Tied to the Tycoon by Chloe Cox Page B

breathed. This must be what it’s like to be hunted .
    Except prey probably didn’t feel this good when it was caught.
    “No cupcakes, then?” she said, her voice small.
    “That depends,” he said, “on whether you’re a quick learner.”
    “What do I have to learn?”
    “Submission.”
    Ava swallowed. This was it—this was what she’d signed up for. She could do this, this carnal, primal thing. He let her hand go, boxing her in against the counter with his body, and tilted her face up toward his, his thumb brushing softly against her lower lip. Oh God, yes, she could do this.
    “What does that mean?” she asked.
    “It means I’m going to teach you.”
    “You are,” she said. It wasn’t a question. She knew it already. She already wanted him again, more than was healthy, more than she could handle while still being able to think rationally.
    “That was the deal, Frida . I’m going to teach you to submit,” he said, stripping off her robe. “Starting with the physical.”
     

chapter 8
     
    Ava stood naked before him, shaking. She didn’t know what to do. Was she supposed to respond a special way? Was there—
    “Shh,” he said. He knew what she was thinking. He ran his fingers lightly over her shoulders.
    “Do you want me—?”
    “Quiet, Ava,” he said, his voice so low it was almost a growl. “It’s all I can do not to make love to you right here.”
    She opened her mouth, then closed it again. That didn’t sound all that bad.
    “But that wouldn’t help you much,” he continued. He breathed in through his nose and sighed. Then his grey eyes sparkled, and he grinned. “I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do: I’m gonna make a little concession to myself. You know how you have a safeword?”
    Ava nodded. If he thought she could speak like an intelligent adult while his thumb circled around her nipple like that, he was insane.
    “Well, I’m gonna give myself an access word.”
    She slowly came back into focus. She managed to say, “What’s that?”
    “Exactly what it sounds like, Ava. You hear it, you get down on all fours, and—”
    “Give you…access.” She bit her lip to keep from smiling, even though she felt nervous as all hell. That was just... He didn’t need to know how much that excited her.
    He smiled, like he knew anyway. He probably did.
    “That’s right,” he said, and let his hand fall down the front of her body until it rested on her mons. Just…resting there. Tormenting her. “You hear me say…‘red velvet,’ and you do just that.”
    Red velvet. Of course. She was starting to breathe fast.
    “What if I’m not naked?”
    “You get naked,” he said. “At least where it counts.”
    Oh God.
    He dipped his fingers between her legs, as though he were just checking to see if she were wet. She knew she was. He gave her a smug grin; now he knew, too.
    Then he stepped back from her, his sudden absence making her feel almost cold in the well-heated apartment, looked her up and down again, and regretfully said, “All right, robe back on. I can’t stand it. And we’ve got a game to play.”
    He walked into the living room while Ava frowned and gathered the robe about her. She was more confused than ever now, but two things she was sure of: she was no longer naked, and Jackson Reed was no longer touching her. Both of those things seemed like steps backward, especially if the alternative was talking.
    She followed him to find that he was seated on his couch in front of the giant window that looked north and west over the city and the Hudson River. There were quite a few other luxury high-rises in the West Village now, enough that she was sure some of the neighbors could see in. Jackson didn’t seem to care. He had a yellow legal pad and a pen.
    “I was gonna come in and make you come about a dozen times before we got to this,” he said, pointing at the legal pad. “But then you were disobedient.”
    Ava groaned. She tried not to think about what