Surrender to Temptation (6 page)

“Lean back.” He whispered the words. I felt as if I had been drugged, because I didn't entertain any option, besides doing what he said, even though the rational part of my brain screamed that complying was insane. The cool surface of the desk pressed against my back, pulling at my skin as I squirmed with anticipation.

“Close your eyes.” I shifted restlessly, my hips swaying awkwardly. I had never felt so needy, so on the edge.

The edge of what, I didn't know.

I tensed, waiting for sharp bite of the martinet. Craving it, if I were being honest.

Instead I felt the soft kiss of the cool leather dancing over my abdomen. I gasped at the sensation, so very different from what I had expected, but nonetheless pleasurable.

“This is how my mouth will feel when I get you naked and kiss you all over.” The picture sprang into my mind all too clearly, of myself bare and laid out on his desk, waiting for the touch of his mouth. I whimpered, just the slightest bit, and was hushed with the kiss of the leather over my lips.

“Spread your legs.” I did it before I even thought about it, the fabric of my skirt riding up, exposing the edges of my stockings, the flush of my panties, and the inches of skin in between.

The leather traced over my bare ribs, the valley between my breasts, my hard, tight nipples. I began to pant, more excited than I'd ever been in my life.

“Hold on to the desk.” I did, swallowing hard, wondering what would happen next.

Instead of the flogger, I felt Zach's fingers toy with the crotch of my panties. I moaned lightly and leaned into the touch, but he didn't linger.

Deftly, he pulled the fabric aside, and I felt slick pressure at my entrance. Instinctively opening to it, I was startled to feel something heavy and round being inserted in my most intimate of places, followed quickly by its twin.

I tried to clench my thighs together at the strange sensation, but Zach was there to block the movement.

“What . . .” I straightened up a bit to ask Zach what he had just done, and as I moved, the balls shifted. They created pressure in delicious, private places, and an unfamiliar ache bloomed through my belly.

“If you are to take this journey with me, then you must learn to trust me.” I was too distracted by the heavy sensation of the balls rolling around to ask him what he meant. “These are ben-wa balls. You will keep them inside of you until I say otherwise.” I shifted experimentally, and the balls moved, forcing sensations that were rich and impossible to ignore to flood through me.

“Bend over the desk again.” Oh, Lord. Bent over, the balls pressed heavily on the flesh above my clit. I wanted to rock back and forth, to build that delicious pressure so that it could be relieved, but a palm pressed to the curve of my back warned me against it.

Focused on the new sensations inside my cleft, I wasn't expecting the hiss of the flogger when it came, the bloom of pain between my thighs. One kiss of the leather on each smooth expanse of leg, then several short, quick flicks right in my center. I cried out, fingers scrabbling for purchase on the slick surface of the desk. He hit harder than he had the first time, and the blows hurt, hurt quite a bit, actually, landing as they were on my most sensitive flesh. But combined with that pain was a sense of pleasure, one that was dark and rich and seductive.

As my body jerked, the balls rocked inside of me. It was almost unbearable, that pleasure which melted so effortlessly into the sting of the whip.

The pleasure built, wave upon wave that finally reached the shore in a tidal crash of pleasure. I cried out again as the sensations washed over me, riding the darkness until I'd wrung every last bit of it out and I could see again.

Stunned, I slowly rolled over, propped myself up on my elbows and looked up at the man in front of me. His eyes were glowing like those of a cat, and they were full of an emotion that I couldn't read.

I didn't know him very well, after all, no matter what he'd just done to my body.

Something in his stare, though, was too personal, too raw, for anyone to see. In fact, I didn't think that he meant for me to catch him that way, for as soon as he saw that I had come back down to earth, his eyes shuttered and his face tensed up. I watched as he closed his emotions back off from the rest of the world, again becoming the controlled, charismatic young billionaire who held the interest of the world.

So even all of his money couldn't protect him from the demons that haunted him, that haunted us all.

Feeling exposed, though I supposed it was useless to at that point, I tugged my bra from my wrists and stuffed it in my pocket. I didn't feel as though there was time to fuss with putting it back on. I wrestled my blouse back over my arms, my shoulders, and closed it hastily, not bothering to double-check if it had been buttoned straight.

I had no idea what had just happened, but I didn't intend to think about it there. Zach was frozen in place, his eyes unreadable as they assessed me.

Pushing away from the desk, I hastily made my way toward the door, the balls rocking as I moved, making me moan. It was all just too much—too intense. I didn't know what to do with it. I would rather have faced Philippa the paper-doll princess while mussed and braless than have continued to try to breathe in a room that suddenly had no air.

“Miss Reid.” My hand was on the door before he spoke. I turned slowly, not letting go of the knob.

The sexy man who just seduced me had changed. The tortured one who made me come had disappeared. In their place was the cool, controlled CEO, complete with arrogant posture and the hint of a smirk on his lips.

“Be in the first-floor lobby at half past six this evening. We need to have a discussion.” His words were serious and very nearly foreboding.

“Do not remove those ben-wa balls this afternoon.”

I shifted, aware all over again of the gentle rocking of the balls inside of me. Though I'd just had a huge orgasm, I felt the need beginning again. I tried to imagine going through the afternoon with them inside of me, of working at my desk while they weighed down on my clit. The thought made my cheeks flush and my lips part.

“I have exposed you to some of the pleasure of my . . . lifestyle, Devon. But I haven't yet exposed you to the pain.” I couldn't move, not without those balls sending jolts of need through my veins.

“I need to know if you are open to both.” My eyes were wide. Pain? More than the martinet? Feeling as though I were in the presence of a predatory animal, I watched, cautious, as Zach strode across the room to me, tilted my chin up for a soft, short kiss.

“Go back to work now. I will meet you in the lobby at six thirty.” Somewhat dazed, drugged by the sensations in my blood, I nodded and turned to leave the room. Right before I exited the door, he whispered one last thing in my ear.

“And whatever you do, don't come.”

TEMPTED TO REBEL

B
y six twenty that evening, I was sitting in the vast, sleek lobby of the Phyrefly building waiting to meet Zach. My hands were bound so tightly together in my lap that my knuckles had turned white. My face was warm, and my trembling legs were crossed at the thigh, my every muscle clenched.

The slick silver ben-wa balls that Zach had secured inside of me earlier that day sat heavily in my pelvis. I tried to hold entirely still, for even the smallest of movements—any movement—set them rocking against my womb, and overwhelmed me with the sensation.

The vast building seemed to be empty, everyone else having gone for the day. I knew, though, that Zach was still around somewhere. I could feel the tension that being in his vicinity brought to me, vibrating in the air like a tangible substance.

I looked up at the sleek security monitor, wondering if he was watching, if he could see me. At the same time I saw myself, a small, curvy blonde dressed severely in black, picked out in slightly distorted black and white. The woman on that monitor seemed to be waiting for something—searching for something—and I blinked at my own image, startled by the thought.

What was I doing here? Was I really throwing myself at one man so soon after being burned by another? Could I really find myself while in the arms of someone else?

The sound of the chrome elevator sliding into place on the first floor had my heart clenching in the suddenly tight confines of my chest. My palms became slick with sweat, and I unclasped them and nervously wiped the moisture off on my skirt.

“You're early. I'm pleased.” And then there he was, Zachariah St. Brenton, the charismatic billionaire, striding across the ultramodern lobby toward me. He was dressed in another expensive-looking black suit that made him look all the more mouthwatering. I began to tremble as those crystal blue eyes fastened on me, warm with hunger.

My head told me that I wouldn't—couldn't—find myself by pursuing a man. Everything else in my being screamed at me to take what I wanted, for once in my life.

“Come.” Zach held a hand out for me, and I took it without question, just as I was sure he expected me to. I found that I didn't want to think, didn't want to analyze my actions, my feelings and my thoughts.

I just wanted to live—and nothing had ever made me feel more vibrant or alive than this man.

“Oh!” The heavy balls rocked as I stood, causing twinges of need all throughout my abdomen, and my knees buckled. Zach's muscular arm caught me around my waist, holding me steady.

“Maybe I asked too much of you.”

I looked up sharply, certain that he was criticizing me. I was crushed, because for reasons that I didn't quite understand, I wanted to please him.

Instead, the lines etched deeply into his forehead told me that his mind was filled with nothing but concern for me. I was surprised and touched, and it made me want to please him all the more.

“No.” Zach looked at me sharply as I spoke, the beginnings of a frown crinkling the corners of his lips. He struck me again as the kind of man who was not accustomed to being told
no
.

“Very well.” Those opalescent eyes studied me for a long moment, trying to unearth my secrets, it seemed, before Zach guided me to the parking garage entrance, where I had parked that very morning. He seemed to be trying to understand me, to figure me out, which puzzled me.

After all, I wasn't very interesting.

“Where are we going?” The balls continued to rock inside of me, moving with every step that I took. My breath was coming in short pants as pressure built in the muscles between my thighs.

Zach led me past the now-deserted booth where the parking attendant habitually sat, and through a door that I hadn't noticed before. It led to a smaller, more finely finished garage, detached from the main employee area.

It held half a dozen expensive-looking vehicles. Well, I didn't know anything about cars—anything at all, other than ideally, when I put the key into the ignition, they would start. Still, I knew without a doubt that all of these vehicles were well out of my price range. The shine of the chrome, their sleek lines—they screamed expensive.

I realized in a rush that they must all belong to him.

“We'll be going to the Seacliff house tonight, Charles.” I jumped, a jolt of adrenaline shooting through my veins, when a man dressed all in black, whom I hadn't noticed at all, rose from the folding chair on which he had been sitting to greet Zach.

“Very well, Mr. St. Brenton.” He nodded crisply, but I felt his eyes linger on me—not in a sexual way at all, but with curiosity. I found myself looking back, in short little glances, at the man who looked like he had only recently joined the senior citizens club—not that he would be joining the backgammon league anytime soon. He was tall, muscular, and stood with a rigidity that spoke of military training.

Suspicion was etched into the lines on his face. I swallowed, feeling the need to prove myself, though how, I didn't have a clue.

“Charles, this is Miss Reid.” Zach splayed his hand on my lower back, and I felt the heat of his body seeping through the thin cotton of my blouse. I shivered, which caused the balls to rock back and forth, and I couldn't help it any longer.

A small moan escaped my lips, a needy plea. I had never been more aroused in my life.

Zach looked down sharply at my sigh, and I noticed his body tensing in response to my desire. He nodded crisply at Charles, who climbed into the driver's seat of the car.

I was puzzling over why a man like Zach, who clearly liked to be in control, wouldn't drive his own fancy car, when he quickly took my hands, spun me so that I faced the rear of the vehicle, and placed my palms flat on its slick surface.

I choked back a cry as the balls swung wildly inside of me, pressing on my entrance, slicking my tight channel with arousal.

“What are you doing?” My whisper nearly caught in my throat when Zach crouched behind me, clasping long fingers around each of my ankles. He ran his hands up the insides of my legs.

“Zach!” The crevice between my legs flooded with wetness as he gently but firmly continued his caress up to the tender skin at the insides of my thighs, reaching beneath my flirty skirt. My face flushed crimson, my breath panted out, and I looked quickly to the front of the car.

Charles was seated in the driver's seat, facing forward. I could see his stern, focused expression in the rearview mirror. He appeared to be at attention, and at the same time he didn't appear to be at all interested in what his employer was doing.

Maybe Zach had women in his locked parking garage all the time. I didn't know, and at that moment, as his thumbs grazed the place where my bikini panties met my skin, I didn't care.

“Relax.” The word was a murmur against the back of my leg. This late in the day, he had the barest hint of shadow on his jaw, and he rubbed it back and forth over the tender skin behind my knee.

It made me tremble. I knew that it was stupid, since Charles didn't seem to be looking, but I tried to school my flushed cheeks and parted lips into a mask of indifference.

I struggled to cover my cry with a cough when one of Zach's hands pulled the elastic of my panties to one side. The other nudged at the swollen lips of my labia, teasing for a moment before entering. My fingers clawed helplessly at the cool surface of the vehicle as Zach extracted first one ball and then the other from my slick channel.

Pressing a kiss to my right buttock, he pulled my panties back into place and lowered my skirt. I gaped at him, aroused beyond anything I'd ever felt and also confused, as he spun me back around and ran a single finger down my cheek.

“It was wrong of me to ask you to wear these all day.” Casually, he withdrew a cloth handkerchief—did people actually carry those anymore?—and wrapped the two ben-wa balls in them. The little metals globes glinted in the light, winking mischievously at me before they were tucked into the pocket of Zach's pants.

“Come.”

He was going to leave me like this now? No. No way. I had been aroused to the point of pain all day, and my skin felt too tight. It wasn't fair.

It was cruel.

“What was the point of all of that?” When I was finally able to coax my voice into speaking, I was fully irritated, if breathless. No matter how much Zach turned me on, I didn't want to be pulled along by anyone else's will.

A flicker of consternation appeared on Zach's finely honed features, but it was gone in a breath. It was replaced by
that
look—the one that said that he wanted me, here and now.

I swallowed thickly as desire pooled within me and scattered my thoughts.

“Delayed gratification can bring you to heights of pleasure that you have never dared imagine, Miss Reid.” Pressing his hand in the indentation between my shoulder blades, he rubbed lightly with his index and middle fingers. “Now. Into the car.”

I planted my feet, trying to glare up at him, even though my body was screaming at me to do as he said. But I felt the need to take some sort of stand, to ascertain that I was not a shrinking violet.

I was just beginning to realize that I had been exactly that for nearly all of my life. It was time to change.

“Tell me where we're going. Then I'll think about getting in the car.” I quivered with nerves when Zach's expression darkened. I saw his fingers curl, his nails biting into his palms.

“We are going to my house.” The pressure of the fingers on my back increased, and I was startled enough by his words that I moved with it, bending to climb into the car. It was the same one that I had been in before, the sleek insides similar to a limousine, and I pressed my hands to my skirt to keep from flashing him a glimpse of my simple panties.

When I had seated myself, I looked back to find Zach grinning at me widely, even though the lust and the danger were still on his face.

“What?” I couldn't possibly have embarrassed myself in the last sixty seconds, could I? “What's so funny?”

Zach slid into the car behind me, much more gracefully than I had. I thought that he might sit beside me, might touch me—he had just had his fingers in between my legs, after all. But instead he settled himself on the soft leather bench seat directly across from me . . . the one where we had coupled so feverishly on my first day in his employ.

With him sitting straight across from me, I couldn't help but look directly at him, right into his gorgeous face. He loosened his tie, one patterned with green and gray today, then ran his fingers through his hair.

I imagined doing both of those things for him myself, and my mouth went dry.

“Why . . . why are we going to your house?” I wasn't an idiot—I knew very well where this was heading. However, the man and his mercurial mood changes had me feeling just uncertain enough that I wanted it in words.

Leaning forward, Zach pressed one single finger against my lips. I smelled copper and heat, and realized that the scent had come from me. I flushed all over, and that tense coil of need tightened even more.

“We are going to spend the night there.”

•   •   •

I
nervously tried to keep up a conversation as the car twisted its way along winding roads that were a slender black ribbon of asphalt bordering the ocean. Zach appeared to be entertained by my monologue, though he couldn't possibly have listened to even a fraction of it.

Still, his entire attention was focused on me. Combined with the slightly lessened but still very present ache from the ben-wa balls, I was ready to climb the walls.

Or him.

“This car is beautiful.” I didn't actually care much about cars, but the combination of the low-slung vehicle, its black leather seats, and the view from the coast road made me itch to go for a fast drive with the sunroof open. “It must be amazing to drive this road in this car.”

Zach didn't speak, but something in his silence changed. Turning my attention from the window to the big, beautiful man who was seated across from me, I understood immediately that I had said something wrong.

The face that had been so open and engaged only moments earlier was shuttered, and something flickered through the depths of those incredibly blue eyes.

“I don't drive.” As if a steel rod had snapped into place in his spine, Zach sat upright. After a long pause, he drew his phone from his pocket.

“You'll have to excuse me for a few minutes. I have some e-mails that I need to send.” The words were innocuous enough, but they provided him with a shield, an excuse to separate himself from me for the remainder of the drive.

Mortified, I clasped my hands around my suddenly trembling knees, staring down at them as the car glided onward, up a hill that was dotted with houses that looked increasingly more expensive the farther up we went. What had I said that caused Zach to shut down so absolutely?

I swallowed, hard, daring a glance up at the man through my eyelashes. He was scrolling through something on his iPhone, ostensibly reading it. His large frame was angled toward me, though, and he was stiff with tension. I knew that he was as overly aware of my presence in the car as I was of his.

Biting my lip, I let my stare travel down his body. I blinked when I saw the outline of his cock, pressing against the thin fabric of his pants.

I thought I had upset him, perhaps even angered him. But he was aroused?

Oh, he was so confusing.

I stayed silent, even as the car began to slow, and as Zach looked up from his phone. Sliding it back into his pocket, he looked at me with an unreadable expression on his face.

The car coasted to a stop. Peering out the window, I saw a massive garage door yawning open, and then we glided inside, pulling into line with another half dozen pricey-looking vehicles. I heard the sounds of the driver's-side door opening then closing, and then Charles opened the door to the area where we were seated. He helped me out first, and as I righted myself and smoothed down my skirt, again trying ridiculously hard to keep my underwear to myself, I heard Zach thank the man in a low voice.