Need You Tonight

TWENTY-SEVEN





Kade loomed over her, every trace of his normally easygoing expression gone. “On all fours. Crawl to the bedroom.”

She got in position but peeked upward before moving. He couldn’t be serious. “You want me to crawl like a dog?”

His expression hardened and he wrapped his fingers in her hair. “No, I want you to do what I say without question. Understood?”

“Yes, sir,” she managed, though her heart seemed to be pounding so hard it was affecting her vocal cords.

He tugged her forward, not hard enough to do damage, but enough to make her scalp tingle in protest and her body move beneath her. He led her into her bedroom and left her there on the floor while he turned on her bedside lamp. When he swiveled back around, he gave her an appraising look. “Are you wearing anything important to you? Something that can’t be replaced?”

She shook her head.

“Good. Stand up.”

She scrambled to her feet, her body going on autopilot for the commands. The whole thing should have freaked her out, but for some reason, everything inside her pinged with anticipation—like watching a horror movie and knowing something was about to jump from behind the curtain but unable to look away. This was Kade without a filter.

Kade closed the distance, his gaze like lead weights anywhere it landed on her. He reached out and grabbed the collar of her blouse with both hands and yanked, sending the buttons flying.

“Kade! What are you doing?”

The buttons skittered along the wood floor, and he tossed the shredded blouse to the side. His hand went to her neck, collaring it. “I’m doing what I want. Take the jeans off.”

Oh, shit. Hello, deep end of the pool, nice to meet you. She fumbled with her snap and zipper, the presence of his hand on her throat making her thoughts branch and divert in directions she couldn’t quite follow, but eventually she managed to work the jeans down and off.

“Good girl.” He ran his fingers along her jawline. “Scared?”

She rolled her lips inward, considering the question, but then shook her head. “No, not exactly. Confused maybe.”

He watched her as she spoke, as if recording every verbal and physiological response she had. “By me or your reactions?”

“Both.”

That answer seemed to give him what he was looking for. He turned her in his hold, putting her back to his front. His erection was hot against her backside, and everything went liquid inside her. She almost didn’t want to admit to herself how turned on she was already. His lips brushed her ear. “We all have sides that we don’t show the world, Tess. The back of the coin. This is mine. I like some violence, some edges. A little darkness. Let’s see what your flipside looks like.”

He grasped her upper arms and walked her to the bed, then pressed a palm to the center of her back bending her over. He nudged her ankles apart.

“Eyes closed. Stay there.”

“Okay,” she whispered, her heart beating so hard she wondered if it could leave an imprint in the mattress.

The sound of his footsteps receded. He’d left the room, but she didn’t have the guts to look back to see where he was going. A rummaging noise came from somewhere in the house, and then Kade was back, his presence seeming to charge the room with static. Something cool touched her shoulder. She sucked a breath.

“Don’t. Move.”

A metallic edge ran over her skin and under the strap of her bra, sending fear pulsing through her. Oh, God.





Kade knew he was pushing it as he ran the dull edge of a knife along Tessa’s skin. Fire was still running through his veins from earlier. And he needed this more than Tessa could even understand. But he also was acutely aware of how wrong this could go if he wasn’t one hundred percent on his game.

He’d learned early on that when a submissive dropped an unintentional hint or said something then wanted to take it back, more times than not, it was a desire that scared her. Which meant it was what he most needed to give her. And Tessa had slipped when she’d said she didn’t want him calm. His anger had affected her in a way she may have not understood, but he’d seen the reaction.


The little whisper of roughness, of violence, had made her challenge him instead of shrinking away. And it’d flipped every single one of his dominance switches. He’d been keeping his sadistic side mostly in check around her because he didn’t want to scare her. But she’d shown the most important component of all tonight. She trusted him. At the most basic level, she knew that she was safe with him.

And then she’d asked for it. Asked for what he so needed in that moment after Doug had left. Maybe I don’t want you to be calm. It had broken open something inside him and the part of him he usually kept locked away, even at The Ranch, had trampled through the door.

So now when he ran the knife under her bra strap, he prayed that he hadn’t misjudged her signals. Because he was pushing her far beyond where they’d ever treaded before. But when he turned the blade, careful to hold the sharper edge away from her skin, and sliced through the bra strap, the quiet whimper she made was the perfect kind of fear.

“Brave girl,” he said softly.

“Or a stupid one,” she murmured, her body as still as a stone but her tone sardonic.

He smirked and smacked her across the fleshy part of her thigh. “Not nice to talk back.”

But in truth he loved that her defenses were rushing up. The more sarcastic she got, the more he was getting to her and the more what had happened outside was becoming a distant memory for him. He hooked the band of her underwear with his finger, pulling them away from her waist, and ran the knife through them. Yes, he could’ve just taken them off of her. But he knew well how powerful a mental image could be. Cutting her clothes off sent a clear message—your things and normal protections are worthless right now, you own nothing, only I can give and take away. He set the blade on the dresser and then tugged the scrap of panties away. The satin was soaked against his palm.

He had to swallow back the groan at the victory. His instincts had been right. “Do you know what it does to me to see how wet you are right now?”

“You’re a bad, bad man, Mr. Vandergriff.”

He pressed his lips together, trying not to smile, and unhooked his belt buckle. “Keep up the sarcasm and see how that works out for you.”

At the sound of the leather belt pulling out of the loops, she lifted her head and peered back over her shoulder. He looped the belt and tucked the buckle into his hand. All shreds of attitude fell away from her, self-preservation kicking in. “Kade . . .”

“Do you have a vibrator, Tess?”

She blinked. “What?”

“Simple question.”

She pressed her face back into the comforter as if she were too embarrassed to say it to his face. “Bedside table, top drawer.”

He headed over and pulled the little pink bullet out of its clear box. Simple and utilitarian. Perfect. What he was about to do to Tessa was not meant to be a punishment. Even if she didn’t realize that yet. But it certainly would be better with a little extra motivation.

He walked behind her again and gave her a little pop on her left ass cheek. “Lift your hips.”

She pushed up on her toes and did as she was told. He rubbed the rounded tip of the vibe against her slick folds and her fingers curled into her comforter. He hadn’t even turned it on yet, and already she was desperate for it.

“Put your hands beneath you and hold this against you. Don’t move it away unless I tell you. Understand?”

“Yes.” She nodded against the sheets and slipped her hands downward, pinning her arms beneath her body and taking the vibrator with her. She adjusted into a position that allowed her to hold it where she needed, and he turned it on. She jolted and her knees buckled slightly before she regained her balance. “God.”

“So keyed up already. But no coming until I tell you.” He coasted his hand over the curve of her ass, while the belt buckle warmed in his other palm. “Now, ask me to hit you.”

“What?” Her voice held disbelief. “Why would I ask for it?”

He ran the loop of leather along her spine, barely brushing her skin, and smiled when she visibly quivered. “Because it’s what you want. You didn’t goad me outside and tempt me while I was angry, so I’d come in here and be sweet and cuddly. Correct?”

Her back rose and fell with quick but deep breaths. “No.”

“Then ask for what you want, and you may be lucky enough to get it.”

She was quiet a few long seconds, only the soft hum of the vibrator filling the room, but then she rallied her nerve. “Please hit me. I want you to.”

His blood surged at the admission, his cock throbbing against his zipper and his heart knocking against his ribs, but he didn’t make a move yet. “Why?”

“Goddammit, can’t you just do it?” she asked, defensiveness edging her voice. “I don’t want to think about why.”

But he wasn’t in the mood to let her get away with that. What he wanted to do with her was not for the faint of heart. He needed to hear that this was more than just curiosity or some show of bravado. “Nope. Try again.”

He could almost hear her gritting her teeth. So stubborn, his Tess. He backed up a few steps, making sure she could hear his retreat, and that got her. She shifted restlessly against the bed but started talking. “All my life, everyone’s treated me with white gloves, like I’m some porcelain doll to be left in the box or I’ll shatter. With foster parents, they were scared I’d snap and become crazy like my mother. With Doug, he wanted the untarnished trophy.”

His heart squeezed in his chest at the honest words, and it took everything he had not to reach out and caress her, but he could tell she wasn’t done.

She turned her head and looked back at him, her gaze stripped clean. “I want you to hit me because being with you like this makes me feel less fragile. You aren’t afraid to push me, to break me. And sometimes . . . I wonder how it’d feel to be broken.”

The admission reached inside him and twisted things around into something new, opening up an ache that echoed through his deepest chambers. He walked forward again and pushed her hair away from her face. It’d be the last bit of tenderness he’d show her for a while, but he needed her to know that he’d heard her. Really heard her.

She’d gone through life and no one had bothered to leave a mark.

Well, that was about to change.

He let his hand slip away from her face, raised his other arm, and let the belt stripe across her ass. The sharp curse she made was one of the sweetest sounds he could ever remember hearing.

He gave her a breath to call a safeword if she needed it, but when none came, he landed another lash on her backside, creating angry parallel marks on her skin. So f*cking pretty.

“You still with me, girl?” he asked, purposely using a term that had a humiliating tone to it. He knew she’d never admit it, but verbally taking her down a notch did something for her. He’d seen it when he teased about the word slut being an endearment in his world. And he’d seen it when he called her slave that night at The Ranch.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good, because I’m not even near done with you.” He let the belt come down again, this time across the backs of her thighs. “I want you to be thinking of me every time you sit down for the next few days at the office, remembering how badly you wanted to be my pretty little slut tonight.”

She groaned with such gritty desire that he had to pause for a second to reel in his own stampeding desire. He unfastened his jeans to get some space before he had a permanent zipper imprint on his cock and tugged off his shirt.

“I can just picture you there in your office, my dear brother droning on about some PR initiative, and you’ll be squirming and wet in your seat while you remember what it felt like to be under my belt.” He hit her again. “And Gibson will know. Anytime you wince, he’ll know.”

A soft gasp escaped her.

“Does that bother you?” he asked, his tone teasing as he landed another lash across her back.

She bowed up at that, and he could see her arms shift to get the vibrator back in place. Her skin was fully flushed now, a gloss of sweat coating her, and her breath had gone choppy. She was fighting that orgasm hard. Good.

“Answer me, girl.” He punctuated it with a quick pop on the ass with his free hand, catching her off guard.

“I—I don’t know if it bothers me.”

He set the belt aside for a second and pressed one palm to her lower back, reaching between her legs with his other hand. Hot, wet arousal coated his fingers as he tucked two inside her, the device vibrating against his knuckles through her inner wall. She clenched around him and whimpered.

“Does it bother you or does it turn you on? Knowing that others know how down and dirty you can be? That you like to be used?”

She was rocking against his hand as he pumped his fingers slowly into her. He’d wondered if he’d get a reaction to calling her dirty, but any shame had apparently been left two near-orgasms ago. “It makes me feel embarrassed . . .”

He could tell that wasn’t the whole answer, but she seemed reluctant to say the rest, so he helped her out. “And the embarrassment makes you hot.”


She made a desperate sound as he moved a third finger inside her. “Yes. God, none of this makes sense.”

He smiled. His girl had quite the exhibitionist streak. The things he’d put her through already would’ve made most girls die of panic. He loved that she could lose that fear and be free in front of his friends. “Don’t be too embarrassed. Gib’s no stranger to this world. Your secret is safe with him.”

Without giving her warning, he slipped his fingers from her and picked up the belt again.

Earlier tonight she’d given him a gift so amazing, he could never repay it. But that wasn’t going to stop him from trying.

She may be his slave right now, but he would forever be in her service.

And tonight, he’d start with her first request.

It was time to break the porcelain.