by Foster, Lori
“What game are you playing, Tess?” he asked.
“You’ll see.” She flung open the closet and saw what she had hoped to see. Silk ties. Not a lot of them, but enough for her purposes. She pulled a handful off their rack.
His eyes narrowed in deep suspicion. “What’s this?”
“Lie down, Jonah,” she said coolly. “You’ve been very bad, luring me up here. Lying to me, seducing me, breaking our bargain.”
“You drove me to it,” he protested.
“No excuses,” her voice snapped out. “You have to be punished.”
He looked like he was trying not to smile. “You really . . . ?”
“Oh, yes. Really. Lie down. Now.”
He sat down slowly on the bed, his eyes fixed on hers. “I really, really hope I won’t regret this,” he said.
“Arms up, please.”
He presented his arms, and she tied them to the posts of the old-fashioned bed. She knelt with her backside to him, and tied his feet.
“I don’t know quite how I feel about this,” he muttered.
“You will in a minute or two,” she informed him.
“You’re so unpredictable,” he said. “Not like I expected.”
“Expected?” Her voice was falsely sweet as she swung her leg over him and straddled his belly. “So you planned this all along, hmm?”
He scowled. “I didn’t plan. I hoped. Are you going to punish me for that, too?”
She dragged her fingernails over his chest. “I’ll punish you for whatever I feel like punishing you for. We’ll see what comes to me.”
He drew in a sharp breath, his eyes guarded. “You’re in a dangerous mood,” he murmured.
She reached for a condom, tossing it onto the rumpled coverlet. Then she scooted down the length of his body and began to play.
She fondled his balls, and traced the veins that throbbed on the surface of his penis lightly with her fingertip. It lay against his belly, stiff and hard and twitching with every ragged breath he took. He hissed at her teasing, tickling touch.
“Tess,” he growled. “Are you going to—”
“Shhh,” she murmured. “Suffer in silence . . .” she leaned over, brushing his lips with her fingertip, “. . . or I’ll gag you.”
His face tightened. “Hey. Wait a minute. You really are mad at me, aren’t you? This is no game. I can feel it. You’re messing with my mind.”
She didn’t answer, just straddled his chest and shimmied down until her labia pressed against his stiff shaft, and began to slowly, deliberately slide her wet cleft up and down the length of him. She pleasured herself with the contact with his heat and power. Smiling at him, pitiless, as the realization of his plight grew in his eyes.
He struggled to nudge inside her, but she just rose up onto her knees, evading him easily. She reached down, holding his penis right where she wanted it. Rubbing against him. Hot, slick, slow torture.
He flung his head back, the tendons standing out on his neck. “Damn it. What did I do to piss you off this time? I thought we were a million miles past all that tedious crap this afternoon.”
She smiled at him through her eyelashes and scooted lower. Licked his belly. Breathed softly against the thick, gleaming head of his penis, and then dropped the very lightest of maddening butterfly kisses on the tip. “You didn’t think it was so tedious last night,” she told him. “You liked it just fine, playing me like an instrument. Keeping all the control. Not risking anything.”
He flailed beneath her, almost bucking her off. “What the hell do you know what I risked?” he snarled.
“Less than me,” she said. “Way, way less than me.”
He jerked as far up as his bonds would allow. “That’s not fair. It’s not true, either. And you are seriously pissing me off.”
She gripped his penis, milking him as roughly as she dared. He arched beneath her again, lifting her right up off the bed. “That’s the spirit,” she taunted him. “Go ahead, Jonah. Be pissed off. You did this to me deliberately last night. Try a taste of your own medicine. See how it feels to be spread out and naked and helpless while somebody has her way with you.”
She scrambled down over his tense, rigid body and bent low, flicking her tongue across the head of his penis and licking up the gleaming drop that had formed there. Just one teasing swipe of her tongue was all she offered him, then she drew back and gave him only the warmth of her breath, the slow drag of her hair as she brushed the heavy mass back and forth over his penis, his balls.
She straddled his chest again and gazed down with a secret little smile. She lifted up onto her knees, face flushed, showing him how wet, how soft and excited she was. Deliberately stoking the volcanic energy that was building up between them.
She undulated, parting the folds of her sex so that her clitoris poked out from the top of her cleft, flushed and crimson. She laid two fingers on either side of it and began to move them slowly up and down.
His eyes were locked onto her stroking hand. He panted, his face as flushed and damp as her own. “You’re trying to drive me insane, aren’t you?” he said. “You manipulative bitch.”
She ignored him, caught up in her own pleasure. She caressed the undersides of her breasts, trailed her fingertips around stiff, taut nipples. She pulsed her hips against her hand, dragging in harsh little gasps of air. “Watch me come, Jonah,” she whispered.
It was his eyes upon her, dilated with anger and desire, as much as her own hand, that catapulted her into climax. It was long and violent, different than the others. A wrenching blast of red and pounding black. She jerked back, mouth open in a soundless scream.
She opened her eyes, gasping for air. The fury on his face made her go very still. She had teased him mercilessly, given him no outlet at all. His stiff, empurpled shaft jerked with unfulfilled excitement. Long, glistening strands of fluid from the tip gleamed against his belly.
It occurred to her that she had to untie him sometime.
She didn’t dare do so if he had that look on his face. She fell forward, catching herself against his damp chest, and searched the rumpled bed for the condom. She ripped it open with trembling fingers and smoothed it over his rigid penis and poised herself over him.
“Beg me, Jonah,” she said. “I want to hear you plead.”
His breath hissed through his teeth, his neck and arms corded with strain. “Stop fucking around, Tess. Do it. Now. Or else.”
She guided the tip of his penis into her swollen wetness. Sinking lower with a gasp at the blunt size of him. She lifted up again, leaving just the tip of him kissing her opening. “Beg,” she insisted.
“What the fuck do you want from me?” he exploded.
“Everything,” she said rashly. “Everything you’ve got.”
His face changed, as if she had flipped a switch. “Done,” he said.
He wrenched at the ties, and yanked the knots loose with a few quick, violent jerks. He surged up off the bed, holding her against himself as he freed his ankles. He’d been able to free himself all along.
He had chosen not to. Now that restraint was swept away.
He flung her onto her back with a speed that left her breathless and disoriented. He shoved her thighs apart, and prodded roughly until he was lodged inside her, not bothering to remove the silk ties still clinging to his wrists. He shot them a quick, contemptuous glance.
“Girl knots,” he said succinctly.
“I’m going to learn to tie knots you can’t pull out of,” she snapped.
He let out a harsh laugh. “You’re not going to learn it from me.”
He thrust himself deeply inside her and held her immobile. His face was rigid, mouth sealed, as if he didn’t trust himself to speak.
She gathered her tattered bravado. “Don’t be so huffy. You had all that coming. But go ahead. Tie me up, if it makes you feel better.”
“I don’t have to tie you,” he said. “I can just hold you down.”
Her nerve ebbed away. “Jonah
, don’t—”
“You said everything. You wanted it all. You didn’t specify what that means, though, so I’ll interpret it however I want. Anything, everything, anyhow, anywhere, as much as I want. I’m going to take you for everything you’ve got. Does that turn you on?”
She shoved against his chest, chilled. “Hey. I never said—”
“Or are you going to chicken out? Again?” he taunted. “You keep pushing me, Tess. If you push me right over the top, I have to assume that’s right where you want me to be. Over the top. Out of control. Right? Go on, tell me that I’m right.”
She swallowed. “Within reason,” she whispered.
He laughed. “There is no reason out there in no-man’s land. You push me farther away from reason with every breath you take.”
She glared at him. “Stop trying to scare me.”
“I’m not. I’m being absolutely straight with you. It’s you who’s fucking with my head. You betrayed my trust.”
“Oh, please. Don’t be silly and melodramatic,” she snapped. “I didn’t do anything to you that you didn’t do to me last night.”
“Bullshit. I might have teased you, but I was never cold,” he said furiously. “Why were you cold to me, after what we shared this afternoon? What did I do to deserve that? Why, Tess?”
She winced away from the fury in his voice. A long moment ticked by. “I don’t know,” she said in a tiny voice.
He was silent, waiting for more, but she could think of nothing more to say that might satisfy him. She finally dared to look up.
The anger on his face was mixed with pain and baffled hurt.
“So figure it out, Tess,” he said quietly.
He hid his face against her neck. When he lifted his head, it was a stark mask of pain. “If you don’t want me, I won’t force you,” he said. “But decide, real quick. Because I’m right on the edge.”
The rough, trembling honesty in his voice went straight to her heart, and her heart took over in an instant. Needing him, wanting him. All of him: his strength, his his confusion, his anger. His unknown past, his untold secrets, whatever they were. Hers, damn it. All hers.
She wrapped herself around him. Squeezed him. “No,” she whispered. “Don’t leave me.”
His breath escaped in a sob of relief. “Then stop playing games with me. I can’t take it. Deal with me straight.”
“That goes for you, too,” she said.
They gave each other one last searching look. He nodded. “Deal.”
He gathered her close and breathlessly tight into his arms, nudging and arranging her until her her legs were twined around his. The look in his eyes made her want to cry. He kissed her, with heartbreaking intensity as his body surged into hers, and she accepted him.
All her tricks and games and efforts to protect herself seemed so vain and foolish now. Her heart was laid bare. There was no hiding from the fierce attention in his penetrating eyes. No denying the power he wielded over her. His very existence excited and moved her. His beautiful body, his strength, his restless intelligence, his sensitivity.
And his passion was like a key to a lock, opening up a whole new secret world inside her. A tidal wave began to gather, building higher and higher. They cried out together as it broke. It swept her under, and she felt him following her. Joined with her.
Reality crept back slowly. They were glued together by sweat, hearts pounding. He had gotten what he wanted. There was no going back. Too late now to put up walls or close doors. She’d taken her chances coming up here. She’d rolled her dice.
And she’d lost everything to him.
She dissolved into silent tears, her face against his chest.
He clutched her, alarmed. “God. What is it now? Did I hurt you?”
“Just shut up and just hold me,” she snapped.
His arms tightened fiercely. “OK,” he said. “That I can do.”
Chapter Eight
A small eternity later she calmed down, and Jonah disentangled himself. He went out on the deck, tossed the plastic cover off the hot tub, and checked the water. Nice and hot against the evening chill. He flipped on the deck light to its lowest setting, a dim golden glow no more obtrusive than candlelight, and went back inside.
Tess was a lump under the covers and two shadowy eyes that regarded him solemnly.
“You OK?” How embarrassing that he should have to bleat out his insecurity by asking her that question, over and over.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t even know myself around you. All my demons wake up and go nuts.”
“Oh.” He could think of nothing comforting or cheerful to say to that. It didn’t sound very goddamn promising. “Uh, sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” she told him.
“I guess that’s a relief.” He twitched the comforter off her and tugged on her hand. “Come try out my hot tub.”
She sat up. “Oh, please. Is this another one of your tricks? Next you’re going to show me your etchings.”
He pulled her up off the bed. “Actually, no. To be honest, I’m kind of freaked out myself. I want to just sit in hot water and mellow out for a while.”
Tendrils of steam rose up, illuminated by the underwater lights. They sank slowly down into the hot water, and silence spread out between them, becoming more vast and heavy with each passing minute. He took a deep breath, and forced himself to break it.
“It was perfect between us. Why are you so upset?”
She twisted her hair up into a knot, her eyes downcast. “Perfection is impossible,” she said quietly. “No one knows that better than me. I want to hang on, but I know that I can’t.”
Vague, restless anger churned in his gut. “Why not?”
She looked away. “Because I can’t. Things end. It’s the nature of life.”
Her bleak word foretold doom for this fragile, beautiful thing budding between them. She was jinxing it. It made him feel panicked.
“It doesn’t have to end,” he said. “I certainly don’t want it to.”
Her gaze snapped up to him. “Don’t you dare dangle that in front of me, like all the other bait,” she said, her eyes blazing with unexpected anger. “The foot rub, the chocolate soufflé, the queen of the universe. I won’t bite this time. I may be stupid, but I’m not that stupid.”
“Do not ever let me hear you call yourself stupid again,” he said.
She sat up, her nipples just clearing the waterline. “Do not scold me,” she said, enunciating very clearly.
They stared at each other, at a blind impasse. He’d never felt so baffled, so helpless. “What’s happening, Tess?” he asked. “Tell me what I’m doing wrong. Tell me what you want from me.”
Her eyes squeezed shut. “I don’t know,” she whispered.
He stared at her beautiful, averted face, praying to find the right formula not to fuck this up. He was starting to need her. Her sweetness, her sharpness, her beauty. She made him feel so alive. And the more he wanted her, the more she seemed determined to slip away.
“Well, I know exactly what I want from you,” he said rashly. “I already know what I want to cook for you, what I want to show you, how I want to touch you. I want to help you open your studio, too. I’ll do a business plan for you—”
“Jonah—”
“Let me finish. I can give you double the money I was planning to give you this weekend right away. If that’s not enough, then I can—”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” She jerked back, horrified. “I can’t take money from you! What would that make me?”
“Get real. You turned down paying work to come up here. I was the one who seduced you and turned everything upside down. You’re entitled to that money. Call it a start-up loan if you insist, but—”
“Jonah. Not one more word.”
The coldness of her voice stopped him. Shit. He’d bombed again.
“I can do this on my own,” she said. “I don’t need anybody to rescue me. I am not a child. Or an idiot.”
He pushed his hair back off his forehead with a silent groan. Everything he said came out wrong, everything he did flew back in his face. It was like a bad dream. “I never meant to imply otherwise,” he said stiffly. “Please don’t be offended.”
She hunched down in the tub, her arms wrapped across her chest. She looked so lost that his heart thudded painfully. He would offer her anything to make her smile again, anything. He stretched out his arms. “Please, Tess. Come here.”
She drifted toward him, her chin lifted. He ached to soothe the proud hurt in her eyes. “Come home with me tomorrow,” he urged. “Move into my apartment. I’ve got plenty of space. I want you in my bed. You can even have your own bathroom, if you want. I’ve got two.”
Her eyes went wide and startled. “Wow. That’s bold.”
“Bold. Yeah. That’s me,” he said. “Will you? Pretty please?”
She opened and closed her mouth. “But I . . . my roommate will be expecting . . . and I’ll need my clothes—”
“To hell with your clothes,” he broke in. “I’m going to buy you a new wardrobe, anyhow. Enough of those ugly burlap dresses you wear, particularly if you’re opening a business. You need stuff that—”
She sprang to her feet. Water sloshed into his mouth, blocking off the rest of his phrase, “shows off how sexy and beautiful you are.”
She clambered out of the tub. “No way.” Her voice shook with anger. “I dress the way I dress, Jonah Markham. I am what I am, and to hell with you if it’s not good enough.”
Oh, hell. He should have remembered. The clothes were a hot button, and he’d stomped all over it. He reached for her, but she wrenched her wet arm away from him with such desperate violence that he shrank back. “Tess, I’m sorry. I—”
“I mean it, Jonah. Don’t touch me.”
He stared at her trembling back. “I can’t believe this. Dealing with you is like walking through a fucking minefield. I can see what your ex’s problem with you was, if you were always this hysterical and unreasonable. I guess I’ve got some goddamn high standards of my own.”
His shot met its mark, but the devastated look she shot back over her shoulder gave him no satisfaction at all.
