He smiles again. “Ah, such a tough decision. I’ll wait.”
I smile back. “It wasn’t all that tough.”
He flashes a grin, then rolls me onto my belly and spanks me, the blows hard, his palm stinging me right through my jeans. When he finishes, we’re both panting.
But I’m the only one who starts begging.
“More. Please. With my pants down. Pretty pretty please.”
“I appreciate the please, but next time add a sir.”
I flash murder eyes at him over my shoulder. “You’re on drugs.”
“No, I’m your captor. And this is my game you agreed to play, remember?”
Without waiting for a response, he flips me back over, takes the front of my blouse in both hands, and rips it wide open. Buttons fly everywhere. I gasp in surprise.
Nothing else happens for a while, because Declan is too busy looking at me.
It’s excruciating, lying there helplessly, not knowing what he’s thinking as he silently takes me in. I’m naked from the waist up, my shirt in tatters, my arms thrown overhead and my chest heaving.
The air is cool on my bare skin. My face is hot. I can’t seem to draw a deep enough breath.
When he finally touches me, I’m so wound up, I jerk.
“Easy,” he murmurs, sliding his hands along the curve of my waist. He’s bent over me, one knee on the bed, eyes ravenous. He slides his hands up my rib cage and under my breasts, cupping them and squeezing.
I arch into his hands. My lids slide shut. When I feel his hot mouth close around my rigid nipple, I moan softly. A flush of heat between my legs makes me rub my thighs restlessly together.
“Aye, lass,” he whispers against my flesh. “Give me that sweetness. Give me everything you’ve got to give.”
He goes back and forth between my hard nipples, licking and sucking, worshipping me with his mouth. Just when I think I can’t stand another minute without begging again, he kisses a soft trail down my stomach to my belly button. He swirls his tongue around, dipping it in and out, then flicks open the button on my jeans.
When I whimper, he chuckles.
He pulls down the zipper so slowly, I almost scream. He nuzzles his nose into the flesh above my panties. He licks and bites me there while at the same time rhythmically pinching my nipples. Then he takes the hem of my panties between his teeth and tugs on it, dragging it against my swollen clit.
I arch against the bed, sink my fingers into his hair, and moan.
He rises to push my arms back. He pins my handcuffed wrists in one of his big hands and gazes down at me, blue eyes burning hot. “Hands above your head. Don’t move unless I give you permission.”
“I’m sensing a theme here,” I say, panting.
“Aye. And you just bought yourself another spanking.”
“Oh, darn.”
“And another.” He smiles. “But I won’t let you come during either of them.”
My eyes widen in horror. His smile turns into a low, satisfied chuckle.
He peels my jeans off my legs, angrily flinging them away like he never wants to see them again. Then he stares at me lying there shaking and licks his lips.
I ache to feel his tongue between my legs. I ache to feel him inside me. My skin burns, my heart pounds, and I’m more frightened than I can ever remember being, because this is never how it is for me.
I’m not the girl who gets butterflies. I’m not the girl who swoons or begs. I’m the one who moves on before things get complicated, who keeps moving on relentlessly without looking back, like a shark that has to keep swimming forward its whole life or it will die.
I’m the one who doesn’t fall. Who doesn’t feel. Who doesn’t get attached.
Ever.
To make matters worse, Declan sees me struggling.
He lies on top of me, settles his weight between my spread legs, and cradles my head in his hands. Looking into my eyes, he says in a husky voice, “You’re safe with me. You can let your guard down. I’ll catch you if you need to fall.”
That hurts like a knife plunged into my heart.
I turn my head, suck in a hard breath, and close my eyes.
He puts his mouth near my ear and whispers, “You can’t hide from me. I see you. I see all the strange and wonderful things you are, little lion.”
My voice choked with emotion, I say, “I’m not little. And I’m not yours.”
“Aye, you are, if only for tonight. We’ll deal with everything else in the morning.”
He kisses me then, hard and demanding. It feels like he’s staking a claim.
When I’m sure I can’t contain the emotion building in my chest one second longer, he breaks the kiss, picks me up, and carries me into the bathroom.
23
Declan
I set her down next to the shower, tell her to stay where I’ve put her, then get a pair of scissors from one of the drawers under the sink. I use them to cut the remains of her shredded shirt from around her wrists and the handcuffs, put the scissors aside and pull off her panties, then turn on the shower.
I strip.
She watches me remove the rest of my clothing with a wild look in her eyes. The pulse in the side of her throat hammers. She looks like she might bolt any second.
But she remains still and silent. Beautiful and bound. My brave hellcat Venus in chains.
My dick is so hard for her.
She looks at it with wide, greedy eyes. “Thank god.”
“For what?”
“Never mind.”
I pull her against my chest and kiss her, wrapping a hand around her throat and fisting the other in her hair. The shiver of pleasure that runs through her body makes me feel ravenous.
I say, “Here are the rules.”
Her laugh is throaty and scornful. She stops laughing when I slap her bare arse.
“The rules,” I begin again, relishing the small, involuntary moan that slipped from her lips when I spanked her. “Number one: total obedience, or you’ll be punished. And not in the good way.”
Her eyes are machetes. Revving chainsaws. Sharpened swords held aloft with a battle cry. I wouldn’t expect anything less.
“Number two: total honesty. If I ask you if you like something I’m doing, I expect an honest answer. If you don’t like it, if you’re uncomfortable or unsure, tell me. This isn’t about me. It’s about us. It has to work for both of us, or it isn’t a turn-on for me. I don’t want to do anything you don’t like.”
The fury in her eyes cools. It’s replaced with a sweet sort of hesitancy, like she hopes I’m telling the truth but can’t decide if I am or not.
My voice softer, I say, “Number three: total trust.”
She swallows. A panicked look replaces the hesitant one.
“I know that will be the hardest for you. Even more than you hate to be told what to do, you hate being vulnerable. Correct?”
After a moment, she nods.
She looks truly frightened now, the first time I’ve seen this from her. Kidnap her in a blaze of gunfire or tell her there’s a good chance she could die from a brain clot, no big deal. But ask her to open her heart, even for a night, and she reacts like a cornered wolf.
I wrap my arms around her and hold her tight. “It’s the same for me. The exact same. That’s why you have my word I’ll earn that trust and never break it.”