Opposition: An Enemies to Lovers Romance (NYC Doms), page 15
“I… but you…”
“You do what I say,” he says, with a warning slap to my thigh. “You get one more chance before I get the cane.”
“Oh my God,” I tell him. “You’re ruthless.”
“Sweetheart, I’ve only just begun.”
“Okay, okay, I—” I close my eyes and say it in one breath. “I’m beautiful.”
My reward is a swipe of his tongue though my swollen folds.
“Ohmigod.”
“Say it again.”
I shake my head and he bites my inner thigh, so I scream out without thinking, “I’m beautiful!”
He plunges fingers in my core and pumps once, twice, three times. My back arches and I ache with need for him.
“Again.”
“I’m beautiful,” I choke out, hardly able to breathe, because he’s suckling my clit while pumping his fingers in me, and I might die if I don’t come like right now.
He takes his mouth off me just long enough to repeat. “Again, Cora.”
“I’m beautiful,” I whisper as he glides his body up mine and holds me to his chest.
“I’m beautiful,” I whisper without the prompting this time, because I know that every time I say this now he rewards me, and fuck, I want that reward. His cock is hot at my entrance, gliding through my folds, then he’s stroking the head along my clit.
“I’m beautiful,” I groan, then he glides into me and it’s so fucking perfect I moan. I’m full and I can’t think straight, I’m tight around him and consumed all at once, and every thrust builds friction that might split me in two but I don’t care, because my chest is full to bursting and my body’s ignited with flames.
“You’re beautiful,” he whispers in my ear.
And as I look down at my body molded to his, my curvy thighs wrapped around his hips, my vision blurs and my mind come to a stuttering halt, because in that moment, at the very precipice of ecstasy when my heart thumps erratically and I’m panting against him, my wrists held above me and my body connected to his…
“I’m beautiful,” I whisper, and for the first time, I believe it. His rhythm quickens and my thighs quiver before my body takes over. I moan in his ear and he’s grunting and panting in mine, chasing carnal need and pleasure as I ride out the waves of bliss. I pull my wrists just to feel the resistance, I love that I can’t stop this even if I wanted to.
Panting. Heavy breaths. Damp skin and racing hearts. He drops his forehead to my chest and breathes out, then in, holding me tight against him. After seconds or minutes or hours, he finally lifts his head and grins at me.
“That was fucking awesome, beautiful.”
I grin up at him, feeling free and lighter than I have in years, but I don’t want to think about that now. He’s torn me apart then stitched me back together again, but I still feel frail, like I might come apart at the seams again. “It was. Now, my wrists, please, sir.”
Sixteen
Liam
It’s six o’clock on Friday night, the sixth week of our contract, and I’m heading to the bookstore. I’ve had Cora at Verge every night this week, and my appetite’s nowhere near satisfied. The more I taste of her the more I want, until she’s infiltrated my every-waking thought. I lose track of my focus during meetings, imagining what I’ll do to her next when I have her at Verge. I wake up in the morning and send her a text or call, depending on whether or not she’s home or heading into class. At night, the separation is nearly painful, but she has to get back to Ben and Bailey, and I have to respect that.
And now I’m at the bookstore for the first time in weeks.
The last time I came here, she mouthed off to me and I fantasized about striping her ass for her defiance and teaching her to mind her mouth, but now in retrospect I recognize I was a prick. It’s surprising how much can change in such a short span of time. I’m sure many would still call me a prick, to be honest. I don’t care about being nice in business, I’m still ruthless when it comes to closing deals. But Cora… hell, she’s softened a part of me I didn’t even know was there.
It’s dangerous as hell, and I know it. But I can’t seem to stop myself. When I set my eyes on what I want, I get it, and I don’t let anything get in my way.
And I’ve set my eyes on Cora.
I get out of the car and head into the coffee shop, but I don’t see her at first.
“Hey, Liam.” Marla’s stacking books on a display in the center of the room.
I nod to her. “Hey, is Cora here?”
“Yep. She just stepped out back for a minute to grab some sale carts. You can go back if you’d like.”
“Thank you,” I tell her. God, I can’t wait to see her again, and it’s only been a few hours. “I’ve got a favor to ask you, though. Any chance Cora can take off early?”
“Of course,” she says with a smile. “Chandra will be here any minute, and I’m closing tonight. You’ve got plans?”
I show her what I’ve got stowed in my pocket, and she claps her hands.
“Go ask her,” she says, urging me on.
“Hey,” I say, pushing open the storeroom door. Cora’s balancing precariously on a step ladder that wobbles beneath her, trying to reach for something on a top shelf. Is she crazy? She’s barely got a grip and if she falls—
“Hey,” she says, standing on one foot and reaching so high, I’m afraid she’s gonna topple over. I sprint to the ladder.
“What the hell are you doing?” I ask her. “Get your ass down here.”
Trained to obey me, she shoots me a curious look. “Well nice to see you, too,” she says with a frown. “Why are you getting your knickers all up in a wad?”
Oh no she did not.
“My knickers? Swear to God, Cora, if you don’t get your ass own here—”
“Liam, please,” she says. “I’ve almost got it.” She shakes her head and reaches higher, then loses her balance, giving a little shriek. She wobbles on the ladder and scrambles for purchase, and finally gets her footing, panting.
“Now,” I tell her.
“Okay, okay,” she says, shooting me a guilty glance that says she knows she’s in trouble, and she’s barely touched bottom before I’ve got her up in my arms, over my shoulder, and I’m smacking the underside of her ass with my palm.
“If you ever do that again,” I tell her, with another resounding smack, followed by another and another. “You will do your classwork standing, because you won’t sit down for a damn month!” I give her another good, hard spank that makes her arch her back. The satisfying sting in my palm makes my anger abate a little. I slide her down off my shoulder to standing in front of me. Her cheeks match her hair, flaming red, and she rubs her ass adorably.
It’s nothing like the spankings she’s taken at Verge, but I think I’ve gotten my point across.
“Liam,” she hisses. “I’m at work.”
“And your boss is a submissive who ought to have her own ass whipped for having such a hazard in her stockroom,” I tell her, unrepentant.
“Well,” she says thoughtfully. “Her last dom actually did try to get rid of the thing, but she’s stubborn and he moved away, so…”
I give her a stern glare, lifting my phone and swiping it on.
“Hello?” Mandy answer on the first ring.
“Mandy, order the most stable stock room ladder you can,” I tell her, giving her the location while I hold Cora’s gaze. I place the order and she shakes her head, but she’s subdued after her little spanking, so she doesn’t say anything. Satisfied, I slide my phone into my pocket.
“Well,” she says. “Might want to run that by Marla?”
“Oh, I’ll run that by Marla alright,” I tell her. I have every intention of running it by Marla. Marla isn’t my sub, but she works with my woman—alright, my woman for now—and I have a few things to say about safety.
And then Cora grins and I want to pull her to my chest and kiss that mouth of hers until she forgets what she’s doing in here in the first place.
“Why are you here?” she says. “I didn’t think I’d see you until my shift was over.”
“Well, I had a change in plans,” I tell her. I pull the pair of rectangular tickets out of my pocket. “What do you think? Want to go on a real date?”
I don’t know what reaction I expected, but it isn’t what she does. I watch as her eyes fill with tears and she takes the tickets in her hand. “You got tickets to Chicago? How’d you even know? These have been sold out for months…”
I shrug. I happened to notice a post on her Instagram page about how it’s on her bucket list to go, and “sold out” is a relative term when you’ve got enough money to get what you want. The past few weeks have been… Jesus, I don’t even know.
Magical. Enchanted.
“Don’t cry, baby,” I tell her, wiping her tears with the pad of my thumb. “Your grades this semester were incredible, and I’m proud of you. You deserve a little celebration.”
“You’re proud of me?” she repeats, her chin wobbling. “Oh, Liam.” And then she dives into my chest and hugs me so tightly I lose my breath.
“The show’s at eight, so we’ve got to get going. You need to get ready, and we’ll make sure Bailey and Ben are all set for tonight. Okay?”
“Okay, yeah.”
“Marla already agreed.”
“Wow,” she says. “You really have thought of everything, haven’t you?”
I respond by pulling her to me and kissing her, then letting her go with pat to the ass. “Get a move on, woman. Broadway doesn’t wait.”
After she grabs her bag and we say good-bye to Marla, we head to her place. She chatters the whole time about the cast and story, but I don’t really give a shit about the cast and story. I care that her eyes light up like stars in a jewel-studded sky. I care that when she’s happy she gets animated like this, talking too quickly and speaking with her hands. I let her chatter on until I finally pull her onto my lap and silence her with another kiss.
“Oh my,” she says when I let her go. “Someone’s getting lucky tonight.”
I tug a lock of her hair and smile. “I get lucky whenever the hell I want.”
“This is true,” she says with a smirk. “But not for long. Soon, that contract’s up, then what’re you gonna do, big guy?” Though she’s teasing, there’s question in her eyes. But I don’t have an answer to that question.
What am I gonna do indeed?
“Steal you away,” I tell her. “Lock you up in cuffs in my office so you can’t leave me.” And even though I’m teasing her, my stomach tightens because I don’t like the idea of her being apart from me.
I’ve never cared about anyone leaving me before. I was always the one who walked away.
But with Cora? Hell, this is different.
“I’m not going anywhere, Liam,” she says quietly, but we don’t get to talk anymore about it, because we’re pulling up to her apartment building, and she’s got to get ready.
“Want me to come up?” I ask her. I don’t like to go up unless she grants me permission. And sometimes she still prefers to have some privacy with Bailey and Ben. I get that.
“Yeah,” she says, “if you don’t mind.” Shooting me a sheepish grin, she tucks her head. “Honestly, Liam, Ben’s been asking for you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I say, getting out of the car with her and taking her by the hand. This time, there’s no screeching landlord to interrupt us, because I sent that bitch a check to cover six month’s rent with a nice little note telling her scarcity around Cora would be a really fantastic decision.
“Well, you’re busy,” she says.
“Is that really it?”
She’s much better about being honest with me these days, and I like to think I’m better about reading her. I know there’s more to it than my busyness.
“He talks about you a lot… I’m worried he’s getting attached,” she says quietly, as we enter her apartment building. I step around a couple making out in the hallway with disgust and lift her right up and over a guy vaping on his back under the stairwell with his legs jetting out.
Jesus, she was right about not bringing me in here. I don’t give a shit about her furniture or the too-thin walls, but I do care about her safety.
She isn’t yours.
The fuck she isn’t.
I can’t bother about that now, though. I can’t let it eat at me, because Cora isn’t mine for the keeping.
“We only have two weeks left to our contract, Liam,” she says, and right before we get to her door, she turns and faces me. Dropping her voice, that wobbles a little when she speaks, she places her palm on my chest. I wonder if she can feel the hammering of my heart. I don’t want to talk to her about this. I don’t want to face it.
“I know,” I tell her.
“And I—” her voice trails off. She swallows, inhales, then raises her eyes to mine. “I don’t want him getting too attached. You know that.”
“Yeah,” I tell her.
She’s worried about a ten-year-old boy getting attached? Hell, I don’t know how I’m going to handle it when our contract is up and I’m a full-grown man.
A full-grown man who’s in danger of breaking his own fucking contract.
Cora freezes when she looks at the bottom of the door. Smoke creeps out in tendrils.
Shit.
Shoving her key in, she yanks the door open, and billows of smoke fill the hallway. She tries to get in ahead of me, but I shove her behind me and barge in.
“Hey! What’s going on in here?”
“Oh, God, Liam,” Bailey moans. She’s standing in front of the stove and there are flames leaping out of it.
“Get out of the way,” I order. “Cora, get them in the hall.”
Smoke chokes me and I hear them scrambling behind me. Blinded, I squint my eyes and look for something to put the flames out but there’s nothing. The stove stands between me and the sink, and I can’t get to the water.
“Liam, get out of there!” Cora yells. “It’s climbing up the cupboards and they could fall on you!” I look quickly and realize this isn’t some small kitchen fire, but it’s already progressed to serious.
I turn to look at Cora when something falls and hits me. I get to the floor and cover my head when I look into the hall and see the sign fire extinguisher.
“Get the fire extinguisher!” I yell to her.
“There’s nothing there!” she shouts. “It’s empty! Ben!”
“Where is he?” Jesus, I thought he was with Bailey but in the confusion, he’s run back in for something. I see his blue sneakers below the smoke and push myself to standing, choking on the fumes.
“Get the hell out of here,” I growl at him and reach for him, but he darts away, screaming something about his bag. Jesus.
I run after him and grab him by the back of the shirt, yank him to me, and shove him toward the door. We get to the hallway just in time, as the kitchen literally crashes and falls to pieces behind us. Huge flames engulf the entire little area.
“Get out of here!” I tell Cora. “You make sure Bailey’s safe, I’ve got Ben!”
“Fire!” Cora yells, taking Bailey with her. Doors are opening and people start shouting. There should be building alarms going off, and fire engines one their way but why am I surprised this place isn’t up to code? I drag Ben beside me. He’s crying and soot runs down his cheeks, and I feel bad for getting mad at him. Kids don’t think when they’re in danger. Hell, that’s why they need parents to take care of them.
I’ve got three people coming to my place tonight.
I call 911 on my phone when we get outside, and we spend hours answering questions. The police officer interrogating Bailey tries to give her shit, but when he sees me, he gets his act together. Bailey insists she was doing her homework in her room with her earbuds in, and she had a tray of frozen macaroni and cheese in the oven. The next thing she knew, smoke was creeping under her door. She ran out to see what was going on, and the kitchen was in flames.
“Did you have anything on the stove?”
“No, officer,” she says. “Nothing at all.”
“You’re her father?” The officer asks, giving me a once-over.
Father? Jesus God. The idea… Well, hell, I guess I can’t blame him for thinking that though. She looks like a kid and I’m much older than she is.
“No,” I tell him. “Sister’s boyfriend.” I tell him my side of the story.
“There was nothing on the stove, I swear,” she says. “I’m super careful about those things.”
Finally, he leaves them alone. I make sure the fire department knows there were no fire extinguishers or alarms that went off, and they ask me for my name for questioning.
I give him my business card, and he whistles. “Liam Alexander,” he says. “Of Alexander Enterprises?”
“Yeah.”
“What are you doing in a place like this?” he asks.
Asshole.
Cora flinches and I clench my jaw.
“Call me with any questions about the fire,” I tell him, then turn to Cora, Bailey, and Ben. We could go to a hotel or some other place for the night, but after this ordeal, I want Cora with me, and I want her brother and sister to have more security than a transient hotel room. “You three are coming home with me.”
Seventeen
Cora
So, suffice it to say, this wasn’t how I thought the night would go.
I went from mentally cataloging my closet of clothes Liam’s bought for me to choose the best outfit to wear to the play, from watching Ben and Bailey slide into his car with wide-eyes, their cheeks still smudged with soot, their clothes a wreck.
And now we’re heading to Liam’s place.
Just. Great.
“We need to get them checked out, Liam,” I say gently.
I don’t know what’s going to happen in a couple of weeks, but I will never forget seeing that man pull my brother out of that apartment. Ever. God, what he’s doing to me is dangerous as all hell, but I can’t stop it. I mean, I’m only human.
