Three Hard Lessons (Blindfold Club 2)

His breathing picked up, faster each second. “Two weeks?”

“No.”

He must have realized I’d said cancel and not reschedule. His expression slowly shifted now to one of guarded hope. “Are you . . . staying?”

It came from me as breathless as he looked to be. “Yes.”

“Why?”

“For you.”

I might have short-circuited his brain. His eyes drifted down to the water pooling around him and he blinked rapidly, as if unable to process it. I couldn’t find the words he wanted to hear, but maybe with time I would. Plus, staying – that made a pretty big statement, didn’t it? I disliked it here, but he couldn’t go and being with him trumped everything else.

“Holy shit.” His gaze snapped back to me. “Get the fuck over here.”

Standing outside the tub, completely naked before him except for those rings, with his gaze on me and so full of love, I’d never felt more powerful. And even though I came running to him, it wasn’t because of his command. It was the crushing need to be with him. I’d barely stepped into the water and he whirled me into his lap so I was straddling him. He buried a hand in the hair at the nape of my neck and yanked me down into his desperate kiss, the hot water splashing around us.

Time slowed down as his lips pressed against mine. My hands skimmed along his strong jaw and my fingers curled in his hair, trapping his head against the tile wall. My tongue dipped into his mouth. Heat and water closed in all around.

“We’re going to flood the room,” I gasped as his mouth trailed kisses down my neck. The water was still running and the deep tub was nearly full. Hands locked on my waist so we could glide through the water close to the tap. He fumbled an arm out and shut it off, and then that arm was back, crushing me against his wet skin.

I couldn’t leave. Every time I imagined going back to my empty apartment in Chicago, I felt sick. It wasn’t much of a plan, staying with him, but it was all I had. It had to be enough. He was better at planning than I was.

His hands splayed across my back while his mouth worked steadily lower to my breasts. The caress of his soft tongue on my nipple was an electric shock of acute desire. I didn’t think I could be any more needy until that happened.

“Please,” I whispered. I shifted in his lap, letting his hard cock slip between my folds. I didn’t want foreplay. The throbbing ache for him was going to consume me.

Like the first time we’d been together, he paused just as he was positioned to take me. Those arms held me steady and his gaze kept me immobile. One of his hands drifted up through the water. He repeated his routine of cupping my face. The wet thumb brushed onto my lips.

“I love you.”

He claimed my mouth and urged me down onto him at the same moment, and I sighed against the kiss. I was trembling. The emotions snaking through my veins were overwhelming.

His slow, gentle slide inside me burned with scorching pleasure. This was like that first time, only so much more. Not because he was sitting and I was on top. It was because what we were doing wasn’t fucking. This was making love. He’d given me a hint of it before, but now he had no need for restraint.

The ends of my hair skimmed the water and clung to me, and I clung to him. I clawed at his shoulder, wanting him closer. My forehead rested against his. The tremble in me grew and stole my breath.

“Payton.” He moaned it in my ear when I went faster. “Slow. Make it last.”

I wanted to, but couldn’t. Each push of his cock claimed me over again, making me his. My hand slapped against the cold wall behind him, and I dragged it chattering down the tile. His left hand seized my breast and he sucked at the pert nipple just above the waterline. The ring on his han

d. Oh, shit. I closed my eyes but the image was seared in my brain. How did I get so lucky? That he’d chosen me that night, and he’d chosen to give me all this.

His heart was pounding in his chest and I could feel it mirroring mine. He approached the edge of his orgasm as I did, threatening to send us over. I’d never wanted anything as much as I did this man who pushed and tested me, but also wanted to give me anything I wanted. There was no demand to come for him. This moment was much deeper than our silly power play.

Yeah, he couldn’t get the words out of me, but he was absolutely right. I felt it.

Dominic’s hands drove me down on him in a final thrust that threw us both into oblivion. His quiet moan echoed off the tile. And me? The bliss was so out of this world I couldn’t find oxygen. My mouth hung open and I barely made a sound. I closed my eyes and banded my arms so hard around his head, surely I suffocated him against my heaving chest.

The water rolled in waves, back and forth, diminishing with each pass, until it was smooth again.

“God, there aren’t words,” he said, muffled against my skin, “for how amazing that was.”

“No,” I panted, “there aren’t.”

I released his head and leaned back in his arms, still trying to catch my breath.

“You’re serious about staying, right?”