Wicked and Dangerous (22 page)

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you it was my first time,” she whispered. “I just didn’t
want to scare you off. If you’d known, you wouldn’t have touched me.”

“I
shouldn’t
have touched you.” He worked his jaw for a moment, then muttered, “But it wouldn’t
have stopped me.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really,” he breathed out, sliding his hands to her hips again and giving them
a firm squeeze.

She couldn’t help but smile. “Good,” she told him, reaching for his right hand. She
held it with both of hers, lifting it to her lips, and pressed a soft kiss to the
knuckles he’d bruised fighting Rado’s thugs that morning in the parking lot. He groaned
and pulled his hand free, curling both hands around her breasts, his thumbs rubbing
her nipples. He made her feel so incredible; she wanted to make him feel that way,
too. And while she didn’t have a lot of hands-on experience, she’d read enough to
have some interesting ideas.

Placing her hands on the solid slabs of his chest, Lily shifted her legs so that she
could brace herself on the balls of her feet. Then she spread her knees and started
riding him harder as she lifted herself up and down on the thick, scorching inches
of his cock. His eyes widened, and she let a slow smile curve her mouth. She watched
him lower his gaze, the lust carved into his rugged features impossible to miss, and
when she looked down she knew why. The position was erotic as hell, making it easy
to see the way her tight, tender entrance was stretched to its limit around his brutal
width, the vein-ridged shaft gleaming with moisture every time she lifted, before
driving herself back down in a move that hurt but was too good to stop.

“You sure as hell don’t fuck like a virgin, Lily.”

She fluttered her lashes at him. “That’s because I’ve done every dirty thing you could
imagine in my head with you more times than you could count. If imagination were experience,
I’d be the slag of the universe.”

He laughed, and she gasped as she felt that husky sound move through his body and
up into hers, another slow smile curling her lips. “Do that again,” she all but purred.

He snorted, looking a little embarrassed. “I can’t laugh on command.”

“Then I’ll help,” she said, bracing herself on her knees again so that she could tickle
his ribs. His body shuddered beneath her as another deep burst of laughter rumbled
up from his chest, the happy sound making her feel ridiculously pleased with herself.
He gave a playful growl as he grabbed her wrists and rolled them over, trapping her
beneath him as he reversed their positions. For a moment she thought he was going
to tickle her back in retaliation, but he reached for the tank top she’d tossed to
the far side of the bed instead.

Panting with excitement, Lily watched the muscles in his arms move beneath his golden
skin as he easily ripped the tank into several strips of cotton. Within seconds he
had her arms over her head, wrists bound together with one of the thin strips of material.
Tying the ends around one of the wooden slats in the headboard, he secured her wrists
to the bed, making it impossible for her to move away. God, having a naked Scott Ryder
between her legs while she was bound and at his mercy was even sexier than she’d dreamed
it would be.

He stared down at her with an outrageously wicked look. “I have to admit, I love the
feel of your hands on me. But there’s something to be said for how beautiful you look
like this.” She shivered, and he cocked his head a bit to the side. “Scared?”

“No. I couldn’t do this with someone else. But I trust you. It makes me hot, knowing
you can do whatever you want to me.”

“Anything at all.”

“That’s what I want. I want you to do it all.”

His nostrils flared as he pulled in a sharp breath, and his mouth went hard. “Don’t
do that, Lily. I can think of a hell of a lot of things that would probably freak
out a girl like you.”

“Yeah? Like what?”

Very slowly, he reached down and rubbed his thumb around the taut skin the broad root
of his cock was stretching wide, getting it wet. Then he pulled out about halfway
and ran his thumb from her vulva down to the puckered entrance of her anus, pressing
against it with the slightest amount of pressure. “What if I put my dick in you here?”
he asked her. “Fucked you deep and hard right up this tight little ass?”

She knew her eyes had gone wide with shock. “You like anal sex?”

A sexy smirk tilted his lips. “I like the thought of doing everything with you, Lil.
Every raunchy, dirty, explicitly sexual thing you can think of. There isn’t any part
of you that I don’t want to violate and own. So, yeah, I like anal sex. I’ll especially
like it with you.”

“I’ve, um, never done it before.”

He laughed, then looked a little surprised, as if he didn’t know what to make of his
own reaction. “Seeing as how you were a virgin, I kind of figured you hadn’t. But
I won’t go there tonight,” he said, pulling his hand from between her legs as he surged
back in, giving her every inch. “I’m not that much of a bastard.”

“Then what are you going to do with me?” she asked, liking the way it felt when she
pulled a little at her bound wrists.

“Brace your feet on my shoulders, Lily.”

She shivered but did as he said, the result leaving her in a position that had her
completely open to him. Once again, he could see every intimate, erotic detail, from
the glistening juices that were gleaming around the thick base of his cock to the
sensitive knot of her hard, pink clit.

“It feels really intense like this.” She bit her lip as he withdrew almost to the
tip, then shoved himself back inside that swollen little hole. She gasped, thinking
that it felt a bit odd to be so exposed when she was unable to cover herself with
her hands. But what really threw her was the way he lifted his gaze and locked it
with hers, his dark eyes making her feel like he could see right inside of her. Like
he could uncover all her secret emotions and dreams that needed to remain hidden if
she wanted the chance to keep enjoying him. “We, um, need to turn the light off or
something.”

“Like hell we do,” he grunted, grabbing her behind her knees and pushing them out
even wider as he moved over her. “I like you like this. I fucking love it. Don’t you
dare try to hide from me.”

Tendrils of hair stuck to her damp cheek as she shook her head. “I’m not. I just . . .”

His hot stare drilled even deeper into hers. “Do you trust me, Lily?”

“What? Of course I do!”

“Then get over being shy,” he bit out, leaning down and taking her mouth in a greedy,
explosive kiss that was so freaking hot it probably killed a few of her brain cells.
“You wanted this,” he said against her lips, thrusting faster . . .
harder
, the heavy lunges slamming his cock impossibly deep. “So now you’ve got to deal with
it. With
me
.”

She didn’t argue, because there was no hiding how desperately she kissed him back . . .
or how turned on she was. She knew he could feel it in the way her tight sex rippled
around his massive shaft. She was getting even wetter . . . slicker, a hot, scorching
glow burning deep inside her, pumping through her veins. When she came the eruption
of ecstasy was so intense she almost passed out, and he was right there with her,
his thick cock jerking inside her with powerful bursts as he growled into her mouth,
swallowing her cries.

“Jesus, Lil. I think you killed me,” he groaned, reaching up to untie the knot securing
her wrists once their bodies had finally calmed and they’d caught their breath. He
turned off the light and collapsed beside her, burying his face in the curve of her
throat as he threw one of his long legs over hers, his fingers tenderly rubbing her
wrists as if to ease any ache she might be feeling.

Oh, wow
. This was almost as incredible as the sex. The feel and the weight of him holding
her. The hot, masculine scent of his skin and the even sound of his breathing as he
relaxed. Thank God she’d come here because she would have been seriously pissed if
she’d missed out on this. On
him
. She drifted into sleep, mellow and soft, muscles like taffy that’d been warmed in
the sun. She remembered him getting up at some point and gently cleaning her between
her legs with a warm washcloth, before climbing back into bed with her. Then, later,
she woke up cold, wondering why she didn’t have his warmth. Maybe he’d gotten up to
go to the bathroom. Or to check on Mike. She burrowed under the covers, wanting to
wait for him to get back, but drifting into sleep again. But she was tense as thoughts
of Radovich kept working their way through her mind, and the nightmares wouldn’t leave
her alone.

The next thing Lily knew, she was sitting up in bed, her throat hoarse from screaming,
and Ryder was rushing into the dark room dressed in his jeans, the door shutting behind
him. He quickly flicked the light on low and climbed onto the bed, his back braced
against the headboard. Then he pulled her shaking body onto his lap, and held her
against his chest. “Jesus, Lil. What were you dreaming about, baby? You must have
had a nightmare.”

“Nothing,” she gasped. “It’s nothing.”

His arms tightened. “Was it about that night on the boat?”

She squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t want to talk about—”

“Too bad,” he grunted, cutting her off. “It’s time you tell me. I need to know how
you got away that night.”

She wanted to argue, to refuse, but she was cuddled naked in his arms, her head resting
back on his right biceps, the look in his dark eyes when she lifted her lashes making
it clear that this was important to him. He lifted his free hand, pushing her hair
back from her face, and the tender touch was her undoing. Forcing the words from her
tight throat, she said, “I don’t remember a lot from when Rado was talking to my father.
That monster and his men were hurting him, torturing him, and I was screaming, fighting,
trying to reach him as they held me back. Then Rado sent me off with one of his men
until he was ready to deal with me, telling the guy to clean me up so I would be ready
for him and the others. So the man . . . he took me down to my stateroom.” Her face
burned as she gave a hard swallow. “And then I played him.”

His brows were drawn together in a V, a muscle pulsing in his scarred cheek. “What
do you mean?”

She wet her lips, trying to keep her voice steady as she lowered her gaze to his chin,
not wanting to see the look in his beautiful eyes when she explained. “I came on to
him, acting like I . . . I wanted him over the others. Told him that I’d run away
with him if he helped me. That I had a lot of money and would make it worth his while.
That I’d be willing to do whatever he wanted, as long as it was just him. So he, um,
took the bait and started to kiss me. I hated it, wanting to throw up. But I kissed
him back until I knew he was focused on me and not worrying about what I might do.”

She could feel the tension creeping into his muscles. “Did he rape you?” he asked
in a low, deadly voice.

“He would have. But when he broke the kiss to pull off his shirt, I grabbed his balls
and twisted so hard they probably don’t work right anymore.”

She took a quick peek at his face and caught the twitch at the corner of his mouth.
“Good girl,” he murmured, rubbing the pad of his thumb beneath her eye. She hadn’t
even realized that she was quietly crying until he lifted his thumb to his mouth,
tasting her tears. Her breath caught as she struggled to remember what she’d been
saying.

“What’d you do after that, Lil?”

“Um, I grabbed what I could, stuck it into the waterproof kayaking pack I still use,
and snuck out of my room. I made my way to the deck and slipped over the railing,
into the water. When I started swimming away, I heard something that made me look
back. They were dumping my dad’s and Nancy’s bodies over the side of the boat.”

“Jesus,” he hissed, pressing his lips to her forehead. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m so damn
sorry. I know I should have told you that before, but things have been . . .
Shit
, I’m just an ass. And I’m sorry.” He pulled his head back so that he could catch
her gaze again, his expression confused. “But why didn’t you want to tell me?”

“I didn’t want you to think . . . I don’t know. I felt stupid. You would have kicked
his ass, while I had to use a ridiculous deception to get free. I guess I just didn’t
want you to think I was pathetic. I mean, you weren’t exactly friendly when I got
here.”

“You’re not pathetic,” he said fervently. “You’re amazing. You saved your ass when
most people would have been catatonic with fear. That took balls and guts and more
courage than I can even imagine. I’m proud as hell of you.”

The tightness in her chest eased, and she blinked up at him. “Yeah?”

“You bet your sweet little ass, yeah.”

“But there was a moment, I don’t know how long it lasted, where I started to think
my plan wouldn’t work. I’ve never been so scared in my life, Scott. And I felt so
horrible, for being afraid of what might happen to me, when my dad and Nancy had already
suffered so much.”

“No, baby,” he rasped, pulling her against his chest. “That’s called survival instinct
and there’s no stopping it. I know for a fact that your dad would have been so damn
proud of you.”

She tucked her head under his chin and wrapped her arms around his lean torso, hugging
him. She thought she probably could have stayed like that for the rest of the night
and enjoyed the best sleep of her life, until she remembered that she’d been alone
when she’d awakened from her nightmare. “You’d gone back to your room, hadn’t you?”

His body stiffened against hers. “Yeah.”

Forcing herself to pull out of his arms, she climbed off his lap. “I’m fine, Scott.
You can head back to your own bed now. I’m sorry for bothering you.”

“Lily, I just—”

“Really, it’s okay,” she said, cutting him off. “I just need to get some sleep. I’ll
see you in the morning, okay?”