“Shit,” he growled. “I can’t.” He started to climb off the bed.
“Please?” Idess lay there, all sprawled out, relaxed, sated, the scent of sex coming off her and wreaking havoc on his libido.
He wanted to be inside her, not touching himself in a dark bathroom like some sort of pervert, while she was just feet away. But he also had no experience being so… sexual… in front of a female. Oh, he had arrogance in spades and overactive male instincts roaring through him, but he also wasn’t sure stroking himself while a bound female watched was something he could do.
“You’re embarrassed?” The surprise in her voice lashed at his already shredded control.
“I’m not a fucking virgin.”
“You haven’t been with many females, though, have you?”
Now that was just insulting. He’d been with some. He just hadn’t been with any more than once. And those he had been with were all about instant gratification—get in and out with no playtime. No real touching.
No connection.
This… this would be a connection. He didn’t know why or how, but it would. He just felt it. And feeling anything for this woman would be bad. That he did know.
“It’s okay,” she said softly. “You don’t have to answer. And you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.”
The fact that she was being so nice to him, was so concerned about his feelings, pissed him off. He’d just turned the tables on her, chained her up, could do anything he wanted to her… Biting back a nasty curse, he adjusted his erection, even as the pressure built under his skin and in his balls. “Why? Why do you want to watch?”
“Because,” she said in a husky voice, “you’re beautiful, too.”
His heart tripped over her words, and warmth spread through him. No one had ever complimented him like that, with such… reverence.
Ruthlessly shoving his reservations aside, he gripped his shaft with his bare hand. He heard her soft intake of breath, the little hitch that somehow turned him on more than anything ever had. His stomach tightened and he had trouble breathing, and holy shit, having her watch… a total turn-on he hadn’t anticipated. Now that his power was no longer contained by the Bracken Cuffs, all he had to worry about was keeping his right arm away from her when he came.
“See?” Her voice was hoarse. “Not so hard, is it?”
“Oh, it’s hard,” he ground out, and her lips quirked in a smile.
“And big.”
His cock pulsed as though happy with the compliment. Damned thing was too stupid to realize she was doing what he’d done—toss out niceties to get on the captor’s good side. Not that what she’d said wasn’t true.
“You say the nicest things.”
Completely at ease now, he ran his bare hand up and down, loving how altering the speed or the length of the strokes made her eyelids grow heavy, or how, when he changed it up even more and twisted his fist around the head, her mouth would fall all the way open. And Jesus, when he rubbed the cap with the flat of his palm, she actually licked her lips.
Emboldened, he moved closer, teasing her with the sight of his cock. “You like this, don’t you?” Her eyes flew up to his. “Tell me what you want me to do.” When her mouth worked but nothing came out, he smiled and stopped stroking. “What’s the matter? You embarrassed?”
Anger sparked in those amazing rum-colored depths, and along with it, the light of battle. Freaking hot.
“Stroke.” The command might have been more effective if there hadn’t been a slight quaver in her voice, but he did as she’d ordered. Slowly.
“How’s that?”
“Faster.”
Suppressing a groan, he increased the speed, but not by much.
“I said, faster. And… and do that twisty thing you do when your hand is at the top.”
He would have laughed at the cute fierceness in her voice, if he wasn’t too busy holding back his orgasm. Perspiration beaded on his forehead as he clenched his teeth and panted through the growing pressure.
“Stop,” she said, and damn her, he barely had the control to obey. “Slide your hand down. To your… your balls.” Splotches of pink colored her cheeks. She was powerful and sexy, yet the word “balls” made her blush.
Lore loved that.
He let his palm ride slowly down his shaft. By the time he reached his sac, his cock was aching. “Now what?”
“Rub them,” she said breathlessly. “Pretend I—a female was doing it.”