A sob left her mouth and she closed her eyes.
Smack! She opened her eyes quickly at the sharp, stinging smack on her inner thigh.
“Keep your eyes on me,” Alex demanded.
She watched him, his gaze intense, deep need filling his face.
He moved his thumb over her clit in light, sensual strokes. Tara felt the need building in her body.
“Come with me, Tara,” Alex said in a low voice.
A few more strokes and orgasm washed through her. This one was slower, gentler, but no less pleasurable. As she came, Alex gave a few more hard strokes before throwing his head back and groaning as he came deep inside her. She watched, memorizing this moment.
God she loved him.
Crap. Crap. Fuck!
She loved him. The one thing she’d promised not to do. She’d broken their contract. Would he be able to see it on her face?
“What’s wrong?” Alex asked. “Are you cramping?”
“Ahh, no, I’m fine.”
He placed her legs on the floor then quickly untied her wrists, gathering her up in his arms. “It didn’t look like nothing.”
She should tell him, break things off. After all, she’d just told him that she didn’t lie. But she wasn’t quite ready for this to end.
Reaching up, she cupped his face. “You’re so sexy.”
He raised his eyebrows, a smile tugging at his lips.
“Is that right?”
“Uh-huh. Really, really hot.”
He snorted. “I think it’s time we went home.”
She nodded. “Yeah. Only, could we take the nipple clamps off first?”
Chapter Ten
Tara rushed into her apartment and grabbed her ringing cell phone—a gift from Alex. He’d joked that it was so he could tabs on her. She planned on paying him back. Something else to add to the list of things that she owed him.
She’d spent the last few weeks fruitlessly searching for a job. She had to find something soon. She needed her own apartment. She couldn’t go on with things the way they were between her and Alex. This kind of half-relationship was torture. He was with her, but he wasn’t.
There was no denying that she loved him. But every day she also hated him a little bit more because she knew he’d never love her back. She needed to get her identity back. She needed to have something in her life other than him, because it wasn’t healthy to obsess over a man who would never give you what you truly needed—his love.
“Hello?” she said breathlessly.
“Tara?”
“Tim! I’ve been trying to get in contact with you.”
She had left him a few more messages on his cell phone, but she hadn’t wanted to call him too often. Alex was footing the phone bill, after all.
“I know. Sorry, I’ve been immersed in a bunch of shit. Someone undercut us on the Sanders bid.”
“What? I thought that contract was all wrapped up.”