Free Calder by Allyson James

looked up at Calder.
    “No, I want you.”
    Braden nipped her earlobe. “Aw, sweetie, you break my heart.”
    He didn’t sound heartbroken. He sounded amused and delighted.
    Calder’s mouth hardened. “What you say you want doesn’t matter, because you will want what I tell you.”
    “You’re very sure about that,” Katarina said.
    Braden chuckled.
    “Because I know what you really want.” Calder touched Katarina’s temple. “In here, I know what you truly crave, what you want deep inside yourself.”
    His touch was warm, soothing, melting. She’d love to fall to her knees and tell him she longed to obey him. But somehow she knew he wanted her to do that. He was using his Shareem pheromones on her, or trying to.
    “No, I don’t think you do,” she said.
    Calder’s brows went up the slightest bit, the only betrayal of his surprise.
    Otherwise he stood like a rock.
    Braden laughed and let Katarina go. “I think you’ve met your match, my friend.”

Calder yanked Katarina to him again, his mouth coming down on hers. She realized their last kiss had been gentle. This one was brutal, demanding, Calder not caring that she didn’t know how to kiss him back.
    His unshaved whiskers burned her face, his hand bruised her neck. He stroked his tongue through her mouth, commanding complete surrender. She’d taken his cock into her mouth, swallowed his semen, but that was nothing to this powerful kiss.
    Katarina touched his face. The left side was smooth with scars and skin grafts, the right side almost normal.
    Calder pulled back, his brows jamming together. Katarina caressed his ruined cheek, wanting to pull his head down and hold him against her.
    “Tie her hands,” Calder growled at Braden. “I don’t want her touching me.”
    “Nah.” Braden’s voice had receded behind her. “It’s more fun to watch you squirm.”
    “Then get out.” The harsh command was directed at Braden.
    Katarina didn’t hear Braden leave. She wanted to turn and look at him, but she was too mesmerized by Calder’s eyes. She again ran her fingertips across his face.
    “This is my house, Braden.”
    “Your lair, you mean. I think I’ll stay and make sure the lady is all right.”
    “Why wouldn’t she be?”
    “Because you can get a little…exotic. She’s not ready for exotic, and she’s too cute to be broken by you.”
    Katarina felt Calder’s fury mount. “Do you think I’d ever hurt her?”
    “I know what Judith told me,” Braden said.
    Calder’s mouth flattened. “I knew what Judith wanted.”
    Dismay lanced through Katarina’s delight. Who is Judith?
    “I think I’ll stay as long as Katarina does,” Braden said.

Braden sounded worried, but strangely, Katarina didn’t feel worried in the slightest. Was it because of the soothing Shareem chemicals or because she believed Calder truly wouldn’t hurt her?
    She’d believed in him yesterday, even with all he’d done to her. She’d been thoroughly pleasured and not hurt at all. Excited, not afraid.
    “It’s all right, Braden,” she said, still caressing Calder’s face. “You don’t have to stay with me.”
    She liked the contrast between the warm smoothness of the scarred side, the rough whiskers of the other. Both were strong with muscle, his cheekbones hard and even.
    “This is Calder , sweetheart,” Braden said. “One of the best level threes ever made.
    Means he’s gentle as a kitten one minute, dangerous as a desert tiger the next. You never know what he’s going to do.”
    But that made him more exciting. “I don’t mind.”
    Calder closed his hands around Katarina’s wrists, his grip like steel manacles.
    “Take her and go.”
    Katarina chilled but her nipples were tight, her heart beating hard and fast. “I don’t want to go.”
    “We are finished.” Calder moved his hot blue gaze to Braden. “Don’t let her come back.”
    “Calder, don’t be a stupid fuck,” Braden growled.
    “I don’t want you here, either.” The light