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  The night he’d left and asked her to stay away, he’d given her a taste of who he was and then taken her over but denied himself orgasm. She’d asked for something he hadn’t been willing to give. Now all bets were off, and it was as if the leash on his inner beast had snapped.

  “Wide, Ruthie. Open them wider, baby.”

  She complied immediately. Tobias nearly groaned but tossed back the scotch, trying to center himself in the woodsy liquor burning a path to his gut. It didn’t help. He shrugged. So be it.

  “Wider,” he demanded. She did as he ordered. “Now unsnap and unzip those jeans.”

  Her head turned to him and her mouth fell open.

  “You wanted all of me,” he reminded her. “And right now, all of me demands you do what I tell you.”

  Her hands shook as she lowered her wineglass and moved to do as he’d requested.

  Once she’d unzipped them, Tobias leaned to whisper in her ear. “Are you wearing panties?”

  She shook her head.

  “I don’t ever want you to wear panties, Ruthie. Ever. Are we clear?”

  She nodded.

  “Answer me out loud unless I tell you otherwise,” he commanded.

  He witnessed the urge to snap back at him cross her face before it smoothed out and her natural submission won. She would kill him with her acquiescence. Slay him with lust.

  “No panties,” she said breathlessly. “Got it.”

  “Push your pants down to your knees,” he ordered.

  She gasped and stuttered. He grabbed her chin and turned her to face him. His grip was firm but gentle. How he wanted to sink into her, claim all of her sweetness as his own. So goddamn beautiful.

  “The first thing you must do if you’re going to be mine is trust that I know all the ways to take care of you. Can you trust me, Ruthie?” It was a question he didn’t know if she could answer.

  “I don’t know. I won’t know until I try,” she responded guilelessly.

  His Ruthie might be a natural submissive, but she was smart. He’d hurt her badly and had no right to ask for anything from her except a chance. Perhaps this was her way of granting that chance without him having to ask. Always she tried to take care of him.

  He stroked along her jaw and released her, sitting back as he waited for her to comply with his request.

  They were hidden near the rear of the restaurant. The kitchen was on the other side of the room, and they were partitioned from the other diners by a latticed wall. Her respirations picked up as she tried to surreptitiously hide her actions.

  She wiggled, and the sound of her bare ass as it slid across the leather had him grinding his back teeth. “There,” she said with a touch of venom.

  She was uncomfortable, and that’s what this was about. Ferreting out whether she was truly willing to take this step with him. It would be a giant leap for her, but the urge riding Tobias wasn’t going to allow him to take baby steps with her.

  “There’s a very large cloth covering the table, Ruthie. It hangs well over the edge, hiding you from sight.” She sighed and relaxed. He hardened his heart to her discomfort. “From now on when I ask you to do something I don’t want your attitude, I want your compliance. I won’t always explain things to you because your submission is my right. It is also my honor, so I need you to trust that I won’t put you in a situation that will embarrass you or cause you anything but the ultimate pleasure.”

  She nodded and bit her lip.

  “Spread your legs as wide as you can,” he said softly.

  She moved, and her breathing roughened even more.

  “Tell me what the seat feels like against your pussy,” he commanded in an even, conversational tone. “I want the words. You’re an artist, so I expect lush details.”

  For a surreal moment, Tobias could not believe he was actually giving orders to the woman he loved. How many nights had he lain awake wanting this very scenario? How many days had he walked around only half a man because she’d taken the most vital pieces of him when she left?

  She inhaled sharply, wiggled once more, and a strangled groan sounded before she cut it off. “Tobias, please…”

  “Details, Ruthie,” he said harshly, patience eroding quickly under the heavy weight of his desire. “Now.”

  The waiter was headed their way to fill their water glasses. With a flick of his wrist he sent the man scurrying away. He gave it fifteen minutes before their food arrived. He could make her come in five. Probably less, as tightly wound as she was.

  The trick would be not coming in his pants as she exploded around his fingers.

  “The seat is warm and soft against my bottom. It’s getting slick, though, easier for me to wiggle.”

  He could barely hear her, she spoke so softly. Time to give her incentive. “Do you like my hands on you, Ruthie?”

  He used her name repeatedly; one, because he liked the way it tasted in his mouth and, two, he wanted to ground her—give her a lifeline in the middle of the lust he was about to stir up.

  “So much, Tobias,” she answered softly.

  “That’s good, baby. I like my hands on you,” he assured her as he shifted to face her, putting his left arm on the top of the booth behind her head and resting his right hand on her thigh. “I’m going to touch you, Ruthie, and I want to hear how it makes you feel. Remember, I like details.”

  She nodded.

  He wasted no time, stroking over her clit with a whisper-soft touch before he dipped a single digit through her folds and teased her opening.

  Her head fell back, throat working convulsively, a delicious red stain spreading across her cheeks as she breathed out heavily. “It’s been three years…”

  She spread her legs even farther, and Tobias’s eyes nearly crossed. “Three years since?”

  “Since I’ve felt another touch besides my own,” she said on a sigh. “Since I’ve felt you.”

  She’d had no one else—how goddamn lucky was he that she hadn’t turned to another to ease her? He penetrated her with his finger and coughed to cover her loud moan.

  “More,” she demanded.

  He added a second finger, withdrawing and rubbing up her clit before he delivered a single, firm tap to her pussy. She hissed.

  “I want details, not demands,” he bit out.

  She wiggled, tried to squeeze her thighs together, but he growled and she went completely still.

  “I’ll give you one more opportunity before I remove my fingers and leave you needing,” he threatened.

  Her head turned, and those crystal-clear gray-blue eyes, the color of ice, widened. Her pupils were blown, so open to the pleasure she was feeling that the gray-blue was now a tiny ring around them. “Hot—your fingers are hot and now they’re wet. I can feel the strength of you in your touch, gentle at first, then forceful. There’s intent in your movements.”

  He stroked through her folds once more, pressing both fingers against her entrance and waiting.

  “Your scent is overwhelming. Like heated cedar, and your warmth is pressing on me as surely as your fingers hover at my pussy. I feel like I’m about to fly.”

  He entered her, giving her the full length of his two fingers as he settled his palm over her clit. Her walls contracted, and her mouth opened, but no words came out.

  He stayed there, inside her body, feeling her pussy contract and release, desperate for what he would give her. She was doing so well, his Ruthie. He scissored his fingers and her breath hitched. It was the most beautiful sound in the world to Tobias. He stilled again, waiting.

  Her head rose and she rolled her hips, her eyes closing as if the heaviness of her passion was too much to bear. “I’m close, Tobias. You’ve touched me twice now, your fingers promising ecstasy. Twice and I’m ready to come all over your hand.”

  “Is that what you want?” he asked in her ear, still aware of everything going on around him but so tuned in to her need he wanted to roar.

  “God, yes, Tobias. Make me come.”

 
He gave her what she needed—her honesty so refreshing, so perfect, he could do nothing else. In and out twice more and she exploded, body going tight, breath ceasing as her body bowed slightly.

  “Tell me what it looks like, Ruthie,” he demanded, stroking her through the aftershocks.

  “So many colors, Tobias. That’s what you give me…color,” she whispered brokenly.

  He heard the food cart being wheeled their way and removed his fingers, patting her lightly in praise. He licked his fingers, needing her flavor to ground him.

  “You taste amazing, Ruthie,” he said in a low voice as the waiter pulled their food cart up.

  Her hand dug into his thigh, the nails prickling through his suit pants. He smiled, and the waiter smiled back but kept his gaze off Ruthie. Discretion? Probably. He’d never tell Ruthie, but her moans had sounded above the barrier, he was sure.

  Remembering had him shifting in his seat. He was going to take her to his apartment tonight and make love to her over and over, purge some of this lust before he showed her what being his submissive entailed.

  He wouldn’t be able to stay out of her body if he didn’t take the edge off first. And he’d let her moan, groan, and scream as much as she wanted to there.

  “Anything else, sir?” the waiter asked.

  “We’re good,” Tobias assured him, and watched as he hastened off. He glanced at Ruthie, noticing her relaxed expression and the secret smile playing on her lips.

  He’d done that for her. Yeah, he wanted to pound his chest.

  “Zip up and eat, baby,” he urged.

  “Then what?” she inquired as she zipped and snapped her jeans.

  “Then I take you home and fuck you.”

  Her lips curved and he laughed. Greedy little thing, he mused. She dug into her food, savoring every bite and downing three glasses of the best vintage Ruth’s Chris had in the cellar.

  “Dessert?” he asked.

  She turned to him and his heart began to thump harder. Ruthie snuggled against him, running her hand down his chest, delicately teasing his nipples before she lowered that hand and stroked over his cock.

  He took her hand and placed it on the table firmly. “No.”

  “But why—”

  “Because I said no. And what I say is what goes,” he declared. He wanted to laugh at the look of outrage on her face. It would be a test to win her submission. She didn’t really even understand the dynamic yet. He’d get to that tonight, but there was no time like the present to introduce her to how he wanted things done.

  “If you want something, Ruthie, to touch me, hold me, fuck me, you ask. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t anticipate your every need and desire. If I ever fall short, though, you ask, understand?”

  “Let me touch you, Tobias,” she entreated.

  He tapped her lips. “That was a demand, and unfortunately for you, I don’t respond to demands. Ask me, Ruthie. And tack a Sir on at the end.”

  “So I just go around calling you Sir all the time? How crazy is that?” she scoffed.

  “Not all the time, but when we’re involved in anything sexual, that’s what I’m demanding. If you can’t meet the demand, let me know.” He held his breath. Make-or-break time.

  “You want a slave?”

  The waiter returned; he had surely heard her question but ignored it. Ruthie hid her face in her hands, lowering them only once he’d cleared the table, when she turned once more to face Tobias.

  Her brows were lowered and she was biting her damn lip again.

  He rubbed his chest, the ache in his heart piercing. “I want you submitting to me in all ways when we play. I’m a Dominant in every sense of the word, Ruthie. I demand a lot of myself, controlling my own actions even as I control my submissive’s reactions. There is no greater high, with the exception of being between your thighs, than controlling another’s ecstasy. I find myself in the fall of a flogger on a smooth back. Parts of me find peace when I hear a submissive’s breath break as pain becomes pleasure.” He took a deep breath as the waiter returned with another scotch and a dessert menu. The man left at Tobias’s dismissive wave. “Part of that need for control is soothed through deciding everything for you inside the bedroom or a play scene. When a woman hands me her trust, I find joy in bringing her to release my way. But I don’t want any other woman, and I don’t want you submitting to me twenty-four-seven, Ruthie. I want you, and I want the roles clearly defined—I want your total submission in the sexual arena. I also want you available to me whenever I want, however I want.”

  She released her lip, and Tobias couldn’t stop himself as he leaned down and laved her mouth with his tongue.

  Ruthie pulled away and cocked her head. “You want me to give you everything.”

  “Yes.”

  “You don’t deserve it. You haven’t earned it, and there are wounds that must begin to heal, Tobias, before you’ll have all of me.”

  He sighed. “I hear a but in there.”

  She laughed lightly. “Oh, trust me, there’s a whole lotta buts in there, Tobias Edwards.” She took a big sip of her wine, draining the glass and setting it lightly on the table. “What about outside of the sexual arena?”

  “I want your heart.”

  Her mouth fell open. He’d shocked her, but no more than he’d done himself. Just earlier today he’d been demanding she leave. In the space of eight hours he’d completely given up on that, deciding he’d have her, come hell or high water. That single teardrop of rain falling from a gray sky before sliding down the conference room window had reminded him how bleak his existence was without her. He had no future without Ruthie, and he’d be damned if he’d ever make her cry in sadness again.

  Ruthie pondered his words, and it was like a movie playing over her gorgeous features. Her heart-shaped face, the lines smooth and unblemished, settled him. He could stare at her for hours. Had done so before he forced her to leave.

  She was the one sighing then, and it was in resignation. “One of the buts we mentioned,” she murmured. “Here’s where I say, ‘But you already have that.’ ”

  “I want to earn it, Ruthie. I want to show you all of me, let you clean all the bad spaces in my heart and fill it with you, so we both know that I cannot breathe without you in my life.”

  “I need to know what you’ll demand of me. Three years ago, Candace told me the basics of BDSM play and the D/s dynamic. I’ll want to hear it from you this time.”

  “You’ll have it. I won’t let you enter into anything without being fully informed. I won’t hurt you, Ruthie, not again.” Tobias squeezed her hand, and she twined her fingers with his.

  “Trust will come, but this is such a sudden turnaround, Tobias. You’ll have to give me some time to do what you’ve asked.”

  He ran his knuckles down her cheek. “What’s that?”

  “Trust you,” she answered simply.

  “Fair enough. Do you want dessert?” he inquired politely, aware the waiter was waiting for his signal.

  “No, what I want is to be fucked by the man I’ve craved the last three years. That orgasm was a prelude and did nothing but make me ache even more.”

  Tobias threw his napkin down, grabbed her hand, and pulled her out of the booth. The waiter hustled over immediately.

  Tobias glanced at him. “We don’t want dessert. My lady has something else in mind,” he told the man. “I’ve got a tab here under Copeland Shipping. Put dinner on that.”

  The waiter bowed. “Yes, sir, Mr. Edwards.”

  Ruthie snickered as Tobias hurriedly pulled her out the door. “He said Sir,” she said.

  “See? It’s easy. If he can, surely you can too,” Tobias responded at her lips. He waited for the valet to bring his Audi around. “You have no idea what I’m about to do to you, Ruthie.”

  “As long as fucking me is included on the list, I’m all good.”

  The valet pulled up, and Tobias handed Ruthie into the car. He stood outside the door after he closed it and stared
at her. She was so close. He’d brought her pleasure, tasted it on his fingers afterward, and still he almost couldn’t believe she was giving him another chance.

  His phone rang then, and he answered it as he slid into the driver’s seat. The rain continued as he put the phone on Bluetooth.

  “Yeah?” he answered.

  “We’ve got a problem, Tobias. Can you stop by the office?” Jeremiah asked.

  “I’ve got Ruthie with me. Let me drop her off at home and I’ll come back into town,” he began, but Ruthie put her hand over his and shook her head.

  He glanced at her and she said, “I’ll go with you.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m afraid if you drop me off, you won’t come back,” she told him truthfully.

  It was a kick to the chest, her doubt. He squeezed her hand.

  “I’m bringing your sister with me. Let’s make it quick, okay?” he said to Jeremiah before he disconnected.

  “I understand, Ruthie. It’ll take time, but I understand. I’m in this for the greatest prize.”

  She bowed her head and lifted it again. “What prize is that?”

  He raised her hand to his mouth, kissed the back of it, and settled it against his heat. “You.”

  Then he drove them to the offices of Copeland Shipping, a gnawing feeling in his gut and a hard cock in his pants. Jeremiah’s voice had been off, and that always worried Tobias.

  But he’d damn well better make it quick, because Tobias had other, more important things on his agenda for tonight.

  Chapter 9

  Ruthie relaxed on the sofa in Tobias’s office, the leather reminding her of their late lunch. She smiled at the memory. It was an altogether odd feeling. How long had it been since she’d smiled so much?

  Yet within hours of stating her intent toward Tobias in The Underground, she was here, in her man’s office, waiting for him to wrap up some business with her brother so he could take her home and do all the things she’d fantasized about the last three years.