Past Midnight (16 page)

It was her. It had to be her. But she didn’t smell right, not like Erin. It was good, but it was more fragrant, hotter, sweeter, as if she’d rubbed another scent on herself.

He felt suddenly as he did when the clock flipped past midnight and she fucked him without a word. When he lost himself in her, yet hated the things she held back.

“Stop,” he murmured.

She put a satin glove to his lips. Then she took him, his cock sliding into heat and wet. Christ, it was good, his hips surging without conscious effort, driving deep. He groaned.

The gloved fingers tweaked his nipples, pulled until pain mixed with the pleasure. Behind the mask, his eyes rolled back.

“Say something, baby.” He couldn’t beg for her voice in their bed at home, but he could beg here.

Yet she said nothing, gave him nothing but the sweetness of her body. God, yes, it was punishment. It ripped his guts out. He wanted to shout, shake her, force her to talk to him, but he couldn’t stop his body’s reactions, jamming his feet into the mattress for better leverage. She rode him, fucked him, took him. Part of him feared it wasn’t her, that it was some nameless, faceless woman she’d sent to torture him. Without her voice, her words, he couldn’t be sure. Yet
how
could he be unsure if this was his wife? Shouldn’t a man
know
?

She leaned back, changing the angle of penetration, robbing him of thought, turning everything into sensation. It was hot, and it was terrifying, shooting adrenaline through his veins like a fearthreat reaction. Yet nothing could stop the build in his balls, the throb, the ache, then the hot pulse through his cock, reverberating through his body, his extremities, finally working up his throat with a shout. And mindlessness.

He barely registered the untying of the ropes, the slither of clothing being rolled on. Then the soft snick of the door.

She was gone. Like a ghost. Or a soul-stealing succubus. He felt drained. Something vital had been missing. Her. He hadn’t
felt
her.

She’d turned the game against him. And Dominic didn’t like it.

 

 

ERIN LEANED AGAINST THE ELEVATOR WALL AS IT PLUMMETED TO the lobby.

For a moment, when he’d said her name, she’d actually believed he didn’t know who she was. Or that he had his doubts. She’d planned it that way, no talking, the gloves, the condom, the scented oil he wouldn’t recognize, yet she hadn’t gotten the kick out of it she thought she would. She’d wanted to tie him down, have her wicked way with him, and show him what it was like to take orders. Ultimately it was supposed to be fun, and when she’d thought it all up, she figured he’d love every moment of it, even the niggling doubts about her identity. But she wasn’t sure he’d enjoyed it. She wasn’t sure
she
had.

There was something wrong, something missing. She’d needed a boost, a relief, an escape; she’d needed to take all her chaotic emotions out on him. Yet it hadn’t worked the way she’d wanted it to. She hadn’t felt triumph, or even power.

Give them what they want, then you get what you want.
That’s what she’d told Matt. The problem was she still didn’t know what she wanted. Was sex with Dominic really nothing more than a shot of heroin or a snort of cocaine?

The elevator hit bottom with a slight drop of her stomach, and the doors whooshed open. As the wall of voices in the lobby crashed over her, she suddenly grasped what had been missing up there in the room. The banter, the sexy dirty talk. Even when Dominic had been talking about her, over her, not just to her, she’d thrilled to that. He filled her up, made her feel desirable, wanted, needed. She’d
liked
being a sex object. Before Orlando, the sex act had driven out all the bad thoughts. Now she needed the words, too. It might not be the final answer, the final need, but it would do for right now, for tonight.

No one boarded, and the doors closed again, but the elevator sat when she didn’t select a floor. Then it began to move as if someone from above had pushed a button.

She’d unfastened his restraints before she left. Maybe it was him, pushing the button for her, waiting for her, wanting her. Her pulse actually started to race. Then her stomach sank when the elevator stopped at the fifth floor and an elderly couple stepped on. The man pressed the lobby button, and the car dropped once more before Erin had a chance to do anything.

At the bottom, the wife got off, and the man held out a hand to let Erin precede him. She felt like an idiot. “I forgot something upstairs.” Then she hit eleven on the pad.

The gentleman smiled politely, and the door closed after him.

Minutes later, standing outside the room, she put two fingers to the door and listened. Complete silence. Not wanting him to be sure she was gone, she hadn’t latched the lock when she left. With a gentle nudge, the door snicked open. Light fell across the carpet from the bathroom just as she’d left it.

Inside she let her eyes adjust to the dimness. She didn’t see him at first, then finally made out his bare feet on the carpet, where he sat in a chair. He’d pulled on his jeans, but not his shirt. The ropes, nylon cuffs, and blindfold lay heaped in the middle of the bed.

“Where did you find her?” His voice was rough gravel.

He really thought it was another woman. No. He was just playing along. Wasn’t he? There was a certain delicious thrill in having to wonder. “I’m not telling you all my secrets,” she answered.

He rose, stalked her. Even in his bare feet, he made her tremble with his height and size.

“She was good,” his voice whispered over her. “Her pussy was tight, and so wet. She flexed around me, milked me.” His voice dropped low, lower, and he crowded her up against the bed. She almost toppled, holding on to his arms to steady herself. “And Christ,” he said on a mere breath, “I wanted to come inside her without that fucking condom on.”

Her pulse pounded against her eardrums. This was part of the game. He’d known it was her. Right?

Then he shoved his hands beneath her armpits, picked her up, and tossed her on the bed. “Your turn,” he whispered, then crawled after her, all carnal, all predator.

This
was what she’d ached for, the animal in him taking over.

HE WRAPPED ONE NYLON CUFF AROUND HER DELICATELY BONED wrist. “Tell me to stop.”

She stared up at him, said nothing, her eyes wide. To see her better, he snapped on the bedside lamp. She trembled beneath him as he straddled her hips. He’d never seen the navy blue leggings or blousy, white button-down top, the material thin and sheer. The black bra beneath was a front-clasp.

He fastened her other wrist, then, with the rope around the center of the cuffs, he secured her by the wrists to the headboard just as she’d done to him. “You still have a chance. Just tell me to stop.” He put his face right down in hers. “Better yet, tell me who that woman was,” he murmured, his lips on hers.

“Do your worst. I’ll never tell.” Now her eyes sparkled wickedly in the light.

He wanted to laugh. They sounded like Snidely Whiplash and Nell. “Last chance.” Then he shoved his hands beneath the long shirt, grabbed the top of her leggings, and pulled them off her hips. Her thong panties came with them, baring her pussy. As he yanked the clothing all the way down her legs, her high-heeled shoes slipped off, too, hitting the carpet with a soft
pffft
.

Then he gazed up the length of her body. “God, you’re so pretty.” The awe lingered in his voice, but he didn’t let that stop him from slapping a nylon cuff around her ankle and securing her leg to the bed with one of the ropes she’d used on him. “She set my blood on simmer,” he said, pulling her legs apart, and tying her spread-eagled. “You’re going make it boil.” He inhaled the sweetness of her pussy, then lifted his head to look at her. “You’re going to make me come hard. You’re going to make me scream. You’re going to prove how much better you are than she was.”

Her breath puffed. Her pussy glistened, beckoned. He shimmied up her body, covering her, then reached between them to undo a shirt button, slowly, then one after another.

She wrapped both hands around the rope above her head. “I don’t have to prove anything. I
am
better than her. But the only way you can get a piece of my ass is if you tie me down.” She wriggled beneath him, making him hard.

“I hear a challenge. You’re going to beg to come.” He rubbed his pelvis between her legs. “You’re going to beg me to take a piece of your ass.”

She closed her eyes, and though he felt her resistance in the fine tremors of her body, she couldn’t stop the involuntary sigh of need and pleasure. Yet she fought him. “No man makes me beg.”

He smiled devilishly as he unhooked the bra and pinched her nipple. “I will,” he promised.

She squirmed, moaned, then smirked at him. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”

This was so much sexier than the earlier silent episode. He craved her feisty comebacks, the tease, the challenge. In the dark and the silence, she’d fucked him in anger, he knew that now. Residual anger over his lie of omission. Those emotions had been all wrong. But despite her words, she wasn’t angry anymore. She wanted, needed, enjoyed the fight and the tug-of-war. She was engaged, part of the act, not just an automaton fucking him for physical release. This was what he’d craved, her total involvement with
him
.

“What’s your biggest fantasy, the one you’ve never told me?” he demanded. He’d asked in the bar with Shane. She’d never answered, and dammit, he needed to know, now, right now.

“It sure as hell doesn’t include you.” She bucked, tried to throw him off.

“Feisty little bitch,” he muttered.

She bared her teeth, then kneed him. It landed on his thigh, doing little damage.

“Do whatever you want,” she jeered. “It doesn’t matter to me,” she added when the physical didn’t have any effect on him.

Her fantasy suddenly became as clear as if she’d said it aloud. To give up her control, to let him have anything he wanted. That night in the bar, she’d been in control with Shane, teasing them both, egging them on, yet there’d been an underlying need fulfilled when Dominic took over, made her come.

This, tonight, was one step further, allowing him the right to decide how to push her limits. If she hadn’t wanted it that way, she wouldn’t have come back. She might never admit it, maybe she didn’t even know it, but she was entrusting him with her body and her spirit, challenging him to give her what she couldn’t ask for aloud.

He held her chin, forced her to meet his eyes. “Struggle all you want, but you’re taking whatever I dish out.”

“I’ll scream,” she whispered.

“In ecstasy,” he replied, then took her lips. Everything was about taking, forcing. He plunged his tongue deep into her mouth, tasting the heady sizzle of peppermint as if she’d been sucking a candy. She moaned, pressed her body into his. Then she backed off and nipped his lip.

It wasn’t hard, a sexy love bite, while at the same time upping the stakes of their skirmish.

Her panties were gone, her breasts bared. He slid a hand down between them to her pussy, their battleground. “Bet you’re hot and so fucking wet.”

“It’s nothing more than a natural physical response.” Her lips were moist, full and red from the heat of that kiss.

“Let’s see what else is natural.” He slid the tip of his finger between her folds to find the button of her clit. It was full, plump, needy. He circled, watching the dilation of her eyes. “Aren’t you going to scream?”

She loosed a breathy sigh as he slipped deeper, finding her creamy and warm. “What’s there to scream about?” she muttered.

He chuckled. She wouldn’t scream even when he made her come. She’d fight him all the way. And they would both get off on the game. Still pinning her to the bed with his body, he shifted slightly for greater access between her spread legs. “So you’re saying that doesn’t feel good.” He caressed, rubbed, circled, taking in the heightened color of her skin.

“I can do better with my vibrator.”

He had to admit he loved her vibrator. The abandon with which she’d used it for him in the past made his blood sizzle. “Did you bring it with you?”

She hesitated a moment too long. “Why would I bother?”

He glanced over his shoulder at the bag she’d dropped in the middle of the carpet in the short hallway by the bathroom. Big enough to hold a few tricks such as a box of condoms, rope, restraints. And a vibrator.

Sliding off the bed, he padded to the bag, stared at it, then back at her, smiling. “What surprises do we have in here?”

“Don’t you dare touch my things.” She growled in her throat, but it came off sounding closer to a purr.

Flipping on the overhead chandelier, then crossing once more to the bed, he upended the bag. Everything tumbled out between her splayed legs.

“Bastard,” she said.

“A vibrator.” He held it up just in case she missed seeing it. “And what did you plan on doing with that?”

“Using it on your ass,” she snapped.

He turned the vibrator this way and that. “That’s an interesting thought.” Then he pointed it at her. “But it would be so much better to use it on
your
ass.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” She glared, her eyes sparking in the light from the chandelier’s teardrops.

He clucked his tongue. “Another challenge.” He pointed to her bound wrists. “You’re not in a position to issue any challenges. Tied up the way you are, you’ll lose.”

She shot him a careless grin. “I might be now, but at some point, you’re going to let me loose. Then you better watch out.”

“Promises, promises,” he mocked as he poked through the other items. A bottle of warming gel. She’d used that on him, the liquid heating on contact. He held it up, watching the play of light through it. “I wonder how that will feel on your clit?”

“It won’t do a thing,” she sneered.