Chapter 13

Daelyn

I should have just kept my mouth shut and let him pleasure me, but nooooo, I had to have a conscience.

God, Dmitri’s icy eyes get even colder when he asks, “What did you lie to me about?”

Call me stupid. Call me crazy. Call me toxic. I don’t care. For whatever reason, I don’t want to fuck this up with Dmitri.

“I’ve never been to the beach,” I confess.

Wow . I can’t believe I’m suddenly acting this way. I can make lies roll off my tongue sweet as honey, except with Kaleb.

And apparently now with Dmitri.

I need to be careful that I don’t get too close to this man because it won’t just ruin me, it’ll destroy us. Wait. There isn’t an us . And there never will be because I’m here for one thing, and one thing only . To fuck Dmitri so I can earn my and Addie’s freedom.

Dmitri pulls back from me and sits on his haunches. His big, muscular body looms like a dark cloud with lightning flashing in his gaze. “Why would you lie about that?”

“I don’t know.” Now I feel like a trussed up goose in cuffs. “I… breakfast was weird.”

“It was breakfast .” Dmitri runs a hand down his face and sighs. “Did you lie about anything else?”

I shake my head, feeling horrible for having disappointed him. “No. I swear.”

And as long as he doesn’t ask me personal questions, I’ll continue to tell him only truths. I just need to make sure we keep things at a surface level with our personal information, and only sexual when we’re in the Monarch or at my house. That should be easy. No guy gets serious about life when they’re fucking. I’m convinced it’s an impossibility.

Stealing a glance at him, I hate how Dmitri looks hurt that I’ve lied about something as stupid as going to the beach. Except I get it. He told me something personal and I shit on it by lying when there was no reason to. I could have easily said I’d never been to the beach either, and we’d have had something in common regarding a trivial matter. Instead, I was dishonest, and that little white lie has me feeling sick with regret now.

“I’m sorry,” I squeak out, hating the unshed tears blurring in my vision. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“It’s okay,” he says in a deeper, more exhausted tone.

“No, it’s not. I don’t even know why I said it.”

“Shhhh.” Dmitri crawls on top of me and cups my face. “It’s okay, Firefly.” He swipes the tear that falls down my face. I think I’ve cried more with him in a week than I have with anyone, collectively, in five years. I have no idea what that means. “But from now on, only truths, okay?”

“Okay.” I sniffle, regretting my outburst because the sexual tension between us has broken. He’s going to kick me out of the club, and I won’t blame him when he does.

If he had any sense, he’d see I’m a big problem and run for the hills. Red flags like me should be avoided at all costs. So why is he caressing me instead?

Is this another game? If so, I’m not sure I want to play.

“Do you want to leave or stay?” He draws back to read my expression. “Answer me, Daelyn.”

“Stay,” I say with zero confidence, and one hundred percent desperation. “I want to stay.”

His jaw ticks while he stares at me. Then he nods and whatever anger he felt about my beach lie seems to fade with his next kiss. His mouth is soft against mine. Strong. Confident. Persuasive. No human should be able to kiss like this. It’s unholy.

“Do you think you can win?” he asks against my lips.

“Only one way to find out.”

That earns me a genuine smile that makes his icy eyes almost silver. Their color is absolutely mesmerizing. Dmitri is pure seduction, sent to take me straight to Hell.

I can’t wait to burn.

“Eyes on me.” He lifts off me a little more. “You break eye contact, we start over. Understand?”

“Y-yes.”

“Yes, what?”

“Yes, King.”

“That’s my good girl.” He clicks on the vibrating wand and a wicked smile ghosts his face just before he presses the head of it against my pussy. The vibration is strong. So strong. My eyes flutter and he snaps his fingers. “Ah, ah, ah, eyes on me. No closing them.”

I don’t think I’m going to win this game.

But I’m gonna try.

My orgasm builds immediately. I’m not sure if it’s from the toy or D’s gaze, because both are intense, but I already feel my brain sliding into survival mode. The vibration makes me so sensitive, it’s brutal. I stare at Dmitri while my body coils until I can’t see beyond this dark tunnel encompassing my vision.

My body instinctively builds more invisible survival layers to protect me.

He shifts the vibrator.

I hold my breath.

It’s not going to work. I’m not going to come like this. The toy can’t make a diff—

Dmitri pulls the vibrator off me, and I gasp, not realizing how close I was to actually orgasming until he took it away. My body suddenly feels like a live wire, desperate for contact so it can go crazy.

“Keep those beautiful ocean eyes locked on me, Firefly.”

He presses the head of the toy against me again. My body spasms at the initial contact, intense sensations wreaking havoc on me instantly, and my eyes flutter.

He lifts it off me again.

Desperation makes me scream. “God damnit, King!”

“You lost. Again. So, we’re going to start over. Again .” He cocks his brow and presses the toy on me a third time.

My clit is going to die.

I yank against my restraints like a spitting mad animal. But I don’t break eye contact with him again. I refuse. I’ll fucking win this game even if it kills me.

“That’s my good girl,” he growls. “You’re doing so well for me.”

I’m getting dizzy.

“Keep going, Firefly. Fuuuuck, that’s it. Keep your eyes on me. Don’t close them. Ride it. Ride. It.”

My hips undulate against the toy and my entire body grows tingly. Gaze deadlocked on his, I hang on like it’s a fight for life or death. “Please,” I beg with a cracked voice, except I don’t even know what I’m asking for. “ Please .”

My orgasm hits me like a lightning strike, sending jolts of pleasure coursing through my body. Eyes wide, I don’t stop staring at Dmitri as I come harder than I ever have in my life. Every molecule I own blows apart. I’m nothing more than atoms floating in the air. My heels dig into the mattress, and I lift my hips, desperate to keep my climax going. I need more. I need…

“ Please !” I scream at him, and then squeeze my eyes shut because I cannot stand the look on his face right now. I can’t pinpoint what I think I see. Awe? Fury? Passion? Anger? Lust? In my experience, those emotions on a man’s face have not boded well for me.

And I’m restrained.

Panic slices my arousal to ribbons. “Crocodile.”

The instant I use my safe word, it’s like the black tunnel I’m running down blows to smithereens and the bedroom comes back in technicolor. Unfortunately, so does Dmitri.

My blood swishes in my ears. My body is all tingly. My mouth is dry. My clit feels numb and my pussy aches.

Dmitri swiftly unties my wrists. “Talk to me,” he says. “What’s going on in your head?”

I’m not telling him shit. He doesn’t get to know that part of me. This was only supposed to be a game, not a fucking exorcism of my demons.

“Daelyn,” he says a little more sternly. “We can’t work on it if I don’t know what’s up.”

Work on it?

Work. On. It?

“I’m not a psych project.” Kicking him back, I scramble off the bed and my legs give out the second my feet touch the floor.

“Jesus. Come here.” Dmitri lifts me up before I have the sense to stop him and he carries me back to the bed, setting me on his lap. “I never said you were a fucking psych project. But as your Dom, I need to know what’s happening in your mind so I can make sure you stay in a safe head space. And if you end up in a sub drop, I need to help you with that too.”

Sub drop, shmub drop. I’m so out of here. “Let me go.”

He drops his arms, giving me freedom, and the instant he does this, I feel even worse. It’s like Dmitri giving me what I want makes me even more upset.

Because it’s not what I need .

Now I feel confused and vulnerable and empty and angry. Instead of running out of the club, like I should for both our sakes, I slap him. Full palm, straight across his motherfucking face.

My hand stings from the contact and a red handprint blooms across his cheek. Dmitri’s eyes flash with a very dangerous expression that makes me smack him again. He groans and doesn’t stop staring at me.

This man is the king of staring contests, and it pisses me off. So, I slap him again.

“More,” he growls at me.

I slap him a fourth time, but it’s nowhere near as hard as the others had been.

He still doesn’t budge. “Again.”

Is he serious?

A sheen of sweat blossoms across his forehead. His pupils have blown wide.

Oh, right, I almost forgot that pain gets him off. I should punish him for making me feel so vulnerable by leaving, so he’ll have to get off by himself.

I should. I really, really, really should.

But I can’t seem to move. It’s like his glacial gaze has me frozen in place. I look at his face, the breadth of his shoulders, the way his chest heaves with each controlled breath he takes, the stiffness of his posture, and how his suit pants are tented from his hard dick. God, I want him badly. Every time my mind says to be careful with this man, my body wants to be reckless.

I take a step back. Then another. And another.

The more distance I put between us, the sicker I feel.

Geez, maybe I should be someone’s psych project because I’m definitely worth studying at this rate. Something in me may be fundamentally broken.

And I’m so sick of doing what I’m told. I’m tired of following orders. I want something for myself. I want something just for me.

Fuck it. I’m in this to win. If only for tonight.

“Do you still want me?” I ask with enough audacity to make my inner demons perk up.

“Yes,” Dmitri growls.

“How bad?”

“Bad enough to tear the world apart to get inside you, Firefly.”

He won’t have to go as far as destroying the world, but I can’t say the same for the Monarch Club. “You want me that fucking bad? Come get me.”

I bolt out the door.