“What’s that smile about?”

“I like that you’re possessive. I feel . . . loved. Safe.”

“Not controlled or run over?”

“Try to tell me how to do my job or how to manage my outside responsibilities, and we’ll have fights. I’ll invest in a whole lot of string for your balls. Keep me all to yourself in the bedroom, and we’ll be great.”

Exactly how he wanted her. “No more fantasies about me sharing you?”

She shook her head. “Thank you for the offer. I know having Tyler with us wasn’t easy for you.”

He froze. “Is that why you refused?”

“No. I did it because I only wanted to be with you. Being shared was just a fantasy, but the reality of you and me together is so much better.”

Damn, could she be any more perfect for him? They’d had a tough road, both learned hard lessons. They’d both had to compromise. Was it possible that would pay off for the rest of their lives?

Unable to resist, he swiped his tongue through her wet slit, teasing the little ring piercing the hood of her clit. Hmm, sweet. Her body tensed. Her breath caught. The taste of her sank onto his tongue, and he reveled in having her this way again. As he sucked her clit gently into his mouth, he slid the base of the ring against her bundle of nerves so it created a friction she couldn’t resist.

Up he drove her, higher, higher. Her breaths became moans. Her hips arched up.

Hunter held her down and gave her the sternest expression he could muster. “Be still. You can’t force your orgasm with this wriggling and silent begging. You’ll get it when I think you’re ready. If you get it. Are we clear?”

“Yes, Sir.” Her voice emerged as a high-pitched squeak.

He repressed a smile. “I’m enjoying my treat. Do you know how fucking hungry I’ve been for the last six months? You don’t want to spoil it for me.”

Kata shook her head and tensed every muscle in her body as he set his mouth back on her cunt and lapped slowly, hungrily, losing himself in her taste. He wanted her so far on the edge that she could see the chasm of destructive pleasure below but still want it so badly that she was willing to risk anything for it, for him.

Her fists clenched, unclenched, along with her jaw. She tossed her head as he tongued that little ring again and plunged two fingers into her soaking pussy, feeling around for that one spot . . . Yeah.

Perspiration broke out across her skin and she flushed a dusky rose everywhere. Her labia swelled. Her clit turned hard. She rippled around his fingers, but clamped down, trying to control her response.

She’d done well, so far. Now it was time to challenge her.

Forcing himself to pull back from her sweet taste, he eased to the edge of the bed and slapped his fingers down on the pad of her pussy. Kata cried out, bucked. Then brought herself under control.

“I’m sorry,” she panted.

She knew she hadn’t followed his instructions to be still and silent. He didn’t have to remind her at all.

“Turn over. Present your ass for a spanking.”

She hesitated, and Hunter tensed. Yes, she’d enjoyed the last thorough spanking he’d given her . . . eventually, but not without a lot of persuasion and coercion. She’d fought him all the way to orgasm.

Finally, she turned over, arms crossed over her head, knees beneath her.

“You hesitated.” He rubbed her backside. He hoped like hell the touch was at least a tad threatening, and she was thinking about the paddling she’d soon get. Mostly, he couldn’t keep his hands off her ass.

“Permission to speak?”

“If you’re going to enlighten me, sure.”

“I’m very close to the edge, Sir. A spanking will put me over quickly. I took a moment to compose myself. I’m sorry.”

Candor, an admission that his discipline excited her, and an apology? That set him back on his heels. She’d come so far and obviously done a great deal to work through her issues. He was so damn proud of her, he was about to burst. And so encouraged, so happy, it was all he could do not to tear off his jeans and sink tightly into her body, stake his claim for good.

But he had to remain steady. “That will cost you five extra swats. You understand?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Count them.” He smacked her right cheek dead center. Her flesh made a satisfying smack against his hand, and she breathed through the sting.

“One.”

Nice. Nodding, he brought his palm down on her left cheek, first at the top, then the bottom, hitting a bit harder each time.

She tensed, forced herself to relax. “Two. Three.”

As soon as the words were out, she sank deeper into the sensation, body going lax, her head dropping to the bed. Hunter could see the outline of his hand on her ass, and he nearly clawed his way out of his clothes to get to her.

He forced patience. He’d tested her a great deal . . . but hadn’t crossed all her boundaries. Conversations with Logan, Jack, and Morgan seemed to have emotionally prepared her for submitting. This Cheyenne woman he hadn’t met had certainly given her practice. But there was one boundary that another woman couldn’t cross with her.

Suddenly, he was eager to take her there, find out if she could really be his in all ways.

Palming her ass once more, he rained down a series of blows on it, high on her right cheek, on the fleshy part of her left, straddling the luscious parting of those globes. He spared her no mercy.

“Four, five, six.” Her voice grew calmer with each word. Her skin actually glowed with a healthy sheen of perspiration and blood pooling just under the surface.

Hunter slipped a hand under her, to swim through the moisture wetting her sweet pussy. Her clit was still a tight knot, and her body begged to be fucked. As he pressed his fingers inside her again, she rippled around him. But she breathed through the pleasure-pain, finally relaxing everything but her pelvic muscles. With those, she held on to her need to orgasm tightly.

He smiled wide and hefted four more hearty smacks on her ass, one right after the other. No yelping, crying, begging, arguing. Kata merely took them in stride.

“Seven, eight, nine, and ten,” she breathed out.

“Excellent.” Hunter tried to sound in control, but the truth was, he’d lost it. Knowing he was with Kata and that she was submitting so perfectly . . . That had been the stuff of his fantasies for the past six months. The need to hold her, the yearning to have her under his hand as she still wore his ring and he saw love in her eyes, had nearly strangled him. Now it seemed that everything he wanted was within his reach. Nothing on earth was going to keep him from her. Elation swelled inside him.

With jerky motions, he shoved his jeans down his thighs and guided his cock to her wet entrance. With one shove, he pushed his way in on a tortured groan. Her body parted for him, like warm water flowing around a rock, she caressed and clung until Hunter wondered if he was going to lose his ever-loving mind with the sublime joy.

In long, deep strokes, he began to fill her, pushing his way over her most sensitive spots, all the way up to her cervix. He leaned his body over her back and put a hand on her chest. “Breathe with me, honey.”

He waited a moment until their breathing synched up, until he felt a measure of calm overtake them both. Fucking perfect. She felt like home, and he never wanted to leave her again.

Clutching Kata tightly, Hunter fucked her, each stroke ending with a mutual indrawn breath, every withdrawal punctuated with a moan. God, he could feel her, her rising excitement, her peace in the knowledge that she was pleasing him.

It was as if the last six months of separation hadn’t existed. They fell away, and he wasn’t the same bastard who’d been looking for a reason to get out of bed each day, snapping guys’ heads off at every opportunity, wishing every night that he drank, because drowning in alcohol sounded like a damn relief. Now he was purely in the moment, more connected to Kata than ever.

Gripping her hips, he thrust in faster, faster, reaching under her to circle her engorged clit with his fingers. She was damn close.

“You want to come?”

“If you think I’ve earned it, Sir.”

Damn, even an obedient answer, and it went straight to his cock. “Yes. Come!”

Almost immediately, her body began convulsing. Her sex sucked him in deeper, gripping him so tightly, Hunter had to breathe hard through the urge to climax and flood her. Six months without sex was damn unpleasant. Six months without Kata had been excruciating.

Knowing he either had to pull out of her tight clasp or come now, he withdrew, still having one question mark in his head about her submission. This didn’t have to go perfectly, and if she was still coming to terms with it . . . he’d deal. She’d already come so far.

Fishing into his pockets, he extracted the plastic tube he’d shoved in there and dabbed a large dollop on the small pink rosette between her cheeks, then slid even more inside her.

Every time he’d touched Kata’s ass before, she’d resisted in some way. Now? She relaxed and pushed down on his fingers.

“I’m going to fuck you here.” He pressed deeper. “You’ll tell me if I hurt you.”

“Yes, but you won’t. Cheyenne helped me with a variety of plugs, each bigger than the last. I made sure I was prepared for you.”

If he’d been shocked before, her answer completely blew him away now. She’d willingly had her body prepared for the ultimate act of his submission?

“Why?”

“Because I want you to have me this way if you desire it.” Her eyes sparkled, filled with life and joy as she looked at him over her shoulder. “And because I think it will be hot as hell.”

His heart clenched. There she was. His hell on wheels Kata was right below the surface, waiting to tease and drive him mad. She would submit in the bedroom, but the partner he loved more than his own life had merged with the submissive he needed.

He wrapped his arms around her middle and trailed kisses along her shoulders. All the reserve he’d been using to hold himself back until he’d been sure . . . it was gone now, dissolved in the blush of her pure acceptance.

“Sweet Kata, goddamn it, I missed you so much.”

Her breath caught. “I missed you, too, Hunter. Every day, I thought about nothing more than you coming home and us having another chance. I was so afraid. I’m not anymore.”

“I know, honey. I see you, so obedient and so brave. So strong. I’m proud.”

“Take me.”

Her husky, pleading tones charged through his veins. No way to deny that request.

Fitting the head of his cock to her tight hole, he pushed gently to the ring. She pushed down and back. The resistance gave way quickly—and he found himself sliding into heaven. He gripped her hips, hissing in a breath as fire breathed through his body.

She groaned. “This is so different than a plug. So much better.”

“I want to help you enjoy it. Tell me what feels good.”

He drew back, then stroked in again. And again. Around him, her insides tensed, and her body flowed with him, hips catching his rhythm for one deep thrust after another. God, he was so deep into her, Hunter knew he’d never find his way out. His body craved hers. His heart . . . well, she might be his wife and submissive, but no doubt, he was the one enslaved.

Diving back into his pocket one last time, he pulled out a little vibrating bullet and switched it on. He wasn’t going to last much longer, but damn it, if he went over the edge into pleasure, she was going with him.

He flipped it on and shoved it right against her clit. Kata jolted, cried out. Her body tightened around him almost unbearably. Gnashing his teeth, Hunter tried to keep it together.

But he was fighting a useless battle.

“Come for me.” He barely got the words out before his own climax slammed across his senses, taking out his ability to breathe, to see, to do anything but feel Kata shudder around him as she found her own pleasure. He shouted, his cries mixing with hers.

They collapsed to the bed in a heap, and as soon as he could feel his legs again, Hunter withdrew carefully, shucked his pants, then found an attached bathroom. After gathering a warm, wet washcloth, he entered the bedroom again and went to Kata’s side.

He cleaned her gently, then uncuffed her. As soon as they were face-to-face, her hazel eyes sought his, the apprehensive questions lurking there a silent shout in the room. She wanted reassurance that she’d pleased him—the most basic instinct for a submissive.

Warmth spread all through Hunter, and he wondered that he didn’t goddamn glow. With a smile, he pushed the dark curls from her face and caressed her cheek. “You pleased me very much. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that you’d be waiting for me today, much less so prepared to accept everything I’ve wanted to share with you. You can’t know how proud I am of you or how much I appreciate all you’ve done for me. No more fears?”

Joy suffused her golden face. “None. Hunter, I know now that I can be me and still love you. You should know that I will still kick your ass when you need it. But I’m not going to run again. I would conquer my fears twenty times again just to be with you.”