Mirror of My Soul (Nature of Desire 4)

He smiled, brought her closer. His voice dropped, his lips pressing to her ear. “I’m better at hiding it. ”

“Not as much as you think. ” She closed her hands on his forearms. “You’re shaking. ”

“So are you. ”

His lips were damp with the touch of hers. “You know,” he said in a soft rumble.

“I’ve watched you take a sub just over the cliff edge of sanity. Hold him there until I couldn’t imagine he wouldn’t snap from the mental strain. But you have that uncanny knack of giving him release a second before he’d completely lose his fucking mind for all time. These last couple days I figured you were trying that out on me. ” Her lips curved because she heard the wry humor. And because it honestly felt so…good to be standing here. So incredible.

“Was it working?”

His eyes swept heat through her with their look of dangerous purpose. “One more day and I’d decided to storm your place and drag you home with me by your hair like some kind of barbarian. ” He wrapped his hand in the tail of hair that fell forward over her shoulder and tugged, his thumb making a discreet caress over her nipple. She emitted a short gasp of reaction before she could stop herself. His eyes darkening, he continued to stroke the hair in his grasp, making that idle pass with his thumb again. “I actually felt it get hard for me,” he murmured. “The moment I touched it. ”

“You wouldn’t have gotten past Chloe. ” She tried to hold onto her sanity. “And I’ve had the same experience with you. Different body part, though. ” She flicked her lashes down, back up.

He smiled, a baring of teeth. Spared a glance at the man he’d left who’d resumed his seat and was watching them with avid interest, that amused look still on his attractive face. “I would have brought ammunition to distract Chloe. ”

“He is quite something. ” She raised a brow, teasing him, something she’d never contemplated doing before. “I didn’t think your taste in submissives ran to the same gender. ”

Tyler chuckled, slid an arm around her, turned them so they were to all appearances casually strolling back toward his chair, but his fingers played along her hip and the top of her buttock, making her pulse race. “He’s a good friend and a tremendous artist. And—I do underscore this several times for the health and well-being of any Mistress who tries to seduce him—completely unavailable. His wife’s at a medical conference and he decided to spend a few days here until she gets back because he has a show coming up soon. He’s trying to work up a couple additional pieces at the not-so-gentle demand of his dealer. He’s done studio time here before. It’s quiet and I can keep him from going out of his mind, mostly, without Lauren. ” Tyler slanted her a glance. “He’s got somewhat of an uncertain temperament in her absence, given to falling into artistic melancholy, so she likes having me watch over him.

“The reason I suspect he’s staring at you like that and the reason I don’t consider beating him up for it is you walked across the grass and his creative wheels started revving like the legs of the Road Runner in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. And of course he recognized you as a Mistress. ”

“But he’s taken. ”

“Irrevocably. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t appreciate the qualities when he sees them.

He is an artist, after all. ” Tyler smiled. “Now you know why he’s here. Why are you here, Marguerite? And if you’re here to tell me you’re going to break it off after that kiss, you better slip off those shoes and prepare to outrun me. ” She couldn’t help it, she did smile this time. When she put up her hand to cover it, he caught it, brought it to his lips, began to nibble on her fingers.

“Tyler, there are people watching us. ”

“There are people watching you. Thinking what a lucky bastard I am. Tel

l me why you’re here. I want to hear it. I need to hear it. ” She closed her hand into a fist, held it there in his grasp and summoned up her courage to look at him. Something in her expression apparently warned him, for he stopped the easy flirting. He let her go, studied her face. “What is it, angel?” She made it a countdown. She would just count to five and say it. Words. They were just words. Certainly words that could change her life, that changed everything, even though perhaps people said ones like them every day and didn’t mean it, just used the phrases as a nicer way of saying what they really wanted to do. But she didn’t say what she didn’t mean and he knew it.

“I can… I don’t want to interrupt your party. But… I can…” She took a breath.

Closed her eyes. Felt him waiting. 1…2…3…4…5…

“I want you to make love to me. I want to go to your room, your bed, be under you, feel you inside me, see your eyes, feel your body and know…we’re together. I don’t know if that’s love or just need, but I know I need you. I need that with you. I need what I’ve never known and I need it from you. Only you. And it may destroy everything or build something. I really don’t know. I just know… Please make love to me. ”

She opened her eyes and she was staring into his, which had filled with an emotion so strong that she couldn’t face it.

“No. No, damn it, don’t you look away. ” He caught her face, held her there, brushed his thumbs along the soft skin under her eyes. “There’s nothing on earth I’d rather do, angel. You know… You understand what I am, who I am. How I’ll make love to you. How I want to make love to you. As I said before, it doesn’t—”

“Turn off at The Zone doors. ” A shudder ran through her, her pulse increasing under his touch as the light in his eyes flared, telling her he felt it, as well as understood the meaning of her acknowledgement.

She lifted her chin and his hand lowered, collaring her throat where the pulse beat strong and fast beneath his palm. She shuddered.

“That’s what I want. ”

He nodded and his lips brushed hers. When she parted them, inviting, he swore softly. “You’re going to destroy me,” he stated. Taking the pins from her hair, he brought it tumbling down. He spread the silk of it over her shoulders, an intimate but not indecent gesture that she knew was just confirming their conversation. She swallowed, aching, somehow wanting at this moment to do as she had done at The Zone. Go to her knees, press her body against his calves, tell him how she needed him.

His Dominance, his care. How much she needed to let go at last. She could sit here between his knees, at his feet, holding on to him while he held his court, happy to be quiet and still just under the touch of his hand.

“I want to feel like I’m yours. ” I want to be yours. She leaned into his touch, rose upon her toes against his hold and put her lips against his ear, caressing him with her breath. Now the words flowed out of her with the ease of terrifying truth.

“Make love to me, please. Master. ”