quickly? That wasn’t like him at all.

“Sit,” he said, motioning toward an oversized cedar chest that sat at the foot of the bed.

Not meeting his gaze, Mercedes sat as instructed, her knees tightly clamped together in front of her while she kept her arms in close to her body, suddenly feeling incredibly modest.

She watched as Xander moved across the room. When he grabbed a chair and returned to set it in front of her, she wondered what he was going to do. Surely if he wanted to have a conversation, he could afford her a measure of dignity and allow her to get dressed.

“Spread your legs,” he insisted.

Ok, so apparently her dignity just took a dive out the window. It was a twenty story drop. There was no way it would be in tact when she finally got around to needing it again.

Mercedes’s nerves were suddenly at war inside of her.

Swallowing hard, she stared back at Xander. She could do this. She knew she could. She would just need to pretend that this was a lesson, a demonstration of sorts, one that she could use when she was the one in control again. It wasn’t like she didn’t have an idea what he was going to do. She’d done the same to her subs multiple times.

Squaring her shoulders and straightening her spine, she spread her legs, keeping her attention focused on Xander’s handsome face.

“Very pretty,” he remarked, his eyes sliding down her body and then stalling between her now spread thighs.

She fought the urge to snap her knees closed.

You can do this, she reminded herself.

Xander inched the chair closer to her, closing the gap between them.

“Put your feet on my knees.”

Ok, so that was going to be an awkward position. Not wanting him to see the mortification that was probably clearly written on her face, she avoided his eyes by looking directly at his chest as she did as she was told.

With her feet resting on his spread knees, she had to lean back on her hands to hold her upper body up, while her pussy was on full display for him, and he was taking every opportunity to glance between her legs.

She was not going to survive this.

“I’m going to shave you later,” he informed her, one finger gently grazing the dark curls at the apex of her thighs.

Her first instinct was to argue. It wasn’t that she was against the idea because she was usually bare down there, but recently, she’d decided to do something different. Translated to: she’d gotten lazy and rushing out to the spa to get waxed hadn’t been high on her priority list. She preferred to be bare, so in some sense, she was still in control. Not that she would tell him as much.

Remembering that he’d be making her decisions for the next five days per their agreement, she didn’t say a word.

“I want us to lay out the rules, Mercedes,” Xander said, surprising her with the topic.

Here she was, splayed wide for him, and he really wanted to have a civil conversation? She was going to lose it, she knew it.

Sucking in a deep breath, she tilted her chin up, ignoring the fact that he’d put her in an incredibly vulnerable position. “What are the rules?”

If she weren’t mistaken, Xander’s lips tilted slightly into one of those sexy smirks of his.

He was pressing his luck.

“For four nights, you will sleep in my bed.”

“But –”

“No buts,” he argued. “Once I’m finished, you can tell me your thoughts and we’ll discuss.”

God, he sounded like such a fucking Dom.

“Fine,” she retorted sarcastically.

Xander’s hand lifted, and before she could react, he smacked her splayed pussy, sending a zing of heated pleasure racing through her. She moaned.

Oh, God. She actually moaned.

Heat suffused her face, but this time it was embarrassment that lay claim to her body. The body that betrayed her with such an enthusiastic reaction to his intimate touch.

“Keep up with the smart ass comments, and I’ll bend you over my knee.”