She leans up on tiptoe. I feel her breath on my face when she speaks. “Yes, you’re afraid, Judge. Afraid you won’t be able to stop yourself from taking what we both know you really want.”

I shift my hand from her arm to her back, brushing fingers up along her spine until I get to the base of her skull where I grip a handful of hair. She drops to flat feet, and I tug her head backward.

“And what is it I want, little monster?”

“Me.” She grins. “My pussy, to be exact.”

My response, a growl, makes her smile. Confirmation. As if it’s a secret. It was a ridiculous notion to ever try to pretend I didn’t want her.

I tilt my head and walk her backward so she’s standing against the piano. She swallows hard. I spin her around so fast, she yelps, not expecting it. Her hands come flat to the top of the piano so she’s half bent over it.

“Stay,” I tell her when she struggles. It’s her default. Fight. Every time. And I’ll still take it over flight. Her retreating into herself is not what I want to see ever again. And I’ll do whatever I need to do to make sure I don’t.

“You keep telling yourself that,” my grandfather’s voice says. “You want her. Have her. She’s yours for the taking.”

I flip her dress up over her ass. She’s wearing a dark red G-string. “Your ass does beg to be spanked, doesn’t it?”

She clenches her cheeks, then softens them as if offering them to me. My cock grows hard at the sight of her, at the sound of her quickening breath. I slip my fingers into the waistband of her panties and tug them up.

She gasps, rising on tiptoe as the string digs into her folds. “What the fuck?”

I lean over her, slide one hand between her torso and the piano, and cup her breast, pinching her nipple.

She yelps.

“What I want, little monster, is for you to be safe.”

She turns her head, wincing as I tug her panties higher. “Can I ask you a question, Judge?”

“Of course, Mercedes.”

“How do you picture me when you’re jerking off at night? Am I on my knees at your feet? Worshipping the great Judge Lawson Montgomery’s big dick? Or am I bent over taking it from behind? What’s your preferred scenario?”

I pull her up straight and turn her to face me but keep a tight grip on her panties. She braces her hands on my shoulders for balance. “Thank you for asking. I enjoy both. How about you? I hear you, you know? I hear you moan when you make yourself come at night.”

She blushes wildly and shoves against me. “I don’t!”