Cowboy Casanova - Lorelei James [67]
“What?”
“Don’t deny it. Up top.” Joely held her hand up for a high-five. “Kudos to you for getting some of that hot cowboy ass while the getting is good.”
Ainsley slapped Joely’s hand. “This is so far under the radar it’s underground.”
“No worries. I live my life under the radar.” She slipped out of the booth. “Thanks for an entertaining evening. I hope we can do it again soon.”
She said, “Me too,” and meant it.
“I’ve got your number, you’ve got mine. Let’s set up something fun once the bank business is out of the way.”
“Deal.”
Ainsley waited for Ben to return, feeling resentful about his command. In public. Then she thought, screw it, and started to leave.
But he blocked her in. “I wondered how long you’d sit there before showing your insubordination.” He swigged from his beer. “Or should I say more insubordination.”
“We didn’t have plans tonight.”
“You sure? Did you call me to double-check?”
She refused to back down. “I wasn’t aware I needed your approval to have a business dinner with a bank client.”
“Which is true. So your bank business with the doc is done?”
Say no.
Bennett leaned close enough to get her attention. “You really gonna lie to me?”
“We just finished. I’m going home.”
He shook his head.
“You were serious about discussing Chase’s event?”
He shook his head.
“Stop that.”
He shook his head. “Know why I came to town?”
Ainsley tapped her finger on the table. “Hmm. Does it involve handing me a paddle since I’m up shit creek? Or are you just going to paddle me?”
“You’re not getting off that easy this time.” He kept that smoldering Dom stare on her. “I’m still ticked off at you for the way you compared yourself to my saddle.”
“If the stirrup fits…”
He growled. “You tryin’ to piss me off?”
“No. But this is your pissed-off face? Because it looks the same as when you’re happy—or when you’re turned on—to me.”
Wrong taunt, Ainsley.
“Do you really feel I use you?”
“Yeah. Sometimes I do.”
An emotion she’d never seen flitted through those beautiful dark eyes. “Get your stuff and plan on spending the night at my house.”
“If I say I don’t want to?”
“Then say your safe word. You won’t see me again.”
She stared at him. He stared back. No surprise she dropped their mind-fuck connection first. “I don’t want to say my safe word.”
“Then you’d better do as you’re told, hadn’t you?”
Ainsley looked up but he was already walking away.
She wasn’t prepared for this side of Bennett.
He had no time for pleasantries or conversation when she showed up at his house. He simply asked her to repeat her safe word. Twice.
When he told her to strip, kneel at his bedroom door and wait for him, she had her first real feeling of trepidation since she’d agreed to be his submissive. Sometime in the last week, she’d even wondered if Bennett was acting. Playing the part of being a dominant man. That when she really got to know him, he’d drop that aggressive role and just be a demanding lover.
But this man wasn’t acting. This man was pure, full on dominant male about to mete out punishment to his sub. Why was she kneeling, waiting for his return? He knew she hated the subservience aspect of Dom/sub relationships. Another thought made her stomach roil. What would she do if he slipped a collar on her? Bennett had only allowed her one hard line. He’d told her anything else he wanted to do to her was fair game. The idea of being collared like one of his dogs had her head screaming her safe word and urging her to run.
No. Stay put, stay calm. You can do this. There’s a lesson in here in here for you. Bennett isn’t a cruel Dom, you know that.
Did she?
Immediately upon his return to his bedroom, after making her wait for twenty minutes, he’d secured her, naked, and stretched her out, face down, spread-eagle on his mattress. He used a riding crop on her butt, letting it glance across her thighs. Twice he’d stopped to see if she needed to use her safe word. Asking in