Sapphire (5 page)

Taylor closed her eyes against the image, his clever fingers stroking her bare skin, down along her spine to her hip bones.

“Spread your legs,” he whispered in her ear, “and turn your cheek to the door. Lean your weight forward, forearms flat. From now on, you may only say three things—your real first name, your safe word and ‘yes, please, Mr. Kirliss.’”

Trembling, wondering if this would be it, if he’d take her against the front door and send her home again before she ever left the foyer, Taylor obeyed. She hoped it wouldn’t be over that soon. She edged her sharp heels apart as Kirliss stepped back again. Her breath came rough as she imagined the picture she made, spread against the dark wood.

“What does the
M
stand for?” Kirliss asked.

If she could have, Taylor would have laughed. Instead she mutely shook her head. She felt his lips, surprisingly hot, press a kiss to the small of her back. Such a small touch, to send sensations zinging through her nerves. Her breasts tightened, making the nipples tingle. With her legs spread, the panties snugged into her wet cleft, the lace stimulating her swollen tissues. She let her breath out quietly over her lips, so no unseemly moan would escape. It would give him even more power if he knew how incredibly aroused he’d already made her.

“Cross your wrists behind your back. No, keep your cheek against the door.”

It took her a moment to gain her equilibrium and manage it. Leaning her temple into the door, she put her hands behind her back.

“You might have to arch your shoulder blades together a bit. Cross your wrists completely.”

She could follow his method here, how he coaxed her into being complicit. He wanted her to not just give up control, but to hand it to him.

“Hesitating?” he asked in that throaty murmur.

Damn him.

Taylor arched her shoulder blades, feeling the stretch, and crossed her wrists. Her thighs trembling, she felt the rope bind her hands together. She opened her mouth to protest, then remembered her limited vocabulary. The rope sank into her flesh, soft but tight. The word swirled around in her head—
sapphire
—shimmering and unspeakable. A fine tremor ran through her.

Kirliss placed warm hands on her bare shoulders and drew her upright. He smoothed his fingers down her bound arms and back up over her shoulders to trace her collarbone. Brushing aside a few strands of hair from the bared side of her neck, he pressed his lips just below her ear. She shuddered, restraining her moan. His tongue licked a hot sweep up the line of her throat. Teeth sank lightly into the taut muscle.

Her breath hissed out. Primal need surged. She was pinned by her mate’s teeth, spread for him, a deep part of her wanting to submit utterly.

As he wanted.

Taylor yanked herself away, stumbling into an upright position and turning to face him.

Kirliss raised an eyebrow. “Something to say?”

Well, shit.
She eyed him. Dressed all in black, with that small smile on his lips and his eyes burning into her, he was a lethal combination of amused, aroused and dangerous.

Pressing her lips together, she shook her head in a slow side-to-side and smiled back. He wouldn’t get her to back down that easily.

“You realize you broke the rules with that bit of resistance? I see that you do.” Kirliss stroked the black leather belt.

She tried to tear her gaze from it. How would it feel?

“Something to look forward to, for later. By the way, you can moan and scream all you like.”

Taylor raised her eyebrows and tossed her hair back over her shoulder.

Kirliss reached out to fix it, smoothing the strands away from her forehead with a light, admiring touch. He trailed sensitive fingers over her cheekbone. “You will melt under my hands, Taylor. I look forward to hearing your screams of pleasure.”

He dropped his hand to her breast, naked under the blue silk. She leaned into the touch before she could stop herself, and he chuckled.

“In the meantime—” he took her elbow, as if she was any guest, “—let me show you the library.”

He led her down the hallway. At the end of it, the house opened up into a vast expanse of glass that looked out over the nighttime ocean. They turned, though, into a masculine study. The room was lined with bookshelves and studded here and there with comfortable leather furniture. A cheerful fire leaped behind a stained-glass screen and lit the room too dimly for her to read any of the book titles. He escorted her to the middle of the room, where a thick oriental rug in deep jewel tones absorbed the spikes of her heels. He left her there and went to a cart with crystal decanters.

“Would you like a drink? Wine, whiskey, more champagne, perhaps?”

She did, but she didn’t want to say so.

“Afraid to make such a small concession? You’ve called me nothing but Mr. Kirliss.” He held the bottle of Dom tantalizingly over a graceful flute.

Taylor sighed. No backing out now. She’d agreed to these rules. “Yes, please, Mr. Kirliss.”

“Sweet words, indeed.”

He paced over to her, his smile sly. He clearly saw that she wondered how this would work, with her hands bound. He slid a warm hand under her hair, to cup the back of her head, tilting it back so her throat lengthened and her breasts rose tight against the dress. He held the fine edge of the champagne flute against her bottom lip and dribbled a bit into her open mouth. The crisp fizz of it flowed in, bright and startling through her sensual haze. She swallowed, feeling his scrutiny.

“More?”

She caught his intent golden gaze. “Yes, please, Mr. Kirliss.”

Something dark flashed across his face. Oh yes, her hands might be tied, but she had some power here. He tipped more of the champagne into her waiting mouth. Delicious. She held his eyes and licked her lips. Slow, seductive.

With a low sound, Kirliss tossed the flute away and seized her. His lips came down hard on hers, plundering, devastating. Taylor felt devoured by him, held up by the whipcord of his arms. Unable to deny him, she fell into the kiss.

“Witch,” Kirliss murmured when he finally pulled away. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing here. Time to take this another step, I believe.”

Making sure she was steady on her feet, which she barely was, Kirliss left her there again. A hum whirred over her head, a ring on a chain lowering from the ceiling until it dangled inches above her head.

Doesn’t every library have one?

Taylor started from her contemplation of the device when Kirliss released her bound hands. She took the opportunity to stretch her shoulders and rub the skin on her wrists.

“Sore?”

She shook her head.

“You will be.” He flashed her an abrupt grin. “Reach above your head, please, and grasp the ring.”

Not moving her eyes from his, Taylor reached up and caught hold of it. Winding the rope around her wrists, Kirliss bound her to the ring. The feel of it tightening on her skin, confining her, set the blood pounding in her temples. She felt her control crumbling and concentrated on keeping her breath deep and even, her eyes straight ahead. Did he know what this was doing to her?

The way he leaned in brought his strong throat to hover inches in front of her lips. Tanned, with a few sprinkled black hairs at the hollow of his neck, his Adam’s apple prominent, it lured her. He smelled of salt and something musky. Taylor found herself wanting to lick his skin, maybe take a little nip of him.

“Better not without permission,” he warned in a soft voice. He checked the tightness of the bindings, then slipped his hands down to lightly flick her nipples. She gasped and tried to pull back. “Did you forget? I touch you however I like. You gave that up to me.”

In the warm firelight, his eyes glowed, intense, holding her gaze captive. He rolled her nipples between his fingers, sending a hot arcing sensation through her. She bit her lip to stop her groan of longing.

Kirliss smiled, released her throbbing nipples, and brushed her lower lip with his thumb. “You do realize that the more you strain to keep control, the greater the explosion will be when you lose it.”

He went behind her again, where he had to be operating some kind of switch on the wall. The ring rose again, drawing her hands with it, a slow stretch that pulled her body taut. He stopped it when her heels left the ground, then lowered it slightly. Warm light glowed around her from recessed lights set into the ceiling. They dialed up slightly brighter, spotlighting her where they intersected.

The star of the show.

“Not pulling too much?” He ran his hands over her stretched arms, testing the slack and caressing the lines of her toned muscles.

Her breathing accelerated again as her vulnerability became clear. He adjusted the fall of her hair, caressed her exposed ribs and slid invasive hands over the curve of her ass, then down the outsides of her thighs. Her body moved under his touch of its own volition, something deep inside her warming at the possession. He knelt behind her and looped the black rope around her legs, wrapping her ankles, sealing her feet tightly together.

The sensation overwhelmed her. She found herself yanking at the rope, tugging at her hands to get free.

Kirliss sighed out a breath that drifted across the backs of her knees. “The only thing more stimulating than watching a beautiful woman struggle against my ropes is having it be you, my sweet M. I’ve waited for this a long time and it’s even better than I’d hoped for.”

A long time? Taylor turned that over in the tumult of her mind. Behind his inscrutable face across the conference table, had he been cooking up the fantasy of her like this? She lost the thought to the glide of his hands up the taut curve of her thighs, under her skirt and over the globes of her naked bottom. Kirliss traced her hipbones, toying with the G-string barely clinging to her. He braced her hips and pressed up behind her so the ridge of his cock pressed through his jeans and into the cleft of her ass. He rocked her against him, feathering light touches over the soaking lace covering her sex. She dropped her head, panting with need, letting him and the ropes hold her up.

Kirliss cupped her sex with one hand, his fingers sliding between the vee of her thighs, but not giving her enough pressure in the exact right spot. He brought his other hand up to weigh the fullness of her breast, massaging it with sensual strokes.

“Lay your head back against my shoulder,” he murmured, and she obeyed with a sob of helpless desire. He nipped and licked the line of her neck, holding her tight as she writhed in his unrelenting grip. The blood beat hot in every vessel of her body, but it wasn’t enough. She groaned in frustration.

“Music to my ears,” Kirliss growled against the flesh of her throat. “Now beg me.”

Taylor tensed, tried to raise her head. His grip tightened to the verge of pain, her nipple trapped in a tormenting pinch.

“Beg me,” he whispered in her ear, taking her earlobe between his lips and worrying at the tender flesh with his teeth. “Another approved phrase for you. Say ‘Please, fuck me, Mr. Kirliss.’”

“No,” she gasped. “I won’t beg.”

“Ah,” he sighed with dramatic disappointment and released her abruptly. “That is not one of the things you’re allowed to say.”

Taylor swayed in the grip of the ropes and the unsatisfied desire riding her body. She blinked muzzily at Kirliss, who now stood in front of her, sipping at a glass of whiskey, watching her with predatory male lust.

“You will beg, you know,” he informed her, “before we’re done tonight.” He set the glass down and stalked over to her. He stroked away the damp strands of hair from her face and brushed her cheekbones with gentle thumbs. He lowered those sensual lips to hers and murmured against them, “You are magnificent, M. An astoundingly gorgeous and passionate woman.”

He kissed her, long and slow and sweet. His tongue swirled with hers, whiskey wafting through the breath they exchanged.

“Delicious,” he said, licking her swollen lower lip. “And now, my darling Taylor—” his grin flashed white and wicked, “—I do believe it’s time to strip you.”

Taylor felt his fingers work the silk tie at the back of her neck with a sort of terrified longing. She could no longer discern how she felt. The prospect of him stripping her, of being completely vulnerable to him, felt like an abyss opening beneath her. She teetered on the edge of it, unbalanced in her high heels. The silk started to come loose. One more layer of defense gone.

“No,” she whispered.

His hands stilled. One finger slipped under her chin to raise her face to his intent gaze. “No?”

She stared at him, pulsing with anxiety and desire.

“That’s not the word to say if you want this to stop. You know that, correct?”

Taylor bit her lip and nodded. He brushed a tear from her cheek and kissed her, a gentle, sweet touch.

“I know you need to say no, Taylor. You like to lead with
no
in all negotiations. I watched how you use denial to control the people around you. Start with no, then make concessions.”

His words stirred her uneasily, her mother’s drunken advice drifting through her mind.
Always tell them no, Molly. Then they’ll do anything for you when you finally say yes.

Kirliss rubbed his thumb over her bottom lip. “I’m changing the rules. You can say anything you please now. Let all those voices saying
no
speak out so you can release them. Scream it out if you need to. I won’t stop. I’m going to strip you. I’m going to punish you and I’m going to ravish every inch of your gorgeous body. But the moment I hear
sapphire,
I’ll stop. It can be for a breath, for the evening or forever. Tell me you understand that.”

He held her face and Taylor’s heart swelled at the tender concern in his eyes. Inch by inch she seemed to be melting, indeed. Something about him she couldn’t resist. Illogically, she trusted him. She wanted him, wanted this.

“I understand,” she whispered.

“Yes,” he whispered back and kissed her.

His hands returned to the knotted silk at the nape of her neck, but his gaze riveted hers. Slowly he drew the silk away, his eyes dropping as he bared her breasts. Her nipples stood out, pink and tight, the globes of her breasts pulled high by her stretched position.