Betrayed (14 page)

Chapter Twenty-Six

P
leasure and pain,
pain and pleasure. They were all the same, and they were so very different. As Byron’s lips glided down her throat, circled her peaked nipples, and trailed down her body to suck on the point where her throbbing was centered, McKenzie cried out.

The pleasure was to the point of pain — the agony and the ecstasy, to borrow a phrase. If she didn’t come, didn’t have release, she might actually vanish from existence. He made her body sing, and that was something no other man had done for her.

She had thought sex was solely for men, that there was no real pleasure in it for women, but in Byron’s arms she found that wasn’t true at all. Yes, he was a demanding lover, but he gave so much more than he took. She couldn’t get enough of his touch, of his kisses, of the power of his lovemaking.

“Let’s play, McKenzie.”

“What?” she gasped, and she didn’t even recognize the sound of her own voice.

“I want to play. I want to put your body on display — for me, and
only
for me — and do whatever I want with you,” he said, his lips winding their way back up her body. “Do you trust me?”

Did she trust him? No. She knew he was going to break her heart. But did she think he would hurt her? No. She knew he wouldn’t physically hurt her.

“Yes,” she sighed as he sucked her nipple into his lips and scraped it with his teeth. Her back arched in the air.

Then he was taking her hands, raising them above her head, and suddenly she couldn’t move them from the binds. Panic filled her as she struggled to break free. “What are you doing?”

Her eyes shot open and she looked into his passion-filled gaze. “I’m taking you to a whole new realm of pleasure,” he assured her.

“No, not like this.” She wrestled to break free.

“Give me one minute. If you still want your so-called freedom in one minute, I will undo you. You can take the reins. You can ride me to your heart’s content. Hell, I won’t object — not for a minute.”

Desire burned in his gaze, but something else, too, something she had never seen before. If she were a fool, she would have thought it was affection, but she knew that couldn’t possibly be. He desired her, but he didn’t in any way care about her.

She couldn’t speak, so she nodded her head, and his mouth descended, his lips ravishing hers as he ran his hands up her sides and cupped her breasts, tweaking her nipples with his eager fingers and making her cry out again, making her forget all about the way he’d bound her hands.

He moved down her stomach and then his mouth was on her core, his tongue moving rhythmically against her quivering flesh, her arousal growing, nearing explosion.

Somehow he knew each time she came closer and closer to release, and he backed off, moving his tongue down her soft folds and then slowly drawing it up again to the point she wanted his touch most.

“Please, please…” she cried out, but she couldn’t grab his head, couldn’t keep him where she so desperately wanted him.

“Not too fast, McKenzie,” he growled, his words vibrating against her thigh.

He let his mouth move back up her body, and then he was on his knees, rising above her, his beautiful satin manhood so close to her face. “Taste me,” he commanded her, and he rubbed his arousal against her mouth.

She opened her lips greedily, and she circled her tongue around the head of his desire, tasting the muskiness and wanting more. He gave her only an inch, then two, but he refused to give her what she wanted. “I’m the one who controls this,” he said, his words strained.

“You want my mouth around you. Admit it, Byron.”

He stroked her breasts while she sucked on him as far as he allowed. Then he pulled away, only to drop down her body and suddenly he was pushing two fingers inside her. He began driving them in and out at the same speed as he thrust his arousal in her mouth.

But she wanted more. She wanted him buried inside her with his mouth on hers. She wanted release. She wanted to make love — yes,
love —
then make love again. This moment could last an eternity and it still wouldn’t be long enough.

Without warning, her body exploded, her core grabbing his fingers and holding them inside her as wave after wave of pleasure washed through her. He pulled his arousal from her mouth and his fingers from her heat, and then she was alone.

She nearly fell asleep when she heard a sound, and instantly her body reawakened. She wanted more. And she knew she was going to get it.

Byron untied her hands, then rubbed her arms from wrist to shoulder and back again. All the while, his body lay next to hers, his manhood pushing up against her leg, making her squirm beside him.

Then he rose up and pulled her from the bed, so both of them were standing beside it. “You are so unbelievably sexy, McKenzie. I could almost come from nothing more than looking at you,” he said as he moved his hands down her naked torso, making her knees nearly collapse.

“I hope you plan on doing more than looking, Byron. I’m not finished,” she said, a throaty groan escaping as he tweaked her nipples with seductive fingers.

“I’ll never be finished with you,” he said, and she almost wished that were true. She could do this forever.

He turned her around, and she nearly protested, but he encircled her with his hands and rubbed the underside of her breasts. And as he held their weight in his palms, her nipples peaked painfully hard.

One of his hands drifted up past her throat and settled on the back of her neck, while the other dipped to her stomach and held her tightly against him, letting her feel his thickness on the crease of her shapely ass.

He pushed against her back, and she leaned forward, arching her derrière into the air, his solid erection resting against it. Then he moved back, sliding his arousal downward along her swollen folds and wet the head with her juices.

McKenzie wriggled against him, wanting him inside her, ready to feel more of the pleasure only he could give her.

“Patience,” he whispered as he bent down and ran his tongue along her spine. He dropped to his knees and kissed his way along her backside and down to her thighs before pushing her legs apart and coating his tongue with her heat.

When she was just about to release again, he stood, and before she could take a single breath, he was back behind her, gripping her hips and then thrusting forward, forcefully pulling out and pushing back in.

She exploded around him, her legs shaking, her body clenching his thick arousal as she nearly wept with the pleasure of his movements. He was inside her up to the hilt in this position, and she was greedy for every single inch of him. Those inches certainly added up.

When her pulsations finally stopped, he slowed his thrusts. For a brief moment she felt again both the pain and the pleasure of overstimulation. She wanted to push him out — it was too much. But he let his hands glide back around her body, and while one found a breast, the other touched the sensitive bundle of nerves right above where his hardness was penetrating her.

And she felt her pleasure build once more. Greed. This was what greed felt like, because she wanted it all. She wanted him over and over again.

With desperation born of that greed, she began pushing back against him to meet his thrusts. The sound of their bodies slapping together served only to heighten her pleasure. He groaned loudly, and she reached back to find his tightened balls, and she squeezed gently. He let out a cry and then began shaking as he pumped hard inside her.

With a cry of her own, McKenzie shattered again, their sounds of pleasure blending together as they collapsed forward onto the bed. Byron lay on her back, and neither of them breathed evenly.

After several moments, he shifted off her, then climbed up onto the bed, pulling her with him, locking his arms around her.

“We’re good together,” he said, his hand in her hair, their bodies sated — for at least the next few minutes.

McKenzie said nothing. She was too afraid that this moment would end. Yes, they were good together.

But for how long?

Chapter Twenty-Seven

A
n entire week
passed with no word from Byron. Great sex — then nothing.

McKenzie knew this was how it was going to end, but even knowing that didn’t help. Why should she be so upset? It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been through worse…a lot worse. She had been through hell and back a few times, and that a guy had used her for sex — great sex, mind you — and had then thrown her away shouldn’t make her feel as if she didn’t know which way was up anymore.

But each time she got a text message or the phone rang, her heart skipped a beat. What did it even matter? If he called or asked to see her, she would respond with an emphatic no. They were done. She wouldn’t be used by him. By anyone.

Sitting at her desk back at Seattle Accounting, trying to do her job, she listened to her phone ring and took several deep breaths before answering it. She didn’t care if it was Byron on the other end of the line, although she knew it wasn’t. And no, it wasn’t.

But no matter how many times she told herself this, she couldn’t get past the little ache in her chest each time it wasn’t him. Someday this would stop. Until then, she needed to just go on living her life.

She couldn’t take any more today. There was just no way. Deciding to call it an early day, she let Zach know she was leaving, gathered her purse and coat, and left the building.

It was a typical cool autumn day in Seattle — if any days or any weather could be called typical anymore — and the last thing she wanted to do at three in the afternoon was return to her empty house. She had loved that home from the moment she’d walked through its doors knowing it was hers. But now it was just another place where she was all alone.

When had being alone been a burden? She’d survived a long time on her own, and she really shouldn’t care, but after being with Byron — no matter how short a time it had all lasted — she was discovering she didn’t want to be alone anymore.

She walked down the street two blocks over to her favorite pub, or what she hoped could still be her favorite pub, now that it was tainted with memories of being there with Byron, and stepped through the doors. The familiar noise, smell, and feel of the place helped soothe her nerves.

She moved to the back, sat down, and soon placed her order. Routine. That’s what she needed. The more uniform her life was, the more she would appreciate it. Soon, she wouldn’t have to think about Byron at all. Her life would just go back to the way it had always been.

“I hope you don’t mind some company, sweet cheeks.”

McKenzie looked up with disgust as Nathan plopped down across from her.

“I do, actually. What in the hell are you doing here?”

“Awww, don’t be like that, love. I just wanted to visit,” he said, his weasel-like smirk in place.

“A smarter man would take a hint and stay the hell away when it’s obvious he’s not wanted around,” she said to goad him.

His eyes narrowed, but then he leaned back and smiled. The waitress came up and he ordered a drink before McKenzie could tell the woman he wouldn’t be staying long.

“I’ve missed you, McKenzie,” he said, reaching across the table and grabbing her hand before she could yank it away.

“I don’t know why you’ve decided to appear in my life again, Nathan. But you were the worst mistake I’ve ever made, and that’s saying a lot,” she said, “since I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I don’t want to be anywhere near you. I don’t want you around. If you can’t take a hint and disappear, then I guess the law will help you to.” She tugged against his hold, but she was reluctant to cause a scene in the bar, and he had to be well aware of that.

“I screwed up when you were younger. We all make mistakes. I think we could be good together, though, now that we’re both older and wiser,” he told her.

Bile rose in her throat when he caressed the top of her hand with his thumb.

“Are you listening to yourself? You drugged me and let a man rape me. That’s not screwing up. That’s assault,” she said. What a worthless excuse for a human being. She was flabbergasted.

“Look, I’m nearly broke, and I have nothing and nowhere to go. You’ve done well for yourself…” He shrugged, finally releasing her hand.

“Yes, I have done well, in spite of the way you treated me, of what you did to me, and what you planned on doing to me. I feel nothing but disgust for you — isn’t that obvious? — and I don’t ever want to have anything to do with you again. Leave me alone, leave this city if you have any sense, and stay the hell away from me,” she snapped.

“You are such a hypocritical bitch. Yeah, I may have drugged you for that first time, but you sure snatched up the money quick and spent it on who knows what, and then you opened up your own little whorehouse where you did the exact same thing that I did,” he said, his voice quiet but fierce.

“I did take the money, and I did run, to get as far away from you as possible. And I opened up that place to stop men like you from taking advantage of innocent women. The women I hired? I saved them; I helped them to have a better life. I don’t care what you do with your life, Nathan. I don’t care if you rot in the streets. You will never again take advantage of me, and you won’t threaten or blackmail me. Our time is done. If I see you again after today, I will simply call the cops. As you damn well know, I’ve done it before.”

She looked him in the eyes, knew she couldn’t back down. Men like Nathan needed a weak woman to survive; they needed easy prey to feast upon. She was no longer vulnerable, no longer weak. And now that he’d lost his power over her, he would cower before her and run away with his tail tucked between his legs.

And just as she’d expected, he slumped a little, defeat on his face. “You owe me,” he muttered.

“I owe you nothing,” she snarled. “Now get the hell away from me.”

She felt nothing but contempt for this man. When he didn’t move immediately, she pulled out her phone. After that little incident at her house, she had a restraining order out on the man. And he knew it.

She started dialing the police and he immediately stood up. “Fine, I’m going,” he said, his voice almost a wail.

“And don’t come back.”

He just nodded and walked away.

McKenzie leaned back after he left. Her life was far from perfect, but she knew this was the last time she would see that man. He was weak and pathetic, and the second she’d shown him some real backbone, it was obvious that the scumbag would go away.

If only she could show so much backbone with Byron. If only she could tell him she wanted to be with him. That just wasn’t going to happen. It was over between them, and the sooner she accepted that, the quicker she would be able to heal.