Page 116 of Now Their Starlet

“Okay, I understand,” she nods.

“Good girl.”

“Can you—can you tell me what you want to do? And then I can tell you whether I’m okay with it?”

It’s a good suggestion, but for the life of me, I can’t find the right words.

“I want to try grounding you by overwhelming your brain so the only thing you’re focused on is me. On the here and now.”

Even to my own ears, my words don’t make any goddamn sense. Not within this context. God forbid a man is nervous in front of a gorgeous girl, trusting him enough to engage in kink when she’s emotionally vulnerable.

“That’s a whole lot of talk and not a lot of substance,” Andi huffs.

Her snark washes over me, easing the tension in my shoulders. It tells me she’s still present enough to tell me off, despite the stress and overwhelm of being in that room.

“Be careful,” I say, my voice pitching low. “If you’re a brat, I’ll have to punish you.”

“Oh? And what exactly does that mean?”

My lips quirk up at the generous opportunity she’s giving me, post my stupid word salad a few seconds earlier.

“It means... I’m going to bend you over my desk.” I trail my fingertips lightly down her arms, raising goosebumps in their wake until I’m grasping her wrists. “I’m going to tie your wrists behind your back so they’re out of the way, hike that pretty dress up, and spank you until you’ve learned your lesson.”

“I can handle that,” she murmurs. “You know, I honestly thought it would be a lot worse than that, considering how much you were skirting around what you were into earlier.”

She really is a natural-born brat.

“Watch your mouth,” I growl, holding her wrists in one hand and reaching up to grasp her face with the other. I squeeze her cheeks until her lips are puckered out obscenely. “Or else I’ll have to gag you, and the most convenient thing here is your own slick-soaked panties.”

With the way the sun is shining through the floor-to-ceiling windows, I can see the way her pupils widen at my words, despite the dark color of her irises. That, and the way the honey notes of her perfume practically explode from her, tell me she likes the idea.

“Oh? Someone likes that idea, hmm?” I release the grip I have on her to patronizingly pat her on the cheek.

She sputters, her blush traveling up to her ears. “I—I don’t⁠—”

“Don’t lie to me, Honey. Or else that’s another thing going on your list of punishable offenses. You like the idea of being gagged with your own panties. Say it.”

Her chest heaves as she stares up at me, probably trying to gauge whether I’m serious.

I let her see the smug satisfaction, the dark hunger, and the goading challenge in my expression.

“I like the idea,” she mumbles.

“Hmmm, that didn’t sound like the full sentence, now did it?” I chuckle. “Turn around.”

“Why?” she asks, her eyes flaring wide.

“You’ll see,” I shrug. “I was going to let you just take them off and hand them to me, but you can’t seem to follow simple instructions. So you’re going to put on a little show for me as an apology.”

“A—a show?”

“That sounds an awful lot like a question and not like you turning around.”

Her eyes narrow on me in a glare that makes my pulse thrum through my veins before she turns around.

I take a couple of steps back so I can enjoy the show.

“Bend over for me,” I say casually, like I’m asking her the time.