Bound by Lies: Bound #1 (Adult Romantic Suspence) (13 page)

Hotel Bellevue, Friday 10pm, Suite #1501

I pull my car into the lobby of the Hotel Bellevue, a glitzy
but boutique hotel. I’m here to meet Caden. The valet takes my keys in exchange
for a token with the hotel’s signature HB emblem on it, which I slip into my
clutch.

I am wearing a black Hervé Léger bandage dress which wraps
me tightly like a present, paired with black leather Christian Loubouton pumps,
both another one of Caden’s gifts. Both selected specifically to seduce him so
thoroughly that he won’t care if we leave the blinds and bounds aside. I notice
a few heads turn as I walk towards the glass entry doors, pulled open by the
doorman, but I don’t care about the attention of other men. Everything I wear,
I wear for Caden. It is my armor and my weapon, and it is what I will use to
bend Caden Thaine to my will. He will make love to me with eyes wide open.

At the door of suite #1501, I knock. When it opens Caden
greets me with his trademark smile, but when he sees me his mouth drops open.
Exactly the reaction I was aiming for. I ooze myself past him and meet his gaze
through my thick lashes. As I strut into the suite I can feel his eyes roaming
all over my ass.

The suite is huge and soft with plump furniture in muted
colors broken up with carefully placed pale blues – cushions, a vase, the tie
for the curtains – like ornaments. It’s on the top floor of this boutique hotel
with floor to ceiling wraparound windows and a huge balcony overlooking the
city and eventually the ocean. Through several open doors I can see the bedroom
and the marbled bathroom, both richly decorated. The room is softened by the
low lighting and the croon of Sade through the speakers positioned in the
ceiling.

I shake my head slightly. This suite must have cost him a
fortune. I feel a curl of guilt in my belly. How can I say that what he gives
me already isn’t enough?

But suites and dresses aren’t everything, I remind myself.
And my resolve firms.

I slip my bag off my shoulder and drop it on the closest
couch as I walk deeper into the suite. I can feel him following me, stalking me
like a panther would, his footsteps muffled on the carpet. The sensation makes
my skin rise in goose bumps. Then he closes the gap between us.

His arms go around my body like a net. He has caught me. One
hand closes around my breast while the other tangles in my hair and pulls my
head back so my neck is exposed to him. The possessiveness with which he grabs
me sends moisture between my legs.

He touches his nose to my neck and I hear him inhale. He
lets out his first possessive growl. “You smell so damn good. You look so damn
good.”

God, I swear his voice is set on the exact frequency that
makes my legs shake. Although my body is aching to stay within the fiery bounds
of his touch, there are greater desires in me now. I force myself to push his
hand from my chest and to pull my head away from him. I can sense his shock
when I do and he lets me go.

“What’s wrong, kitten?” And I hear the first lace of fear in
his voice.

I knew it. He would die like I would die if he had to leave
me. He was bluffing. He can’t leave just like I can’t leave. We’re in too deep.
We’re bound to each other.

This infuses me with confidence. I don’t look at him. I
thrust my chin in the air, position one hand on my hip and start to walk
towards the glass door to the balcony. “Can’t a girl get a look at this view
before she’s mauled?” My voice is light and teasing.

I feel the tension behind me break as he laughs, a low
rumble that I feel through my body. “I see.”

I hide a small smile of triumph as I push open the door to
the balcony, hearing him begin to stalk me once more.

Outside a light night breeze tosses my hair about my
shoulders. I stride to the balcony and place my hands on the railing. The city
below twinkles like a black sea of white and pale yellow fish.

His hands find me once more. This time they span around the
sides of my waist. A thrill runs down my spine at his touch. I wonder if I will
ever get used to his hands on me. His body presses up to the length of my back.

“Looks like I’ve caught you again, kitten,” he whispers in
my ear. His hands start running up my side then under my breasts.

“Maybe I wanted to be caught.”

“Indeed.” His hands travel back down my waist and over my
hips. They stop at my dress’ hem, which sits an inch under the cup of my ass.
“This is almost an inappropriate dress.”

“Almost?” I say in a mock innocence. “Why? What would make
it completely inappropriate?”

He answers by slipping his hands under my hem and pushing up
my dress so that it bunches at my waist. His palm slaps my ass cheek, making me
gasp, the sting spreading wonderfully through my core. “That is for being
completely inappropriate.” Then the same palm rubs the mark in tantalizingly
soft circles.

“Cade. Someone might see.” I push his hand off me and try to
smooth my dress back down but his hands circle my wrists, pinning them to my
sides.

“No one can see us up here.” He places my hands on the
balustrade. “Don’t. Move.”

My breath shakes through my teeth. “Please. I don’t want to
be blindfolded.”

He tenses behind me. “But you’ll still let me bind you?”

I consider this. And decide that it is better to take this
slowly with him, like he did with me. I’ll get him used to things. One step at
a time. “Yes, you can still bind me.”

He nips at my ear from behind. “Then yes, kitten. We don’t
need blindfolds this time.”

For a moment I can’t believe that I have won. I grin to the
moon and it grins back. I grin to the stars and they wink back.

Oh Cade, I need you everywhere and all over me. Please don’t
keep me waiting too long.

He doesn’t this time. We are both gone too far thanks to
this outrageous dress and the thrill of being this high and my teasing
behavior. I groan when his hand runs down my ass and between my legs. I can
barely think when he pushes my underwear aside and dips a finger into my
soaking wet ache from behind, just as his other hand slips down the front of my
underwear to find my clit. My body reacts by shaking, and my need for him
flares.

He withdraws his finger from behind. I moan as I lean
heavily against the railing, pressing back into him. I am rewarded with two
fingers that spread me wider as they push just inside my entrance. “Yes,
kitten, move for me. You control the speed.”

I push back from the railing and impale myself on his
fingers. Oh God. With his other hand he continues to rub my clit. Fuck. No. I
should demand that he stop and turn me round so I can see him. But my resolve
is becoming lost under these waves of pleasure. Instead, I cry out for more. I
can’t help it. I am a desperate fool for Cade and I can’t stop. Stupid, stupid
body.

“That is so fucking sexy,” he says and it breaks into my
thoughts. I realize I’m thrusting myself up and down on his fingers, pushing
back against the railing and moaning like a whore. He chuckles. “They might not
be able to see you, but they can hear you.”

“I don’t give a fuck.”

They don’t exist to me right now. No one and nothing else
does except for him and me. And the spaces inside me that he exists in. I hear
him growl as I thrust and tighten around his fingers. I know in that instant he
means to take me on this balcony.

He takes his hands from me and peels my underwear down off
my hips, the black lace pooling around my heels. He forces my thighs wider with
his knees and I gasp as the night breeze cools the moisture between my legs.
Then his fingers find their home again inside me. I move against him again,
more urgently this time. The pressure builds and builds and I cry and thrust
and there’s the brink…

He withdraws his hand and his body from me. I tremble from
the loss and I have to slump on the railing to keep myself from sliding to the
floor in a puddle. I don’t notice that he has pulled out his red silk ties
until he swiftly ties my right wrist to the balcony. I let out a small cry and
tug on my binding. Before I can react any further, my left wrist is secured to
the railing.

I hear the drop of his shirt. Then his pants and belt clink
and drop, too. As I look out over the glittering city below, I realize I have
been fooled. Bound like this to the balcony I can’t turn around. I can’t see
Cade. His hands grab my hips. I feel his erection slide between my legs and his
cock poised at my entrance. “I want you to push back again, kitten, this time
onto me.”

For a moment I don’t care that I’m bound, I just want him
inside me. My fingers grip the railing and I…

I remember, he’s naked behind me. But I can’t see him.

“Cade, no,” I force myself to say, “I want to look at you
when we make love.”

A knot forms in my gut when he lets go of me. “You said you
didn’t want to be blindfolded. I didn’t blindfold you.”

“Yes, but I still can’t see you his way. I need to see you.
Please, turn me around. You can re-bind me, but please turn me around.”

He voice is low and I can hear the bitterness that taints
his timbre. “You know I can’t do that, kitten.”

“Why? You never tell me why?”

“Have you stopped trusting me?”

“What? No, I just...” I squeeze my eyes to stop from crying
out in frustration. I need him, but I need more. I need to be strong enough not
to buckle to him anymore. “I just want to see you. I want to look into your
eyes when you make love to me. I want this to be our new version of together.”

I can hear him pace behind me. I struggle to turn around. I
strain my neck and my back from all my twisting. Out of the corner of my eye, I
see the outline of his hard and muscled body, his hands running across his
face, but the lights from inside the suite have turned him into a silhouette. I
still can’t see him. The world is conspiring against me to keep the man I love
in the dark from me. The unfairness of it makes me want to scream.

When he catches me trying to steal a glimpse of him, he
freezes. He lunges for me and my heart leaps to my throat. His hands are in my
hair and around my neck, firm like restraints. The insatiable whore in me can’t
help but imagine him fucking me just like this.

But he doesn’t. With him pressed up against me I can feel
that he has completely lost his erection. He speaks and his voice is wild. “You
don’t want to see me, kitten. Trust me, you don’t want to see me.” Oh God, it
doesn’t even sound like him anymore.

“I do.” I croak, not ready to give up yet.

“You don’t know what you’re asking for.” His hands shake
around me with rage. “If you did, if you only knew, you wouldn’t fucking ask.
If you knew… Jesus Christ. You don’t understand, kitten.”

I understand. I understand that you lost your parents and
your sister in a horrible murder and you continue to torture yourself by not
letting anyone in. But I can’t tell him I already know.

“Then please help me to understand. You can tell me, Caden.”

His hands loosen from my hair and fall around my torso like
a set of ropes. He grips me tight, so tight I can barely breathe. His cheek
rests on my head. “I can’t, kitten. I’m sorry. I just can’t.” His whispered
voice is so pained it brings tears to my eyes. “I wish I could…” He slips from
my body, from my head and from my hair. I grip the railing with the loss of
him.

“But I fucking can’t,” he screams. The night echoes back his
sentiment, “can’t, can’t, can’t…” The air heats with his rage and I tremble.

I hear him take a breath. A steadying breath. Then he takes
another and I can feel the frustration sucking back into him to be tucked away
again behind a calm facade. I shiver. He takes a step towards me. His lips
brush my shoulder and his fingers graze my arms. His voice is soft like a
prayer, “Don’t you think I want that, too? Don’t you think that I dream about
being with you, really being with you? I do, kitten. I wish it more than
anything.”

It’s everything I want to hear from him. “Why don’t we? We
make our own togetherness, remember, Cade?”

“I’m not normal, kitten. We aren’t normal and we’ll never
be. You, I, individually or together, we will never be.”

I squeeze my eyes shut because I know deep down that he is
right. “We could try.”

“It would never work. We’d both know that we were lying.”

“But we could trust each other, really and completely trust
each other. We could be ‘not normal’ together,” I whisper. I’ll tell him
everything. My real name. Who I am. Why I am running. I will. If he asks me,
I’m ready.

I feel him pause, and I pray that it’s because he is truly
considering it, too. My heart begins to flutter anew with hope. We can.
Together we can deal with both our demons.

His lips brush against me again. “I’m sorry.”

I hear him gathering up his clothes and he begins to redress
himself. I tug against my bonds, trying to look at him over my shoulder. “No,
Cade, wait.”

“I’m sorry, kitten.”

“No, Caden.” I tug harder as I hear his zip go up. But I
can’t get loose.

I feel him step behind me and his arms slip around me like a
blanket. God his warmth is a relief. He hasn’t left.

He pulls at the ties of my left hand and backs away.
“Goodbye, kitten.”

I turn, reaching my free hand wildly for him and find myself
straining against the binds of my other hand. My skin is burning under the
pressure of the ties, but I don’t care. I have this feeling. This horrible
feeling that if he walks out of this room… Oh God. I might never see him again.
Stop. I can’t breathe. I need- I need to get these stupid binds off me. Why
won’t they just fucking come off me?

“No. Don’t say ‘goodbye’, say ‘be good, kitten’.”

I tear at the binds of my right hand with my left. But my
fingers are too frantic and my eyes keep darting back to watch him walk away.
The knots are done up in some special way. Some special way so that they can’t
be pulled out by the hand in the restraint, but with a tug of the right piece,
the whole thing can come apart. But I don’t know which part and I can’t see
what I am tugging against because it’s dark on this balcony and I keep looking
up to watch him leave. He steps inside, closing the balcony door behind him.