She reached for the stick, sliding it across his upper thighs to grasp the other end, notching the length of it into the crease between his buttocks and thighs. When she tightened her grip on it, he surged back into her, plunging deeper, harder, feeling the insistent pressure of the bar as it pushed against his ass, urging him on.

“Fuck me,” she muttered against his ear, taking a sharp bite. He caught his fingers in her hair, tightening enough to pull on the scalp, and her nails dug into his flanks. He plunged forward again as she met him, impact for impact. Pressing his mouth against her temple, he pinned her down with his body, working himself in her like a man determined to stake his claim. He had no idea when the need to possess her had taken root in him, but now it was here in full, raging glory.

He kept kissing her even as he thrust and she urged him on with the pressure on that stick, but then her mouth broke away. “Stop,” she whispered.

Complying with such an outrageous request was like sawing back on the reins of an eight-horse stagecoach heading full tilt toward a cliff. He was enough in tune with her that he managed it, however, pushing his body up off her with one arm, breathing heavy, everything tight with lust. When she lifted a hand to his face, he sucked on her fingers, kissed them, nipped.

“After you went down on me in your truck, did you jack off?”

“No.” He adjusted deeper, not a thrust, but a response of its own. When she swallowed, he locked on to that reaction. Did it again.

“Stop,” she said, a bare whisper of reproof. “Have you given yourself relief since?”

“No.” He could tell that surprised her, because he wasn’t what she was used to having, and she’d expected him to act according to his nature, not hers. But just because he wasn’t a sub didn’t mean he didn’t understand what she wanted, needed. “I wasn’t going to come until I was inside you.”

“What if I commanded you to pull out now, tonight, before that happened? What if I don’t want you to come inside me until there’s no condom between us?”

“I’d say you’re a sadist.” His cock pulsed inside her, rebelling against the idea quite adamantly. A quiver ran up his arms when she slid her hand over one of them. The edge of the stick now followed the back of his thigh, to his knee, his calf. She tapped him there, lightly, then harder, making him flex in reaction.

She let it roll away with a clatter, replacing it with her hand on his ass, her nails scraping him. “I’m imagining you being flogged while you’re inside of me,” she whispered, her pupils dominating her dark eyes. “A Mistress is standing behind you, striking on every thrust, the strands of the cat sliding off your gorgeous back and ass. It would be a barbed cat, but I know you wouldn’t even feel it, Max. You’d only feel my cunt, squeezing down on your cock. You wouldn’t notice the people watching, everyone in the dungeon coming to watch this magnificent, muscular male animal fucking his Mistress.”

He dropped back down on her, elbows on either side of her face, his fingers curling into her hair to hold her. He worked his hips in deeper, earning a parting of those glossed lips, a tiny, shuddering breath. “Does that idea excite you?” he rumbled, teasing between them with the tip of his tongue.

“You know it does. The question is, does it excite you?”

“Yeah. Because while you were talking about it, your pussy rippled around my cock and your nipples got tighter, harder. I want to see you fucking mindless, Janet. If being a Mistress gets you there, sends you flying, I’ll take that trip with you. But it’s you, everything about you, that gets me hard.” He paused, locking gazes with her. “And if it keeps you from doing it with other men. Fair warning, I’m moving into that zone. I’m not the sharing kind.”

“You want to see me mindless? Then pull out of me and take that thing off. I want to see you jack off over me.”

He shook his head, moved his mouth down to her throat. “No. I want you too damn much like this.”

Janet let out a cry as he covered her breast with his lips, pulling on the nipple hard, even as he thrust into her again, underscoring the point. He could take over a woman’s senses. He was good at it, could overwhelm her, take her flying, and he wanted her helpless, screaming his name and raking his back with her nails.

That had been the goal with every woman he’d ever had beneath him. Giving them both what they wanted. At least for that one moment.

As that thought sunk in, he let go of the nipple, but gave it a teasing lick before he lifted his upper body once more, bracing his other hand on her hip. Her skin was flushed, breath rapid, but her eyes hadn’t changed focus. She wouldn’t fight him. She understood that this was a give-and-take game between them, not the prescribed boundaries she had at the club. But his expanding knowledge of how her mind worked in moments like these, what she might truly want, was a potent form of self-restraint.

Still, he had his own desires, and he wasn’t yet ready to withdraw. Sliding a hand beneath her waist, he put a palm on her buttock and brought them into a sitting position, her straddling his lap and him still inside her. It changed the angle and thrust, winning him another gratifying gasp, a lovely shudder through her toned body, but he forced himself to focus, cupping her face.

“How about a compromise? You want to use that stick on me, I can tell. How about you do your worst with it, and then you can sit me down on my sore ass in one of these straight chairs, and ride me until you climax.”

She arched a brow. “How about you?”

“My Mistress says she wants me to come inside her without a rubber.” He lifted a shoulder, gave her a tight smile. “Sounds like I won’t be coming tonight then.”

“And if you do anyway? If you can’t hold back?”

“Then she gets to dish out another punishment sometime in the future. That’d be a win-win for her.”

Janet managed a wry chuckle, but when he tightened his arm around her waist, holding them even closer together, her face folded into a more serious expression. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pressing her face into the side of his where he couldn’t see her face. Brow creasing, he cupped her skull, holding her with cock throbbing but heart tilting at the sudden desperate measure.

“You’re a rare combination, Max,” she whispered. “You’re caring for me, even as you offer to serve me. Protector and servant both. You’re a new experience.”

“Same goes, Mistress.”

She smiled against his temple. “You’re also the first man who’s ever called me that as an endearment instead of an honorific. I can tell the difference, you know.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“If it was, I would have told you. I’m not shy.”

“I’ve noticed that.” Turning his head, he caught her lips, drawing them both into a slow, spiraling kiss, working himself inside her until she was making those lovely feminine noises of distressed pleasure. Her arms were locked around his shoulders still, their hearts thundering together. When she pushed him away at last, hands flat against his chest, her eyes were sparking with fire and challenge.

“Deal. I’m getting up now.”

While they’d been kissing, she’d folded her legs beneath her, so he had to let go of her hips before she could lift off him. As she started to push herself up, he saw the grimace she tried hard to cover. He put his hands back on her waist, taking over so he lifted her onto her feet. She nodded with aplomb, then pointed to one of the straight wooden chairs along the wall. “Get rid of the condom and take that chair to the center of the room.”

* * * * *

Janet was shaken and energized at once. She hadn’t been kidding. He was such a curious mix, and a very arousing one. She’d barely had the willpower to stop them. Actually, during that last kiss, the desire to let them both go over had been so strong she almost hadn’t. Except the Mistress in her loved the power of denial, for herself as much as her sub. Yet Max wasn’t her sub. At the moment, she’d call him a woman’s deepest fantasy. He’d understood her need enough to resist that overwhelming compulsion to completion as well.

Though a Domme loved a sub, many of her sisters in that nature loved the idea of teaching a strong, non-submissive, alpha male the pleasures of surrender. It was a treasure rarely discovered, let alone offered, as Max had offered it.

He’d placed the chair in the center of the room as she requested. Now she retrieved the stick she’d released. It wasn’t flexible, not appropriate for what she wanted, but he’d correctly recognized her desire to leave marks on him.

“Take off the rest of your clothes. Then lean over the back of the chair until your stomach touches it. Grab hold of the seat with both hands. Spread your legs shoulder width.”

She circled him, response from her pussy trickling down her legs, not only from him being inside her but from the vision he gave her as he worked off his shoes, shucked off jeans and briefs. He was utterly mouthwatering. She saw more scars, nicks and remnants of serious injuries, but nothing that marred the sheer beauty of a male body honed to warrior fitness. She’d have to join him on one of his workouts, see what he did to stay looking like this. She had a feeling she’d likely need a golf cart or boat to keep up.

When he complied with her order, spreading his legs, she moved behind him, licking her lips at the heavy testicle sac, the curve of the aroused cock that disappeared to brush his belly. She could see it when she shifted to view his profile. Very nice. His buttocks were taut, begging for teeth, strap, tongue.

She dipped to pull the belt from his jeans. When she moved close enough to trail her fingers down his spine, he lowered his head, that attractive quiver going through him again.

“You’ll tell me if it gets to be too much.”

“I had to go through interrogation training, including waterboarding. Do your worst.”

“The physical isn’t what can get to be too much.” Not for someone like him. When her meaning sunk in, he nodded.