Bound To Him: Three Dates with a Billionaire (5 page)

“What happens if I don’t sign?” I asked. He was so close, he overwhelmed me.

“I call you a cab and you go home,” he said.

“What about the feet?”

“That’s your bonus, and my pleasure. But tell anybody that I have a foot fetish, and I’ll sue. Or my lawyers will.” He moved closer, leaning over the back of the sofa. “Not that it’s true, of course.” Closer still, until our breath mingled.

Our lips met, his upper to my lower, his lower to my upper.

I forgot all about Troy Cooper, movie star. All I felt and saw was Troy the man as he sealed our mouths together, his lips opening over mine, urging me to part them and let him in. I did and he licked my lower lip, his tongue tickling my sensitive skin, urging me to tip my head back and let him take this further. He pressed in, licking into my mouth. Somebody moaned, I think it was me.

He plucked the paper out of my hands and dropped it somewhere. “Come upstairs,” he murmured.

Rounding the sofa, he took my hands and pulled me to my feet, wrapping me in his arms. I clutched my little evening purse, my only reminder of reality.

“Nobody matters but us tonight. If I can’t trust you, honest, straightforward Cassie, I can’t trust myself.”

Watching my face, his eyes mesmerizing, he wrapped an arm around my waist and led me to the door at the end of the room. It wasn’t a bedroom. It was a small hallway, with an open door revealing a half bath, and stairs going up. He took me up them and into a lavish bedroom, the color scheme the same as the one downstairs. A lavish red bedspread made the huge black iron bed the center of attention.

I had one moment of what-the-fuck-am-I-doing total panic before he dragged me into his arms and snared me in a full-bodied kiss.

Oh, that.
That was what I was doing. I was ending the worst night of my life and turning it into the best night of my life.

At first I was frozen into place. This man sure knew how to kiss. He kissed any protests away, tasting every little bit of my mouth, tilting his head to bring our mouths closer together. he licked deep, found all the sensitive spots in my mouth, and some I didn’t know I had. He took my purse from my lax fingers and tossed it to the nightstand. I heard the thump as it landed but I didn’t look. I was too busy for that.

At that moment I forgot who he was, and why I was doing this. Just that I wanted this more than life.

Our kiss transfixed me. He took me, overpowered me, and I melted into him. He nipped my lower lip and groaned. Jolted into awareness, I lifted my hands, slid them around his waist, his shirt soft and silky under my hands.

He froze, stiffened, and lifted his head, but his eyes were still sultry when he opened them and gazed down at me. “Let me show you something.”

Gently, he pushed me down so I was sitting on the edge of the bed. I blinked, shaken out of my trance as he went over to the chest of drawers, opened the top one and drew out a black leather box with a combination lock. The lock looked like a gimmick, but he dialed in a number and opened it.

What did he have inside? Drugs? I wasn’t into that, except for the mildest party drugs, and even then I preferred not to. I wouldn’t do them now. I didn’t know enough about my tolerance to trust myself. And I didn’t need drugs, not with the intoxicating presence of Troy.

Something jingled as he pulled it out. When he turned around, he had a pair of handcuffs in his hand. Old fashioned handcuffs, the kind the cops use, in shiny steel.

I swallowed. “No way,” I said. Did he think I was insane? If he locked me up I wouldn’t be able to do anything, and he could do what he liked.

He held up his free hand in a placatory gesture. “Wait. Let me explain.” He smiled, but it was strained.

I pressed my bare feet on the soft carpet by the bed, ready to run. I wouldn’t stop, I’d just grab my purse and go.

When he lifted the cuffs, I planted my hands on the bedcover either side of me. I’d fight. I wouldn’t let him do this willingly. Fear crept up from my stomach, a cold, clutching terror. Just because he was the hottest man on the planet, that didn’t give him permission to do anything he wanted to me.

He snapped one end of the cuffs around his own wrist and held it up. “Watch,” he said. Bending his thumb in, he touched a black button on the cuffs. The clasp sprang open. “This is for me, not you.”

“You want to wear them?” I frowned, but the idea of having him captive under me sent fresh arousal curling through me.

He shook his head, smiling. “No, I want you to. But you can get out of them any time you like by pressing that button. There’s no trick. I can’t ask you to put yourself in my hands, not yet, anyhow.”

Not yet?
What the fuck did he mean by that? This was my one night, my one-off fantasy. There couldn’t be anything else. Could there?

“I’ll put these on you, hand and foot. You can play with them as much as you like. Hell, you can put them on yourself if you want. It’s a reminder.” He stared at me, and licked his bottom lip in a lascivious way that did all kinds of things to my libido. “You might find you like it.”

I might. My body was already heating at the thought. “Is this a kind of BDSM thing? Whips and chains?”

He laughed outright, the cuffs jingling in his hands. “No. It’s my personal thing.” He paused, then tossed the cuffs to the bed at my side. He threw three more sets to me in the same way. “Look at them all. Make sure you can get out of them.”

“This is because of...?”

“Because it’s fun.” He paused and tugged at his earlobe, fidgeting for the first time I could remember, just like an ordinary human being. “I can’t let you touch me during sex. I freak out if anybody does that. It’s a control thing, I guess.”

“Never?” He must be making it up.

“Not during sex.” He didn’t sound as if he was inventing the excuse. He sounded uncomfortable, strained. I recalled stories in the media about kinky goings-on. At the time I’d dismissed them as just more gossip, but maybe some of it had some truth. He could get kinkier, she had no guarantee of that. But if I could get out of the cuffs — then I’d give it a try.

I set her jaw and got to my feet, my heart banging against my ribs. This was way, way beyond my comfort zone. “What do I do?”

“Strip,” he said plainly.

“Do you?”

“Wait and see. I can’t wait to see that gorgeous body.”

He could switch the cuffs if he was clever at sleight of hand. He could introduce more things, the floggers and anal plugs I’d read about but never seen. But I wanted him. My body yearned for him to touch me again, to kiss me.

Everybody had to take a leap in the dark. This was mine.

With shaking hands I located the hidden zipper at the side of my dress. I lowered it, careful not to snag it on the fine, silky material. I slid the tiny sleeve caps off my shoulders and down my arms, one by one. Then I let the dress slide off my body.

Revealing my plain white cotton bra, and my panties, now covered with pantyhose. Not the sexiest of looks.

At his low, “Fuck!” I lifted my head.

Tucking my hands under my arms, I smiled. “Not as good as you’d hoped for?”

“Carry on.” He sounded choked up, his voice soft.

The hated pantyhose went next. At least it had been some protection against Witley and his wandering hands. I tossed them aside. Now I had my blue cotton panties on display. Feeling embarrassed, I reached behind my back to unhook my bra.

He swallowed.

My bra sprang undone. I caught it under my arms and let it fall away, until only my breasts were covered by the fabric. Taking courage, I let it fall. My breasts weren’t particularly special, but he seemed to like them. His gaze fixated on them. My nipples tingled as if he had touched them. I had little experience in this studied exposure. When I’d had sex before, it had been a hurried, giggling thing between two people who had the idea but not the finesse. We’d had a good time, but nothing like this.

Troy watched me with intense concentration, not moving a muscle. He stood with his legs apart, his arms folded, one finger touching his sensual lower lip. He watched me from behind heavy lids, his eyes glittering. He gave a slight nod.

I tucked my thumbs into each side of my panties and drew them down, bending over as I stepped out of them. I tossed them on to the pile of clothes on a nearby chair and turned my attention back to him.

He sucked in a breath and straightened. “Lie on the bed and stretch your arms above your head.”

I did as he told me, aware that as I turned he had a perfect view of my ass. Everything was tense now. My sex was wet, I could feel the wetness sliding between my thighs when I moved. My scent rose to tease me. He groaned. Could he smell it too?

My body heated and flushed as I lay on my back and did as he asked — told me.

He approached the bed and picked up one of the pairs of handcuffs that lay on it. He snapped and unsnapped the grips, the sound sharp, making me flinch. Smiling, he wrapped the first bracelet around my right wrist. “Can you reach the button?” he asked.

I curled my thumb the way he’d shown me, and touched the black button. The cuff sprang open and I closed my eyes, breathing a sigh of relief.

“Good,” he purred, and jerked my hand up, over my head, securing the other bracelet on one of the vertical rails at the top of the bed. “I didn’t ask for a bed like this, but I can’t deny it’s useful.” He checked my face. Whatever he saw there satisfied him, as he moved on to the other cuff. Lifting my left wrist, he secured it. He had to reach over me to snap it to the rail on the other side, bringing his face close to mine.

He kissed me, his lips lingering tantalizingly on mine, his tongue dancing over the seam of my mouth. Then pulled away, laughing when I moaned. He looked lighter, smiling, his eyes sparkling. I’d imagined he wore clear contacts in his movies, or put drops in his eyes to get that effect, but I was wrong. It was him, all him.

No other part of his body touched me. He was still clothed, in shirtsleeves, pants, shoes and all. Even his bow tie was still in place. I’d love to undo it for him, but now I couldn’t. “Will you get naked?” I asked.

“I might,” he said with a wink, and moved away, taking the other two pairs of cuffs with him. He made short work of fastening my ankles to the rails at the bottom of the bed. “If you want to get out, unfasten your wrists first, then sit up and do your feet. All the cuffs open the same way.”

He straightened. My legs were splayed apart now, my body an X shape. He hadn’t pulled on any part of me, but I couldn’t close my legs. I felt uncomfortable, open and exposed. I licked my lips, missing the pressure of his on mine.

His hands went to his bow tie. “Try to move.”

As he pulled the bow at his neck undone, I did as he told me, pulled at the cuffs. They were fastened tight. He hadn’t clasped any of the bracelets too tight, but tight enough to prevent me slipping my hands or feet through them. They rattled against the cold iron at the head and foot of the bed when I pulled. The only way I would get out was if I used the buttons, or he let me out. I promised myself then, unless I got really scared, unless he threatened to hurt me bad, I’d go through with this. I’d let him do what he wanted.

He nodded, as if he knew about my private vow. “Good. If you release yourself from the cuffs, everything stops. Understand?”

I nodded.

Walking around the bed, he examined me, but didn’t touch me. His gaze rose from my ankles, lingered at my crotch and then up to my waist, and my breasts. My nipples furled at his gaze, as if he was stroking them. Almost painful now. I screwed my eyes shut, and tried to control my reactions, but I needed to open them because I didn’t want to miss a minute of his bare flesh. The only skin I could see on him was his face, his hands and a small V at his neck, where he’d undone the top button of his shirt. I wanted to lick it all.

He bent and dragged the bow on his shoes undone, and toed out of them, revealing the shiny black was lined with tan leather, a gold embossed name emblazoned within. Then he tugged off his black socks, and left them where they fell, on the white carpet. As I’d undressed I’d put my clothes on a chair, eager to minimize the creasing. I’d have to do the walk of shame in the morning. I didn’t want to do it in crumpled clothes. He wriggled his toes. He even had beautiful feet.

Smiling, he straightened. “You’re so brave. I appreciate that.”

So did I, but I didn’t say so.

He prowled around the bed, examining me from all angles. “You’re lovely, Cassie. Why do you hide your body away?”

I laughed, although it was a strangulated sound, and nodded to the chair. “Does that look like I hide?”

“You said you borrowed that outfit.” His gaze went to my groin again. I gasped as I got even wetter. “That means you don’t have anything similar of your own. You should celebrate that body, not conceal it. Your skin is smooth and lovely. Your breasts are full. I’ll taste them in a little while.” He undid the buttons at his cuffs. “Maybe.”

“You’re killing me here.”

“Good.” His smile had an edge of sadism, I thought. He turned up his cuffs, revealing hair-sprinkled, sinewy arms, and started on the buttons at the front of his shirt. Far too slowly. He unfastened the first one and slid his fingers down to locate the second. I wanted to touch him there, to feel that bronzed skin for myself. My hand jerked up, as if to do just that, but the cuff slammed against my wrist and I had to stop.

He chuckled, a kind of masculine rumble. “Don’t fight it. Relax and let me handle this.” He paused, his shirt half way undone. “Handle you. That’s something I’m looking forward to very much.”

Being perused like this was driving me nuts. “Touch me,” I begged.

He leaned over, and traced the outline of my navel with the tip of one finger. I groaned when he moved away, but he took no notice, or pretended to. He undid the buttons with aching slowness, but finally, his shirt was undone. He tugged it out of his black pants so it flapped around him, showcasing his breathtaking abs. “Do they make you up for the movies? I mean shade your muscles?”

“Do they have to?” he asked, then before I could answer, laughed. “Yes, they do for the superhero series. Not for the others.”