Page 17 of Hidden Obsession

Heat hit my face and my heart stopped at the change in his face. I watched surprise flash in his eyes before they darkened.

Shit. He was going to change his mind.

Hollis was a man who knew what to do with a woman. He didn’t need or want some girl who wasn’t sure of what she was doing. My eyes skated over his body, the broadness of his shoulders, the thickness of his neck, and the biceps that stood out under his sleeveless tank, some old shirt he’d cut the sleeves off he looked really good in. Oh yeah, Hollis would definitely know what to do with a woman.

“You’re twenty-five.” We’d talked over pizza, sharing things like our age and our likes and dislikes. “How the hell is that possible?” His eyes followed my tongue as they swiped over my lips. “You have to be kidding me.”

“I’m not. I just… it just never happened.” I shrugged. Both his hands cupped my face, and I was almost positive he was trembling.

“The men who have come into your life are fucking idiots. One look at you, and I knew.”

“Knew what?” I asked, swallowing hard.

“That you’d be mine,” he said like he was decreeing some kind of law.

“You can’t mean that. There’s no way…”

“I do, little flower.”

“But… I mean… we just met.”

“I mean it, Maryanne,” he rasped. “Fuck.” His eyes shut tightly as he rested his forehead against mine. “We do this, we need rules. You can’t be the sweetheart you are and just give me what you think I want.”

“Hollis,” I tried to argue, but I knew by the way he looked at me that he wasn’t going to let me.

“If at any point we do anything that you’re not comfortable with, if you want to stop or take a moment, all you have to do is tell me to stop, and I will.” His words felt like a balm on my skin.

“What if I don’t want you to stop?” I taunted.

“Maryanne.”

“I thought I was your little flower.” I licked my lower lip. Heat cursed all around my body and settled low in my belly.

“Oh, baby, you are. My perfect little flower. And I’m the one who’s going to pluck you right up.”

“Hollis.” He shifted us, and suddenly, I was straddling him, my thighs over his, the hard ridge of his cock pressed just right against my aching pussy, exactly where I needed him.

“Oh god.” A little moan escaped from me.

“Not god, little flower. Daddy. That’s what you call me when we play.”

“Hollis, is this…” I exhaled roughly, trying to get the words to slip past my lips. Not that I couldn’t because I was ashamed or embarrassed but because I was too worked up.

“Something I like?” He took the words from my mouth, and I nodded, holding on to his shoulders, unable to sit still. He gripped my thighs so I wouldn’t keep squirming, distracting him from whatever these rules were he needed to set up.

“Not really. I like having control, but with you… you bring this side out of me.”

“Oh…” My chest rose and fell as he stared at me. I could have easily let the shyness take over, hopped off his lap, and I knew Hollis would have let me. But I didn’t.

I stood up, and his amber eyes followed my every movement.

My hands moved beneath the soft cotton of the shirt he had let me borrow to the waistband of the track pants I was wearing and pushed them down. With how big they were, gravity did its job, and they pooled at my feet. I stepped out of them without breaking eye contact with Hollis.

“Maryanne.” He gripped the armrest with a white-knuckled grip. There was something almost addicting in the knowledge he was holding on by a thin thread and it was about to snap. I had that kind of power over him, and it made me feel… good.

Feminine.

Powerful.