by Jess Dee
“I’ve loved you way too long not to notice how you respond to me. Wanted you too damn much not to be aware of the subtle changes to your body when I’m around. It happened before, and it’s happening now.
He swallowed hard, just thinking about those changes. “I love the way your skin flushes, pink tingeing your cheeks and your neck when you’re aroused. And the way your breasts tighten when I’m near you.” He smiled. Let himself enjoy the very sight of which he spoke, knowing she glared at him while he did. “You try to hide it. Rounding your back just a little so your shirt hangs loose from your shoulders. Turning away from me, wrapping your arms over your chest.” His cock ached. How the fuck could he be this aroused while tied to a chair?
“You can’t hide your reaction to me now, can you, Jenn? Not bound and helpless. I can see you want me. Can’t tear my gaze away.” He licked his lips wolfishly and was rewarded with an indignant squeak from her.
“Your shirt’s wet. It’s clinging in all the right places.”
The indignant squeak turned to a howl of dismay.
“Clinging to your nipples, showing me exactly how tight they are.” As he spoke, they poked harder at the cotton of her blouse, making his vision blur with lust.
“You’re an arrogant sod,” she snapped. “My shirt is wet and it’s wintertime. If my…breasts are tight, it’s because I’m cold and can’t put on a jumper.”
“You’re aroused because you want me as much as I want you,” Garreth corrected. “I know how you feel. I’m aroused too, and it has nothing to do with the weather. I get turned on every time I see you. Think about you.” Even as he spoke, the rope rubbed against his skin, torturing him. He wanted her hands on his chest, not these freaking binds.
“Christ, Jenn, I’m sitting here, wishing I could touch you. I’m ogling your breasts, wishing they were in my mouth. Wishing I could roll my tongue around them, suck your nipples between my lips and feast. Wishing I could make you come, with my mouth on your tits and nothing else.” He raised his gaze to hers, noted the shocked look in her eyes, and amended his confession. “Wishing I could make you come in every possible way known to mankind.”
It took her a good few seconds to react. Her eyes glazed over, and her lips parted as she puffed air in and out.
Knowing his words had affected her, and knowing they’d affected him just as much, if not more, made him gasp for air.
She blinked, clearing her gaze. “Why are you saying these things?”
Garreth went straight for the truth. “Because I want you, and you want me, and now the pact is broken there is nothing standing in the way of us being together.”
She raised a brow. “Nothing?”
“Not a single, damn thing.” Especially with Sam out of the picture. Rachel had shared that interesting detail with him in the mountains.
Once again Jenna pasted her sweet, soulless smile on her face. “Apart from the fact that you fucked my best friend, you mean?” She paused, looked down at her trussed body, sighed and corrected herself. “Ex-best friend.”
Garreth sucked in a deep breath. Not because of her attack, but because of her choice of words. Jenna never swore. Ever. It was all part of her self-discipline. Her carefully controlled manner. Swearing showed emotion, weakness, and Jenna wasn’t weak. Not anymore. Once she had been, and it had almost crushed her.
She’d accused him of fucking her best friend—not sleeping with Rachel. Which told Garreth two things. One, she hadn’t gotten over it—not that he’d believed for one moment she had, and two, her control was slipping.
Good. He wanted her control to slip. Wanted her wall down. Not so she’d be vulnerable, but so he could get in, tell her the truth about his actions last weekend once and for all, and bond with the part of Jenna she kept so well hidden.
Garreth chose his response carefully. “I fucked Rachel, but I love you.”
Her sweet smile turned into an empty laugh. “Ah, Garreth, what a charming way you have of expressing your love. No wonder women fall at your feet.”
“I’d have fucked you, if you’d ever given me the chance. I’d have fucked you every day for the last two years. I’d have done it so thoroughly and so well, you’d have begged for more.”
“Not very discerning, are you?” Jenna mocked. “Me, my friend. Would you like an introduction to my cousin? My clients perhaps?”
Had her reaction to his deed not already torn his heart out in the mountains, her words might have hurt more. But he’d had a week to brace himself. He was more than ready to tackle the issue head on. “Jealous, Jenn?” Please, be jealous!
“Why should I be? Because you can’t keep your pants on? Because you can’t see that fucking the best friend of the woman you love may be a little…selfish? Or that fucking the woman your housemate loves is even more…perverse? I’m not jealous, Garreth. I’m appalled.”
Appalled, maybe. Contained? Not so much. She was trying, he’d give her that. Giving it her best shot. But the fact she kept swearing told him she was losing control just a little more with every passing minute.
Time to push a little harder. “Appalled? Or angry?”
“I’m disgusted,” she hissed.
“You’re furious. Because no matter how immoral my actions might have been in your book, the bottom line is I fucked Rachel, not you.”
She glared at him. “You fucked the woman Jackson loves.”
He nodded. “I did. And that makes me the selfish prick. But have you seen your brother this last week? Have you seen Rachel? Have you seen what’s happened as a result of my sleeping with her? They’re together. They’re in love. And they are finally happy! Very, very happy.” He eyed her warily. “Can you say the same for yourself? Are you happy?”
Jenna pursed her lips. “They’re happy. I’ll concede that. But that doesn’t justify your actions.”
Ah, no surprise she’d avoided the question about her own happiness. If she answered honestly, she’d be giving him some insight into her deepest thoughts and feelings. “You rejected me, Jenna. What did you expect? That I’d remain faithful to you? That I’d let my life rot while you fucked another man?”
“I never asked you to be faithful. But I sure as hell never expected you to fuck my best friend.”
“Why not just acknowledge the truth? You wish it had been you, not Rachel.”
“I hate you.” Her eyes flashed.
“Correction. You hate that I never fucked you.”
“No. I hate you.”
“You hate that you begged me to make love to you in the mountains, and I didn’t.”
“I was wrong. I don’t just hate you, I fucking despise you.”
There it was again. The very word she never used. “You despise that when we finally had a chance to be together, I pulled the plug.” Didn’t she know that had nearly killed him? Jenna, naked in his arms was not something he could easily have passed over. But he’d had no choice. If he hadn’t stopped her, she would really have ended up hating him. And herself. And he’d never, ever have risked that outcome.
Even if it had left him with a serious case of blue balls for the past week.
“You, Garreth Halt. I despise you. I despise you more with every word you utter.”
“You love me, Jenn, and acknowledging it is driving you insane.”
“Knowing I stripped naked in your arms is driving me insane.”
Why? Because she’d exposed herself to him? Shown him her vulnerabilities? “You should have stripped naked in my arms long before Jackson broke the pact. I’d never have slept with Rachel then. I’d never have needed to.”
Her mouth tightened and her shoulders stiffened.
Damn it, she was engaging her defenses again.
Push her. Don’t let them back up. “Does it still chafe? Knowing I was with Rachel?”
“Fuck you, Halt.”
“Does it keep you up at night, wondering what I did to her? How I fucked her? How many times?”
“You make me sick.”
> He made himself sick. Taunting her didn’t come naturally. But her response was worth it. Jenna’s wall was crumbling, bit by bit. She wasn’t clinging to that façade of control. She was letting him see her very real anger. “Do you wish it was you? Lying in my bed? Lying beneath me? Opening your legs to my mouth? My cock? Crying out as I drive into you?”
Her gasp echoed through the room.
“It keeps me up at night,” he growled. “I lie awake, thinking about you. Imagining it was you, beneath me. Naked. Open to me. Inviting me in.” He shuddered. Need slammed through him. Every word he spoke was the truth. Thoughts of her kept him up at night. Awake and aroused. Kept him in a perpetual state of pain and need.
She gaped at him, her eyes wide, her cheeks stained a bright pink.
“Christ, Jenn, I dream about fucking you.” He shook his head. “Making love to you. Holding you beneath me, pushing inside you. Losing myself in your wet heat.” His chest heaved and his cock throbbed. “Awake or asleep I dream about it. Even now, sitting here, all I want is to spread your thighs and slide between them. Slide into your velvety pussy. Kiss your lips while I do, slip my tongue in your mouth. Feel your nipples against mine.”
She closed her mouth, opened it again. Closed it. Stared at him. Her chest heaved, as though she had trouble breathing.
“I wanna taste you, Jenn. Wanna sit at your feet, bury my face between your legs and lick your pussy. Lick every inch of it, from your swollen clit, down to your puffy lips. I want to open you up and feast on you. Drink every drop of cream you make for me.”
His gaze was fastened to her groin, and though he could see nothing but the skirt she had on, he had no trouble picturing her naked. He was a veritable expert at that.
Jenna shifted on her seat.
Garreth licked his lips, bit on the lower one, imaging it was her clit. Wishing it was her clit.
Jenna moved again, as though…rubbing her thighs together.
So, not as unaffected as she wanted him to believe. He purred silently. “Know what I want even more?”
Jenna didn’t answer. She simply stared at him with a frown, her chest heaving.
“I want you to come in my mouth. I wanna taste you as you orgasm around my tongue.”
Her eyes dilated, her pupils becoming huge black orbs.
Ah, definitely rubbing her thighs together. Which drove him crazy. Made him rip at his bonds, try and jerk his hands free. Didn’t help.
Still. Be calm. Seduce her.
Worry about touching her later.
He let the tip of his tongue play on his lips, watched her watch him. Heard the tiny groan that escaped before she’d realized it was out.
Oh, yeah, she was aroused. No question about it. Her arousal fed his, made him even hotter. Which was bloody impossible seeing as he was about to spontaneously combust.
“I’ll lick it up,” he promised. “Your cream. Savor every sweet drop.”
She shivered.
Precome leaked from his cock. He cursed the ropes, dug his fingers into the binds, searched blindly for the knot. And spoke. Didn’t stop speaking. Couldn’t. Not when she listened to every word. Whether she had a choice or not, she was hearing him. And whatever he said was having an effect. Jenna was losing control. One dirty word at a time.
“Just when you think there’s nothing left for me to lick, I’ll lift your ass in the air, wrap my hands around your butt cheeks, and open you up completely to my mouth.”
Got it!
He found the knot as Jenna’s gasp echoed through the room.
“I’ll taste you where no one’s tasted you before.” Jealousy rammed into him sideways. What if someone had tasted her there before? The very thought made him want to commit murder. “I’ll lick you until you cry out my name. Pleasure you until you can’t remember your own name. Make you come so hard, you’ll wonder why you ever refused me in the first place. Wonder how you ever will again.”
“Garreth…” Her voice was a breathless whisper.
It did his head in. Made him crazy. Jesus, he had to get these ropes off. Now. Had to hold her, touch her.
His fingers found the end of the knot, and tugged.
“You want it too, Jenn. I can see. You want it as much as I do. You always have.”
“I… I…”
“You love me. Like I love you.”
She shook her head, helplessly.
“Say it, Jenna. Tell me you love me.”
Stop tugging. You’re just making the knot tighter.
He took a deep breath. Forced his hands to work more gently. Pushed rather than pulled. “It’s easy to tell someone you love them. Listen, I’ll go first. I love you, Jenna Brooks. I have since the moment I met you. I love everything about you. I love how you stick to your beliefs and your scruples. I love how you put your friends and family first. I love how you love them. I love how you try and make sure everyone’s eating healthily. I love the way you tilt your head to the left when you’re thinking, or frown when you disagree with something I say. I love how you can’t walk past a dog without patting it and how you know the names of every bird in Australia. I love how hard you try and control your environment, how you’ve made it work for you. I love how determined you are to put your trauma aside, how you triumphed in spite of it. And I love how hard you’re trying to deny you love me.” He stopped, grimaced and shook his head. “Uh, actually no, I don’t love that part. I hate it. But it’s making me horny as the devil, knowing you love me, knowing you’re making me work to prove I love you. You’re making me chase you, and believe me Jenn, I love a good chase. Especially when the prize is you.”
He took a breath. Gazed at her. Lost the very breath he’d just taken.
She looked half parts utterly smitten and half parts utterly terrified.
But she remained silent. Stoic.
“I know you love me, and I know you’re aroused now, sweetheart. You’re like me. So fucking horny. So needy. You want my tongue in your pussy. And in your ass. You want me to fuck you. So hard and so thoroughly neither of us would walk for a week afterwards.”
His fingers began to cramp. His wrists ached. Jesus, this wasn’t natural. Prying a knot open, sight unseen, with his hands tied together. But then it also wasn’t natural sitting tied to a chair, with an erection the size of a lamppost, the love of his life sitting panting opposite him, also tied to a chair. Just not the same chair.
Christ, he had to hold her. Touch her. Kiss her. Lick her. Fuck her.
No, he just had to love her. Like he’d wanted to love her for the last twenty-four months.
“Tell me you want me, Jenn. Put me out of my misery. Tell me you love me like I love you. That you need to fuck me as I much as I need to fuck you.”
She stared at him, her eyes filled with panic—and lust.
Always fighting with herself. Always striving for control, denying her true feelings, her true needs.
“Tell me those juices I want to taste aren’t oozing onto your panties right now.” He had to stop and gasp for air because he wanted to taste her so badly.
She swallowed.
Garreth began to sweat. “Jenn,” he coaxed, “tell me you love me.” He poked the edge of the rope beneath a loop and pushed. To his amazement, the loop gave and he freed one knot.
She shook her head.
“Say it, Jenn.” He needed to hear the words. “Say ‘I love you, Garreth.’”
“I…” She broke off. Shook her head again.
He pushed the rope through another loop and almost fell off his chair in surprise. The whole damn thing unraveled from around his wrists.
He caught himself in time, schooling his features, not letting on for a second that he was free. “Tell me you love me, Jenna.”
Finally, finally, she spoke, and the words lodged in his heart like an arrow. “You fucked my best friend.”
He saw red. And for the first time ever, lost his cool with her. He lost it in a spectacular fashion. “Yes, I did.” He roared. “I fucked your
best friend. I met her, I seduced her, and I fucked her. I got her into my room, I got her naked, and I fucked her. And guess what? She fucked me too. We fucked each other.”
She stared at him, aghast.
“I knew who she was too. Knew she was the love of Jackson’s life. Knew she was your best friend. And guess what? It didn’t stop me. It encouraged me. I fucked her, and I let Jackson know I fucked her.”
“Bastard,” she spat at him.
“You know why I did it?”
“Because you’re a moral-less, son of a bitch who doesn’t care who gets hurt?”
Had her opinion of him always been this high? Garreth tried not to let the words sting, tried to remind himself this was the very reason he goaded her. So she’d lose control. Say things she wouldn’t usually say. Behave in ways she usually refused to let herself behave in. “Bong. Wrong. I did it for you. For you and for your fucking coward-assed brother.”
He tugged at the ropes around his waist, freeing those in mere seconds. Jackson tied knots like a pussy, he thought vaguely. Couldn’t even get the ropes to hold.
“Well, gee, give the man a hand,” Jenna cheered sarcastically. “What a hero. Fucking a woman for the sake of his best friend and the woman he loves. A real hero all right.”
“A real hero knows what he wants and goes after it. I want you, Jenna. I love you. You love me too. I was sick and tired of your excuses. Yours and Jackson’s. Using the pact as an excuse. Putting it before your own happiness. Someone had to make you see the pact had outlived its usefulness. It wasn’t protecting either of you. It was making you unhappy. It was making us all unhappy. You, me, Jackson and Rachel.”
“Ah, so you slept with Rachel to cheer her up? To cheer yourself up?”
“I slept with Rachel because someone had to open your eyes. Yours and your brother’s. Someone had to make you see clearly. I knew Jackson would be jealous as hell. Jealous enough to make him act, finally. Jealous enough to make him break the pact. Because if he didn’t break it, you never would. If he didn’t free you from it, I could never have you.”
Garreth was standing, marching towards her. He had no memory of even getting up, no memory of freeing himself from the rest of the ropes. He was too damn incensed.
