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directly down into her face.
    “Did I tell you to let the past stay in the past?” His voice
was hard, implacable. His courtroom voice.
    “Yes.” She felt a stirring of unease, not the first but
certainly the strongest.
    He rubbed his thumb roughly over her lower lip, smearing her
lipstick.
    “Yes what , baby?” His hand slid down from her chin to
wrap around her throat. Not hurting. Not even threatening, exactly. More of a
reminder.
    “Master,” she hurried to add. “I’m sorry,” she murmured,
wondering for a second at how strange it was for her, a well-known and
respected prosecuting attorney, to apologize for not calling a man “Master”. “I
forgot.”
    “Don’t forget again.” He whispered the words against her
lips and she found herself leaning toward the sound of his voice, the taste of
his breath. “Now.” He flicked his tongue over her lower lip, moved to nip at
the angle of her jaw. “Where were we?”
    He was moving now, stepping behind her, sliding his hand
over the arch of her neck before trailing his fingers down her spine to where
the bustier stopped him.
    “Ah, yes, I remember.” She felt the pressure of his finger
as he dragged it down her back, lightly bumping over the satin ribbon that
laced up the back of the corset-style garment. “We were discussing how you’ve
disobeyed me.” He reached around, pausing to skim his hands over the line of
her arms, stroking the sensitive skin, even brushing lightly over her armpits.
Chill bumps bloomed all along the path his fingers took.
    “I told you to leave Velvet Ice in the past, correct?”
    “Yes, Master.” Anxiety and arousal kept her voice low. She
didn’t understand the spell he was weaving, but God help her, she couldn’t get
enough.
    “Excellent.” His hands came to rest on her hips, just above
the waistband of her skirt, and he gave an approving little squeeze. “Did you
leave Velvet Ice in the past as you were instructed?”
    “No, Master.” Anxiety was beginning to get the upper hand,
and Elise wondered yet again what the hell she’d gotten herself into. The dual
feelings of aching arousal and a healthy dose of the unknown literally made her
want to cry. She had never needed to come as badly as she did at that moment,
at Derek’s hands.
    “No,” he agreed, “you didn’t. So you must see that you
disobeyed me, right, baby?”
    “Master,” she rushed out, fear and arousal and confusion
getting the better of her. “You said I could ask questions.” He stilled for a
moment, then flexed his fingers against her waist in a gentle caress.
    “I did. Ask.”
    “Derek, are we okay?” She didn’t know quite how to put her
fears into words, a truly unusual situation for an accomplished trial lawyer.
“I mean…” She hesitated, searching. “How angry are you?” She bit back a
curse. That was what she wanted to know, but at the same time, it wasn’t. It
was immediately clear that he’d missed her deeper meaning when he moved around
her and pulled away her makeshift blindfold. The eyes that met hers were icy,
his face nearly expressionless.
    “Are you asking me if I’ll hurt you?” He gave his head a
quick, angry shake. “That’s the point, isn’t it, baby? By agreeing to accept me
as your Master, you’re agreeing to be my slave. You’re agreeing to entrust me
with your body and your heart. With your pleasure and, if I deem it necessary
or desirable, with your pain as well.” He’d stepped back, taking the drugging
heat of his body away, and she rather desperately wanted it back. “If you
aren’t ready to give me that trust, you should never have started this.”
    He moved toward the wall panel, as if he were going to lower
her arms, and Elise saw their future moving away with him.
    “Dammit, Derek, stop.” She spared a moment to notice the
irony of her decidedly not submissive tone. He stopped but didn’t turn back to
face her. “It’s hard for me to blindly trust you,” she said in a softer