Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 73880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
I wait for the other shoe to drop. I swallow and lick my lips, but he doesn’t say anything.
At first.
I power my phone off with trembling fingers and toss it onto the desk. I fight the desire to whip it against the wall and break it, but I’m not sure why.
“We are alone,” he says, his voice low and seductive. “No one to stop us. No one to hear your moans… or your screams.”
My pulse races. “Right,” I say, pretending I’m not damn near choking on my heart in my throat. “We are.”
He wraps his hands around my torso. For some reason, the silence around us seems almost deafening. I’m aware of how easily he could hurt me. I’m so much smaller than he is, so much more… fragile.
But this is Timeo.
Timeo wouldn’t hurt me.
Would he?
“Come here,” he says.
Come here? I’m already — oh.
I’m over his… his lap.
My belly on his knees and my hands flat out in front of me.
I close my eyes against a rush of emotion and need. I’ve never been in this position before. I’ve imagined it. And imagination doesn’t hold a candle to the actual feel of surrender. The erotic pulse of need when he palms my ass.
“Time to fess up.” Timeo’s voice takes on a hard edge that catches me a little by surprise, but I’m over his lap, he’s definitely in the dominant position here.
“Mmm?” I ask, pulse accelerating.
“When were you going to tell me?”
I still. “Tell you… what?”
He slaps my ass so hard it feels like his whole palm covers the entire surface. I gasp and squirm and open my mouth to protest when he answers.
“What you’re hiding.”
“I’m not—” I begin, but I can’t lie to Timeo. I can’t. Even if I were going to, the next hard spank stops me mid-sentence. I squeal when he gives me one spank after another in rapid succession.
“You lie to me, and I’ll bare your ass, Starla,” he growls. “Tell me.”
I can’t hold it back forever. It was only a matter of time. So I give it my only shot.
“Take me off your lap and I’ll tell you.”
That only earns me another hard spank. Goddamn it, why does that turn me on so much? I’m on fire even as I’m fighting the need to find a way out of here so I can run—
“This is your last warning.”
I open my mouth to tell him and find I can’t talk. “I — I—”
He grabs my pants and starts to pull them down. My cheeks flame. This is not the way I want him to see my bare ass for the first time.
“Timeo, no! I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you, okay?”
My voice trembles.
He pauses, his hand resting on my flaming hot ass.
“Go on.”
I sigh. I was going to have to tell him eventually.
“It started as a fun little thing I did just to make friends. I… started anonymously posting online, and I was shocked when people wanted to… to know more about me.”
I can feel his growl all the way to my belly. I squeeze my eyes shut.
It doesn’t help.
“And I… I started an account. Anonymously. And it’s… it’s grown… a lot.”
“What kind of platform?” he asks.
“I…” My voice wobbles. “Well. All of them.”
I don’t care if he whips my ass right now. I kind of feel like I deserve it. But if he pushes me away, or he tells Sergio on me, or rejects me in any way—
I’m upright on his lap, my aching ass against his knees. Timeo’s eyes are as serious as I’ve ever seen them when he reaches for my chin and holds my gaze.
“You’re an influencer?” he says, his gaze probing mine. “You make your money on social media? For anyone to see?”
I swallow and nod. It sounds so much worse when he says it. “Yeah.”
“Fuck. That explains everything.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Timeo
I can’t decide if I want to pull her back over my lap and blister her ass, or if I want to dig us out of here and take her away so I can truly hide her where no one will ever find us.
“Explains what?” she asks, her beautiful eyes luminous and wide, brighter with the blush of her cheeks and the flush of her lips.
“Jesus, Starla. There’s no such thing as an anonymous platform. No such thing.”
Biting her lip, she finally nods. She knows.
“It explains how they knew who you were.”
“Who, Timeo?”
I shake my head. “Our enemies.” It’s more than I should tell her and still not enough. “Someone tipped them off.”
“From… based on what?” she asks, shaking her head. “I never told anyone who I was. I could’ve been any of the thousands of women in New England. I don’t understand.”
“They have their methods.”
We weren’t careful enough. Is anyone ever careful enough? They tried to break me over and over, but I never caved. I would’ve died rather than betray my family.