Free Under His Command (Six-Alarm Sexy) by Kristine Cayne Page A

area. He stopped in front of Rickie. She switched off the set, but made no other move.
    All right. Good start.
    He was so excited, so fucking joyful, it was all he could do not to grin like a boy in the Nerf section of a toy store. Slow down, Caldwell .
    “If that first time was so damn special, why did you nun-up every time I got a little demanding with you?” Until they had this figured out, there was no way he was going any further. He wasn’t risking that kind of hurt again.
    She crossed her arms and rubbed her throat with one hand. “I was scared.”
    Christ . He recoiled in horror. “Of me?”
    She dropped her head forward. Her hair shielded her face, and he didn’t like that. He lifted her chin up. “Eyes on me.”
    Swallowing hard, she met his gaze. “I was afraid that you’d turn into Mr. Asshole.”
    “Mr. Who?”
    “That’s the name I used for my mother’s boyfriends.” Her eyes blazed and whiteness ringed her mouth. “At least the violent ones. The ones who’d talk dirty and slap her around. Who’d punish her with kicks and punches whenever she was too slow or did something they didn’t like.”
    Jesus. He’d known things had been difficult for her growing up, but he hadn’t known her mother had been abused. Then a sickening thought speared though his gut. He crouched down in front of her. “Did any of them ever… touch you?” He’d kill any fucker who’d so much as laid a finger on her.
    She squeezed her lids closed and shook her head. “It came close a time or two, but Mom always managed to distract them.”
    Thank God . Patting her knee, he stood back up. “This certainly explains a lot. I wish you’d told me earlier.”
    “It wouldn’t have mattered. I don’t think I was as afraid of you turning into Mr. Asshole, as I was of me turning into my mother. She let them do those things to her.”
    He walked back to the couch and sat beside her. “Your mother was a substance abuser. She let them hurt her because they fed her addiction, not because she liked it.”
    “But that’s just it, Jamie. I liked it. I liked when you spanked me. I’m exactly the same as her. Maybe she started out liking it too. And then things went too far and she couldn’t stop it anymore.”
    Pulling her against his chest, he stroked her back, her hair, her arms. He could feel her body tremble beneath his hands. “What those men did had nothing to do with pleasure and everything to do with power. I’d never do anything you didn’t want. And I’d never let things go too far. With me, you don’t have to be afraid of what you like and what you want.”
    She clung to him as though he were a life raft. “I really want to believe you, Jamie. I want to trust you.”
    “And yourself.”
    “And myself.”
    “I have an idea that might help us get there.” But first, he had to make sure they were on the same page. Her kinky might be his vanilla. “Tell me. What exactly about that night did you like?”
    She looked up at him, her eyes wide and innocent, so much like they’d been the night they’d met. And despite the seriousness of what they’d just discussed, his cock hardened.
    “I liked what we did,” she whispered.
    Could she be more cryptic? “Give me specifics.”
    “It wasn’t so much the ‘what’. It was more the ‘how.’”
    “Details, Rickie.” His tone was firm. Low. Exactly the tone he’d used with his subs in the past.
    She sat back and jutted her chin out, and he almost smiled at the show of resistance. “I liked the way you spoke, the words you used, the way you touched me.”
    He stood up and took a few steps. “Do you know what BDSM is?”
    Her eyes flicked to her suitcase before returning to him. Hmm. He’d have to find out what she had in there later. “Whips and chains? People who like pain when they have sex?”
    “Uh… not quite. It’s a combination of bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadomasochism. They’re lumped together like that because