Anna’s eyes fluttered as she stared at Jake. He pulled his magnificent body out of the tub, and she took in the full length of him as he moved through the bathroom, not self-conscious at all, sopping up the spilled suds and tossing towels into the sink. To define his body as beautiful wasn’t quite right. He was too rough for real beauty, his hands scarred, his muscles corded, his back inked with a spray of tattoos. He moved with a loose ease that belied his efficiency of action—everything for a purpose, everything in place. She thought of his orderly garage, how he’d not slept until that space was ready for him and his bikes, primed to do his work the way he wanted. And now, he was taking on cleanup duty when she was the one who’d created the mess. She should feel bad about that, but instead she felt …
“Hey, you.” The water rolled higher up her neck as Jake returned. “You’re not falling asleep on me, are you?”
“What? No. What are you doing?”
“Making us both more comfortable.” Jake settled beside her, then reached for her, moving her body over his. His arms went around her, his hands instantly finding her breasts, cupping their weight like he was born to the task. “That feel okay?” he rumbled in her ear, and she sighed, letting herself relax against him.
“That feels amazing.”
“Well, I don’t know about amazing.” He wrapped his left arm around her more securely, but his right hand apparently had other territory to explore, and Anna flinched away reflexively as she felt a sudden touch of his fingers at the juncture of her legs. “Now this,” he whispered. “This should feel amazing.”
He angled her body again, and with a sudden shift of his legs, Anna felt the blast of jetted water slide along the backs of her thighs, the shocking intimacy of Jake’s fingers pressing against her from above. Then his fingers moved, and she felt desire shimmer inside her, hot and impossibly close to the surface. “Jake, you don’t need to do this,” she all but whimpered, even as her body arched underneath his hand.
“There’s very little I need to do in life,” Jake said, the smile in his voice telling her he was taking in her every shiver and sigh. “This, however, I want to do. So just let go, Anna. Let it happen.”
His fingers roamed farther down, finally touching the aching nub that was all but pulsing with need. He glided his fingers over her gently at first, then more quickly and with greater intensity, until she felt herself moving against his hand, teaching him how to touch her, her mind and body a whirl of sensation as he guided her to her inevitable climax. Jake was bent forward, kissing her neck, tugging on the sensitive shell of her ear, and he moved his fingers just slightly—infinitesimally slightly—and that was all it took to throw Anna over the edge, her body twisting, squirming, trying to jerk away from Jake’s hands as she rode out a climax that seemed to start up again under his careful, patient fingers whenever it started to recede. “Jake!” she finally gasped. “Jake, you need to stop!”
“I told you there’s very little I need to do,” he whispered, pulling her up to kiss him. “And stopping is very much not one of them. Get ready for a long night, sweetheart.”
Chapter 23
Jake leaned back to look at his handiwork, satisfied that it would do the job. He picked up the dishes from the nightstand, piling the remains of their dinner on the bus tray before carrying the whole mess outside. The champagne would keep—they’d barely gotten though their first glasses of that, and he didn’t even want to think about how much room-service champagne cost. He hadn’t been lying to Anna about not caring about the money, but certain things could bug him. Paying a hundred dollars for a bottle of middling booze was one of them. Still, this time anyway, it was worth it. They’d both dozed off just enough in the tub to wake up hungry for each other, and then an hour or so later, room service seemed like a really good idea. Now it was past eleven o’clock, and between the champagne and the food and the day’s ride and—he liked to think—the sex, Anna was out for the count. She’d been asleep about thirty minutes before he’d put the next stage of his night into motion, desperately glad that she’d agreed with his plan not to go out. He wanted to show Anna off, no question. But not tonight. Not when she was here, relaxed, and all his.
A quick, sharp jab of urgency prodded him and he frowned, striding back to the bed. As much as he enjoyed watching Anna sleep, he didn’t want her actually tied down during her call. She’d be distracted then, but now … he found himself already hard again. He was going to sleep for a week when all of this was over, but tonight his body was keeping right up with his fantasies. And this one had never looked so good.
He brushed a soft kiss over her lips a few minutes later. “Wake up, sleepyhead.”
Anna came to immediately. “What time is it?” she asked, springing up—and instantly drawing tight the soft terry-cloth belt Jake had freed from one of the luxurious robes in the closet. “What in the—Jake!”
He watched her reaction carefully. He wasn’t into kink, really. He didn’t know the lifestyle, didn’t have time to maintain the women who did. But as Anna moved her legs and realized her opposite ankle was also cuffed—by his belt wrapped in a soft towel, the hold not even strong enough to withstand a good solid kick—her eyes dilated and her mouth dropped open in an expression of both shock … and pure, unrefined lust.
Followed immediately by practical Anna bluster.
“Jake!” She leaned over to check the clock. “My call! I’ve got to get ready! I’ve got to get my stuff!”
“Your call isn’t for another forty-five minutes,” Jake said. “I think we can do some damage between now and then, don’t you? Now. There’s still a little work for us to do. I’m not finished yet.” He held up another terry-cloth belt, and Anna’s eyes widened.
“What …” She swallowed. “What is it you expect to do with that?”
“I expect you to let me tie down your other wrist,” Jake said. “And then you can tell me whether or not you’ll be a good girl and keep your other leg where I tell you to, or if I’ll need to tie that one down, too.”
“You can’t do this, Jake,” Anna said, but he was already looping the soft cloth over her wrist and tying it tight. “I don’t do this, it isn’t my thing.”
“It isn’t mine, either,” Jake said. “But you said yourself you wanted to try new things this weekend. So maybe it can become our thing.” He tightened the belt and pulled it up, stretching her arm wide. “How’s that?”
“Jake—”
“Shh.” He looped the belt around the pole and tied it off in a loose bow, leaving the trailing ends in easy reach. “You can untie yourself if you work at it, Anna. You’re not losing control here, you’re just giving it up for a little while.” He leaned back over her, lifting up the sheets and sliding in next to her. She tried to shift, but was caught by her restraints, and her body reacted with a deep shiver, her fingers gripping the cloth of the belt.
“That’s my girl.” Jake stretched his body over hers, bracing himself on his hands as his unsheathed cock nudged her. She was hot and already wet, and he felt his own surge of desire tweak him hard. “I think you like this, Anna,” he murmured, leaning down to nuzzle her neck. “I think you like this a lot.”
“I like you,” she whispered. She arched her body below him and pressed up, still finding a range of movement despite the restraints, but she could only go so far.
“Then let me do this to you, okay? You just feel, for once. No doing, no thinking.”
Jake let his weight ease down on Anna until she was forced back down to the bed, and he could tell by her altered breathing that she was fighting her own reactions. Reactions to what, though? To him? To this? To the idea of giving up control? Probably a little bit of all three, but when he pulled back to look at her face, at her hazed, heavy-lidded eyes and her soft, open mouth and flushed cheeks, he knew he was on the right track. “That’s good, sweetheart,” he murmured, kissing the soft curl of her ear, the sensitive skin at the top of her neck, the smooth angle of her shoulder down to the ridge of her
collarbone. Forty-five minutes wasn’t going to be nearly enough to enjoy this fully, but he knew her tension was already ratcheted high because of the time limit.
Her next words confirmed it. “What’s the goal here, Jake?” Anna asked, her words rushed, almost hissed, as he closed his mouth over her right breast and took her nipple into his teeth, pulling gently. It hardened to a point, and he covered her left breast with his hand, kneading it, finding its peaked nipple and rolling it in his fingers. Anna groaned and tried to repeat the question, and he raised himself up on one elbow, his opposite hand giving her generous breast one last squeeze before trailing down the sexy curve of her waist, over her stomach, and farther down, where she was already so slick and ready for him that his eyes almost crossed.
“There’s no goal, Anna,” Jake said, running his fingers over her tightly clenched, highly sensitized skin. He dipped one finger into all of that wet heat and she shuddered beneath him. He grinned, feeling a wave of fierce need, pride, and desire crash over him. “Well, maybe there’s one goal.” He moved down her sumptuous body and Anna gasped as he moved both hands beneath her ass, tilting her up to him.
“I don’t think … I don’t want—”
“No?” Jake spread her thighs even wider. “I think you’re a liar, Anna Richardson.” He drew his tongue over the inside of her thigh, swirling closer but never close enough, and he felt the quiver of reaction that he was sure she was trying to resist. “You want me to stop?” When Anna didn’t answer right away he looked up. She had thrown her head back against the pillows, her hands tangled in his makeshift restraints, her mouth open and her eyes squeezed shut. She was either enjoying the hell out of this or scared out of her mind, and he wasn’t entirely sure which. “Anna?”
“I don’t … I don’t want you to stop. I … I’ll … ahhhh.” Her words ended on a tangled sigh as Jake returned to what he was doing, pleasure rocketing through him. Clearly, Anna was landing on the side of enjoying the hell out of it. That suited him just fine.
Anna twisted her head back, wondering if it was possible to spontaneously die before reaching orgasm. She didn’t have time … couldn’t possibly … she was too stressed—
And then Jake’s tongue found the most intimate, sensitive part of her, and a second later, he blew on it. The sudden whisper of air almost pulled her off the bed, and his deep, masculine chuckle wound her even tighter. “God, I will never get tired of doing this to you,” he said. “But you’ve just given me an idea.”
He rolled his fingers over her, drawing her tight as a bowstring, and just like that he was gone—not far, just enough to shift his focus off of where she really, desperately needed him to be. Before she could protest, though, he was back—no longer with his mouth or his fingers, but with his shaft, pressing over her with a texture just different enough that she knew he’d managed to get a condom on. She’d never believed anyone could put on a condom so fast, but Jake was apparently a man of rich and varied skills.
Fleetingly, she wondered exactly how she would ever look at another man—
“Oh, no you don’t.” With no more than that as a warning, Jake pushed himself inside her in one searing thrust, and Anna’s hips tilted in sudden, explosive reaction, her thighs widening to take more of him in. She felt her right leg restraint give way, but the mere feel of the cuff around her ankle was enough—more than enough—and she opened her eyes to stare at Jake. His look was one of fierce intensity. He slowly brought his hand to his mouth and licked his fingers, then returned them to where her body was tilted up and into him. The pressure of his wet fingers against her clit while he pulsed inside her made her want to move, to break away, to do something—but she couldn’t. The belts at her wrists held fast, and Jake’s laugh was low and seductive.
“You think too much, Anna,” he said, and his words were full of silky promise. “I can tell every time you do it. You think too much and when you think too much, you’re not doing what you promised me you would. Which was to relax and feel.”
“I—I’m relaxed,” Anna said, as meaningfully as she could with his fingers moving, moving on her. “Stop touching me,” she gasped. “I can’t focus on you—”
“Focus on what feels good,” Jake commanded, and Anna felt a shudder rip through her again, but this time not spreading from his hands or her core, but from the general region of her heart. Which was ridiculous. He was in the middle of sex, not a declaration of—
“Ah, ah, ah,” Jake said. His fingers moved faster, and Anna shuddered, her brain going blank for a second, only to be replaced with the sudden, winding, inexorable climb to her own climax. Jake seemed to know it, too, because his own rhythm increased, his shaft thick and tight within her, sliding in and out, adding to the pressure of his fingers as they focused now unwaveringly on the most sensitive bundle of nerves in her body. Anna arched and moaned and babbled something, a lot of things, things that didn’t even make sense to her own ears, but apparently they were the right things, because Jake didn’t stop, didn’t falter, and if anything his own breath grew tight and intense and his curses more colorful until finally Anna was teetering on the edge for a single, glorious moment, and then she crashed over in a climax hard enough to pull the ropes up and nearly out of their moorings as she lurched forward.
At that moment, Jake uttered a sharp, guttural cry and joined her in a climax that matched hers beat for beat, pulse for pulse, until they both sagged back onto the bed and just gasped for a few moments, Jake’s body heavy and perfect on hers, covering her as she absorbed his weight and felt soft and cherished beneath him.
Well, soft and cherished and still tied up.
“Jake …,” Anna said, twisting over to look at the long-suffering belt he’d used to tie her to something. She gave a tug and it held, but by this point her fingers were rapidly losing sensation. How had she not noticed that before? “Jake, I can’t feel my fingers.”
“Oh, Christ, sorry. Hold on.” Jake rolled off the bed and ducked into the bathroom, returning less than ten seconds later to unleash her right hand from the bed. Her left proved harder, as he had tied that knot with the actual intention of holding her in place, and by the time he got her free she had a scarlet ring of inflamed skin circling her wrist. She flapped her hand around, restoring the circulation, as he looked at her in dismay.
“Anna, you should have told me that was hurting you,” he said, his face a little white around his mouth. “I had no idea.”
She grinned at him. “Neither did I until it was already happening—and it was only at the end, Jake, I promise. I would have screamed bloody murder if I’d needed you to stop.”
His smile told her she’d done plenty of screaming as it was. Then he glanced over at the clock. “Twenty of,” he said. “I guess we better get you back to the real world.”
Chapter 24
“Thank you, everyone, for joining us, especially my American team members who were able to make the call.” Anna didn’t miss the smug superiority in Todd’s tone. She imagined him in whatever high-rise apartment he’d gotten when he’d come back to Boston, something gorgeous and far too expensive, but which fit the life he had determined was his to lead. And it would be his to lead eventually, she was sure. His work ethic was already legendary at Morris-Winston International, and that was saying something. It’s part of what had drawn her to him in the first place. Todd was going places, and he’d wanted to take Anna with him—needed her with him, maybe. After all, as he’d told her more times than she could count, she was the perfect number two.
Their breakup hit her harder than she would have thought possible, given all her precautions. She’d been so careful all through high school, and especially through college. No guy would ever get into her heart, like her dad had her mom’s. No guy would have the power to destroy her so completely. But with Todd, she’d thought it would be different. She’d made it—she had the job, she had the salary. Mom was not only secure with husband number two, both of them and Anna’s new little sister would be sec
ure because Anna had woven her own safety net for them, lined with her own savings. So when Todd had shown up, it had seemed … exactly perfect. He was every bit as driven as she was, more even. He’d keep her on track. He’d keep her focused.
Then Todd had gotten reassigned to the West Coast, probably long-term, and everything had fallen apart. He’d wanted his freedom, he said, if he was going to be so far away. A long-distance relationship would only be a distraction. She knew the truth, though. It wasn’t the relationship he didn’t want, it was her. She’d opened up just enough to feel the burn of his rejection, and even the remembered pain caught her up short.
She’d played the game, though. Agreed that long distance was just too hard. Agreed that she couldn’t leave her responsibilities to follow him. That wasn’t going to happen, in any case. She loved the East Coast, and her mom was just down in Baltimore. Her family was her priority, not Todd. He’d proven not to be worth that.
Now she smiled, her thoughts turning away from Todd and back to her mom, little Sarah, even her Mom’s husband Rick—a nice guy, a good guy. Someone her mom seemed to really care for. It’d be good to see all of them at the end of this week, a long-overdue visit that she had put out of her mind because of all the angst surrounding Kristen’s wedding. Now, however, the wedding was over and they’d be coming up. She liked her stepfather, and the baby he’d brought into her mother’s life had been a blessing for everyone concerned. Anna hadn’t had time to really talk with her mom in months, it seemed, but that was the downside of working all the time. Still, her mom was safe and happy, and Anna desperately wanted her to stay that way.
If she didn’t, however, Anna would be there with the money she was making now, the money she still carefully put away month after month, almost a compulsion, an ache that would never fully be soothed. No one in her family would ever wonder if she’d have a roof over her head the next night. No one would ever be caught by surprise, or be told that it was just a bad time.
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