Free TangledBound by Emily Ryan-Davis

through the reader and opened the door.
“Did any of that stuff actually work?”
    Melanie shifted beside him. “I learned right from wrong.”
    Sam paused with his hand on the doorknob and glanced at her
with a raised eyebrow. “Did you really?”
    Her flush grew darker and spread to her upper chest.
“I…maybe this hasn’t been my finest decision-making hour.”
    “Maybe not.” He smiled sardonically. “Go on in and we’ll
deal with your decision.”
    She hesitated. A variety of emotions crossed her features
while she worked out his meaning and came to whatever decision prompted her to
step across the threshold into his hotel room. When Sam let the door swing
shut, she jumped—and finally realized her vulnerability, if the tense set of
her shoulders and arms crossed over her breasts were any indication.
    He walked around her and pulled his suitcase off the room’s
second double bed. He found a clean t-shirt and a pair of running shorts and
tossed them on the foot of the unused bed.
    Sam pulled a straight-back chair away from a small desk and
sat, facing her. Her bare, flat belly was a damn distraction that he had to
work hard to ignore. Worse than the dip of her navel, though, was what he
couldn’t see…or what he would be able to see if her panties had even a
centimeter less fabric.
    Sam forced himself to focus on her face. “Here are your
options. You can get dressed, call the concierge and arrange for a replacement
key to be brought here immediately, and go back to your room where you’ll go to
sleep. Or you can put yourself across my knee, accept the ass-beating you very much
deserve, sleep here and get your replacement key in the morning. Do you have
any questions about your options?”
    She licked her lips and averted her eyes, looking over the
room. His rational half prayed she’d choose to get dressed and go. His primal
half desperately wanted the chance to redden her ass with the flat of his
hand…and then bury his cock in her wet heat. He tried not to dwell on the
possibilities of the latter scenario.
    “I do have a question,” she finally said. “Is it always this
way with you?”
    “What way?”
    “Please and Sir…and spankings…and all-or-nothing options.”
She swallowed and met his gaze. “I’m not complaining. I just want to know.”
    Her question caught him off guard. Sam looked down at his
hands, considering what answer to give her. The short answer would probably
scare her away. The long answer would definitely scare her away.
    Because some weak part of him wanted her to choose him, he
went with the short answer. “Yeah. It’s always this way.”
    She stood silent for a minute, breathing shallow and quick
like someone fighting panic. Sam left her to her decision and didn’t look up
even when her pink-polished toes appeared in his line of sight.
    “I’ve never done it this way before,” she said, the words
slow and careful around the shaky quality of her voice. “I mean, except that
once with you. I won’t know if I do something wrong until I’ve done it because
I don’t know your rules. You’ll have to tell me. I want to stay but I don’t
know what you want me to do.”
    Fuck . Sam closed his eyes. “Melanie—”
    “You’ll have to straighten up so I can lie down across your
lap,” she said, interrupting his attempt to change her mind.
    He nodded and lifted his head, settling back in the chair.
Melanie wasn’t covering her breasts anymore. She stood with her hands behind
her back and her chin tucked to her chest, a posture so inherently submissive
that Sam couldn’t contain the sense of possessiveness surging through him.
    Not mine .
    Except he was lying to himself. Still, he said the words out
loud. “I’m not giving you any rules because you don’t belong to me. This isn’t
a permanent arrangement.”
    Her breath hitched. “I need you to tell me what you want
from me. Please tell me.”
    “I want you to make careful decisions about your safety.
What you