Beneath This Man (This Man Trilogy)

by Jodi Ellen Malpas

  He starts chewing that lip, watching me curiously. ‘I guess I am. Who would have thought?’ He shrugs and runs a wash cloth under the warm tap. ‘Show me that beautiful face.’ I look up at him and he gently wipes the damp cloth over my scowling expression.

  ‘But I thought we were going to make friends properly?’ I’m very slighted and it’s obvious in my tone.

  He pauses and the edge of his mouth lifts. ‘Are we not friends?’

  ‘No, we’re not.’

  ‘Oh?’ His brow furrows. ‘Would you snuggle with someone you’re not friends with?’

  I purse my lips and place my palms on his firm arse, pressing him up against me. ‘I might if my non-friend promises to make friends with me in the morning.’

  He laughs lightly. ‘Deal, let’s go snuggle.’ He lifts me from the vanity unit. ‘I love you in lace, but I love you more naked and all over me. Let’s take it off.’ He strides into the bedroom, puts me on my feet and reaches around to unclasp all of the hook and eyes that are running down the centre of my back, letting the bodice fall to the floor before drawing my knickers down my legs.

  He steps back and starts undressing himself as he nods towards the bed. I clamber in and settle down, my earlier tiredness returning as soon as my head hits the pillow. Jesse climbs in and lets me crawl onto his chest where I’m at my happiest. I feel his arms settle around my body and I’m drifting off, just like that.

  ‘Tomorrow, we get all of your things from Kate’s,’ He shifts, pulling me further onto his body. ‘On Monday, we tell Patrick, and I think you should be letting your parents know that I’m more than just a friend.’

  I mumble an inaudible acknowledgment of his words. Moving in officially doesn’t seem like such a concern now, but I’m mindful that Patrick and my parents might be a completely different scenario. Actually, Patrick I’m not so concerned about either, even with the Mikael situation, which I still haven’t worked out how to deal with. My parent’s opinion, though, has eclipsed everything. To the outside world, Jesse might seem like a controlling tyrant and he is to a certain extent, but he is also a whole heap of other things. I’m not sure my Mum and Dad will see past his obvious need to smother me and control me. They will see it as unhealthy, but is it unhealthy if you accept it? Not because you’re frightened or vulnerable, but because you love them immeasurably and the times when you want to scream with frustration, and maybe even strangle them, are trumped by the times like this. He’s challenging all right, and I fight him to a certain extent, but I’m not deluded enough to think that I’m the one wearing the trousers in this relationship. I know exactly why he is like this with me. I know he lives in fear of me being taken away from him, but I live with the same fear. And I’m not sure that Jesse’s fear is an unreasonable one – not with my developing knowledge of his history.

  Chapter 24

  ‘Good morning.’

  I open my eyes to an invasion of natural light, my hearing invaded by the erotic music I remember from the communal room. Jesse’s handsome face is floating above mine and he has his morning stubble. He looks delicious.

  I shift my arms in an attempt to grab hold of him, but they go nowhere.

  What the hell?

  His face breaks out into his dark, roguish grin, and I know immediately what he’s done. I lift my eyes and find my hands are cuffed to the headboard of the bed.

  ‘Were you planning on going somewhere?’ he asks.

  I return my eyes to his and find them hooded, his long lashes fanned. I should have anticipated this. ‘What are you going to do?’ My morning voice is husky for more reasons than one.

  ‘We’re going to make friends.’ he says on a half-smile. ‘You want to make friends, don’t you?’ His eyebrows rise expectantly.

  ‘Sleepy sex?’ I try feebly. There is absolutely no chance of me getting my way. I’m not stupid.

  ‘No, not sleepy sex. I haven’t thought of a name for this one yet.’ he says, reaching over to the bedside table and picking up my gold, satin gift bag from the anniversary dinner.

  I don’t remember bringing that home, but then again, I don’t remember bringing myself home either. Jesse did, and he obviously brought that bag with us too.

  He straddles his naked body over my hips and sits the bag on my stomach. ‘What have we got in here then?’ he muses as he puts his hand in.

  There is little point in asking me. I took one look at Kate’s face when she opened hers and decided there and then that I didn’t want to know. I shift my hands a bit to try and get myself comfortable. Well, as comfortable as I can be with my arms spread and secured to a headboard by handcuffs.

  Jesse pulls out a gold vibrator. ‘We don’t need that.’ He looks at it with disgust, before tossing it over his shoulder. I hear it land with a thump on the bedroom floor. ‘What else is there?’ he asks himself. He pulls a small box out and throws that over his shoulder too, with an even more disgusted look on his face. ‘We don’t need those either.’

  ‘What?’ I ask, but he completely ignores me and carries on rummaging through the bag.

  He pulls out a silver satin thong and gives it a thorough inspection before that gets tossed over his shoulder too. ‘Not lace.’ he mutters, returning to the bag.

  I look at him in slight amusement, straddled on my hips, a scowl firmly in place. He’s not impressed. He pulls out a card, reads it and scoffs, before tearing it up and throwing it to join the other offenders on the floor.

  ‘What was that?’ I ask, completely intrigued.

  He glances up at me briefly. ‘Nothing you’ll ever need.’ he grumbles.

  ‘What?’

  ‘A voucher for botox.’ he mutters. I laugh and he flicks me a devilish grin. Sarah definitely organised the party bags. I wish he hadn’t of tore it up; I would have donated it to her. ‘These bags are crap.’ he spits, before taking one last thing out and tossing the bag on the floor with the other criminal contents. ‘This looks interesting.’ he muses, holding up a black rubber ring attached to a small, metal, bullet type contraption.

  ‘What the hell is that?’ I blurt.

  He holds it up and runs his eyes over it before returning them to me. He smiles knowingly and leans forward, plumping a pillow under my head and kissing me chastely on the lips, ‘I want you to have a good view.’ he whispers, before returning to his position over my hips and lifting himself up to his knees.

  What is he doing? He takes the black rubber loop and starts to slide it over his erection and it all, very swiftly, becomes very clear. ‘Oh no! If I don’t get battery operated devices, neither do you!’ I yell irritably, but he ignores me. ‘Hey!’ I shout.

  He keeps his eyes on his hands as he rolls the loop to the base of his arousal and positions the bullet on his shaft. I huff and throw my head back onto the pillow, looking up at the ceiling. I want to do that! Even with my eyes off the God like creature straddling me, all I can think of are all things erotic with this music surrounding me.

  ‘Look at me.’ he demands, but I keep my eyes firmly pointing upwards. I feel the mattress sink next to my head from his fist resting in it, then his other hand clasping my jaw. ‘Look.’ It’s his tone that dares me to disobey. He shakes my jaw lightly, and I find my eyes falling down to his. They are bright pools of green lust and his lips are parted. ‘Kiss me now, Ava.’ He lowers his head and I raise mine to get him on me without delay.

  He attacks my mouth with urgency, delving in with his tongue and moaning in satisfaction. I know I’m going to be left panting and squirming and there will be sod all I can do about it.

  His hard animalistic kiss has my senses saturated with need for more and just like that, he pulls away and I whimper. ‘You will watch.’ he says, biting my lip.

  ‘Turn the music off!’ I buck a little in defiance.

  He grasps my hipbone sharply, throwing me a warning look. ‘Why? Are you feeling horny?’ There is no amusement in his tone. He picked up on my reaction to the music last night, and now he’s using it agai
nst me.

  Oh, this is going to be hell. He lifts away from my face and latches onto my nipple, sucking it hard. My body arches on a moan as I close my eyes and look for somewhere to bury my face. There is nowhere.

  ‘Open!’ he barks and gives my hip a dig again. My eyes fly open as he moves to my other breast and mirrors his sucking, lapping and biting, elongating my nipples to their maximum. I fight to keep my eyes from clenching shut, my legs from tensing. I want to bend them, but his lower legs are clamped on the outside of mine, preventing movement.

  Oh God! ‘You’re cruel.’ I moan as I look up into a very satisfied stare. He’s getting revenge all right.

  He rises to his knees and fists his erection with one hand, flicking the switch of the bullet-like contraption with the other. I hear the steady pulse of a vibration kick in and his mouth parts. ‘Wow.’ he mouths.

  I close my eyes for the briefest of seconds before I’m grabbed on my sensitive hip and they fly open again. I take a deep breath and run my eyes from his, down his hard chest, past his scar and to the mass of hair at his groin. I find him slowly working himself back and forth, the muscles in his thighs tense and bulging. I cry out in desperation to touch him. Now I know how he felt and it is not bloody nice. I want to touch him. I need him all over me and I can’t. I’m helpless.

  His fist flexes as he draws back, pulling his foreskin and revealing his glistening, moist head. ‘This feels good, baby.’ His voice is husky and it spikes at my groin. ‘Do you want to help me out?’

  My gaze travels back up his body to his eyes. ‘Fuck you.’ I say quietly and calmly. I don’t care about my blue language. It’s not like he can punish me any worse than this.

  ‘Mouth.’ He forces the word out on a moan, and I wriggle with the cuffs. ‘You’ll mark yourself, Ava. Stop fighting.’ he hisses through a broken voice, his fist still slowly gliding over his solid length.

  Maybe if I fight enough, he’ll free me. He’ll get worried about injuring me. It’s common knowledge of his unreasonable worry regarding my safety. I wriggle some more.

  ‘Still!’ he barks, and suddenly his strokes are picking up speed. This is absolutely killing me, but good God does he look incredible on his knees above me, working himself. I watch as every muscle on his chest, his arms and his thighs tense further and the vein in his neck jumps out.

  ‘Please.’ I beg. I need to touch him.

  ‘It’s not nice, is it?’ he asks. ‘Think of this the next time you stop me from touching you.’

  ‘I will! Jesse, please, let me go.’ I clench my eyes shut, screaming in my head to block the loud music out.

  ‘Open your fucking eyes, Ava!’

  ‘No!’ My head starts thrashing from side to side. This is the worse torture. I’m never going to stop him from accessing me again. Not ever. I feel his fingers slide down my sex, gathering some moisture and then spreading it, his finger surging into me harshly. My eyes fly open. ‘Please!’

  His face strains as he continues working himself. ‘You’ll watch.’ he affirms, his fist suddenly becoming faster, more urgent. ‘Fuck!’ All of a sudden, he’s moving and his knees are braced on either side of my head, his groin in my face. ‘Open your mouth.’ he roars, and I do as I’m bid immediately and without a second’s hesitation. He braces his free hand on the headboard and pistons back and forth with his fist. ‘Oh, Jesus!’ His head drops as he guides himself into my waiting mouth and spills himself all over my tongue, the saltiness of him sliding down my throat. I take the opportunity to wrap my lips around him and get some contact.

  His chest heaves as he slowly works himself down, the vibrations from the bullet traveling down his length and tickling my lips as I lick and lap at him. His cock twitches on my tongue and I roll, lap and suck to my heart’s content while he shakes above me, attempting to stabilise his breathing. He drags his eyes open and looks down at me before his body is shifting and the vibrating stops, the little ping of elastic and small thud telling me the contraption has been relegated to the floor.

  He cradles himself between my thighs and gazes down at me, his face thoughtful as he strokes the exposed underside of my arms. Isn’t he going to let me go? The erotic tones of Enigma are still flooding my hearing and it’s not helping with my pre-exploded state.

  ‘I might keep you like this forever.’ He drops his lips to mine and sweeps his tongue through my mouth. ‘This way, I will know where you are all of the time.’

  ‘I think that might be falling dangerously close to sex slave territory.’ I mumble into his mouth. He’s not so unreasonable to handcuff me permanently.

  ‘And that’s a problem because?’

  ‘Because I would like to think that you want me for more than my body.’

  ‘Oh, I want you for more.’ He trails his lips up my face and back down, plunging his tongue back into my mouth. ‘Like my wife.’

  WHAT?

  I very nearly bite his tongue off in shock. He continues taking my mouth, like he hasn’t just said that after he’s ejaculated into my mouth and has me restrained.

  He eventually pulls back and looks down at my stunned face. ‘Marry me.’ he demands softly.

  ‘You can’t ask me that when I’m handcuffed to the bed!’ I splutter. Jesus, what if I say no? Is he going to fuck some sense into me while he’s at it?

  Holy shit! He would as well!

  ‘Does someone need some sense fucking into them?’ he says quietly, and then takes my lips again.

  I’m completely stunned. He can’t fuck a yes out of me for this! I inwardly laugh because he absolutely could and he probably would.

  He pulls back, drops his eyes and sighs. ‘That was a joke, a very badly timed joke.’ He starts chewing his lip and the cogs start whirling around in that beautiful mind of his. He eventually looks back at me, and I try to rid my face of its fixed stunned expression. It’s hard. He’s cuffed me to the bed, masturbated on me, come in my mouth and then demanded I marry him? This man really is crazy mad. I lay beneath him, absolutely astounded, no obvious replies popping into my head.

  ‘You completely consume me, Ava. I can’t function without you. I’m totally addicted to you, baby.’ His voice is soft and unsure. My confident, domineering ex-playboy is nervous. ‘You own me. Marry me.’

  I stare up in his painfully handsome face, still in complete shock. I didn’t see that coming, not in a million years. I only really decided last night that I would move in, although Jesse, in that crazy mind of his, had me moved in a week ago. He’s frantically chewing his lip and watching me as I try to figure out what is happening. I’m twenty six years old, he’s thirty seven. Why am I thinking about our age difference now? It’s never mattered before. What I should be more concerned about is his challenging ways. I’m not even going to consider that he will change if I agree to marry him. He’s never going to change, but that’s who he is, that is part of the man I love.

  ‘Okay.’ The whispered word falls out of my mouth without much thought at all. This is the natural progression for us. It may be a bit premature, but whether he asks me now or in a year, the answer will always be the same. ‘You’re my life.’ I add, just to reinforce my love for him. I want to be stuck to him forever, even with all of his challenging ways. I love him. I need him.

  The stunned expression that was riddling my face has now made its way onto Jesse’s, and the cogs are spinning so fast I can see them beginning to smoke. ‘Yes?’ he asks quietly.

  ‘It’s instinctive.’ I shrug and then realise that I’m still handcuffed to the bed. ‘No sense fuck required. Can you let me go now?’

  He flies into a panic and jumps up to retrieve the key from the bedside table, making quick work of undoing the cuffs. I grasp my wrists to rub some life back into them, but I’m soon disturbed when I’m dragged up from under him and completely engulfed in his body as he squeezes me to him. Did he think I would say no?

  Holy fucking shit! I’ve just agreed to marry this controlling, neurotic ex-playboy and I’ve known h
im for a matter of weeks. Oh God, my parents are going to burst a blood vessel.

  He falls back onto the bed, taking me with him and buries his face in my neck. He has a vice grip on me and I haven’t got the heart or inclination to tell him to ease up. I’m not going anywhere – not ever now.

  ‘I’m going to make you so happy.’ His voice is broken.

  I wriggle a little to free myself, but he keeps his face exactly where it is. I work harder, prizing myself from him until I find his eyes. They’re glazed. ‘You already make me happy.’ I smooth his face and wipe my thumb under his eye, collecting a stray tear. ‘Why are you crying?’ I battle the quiver in my throat that has my own voice unsteady.

  He shakes his head mildly and rubs frantic palms over his face. ‘See what you do to me?’ He reaches up to clasp my face and brings it down to his, resting his forehead on mine. ‘I can’t believe you’re in my life, I can’t believe you’re mine. You are so, so precious to me, baby.’ His eyes dart across my face and his hands smooth across my cheeks, as if ensuring I’m real.

  ‘You’re precious to me too.’ I say quietly. I hope he comprehends how precious. He’s everything…my complete world.

  He smiles mildly. ‘Are we friends?’

  ‘Always.’ I return his smile.

  ‘Good, my work here is done,’ He rolls us over so he’s cradled between my thighs, and then slowly sinks into me. ‘Now, we have sleepy celebration sex.’ He reaches for the remote control and turns the music off. ‘I only want to hear you when you come for me.’ He drops his mouth and moans as I accept his lips and he grabs my hands, holding them above my head. He rears back and pushes forward.

  ‘That was a proposal fuck.’ I say around his mouth, and I feel him smile against my lips, but he doesn’t say anything, or reprimand me on my language. He just seeps in and out at the most dreamy pace, plunging deeply, swiveling his hips gently and pulling back.

  My earlier blissful state is re-captured as the coils reload and prepare to release, his leisurely drives and grinding hips working their usual magic on my body.