Free Collared (Vegas Nights Book 1) by Rayanna Jamison Page B

give into the temptation. For Pax, Diamond was a powerful seductress. The irony here was that she really wasn’t. She wasn’t trying to seduce him, she just did. From the moment he had laid eyes on her twerking in the club, he had been drawn to her like a moth to a flame. It wasn’t that she was flirtatious or overly experienced, or even trying. It wasn’t any of those things. It was, for a lack of a better word, undeniable, unavoidable chemistry. Plain and simple. Pax had never experienced anything like it, and he was helpless to stop it.
    But he had to try—because this situation was trouble.
    “No,” he told her firmly, his voice hard. “I have to go. We have to get back to work. Both of us.”
    “Work?” Diamond blinked up at him, looking dejected. “But, my bottom hurts. And I miss you already.”
    “Working with a sore bottom is part of the lesson,” Pax informed her with a growl, feeling less sure of the fact than he ever had before. To his dismay, she began to weep softly, pulling herself into a sitting position and wincing as she did so.
    “Why are you mad at me?” she wailed, beginning to cry piteously.
    “I’m not mad at you,” Pax growled again, annoyed at her tears. A sub’s tears outside of a spanking were his kryptonite. “I’m mad at myself. I broke the cardinal rule of an employment relationship. It was thoughtless, and reckless, and that’s not who I am.”
    “Sometimes rules are made to be broken,” she argued, looking less dejected and angrier by the second, with a fire in her eyes and a stubborn tilt to her chin.
    “Not by me,” Pax countered. “I like rules. Rules and order and discipline. Those are the things that have served me well in life, and made me what I am today.”
    She couldn’t argue that fact, and she didn’t try. Instead she also stood and began searching for her clothes. Pax had dressed while they argued, and all he had left to do was lace up his boots.
    I’ll leave first. I’ve got to go do the casino rounds. You go work the club.” The concern on her face at his choice turn of phrase made Pax laugh. “Talk to people, take pictures. You’ll endure a lot of good natured teasing, but nobody will touch you or say anything inappropriate. If they do, you call me, and I’ll come take care of it.”
    “Oh.” Her mouth rounded in surprise. “Wouldn’t it be faster to just tell the bouncer, since you’ll be across the hotel at the casino?”
    Pax, who had been hovering near the door, crossed the room to her in two giant strides, taking her chin in his hand, and tilting her head so that her gaze met his own. “What did I say? I said, if anything happens, you call me.”
    The change in her demeanor was instant. Watching a girl go from bratty and full of attitude, too sweet and submissive was one of his greatest pleasures in life, and with Diamond it was amplified tenfold.
    Her head, still cradled in his hand, dipped slightly, and her eyes cast to the floor. “Yes, sir,” she agreed softly.
    The sweet phrase, falling from her heart shaped lips, made his cock swell with want. What in the fuck was happening?  Two words and he was ready to fall at her feet, dreaming of plunging into her soft folds once more. He had never been this affected by anyone in his life. Swallowing hard, he tried to ignore the lump that had formed in his throat at the thought of leaving her here, alone and vulnerable.  Fuck. He had to get out of here.
    If he had to leave her here, to endure even the most-good natured of ribbing—it wasn’t happening.
    “Clock out,” he growled, dropping her face, and striding to the door, his hand on the knob.
    “You just told me to go work the room.”
    “And now,” he intoned impatiently, “I changed my mind. Clock out, and go up to your room for the night.”
    Her eyebrows raised quickly and her attitude turned on a dime. “You’re sending me to my room?”
    “Yes, I am. And I’m the boss. What I say goes. Get used to it.” With that he