She cried out, and he felt her orgasm shudder through her. She leaned her full weight back against Hunter, trusting him to hold her upright as her legs shook from the force of her climax and as she finally sagged against him for support in the aftermath of her release.
Knowing if he let her go, she’d slither to the floor in a heap, he swept her up into his arms and headed out of the living room and down the hallway toward his master bedroom. He heard the separate clunk-clunk of her shoes falling off her feet to the floor somewhere along the way but didn’t bother to stop and pick them up.
“Where are you taking me?” she murmured, her arms circling his neck to hold on as she peered up at him, her expression sated yet adorably flirtatious.
He gave her a wicked smile. “To my bed, where you can lie back and be comfortable while I do dirty things to you.”
She laughed softly and buried her face against his neck. “You just did dirty things to me.”
“I’m not done, beautiful girl.” Reaching his master bedroom, he eased her back down to her feet, and when he was assured she was steady, he flicked on the nightstand lamp, then turned toward the high four-poster king-sized bed and pulled back the covers down to the fresh sheets.
He walked toward a nearby dresser. “Lie down.”
She moved up onto the mattress, situating herself so that her head was on the pillow, her eyes still hazy with desire as she watched him retrieve a gray tie from the top drawer. He let it unravel and dangle from his fingers as he approached the bed again. Her inquisitive gaze went from the strip of fabric in his hands up to his face.
“I want to restrain your hands to the headboard,” he said, craving that control over her mind. Her body. Her pleasure. “Will you let me?”
She bit her bottom lip as she considered his question, a blush sweeping over her complexion. While he hoped she submitted to his request, he’d also understand if she denied him. He was a stranger, after all, but instead of fear or uncertainty in her eyes, a glimmer of excitement and exhilaration sparkled through.
“Yes,” she said, pleasantly shocking him with her answer as she lifted her hands above her head, giving herself over to his care so utterly and completely.
Jesus. He swallowed hard. Her sweet acquiescence and trust in him tugged at something deep and long forgotten inside Hunter. The emotional reaction startled him to the core, because it had been years since he’d felt anything more than just a physical reaction to a woman he fucked, whereas this one he not only wanted to worship her body, he had the unexplainable urge to mark her. Claim her. Drive as deep as he could inside her soft, warm pussy until every one of her senses was saturated with pleasure, and he’d ruined her for any other man.
They were crazy, insane, dangerous thoughts. They’d both agreed on one night and no attachments, which was how he preferred to live his life after so much devastating loss, which meant marking and claiming were off the table. Exhaling a deep breath, he focused on that hard-and-fast rule and stepped toward the head of the mattress and began wrapping the silk around both her wrists, gently but just tight enough to keep her from escaping the restraint.
“Have you done this kind of thing before?” he asked, just so he knew what he was dealing with, though he had a hunch he already knew her answer.
She shook her head, confirming his suspicion, her hands relaxed as he secured them to a slat in the headboard. “No, but I suppose there’s a first time for everything . . . and I’ve always wanted to . . .” Her words trailed off as if she realized she was revealing too much, and her gaze shifted bashfully away from his.
He wasn’t going to let her off that easy. Making sure her arms and wrists had enough slack to move comfortably—and for him to turn her on her stomach when he desired so he could fuck her from behind—he met her gaze and arched a brow. “You’ve always wanted what, exactly?”
There was an unmistakable demand in his tone, and she responded beautifully to the slight edge in his voice, the pulse at the base of her throat quickening. “To know what it felt like to be . . . dominated sexually by a man.”
God, could she get any sexier? “You are so fucking perfect,” he said, and those words burrowed somewhere they never shoul
d have. It had been forever since he’d felt this kind of perfection, this deeper connection, and it was startling and scary and way too fucking intimate.
Shoving those thoughts from his head, he skimmed his fingers from her collarbone down to her bare breasts and tweaked a nipple hard enough to make her gasp, then moan as that sharp ache ebbed into something far more pleasurable. He gently rubbed his thumb over the tender nub of flesh, silently letting her know that for every jolt of pain, there would also be tenderness and sensual gratification.
“Trust me, Just Elle,” he murmured, meeting her soft, needy gaze. “By the time I’m done with you, you’re going to know what it’s like to willingly give me everything I want and everything I ask for.”
He feathered his fingers down to the waistband of her underwear in a slow, deliberate tease before ending the caress just shy of traversing beneath those lacy panties. He moved a few steps back from the bed, and she whimpered at the loss of his touch, and Jesus Christ, the eager, supplicating way she was looking at him set his blood on fire.
He quickly undressed. She watched him strip off the rest of his clothes, her hooded eyes taking in his broad chest, the tight muscles of his abdomen, then dropping to the thick erection straining the front of his black boxer briefs. She absently licked her bottom lip, and he groaned, imagining that sweet, lush mouth of hers wrapped tight around his cock as she sucked him off, those soft blue eyes of hers looking up at him as she did so. But as much as he’d love to order Elle to her knees to fulfill that provocative fantasy, having her tied up on his bed and spread out for him to enjoy every inch of her body, in any way he desired, was going to be equally satisfying.
Pushing his boxer briefs down and off, he opened the nightstand drawer, retrieved the box of condoms he kept tucked away there, and sheathed himself with one so he didn’t have to stop to do it later. Moving up onto the bed, he straddled her hips and leaned over her upper body. Bracing one of his hands on the mattress for support, he held her gaze as he slid his other hand along the side of her throat and around to the back of her neck. He clenched his fingers in her hair and tilted her head up until he was fully in control. She realized it, too, and a soft, inarticulate sound tumbled past her parted lips.
Arousal darkened her eyes, and he could feel her trembling with anticipation, her body and mind already yielding to him, and her sweet submission damn near stole his breath and strangled his cock. Yeah, so fucking perfect, and he was going to grant Elle’s wish and show her what it felt like to be dominated by a man. By him.
He sealed his lips over hers in a kiss that was immediately hot, deep, and full of indecent intent. She opened to him, and he speared his tongue inside, possessing her mouth, and to his immense satisfaction, she met him stroke for stroke. He savored the taste of her, the scent of her growing lust seeping from her pores and infusing every breath he took, and the needy sounds she made in the back of her throat. He groaned when she brazenly arched her body to try and rub her breasts against his chest, and the hard, teasing points of her nipples seared his skin.
Releasing her hair, he slid his flattened palm down the slope of her collarbone until he reached her breast. He cupped the mound, squeezing and kneading for a moment, then plucked her nipple just firmly enough that she writhed restlessly beneath him.
He ended the kiss, gently tugging on her lower lip with his teeth before lifting his head and staring down at her flushed face. He gave her a slow, sinful smile as he once again tugged on the sensitive knot of flesh, eliciting a sharp gasp from her. In a reflexive reaction, her arms jerked from where they were restrained, but remained secure.
“Is that what you want, greedy girl?” he murmured, and she cried out—not in pain but bliss—when he twisted the pebbled nub a little harder. “Or maybe you’d prefer this instead?”
He shifted a little lower on her body, his thighs now astride hers and his mouth level with her breasts. He licked her nipple softly, playfully, swirling around the areola with delicate flutters of his tongue.