Linger Read Online Free Page B

becoming impossibly tenser as the tall woman approached. Logan didn’t look like he wanted a choice. He looked like he wanted an escape, and when he cast a quick, panicked glance her way, Scarlett dared a quick glance at her watch.
    She’d planned on making him kneel for at least a half hour, to rouse his anger and make him think about how she wouldn’t be an easy Mistress. It had been only twenty minutes, but he had looked to her for escape, for something he needed.
    Well, she would give it to him. Though it probably wasn’t going to be in a form he expected.
    Projecting dominance wasn’t so very different from the stores of energy needed for a dancer in a performance. She watched intently as Logan looked belligerently up at the other Domme who approached him, the statuesque blonde all but purring as she placed one spiked heel on his thigh and ground the shoe into the muscle.
    â€œI like a man on his knees,” Avery murmured, her smile hungry. Logan didn’t wince, even though the spike being dug mercilessly into his leg had to hurt like hell.
    He opened his mouth to speak, but Scarlett cut him off, closing in on the pair and standing, still and straight.
    â€œHe’s spoken for tonight, Mistress Avery.” Scarlett kept her voice polite and cool, though a part of her was wondering if the beautiful male creature at her feet would contradict her.
    Though she had fixed her gaze on the other woman, from the corner of her eye she saw Logan looking at her warily. That was all the opening she needed.
    Avery smiled, the expression of a skilled predator with her prey in sight. “I don’t see a collar.”
    Scarlett smiled back coolly. She wasn’t mad—she had no right to be. Avery wasn’t speaking to her with condescension and wasn’t being any meaner to Scarlett than she was to anyone else.
    Mistress Avery was just a bitch—it was her thing. But bitch or not, Scarlett had no intention of handing her delicious sub over on a silver platter.
    Mine.
    â€œTrue enough. Though not all Mistresses need a collar to command loyalty,” Scarlett agreed amiably, transferring her attention from Avery to the man who eyed the pair of them with apprehension in his eyes. If Scarlett had seen only that wariness, she would have backed off.
    But twined with the nerves was desire—desire for her. And she had a responsibility to see it through.
    â€œYou may stand.” Her voice was quiet, but Logan rose instantly, pushing away Avery’s foot as he did.
    â€œI will be in private room number three for the remainder of the evening. I suspect that Mistress Avery is about to request your company for the evening as well, and as always, the decision is yours.”
    Logan’s eyes widened and his fists clenched, and Scarlett smothered her grin.
    â€œIf you are coming with me, then I expect you there within the next five minutes.” It almost killed her to walk away when all she wanted to do was run her fingers over the muscles in his arms that flexed as he clenched and unclenched his fists.
    Patience, Scar,
she reminded herself. That inexplicable connection that stretched between them was palpable even as she walked away, heading to the private room to prepare for what she hoped was going to be an evening of mind-blowing pleasure.
    Five minutes wasn’t a long time, but at that moment, it may as well have been an eternity.
•   •   •
    T he clock ticked, and Scarlett fought back bitter disappointment. She knew that she hadn’t imagined it, that delicious promise of the power exchange that they could play with, but . . .
    Well, Luca had warned her. This was one ornery sub. And if she were going to be in Vegas longer, she would have relished the challenge of coaxing him around.
    But she was leaving in the morning. Her night of pleasure wasn’t to be, because she knew that every other submissive would taste flat after meeting