He’d buy a new set, just for her. If she wanted. If she stayed with him.
She swallowed and drew in a deep breath. “Where’s your suitcase?”
Those three words lit a firestorm of desire in his blood, pulsing through him like an electrical charge. But it was the look on her beautiful face that nearly sent him to his knees.
Desire, excitement, lust. Not one hint of fear.
He set her on her feet, but not before sliding her body against his, until the tip of his cock brushed the hair on her mound.
Then he had to set her away or risk disgracing himself.
“By the bed.”
She turned and looked then looked back at him and smiled. “Convenient. Get on the bed.”
Diego had never thought of himself as a submissive person. Quite the opposite, in fact. But when the tiny—he didn’t realize how tiny until just now—naked blonde walked over to his suitcase and started rummaging through it, he pretty much figured he’d submit to anything she wanted.
He watched her pick her way to the bottom, knowing she had to have questions about some of the things she found in there. He didn’t own a traditional gun, but there were knives and other, specialized
grigorio
equipment in there.
Sure enough, when she turned, now on the other side of the bed, she said, “We’re gonna have a talk about the contents of that case a little later, but right now…” She dangled the leather straps from her fingers. “You’re not on the bed.”
He waited a second before he knelt on the mattress and held out his arms. Watching her lips part to draw in a breath before she reached for him made his cock throb. Her gaze dropped then moved back up his body before landing on his outstretched wrists.
She reached for him then stopped. “Do you need a safe word or is ‘no’ enough? I don’t want to hurt you.”
His laugh was short and full of burning lust. “Honey, you can’t hurt me. So no, I don’t need a safe word.”
Caressing the underside of his bicep with the leather straps, she cocked her head to the side and stared at him. “What do you mean?”
“It means, you can tie me as tightly as you can and it won’t hurt because my body can take a hell of a lot of wear and tear.”
Expertly tying slip knots in the leather, she slid one loop over his right wrist and pulled it taut. The motion brought him an inch closer.
“On your back, Diego.”
Dear Goddess, he loved hearing her say his name in that sexy tone. And when she punctuated her command with a tug on the strap, his breath stopped in his chest.
He did what she asked, so turned on he could barely breath. Hyperventilation became a very real threat when she tied his wrist to the thick post on the right side of the headboard. Then she climbed onto the bed and straddled his chest, and the warm, moist heat of her sex brushed against his skin.
He must have made an involuntary motion with his free hand because she immediately had another loop around it then leaned forward to fasten it to the headboard.
When she had him bound, she sat back to look at her handiwork and now she did sit flush against him, showing him just how wet she was.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
He nodded, swallowing hard when she smiled, her expression filled with pleasure. Deliberately lifting her hand, she traced her index finger in a straight line from his lips to his chest, where she twirled it through his chest hair.
“Good, because I’m done playing nice.”
Dragging her wet lower lips down his body, she conveniently shifted just enough to miss his aching cock. He thrust up—and found her mouth there waiting to take him in.
Warm, moist suction sealed over his flesh, causing his body to arch in pleasure. Because she was sitting on his thighs, the only motion he made caused him to force himself deeper into her mouth. She took him without complaint but released him after only a few seconds. His groan rang through the room.
He raised his head and found her smiling at him. “I don’t want you to come yet, Diego. I’m not nearly finished.”
That’s exactly what he was hoping.
“And now it’s my turn.”
With deliberate motions, she crawled back up his body, stopping to rub her breasts against his chest, tight nipples scraping across his aching ones. She sighed, her hot breath caressing his sensitized skin. Grabbing hold of the headboard, she continued to slide up his body until the lips of her sex were directly over his mouth.
He didn’t know if she gave him permission or if she simply lowered herself to him, but he finally had her exactly where he wanted her.
Caught in the leather thongs, he couldn’t pull her tight against him so he licked at her with broad strokes, taking care to swipe her clit when he could. But her body had a rhythm of its own, and it took him a few seconds to align himself. And when he did, he caught her delicate flesh between his teeth and nibbled.
She moaned and let him have his way until she cried out his name as her body convulsed.
When she slid down and collapsed against his chest, he tried to put his arms around her and nearly broke the headboard.
Shit, he’d have to watch that. He was strong enough to break the restraints with little effort but he didn’t want to frighten her.
Cock throbbing, close to release, he forced his body to relax. He turned and kissed the top of her head, inhaling her scent along with the smell of sex in the air.
It was enough to make him seriously consider popping the restraints anyway and rolling her under him. Instead, he felt her rouse until she propped herself on an elbow to look down at him.
He didn’t see an ounce of embarrassment or regret. Just a sweet, sexy heat.
“You okay?” She lifted a lazy hand and trailed one finger in the line of hair from his groin to his belly button. “You look a little tense.”
What could he say to that? Hell, yes, he was tense. She’d teased him to the brink of release twice. His jaw ached, he had it clenched so tight.
“I’ve got a hard-on you could hammer nails with. I’m so fucking turned on from being tied to the bed that if you look at me the right way, I’ll come. And if you don’t fuck me soon, I may have a heart attack.”
Her eyes went so widen he thought he might’ve finally pushed her over that fine edge away from him. When she didn’t move after a few seconds, he knew he had and he mentally prepared himself for her to get up and walk away.
Then she straddled his hips and pulled his cock straight into the air. Slowly, her gaze rose from his groin to his eyes.
The throbbing in his cock intensified until he swore it beat in time with the pulsing vein in her throat.
Lifting her hips, she positioned herself directly over his tip then hung there, her heat close enough to feel but not close enough to touch. Then with one smooth movement, a testament to how wet she was, she took him into her body. Slid down until he felt her clit press against his groin.
Her moan and the way her eyes fluttered closed assured him she was okay. But she didn’t move.
He tried to wait for her. Hell, he even counted to twenty. Then he thrust because he couldn’t help himself.
Her eyes snapped open and her hands landed on his chest, nails digging into his skin like a cat kneading a blanket.
“I didn’t tell you to move.” The tightening of her inner muscles around him belied the rebuke in her words.
“Then do it, babe. Take me. Come on, I’m dying for you to ride me.”
Her mouth parted on a moan and her sheath contracted around him as she slid up and down, so fast she got him off in seconds as she came again.
When she collapsed against him, still holding him in her body, she untied his wrists then made it clear she wanted him to wrap his arms around her by snuggling against him.
He did, figuring she’d better get used to it, because he wasn’t letting her go.
Chapter Seventeen
Bella caught small pieces of sleep all night but couldn’t shut her brain off long enough to slip into complete oblivion like she’d hoped.
When she and Steven had gotten back to her room, she’d taken one look into his exhausted eyes, stripped him and pushed him toward the bed. She thought he might’ve been asleep before his head hit the pillow.
He needed the sleep more than she needed to know what had happened last night.
At least, that’s what she’d told herself as she lay there, staring at the wall across from her. Steven curled around her back, an arm around her waist, dead to the world.
She needed sleep so she’d be alert for the morning meeting. Just thinking about it wreaked havoc on her nerves so she couldn’t fall asleep.
Cole was depending on her to convince the
lucani
army leadership that they had to prepare for war against the
Mal
. Something it had taken her father years to convince them
not
to do.
A war that could uncover Etruscan society to the rest of the world. And possibly destroy it.
Uni’s ass, could this situation get any more screwed up?
Her new best friend faced an excruciating ordeal today. Her brother had been shot. Her lover had been kidnapped and she still didn’t know—
“Bella, you’re thinking so hard I swear I can hear you.”
Steven’s breath whispered across her ear, firing a heat deep in her body, one that never cooled around him.
“Can’t sleep.”
“Yeah, I can tell. Sorry I fell asleep.”
She couldn’t tell from the tone of his voice if he regretted that or not. Of course, the erection nestled against her backside told a story of its own.
Resisting the urge to rub herself against him, she took a deep breath. “Do you want to talk?”
He didn’t answer right away. Instead, his hand slid down a few inches from the sedate position on her stomach. “Do
you
want to talk?”
Her breath caught in her throat at the inflection in his tone and the caress of his fingers bare centimeters above her mound.
For as long as she could remember, he’d never made the first move. It had always been up to her to reach for him, to kiss him. He’d never disappointed her after she’d made the initial contact but in the back of her mind, she’d always known he was holding back.
And intellectually, she’d known why.
He was afraid of letting go completely, afraid of what might happen if he did. She didn’t sense that fear in him now as his fingers brushed the hair on her mound.
“Steven?”
She didn’t have to ask the rest of the question.
“It’s okay, Bella. I’m okay.”
Then he pushed her flat on her back and kissed her, stealing her breath.
Her arms wound around his neck and she tried to pull him closer but he’d already decided he wanted that himself. Burrowing one hand under her hip, he palmed her ass, lifting her into him as he slipped between her legs. Her knees fell apart to make room.
He’d always been welcome here, in her arms, in her bed, in her life. Tonight, he kissed her with the steady deliberation of a man who had all the time in the world. He’d already licked his way into her mouth, his tongue insinuating itself around hers, sliding, arousing.
He couldn’t seem to get enough of her mouth and she loved to kiss him. He tasted hot and dark, and she couldn’t breathe without the scent of him burrowing deeper into her soul. When she moaned and opened her mouth further, he slid his free hand beneath her head and angled her so he could delve even deeper.
When he finally lifted his head, he trailed a string of kisses from her jaw to her neck, biting the sensitive flesh where her neck became shoulder. A shudder ran through her body, making the muscles of her thighs shake and her stomach clench.
His five-o’clock shadow scraped along her flesh as he kissed his way across her upper chest, carefully missing her breasts, to her other shoulder, where he bit her again, hard enough to leave a mark. If he did that enough, he’d make her come. She was more than halfway there already.
Breathing hard, she lifted her hands to tangle them in his hair, sifting the longer-than-normal strands through her fingers as his mouth continued its torment to her breasts.
But just as she was getting ready to grab his shoulders, he sucked her left nipple into his mouth and pulled it taut, almost to the point of pain.
She gasped and her hands fell off to the side to twist in the sheets.
“Steven, what—”
He stuck his finger in her mouth and she sucked on it instinctively. His breathing, already tortured, deepened even more and the hand on her ass moved to splay across her stomach before sliding straight into the wet channel between her legs.
He found her clit without a moment’s hesitation and she was so turned on it only took one flick of one finger to give her a short, sharp orgasm that left her body begging for more.
But he seemed in no hurry to give her more. Instead, he moved to caress her inner thighs as he trailed kisses down her stomach. He blew across the skin above her belly button, causing her legs to draw together.
“Keep ’em open for me, sweetheart.”
He spoke the words directly above her mound, ruffling the fine hair and nearly setting her off again.
“Steven, please…”
She didn’t know what else to say. They’d never made love like this. Before, he’d always seemed to hold back, let her take the lead, set the pace. They’d both been virgins the first time and they’d learned everything together.
She’d often wondered if he’d had other lovers in the years they’d been apart. She’d never wanted anyone but Steven, but he was a man. He’d probably had other women in his bed.
And Blessed Goddess, why was she thinking about this now?
“There’s never been anyone else for me, Bella. Don’t you know that?”
Her eyes flew open and she found him staring down at her. He’d moved, laying his body over hers, his erection, hot and hard, nestled at the aching entrance to her body. When had he gotten rid of his boxers?
“How did you know…?”
His mouth twisted in a smile as he eased an inch into her body. “Because I know you, even better than I know myself.” He withdrew the tiniest bit then flexed forward again, seating more of himself this time.