Chapter 44 You Need Supervision
"I came to visit you," I said lightly, still straddling her hips. "Your room is a terrible mess. Can’t you tidy up after yourself?"
"Can’t I—?" Lara’s chest heaved, her lips opening and closing in adorable indignation. "That’s— that’s beside the point! You can’t just jump me in my bed!"
She pushed against my arms; a futile exercise. I barely felt the resistance.
"You belong to me," I reminded her. "This entire tower belongs to me. There is nowhere in my home off limits to me. It is only a matter of whether I choose to come here."
"That’s fucking creepy!" she snapped.
"Is it?" I shifted my weight slightly, settling more comfortably over her hips. "You seemed like you were enjoying it. Or were you just having a particularly good dream?"
"None of your business." Her cheeks flushed as she turned her face aside, sulking. "My dreams, at least, are off-limits to you. And get off me. You’re heavy."
I considered her for a moment, then sat back on my heels, giving her space to breathe. The sudden absence of my weight left a cool gap between our bodies.
Lara immediately reached for the bedside table and clicked on the lamp. Soft golden light spilled across the messy little room, catching in her tangled red hair and the faint marks still visible on her skin.
"What time is it?" she murmured, glancing at the clock. "Five am? Why are you here in the middle of the night?"
Her face was so expressive I could read every flicker of emotion in those cat-like green eyes—exasperation, reluctant curiosity, and, despite every sharp word, the persistent undercurrent of attraction she still tried to deny.
After looking me up and down, her jaw took on that stubborn tilt again.
"Are you so obsessed with me that you can’t even go one night without me?" Lara said archly.
"You’d like that, would you?" I said. "I have received some news — I have some business to tend to, and I will be very busy for a few days. So— I decided to be a responsible owner."
I leaned down, trailing my fingers slowly up the soft inner skin of her thigh. The muscle jumped under my touch.
"Spread your legs, sweetheart."
Lara’s cheeks turned slightly pink in the dim lamplight.
I carefully hooked a finger into the base of the plug and began to draw it out. The thick silicone dragged against her sensitive walls, emerging inch by deliberate inch until it finally slipped free with a soft, wet pop.
A trickle of creamy white liquid followed, spilling from her pretty pink pussy and trailing down toward the sheets.
My mouth went dry with sudden hunger.
I wanted her again. Right now. Wanted to fill her up once more, to make certain she stayed bred full of my seed. The urge slammed into me so hard that for a brief second my mind went completely blank.
When I recovered, a flicker of unease followed. I could not allow pure instinct to dictate my actions. Control was everything.
But that was for me to know. I dismissed the feeling quickly, not allowing it to surface when I had no time to examine it.
"There..." I said, my gaze fixed between her legs. My tongue darted out to wet my lips.
"I will not have time to keep you satisfied for the next few days. Would you like me to take care of you now?"
Lara squirmed back from my touch the moment I released her, pressing her thighs tightly together. In one quick, defensive motion she snatched her robe from the foot of the bed and wrapped it around herself, yanking the belt into a firm knot at her waist.
"No," she said. "I don’t need you to climb into my bed in the dead of night to ’take care of me’."
I watched her cover herself up with mild disappointment, even though I knew I really did not have the time for this.
"Suit yourself." I rose from the mattress, adjusting my cuffs with deliberate calm. "But you had better not get into trouble while I am away. Or I won’t be so lenient with your punishment next time."
"Me? Trouble?" Lara batted her eyelashes, putting on an innocent expression. "I wouldn’t dream of doing anything you would disapprove of, sir."
"Really," I said flatly.
I already had firsthand experience of what that particular look meant. Whenever my little fox wore it, a substantial headache was never far behind.
"If you won’t be here, maybe you should give me a phone so that I can keep in contact with you," she said, her expression brightening. "And an access card, in case you need me to come to you...?"
"No chance," I said. "You are on thin ice as it is. I have not forgotten that you are crazy enough to point my own gun at me."
Lara huffed, her voice lowering into a guilty mumble. "Well, I apologized for that. I won’t do that again."
"Because you know it will not do you any good," I said.
Not because she had actually lost the desire to defy me, I could see clearly. Every inch of submission from this girl was a hard-earned battle of wills. Any time she saw an opening, she would take the opportunity to test my control.
"In fact, I am not going to leave you unsupervised," I decided. "I will assign a personal guard to you."
Especially with enemies lately infiltrating my organization and now blowing up my shipyards, I had to be more careful with my treasured belongings.
"Oh, that’s not necessary," Lara groaned. "I’ll be a good girl up in this glass birdcage of yours."
"I will believe you when you actually demonstrate obedience, for once," I said, lifting my eyebrows.
—
A group of guards was already waiting when I reached the underground car park. The fluorescent lights cast sharp shadows across the concrete. I scanned the line of black-clad figures until my gaze settled on Vienna, standing straight as an arrow in her combat suit, expression alert and ready.
"I need you to stay here," I said to her.
Vienna frowned.
"But I always travel with you," she said.
"This is more important," I said. "I need someone I trust to watch my penthouse. Keep an eye on Lara, make sure she doesn’t get into trouble."
"Lara?" Vienna repeated disbelievingly. "You want me to watch a whore?"
I narrowed my eyes.
"My pet," I corrected. "Don’t call her that. And you know that she is important to my plans. You are the only one I trust with this."
That is, the only one I trusted who was not required for other, more important things, I wisely did not say.
Vienna’s lip twisted. Displeasure radiated from her in tight, controlled waves, but she did not question the order further. Without another word she turned on her heel and strode back toward the building, the set of her shoulders rigid with resentment.
I watched her go for a brief moment, then turned my attention to the more immediate problem waiting at the docks. Sliding into the waiting car, I gave a single command.
"Let’s go. Quickly."
As the vehicle accelerated out of the garage and into the pre-dawn streets, I retrieved my phone and placed a call to the police chief.
A friend of mine. Well, he was a friend for as long as I held evidence of certain indiscretions that he did not want to be known.