Julia felt as if her heart was going to implode, it was beating so hard. And the pleasure, the absolute, raw unsatisfied, pleasure that was building in her was threatening to undo her completely.
She shouldn’t respond to his orders like she was. She shouldn’t want more of them. She should be completely put off dominant men. But she wasn’t. And she did respond. Because she’d chosen him, chosen this. And she didn’t have to worry about being awkward or wrong. He was telling her what to do. Exactly. His instructions explicit and exquisite. And she was happy to oblige.
She spent so much time giving orders. Having people defer to her, treat her gently. Well, Ferro was giving orders. And he wasn’t gentle.
And she liked it. Oh, yes, she liked it.
His fingers slipped beneath the waistband of her underwear and found where she was wet and very, very ready for him. It was almost embarrassing, displaying just how much she wanted him. But then she looked at him, at the shocking and graphic outline of his erection against the front of his slacks, and she didn’t feel so embarrassed anymore.
Because he wanted her, too. Because he wanted her as a lover when he’d wanted no other woman. Not for her money, not for her status. Not because her mom had paid him to be her date and felt like she owed him.
He’d called her more than beautiful, so it wasn’t even just for her body.
Tears, stupid, stupid tears, stung her eyes and she blinked them back, focused instead on the feelings that were rioting through her body as he teased and tested her, each pass of his fingers becoming more and more intimate until he pushed one deep inside her body.
A sharp cry escaped her lips and her internal muscles pulsed around him. Nothing had ever felt so good. Who would have thought she could find something like this with a man she didn’t even like.
That assessment didn’t sit well with her anymore, though.
She thought back to their first kiss.
Make it my punishment.
“Is this my punishment?” she panted as she dragged her underwear down her legs and tossed them onto the floor.
He pressed a kiss to her stomach, just below her belly button. “I think it’s mine,” he said. “Because I’m sure I won’t survive it.”
He kissed her lower, then lower still, forcing her legs open with his shoulders. He curled his hands around her thighs and tugged her hard against him as he tasted her intimately, his lips and tongue teasing, torturing.
“Oh.” She put her arm over her eyes, unable to think, unable to breathe. He felt so perfect. So unbelievably decadent. She moved her arm, looked down at him, at his dark head right there. “I thought…I thought I was supposed to pleasure you.”
He lifted his gaze, met her eyes. “This pleasures me.” He slid his tongue across her flesh, his focus still on her. “More than you can know. Because I want you. Because I chose you.” He lowered his eyes and shifted, releasing his hold on one leg and sliding a finger inside her again, working in time with his mouth, pushing her higher, faster.
She was breathless, her chest seized up, the tension, low in her belly, tightening to a point beyond pleasure, beyond pain. It was unendurable. Unsurvivable.
And just when she was sure she would break, he moved his tongue over her one last time and it all broke into pieces. Pleasure, white hot waves of it, rolled through her, her body completely destroying everything in its path. Leaving it changed. Devastated.
Perfect.
And she wanted to cry. Because this was what sex was about. Not rough violence. Not hard hands between her legs, trying to force their way inside her body. Not insults or force.
She pushed her memories aside. They had no place here. This was different. This was what sex, foreplay, was supposed to be. They weren’t even on the same planet as what had happened to her back in high school. So she wouldn’t think of it again. Not here. Not now.
He moved away from her then, his eyes dark with desire. “Now—” he wrapped his hand around his shaft “—now my turn, I think.”
She bit her lip and nodded. She wanted him. Wanted this. Ferro was a lover doubtlessly unmatched. She was learning from the best. But right now she couldn’t think of it that way. She couldn’t even think. She could only want.