For my husband.
I curled my fingers around the cold steel, the metal grounding me even as my heart raced. My diamond-studded wedding band glinted under the light, a reminder that I was his.
I tipped my chin toward Nik, who sat in the chair like a king presiding over his throne room. His gaze pinned me as securely as a hand at the back of my neck.
I inhaled slowly, letting confidence flood my limbs. I’d danced for audiences before, but never for one man I wanted to please more than anything in the world. Never for a man whose desire radiated like heat across the room.
I stepped into a body wave, letting each vertebra roll one at a time as my hips swayed to the beat and my palm glided higher along the pole. Then I pivoted on my heel and began to climb, hand over hand, the cool steel sliding beneath my grip. My thighs gripped the pole, my body curling against it in a slow rise.
Nik watched me like a predator—like he had in the alley that night.
“Show me, wife,” he murmured, his baritone voice carrying easily over the music. “Show me how you move when it’s only for me to see.”
I pivoted into a fireman spin, my thighs brushing the pole as I descended in a slow spiral. When my heels touched down again and I rose, I hooked my inside leg high, pressing my calf to thesteel in a chair spin that gave him a perfect view between my thighs.
The bulge in his pants was obvious now. The fabric strained as his fingers flexed on the armrest.
I smiled and climbed again. The basic climb carried me high enough for me to execute a cross-knee release. I arched my back until my hair brushed the platform behind me. When I caught sight of the way his eyes darkened with desire, my body hummed with pleasure.
“Keep dancing like that, little lamb,” he rumbled, “and every roll of those hips will be a promise I intend to collect.”
A shiver rippled through me.
I slid down in a controlled descent, turned my back to him, and melted into a body wave and then an invert, catching the pole between my thighs as I hung upside down. My hips rolled slowly, the stretch pulling my bra lower.
Nik’s jaw flexed like he was biting back a command.
Before my feet touched the floor again, his patience snapped.
One second, I was arching into another hip roll. The next, his hands were at my waist, lifting me from the platform.
Nik carried me to the foot of the bed and set me on my feet, his chest brushing mine, his scent filling my lungs. The music still pulsed in the background.
His fingers found the clasp of my bra. With a flick, the straps slid down my arms. The lace hit the floor before I could blink. His mouth trailed fire from my shoulder, across my collarbone, down the valley between my breasts, and lower still, until he hooked his thumbs into the waistband of my panties.
He slid them swiftly down my thighs. By the time they hit the floor, his mouth was already at the crest of my mound, his breath hot against my skin. He gripped my ass and lifted me onto the edge of the mattress.
Then he stepped back, his eyes raking over me from head to toe. “Wife,” he said, voice all gravely and bossy, “show me how you please yourself. I want to watch your fingers as you touch your pretty little pussy, as you warm yourself up for me. I want to see that needy little cunt of yours come all over your fingers.”
Heat rushed to my cheeks, but my body throbbed with desire at the order.
“Spread your legs wide,” he added gruffly. “I want to see you dripping down that tight little puckered ring.”
My eyes shot wide, and I bit my lip so it wouldn’t tremble.
His lips curved into a devilish grin. “Okay then, don’t do as I say. I’d love nothing more than to punish you, to see my handprint rise on the curve of your ass so you can’t even sit without thinking of me.”
He took a slow step toward me.
I hooked one heel on the edge of the bed, then the other, my stilettos digging into the fabric. Slowly, I spread my knees apart.
His pupils flared, swallowing the color of his irises. He sucked in a breath, and I realized I could play this game just as well as he. Sex, like performance, was about control—about making your audience desperate.
I leaned back on my elbows, letting my knees fall open in a butterfly stretch that felt effortless after years of dance. My hand skimmed my belly, moving down over my mound until my fingers brushed my clit. I circled it lazily, biting my lip and keeping my eyes locked on his.
Nik growled, low and feral. “I’m going to enjoy fucking that tight cunt raw.”
His words sent a tremor through me. I pressed harder, faster, tilting my hips to meet my hand.
