Nick doesn’t answer. Remaining maddeningly silent, he continues to bind my hands together. The bond is tight, but not so much that I couldn’t break free if I wanted. And the cool beads have now begun to warm from my body’s own heat.
“You can open your eyes now.”
My lids lift and I glance from his hooded gaze to the gleaming strand of pearls that are wound no less than half a dozen times around my wrists. I don’t have to ask if they’re real. This is Nick, after all. But even with my limited firsthand experience with fine things, I can tell the creamy pearls are authentic. And must have cost a small fortune.
“A little something I picked up for you in London.”
“You can’t be serious.”
And yet he is. His expression is enigmatic, but his eyes study me intently. “I hope you like them.”
Like them? I’m wearing easily multiple tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of gemstones as casually as if they’re the rope line off the Icarus. “They’re . . . incredible, Nick. They’re too much.”
“As soon as I saw them, I knew I wanted to see them on your naked skin.” His smile is decadent. “And now that I have, I can think of several other interesting ways I’d like to see you wearing them.”
Just the suggestion sends a rush of heat to my core. “You’re crazy.” I shake my head, overwhelmed by his gift, and the fact that he would lavish this kind of luxury on me. “I don’t think I can accept—”
“Yes, Avery. You can. And you will, because it pleases me to see them on you.”
He reaches out, gathering my face in his hands. Leaning toward me, he takes my mouth in a slow, searing kiss. I melt into him, helpless to do anything but bend to his will now. As I shift on the bed to meet his possessive kiss, the pearls slide against one another. The thought of damaging the gems is almost too much for me to take.
“I’m afraid they’ll break.”
“They won’t.” He smoothes a strand of loose hair from my face. “So long as you’re honest with me—and with yourself—these pearls are stronger than any rope. They’re stronger than steel. Like trust, Avery, the only way they’ll break is if you pull away from me.”
Trust. Honesty. Two things I’ve never been able to give another man—not to anyone in a very long time.
Nick has my trust. He has my honesty, too, at least when it comes to the passion we share. The obsession we both feel for each other is real. I’ve never been more honest about something in my life.
In bed with him, I have no barriers. And I want it all. I want to give him everything too. I won’t let myself think about all of the things I can never have with him.
Not now, when I’m one shaky breath away from weeping with the force of everything I feel for this darkly compelling man.
He joins me on the bed and kisses me again, easing me back onto the mattress with him. My bound hands rest on my stomach, and it’s all I can do not to reach for him as he lavishes my belly and breasts with a trail of hot kisses and fiery licks of his tongue. I’m shivering with need and anticipating the many clever ways I know he’ll have me at his mercy now.
I can do nothing but submit as he takes hold of my bound hands and guides my arms over my head. His fingers trace slowly down my sides, raising goose bumps in their wake and wringing a shaky sigh from my lips.
He claims my mouth with renewed ferocity, while his fingers skim between my thighs. My cleft is soaked with my own juices, still hypersensitive and swollen from before. Nick delves inside me, at the same time thrusting his tongue deep into my mouth to stroke and spar with mine.
We kiss as if we haven’t just had each other moments ago, as if we will never get enough.
Nick strokes my sex, rubbing my clit with his thumb and sinking his fingers deep into my sheath. I moan, feeling my body contract around him, greedy for more. As I arch and writhe in time with his thrusting fingers, he plunders my mouth with urgent, bone-melting kisses.
I don’t notice that he’s withdrawn his fingers from within me until I feel him turning my hips in his strong hands, guiding my lower body onto its side. Then his touch glides slickly over my anus. I tense at the first stroke of pressure, pulling against my bonds. It’s unexpected, but then so is the jolt of excitement that arrows through me as Nick’s fingertip rims me, pushing in a testing rhythm against my tightness.
I open my eyes and find him staring down at me. He says nothing, but his gaze doesn’t leave mine for a moment as he strokes me more intimately than ever. Touching me in ways I’ve never wanted anyone to before him and never knew I could crave so fiercely.
His thumb on my clit is making me wild with need, and the slick finger toying with my ass is enough to push me to the razor’s edge of madness. I bite my lip at the delicious pressure of his touch as he gently penetrates me. My pussy is drenched, coating his fingers and the tight hole of my anus as his digit thrusts inside.
The intensity of my arousal, and my need for release, is too much. When combined with the restraints that trap my hands and prevent me from touching Nick, the depth of my need is almost unbearable. I moan and writhe, mindful of my bindings, yet desperate to come.
“I know, baby,” he murmurs against my parted lips. “I’m going to give you what you need.”
He pivots to reach for a condom, his fingers never leaving me, never slowing their sensual assault. Holding the packet one-handed, tearing it open with his teeth, he deftly rolls it onto his erection then pivots back to me.
“On your knees, beautiful.”
He withdraws from me only long enough to help me flip onto my stomach. As soon as I do, he gives my ass a playful smack. The broad head of his cock slides through my folds, then with a powerfu