His response struck her as strange, but she couldn't figure out exactly why. Especially when he was still looking at her like he wanted to lick her all over, head to toe.
Her body was responding to that look with intense arousal. But at the same time, the more physically aroused she become, the more it seemed her brain--and heart--were fighting that desire. Back in the club, even before he'd proposed, Cole had made it perfectly clear that they were going to spend the night together. Obviously, now that they were husband and wife, it was a slam dunk.
Still, it seemed that there was a difference between knowing something was going to happen and actually being there when it happened.
And there was definitely a difference between deciding she was going to be brave and actually being brave.
His eyes, still dark with desire, were fixed on her and she felt as if he saw all the way into her soul. It was too much, too soon. She tried to walk inside, but he grabbed her before she could take more than a step, and pulled her against him.
"You don't need to run from me, Anna."
Her breath was rising and falling too fast. "I don't want to run, but I don't know how to do anything else."
His mouth found hers and she tried to lose herself in his kiss the way she'd been lost in all the others, but panic was riding her too hard now to be able to let go. His hands moved down her back, rubbing, massaging from shoulder to hips, but instead of relaxing, she only tensed up more.
He lifted his head and she immediately said, "I'm sorry. I don't know what's wrong with me."
"No apologies."
Grateful that he wasn't pressuring her into anything--even though she was now his lawfully wedded wife--she said, "I want--"
Oh God, she was such a novice at all of this that she didn't even know how to get the words out.
"You want to sleep with me."
Thankful that he clearly didn't have the same problem, she nodded.
"But something is holding you back?"
Again, she nodded.
"How many lovers have you had, Anna?"
She flushed at his question. "Two," she said in a voice that was barely more than a whisper. "But being with them wasn't like being with you."
The words were out before she realized they were coming and her flush flamed even brighter.
"You're special to me, too," he said softly against her lips and this time when he kissed her, she was able to sink into it a little more. "I want to give you pleasure, Anna, more pleasure than you've ever known. Will you let me do that for you?"
His heated words shot through her veins like a drug. "I want to, Cole." And she did. God, how she did. "But what if I freak out again?"
"Will you trust me to make sure that doesn't happen?"
She had no reason to trust him, now when she didn't know any more about him than his name and profession. And yet, there was something in his eyes, in the way he'd touched her so far tonight, in the way he'd kissed her, that had her feeling cherished.
Adored.
No one had ever made her feel that way before. Not just the sexual part, which was way off any chart she'd ever had, but the safety part.
Cole made her feel protected.
"What we've had so far tonight is only the beginning. There's so much more, sweet Anna. Let me show you how good I can make you feel."
She couldn't hold back a shiver at his words. His arms were still around her, light enough that she could walk away at any moment, but she didn't want to go. His erection throbbed hard and thick against her belly even through his pants, and she wanted what he promised.
Badly.
But now she knew for sure that she couldn't do it on her own. Not without him helping her. Guiding her. Leading her.
Not without trusting him.
She'd thought a quickie wedding would be the craziest thing she'd ever done, but now she knew she was wrong.
Sleeping with Cole, trusting him enough to give her body over to him, letting him learn what gave her pleasure--learning it for herself--was far crazier.
"I'll trust you, Cole."
The relief that flashed across his features was quickly replaced with a darker, deeper desire than she'd seen yet.
He was halfway to kissing her when she found herself saying, "But please, don't betray my trust. Please don't hurt me."
He stilled a breath away from her mouth. "I don't want to hurt you, Anna."
Her brain tried to tell her it wasn't the promise she was looking for, but before she could fully hold onto the warning, he was picking her up again and kissing her as he carried her back inside.
Into his bedroom.
Cole didn't throw her on the bed, didn't crawl over her and keep kissing her. Instead, he set her on her feet again and said, "Turn around."
Anna's eyes flashed a combination of desire and that uncertainty she couldn't shake at his command. But she did it.
"Good girl," he said as he slid her zipper down and pushed her dress off her shoulders to the floor.
The fine hairs along her spine rose as his fingers followed the dress down. She moved to turn again to face him.
"Stay right where you are."
"But I can't see what you're doing."
"I know."
Again, despite her reluctance to give up control, he hoped she was tempted enough by what he was offering to give it.
After taking a long moment to appreciate how good she looked from the back in nothing but a bra and panties, all soft curves and smooth skin--the anticipation of seeing her from the front nearly killing him--Cole said, "Don't move a muscle."
He could see how hard it was for her follow his instructions, even without seeing her face. She was all but bristling with anxiety as he walked over to his dresser and pulled it open.
"Tell me what you're doing," she begged.
God, how he liked to hear her beg.
"You'll know soon enough," he said, teasing her with his response. Despite what she thought she wanted, the fact was that not knowing what he was doing would make her even hotter.
And would help her let go.
That need to let go was exactly why he gently slid one of his silk ties across her eyes.
She reached for the blindfold, but he didn't stop her. "I thought you were going to trust me, sweet Anna."
Her hands stilled on the soft fabric. "But I didn't think you'd be...blindfolding me."
He had to press a kiss to the spot where her neck curved into her shoulder. But just the press of his lips wasn't enough, he had to rake her skin with his teeth, had to begin to mark her as his.
His.
"Don't think, Anna. Just feel." He finished tying it behind her soft hair, tight enough that it wouldn't slip, but not tight enough to hurt. "The blindfold will help."
"How?"
Her whispered question made his cock so big it almost hurt. Because she was trusting him.
And he didn't deserve that trust.
Damn it, he couldn't go there. Not now. Not when he had a feeling the greatest pleasure he'd known yet was right in front of him, wearing his tie as a blindfold. Along with his ring on her left hand.
When she'd asked him not to betray her trust, they'd been talking about sex. He told himself that his answer had been totally honest. Enough justification that nothing was going to stop him from giving her the ultimate pleasure.
"No decisions. No choices. Just pleasure."
He heard her breath catch, saw the flutter of excitement in the upper curve of her breasts where her heart was beating hard enough that he could see it jumping beneath her skin.
He picked her up again, her arms going around his neck to steady herself a moment before he laid her down on the bed.
With the blindfold covering her incredible eyes, he found himself enthralled by her mouth, a sweet and sexy cupid's bow that was made for kissing. A vision ambushed him of Anna's soft, red lips wrapped around his cock as she sucked him deep into her throat.
"You're beautiful, Anna. So damn beautiful."
Those perfect lips curved up into a tremulous smile. She blindly reached up for his face, running her fingertips across his jaw, over his lips. "Thank you," she whispered.
Leaning down over her, he licked her lips, a long stroke from one side to the other. She opened up to him on a whimper and for the hundredth time that night, he lost sight of his plan.
Because just kissing this woman was better than fucking any other.
As her curves went soft and pliant beneath his, as he settled his erection against her wet heat and she bucked up into him, it took everything Cole had for him to remind himself that they'd been to this point before, where she was open and wanting, and she'd frozen up. If he kept at it like this, not using any finesse at all, odds were high that it would happen again.
Not because she was a tease.
Not because she didn't want him as badly as he wanted her.
But because she was good girl.
And pleasure this extreme frightened her.
"Have I mentioned yet how much I love kissing you?"
"I love kissing you, too," she said in that soft voice that was as warm and sweet as the woman beneath him.
"I want to kiss you everywhere, Anna."
Her soft smile froze on her face at the exact moment that he took hold of her wrists and lifted her arms over her head.
"Cole?"
"Just relax, sweetheart."
He'd never been one for pet names, had never bothered to force them out to get in a girl's pants, but with Anna he wasn't forcing it. She
was
sweet. So sweet he ached with the need to kiss her. To taste her. Working quickly, he drew another silk tie from where he'd been storing it around his neck and bound her left wrist to the right bedpost.
"How can I relax when you're tying me up?"
Her earnest question had him smiling down at her. The kind of woman he usually slept with would be playing it up right now, moaning and putting on a show for his benefit.
But not Anna. Instead, she was telling him exactly what she was feeling every step of the way with beautiful honesty.
"Like this," he said a moment before he ran his tongue lightly across the delicate skin on the inside of her wrist. "And this." His mouth ran kisses from her palm around to her shoulder.
By the time he made it back to her face, he had to drop in for another taste of her sweet mouth. Her nipples were a hard press of heat against his forearms.
"Better?"
Her breath was coming in harsh pants. "No."
"Maybe this will help." With her limbs still rubbery from his kisses, he quickly moved her other arm into place and secured it to the bedpost. Moving back to stare down at her beautiful, half-bound body, he asked again, "Better now?"
"No, Cole. Please. I don't know how to do this."
"You don't need to know, sweetheart. Not when your body already does."
Gently spreading her thighs with a hand on each leg, he inhaled her scent, more sweet than musky. His mouth watered with the urge to bury his face in her soft, wet folds, and taste her.
"Can you feel how wet you are for me?"
Her pink panties were soaked against her pussy lips. He pressed two fingers against her wet heat and she gasped, clamping her legs together around his hand.
Leaving his hand pressed in tight against her silk-covered lips, he asked, "Do you have any idea what you're doing to me?"
"But you're the one touching me."
Jesus, she had no idea how much her innocence inflamed him. Hell, he was as surprised by it as she was.
He hadn't been sure about tying up her legs. Now he was.
Anna's reserve went so deep that if he gave her any chance at all to protest, to try and fight what her body so desperately wanted, she'd use it.
Leaning over, he lowered his face to her groin and slid his hand out of the way, only to replace it with his mouth. Knowing he'd have to use the element of surprise to his advantage if he was going to have any chance of prying her thighs apart again without hurting her, a split second after he planted a hard kiss against her soft, aroused flesh, he was drawing her legs apart and securing her ankles, one after the other, to the foot board.
* * *
"Cole," she begged, "please untie me."
"Let me look at you first," he murmured. "I've never seen anything so pretty. You should see how sexy you look all spread for me, so wet and aroused, so ready for me to love you."
Without touching her--even though she was frightened by how vulnerable she was now
--his words of approval sent her to new peaks of arousal. Especially when he'd used the word
love
. Because even though the rational part of her knew there was no way they could be feeling more than lust--and like--for each other after meeting only hours before, her heart clearly wanted to believe in the fairytale of love at first sight.
Feeling the heat of his stare, even though she couldn't see him looking down on her through her blindfold, she could feel her breath coming too fast, knew she was actually shaking within her bindings.
The next thing she knew, his warm breath was brushing against her earlobe. "You're being so brave, sweetheart."
But she wasn't. She was begging him to release her at every turn, telling him she couldn't do what he was asking her to do.
Just like she'd been doing her whole life.
He sucked the fleshy lobe of her ear between his teeth and she arched up off the bed as far as the bindings would let her. Her nipples brushed against one of his thickly muscled arms.
"Touch me, Cole." She was still begging, but in an instant what she wanted had changed.
No, that was a lie. She'd wanted him to touch her from the first. All that had changed was she had finally stopped getting in her own way.
His mouth moved from her ear to trail a hot path down her neck. "Here?"
"Yes," she said as her head fell back to give him better access to her sensitive skin. But the way her breasts were aching for his touch had her changing her answer. "No."