Jake's hands went to my neck, freeing the simple gold chain I wore around my neck from my sweater, taking what felt like an inordinate amount of time on such a simple task .
Maybe he was. Maybe he did it on purpose to acclimate me to these heightened levels of sensation. I didn't know, and I didn't think to ask .
By the time he had the sweater free of my head, I was burning all over, a prickling hot flush sweeping over my entire body .
The moment the sweater fell free of his hands, Jake thrust his fingers into my hair and pulled my head toward him. I braced myself for his kiss, but it didn't come right away. He hovered just a breath away from my mouth .
"You are so beautiful," he said dragging each word out as he stared at me. Then he traced his tongue along the curve of my lower lip, but he took the kiss no further. Instead, he sank down, going to his knees in front of me .
From under his lashes, he slid me a look. "Close your eyes. Don't look until I say you can ."
I gave him a halting nod, not sure what to say. Lowering my lashes, I sank my teeth into my lip and waited .
The touch came lightly, a fingertip circling my right nipple, so lightly I could have imagined it. Then it brushed over my left one, and I shivered. A lighter brush...right between my thighs .
Each petting stroke drew me tighter, the nerves sizzling hot as I waited to see where he'd touch me next. Then it wasn't his fingers, but his mouth, his tongue circling over my right nipple .
I had no idea when he'd guided me down to my back on the table, but one moment I remembered being upright, then I was prone as he caught my panties in his hands and dragged them down. Those light, butterfly touches started all over again, but now it wasn't just my nipples or a light touch ghosting between my thighs .
His hands brushed my wrists, my thighs, my ankles .
One hand rested against my neck, one cupped me between the thighs .
When he finally slid two fingers inside me, I was so primed for orgasm, I could have come almost immediately – if he'd just let me .
"I want to tie you up ."
I jerked against him, eyes flying open .
He said nothing about the fact that I'd looked at him without him telling me. In fact, he seemed to have been expecting it, one hand braced on the table next to my head, the other still between my thighs .
I clenched the muscles there together instinctively, but all that did was drive his hand deeper, and I moaned. He gave a slow twist of his wrist and circled my clitoris with his thumb. "Will you let me "
Whimpering, I reached down and grabbed his wrist, rocking against his touch, trying to deepen the connection. He let me, but he gave me nothing else, watching with unyielding patience .
"Jake..."
"I won't hurt you," he said, speaking to the unspoken fears starting to rise inside. "If it's too much, you say your safe word. If you get too scared, you call it off. You're in control, Michelle. Let me show you ."
He kissed one eyelid, then the other, moving down to my lips as he spoke .
"Okay."
The word slipped out. I hadn't made any conscious decision one way or the other. I just... okay .
Thankfully, he didn't just jump right up and grab a pair of handcuffs or anything. Instead, he slanted his mouth over mine and kissed me. At the same time, he pumped and rotated his wrist, working me right back to the knife's edge of pleasure, and this time, he didn't stop until I went careening right over .
* * *
"W hy like this?" The words rasped out of me. Arms stretched high over my head and pinned to a hook on the wall. I couldn't move my upper body very well. But I was only secured because the ties he'd used on my wrists went over that hook...and he'd put the ends in my hand .
"If you need to be free, you just pull. You don't even need the safe word, but I'd rather you use it first ."
Still, I didn't know how I felt about being pinned to a wall as he stepped between my thighs .
"Because seeing you spread yourself out for me, knowing you don't have to be..." Jake's lids drooped low over his eyes, a smile kicking up one corner of his mouth. "You've got no idea how fucking hot you're making me, Michelle. I want you more than I want my next breath ."
I gulped in air as he went to his knees in front of me, catching one thigh and hooking it over his shoulder. Feeling utterly exposed and vulnerable, I shivered. That shiver got worse as he blew a puff of air on me. "Close your eyes again, baby," he murmured, not waiting for me to follow the order before he leaned in and licked me .
I did, but more on a wave of pleasure than out of any instinct to obey him. Groaning, I shuddered as he swirled his tongue over the bud of my clitoris, then caught it between his teeth, giving it a slow, sensual tug .
"You're going to come," Jake said against my pussy. "And when you do...right as you're on the edge, I'm going to..." He licked me again, then pushed two fingers inside me, thrusting them in deep and fast, without any warning .
I arched up in surprise, cried out as a wave of ecstasy washed over me .
"...sink my cock inside this hot..." He stopped fucking me with his fingers, gave my clitoris another teasing lick. "Sweet..." Thrust, twist. Lick. "Cunt ."
I whimpered, my entire body convulsing almost to the point of pain as he pulled me closer and closer to that promised edge .
Thrust. Twist. Lick .
"Say you want that, Michelle ."
Thrust.
"Say it ."
Twist.
"Michelle..."
Lick...
"I want it, Jake !"
He bit me. His teeth scored the sensitive flesh of my clitoris and I came, hard and fast and the intensity of it would have doubled me over if my hands hadn't been tied overhead. I completely forgot that I held the means to my own freedom, completely forgot I might even want to be free as the climax battered and twisted and worked through me .
And then it seemed to start all over again, without ever giving me a chance to come down, because Jake, as promised, shot to his feet and caught me behind my thighs, boosting me up and thrusting into me in one smooth motion .
"Fuck ," he snarled against my mouth. "You're like a fist...take me in, baby. Take me...that's it ..."
Pinned between him and the wall, impaled on the heavy pillar of his cock, I sagged against him and stared at him with dazed eyes. I had no strength in me and even if I had, I was bound. I felt helpless, but there was no fear, not with him .
His eyes met mine, and he slowed the relentless advance of his hips, lowering his head to rub his lips against mine. "Are we good?" he asked, his voice stunningly calm compared to the roughness of only seconds ago .
Unable to speak, I just nodded, gripping the ties that bound me even tighter. It dug them into my flesh more, but I didn't care. That slight bite of pain only served to clear my head a fraction, which let me focus...and feel .
His cock throbbed inside me, pulsating in a way that echoed the inner throbbing of my clit. Every time his cock jerked, the muscles inside me contracted around him, and he clenched his jaw tight, head falling back as he began to rock back and forth inside me, barely even moving. "If you don't quit doing that ..."
"I'm not doing anything," I whispered .
"You are," he said, lifting his head and meeting my eyes. His cock pulsed again .
I clenched around him unconsciously .
"That ." He rolled his hips in response. "Quit doing that ."
"I can't help it !"
"You better learn, or I'll spank you ."'
"I...you'll what ?"
It was not a wicked burn of curiosity that lit inside me at those words. It wasn't. It couldn't be. I wasn't a child anymore. I didn't get spanked
. And yet ...
"You like that idea," Jake mused .
Before I could tell him otherwise, he shifted my weight, taking the bulk of it on one, solid forearm so he could palm my ass with his free hand. "You want me to spank this pretty ass until it goes pink for me, darlin'?" he whispered into my ear .
I tried to say no .
But the shiver of my body betrayed me, and heat quaked through me, destroying any chance I had at lying even to myself .
His cock throbbed .
I clenched around him, moaning .
"I told you if you did it again..." Jake warned, his voice different. Almost...hard. Almost .
Forcing my eyes to lock on his face, I stared at him just as a quick, sharp pain flared square on my left butt cheek. Sucking in a breath, I gaped at him .
He did it again .
My cunt seemed to be set on fire even as I said, "You spanked –"
He did it a third time and my skin, now primed and ready, burned .
"Next time I tell you to stop squeezing my dick like that, are you going to listen?" he asked, still using that strange, calm, commanding voice. And again . The bastard did that thing with his cock, so that it pulsed and moved inside me, even though he didn't, and I could feel the head rub me right there .
My pussy clenched around him before I could stop it .
Jake grunted. "I guess we'll have to do this the hard way ."
And he pulled out .
Dazed, all but dying inside, I tried to reach him, but my hands were still stretched overhead. I was somewhat confused by that, right up until he took them down and turned me to face the wall. "Bend over, baby. It's time to take your punishment ."
I had no idea what he meant, but I felt him nudging my thighs apart and that was just fine, as long as he came between them next. And he did – but the second he entered me, he brought the flat of his hand down on my ass again. Thrust. Slap, thrust, slap ...
The fiery burn in my ass spread until it joined with the pleasure in my cunt, and I couldn't tell one sensation from the other. When the climax started, I opened my mouth to cry out, and Jake jerked my head back with one fist, tangled so tightly in my hair, it should have been another pain, but it wasn't. It was sweet, sweet ecstasy, just like everything else, the bite of the ties on my wrists, the burn of heated skin coming from my behind, the pulse and drive of his cock pounding into me .
He swallowed down that scream, then another as I came .
But one orgasm wasn't enough, not for the King of the Multiple O .
He slid his free hand between us and pressed his thumb against the tight ring of my ass. I whimpered as he breeched me slightly, but he stopped, his thumb wandering lower before returning to press against me again. He'd gathered up the slick moisture from where we joined and was wet now. When he pressed against me, he entered more easily, and I gasped into his mouth at the sensation .
He ended the kiss with a groan as he began to come, muttering something against my lips. I don't know what it was .
I was too lost in all the feelings he'd managed to bring to the surface, all the senses he'd stirred...and in the second climax, I saw stars .
Twenty-Three
Jake
I t felt like it took a good hour for my heartbeat to slow back to its normal rhythm. I knew it didn't, but as tame as I'd kept things with Michelle, that was the most erotically charged bout of sex I'd ever experienced in my life .
She responded to being dominated like she'd been made for it, and I wondered just how much deeper we could have taken things if it wasn't for the nerves and fear that were still an intrinsic part of her. They might always be there too. After what had happened, why wouldn't she be leery of having a guy crowd in her ?
She sighed against me and I looked down just as she stretched and opened her eyes. She'd been dozing, curled up next to me, and I'd loved every second of it .
Curling an arm around her waist, I brought her in closer, then lifted one of her wrists in my free hand. There were faint red marks from the restraints I'd used, a sign of how hard she'd jerked against them. "These might bruise a little," I said softly, rubbing my lips over one faint mark. I didn't like the idea. Seeing a mark on a woman bothered the shit out of me even if it had been done in play and it hadn't really hurt her at all .
She blushed, darting a look up at me from under her eyes. "It's okay. I...um...well, I kind of expected it might happen when you talked about tying me up. I bruise easily – always have." Her tongue slid out, causing the devil that seemed to live in my prick to stir, interest rising. "If I have to go out, I'll wear long sleeves so I don't have to deal with people staring ."
She managed a shrug, but for all the casualness she tried to put into it, it still came off as self-conscious. "I know it's nobody's business what I do with my sex life, but I'm not as casual about things as some are ."
"You do you, Michelle." I pulled her on top of me and locked my arms around her, loving the press of her curves against me. "I don't need you to explain any of that to me ."
"Okay." Another one of those pretty blushes, then she smiled at me. "You're kind of wonderful, you know that ?"
Now it was my turn to feel self-conscious. I would have squirmed if I'd been in any position to do so, so instead, I shrugged and glanced away. "It's kind of required. Who's going to mess with a guy like me if I'm anything less ?"
I didn't think about how it sounded until the words were already out of my mouth, when it was too late to yank them back, but to my surprise, all Michelle did was lay a hand on my cheek. "You don't have to be...on...or whatever in the hell you call it when you work for me. You've told me to just do me. I guess that means be me. So why don't you be you? I think for the most part you are, and I like that guy. That's all you need to do ."
Fighting the urge to tense up, to spill her onto her back so I could climb off the bed and get away from those penetrating eyes, I made myself smile instead. "Sure thing, Michelle." Keeping the movement as casual as I could, I rolled her onto her back, with me facing the wall so I could slip out of the bed easily .
Distance.
I needed some distance .
How had she figured out that I hadn't been doing some lame-ass acting bit with her? I didn't know, but it wasn't good .
How did she seem to just get the fact that I needed to just be me around her ?
Yet another thing I didn't get .
But I couldn't afford to be me around her, or anybody else .
"I'm going to grab something to drink," I said, dropping a kiss on her nose. Nice. Casual .
Rolling over, the blanket pooled around my waist as I sat up. I'd been sitting there less than a second when she spoke again .
"Thank you," she said quietly .
"For what?" I squeezed my eyes closed, almost afraid to even know what .
"For believing me," she replied simply. "Not everybody would have, but you did. So...thank you ."
Fuck. How could I put distance between us when she kept doing things like that? I had no idea. Rolling back to her, I cupped her face in one hand, using the other to draw her closer. "You tell me something like that, why wouldn't I believe you ?"
A shuttered look entered her eyes, and she shifted her gaze. "Some people don't. Sometimes, the victim isn't believed ."
I don't know what drove me to say it, but I found myself saying something that just...hell. It came out. "A woman I know was attacked when she was in high school. Whitley. Hell, this jock raped her when she was sixteen. When she tried to tell the cops, they basically brushed it off as her having enticed him into sex since he was a star and she was a nobody. Her parents didn't want to pursue things because they were in politics and it would mess things up for them. So she just pretends it never happened, hides from it. She.
..hasn't healed. Probably because of that. The fact that people didn't believe her, or you, is their fault, their problem. It sucks that it becomes yours as well and makes your healing harder...but it never occurred to me not to believe you ."
"Thank you." She reached up and closed her hands behind my neck, tugging my face down until she could kiss me. "I can tell by the way you're looking at me that you're not real comfortable with me saying that, but...thank you. Not just for me either, but for your friend ."
Wrapping her in my arms, I pulled her in close and confessed something I'd been holding in deep and tight. "I want to kill him, Michelle. That bastard uncle of yours. I want to hunt him down, find him, make him hurt in ways he never imagined, then I want to kill him, slow and painful ."
"Don't talk like that, Jake. It's..." She sucked in a deep breath that made her entire body shudder. "I've dreamed about it before, but it would just bring it all back, and I'm almost level now. So just...don't. Even if thinking about it makes you feel better ."
"I won't." Kissing her brow, I rubbed my cheek against hers. "But yeah...imagining it makes me feel a hell of a lot better ."
But if anybody else ever hurt her, I wasn't sure how I'd react. The fact that Parker Nestor was in Chicago and I wasn't likely to run into him provided him with some protection, but I didn't know what I'd do if I were to ever meet him face to face .
I'd just have to make sure it wouldn't happen .
As Michelle said, it would just bring everything back for her, and the last thing I wanted to do was bring her more pain .
Twenty-Four
Michelle
M y room was a disaster.
I'd made it home just that morning, still glowing and warm from the two nights I'd spent with Jake, and I'd made up my mind. It was time to stop hiding from life .
That meant I needed to do some shopping. Desperately .