Submitting to the Sheriff (Cowboy Doms Book 2) Read online

  Ten minutes later, her face and feet were numb, her teeth were chattering, and she was so miserable, aching for warmth, she didn’t hear the SUV coming up behind her until Grayson pulled to a stop. Flinging open the passenger door, Avery had never been so glad to see his scowling face or hear his commanding voice.

  “Get the fuck in here.”

  Grayson couldn’t believe it when he spotted Avery halfway up the road leading to his place, her hair plastered to her face and neck in frozen tendrils, her face pale, her lips blue when she looked up at him. Anger warred with concern as she struggled to climb inside the cruiser until he leaned over and hauled her up himself. She should have been home two hours ago, not out in this weather, stranded without a car. He was so pissed he didn’t trust himself to say anything else yet. Flipping the heat on high, he sped down the road, anxious now to get her warm before hypothermia kicked in.

  “I… slid o… off the… road…” She waved a shaking hand backwards, indicating the highway through her chattering. “I… w… was…”

  “Quiet,” he bit out. “I already gathered you didn’t go straight home after I warned you about the storm. You’re really racking up the infractions.”

  “B… but…”

  “Avery, I swear to God, if you don’t shut up, I’ll stick a ball gag in your mouth the minute I get you inside. I’ll let you know when I’m ready to hear your explanation.” Grayson pulled into the garage and closed the door before cutting the engine, saying, “Wait there. I’ll help you.”

  Coming around to the passenger side, he lifted her and carried her straight into his bathroom, his first intention to get her out of her cold, sodden clothes, the second to get her warm enough to start answering questions.

  Chapter 11

  Avery wasn’t sure what a ball gag was, but the image that popped into her head prompted the tight clamping of her trembling lips together. Being carried by Grayson would have been a pleasant experience if it weren’t for the cold expression on his face adding to the shivers already racking her body. She wanted to explain she’d been coming to him, and why, but the small amount of bravery she’d managed to conjure up back in Billings seemed to have deserted her in the face of his wrath. His displeasure with her continued to bother her on one of those indefinable levels she didn’t understand. Regardless of their limited relationship, she wanted back in his good graces.

  Grayson kicked the door to the master bath shut, set her down and reached into the glass enclosed tiled shower. As he flipped on not only the middle overhead rain shower head but both side sprays, instant, billowing steam started seeping into her bones. And then he turned back around, yanked off her sodden jacket, tossed her glasses onto the double-sink counter and reached for her sweatshirt, making her forget to stay silent.

  Lifting shaking hands to his, she whispered, “I can do it.”

  Grayson’s eyes snapped to hers. “You won’t be sitting comfortably for a week if you keep it up.”

  A slow curl of anger tightened Avery’s abdomen, but she pushed back the temptation to question him about his mood. She got that his current pissy attitude stemmed from her getting caught unawares by the weather and ending up in physical jeopardy because she hadn’t listened to him about heading straight home from the hospital. But his ire had kicked in Friday night, two days before today’s fiasco.

  He whipped the damp shirt over her head, tossed it on the floor and didn’t hesitate before ridding her of her bra. Her nipples, already puckered from the cold, went tighter under his heated inspection. Taking a deep breath, she breathed in the steam as it slowly warmed her icy skin.

  “Hold on to my shoulders,” Grayson instructed after loosening her jeans.

  His muscles bunched under her grip as he bent down to work her wet pants, shoes and socks off before removing her panties. She found herself warmer naked, without the cold, clinging dampness of her clothes, his nearness, piercing eyes and the steam all working to envelop her with much-appreciated heat.

  Grayson checked her pulse while looking her over with a critical eye. With a nod and one hand on her butt, he pushed her into the shower. “I’ll be back,” was all he said before closing her in under the pelting, hot water that struck her cold body with stinging force. The fact he hadn’t let his irritation with her keep him from ensuring her well-being perked her up.

  Avery yelped and then sighed under the heated deluge, thawing the rest of the way, barely hearing the bathroom door snick shut. Sinking down onto the small bench, she leaned her head back against the wall and just sat there, soaking up the humid warmth and praying the hot water lasted forever. Without realizing it, she drifted off only to jerk into instant awareness when Grayson returned and stepped into the shower naked, the sight of his jutting cock making her pussy go damp.

  Grabbing her wrists in one hand, he pulled her to her feet and grasped her chin. “Are you with me, sugar?” She nodded and watched his eyes blaze as she leaned against him. “Excellent. Now you’ll talk to me.”

  “Fine, what…” She sucked in a breath as he raised her arms above her and made quick work of shackling both wrists in a terrycloth wrap attached to a short, dangling chain. “Sheesh, do you have those things everywhere?”

  “Yes.” Sliding his palms down her neck to her breasts, he cupped the heavy weights and rasped her nipples with his thumbs, his eyes on hers as he said, “You haven’t been honest with me, sugar. And I don’t like that.” Releasing her plumpness, he circled the puckered tips with his forefinger then grasped each nub between fingers and thumbs. Applying pressure Avery could feel straight down to her pussy, he shocked her with his next words. “Tell me something. How did you do with other callers after you and I ended our first conversation together? You remember, don’t you? The night you climaxed for the first time under my commands.”

  Gasping as he tightened his grip on her nipples, she stuttered, “You… you know?”

  “I do now. It was that little catch in your voice when you went off like a firecracker the other night that gave you away.” He released her pinched tips, and she gasped again as the blood rushed back into her engorged, numb nipples.

  Before she could adjust to the pinpricks of pain and tingling pleasure, he spun her around to face the wall, running those large hands over her quivering stomach, down the insides of her quaking thighs and then around to cup her clenching buttocks. Bending his head, he pressed his water-slick body against her back, his cock between her cheeks and his lips to the side of her throat. His chest hair tickled her skin, his teeth delivered a sharp nip and his hands a painful squeeze to her globes.

  “From the moment we met at the diner, you knew who I was, and all I asked for was honesty. Why couldn’t you give me that?”

  Avery shuddered, regretting the underlying disappointment she caught in his voice. He released her buttocks, cupped one hand between her legs and pushed the other between her cheeks, holding her in a tight clamp by the crotch as he waited for her answer. “I… I’m sorry. I needed to know…” She groaned as he slid two fingers inside her pussy and one past her puckered back entrance. “Sir, please,” she begged, surprised by how fast she reached the boiling point of need.

  Gripping her hair, he pulled her head back, his voice low as he drawled slowly, “Oh, I don’t think so, sugar. Not yet.” Stepping back, he turned her around, and she shivered at the look on his face, his tight-jawed disapproval contrasting with the light of possessiveness in his eyes as he ran one finger over the bare flesh of her labia. Going to one knee before her, he kept his gaze on her face as he instructed, “Spread your legs.”

  He didn’t need to repeat the order; Master Grayson’s look alone commanded her obedience. Avery’s first glimpse of this side of him had caught her unawares but left her interested in seeking more of both him and a sexual lifestyle new to her. The second, longer, up close look as he’d disciplined Sue Ellen had shaken her; the lighter demonstration he’d given her of the same act had left her with a needy ache. And then, just a few days ago,
he’d brought out a part of her she’d never known existed and left her craving more of his strict side. Now, even wary and unsure, she thrilled to be on the receiving end of his complete dominance.

  With a delicate shudder, she shuffled her feet apart, unsure about his mood, intentions and what was to come, yet craving him with every fiber of her being. Avery now knew why he’d been so put off with her following their scene the other night, never dreaming he could identify her by such a small sound, one she’d never known she made. As he used his thumbs to spread her tender folds and expose her swollen clit, she shoved aside that revelation to deal with later.

  Being enclosed in the steam-filled room with a naked Master Grayson required Avery’s full concentration, especially since he wasn’t happy with her. Scraping her clit with a nail, she arched against his hand in helpless surrender to whatever he wanted.

  “You were scared, needed to be sure of me before revealing yourself.” He brushed his lips over her labia before sinking his teeth into the soft flesh. “I get that.”

  “Oh, God.” Avery shook in the bonds, that sting seeping into her sheath, drawing more dampness.

  “But I proved my trustworthiness the first night you came to The Barn, didn’t I?” He punctuated that question with another bite.

  “I… yes, but… everything was so new… unexpected… and I was… am so…” The quick thrust of his tongue kept her from forming a coherent thought to the rest of her reply. She whimpered as he added two fingers and circled her clit with his tongue before pulling on the tender piece of flesh with his teeth. Yanking on her arms, she thrust her hips into his face, allowing her body to do the begging for more. Ignoring her pleas, he fucked her pussy with tongue and fingers, bringing her to the cusp of orgasm before pulling back, not once but twice and then three times.

  Instead of delivering what she ached for, he tormented her until she was swollen with edgy need, writhing in the bonds and grinding against his marauding mouth. With his lips wrapped around her throbbing clit, pulling on the puffy nub with strong suctions, he reached out, and with a hard yank on one showerhead hose, sent it toppling down to grab the handle. Pulling back from his feasting, he turned the spray between her legs.

  “Afraid?” he continued his questioning, switching the light spray to one of harder pulsations. “Of me, or the circumstances that sent you to me?”

  Grayson didn’t give Avery time to answer, or even think. Her cry resounded in the small space as he aimed the jets on her aching flesh, unleashing fiery sparks of pleasure to convulse the slick walls of her pussy only to pull away, once again stalling the final explosion of ecstasy.

  “Either way, you should have been able to come clean with me before I found out on my own who you are.” Holding her labia wide open, he held the spray right on her clit until her entire body jerked from the small contractions of an impending orgasm. As soon as she let loose with that telltale sign, he pushed to his feet, returned the showerhead above and then lifted her right foot onto the seat. Reaching to the shelf behind her, he plucked off a condom she never saw him place there. Sheathing himself, he growled, “You’ll tell me now what you’re afraid of, who caused you to have such mistrust, won’t you?”

  The silken-softness of his voice didn’t fool Avery; that was a definite, steel-edged command, not a polite request. “Watch me take you,” he ordered next, reaching behind her to clasp her buttocks in a tight grip, holding her immobile for his slow invasion into her trembling body.

  Biting her lip to keep from moaning, she eyed his thick length as he sank by slow measures inside her, stretching her wider than anything or anyone who had come before him. Her vaginal lips clung around his thick girth like a soft glove, sucking him deeper, each slow glide brushing against still quivering muscles, releasing small tendrils of pleasure along the way.

  “Jesus, but you’re tight,” he muttered, pushing a little harder, working inside her slick depths as he pressed her pelvis closer to his. “And so fucking hot you may burn me up.”

  Water sluiced between them, a misting curtain that lent an intimacy to the carnal fucking. With one leg still propped up on the seat, spreading Avery wider, the only reason she could maintain her one-legged stance during his tortuously slow assault was because of her bound hands and his firm hold.

  Grayson pulled back, dragging his rigid flesh over sensitive, swollen tissues, his breathing as harsh as hers as he pushed her for more. “Tell me, Avery. What is it you’ve been too scared to talk about?” Another deep surge drew a shudder. “What drove you so far from home, made you so desperate for cash?” A repeated slow withdrawal accompanied his attention-forcing stare, one she couldn’t break even if she wanted to.

  “Please, Sir,” Avery pled as he thrust back inside her with enough force to bump her womb and set off another round of small contractions heralding an orgasm.

  “Not until you talk to me,” Grayson ground out, sinking his fingers tighter into one malleable globe as he released the other to press between her cheeks and invade her ass with a two-fingered jab past the puckered rim.

  Avery lost herself in the steamy confines of the shower, in the closeness of Master Grayson’s naked strength, the tickling brush of his chest hair over her nipples, his breath in her ear, his teeth scraping her neck, his pummeling cock and pumping fingers. Aching need too long denied coupled with weeks of fear-induced stress burst through the last of her resistance and shattered her will. With tortuous sobs, she poured out her plight in stuttering gasps as he continued to drive her up, leaving nothing out from the time she’d stood hidden in the precinct’s garage and overheard Darren and Chad to losing control of her car on the ice today.

  By the time she finished, pleasure rivaling everything she’d experienced before burst upon her with the jarring jerks of his ramming cock, filled her with incredible ecstasy and crumbled the weeks-long dam keeping her emotions in check along with her body as she fell into his arms and continued to let go.

  Grayson reached up and turned off the shower heads, keeping a tight hold of Avery’s shaking body with one arm wrapped around her waist. He still shook from the riotous force of his own climax, but nothing could have cleared his mind so fast as the outpouring of her confession. Fucking A. Going up against two dirty Chicago cops would not be easy for anyone, let alone a young woman whom one had betrayed with such callous disregard. His girl often bemoaned her lack of bravery, but from where he was standing right now, he thought her the most courageous woman he’d ever met. And damn it, he was still fucking pissed at the time she’d taken to come clean with him and the risks she’d taken today, both with the anonymous Internal Affairs contact and with the weather.

  Despite her muddled, emotionally messy state, she felt good against him, all that damp, abundant, soft flesh cushioning his hard body, her muscles still shaking from her climax, her breathing still ragged as her tears blended with the water wetting his skin. Driving a woman into a crying binge with his dominance didn’t bother him, but listening to Avery’s gasping sobs brought on by her ordeal tore into his gut with sharp stabs and gripped his chest in a vise.

  He waited until she quieted and then ushered her out of the shower, wrapping her in a large, heated towel before drying himself and slipping his jeans back on. Gripping her chin, he lifted her ravaged face, pleased to see her eyes were clear despite being red-rimmed.

  “Are you steady enough to dry your hair on your own, or do you want me to do it?” He suspected she would need a few minutes alone to get herself under control, and he didn’t mind giving them to her as long as she was capable of handling herself. But only a few. They still had issues to settle before they sat down and discussed where to go from here.

  Avery nodded against his hold. “I’m… okay. I can do it.”

  “Meet me in the den when you’re done. Make sure you’re dry, including your hair before coming out. I’ll have the fire going, but I still don’t want you to get chilled again.” Releasing her, he gathered up the still damp clothes and left her
staring after him in bemusement. Good. Keeping her off guard would continue to work in his favor, and eventually, hers.

  Grayson rummaged through his bedroom toy stash before padding down the hall and into the den. A glimpse out the wide front window showed the sleet had stopped and now the trees and ground glistened with an icy sheen. Once the sun popped back out tomorrow, as predicted, he knew the remnants of this quick storm would melt away, but tonight would remain treacherous for drivers. He heard his hair dryer come on as he stoked the fire into a hot, crackling blaze and deemed he had just enough time to make a quick call before Avery joined him.

  He had just ended his conversation with Gary Ayers, who owned Willow Springs’ twenty-four-hour tow service and repair shop when he looked up and saw her standing at the entrance to the hall. Taking his time, he enjoyed a leisurely inspection of her naked body, a rosy tinge now replacing the goosebumps covering her white skin when he’d first stripped her. Wearing nothing but her glasses, she shifted under his inspection, dropping her hands to cover the enticing view of her bare pubis.

  With a silent crook of his finger, he beckoned her forward, satisfied when she didn’t hesitate to obey. Cupping her chin, he lifted her face, noting her clear but wary eyes. Excellent.

  “We will take a look at your copied files and discuss your options later. First, there’s the matter of dealing with the consequences of your foolish disobedience. I can understand and forgive your reluctance to tell me how we first met until you got to know me better. But I can’t and won’t dismiss you ignoring my instructions to hightail your ass back home to avoid the incoming storm, thus putting yourself in physical jeopardy. Christ, sugar, you took ten years off my life when I saw you.”

  “But…”

  “Quiet.” He pinched her chin and almost smiled when she fisted her hands and narrowed her eyes but clamped her lips together. “I’ve been operating under your terms regarding this relationship since day one of your arrival in Willow Springs and that stops now. We will move forward with our relationship under my terms now and that means obeying not only my sexual commands, but any orders I issue that involve your safety and well-being.”