Descended (The Red Blindfold Book 3) (25 page)

“Missing something?”

“Definitely. You’ll
be glad to know that I brought something to remedy that.”

I pursed my lips.
“Along with the trail map and the corkscrew.”

“You got it. This
fits right in.”

He reached into a small
duffel bag at the foot of the tent and rummaged through it. “Here
we are,” he said. “Just the right tool. Or should I say, toy?”

Eyes glimmering, he
held up a pair of silver handcuffs. My stomach dipped. “That
doesn’t look like a toy,” I said. “It looks like punishment.”

“That’s because it
is.”

The chain rattled
ominously. “What am I being punished for?”

“Being too sexy. Put
your arms above your head.”

I was naked and in the
middle of nowhere, and refusing a direct order seemed much too risky,
not to mention boring. I stretched my arms over my head and let Drex
cuff my wrists. I felt the cold metal rub against my wrist bones, and
heard the locks click into place. From now until he freed me, I was
his helpless captive.

“I should make you my
slave,” he said, testing to make sure the cuffs were secure. “Chain
you up in my apartment and keep you at my beck and call.”

Just the thought of
being his slave made me shiver. “What would I do while you’re at
work?”

“I’m serious,” he
said. “I want to own you.”

“Own me?” As I said
the words, I wanted them to come true. To be owned by Drex would feel
like belonging, to him, to his world. It was all I wanted.

“You like this?” he
asked in a throaty voice. “Knowing I have total control over you?”

“Yes,” I admitted.

“Then do as I say and
spread your legs,” he said. “Show me what’s mine.”

Biting my lower lip, I
parted my knees. Tonight he was the authority, my boss, and I loved
obeying him.

“Like that?” I
whispered.

“Wider. I want to see
it all. Every wet, pink little bit of you.”

I let my legs fall
open. Lantern light spilled across my thighs. I couldn’t imagine
feeling more exposed, or wanting a man more.

“Beautiful,” he
muttered. “Such a woman.”

My body responded by
getting even wetter. “You like what you see?”

“Yes,” he said.
“Too much. I should tease you, but I’m impatient tonight. Keep
your legs open for me.”

I pulled my wrists
apart just enough to feel how futile it was. There was no escape. I
was helpless, a million miles from nowhere, and a very well-endowed
man had complete control of me.

I might as well just
relax and really, really enjoy the ride.

“This might hurt a
little,” he said, pressing the tip of cock against me. “But don’t
resist.”

My muscles tensed.
“What will happen if I do?”

A smile flickered over
his lips. “The same thing that will happen if you don’t.”

He entered me in one
quick, hard thrust. “Drex,” I gasped, pleasure spreading like a
fire through my belly and all the way to my toes. My nipples were as
hard as ice.

His eyes burned into
mine. “I’m here,” he said. “And I’m not going anywhere all
night.”

I clenched my fists and
the handcuffs rattled. Excited as I was, I could hardly take his full
girth and length. “You’re too big for me,” I said.

“And you love it,”
Drex said. “You can’t get enough of that big cock, can you?”

“No,” I admitted.
“It feels so good.”

“My sweet little
girl. You just couldn’t be sexier could you?”

Raising my arms, I
looped my cuffed wrists around his neck and pulled him closer. “Kiss
me,” I said, breathless from his long, slow strokes.

His eyebrows arched.
“She gives commands.”

“A few, maybe.”

“Not tonight,” he
said, pushing himself in so deeply it ached. “Tonight you don’t
give commands. You follow them.”

A coyote howled and the
river rushed in the distance. Surely there was an apple of temptation
hanging from a tree out there somewhere.

“What if I say
please?” I whispered.

Drex brushed his lips
along the side of my neck, sending a shower of sparks down my spine.
“Please helps.”

“Please kiss me.”

“No. Not yet.”
Raising his head, he brought his face close to mine. “Feel that?”
he said, pushing all the way into me and not withdrawing. “How hard
I am inside you?”

He thrust even deeper,
flexing his hips until I was on the razor’s edge of pain and
pleasure. “Yes,” I gasped.

“You can hardly take
it all,” he said, brushing his lips teasingly against mine.

I opened my mouth for a
kiss but he shook his head. “I said no, you greedy little girl.”

“When?”

“When I say so.”
Slowly, he pushed his cock inside me to the hilt, as if to split me
in half. “Look at me, Jane. Is that deep enough for you?”

Though tears stung my
eyes, a flame lit in my belly and my legs began to quiver. I was only
seconds from coming. Somehow, the hurt made the pleasure even more
intense.

“I love it,” I
gasped.

Just when I thought he
couldn’t drive any deeper, he filled me even more. We were one,
part of each other forever. I moaned as everything vanished but the
sensation of being entered and taken, completely possessed by the man
I loved.

“Come for me,” he
whispered in my ear. “Sweet baby, come now.”

A wave of pure, sensual
bliss rolled through me, from my toes to my handcuffs and back again.
Every orgasm seemed stronger and more intimate than the last.

“Drex, please,” I
panted, tightening my thighs around his hips.

“Please?”

I clutched him against
me. “Don’t stop.”

“Never,” he said.
“I’ll always fuck you just like this.”

Our lips connected in a
wet, bruising kiss just when he climaxed. I whimpered into his mouth
as he slipped his hot tongue over mine and filled me with his come.
It was exactly the kiss I’d wanted, and then some.

A groan rumbled in his
chest and ripped from his throat, and he gripped my waist in his
hands. I was completely in his power, and every second was paradise.

Afterward, we lay on
top of the sleeping bags in each other’s arms, listening to the
crickets chirp. Drex got up, turned off the lantern, and snuggled in
behind me again.

I thought of my word,”
I said sleepily. “You know, from when we were sitting on the cliff
earlier?”

“Yeah,” he said,
squeezing me tightly. “What is it?”

I leaned my head back
and whispered in his ear. “Owned.”

In the morning I woke
to the smell of coffee, fresh wood smoke, and clean, cool air. It
took me a second to realize where I was, but when I did, I knew I was
exactly where I wanted to be.

With Drex. Away from
people, responsibilities, and reality. In the cocoon of fantasy we’d
created together over the last few weeks.

After slipping into
shorts and a t-shirt, I unzipped the tent and stepped out.

“Hey, beautiful,”
he said, tossing another log onto the fire. “Good morning. I was
beginning to think I might be eating breakfast by myself.”

“It’s your fault,”
I said. “You wore me out.”

“Nothing better than
a stack of pancakes to revive you. Coffee?”

I sat in a sunny spot
at the picnic table. “Yes, please, and lots of it.”

Drex whipped up
breakfast over the open fire like a pro, even heating up a small pot
of maple syrup. He slid three buttermilk pancakes onto my speckled
tin plate, along with four strips of bacon. “Cooked the way I hope
you like them, just a little crispy,” he said.

“Perfect,” I said.
“And no one to bother us, which makes it even better.”

“That’s why I chose
this spot,” he said, spreading butter over his pancakes. “In all
the years I’ve been coming here, I’ve seen other people maybe
once or twice.”

“How do you know
about this place?” I asked.

“My father brought us
a few times when Pierce and I were kids. I used to think he wanted us
to camp and have fun, but when I was older I realized he came here to
hide out. He always had shady people after him. The police were the
least of his problems.”

I thought of the truck
idling outside the house the first night I knew Drex. Maybe Elijah
wasn’t the only one who had enemies.

“Do you think
somebody could be after you?” I asked. “When that truck drove up
outside Chimayo, you seemed pretty sure it wasn’t a friendly
visit.”

He shrugged. “I can’t
be positive, but I have my suspicions.”

“So, what’s the
story?” I said, tearing the crunchy end off a slice of bacon. “What
put you on edge that night?”

He took a long breath
and let it out. “You know I played pool, right? And you know I was
good at it.”

“Yes. The videos you
showed me are amazing.”

“Thanks. But I’ve
told you I cut a lot of corners when I was younger, and the money I
made wasn’t all in competitions and legitimate games. In fact, most
of it wasn’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“It means I won it
playing illegally, with the house getting a cut and bookies lending
guys cash,” he said, his gaze steady on mine. “Not that I didn’t
win it fair and square, but I won it from people who had no business
playing against me. College kids. Gambling addicts. Fathers who’d
sign over their entire paycheck to me.”

“Fathers?” I said
quietly.

He shut his eyes for a
second and opened them again. “Yeah. Guys who didn’t have much
money to start with. And I took it. I was ambitious and determined as
hell to crawl out of the life I was born into, but I’m not proud of
how I did it. Sometimes I flat hate myself for it. I’d rather be
scraping by making an honest living than living with those memories.”

My heart sank for him.
“Sometimes we have to do things to survive.”

“I was surviving just
fine. I wasn’t rich, but I wasn’t starving. The truth is, I
wanted to build something big and I needed a lot of cash to do it. If
I’d had no investment money of my own, I never would have met the
right people.”

“Or dated a woman
like Brooke.”

An ironic smile flashed
across his face. “Yup. I had to look the part and spend the money.”

“It’s not like you
stole it,” I said. “You didn’t force anyone to bet on those
games.”

“But I made them
think they could win,” he said, his eyes dim with regret.

“That’s the
psychological part of it, right? Other players do it. If you didn’t,
you’d be undermining yourself.”

“In a competition
between well-matched opponents, that’s one thing,” he agreed.
“But to fleece guys who are out of their element is another. I made
a lot of enemies back then.”

I swallowed a syrupy
bite and sipped my coffee. “And you think one of them might be
trying to collect?”

“I’ve heard rumors
to that effect,” he said, turning his mug around and around in his
hands. “In Houston I feel pretty untouchable, but in Chimayo it’s
a different story. People hold grudges. They remember who they lost
money to, and they want it back, especially because they know what
I’m worth.”

“That must weigh on
you,” I said.

If it did, he didn’t
show it. “It’s not me I’m worried about right now.”

It took me a second to
realize what he meant. “You’re worried about me?”

“Of course I’m
worried about you. I’d be crazy if I weren’t.”

“Because of that
truck the first night?”

He wiped his mouth with
his napkin. “Maybe they weren’t there for me. You’re not the
only person in your past. We don’t know who might be out there, or
if they had something to do with what happened to you.”

“I know,” I said
quietly. “I just don’t like to think about it.”

“No,” he said. “Of
course you don’t. I want to protect you from that, but I can’t if
I don’t know how you ended up in Chimayo.”

Wariness trickled
through me. “What are you saying?”

“That I care about
you. I’m not trying to push you to do anything. For all we know,
you’re safe now and publicity would put you in danger.”

“But we don’t
know.”

“Right,” he said.
“That’s the dilemma.”

I shook my head. I
didn’t want to think about danger, or publicity, or anything else.

“We don’t have to
solve that dilemma today, do we?” I said, looking at the cloudless
sky. “It’s such a beautiful morning, I refuse to.”

Drex’s eyes
brightened. “We couldn’t even if we wanted to. Not out here.”

“So what
can
we do? Besides eat more of your addictive pancakes.”

“Well, let’s see.
Hike, fish, pick berries…”

I got up and walked
around to his side of the picnic table. “Pick berries?”

“Hey, you asked. We
can climb trees, lie in the sun…”

“Get in the tent,”
I said, grabbing his hand. “Right now.”

“Now, come on. You’ve
been awake half an hour.”

Using all of my
strength, I pulled him to his feet. “Who said anything about
sleeping?”

“I can’t guarantee
I won’t tire you out again.” His grin was infectiously wide and
gorgeous.

“I dare you to try.”

He reached out and gave
me a playful swat on the ass. “I’ll do more than try, I’ll
promise you.”

Pulling his shirt off
over his head, he dropped it to the ground and walked out of the
campsite. “Hey, where are you going?” I called. “The tent’s
that way.”

“And the river’s this way, Blue
Eyes,” he called back. “First we skinny-dip. Then I own you all
over again.”

“One more margarita,”
Jane said. “Why not?”

Two nights later, we
sat on the patio of a little Mexican restaurant in a tiny town on the
scenic route back to Houston. The moon was full, the air balmy, and
the woman across the table too beautiful for words.

This was as good as it
got. Nothing else mattered – the investors I wanted to attract, how
fast my company was expanding, the extra padding in my bank account.
All of that could vanish and this would still be the best night I’d
had in a long time. If not ever.