Heat Up the Night (10 page)

Keilor turned to see Mike sitting at his kitchen bar. He wanted to deck him and thank him. Someone had had to truss up his woman, but he still boiled that another man saw her so…vulnerable.

Sparing him a curt nod, then pointing to the door, Keilor promised to properly thank him later. Right now, a little submissive was in need of his attentions.

“I’m going to ungag you, firebird. We need to talk.”

She jerked her head once in agreement. Once freed, she stretched open her pretty little mouth and licked her lips.

Damn. There went some of his patience. He’d gone too long without her kiss. Yanking his thoughts back to the current moment, Keilor kneeled in front of her and trailed his fingers across the ropes that bound her.

On her knees, arms behind her back, her breasts constricted by a chest harness, she was any Dom’s wet dream. And she was all his.

“Master Kei—”

“Silence.”

Her mouth snapped shut and he ignored the wounded frown that followed. He needed a moment to gather himself. If he could stop thinking so damn much, it wouldn’t be so hard to speak three little words.

At last, after swallowing through a dry mouth, he started. “I’m an idiot.” A smile worked at the corner of her mouth, a vast improvement on her mood. “I’m an idiot and I don’t deserve you. But I don’t care anymore.” Another rough swallow. He set a shaking hand over her heart. “I’m going to fuck up again, I promise you that. But I also promise I will love you with everything I am, every day you let me.”

A tear rolled down her cheek and he swooped in to kiss it away.

“Keilor…”

Her choked sob sliced at him. Goddamnit, he never wanted to make her cry. Aching, he rubbed at his chest, to no relief. Only she brought him that.

“Master Keilor…I’m yours. And that terrifies me, but I can’t…” she shook her head, heaved a breath, “I can’t imagine a life without you where I’m happy. I love you too.”

His heart exploded through his veins. He kissed her, tasted her sweet lips as he tugged at the knots of her bondage.

With a savage growl, he pulled the pocket knife from his waistband and flicked it open. Tovia’s eyes widened and her pupil blew. Interesting. He added edge play to the mental list of ways he wanted to ravish her body.

Today, however, all he wanted was her. No kinky trappings, no toys. Tovia was back in his arms, and he didn’t need anything else.

Keilor sawed through one of the ropes at her waist with care. She held her breath, giving a full-body shudder when he’d sliced through the rope and away from her skin.

But she couldn’t fool him. He smelled her arousal. Saw the glassy haze to her eyes, the slack in her shoulders.

Needing her, he tugged at the ropes until they shed from her body like a chrysalis, then he swept her into his arms and stalked to his bedroom.

“Say it again, Tovia.” He settled her onto the bed. She flopped bonelessly against the comforter, her arms up by her head just begging to be held down. Her legs parted at the hips to expose the swollen pink flesh of her pussy.

He could see her gears turning, fighting through the subspace fog that had gathered the moment he went for the Shibari ropes. “Say what, Sir?”

In an instant he was on her, pushing off his work pants and positioning himself at her entrance. “Not Sir tonight, baby. Use my name. Tell me you love me again.”

He thrust into her an inch, holding steady against her hips so she didn’t writhe onto him. “Yes, Keilor, yes. I love you, so much.”

With a soul-deep groan he slid into her welcome, waiting heat. Home. She enveloped him with her body and her arms wrapped around his neck. Her legs hooked around his waist, bringing her even closer.

Already, he could feel her clenching around his cock. Her breasts jiggled with every jerk of his hips and he dipped his head, taking one into his mouth.

“Keilor!”

God, nothing was sexier than hearing her call his name. He bit against the soft upper swell of her breast, knowing he’d leave a bruise to claim his territory.

She muttered a curse that was lost in a keening wail. She canted her hips, clawed at his back. “So close.”

“Come for me, baby. Squeeze your tight pussy around me.”

The dirty words made her eyes flutter shut. She convulsed around him, cried out, then shook apart with his name on her lips.

Two more strokes and his balls tightened on the verge of orgasm. She leaned up and pressed her lips to his heart and he fucking shattered. Lightning shot up and down his spine, leaving tingles in its path.

Slowly, hearing returned, though he couldn’t promise any higher-level thinking skills. He collapsed to the bed next to her and pulled her into his arms.

Once their breathing had returned to normal, Tovia pushed at his chest. “I owe you an explanation.”

Wary, he nodded, then locked her tighter against his chest. When she spoke, her words vibrated through his chest. “I thought you’d walked out on me. That I’d scared you.”

It was as much as he’d gathered. He fought a lump in his throat at the raw hurt in her voice and let her continue. “Most men would have run the other direction. But you’re not most men, despite what my dear mother would have me believe. After…my dad…she kind of decided all men were assholes. Users. That’s actually what we’d fought about, when you came to get me from the library.”

Needing to be closer, soothe her, Keilor tugged at her ponytail until her tresses tumbled free. He stroked a hand across her scalp. She softened against him and continued.

“I’m sorry. You’d shown me nothing but kindness, defying every stereotype. But I still didn’t trust you, not really. I hate that it took losing you to realize just how essential you’d become. I never want to feel that way again. I can’t—”

Enough. He captured her mouth, swallowed whatever apology she thought she owed him. “No more, baby. Today’s a new day. Our day.”

She nodded, trailed her hand across his chest and lower, to where he’d hardened against her naked thigh. “Again, Keilor. Make love to me again.”

“Always.”

Skylar Kade, self-avowed hedonist and princess extraordinaire, started her writing career after throwing aside yet another romance she could not bring herself to finish. The run-on sentences! The purple prose! Oh, the horror of it was just too much. So she sat down to write her own tale. Her favorite part about writing is the extensive research.

She currently resides in sunny southern California, alternately cursing the polluted air and adoring the weather. Skylar spends her time hanging out with the Nine Naughty Novelists online and asking the cabana boys to bring her more mimosas and feed her strawberries while she dreams up her next naughty adventure. Visit her website at http://www.skylarkade.com or email [email protected].

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