“It would be good if you did,” he suggested.
It was my turn to smirk. “I didn’t realize that real estate was such a cutthroat business. Besides, it seems to me that if my death was your goal, and as you yourself have said, you’ve been watching me for some time, my demise would have already occurred.”
“If that had been my goal, it would have. It wasn’t.” He crouched to his haunches before me as his large hand grazed my exposed ankle, sparking heat as it moved up to under the hem of the dress, uncovering my knee. His eyes met mine. “My goal has been achieved. It always is. I don’t fail.” His broad shoulder shrugged as his grin turned either sly or sinister—I was yet to have him completely figured out. “However, it’s also wise to keep in mind that goals can change.”
His grip of my knee tightened. “I also prefer to know that when I give instructions, they’re carried out—completely. The entire time we’ve been together in this cabin, I couldn’t help but wonder if you’d done that.”
“Done what?’
“Tell me if you did as I said.”
“Stop talking in riddles. You’ve said a lot. What are you asking?”
“Are you wearing everything in the box?” Standing, he offered his hand, encouraging me to also stand.
Heat flowed from our connection, flooding my core as I made it to my feet. My heels wobbled as I remembered what I’d added to the outfit.
Like velvet moving the wrong way, his deep voice rubbed my nerves as he slowly shook his head, stood back, and assessed everything about me. “I recommend you avoid poker,” he said with a hint of amusement.
“I’ll have you know I excel at poker. Five-card draw is my game.”
His chuckle filled the cabin. “Then your opponents were amateurs. Though your life is one, you’re not good at keeping secrets. That is why until now you’ve been spared the truth. In this case, your body is giving you away.”
I tried not to think about what he knew about my life.
When it came to here and now, he was right. My damn body was a traitor. It and I were no longer on speaking terms. As infuriating and arrogant as this man could be, in his presence my body was a flush of energy—most of it now settled between my legs.
“Your cheeks are growing pinker,” he said. “Your feet are shuffling, and your breathing has changed. I could continue on about your ice-hard nipples and wet pussy, but for now I plan to learn what you did or didn’t do that has you reacting this way.”
I tilted my head from side to side, giving him a view of each ear. “The cubic zirconia earrings are in place.”
“Three and a half carats per earring. Common cut with near-perfect clarity. I never settle for imitations.”
Holy shit.
I looked down and lifted the platinum chain. “The necklace is in place. You can see the sandals and the dress.”
His arm snaked around my waist, pulling me closer until my breasts collided with his broad chest. “You know what I’m asking. Don’t make me spell it out.”
With my chin lifted, I stared through veiled lashes, and leaned my hips inward. I was this man’s kryptonite. I had no idea why, but it wouldn’t stop me from using it.
A shallow breath escaped me as he roughly pulled me even closer.
Earlier, I’d covered my skin in the rose-scented lotion from the bathroom, yet at this moment, it was his scent that filled my senses. Masculine, clean, and spicy, the aroma surrounded us like a cloud as not only our chests connected, but also once again, his body declared his desire.
“Do you think it’s wise to push me?” he asked, his voice growing deeper. The gravelly tone had the same effect as his cologne and erection, twisting my insides.
My response was breathy. “You’ve said more than once what you want.”
“If I lift that pretty red dress, will I find what was in the box for you to wear?”
“There was nothing in the box for me to wear beneath this dress.”
The vein in his neck pulsated as his hand lowered from the small of my back to my behind. His fingers splayed, grabbing my ass, yet thankfully, the material was too thick for him to feel the underwear. “Answer my damn question, or I’ll find out for myself.”
“Your instructions didn’t say I couldn’t add another item.”
Something resembling a growl came from his chest, the vibration coursing through me in a way that made me wish I hadn’t added the panties. He lowered his face to my neck as his warm breath skirted my skin. “I, on the other hand…” The breath of each word sent shivers through me. “…am an excellent gambler. I take sure bets, and Araneae, I’d bet you added panties. I’d double down that they’re soaked.”
“Sterling…”
“Tell me I’m wrong.”
I was beyond verbally answering, yet I couldn’t lie. My forehead shook against his cheek, the abrasiveness of his beard growth scratching my skin.
Pinching my chin between his finger and thumb, he pulled my eyes to his. “Speak. Don’t ever be afraid to speak the truth to me. Lies and half-truths...” His jaw clenched. “...those should be avoided at all costs. The payment will be higher than you can imagine.”
I nodded, as best as I could within his hold, curious to ask exactly what he meant, but not confident enough to question.
When his eyes widened, I admitted what I’d done. “The note didn’t specifically say not to...” I swallowed. This wasn’t speaking the truth. My breasts heaved as I exhaled. “I had panties in my carry-on.”
“And?”
“I’m wearing them.”
“And?”
I wasn’t sure what he wanted.
“My bet,” he said. “I doubled down.”
“Yes, they’re wet.”
He hummed, acknowledging my truth, just before his lips found my neck. A moan left my throat, filling the cabin as he peppered kisses upon my sensitive skin. My mind told me to step back and create space. My body disagreed. From the first time we spoke, Sterling had made it clear that sex was going to happen. I knew it would. I’d entered the plane knowing what the future held. Hell, I’d changed my clothes knowing what it meant.
It was going to happen.
Wasn’t it better to get it over with?
His grip of my ass brought our bodies even closer as his hard and fierce erection pushed against my tummy. The pressure built as the zipper of his jeans undoubtedly strained. His face bowed as he leaned forward to continue his attack.
Lower and lower along my body his lips explored. They were like a torch to my skin, moving past my collarbone and down to the neckline of the dress. Another gasp escaped when he pulled the material of the dress aside, exposing one breast and then the other. The coolness of the air combined with the warmth of his mouth did things to more than harden my nipples.
“Fuck, they’re as perfect as I imagined.” He teased one and then the other. “Better than I imagined.”
His praise and attention turned my insides from twisted to molten as heat and desire combusted within me. Shamelessly, I ground my hips toward his erection as I pulled his face to my skin. The abrasion of his beard was my undoing as I ground against him.
Surprisingly, there was no embarrassment in baring myself to this man.
After all, I was his, no matter how much my mind protested.
A tweak of his fingers, a lick of his tongue, no matter the weapon, his skill was unmatched in my lifetime. My breasts were unprepared for battle as blood engorged each one and my nipples grew painfully taut. The life-giving liquid was no longer circulating my body, my knees weakened and wobbled until I questioned if they could stand with my unsure footing on the skinny heels. It was as his teeth joined the battle that my knees and legs finally gave out. I found myself fully supported by his arms.
Saving me from falling, Sterling gently lay me back and just as quickly followed me onto the soft carpet of the plane. His dark eyes shone as he devoured me with his gaze. It gave me strength to lift my arms and surrender to desire.
“Reach under your dress and give me what I didn’t tell you to wear.”
The heat from my core exploded as my entire body filled with need. I didn’t know this man. Yet I was considering…
“Araneae.” His voice rumbled like low thunder as his thumb trailed my exposed nipples, around and around. “I’m not going to fuck you—you have my word—until you want it. Give me those panties so I can show you how much you want it.”
He was right. My body wanted what only he could offer. Somewhere during the kisses and nips my mind had ceased to argue. Or maybe the arguments were drowned out by the sounds of my moans and whimpers. Either way, it was my body that now had the microphone.
“Don’t make me repeat myself.”
Repeat himself?
My mind was too clouded with his presence to remember his words.
I swallowed my question as I tried to remember. And then I did. He’d told me to remove my panties—what he didn’t tell me to wear. Keeping my eyes on his, I did as he said. Slowly I moved my hands under the skirt of the dress until my fingers were latched over the waistband. Lifting my ass, I began to pull them along my legs.
His gaze continued to darken as he slowly shook his head. He seemed to be fighting two thoughts—either amazed that I’d defied him or surprised that I was now obeying.
Once my panties reached my knees, Sterling placed his large hands over mine and directed their movement. By the time they reached my ankles I stopped, lying back and allowing him to take them the rest of the way over the tall heels.
“Fuck,” he growled, more than spoke.
I peered upward as he lifted the red lace thong. It wasn’t my usual undergarment. It had been a gift that Louisa bought as a joke a while ago. I rarely wore it or its matching bra, so it made sense to have it as my emergency backup.
“This weekend is to learn the rules,” Sterling said. “One to remember is to do as you’re told the first time. It’s a good way to avoid punishment.” He lifted them to his nose and inhaled. “Though I do enjoy your sexy scent.”
“I-I…” I said, lifting up to my elbows and considering what he’d just said. “You didn’t say—”
“And now I’ll have it with me.” He stood, pushing the panties into the pocket of his jeans and offering me his hand. “Come with me, Araneae.”
Pulling my legs back, I held tightly to his hand as he lifted me from the floor. Once I stood, I reached for the material of the dress to cover my breasts.
Sterling shook his head. “No.”
“What?”
Instead of answering, he led me from the main cabin toward the bedroom. My steps stuttered with each attempt until they were no longer moving but secured in place. Sterling turned back my direction. “Keep walking, Araneae. I gave you my word, and based on how wet the lace in my pocket is, I’d say you want it.”
“I didn’t say…”
“I can fuck you out here and everyone will hear it, or you can keep walking.”
“But you said—”
He didn’t let me finish. “No one is that fucking soaked who doesn’t want it.”
I straightened my neck. “I will walk, but I haven’t said yes.” As we passed the threshold to the bedroom, Sterling stopped and tilted his head toward the bed.
“Bend over the bed.”
I looked from him to the bed.
Bend over? What the fuck was he going to do?
It was as he reached for the buckle of his belt that panic replaced my curiosity. “Sterling, you never said only. The note didn’t say anything about adding clothes.”
In the silence of the room, he again tilted his head toward the bed.
He wasn’t going to fuck me. He was going to punish me.
Araneae
The tightness in my core moved. No longer sure of my wiles—no longer sure of anything—I debated my options. I was alone in this flying mansion with a man nearly twice my size. I’d dressed in the outfit he’d prepared. I’d removed my panties when he’d demanded.
What could I do now? Scream? Would Patrick come to my rescue?
In another situation, most likely. Involving Sterling, never.
Reaching for my hand, Sterling tugged me forward. Then, with his hands on my shoulders, he spun me toward the bed.
I craned my neck his direction, refusing to let him off without a fight—at least a verbal one. “You’re an asshole if you think this is acceptable. I’m not a child to be disciplined. Grown-ups talk.”
The vein in his forehead became visible as he leaned closer. “Grown-ups also fuck. Which one will it be?”
“Fuck you,” I replied as I leaned forward, my exposed breasts flattening against the soft cover of the mattress.
Without speaking, he splayed his large hand on the small of my back, causing it to arch and raise my ass higher as my toes stretched.
I’d wondered earlier why his bed was so high. Now I had my answer.
“Put your hands behind your back.”
“Fuck yourself.”
His hand pressed harder into the small of my back as his other one grabbed my hair, turning my face toward his. Each word was separate and distinct as his features contorted. “Keep up your demands, Ms. McCrie. You will regret every fucking one.” Releasing my hair, he lifted the skirt to the dress and exposed my ass. Cool air found my core. “Do. You. Believe. Me. Now?”
The rage within him should make him ugly. Maybe the rage did. However, it was his obvious restraint that didn’t. This chiseled mountain of a man was on the verge of losing control. Like barbed wire, the reality poked from all directions. I should be terrified.
Yet I wasn’t.
He wasn’t over the edge, and he wouldn’t go there. Somehow, I knew that.
His internal tug of war was real, yet restraint was winning. That observation kept me grounded.
There was no doubt that I was attracted to Sterling’s power from the first time I saw him. That dominance radiated about him like a shimmering force of energy. For most of my adult life I’d fantasized about a man like him, one willing to push me to explore my boundaries and submit. I’d never found that in a man—until now. And now that I had, reality was different.
For me to give up control, I had to trust the person to whom I was giving it. As my cheek lay against the soft cover, I wasn’t sure if I trusted him.
Did I have a choice?
“Araneae.”
My name came as both a reminder and warning. My mind searched for what he wanted. And then I remembered. My hands.
“Asshole,” I muttered as I did as he requested. As soon as I did, the strong leather of his belt wound around my wrists and forearms, securing my hands until my shoulders bowed. “Sterling, please…”
His large hand ran over the skin of my ass, each time moving lower.
“Sterling,” I called, my voice regaining its own strength, “do it. Punish me. I added the panties.”
He leaned down, our eyes meeting. “What did you say?”
“I said punish me. You said your word is true. You gave me your word that my choice was that or fucking. I’ll take the punishment.”
Without a word, he stood and the next thing I knew the belt around my lower arms disappeared. However, as I started to move, his hand came down again on my back. “I didn’t tell you to move.”
There was finality in his voice that quelled my growing sense of rebellion. With my hands now free, I balled the soft cover as I closed my eyes and waited. It wasn’t his belt, but his hand that came down upon my exposed ass.
Pain exploded through me, starting on my ass and setting off a chain reaction.
I buried my face in the cover as tears pricked my eyes.
Another spank and then another as I swallowed my tears.
His large hand ran over my sore skin in a comforting way that while intensifying the pain, did something else. Each pass moved lower and lower until he was alternating pain with pleasure.
Holy fuck!
I wanted to hate everything there
was about this man. I had every reason, yet with each dip of his fingers my body lit up, not a candle flickering in the wind, but like fireworks on the Fourth of July. It wasn’t until his touch finally penetrated my entrance that I called out his name. “Sterling!”
His rhythm was contagious as the rest of the world disappeared. The only thing that mattered was his next move. A slap to my ass and then his touch, sometimes to my tender skin, other times more intimate. I couldn’t predict no matter how hard I tried.
Mini detonations exploded like sparks in a forest awaiting a raging fire. The world around us disappeared as my entire body reacted. I wasn’t thinking about what was right or what was wrong. The reason I was with him no longer registered. I was consumed as Sterling stirred my senses, lifting me higher and higher toward the greatest orgasm of my life.
The sound of his zipper was barely noticed as my body hummed. Part of my mind reminded me that I’d made my decision—I’d chosen the punishment. Yet I knew I’d done that for one reason. I’d chosen punishment as a way to deny him sex. As I strained on my toes and held tightly to the cover, I no longer wanted to deny him. The desire within me was too strong. Having him inside me would certainly send me over the edge. Though I could protest, say that I’d chosen the punishment, at that moment, I wanted him more than I wanted to be right. I wanted him inside me. I wanted to explode.
I waited as the anticipation built.
No longer fearful, I was on the brink of a devastating explosion, and the expectation was as erotic as what the future held.
The cabin filled with Sterling’s breathing, labored and heavy. It took my endorphin-filled brain a moment or two to process. It was as his breathing came with a rumbling moan that I realized what was happening.
Letting go of the covers, I did what he’d told me not to do. I moved and rolled to my back.
Anger and jealousy washed away my desire, anger that he was finding pleasure and jealousy that it wasn’t with me. Looking at me with the darkest stare was the man I’d have willingly accepted inside me. Yet that wasn’t what was happening.
I pulled my gaze away from his and moved it lower. His shirt had ridden up, exposing defined abs. It was lower yet where I couldn’t look away. Below his open jeans revealing his trim waist where a trail of dark hair led to...his large hand moving rhythmically along his hardened shaft. Big and thick, the head glistened with the beginning of what was to come.
Secrets: Web of Sin Page 12
