Søren stroked her cheek, ran his fingers through her hair.
“Eleanor, you really should know better by now,” he said. “Never flirt with a sadist in a well-stocked dungeon.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Cyrus arrived back at Paulina’s and found she’d unlocked the door for him.
He went inside, into the darkened house, and locked the door behind him. He slipped out of his shoes and walked down the hallway toward the light coming from her bedroom.
Paulina had turned on her bedside lamp and lay there on her side, pillow clutched to her chest like a teddy bear.
“I thought I heard you,” she said, blinking.
“You’re half-asleep,” he said, sitting down at her side. “I should let you sleep.”
“No, no…” She shook her head. “Talk to me. I know when you need to talk.”
He caught her up to speed—again—fast as he could. The whole time he talked, he rubbed her back. She was in her pajamas now, cute pink t-shirt and shorts. She didn’t seem to mind the back rub one bit, not even when he slipped his hand under her t-shirt to rub the warm bare skin of her back.
“Cyrus…” Paulina said with a sigh. “This is getting a little crazy.”
“You said it. But I’ve had crazy cases before.”
“Now that’s for sure. How’s Nora?” Paulina asked. “She okay?”
“She seemed okay when I left her with her man.”
“He mad that she called you instead of him?”
“Didn’t seem mad. He thanked me, shook my hand. He’s a good guy, I think. Good enough.”
“Good enough?”
“Good enough for her, I mean.”
Paulina rolled onto her back.
“Good enough for her?” she asked.
He shrugged. “She’s, you know…different. She’d get bored with a normal kind of dude, I think. And smart as she is, she needs somebody smart. Her guy’s really smart, you can tell. About as calm as she is crazy. I like him for her.”
Paulina shook her head, laughing to herself.
“What?” he asked.
“I love you.”
“Do you? Where’d that come from?”
“Listen to you—you sound like her big brother.” Paulina dropped her voice an octave, mocking his deeper voice. “‘He’s good enough for her, I suppose. She needs a man like that. I suppose I approve of this match.’”
Paulina laughed again, laughed herself silly. Cyrus grabbed a pillow and dropped it on her laughing face.
From under the pillow, she kept laughing.
He took the pillow off her face.
“You’re so cute,” she said. “I like this side of you. Not sure I’ve seen it before.”
“What side is that?”
“Cyrus Tremont, big brother,” she said. “It’s nice. Kind of sexy, too.”
“Is it?”
“Oh, it is.” She took his face in her hands and brought it down for a kiss.
If she wanted only a little kiss, he surprised her with a big one. A long kiss, long and deep. His tongue pressed into her mouth and she readily opened to the kiss. It nearly killed him to break it, but he had to. He had things to say to her.
“You’re the most beautiful woman in the world,” he said. “Did you know that?”
“The most?” she said. “I’d heard top ten but didn’t know I’d hit the top spot.”
“I’m not joking with you,” he said. “To me, you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life. I’d rather look at you than anyone else out there.”
She smiled up at him.
“You’re in a mood tonight, aren’t you?”
“And I’m just getting started.” He slid his hand under her pajama top and rubbed it flat over her stomach. “Your skin is everything to me. Sometimes I’ll touch it and I worry I won’t be able to stop. You’re so soft and warm and like silk. And you smell like roses all the time. Day or night. Even after a run. I don’t know how you do it. You must be part rose.”
He could see the pink roses blooming on her cheeks under her brown skin. He touched her face and found her burning.
“Cyrus Tremont, what has gotten into you?”
“You,” he said. “You’ve gotten into me. You’re in my head all the time. And you’re in my blood. And I’m not going to be a happy man until you’re in my bed, too, and I’m inside you.”
“Cyrus, Lord.”
“I want to make you come,” he said.
Her eyes went wide as half dollars. He’d shocked her before, a time or two, but he could tell he’d never shocked her quite like that.
“I’m serious,” he said. “I want to make you come. Now. Tonight. Will you let me?”
He heard Nora’s voice in the back of his head—Since we don’t know if she’s kinky yet…better just ask nicely.
“Will I let you?” she asked. “Didn’t we already make this decision?”
“We decided to wait until we were married because I wanted to prove to you that I wasn’t after you for sex. And you wanted us to get to know each other, really know each other. Well, I think I’ve proven myself. And if we don’t know each other yet…” He caught her hand in his and held it against his chest over his heart. “You know me, don’t you? I know I know you. I know I do because I love you. Anybody who knows you loves you.”
Paulina took a ragged breath.
“You are really getting to me,” she said.
“I don’t want to brag, but I have a few skills in this area. I can keep all my clothes on and still make you come so hard you have to call in sick to work tomorrow to recover.”
“That so?” she said.
Cyrus caressed her ear, her neck. Caught a curl of her hair and lightly tugged it. He wasn’t nervous, not a bit. In fact, he felt calm and steady and cool, like he’d slipped into his most comfortable clothes. He felt good. And this felt right.
“You can’t even imagine how good you make me feel every day,” he said softly. “I want to make you feel that good. Will you let me? Please?”
He almost didn’t care if she said “yes” or “no.” The whole thing had been worth it just to see her blushing and shivering and taking those shallows breaths.
Paulina had never looked so beautiful to him before—not in her sundresses, not in her church clothes, not even in that black bikini of hers that made him thank Jesus for allowing mankind to invent the two-piece. Just her, there, on her pillow, lips parted and breathing hard and blushing and burning and all for him. And he hadn’t even laid a hand on her yet. His words had done it to her. And if she thought he was good with his words…she ain’t seen nothing yet.
“What are you going to do to me, Daddy?” she asked.
“Nothing you don’t love. Is that a ‘yes’?”
Slowly, tentatively, looking scared as a child in front of her first roller coaster, and brave as a woman who wanted to show the man she loved how much she loved him…she nodded her head.