Tangled Truth (9 page)

Eva bit her lip then broke into a huge grin that heated Drew
up from head to toe. He was starting to be more than a little too aware of his
arousal, of the proximity of his erection to Eva’s body in the dark, warm space
under the covers.

Down, boy
, he admonished his unruly penis. Then he
added a soothing,
Soon, soon
.

“I love it,” she finally declared, and Drew had to stop
himself from answering. Because he had been a hairsbreadth away from saying “I
love
you
,” and it was still too soon. It would worry her at first, he
thought, and it would possibly require some cajoling and comforting from him
before she settled down and said it back. He didn’t want to have that
conversation yet. But soon.

For the moment, he was too busy enjoying the current
bumped-up status of their relationship. He nuzzled into Eva’s neck and allowed
himself the luxury of rubbing his cock very gently against her leg. Naked,
warm, cozy. Nearly perfect.

“I’m glad you like it.”

“I’m amazed it’s available on CD.”

“So. Ropes?” Drew asked hopefully, mumbling as his lips
brushed her skin, prompting a shiver from her that he hoped had nothing to do
with the cold.

“Oh, sure,” she said, as if it had never been an issue.

Drew thought it was warm enough to implement his plan. Or at
least, by the time he got through they would both be warm enough. To melt
glaciers, quite possibly.

“Good. Since I don’t have a present to unwrap, I think I’ll
wrap one up instead.”

She angled her head and met his lips in an enthusiastic
kiss, leaving him no doubt about how eager she was. Drew forced himself to pull
away, to think about his ultimate goal instead of opting for instant
gratification. Because the ropes, he knew, would make everything even better.

“Red?” Eva asked, when she saw the lengths of nylon braid
emerge from Drew’s big duffel bag. “That’s so festive. I don’t think I’ve seen
that long one before.”

Drew smiled, passing up the obvious “that’s what she said”
opening. “I haven’t used this one on the shoot. I haven’t used this one in
quite some time, as a matter of fact, but this is a special occasion. If you
have a ponytail holder or something, you may want to put your hair up.”

He quickly found the center mark and began shaking the loops
loose, snapping them out into long snaking lines of sleek, satiny crimson on
the floor as Eva vacated the bed reluctantly and rummaged in her purse for a
scrunchie. When she had accomplished a messy ponytail and was preparing to dive
back under the covers, Drew stopped her. “It’s easiest if you stand up for this
part. This is a traditional
karada
, by the way.”

Around Eva’s neck the rope went, Drew’s fingers nimbly
weaving the symmetrical lengths back and forth to encase her torso in a series
of diamond-shaped frames. He worked quickly, starting to feel nervous about his
plan, hoping it would be as good as he envisioned.

“It isn’t very tight,” Eva commented. Her eyes were half
closed, and her breathing was getting that shaky edge that Drew recognized.
He’d been careful to form the lowest knot on her belly higher than usual, to
leave her clit exposed, but she was moving her hips gently as though she were
rubbing that sensitive spot against the restraints. The rope was working its
magic, warming her up, pulling her under its spell.
His
spell, in a way.

“This way I get to keep it on you longer,” he explained,
turning her around to secure the rope behind her back. He couldn’t resist pulling
her toward him, pressing himself into her, falling a little under the spell of
the rope himself.

“Yes…” Eva whispered, lifting her hands to twine her fingers
in his hair.

“Not yet,” he said firmly, as much to himself as to anyone.

“There’s more?”

“If you’re willing.”

“Should I be concerned?” She didn’t sound concerned. She
sounded dreamy, and sultry, and he wanted to throw her on the bed and ravish
her.

Patience.

“I don’t think so. Lie down on the bed,” he directed. “On
your back.”

She did it without question, obviously enjoying the movement
of the ropes against her body and between her legs as she moved. The vivid red
stood out like a beacon against her fair skin, and Drew had to close his eyes a
moment before he could walk back over to his bag.

He pulled out the four additional ropes, also red but
shorter, and approached the bed with them in his hand. Tossing one at each
corner, he let Eva begin to draw her own conclusions as he turned to one of her
wrists and secured it to the tethering rope with a simple cat’s paw tie.

When he looked back up, she was watching him, her lower lip
firmly caught between her teeth.

“The door’s locked,” she whispered. He wasn’t sure if she
was talking to him or reassuring herself, but he nodded.

She didn’t protest as he moved down to the foot of the bed
and tied one of her ankles, leaving plenty of play in the rope. Then up to the
other wrist, which she offered to him without comment.

Drew hesitated before securing Eva’s other foot, his
confidence nearly faltering when he heard her breathing out heavily through
pursed lips. He waited, but she didn’t withdraw or protest, and after a moment
he slipped the rope around her ankle in its tidy twists and then turned back to
look at the whole of her.

She was breathtaking. A study in ivory against the charcoal
gray of his sheets, with the bright red rope crisscrossing her body and
highlighting all the most delectable bits to perfection. Opened completely to
his view, bound in place, unable to hide.

“Amazing,” he said, groaning at the ache the vision conjured
in his groin. His cock was rearing up, hard and eager, throbbing its own
approval of his handiwork. He could see the want, the need in Eva’s eyes, but
he also saw the anxiety lurking there.

“Try to get away,” he suggested. He moved on to the bed and
straddled her hips, letting her test the limits of her bonds. They were secure,
and the exercise seemed to settle her somehow. “How does it feel?”

“I’m not sure. Drew, please.”

“Please what?”

She laughed, sounding happy and nervous. “I’m not sure.”

“How do you feel when you’re all tied up, Eva? When the
ropes are wrapped around you and you can’t get away? Close your eyes and tell
me what you feel.”

She stared at him a few seconds before letting her eyes
flutter to a close, her eyelashes forming a lovely fringe against her pale
cheek. The little frown mark between her eyes started to fade as she spoke. “I
feel the ropes against me. I like the way they pull when I move, like they’re
reminding me they’re there. I like feeling them against my ribs when I breathe,
and…”

“What else? No, keep your eyes closed.”

“I feel like I’m safe. Like I can’t fly apart, the ropes
will hold me together no matter what. And I also feel like I’m on display.”

“And a very nice display it is, too.” Drew traced the outlines
of her breasts, the skin just inside the rope diamonds, admiring the way the
softness of the flesh was made even more evident by the gentle press of the
knots. Eva arched into his touch, her eyes still closed. “I wish I could keep
you here all the time, just like this.” Shifting lower, he knelt between her
legs to study even more of her at once. “You look so perfect tied to my bed,
all spread out and ready for me.”

A lovely blush stained Eva’s cheeks, and her breathing
sounded something like panic. Seated where he was, Drew could also see the
slick, glistening evidence of her arousal coating her delicate pink folds. The
ropes were drawn snug on either side of her outer lips, teasing the already
blushing flesh. He wanted to run his thumbs along that sweet, inviting seam,
tease her open and thrust straight into her, but he knew the scene needed
something else for completion. For her to move on, and for him to know that she
had.

Turning, he brought one leg over Eva’s red-laced torso and
straddled her chest as he lowered his face to lick slowly and carefully at the
tip of her clit. He was rewarded with a mewl, a strangled gasp of pleasure, and
the sensation of Eva’s teeth nipping at one calf.

Drew wanted it to last, but his own resistance was fading
with each throb of need that pulsed through his balls and made his cock twitch
impatiently. Clenching his ass and praying for stamina, he dipped down again
and tasted the tang of her, the sour-sweet musk that had started to overflow
the bounds of her pussy as she tried to squirm against the restraints.

She nibbled at him again, more sharply this time. “Drew,
come here. I want…I want to do this for you.”

“It’s for you,” he corrected, but shifted his weight and
bent his body closer to her, angling his cock toward her waiting lips. The
first wet, warm embrace of her tongue around his overheated tip nearly made him
blow his wad like a teenager. He trembled with the effort to resist thrusting,
and tried to distract himself from the unbelievable pleasure by returning to his
own task. Licking and sucking, teasing and pushing, and every groan of Eva’s
was transmitted directly to his cock from the delicious throat he was
practically fucking.

When he sensed she was close, he had to pull his hips away
before the building counterpoint of their rhythm sent him careening out of
control. Eva tensed, trembling under his mouth, a catch in her voice heralding
the orgasm that swept through her with a force even Drew could feel. She
screamed against his leg, arching up from the bed, and Drew worked her cunt
with his tongue and lips until she begged him to stop.

“No more. Just need you. Please?” It was almost a whimper,
half a whisper, a beautiful shade of sound. Would she come again, he wondered,
when he was inside her? Could he survive the pleasure if she did?

Drew got up with a groan, only long enough to wrestle a
condom from its package and slip back into place between Eva’s parted thighs.
He thrust into her sharply, without pause or question, his need to be closer to
her so great it shut his brain off for a moment.

But only a moment. He reined himself in enough to brace on
his elbows, framing her face with gentle hands. “Honey? Eva, open your eyes.
Look at me.”

She blinked a few times before focusing on him, as if it
were too bright despite the dim light in the room. Her smile was fitful,
hesitant.

“Look at me,” Drew repeated. “
See
me.”

Her eyes were too bright, full of tears, but her smile
broadened at his words and she nodded. “I do see you. It’s okay.” And then, as
if she were pleasantly surprised, “I’m okay.”

He had to move again and so he did, loving the way the force
of each thrust was mirrored back to him in her expression. The hint of tension
began to melt into something else as he watched, as her body began to respond
again. Within the constraints of the rope, she moved under him and he increased
his pace to match hers, until both of them were moaning and panting. Drew lost
her gaze at some point as the need took over, the tingling knot in his abdomen
and balls tightening almost to the point of pain before he finally exploded
inside her with a shout of joy and relief. Seconds later, Eva’s cry mingled
with his as her body trembled through another orgasm that seemed even more
powerful than the first.

Some vestige of sense kept Drew from collapsing on her until
he had untied her hands and wrists, but he left the
karada
in place
around her body. He felt the ropes between them as he pulled her close, and he
used the added leverage to tug her into the ideal spot. For long minutes they
spooned in sated silence, until Drew was nearly asleep and assumed Eva was as
well.

It didn’t surprise him entirely, however, when she spoke.
“Much better when nobody bursts in and starts whaling on me.”

“I’d hope so. I mean, that’s setting the bar pretty low. I
think I can pretty much always accomplish that.” They chuckled and cuddled
closer still. Drew nuzzled Eva’s hair, wondering what it was that made it smell
so good. Shampoo? Perfume? Or just her?

She sighed, a contented and sleepy sound. “I’ll have to work
on raising my standards.”

Chapter Nine

Danny and Sheila had helped with the gift, Eva admitted as
Drew was unwrapping it, but the idea had been hers.

Drew was too stunned to respond. The mounted canvas he’d
revealed was beautiful, breathtaking. It took him a moment to register what Eva
was saying.

“It’s the wrong one!” she insisted, apparently again, as he
gave her a quizzical look. “Sheila did the wrong one. She was barely done with
the mounting and so she offered to wrap it to save time, so I never got to see
the finished product. But she must have—”

“I love it.”

“I mean, who gives a picture of themselves? Of course the
one I wanted to give you was of me, too, but you couldn’t tell it was me, it
was—”

“Honey, I love it.”

“I didn’t— You do?”

“I do. It’s amazing.”

“Oh. But it has my face. And I don’t think I photograph very
well.”

Drew’s laugh echoed in the big, high-ceilinged space of the
nearly empty gallery. “You’ve just spent weeks posing for photographs for a
book. For an extremely finicky photographer, I might add. And you had hardly a
bad frame in the entire shoot. But this one, I think, is my favorite of all.”

He turned his attention back to the large photograph, a
three-quarters shot of Eva sitting on the ground in front of the dark backdrop,
her lower body swathed in the silk robe, her bound wrists held in front of her
and obscuring her nipples. It was a candid shot, and she was clearly laughing
at something one of them had said. Drew thought he remembered the moment,
Sheila cracking a joke and Eva breaking out of her elegant pose. Her face was
full of joy and friendship, her hands gently curled under her chin. Sheila had
done something to it, desaturated some parts and tweaked the color in other
parts, to highlight the rosy tones of the robe, and Eva’s lips and cheeks.
Despite the bondage, the whole thing looked like a fond memory from a bygone
time, dreamy and fleeting.