Dangerously Bound (23 page)

She couldn’t help but smile. “I always did like a bad boy. But Mick, none of that
was really that terrible. You weren’t stealing cars or dealing drugs. You were just
a kid with a bit of a wild streak. So what?”

“So you were the A student with aspirations and virginity intact.”

“And you were a high school man-whore. Again, so what?” she countered.

“Only until I met you,” he said, his gaze softening. “Once I met you . . .”

God, he had loved her so much once. She remembered the way he looked at her. The way
he held her. As if nothing in the world mattered but the two of them being together.

“Mick, there was an innocence to you back then, too.”

“Me?”

“You were just a kid! Think about a sixteen-year-old now, from an adult perspective.
If your nephew cut classes or slept with a few girls, would you think he was a terrible
person?”

“What? No, of course not.”

“Then maybe it’s time you cut your teenage self some slack, too.”

“Fuck, Allie . . .”

He looked away, but she could tell she’d gotten through. She waited for him to absorb
what she’d said.

He turned back to her and there was the edge of a grin on his handsome face. “But
if he tied a girl up, we’d have to have a talk.”

“Yes, you would. And when he was eighteen you’d show him how to do it the right way.
The safe way.”

“Yeah.”

“So, maybe not so terrible, are you, Mick? And if it’s the kink issue—”

“No, I’m starting to get that.”

“Okay. That’s good, especially because I feel like that’s what’s brought us back together.”

“I think so, too.”

“And you’re here. You came for me, and that’s important to me. But Mick, there’s still
the damn fighting.”

“Sometimes I need it, Allie.”

She shook her head. “You are so stubborn, Mick Reid! You
just make me want to . . .” She shook her head again. “And would you just . . . God,
you really are dense!”

He moved in and grabbed her, pulling her in tight. The still-mad part of her wanted
to scramble away from him, make him work for it, but she melted right into him, as
she always did. Nothing in the world felt better than Mick’s arms around her, his
scent, the
feel
of him. The mad faded away.

He held her head close to his chest, his fingers buried in her hair. She laced her
arms around his waist, her palms smoothing his muscled back.

“Hey,” he said softly.

“What?”

He grasped her hair just hard enough to tip her head back until he caught her gaze
with his.

“This,” he said before kissing her gently.

“I don’t want to hurt your lip,” she whispered.

“I don’t care.”

He kissed her again, harder this time. She felt the swelling on his mouth, and it
made her want to cry. But Mick was there and he wanted to be with her, he was willing
to talk stuff out, and the crying was over.

He slid his tongue along her lower lip and she opened to him, her tongue darting out
to soothe his injury.

He groaned deep in his throat.

She pulled back. “Did I hurt you?”

He smiled at her, a crooked grin. “Yeah. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like it.”

“You’re so kinky.”

“Luckily—thank the fucking heavens—you seem to like that about me.”

“I do.” She smiled back at him, stepped away from him and took his hand. “Come over
here and let me show you, Mick.”

He gripped her hand and yanked her back into him roughly, making her gasp. “Oh, no.
I’ve had enough of you trying to be boss, princess.”

She yelped when he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. “Hey!”

He gave her ass a sound spank. “Don’t argue with me.”

He carried her into the bedroom and flopped her down on the bed and immediately started
to undress her. Her yoga pants came off, followed by her tank top, then her underwear.
With only a few fingertips, he pressed between her breasts, using one finger to make
a hard pressure point that told her in no uncertain terms to do what he wanted. She
lay back and watched as he tore his T-shirt over his head.

She never got tired of looking at his muscled chest, the ridges of his abs. The narrow
line of dark hair leading into the waistband of his jeans. She bit her lip as he unzipped
them, knowing he always went commando. In seconds he was kicking the denim away and,
naked, he lowered himself over her.

She reached for him, her hands hungry for the weight of his already hard cock, but
he took both wrists with a low growl and spread her arms out to the sides. He lowered
his mouth, and she felt the heat of his breath on the side of her breast before he
bit in savagely.

“Ah! Mick . . .”

But the pain was immediately washed away in a flood of endorphins and that sense of
being
his
she craved down to her bones.

She moaned quietly, and he licked at the sore spot, sucked the tender skin. She was
going wet, loving his mouth on her, his teeth.

“God, when you bite me . . .” she said, groaning.

“When I bite you, what?” he murmured against her skin.

“It makes me feel . . . owned.”

“Do you want that? Do you like it when I leave marks on you? Tell me, Allie girl.”

“Yes. I love to be marked. I love to look at them and remember it was you.”

“Did you look at your marks while I was gone, baby? Did you want to remember me?”

She licked her lips. “Always. Always, Mick.”

“Allie . . .”

He moved down to her stomach, kissed her there softly, his mouth hot and lingering
before he nipped at her flesh.

“Oh . . .”

He paused for a moment, blew onto her skin, tickling her, then he bit. Hard.

“Oh!”

She reached for him, buried her fingers in his hair, but he pushed her hands away
and she knew she was to try to hold still. She lowered her arms, spread out on each
side, a lovely, liquid sense of obedience flooding her.

He moved to another spot and bit again, and once more she cried out but she didn’t
move.

It hurt like crazy. Her body was lighting up with need.

He bit her again and again, moving lower until he was at that tender juncture between
hip and thigh. He bit down hard, pulled back just long enough for her to take in a
gasping breath, to fist her hands in the duvet. Then he did it again.

“Fuck, that hurts!”

He chuckled. Held her down with both hands on her thighs and did it once more, biting
her so hard she didn’t know how much more she could take.

“Ah!”

“Is it too much? Tell me.”

“It’s . . .” She was panting hard from the pain, from the pleasure. “It’s almost too
much. And not enough. Please, Mick. I need more.”

His voice was a guttural growl, rasping steel on gravel. “Do you have any idea what
it does to me to hear you say these things?” He grabbed her by the waist and picked
her up, shoved her farther up the bed. “Do you know how fucking rock-hard I am for
you right now?” He got on his knees, sitting back on his heels, shoved her legs apart
and yanked her body in, his arms wrapping around her back as he lifted her until she
was straddling his lap, his fingers digging into her flesh. She grabbed onto his arms
to steady herself.

“This is why,” he gasped as he pressed her hips into his, her open, soaking wet sex
coming up against his solid shaft. “This is why I was always so damn careful with
you. Because with you . . . Fuck . . . You unleash the beast inside of me, Allie girl.
And now it’s been pushed too far to contain.”

“Please,” she whispered, her arms winding around his neck.

He paused, his breath coming in ragged pants. “I’m going to hurt you.”

Her body was on fire. His pulsing cock pressed against her pussy lips, his hard chest
crushed her breasts, and every inch of her skin needed him to touch, bite, strike,
scratch.

“Yes. Do it, Mick.”

He picked her up, and there was one brief moment when she was held, suspended, his
gaze boring into hers, his mouth beautifully loose with unbridled lust. Then he impaled
her—there was no other word for it—stabbing into her so hard and fast she couldn’t
breathe.

Right away he began a hard, punishing stroke, his thick cock plunging into her over
and over. Pleasure spiraled, pain soared: his big ramming cock, his fingernails digging
into her ass as he
moved her up and down on his heavy shaft as if she were nothing more than a doll.
And all the while he growled like an animal sprung from its cage. He fucked her like
an animal. Mindless. Primal. Heat and pleasure and pain.

Her nails dug into the back of his neck, and all she could do was hang on to him while
sensation took her over completely. She was helpless against what he was doing to
her. Helpless against the waves that threatened to drown her as she started to come.

“Yeah, baby . . . Ah, Christ, baby girl . . .”

The words turned into a low muttering, then a thunderous growl until he threw his
head back and yelled, bucking into her so hard it shook her all over, her climax shattering
her to the core, her mind reeling.

“Mick!”

Pleasure and pleasure and pleasure, drowning out the pain. She clung to him, helpless
in his arms. Rendered helpless by this pure need for him. For whatever he wanted of
her. She wanted him to ravage her just like this. Wanted to be flesh to his flesh,
and nothing more. It felt pure to her in some way she would never be able to explain.

The beast had been unleashed. And met the wildness inside her. And it was perfect.

*   *   *

“
H
EY.”

They were still panting, her arms and legs wrapped around him so tightly he could
feel her heart beating against his chest. He could feel the warmth of every luscious
curve of this girl’s body.
His
girl.

They were covered in sweat. He could smell it, their pheromones seeming to blend together
perfectly, the perfume of sex. And beneath it something metallic . . .

“Baby, you’re bleeding,” he said, bringing his hand up to see the red spots on his
fingertips.

“Hmm, what?” she asked sleepily.

“My nails must have scratched you when I grabbed your ass.”

“No big deal. I liked it.”

“I know you did. But let’s get you cleaned up, baby girl.”

He picked her up and carried her, still wrapped around his waist, her head resting
on his shoulder in a show of utter trust that made his chest ache.

“I’m going to need to put you down for a sec.”

He unwound her legs from his waist, then her arms from around his neck, and sat her
on the edge of the old claw-footed bathtub while he ran hot water in the stall shower.

“Come on. I’ve got you,” he told her as he helped her to her feet, held her close
against his side and took her into the shower, the water cascading over their bodies.

“Mick?”

“What is it, baby?”

“That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

“Get ready to hear it a lot. ’Cause it’s true. I’ve got you, Allie girl.
My
girl.”

She laid a soft kiss on his chest, her hands slipping over his back under the hot
water. She looked up at him, her gorgeous golden-brown eyes glowing, the pupils wide.
Water tipped her black lashes.

“Am I, Mick? Am I your girl?”

“You know how this works. Safe, Sane and Consensual. Do you want to be mine? Do you
want to belong to me?”

His heart was like a hammer in his chest. Why did this feel so important? But hell,
nothing had ever been as important as Allie. That was what he’d been running from
since he was eighteen years old.

“Only if you want me. Really want me, Mick. Do you?”

He bent and kissed her sweet mouth, her cheek, her forehead, pulled her hand to his
lips and brushed kisses over her fingertips.

“Allie. My baby girl. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted. And everything I ever will.
God help me if I’m ever too stupid to see that again.”

She blinked up at him. “I’m a little spaced. Or maybe a lot. Can you tell me that
again when I have my head on straight?”

“Until you get sick of hearing it.”

“I never will.”

He put his hands into her hair and kissed her long and hard, ignoring his split lip.
Their tongues were wet, tangling, joining them together. Their arms were so tight
around each other he could feel every bone in her lovely body.

His.

“Let me take care of you now,” he said, grabbing a big sea sponge, lathering it with
soap, then turning her around so he could clean the small wounds left in her buttocks
and hips. He ran the sponge over her skin and she sighed, pliant in his arms.

He’d never thought to see her like this, so completely submissive. So spent and loose
and relaxed. He loved the fire in her. Loved her in this state even more
because
of that. He understood it meant more.

“Can you stand on your own, baby?”

“Yes.”

He took the sprayer wand and used it to wet her hair, then squeezed some shampoo into
his palm and began to work it in.

“Oh, that’s nice,” she said, her voice a quiet sigh.

He massaged her scalp, working up a good lather before rinsing it out, then doing
the same with the conditioner, working it through the ends of her long hair, then
rinsing again.

She was waking up a bit more by then. She turned to him, wrapped her arms around his
neck, and he winced.

Her brows drew together. “Let me look.”

He turned around and she laughed. “Boy, did I scratch the hell out of your neck and
shoulders.”

“Good girl,” he murmured, smiling to himself.

“The skin opened in a spot or two.”

“Just wash it off for me.”

She did as he asked with gentle hands, pausing to stand on her toes and kiss the sore
skin.

No one had ever treated him this way. Hell, he wouldn’t have allowed it. But this
was
Allie
. And he couldn’t help but show her every side of him. Driven animal. Sensual being.
Man who loved her.