Between the Lines

by Lauren Hawkeye

  “Do you expect me to do what you tell me to?” Her voice was tentative. “Are you dominant? Are you into that?”

  She didn’t sound horrified, only curious, which raised his temperature far past the point of comfort. Shrugging out of his now soaking-wet dress shirt, he tossed it to the floor, his slacks and briefs quickly joining it.

  Her stare immediately went to his erection, and even over the thunderous spray of the shower he could hear her soft moan. He’d been hard since they stepped into his bedroom, but with her eyes on his cock, he swelled even more.

  “I’m not into hard-core BDSM, if that’s what you’re asking. I don’t expect you to call me sir.” He grinned down at her; she snorted in response. He grabbed her wrist, tugged her wet, naked body against his own and gave in to the urge to lick those water droplets from her neck.

  “I’d rather hear you say my name when you’re coming on my dick,” he murmured into her ear, nipping at the lobe when she shuddered. “And like I said. I’m not dominant, but if you let me be bossy, I think you’ll find that you enjoy it.”

  “I’m...not...the...submissive...type.” She gasped, rocking into him when he trailed kisses down her neck. He laughed.

  “I don’t want you to be submissive. I like women who give me hell.” Trailing a hand down her spine, he pressed her to him, groaned himself when his erection pressed into the lean planes of her belly.

  “That’s always been a special talent of mine,” she gasped as he ground into her. He was surprised at how tentative she was when her hand slid lower and found him. She stroked his length, cupped his shaft as though she’d never seen a cock before.

  Her next words nearly brought him to his knees. “I’m always happy to give you hell. But... I don’t think I’d mind if you...told me what to do. I think I’d like to try.”

  “Hell, Jo.” Both of his hands found her hair, smoothing through the wet ribbons of it and dragging her mouth to his. He claimed her lips, tonguing her until she was rocking against him with breathy little sighs. “If you don’t like what I’m doing, you just say so in plain English. Or shake your head. Whatever. I’ll stop.”

  She nodded breathlessly, then raised her chin defiantly. “You’re talking an awful lot. Got any action to back it up with?”

  With a growl that was part laughter, part pure animal lust, he cupped his hands under her ass and lifted her, carrying her to a small seat carved out of the marble wall. Placing her on it, he reached for his discarded pants, pulling his belt free from the loops.

  His leather belt, his suit, they were all ruined after today. He didn’t give even a single fuck. It was all going to be worth it.

  Jo’s eyes widened at the sight of the belt. “You’re not hitting me with that thing.”

  Theo snorted, though he couldn’t resist slapping it against his palm, just to test her reaction. “Not this time, baby. But something tells me you might like a little spanking.”

  “You’re not—” Her words were stuck in her throat when he grabbed her hands, pressing her palms together. She watched with wide eyes as he wrapped his belt around them, securing her wrists together before sliding a finger underneath to make sure the belt wasn’t too tight.

  Part of him, the one that was very familiar with her temper, expected her to tell him to fuck right off if he thought he was going to tie her up. But this Jo was older, more mature and had a self-professed interest in all things kinky. This Jo made a low, breathy sound when he lifted her bound wrists and hooked them over one of the showerheads, tethering her in place.

  “Oh, I like this.” Stepping back, he admired his handiwork. Seated on the small bench, the position of her arms forced her to arch her back, which showed off those pretty tits. Man, he’d missed those. Cupping one in each hand, he circled his thumbs over her nipples, satisfaction coursing through him when they pebbled beneath his touch. “I can do whatever I want with you all trussed up like this, can’t I? You can give me lip, but you can’t do much about it.”

  He was testing her. If she gave him even one sign that she wasn’t into it, that she was scared, he’d let her go in an instant. Instead, her body rocked forward, trying to get closer to him.

  “For heaven’s sake, Theo, stop messing around. Come here.” Her voice was raw with need.

  Letting go of one breast, he tapped a finger against her lips. “You’re not the boss here, remember? You’ll get my cock when I say so, and not a minute before.”

  She cursed, and he laughed. Sliding his hands down, he parted her thighs wide enough for him to stand between them. She gasped eagerly when the head of his shaft brushed the soft heat of her cleft, but he had other ideas.

  “I wish I had another belt in here to hold you open just like this, but since I don’t, we’ll just have to make do.” He slid a finger through her folds, her knees tightening on either side of his hips against the sudden contact.

  “You’re soaked.” He lifted his fingers up so she could see her own moisture on them, wetter even than the water pouring down around them. When he slid those same fingers into his mouth and licked them clean, her head fell back, watching him through partially lowered lids.

  “You’re the only person who’s ever made me that way.” Her focus stayed locked on him, and he understood that she was sharing something important with him. The weight of her words hit him with the impact of a bulldozer.

  He didn’t deserve this, not after the way he’d left. But then, he’d never claimed to be a good man. He certainly wasn’t above taking what she was offering to him.

  He thought he just might die if he didn’t.

  “Are you warming up?” He ran a hand along her inner thigh. She melted beneath his touch, her muscles liquefying like honey in the sun. She continued to regard him with that laser-like focus, as though she was afraid he would disappear if she looked away.

  “Keep looking at me like that.” Moving his hands to brace them on either side of her face, he leaned in, let his cock press against her slick heat. “It makes me so fucking hard.”

  “Good.” She gasped when he rubbed against her, her thighs clenching around his hips. “That’s how I want you.”

  “Mmm, but this isn’t about what you want. I’m bossy, remember?” Dipping his head, he laved his tongue over her nipple. “It’s about what I want to give you.”

  “Damn it, Theo.” She tugged at her bindings, cursing when they wouldn’t give. “I want to touch you.”

  “And I want to touch you.” Standing, he reached for the detachable showerhead mounted into the wall. “Guess what? I win.”

  So would she, though, and very soon. Adjusting the nozzle of the showerhead until the water flowed in a steady stream, but not one that would be too hard for her sensitive flesh, he aimed it between her legs. Her gasp when the water made contact sent a stream of pure desire through him.

  “Jesus.” She writhed on the bench, twisting against her restraints like a wild thing. Her hips bucked, and he wasn’t sure if she was trying to lean into the spray or push away. Steam rolled through the shower, and he couldn’t tell if the droplets of water on her skin were from the water falling around them or sweat, not even when he laid his tongue to her shoulder for a taste.

  “Theo. I can’t... I’m going to...” She arched like a bow as he began to move the spray in slow circles between her legs, edging around her clit but not coming in direct contact with it. Her frenzied motions brought her heat into contact with the swollen length of his dick, and he briefly closed his eyes to regain his control.

  When he opened them again, he was struck by the visual that was laid out before him. Slim as an arrow, she still curved in all the places that made his mouth go dry. Her milky-white skin was a pretty shade of pink from arousal and heat. Her nipples were cherry red and their tips bunched enticingly, begging for his mouth. Her eyes were still at half-mast, glassy with lust but fixed on the visual of his cock, the wa
ter and her parted thighs.

  “You surprised me,” he said as he ran a finger through her folds again, letting the water beat around the touch. She gasped, groaning when he pulled away again.

  “What do you mean?” She ground this out through gritted teeth. He could tell from the look on her face, the increasingly frenzied movements of her body, that the pleasure was rising high and fast inside her. He loved that he could bring her there so quickly.

  Grinning wickedly, he returned his hand to her pussy. This time he tucked two fingers inside, savoring the way she clenched around him as he slid through her liquid heat. “You’re completely bare. That’s new.”

  “I...like it...that...way.” He found that special place inside her, rubbed over her and watched the way her eyes blurred. “Jesus fuck, Theo. I can’t take it anymore.”

  “You will take it, because I say so.” He kept up the pressure inside her but moved the showerhead so that the spray was focused directly on her clit. She cried out, the sound echoing off the glass walls of the shower, her inner walls squeezing him so tightly it hurt.

  “Come for me, Jo.” He’d barely said the words when she screamed his name, her body clenching tight, her mouth open as she cried out. She rocked against him once, twice, then shuddered, every muscle melting like candle wax.

  His cock actually throbbed with the need to be inside her, to claim her as his. He wasn’t sure that he could keep her here once they were done, though—he thought she might go rabbiting back home to overthink what had just happened. With that in mind, he ground his teeth and called up every ounce of restraint that he possessed, not yet ready to stop playing with her.

  She murmured something as he reached up and unhooked her from the showerhead, then undid the belt around her wrists. She was pliant, letting him pull her to her feet, pressing his front to her back.

  She unconsciously rocked back against him, pressing her ass against his length. Grabbing his shaft at the base, he stroked it gently between her cheeks. She shuddered when it pressed against the tight rosette, and he grinned.

  “Dirty girl.” She murmured in agreement. When he rubbed the bar of soap over her breasts, she leaned her head back on his shoulder trustingly, and he stilled for a moment.

  She might still be scarred from what he’d done, but some primal part of her, something that they’d just tapped into through their bodies, still trusted him. He would hold on to that and pray that the rest of her followed suit.

  When her skin was coated with a creamy lather, he set the soap down and squirted shampoo into his hands. The crisp scent of citrus permeated the steam as he rubbed it into her hair, massaging her scalp, her neck and her shoulders.

  Once he’d rinsed her clean, he watched as the sleepiness disappeared from her limbs. Turning in his arms, she cast a very obvious glance down at his red, swollen length. “I think someone is feeling deprived. I’d better take care of him.”

  She panted out a breath when he yanked her against his chest, hands splaying over her back so that she couldn’t move away. Those watchful gray eyes focused in on him like lasers, questioning, and he slowly rubbed his erection back and forth across her soft flesh.

  “You don’t listen very well, baby.” His cock slid between her thighs, and they clenched around its length, making him exhale sharply. “You don’t get to make the rules.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  SHE WAS GOING to have sex with Theo again. Tonight. Soon. There was no question. After so long with numbness as her constant companion, she was overwhelmed with feeling—like steam building up in a pressure cooker, she needed to let some out before she exploded.

  The orgasm that had just exploded through her body hadn’t relieved the pressure, not at all. As Theo rubbed his cock against the tender skin of her inner thighs, she wondered if she was going to survive this intact, or if her entire body would self-combust the second he slid inside her.

  “Put your arms around me.” She did as he commanded, her heart melting a little as he scooped her up in his arms, fireman-style. He snagged a towel the size of a lake as he carried her from the shower to the foot of the bed. When he wrapped her in it, the hem of the plush fabric fell almost to the floor. Content for the moment, she watched as he crossed to the massive fireplace, picked up a remote and set a blazing fire to life with the press of a button.

  “That’s quite the toy,” she commented when he returned to her, rubbing the towel over her hair and then lower. She closed her eyes against the sensation when he scrubbed the fabric over her sensitive nipples and then between her legs, the nubby fabric a tease.

  “I like toys.” He didn’t bother to dry himself off, instead tossing the towel to the ground. She felt his gaze everywhere he looked at her just as much as if he was stroking her with his hands.

  What was it going to be like, this time? In the first few years after he’d left, she had a few fumbling encounters, but she always stopped it short of penetration, because why would she go there if it did nothing for her? But now, all she could think about was the one time he’d been inside her, how it had been when he’d slid his arousal right into her very core.

  “Please.” She didn’t want to wait even a minute longer. However stupid it was, it felt like all this time she’d been waiting for him to come back—him, the only person who could make her feel good. Her entire body was restless, riding an edge of need that was almost painful in its intensity.

  “Please what, Jo?” Her gaze snapped to his when she heard the need in his voice, equal to her own. How was this happening? How were they here together again? “I need to hear you say it.”

  Need, not want. That little distinction did something funny to her insides. She reached for him without meaning to, wrapping her arms around his waist, pressing her cheek to his heart.

  “I want you,” she whispered, listening to the thunder of his pulse, knowing that hers matched. “I want all of you.”

  “How do you want it?” His hands roamed over her back, tracing the lines of her shoulder blades, the curve of her spine.

  She thought of all the filthy things she’d written about, the pictures she’d seen as she researched.

  He was giving her a chance to ask for what she wanted. To explore.

  Swallowing past the hard, sudden lump in her throat, she gently disentangled herself from his arms. Trying not to feel self-conscious about the fact that every inch of her naked body was on display, she knelt at the edge of the bed, angling herself away from him.

  “I want it like this.” She was sure that her skin was on fire, but her voice was sure. “And I don’t want you to be gentle.”

  The sound he made was nearly inhuman, and she felt herself grow impossibly slicker. “You can’t be real. I’m imagining this.”

  “Not this time.” Not sure what to do, she leaned forward until her hands rested on the bed, so that she was on all fours. She knew he had a full view of every intimate part of her, and knew damn well that he was looking, but knowing that sent a little thrill through her. Made her feel powerful.

  “You asked for it, baby.” She heard the rip of foil. Her pulse stuttered, then began to beat again, double time, as she closed her eyes and imagined him rolling the tube of latex over his cock. She nearly looked back over her shoulder, just for the visual of those sure fingers on his own erection.

  Next time, she promised herself. This time she didn’t want to think, because then the little voice in her head would nag, reminding her of the heartbreak she was opening herself up to here. No, she just wanted to be taken, to have all thoughts shoved from her mind so that the only thing in her existence was Theo and what he was doing to her body.

  “What is that?” Something soft danced over the skin of her lower back, and she gasped.

  He didn’t answer, but a moment later something was placed over her eyes. He smoothed her hair back, then secured what she now knew to be the silk scarf at the b
ack of her head.

  “I don’t want that busy brain of yours thinking of anything but what I’m doing to you. Understood?” She nodded, her throat suddenly so dry that she couldn’t have spoken to save her life.

  She didn’t have to speak. Like he said, all she had to do was feel. And that’s exactly what she did when he pressed the head of his cock to her aching entrance, alighting nerves that hadn’t been touched in a very, very long time.

  She inhaled sharply when he pushed forward. Or rather, when he tried to. Her body was as tight as it had been when she was a virgin, and it wasn’t sure what to do with this intrusion, no matter how good it felt.

  “How are you still so tight?” His hands gripped her hips as he stilled, only the head of his cock tucked inside her. “Am I hurting you?”

  “Not hurting.” Dropping down to her forearms, she tilted her hips, changing the angle. He slid in another inch, and she gasped at the friction. “I just—I haven’t—”

  “Jesus, Jo.” He stopped again, and she felt the tension in the hands that gripped her hips. “Tell me you’ve been with someone else.”

  There was no shaming in his words, but she felt it all the same. “I didn’t—I’ve never wanted to.” And she hadn’t. Something was just different with her body, her brain.

  If she didn’t love the person, she wasn’t interested in sex.

  Oh shit.

  She was still in love with Theo. In love again.

  This was going to hurt.

  “Baby.” His voice was full of wonder. “You’re a gift.”

  Then he reached forward, sliding his hand between her legs. Sure fingers found her clit, circling and teasing, and as she melted into the pleasure of his touch, he worked in another inch.

  “That’s it,” he coaxed, circling her swollen nub again and again until she felt that strange tension low in her belly, that aching need for more. “Just relax. We’ve got all the time in the world.”