Reluctant Surrender (18 page)

“Colin, come up into position two. Very good. Now, I want you to undo your blouse. Start at the top and undo every button to the bottom.”

His voice was mesmerizing. Calm and assertive at the same time. His silky command gave her courage. Her hands were surprisingly steady as she remained in a straight kneeling position and undid the series of pearl buttons. When she reached the last one he said, “Take it off and hand it to me.”

She shifted and let the blouse slide down her arms. Without a word she offered it to him, but it wasn’t until she brought her hands behind her back and clasped them together that he spoke. “Good girl.”

In only her bra and jeans she felt wicked. Dirty. As if she was on display for him. And when he reached out and drew his fingers over the tops of her breasts, across the flesh that capped her bra cups, her stomach muscles clenched and she tensed.

“Relax. Breathe.”

He continued stroking the flesh around her breasts. Doing looping circles over the exposed mound above her cup, the lacy sides, the undersides and back up again. Teasing her in such a way that her nipples ached and the area around them became hot and hard. Competing for his attention.

“Ethan.”

He took his hands away and leaned back. “No talking, Colin.”

After a full minute of silence, he ordered, “Move into the third position. As elegantly as you can. Do it. Show me your ass while you do it. Sell that beautiful attribute. Make me want to touch it. Squeeze it. Show me how slinky you can be as you get adjusted.”

His words were what she focused on. By the time she’d managed what she considered a downward dog position she was totally turned-on. She hadn’t felt this sexy, this desired, ever. Her heart raced. She was thankful for the cool wood floor against her scalding cheek. It grounded her and allowed her to keep her position.

“You’re a natural. Great form. Your ass couldn’t be any more perfect.”

He ran a hand over each mound and when he slipped his palm between her legs and pressed in hard against her she groaned.

“I’m going to undo your jeans.” He reached around underneath her and undid them. “Now I’m going to pull them down. I’ll leave your panties, but I have to see more of this beautiful ass.”

With each soft tug she melted further and further into a huge well of desire. She tried to remember to breathe. She wanted to stay calm. To focus, but every nerve ending in her body was attuned to him and what he was doing. And when he had her jeans down, when he slipped them off, her quivering pussy clenched and slickened more.

“There.”

She expected him to caress her bottom or maybe even spank it. She had given him quite a taunting show as she maneuvered into the third position. So when he bent over and bit her right cheek hard through her undies she cried out.

“Shh…”

He bit her left cheek just as hard, but she was better prepared and pressed her lips together.

“You’ve got a great ass, Colin.”

He smoothed his hands over her panties and then took hold of her bottom and held on tight. Without another word he alternated between right and left cheek as he bit her. Sometimes hard, sometimes soft. One minute it seemed unbearable and the next it was too bearable. Hot and alive with sensation. By the time he was done she was shaking and panting. Pushing her ass up for more of that kind of attention. She didn’t care what he thought about that. This was too good.

“Someone likes to be bitten.” He squeezed her bottom and even though it hurt it felt good somehow. She moaned and then gasped when he slipped an arm around her middle and lifted. “Come here.”

He carried her to the couch and set her down. It was an awkward moment. Not just because she was in her underwear while he was fully dressed or that she’d basically begged him without words to continue biting her bottom, but she didn’t know if she could talk yet. Some of the rules were kind of confusing.

“Can I speak?”

He’d been looking down at her and when she asked him this, his eyes darkened and his expression got intense. “I like you asking my permission, Colin. I like it a lot. Yes you may.”

And now she forgot what she wanted to say. She had to say something. “That was…nice.”

“I want better than nice. Close your eyes.”

“But—”

“Trust me. Let me show you better than nice.”

She closed her eyes and let out a breath. “Okay.”

Without a word he turned her sideways and guided her back against the couch. When she was lying flat with her tingling butt cradled in the soft leather, he whispered in her ear, “You stay put, I’ll be right back. Keep your eyes closed.”

She nodded and kept reminding herself to breathe. Was he going to get a condom? Suddenly her nerves kicked in. It had been so long since she’d had sex and really, how well did she know Ethan? Sure, he bit ass really well and he was dark and dangerous and what the hell was she thinking to be—

“Relax,” he ordered and when she tried to get up he eased her back down. “You’re going to love this. I promise. Trust me,” he said against her ear.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly and still her damn heart hammered. “I’m trying. Truly I am.”

It was as if she didn’t know her own mind anymore. One minute she was on board with all this and the next she was jumping ship.

“You’re doing great. I never said this was going to be easy. Just relax and do as you promised me. Go with the flow. You have the power to stop me anytime you want. Just say the word and I will, okay? Good. I’m going to bring your arms up—”

“You’re not going to tie me up, are you?”

“No. But no talking, Colin. Listen and pay attention.”

She bit her lip to make sure she didn’t ask more questions.

“I want you to curl your hands around this.”

It was the bolstered arm of the couch.

“That’s right. Let go of all your tension until your body is weightless.” He stroked her neck, her collarbone and breasts. “This is going to feel cold against your skin. Stay still.”

She heard a clipping noise and felt her bra strap give. He’d cut her bra. Her brand new Victoria’s Secret sexy bra, but before she’d decided to break the no-talking rule it didn’t matter because even if she wanted to complain she couldn’t. She was speechless because he cut off her new panties too. Men! All he had to do was ask and she would have—

“Get over it.”

Did she have to add mind reader to the list too?

“Oww.”

“Eyes closed and no talking.”

He’d taken her satin panties off and instead of the cool leather greeting her bottom a piece of cloth that felt like sandpaper was rubbed against her. Initially it hurt. Chafed, but then the burn started and those thrumming vibrations from before, when he’d been biting her were back with a vengeance until she was pressing into the roughness. Seeking it.

“That’s right. Refocus. Concentrate.”

She listened to him and forgot that she was naked and sprawled on his couch. That he was seated beside her fully dressed and ready to give her better than nice.

“Spread your legs for me. Like that. Here.” He helped to position them, drawing them up and pushing them into an open butterfly. “Perfect.”

Her fingers dug into the couch arm and she fought the urge to flex. The pangs of desire building and stacking inside her took her breath away and yet he hadn’t really even touched her. Not where it counted.

“Don’t let go of the couch, Colin, and don’t open your eyes. If you do either I’ll bind and blindfold you.”

She would have nodded, but then he slipped something inside her hot, wet flesh that was more than cold, harder than hard and wreaking havoc on her inner muscles. She cried out. The wholly acute sensation was painful in a pleasurable way and just when the object inside her started to warm and get comfortable he withdrew it and replaced it with a fresh one. The blistering chill caused her pussy to clench and convulse as she moaned and panted through the shock waves created.

“I had these specially designed. I call them stingers. They’re various sized stainless steel wands that will wake up all those lovely parts of you down here. Deep breath,” he said as he took that one out and inserted another one.

She didn’t know how many times he repeated the process. After seven she stopped counting and eventually her moans turned into raspy groans.

“You’re almost ready. Almost. Not quite there. Yet.”

She panted and crushed her fingers into the leather. Licking her dry lips, she silently begged for him to do something other than torture her this way. He was killing her. This intensity was too much. She couldn’t tell if her muscles were still reacting. All she experienced was a hard, steady tingle between her legs. Burning and thrumming.

“You’ll make it. I promise. Trust me,” he whispered in her ear and she cried out. Moving her head, she shifted toward his voice, seeking him. “That’s my good girl.”

He brushed a hand down her cheek and then rested it on her throat, lightly gripping her there as though to hold her steady. She didn’t mind, she relished this form of capture.

Shivering, because she’d been expecting another stinger, but this time something else was inserted into her. Something thick and curved, stretching her overwrought muscles and finding her G-spot. If he pressed too hard or moved too fast she’d die.

He must have known this, because his voice was as gentle as his actions. “Breathe deep and slow. Easy. Easy now.”

The small circles he made inside her drove her wild. It was a
hurry up and wait
as she was brought to the brink of orgasm and then pulled back. Once, twice, but on the third time, when he held her there for several seconds and whispered against her ear, “Trust me, baby. Let go, I got you,” she did.

She released her grip of the couch and let her body go weightless as she gave herself over to him. Once she did her whole world exploded. Every muscle in her midsection and lower worked together and pushed her harder, higher than she’d ever gone before. The squeeze to climax was thrilling. Scary. Breathtaking as she rode the lust-fueled crest for many moments until it descended as quickly and intensely as it built.

She was still gasping in shock when Ethan shifted and circled that device inside her once more, and her muscles reacted. Her body obeyed—a slave to him as it danced for him again and again. And quietly, each time before he let her fall off the edge of the world, he asked her to trust him. It was that simple. Her body understood what he wanted from her because each time it trusted him it received a reward.

“Ethan…”

Chapter Eleven

“Boy,” Colin sighed and stretched up her arms. “You don’t waste any time do you?”

Ethan groaned inwardly when Colin sat up and turned to look at him. He stopped slicing the Granny Smith apple and drank in the sight of her. Her hair was a sexy mess and her cheeks were stained a light apricot color while her sleepy eyes remained languid and soft as she stared.

She reminded him of a newly woken kitten. All warm and cozy and yet ready to play with some string if he dangled it. “Wasting time doing what?”

He came around the counter and watched as she pulled the blanket he’d put over her after she’d fallen asleep earlier more tightly around her before answering, “Seducing a woman.”

“Ah.” He sat on the coffee table in front of her and waited for her to say more.

“I must have fallen asleep.”

He eyed her hands as they twisted in the soft fleece cover over her breasts. “You did.”

“I’ve never—that was—” She looked right into his eyes and whispered, “I’ve never had an experience like that before.”

“I’m not surprised.”

She frowned and he grinned. “I’ve gathered John wasn’t the most imaginative guy on the planet.”

That put her at ease. “No. No he wasn’t.” She shook her hair behind her shoulders and scooted back on the couch. Curling her legs under the blanket, she said, “I don’t want you to worry about me. I know how this is going to go. I’m prepared.”

He reached out and took hold of her hand. The one that wasn’t strangling the blanket. “Prepared for what?”

Her eyes dropped to their entwined hands. “Eventually letting go. I know you think that I’m inexperienced and I am.” Did she know she was rubbing her thumb over his knuckle at the moment? He liked that. “But I also know that anything more than these ten days between us is not possible. So don’t worry that I’m going to go all gooey on you. Even if I wanted to I couldn’t.”

There was finality in her tone. A sureness that made him uncomfortable. “Why?”

“Because I have a plan and being involved with someone as…”

“As?” He let go of her hand.

“As worldly as you. You don’t fit into it.”

“Worldly?” He stared at her and she had the decency to blush. “That’s a polite way to put it.”

“Not that I think there’s anything wrong with the way you are. I mean, I’m here, aren’t I?”

“Yes, but the question to that answer is would you be here if the opportunity hadn’t presented itself?”

“I don’t understand.”

“I think you do, but tell me. Why do you worry so much about what other people think? How can you make yourself happy living under that kind of pressure?”

She frowned and shook her head. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but what you want me to do is make you happy.”

He knew where she was going with this and smiled. “Yes.”

“So how is that different?”

“Instead of attempting to please the many and failing with a good percentage of them because they’re a tough and fickle crowd.” He winked. “You only have to please one person, me, who makes the task easy on you. No stress providing you commit and put in the effort.”

“I wish I could believe that maybe then I wouldn’t constantly feel as though I’ve failed.”

“You haven’t failed.”

“Tell that to the crowd who attended my wedding. In their eyes I did. I wasn’t woman enough to hang on to my man. A man who chose a Harrington over a Reneaux, just like my father had.”

Ethan sat up and drew in a deep breath. “You don’t believe that.”

“Whether I believe it or not doesn’t matter. They do.”