Page 73 of King of Temptation

The sound of her own voice, soft and silky and seductive was a shock even to her. Who was that woman and where had she been hiding all this time?

If Brody was surprised, however, it didn’t show. Quite to the contrary, his eyes heated, his nostrils flaring slightly as he stared up at her. Between the smoldering look and the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled up to the elbows giving her an irresistibly sexy peek at his muscular forearms, he looked exactly like one of her heroes brought to life.

“Do you know why you’re about to get your bottom spanked, little girl?”

She shouldn’t like that. It was patronizing and condescending and a million other things a proper feminist should be furious about. But she couldn’t find it in her to be angry, not when she could literally feel the arousal dripping down the inside of her thighs.

Even with that arousal, a sassy retort burned on the tip of her tongue. Luckily for her, she remembered his threat to her orgasm privileges just in time and managed to swallow the words that would surely lose her those privileges.

She might be a brat, but she wasn’t completely stupid.

“I’m not entirely sure, Sir,” she said instead, praying he wouldn’t decide she was being sassy anyway.

One ruddy brow raised in response to her answer. “You don’t know?”

Fuck. Was she supposed to? “Not really, Sir.”

Reaching up, he trailed a fingertip down over her collarbone, down the swell of her breast to her already pebbled nipple. “Hmmm. Maybe I didn’t give you enough time in the corner to think about it, then. Maybe you need some more time.”

“Daddy, no.”

At the use of his title, he smirked, while the rough pad of his fingertip traced the outline of her nipple, sending little shockwaves of pleasure straight to her clit. “Then you better think harder, menace. Why are you about to go over your Daddy’s knee for a long, hard spanking?”

Fuck. If he kept speaking to her like that, touching her like that, she was going to spontaneously combust right there in the middle of his bedroom. “I…”

Brody, be sure to give her a few extra swats for me when you paddle her ass later.

Killian’s words replayed in her mind. Why had he said that?

Oh. Right. Because she’d made a passing comment about how something she’d said was stupid.

Was that really why Brody was going to spank her?

Uncertainty wriggled its way past the arousal and anticipation to lodge in her chest. “Will you punish me if I answer wrong?”

His expression softened. “No, baby.”

Okay. That helped. Not a ton, granted, but it did at least give her the boost of courage she needed to answer him. “I think you’re spanking me because I called myself stupid.”

Pride flashed in his eyes, and that kernel of uncertainty vanished from her chest. “That’s exactly why I’m spanking you. My girl is fucking brilliant and it pisses me off when you doubt yourself. So Daddy is going to give you a very special spanking to help you remember exactly how smart and successful and awe-inspiring you actually are.”

Reaching behind him, he retrieved an object that had her blinking in surprise, then confusion. “Is that… a book?”

“Not just any book.” He turned it so she could see the shiny dust jacket of the hardcover he’d chosen. “Your book. Specifically the one you signed for me the day we first met.”

An emotion that felt dangerously close to love exploded in her chest. “That’s the book you told me was all bullshit.”

“There’s a lot of it that is, in the real world. But I’ve read it a few times since then, and there’s a hell of a lot more that isn’t bullshit. The family connections, the loyalty.” His eyes were so dark they nearly looked black, and when he spoke, his voice was rough with emotion. “The love.”

He means the love he has for his family. Not you. Don’t get your hopes up.

Setting the book beside him on the bed, he reached for her, tugging her over his lap so she was stretched out across his hard thighs and the soft comforter. The book—her book—was right in her view as he cupped her ass, giving one cheek a nice hard squeeze.

“All right, menace. Time to teach you a lesson you never forget.”

Chapter 26

Goldie