She should protest. Really, she should. She’d never been into bondage or any of that kinky stuff. Hell, she’d never even been into sex all that much. Maybe she didn’t fancy nice guys after all. Maybe always deep down she’d yearned for the bad boys. Like Ash, who could melt her with a single glance from those dark eyes.
His hand left her breast, the pad of his thumb grazing her nipple and another groan escaped her throat. He rose to his feet; for a moment, she thought he was leaving and panic clawed at her. He couldn’t go now. She needed him.
But he came down on the bed beside her. So big and hard and utterly gorgeous, she lost the ability to breathe and sat as though in some sort of suspended animation.
Waiting.
He leaned across her so she could smell the musky scent of his body, mingled with hot cinnamon spice. His hands slid down her arms to her wrists and he bracketed them with his fingers. She didn’t resist when he raised them both above her head and caught them in his left hand, holding her easily.
She swallowed and looked into his face. A slight smile lifted the corners of his lips. “You like the idea of being helpless? At my mercy?”
She shouldn’t. But she’d never felt like this. As though she might explode with the need inside her if she didn’t get some sort of release.
He lowered his head so his hot breath feathered across her throat. “I won’t hurt you,” he murmured. “Not unless you want me to.” Sharp teeth nibbled her skin, then bit down on the tender spot where her shoulder met her neck.
“Tell me what you want, Faith. You’re at my mercy, but I’m yours to command.”
“Please…”
“Please what?” His mouth moved lower, so he spread kisses across the top of her breasts. With her arms still held above her head, her nipples pointed up, and she arched her back.
He laughed softly but licked his tongue across one taut peak. Then the other and she squirmed, pressing her thighs together to get some relief from the need that clawed at her insides.
He kissed her nipple and bit down so she felt it as a mingling of pleasure and pain.
“Don’t move,” he said as he released his grip on her wrists.
He slid farther down her body, pushing the sheet from her. His firm lips kissed across the flat plain of her belly, and then his breath was ruffling the curls at the base and everything inside her clenched up tight.
“Open your legs.”
The order was softly spoken, and she obeyed without thinking. He shifted lower. Her eyes were screwed up tight but she forced them open to peer down the length of her body to where his head hovered above the junction of her thighs.
In that moment, she knew she might die if he stopped. She might die anyway if he continued. She didn’t care. She’d never wanted anything quite so much as the touch of his mouth against her swollen flesh.
He glanced up at that moment, holding her gaze as he stroked across her sex with one finger. “You want me,” he murmured.
It wasn’t a question; it must be obvious how much she wanted him. She answered anyway. “Yes.” The word was a breathy whisper.
The tip of his tongue stroked her inner thigh. So close.
Then he licked a long slow swipe of his tongue, pushing between the folds of her sex.
Nothing had ever felt that good. Ever.
He withdrew slightly, to blow against the wetness of her sex. His breath was hot, like fire. He used one hand to spread her outer lips, and he stroked again, his tongue pushing briefly inside her. Her surroundings faded until Ash was her whole world and nothing else mattered. Not the truths she’d learned, not her illness. Just Ash filling her with heat and light, chasing the cold and dark away.
His movements were languid, slow, measured. Each stroke taking him closer the swollen nub that begged for his attention. A steady pulse throbbed between her legs now and she pushed up against him. Her head twisted from side to side and Ash clamped his hands on her hips to hold her still for his ministrations. Then his mouth was kissing her sex. He was eating her up, devouring her, and in that moment she would have let him consume her totally.
His lips slanted across her, his tongue pushing inside her one second, stroking her clit the next and she was going insane with the pleasure. The sensations building inside her. Her back arched and at that moment, he sucked on her clit, then bit down gently and she exploded against him.
He laved her gently as the waves washed over her, bit down again, and she came in a starburst of light.
She was vaguely aware that Ash had gone still against her.
“Shit,” he muttered as the whole building shook.
Chapter Twenty
Faith had heard of the Earth moving, but the building shaking? She forced open her heavy lids as tremors ran through her. A bright white light lit up the room. So the stars hadn’t all been in her head. Another flash and the room shook again. The main lights went off, leaving them in the dim glow from the open curtains.
“Come on,” Ash said. “We have to get out of here.”
She shook her head, trying to clear the haze of lust and desire. “What’s happening?”