“What makes you think I’m that weak?” he growled out. His cheeks were bright red and flushed the way I liked, and his gaze heated as though trying to make me melt by looking—and boy was it working. “You’re mine, Rookie, and I’m not going anywhere.Itake care of you. I can’t do that if you don’t tell me about these things.” He waved the bills at me while they were still clutched in his hand. “Understood?”
My lashes fluttered as his hold on my neck tightened. “Yes, Sir.”
“Good.” He dropped the papers on the table and stood, not releasing his grip on me. I followed him and got to my feet while staring up at him, my mouth watering. “No more secrets. We’re doing this together, no matter how rough it gets.”
I nodded and swallowed. “Yes, Sir.”
“Can we afford to pay them?” he whispered, shifting in closer until he was pressed against me, mouth so close to mine I could feel the tickle of his breath against my lips.
“It’ll be tight.” I winced at the admission. “Really tight. But I’m used to that.” His mouth quirked, and I shook my head, pointing a finger at him. “Don’t you dare, Sir. Don’t youdare.”
“That’s what he said.”
I groaned at the bad joke, and he laughed loudly. I fell against him, hiding my face against his neck as he continued to cackle, and it took a good minute before he was completely serious again.
“Sorry.” He wiped at the tears in his eyes, and I shook my head, raising my hand to stroke my thumb over his cheekbone. It was too hard to resist touching him. “We’ll make it work. I’ll ask Nox if he has any extra hours for me. Papa also said I could make some money doing translations into French for his practice, but I was trying to avoid it. He’s going to overpay me if I take the work.”
I smiled sadly and hugged him close, wrapping my arms around his waist and laying my head on his chest. His skin was warm against my cheek and the hair between his pecs tickled my face, but he smelled good, even though he’d just woken up. I enjoyed his natural scent. “I’m sorry you were thrown out of school.”
“We’ve been through this. It isn’t what I wanted to do anyway.” He curled his arms around me and held tight. “I’ll figure it out. I have my whole life ahead of me.”
“Trust me, the years fly by.” I chuckled to myself. “I’m almost twice your age, Jud—Sir.”
“I don’t care about that.” He kissed my temple, and I sighed into his warmth. “I’ll do the hours I need to now, and then I’ll figure something out. I promise.”
I trusted him, and that should’ve scared me. Sure, I’d been mature at twenty-four, but I’d had a lot of friends who weren’t—friends who preferred to party and fuck anything that moved. It was hard to believe that a man as handsome as Judge had his head screwed on correctly, yet he constantly proved to me he did. How I got lucky enough to have him as my partner, I didn’t know.
“But this conversation about you hiding the bills from me isn’t over.” He smacked his hand down on my ass, and I sucked in a surprised breath, jerking forward so our dicks rubbed against each other. “I’m going to show you how good I am at taking care of you.” He licked at the corner of my lip but didn’t kiss me like I wanted. “Get in the bedroom. Now. I want your pants around your ankles and your ass in the air for me.”
I stared too long.
“Go!” He whipped his hand across my backside, and I nearly tripped over my feet as I let go of him and rushed to the only bedroom in the house—ours. The room was almost bare, but we were still in the process of making it ours. We’d found the bed frame secondhand at a yard sale, and Judge’s parents had insisted on buying us a mattress. We’d tried to argue, but they claimed it was their housewarming present, which also seemed to include a microwave, linens, a new TV, a set of dressers, and a couch. Judge had finally told them to stop, and he’d earned a pout from his papa in response. The interactions between them were beyond sweet and my heart ached for my mom. I missed her more than words could say, and now that I had Judge I was sorry she’d never met him.
The dressers weren’t big enough to fit all Judge’s clothing, so he’d reluctantly left half of his wardrobe at his parents’ house. The walls in the bedroom were painted a light peach, and while the house wasn’t pretty it was the nicest place we could find at the rent we wanted to pay. We’d agreed to deal with the color.
I toppled onto the bed as I yanked off my T-shirt, throwing it. I shoved at my sweatpants as I slithered across the comforter, and when I finally had the pants around my ankles I dropped face-first onto the bed while keeping my ass in the air, exactly the way Judge had ordered.
My breath came out in harsh pants. I wriggled impatiently, tempted to yell and ask where he was, but I kept my mouth shut. If this was a test I didn’t want to fail it. While we hadn’t played hard in BDSM, I enjoyed our gentle kink. I loved the way he dominated me without getting too rough.
After five minutes, I sighed and wriggled my butt. A hand came down on my cheeks, drawing a surprised “fuck” out of me while I shot forward, nearly hitting the head of the bed. The only thing that stopped me from getting a bad bump was Judge grabbing my hips and yanking me back. I hadn’t even heard him come into the room.
“You scared me... Sir.” I added the last bit after I remembered we were playing. I glanced over my shoulder.
He flashed me a mischievous grin and his cheeks flushed a deeper red. “You should be prepared for me.”
“You took too long.” I attempted a glare at him, but it failed when he slapped me on the ass, and my eyes nearly rolled to the back of my head as I humped my hips forward. My dick strained, curved up toward my belly and hard as a barbell, ready for action.
“I should’ve made you wait longer with an attitude like that.”
I laughed and glanced at him over my shoulder as I got back into position. His nails dug into my hips and were leaving grooves in my skin. I was perfectly okay with that. I wanted him to mark me, make me his.
“You’re so fucking sexy like this, Rookie.” He moved his mouth over my lower back, laying kisses across my spine. “So fucking submissive. Compliant. My perfect bitch.”
I shuddered. “For you, Sir.”
“Whose job is it to take care of you?” He tickled his fingers over my right asscheek and more goose bumps prickled across my skin. My dick twitched, slapping against my belly.
“Yours.” The word barely left my mouth and I had to clear my throat and say it again louder. “Yours, Sir.”
