She made her eyes wide and innocent. “What do you mean?”
“You know exactly what I mean. You think I’m so easy that I’ll be manipulated by the sexy little show you just gave me.”
She glanced over her shoulder and down at his groin, where he was visibly aroused beneath the towel. She just cleared her throat, trying to hide a smile.
“That’s only a victory,” Caleb said, “if a man is led around by his dick.”
“And you’re not?”
“What do you think?”
She met his eyes in the mirror, and she felt the strangest twisting of fear, pleasure, and possession at what she saw in his expression.
“I think I told you on the first day we met that, by the time I was through with you, all your unrelenting alpha-maleness would be broken. I think I’m off to a good start.” She made sure her expression was teasing, almost taunting. They’d done this verbal dance from the beginning, and it was sometimes as exciting to her as his touch.
She had to be so careful, though, not to surrender completely to her feelings for him. She’d loved her father too much to sacrifice justice for him that way.
“Is that what you think?” As Caleb spoke, he pulled the zipper of her dress back down.
She glanced over at the clock. “We’re supposed to leave in five minutes.”
“Then I’ll have to prove my point quickly.”
Her breath was already quickening as he slowly slid her dress back down to the floor, leaving her again wearing nothing but her heels and underwear. “What point?”
“That there’s nothing broken about me.”
She reached behind her to caress his hard cock through the towel, pleased when he gave a soft grunt. “It feels like you’re not going to hold out very long in this little show of strength you’re putting on.”
He took her wrist and pulled her hand away, planting it on the dresser. “Was that a challenge?”
“I know how you feel about those.” She gave him a teasing smile in the mirror.
She did know how he responded to a challenge—the same way she always had. She’d never met another man who could match her will, in bed or out of it. She could see the defiance smoldering in his eyes right now, and it triggered a matching reaction in her.
He might not know the real battle that would always be waged between them—the clash of mighty opposites, as Shakespeare had put it—but these smaller duels had always shaped their relationship.
So she was ready for him when he stepped forward, pressing his body into hers from behind and kissing the side of her neck.
Instinctively, she leaned back into him, and she sighed with pleasure as his hands stroked up and down her mostly naked body. Her eyelids lowered involuntarily, but she could see in the mirror through her mostly closed eyes as Caleb skillfully worked over her body with his hands.
She stifled a gasp as he fondled her nipples through the lace of her bra, and she arched her spine instinctively as the pleasure started to build.
She still felt in control, though. She wasn’t yet in danger of losing this challenge.
He caressed her skillfully in silence, both of them watching him in the mirror, and Kelly could see her cheeks redden and her nipples growing visibly tight with her arousal.
Then he tilted his head and said against her ear, the vibrations of his husky voice making her shudder, “Your pussy is wet.”
It was true. Her pussy was wet. And hot. And aching. And her whole body was now flushed with heat.
But she wasn’t about to lose a challenge so easily. “And you’re still hard. That doesn’t mean anything. You’re going to have to work a lot harder than that if you want to win this little game.”
“I’ve only just started.” His voice had grown softer, although that same primal heat was evident in his eyes. His hand dropped down to the curve of her breast and, using his knuckles again, he flicked one of her nipples—which were jutting out prominently through the fabric of her bra. “I can see how much you want me now. You’re dying for me to fuck you.”
The light fondling of her nipple generated tugs of desire so sharp that Kelly had to bite her lip to keep from whimpering in response. Unconsciously, she arched her spine, causing her breasts to jut out even more. “I could say the same about you,” she managed to say. There wasn’t any sense in denying his words, though. Her body’s responses had already betrayed her.
Caleb had been watching her closely, registering every detail about her reactions and expression. “Do you want to watch yourself?”
He’d adjusted his hand so he was cupping one of her breasts, and she couldn’t help shifting to press her chest against his palm more fully. “I think you’re the one with that kind of ego.”
It didn’t come out quite as clever as she’d intended, but it was the best she could do, now that Caleb had started rubbing her nipple with the heel of his hand.
“You can complain about my ego all you want, but you like it.” His hand slid down until it was cupping one side of her ass. “Don’t you?”
He was right. Of course he was right. His absolute arrogance and entitlement might be obnoxious, but it also drew her in, thrilled her, posed the deepest sort of challenge.
Caleb could obviously see the confirmation on her face. He leaned forward, mouthing a spot just below her jaw. “Fuck, Kelly,” he murmured against her skin. “You’re so hot. And even hotter because you look so innocent.”
She had a rosy, heart-shaped face that gave the impression of youth and innocence. There was nothing she could do about it, but Caleb knew by now her appearance was a lie.
There wasn’t anything innocent about her.
If he knew why she was really with him, he would know this truth even more deeply.
He didn’t know, though. Not yet. He only knew the Kelly she’d revealed to him, and that was only part of who she was.
Two of his fingers slipped under her panties and stroked her intimately, parting the soft folds of flesh and feeling her hot, wet arousal.
“I knew your pussy was wet,” Caleb murmured, sliding a finger inside her and stroking her inner walls.
His words shouldn’t have been as hot as they were, but her muscles clenched around the penetration of his finger, and she let out a thick gasp of pleasure.
When he joined the first finger with a second, the fuller feeling made Kelly jerk her hips involuntarily, the pressure at her center pushing her forward into shameless urgency.
“You like that, don’t you?” He used his other hand to hold one of her thighs apart as he fucked her with his fingers.
Biting her lower lip hard, Kelly tried not to give him any sort of answer.
“It’s not going to take long,” Caleb murmured in that same sultry voice. “You’re almost there already.”
The pleasure was building so quickly she had to hang on to the dresser in front of her. “Oh God!”
The loud cry escaped her lips without her conscious intention, and she burned in both lust and slight embarrassment, since she hadn’t held strong as much as she’d wanted.
“That’s right,” Caleb said in raspy encouragement. “Let go.”
He pitched his hips forward, allowing her to feel the hardness of his arousal against her ass. “Just say the word, and I’ll make you come—over and over again.”
She whimpered helplessly, overwhelmed with so much hunger and heat that she was afraid she might literally melt. Then she remembered the challenge and made herself answer, “As long as we both acknowledge that you’re cheating.”
“How am I cheating?”
“I turned you on without touching you, and you’ve got your hands all over me. So it hasn’t been a fair fight.” She met his eyes in the mirror, feeling a kind of connection that went far beyond physical touch.
There was pleasure in knowing her mind was a match for his, as much as in how good he made her body feel.
Something changed on his face as he acknowledged the words. Then he stepped back, causing h
er body to tense in disappointment. He was still watching her face in the mirror.
“Giving up?” she asked, smiling at him in the mirror, even as her skin felt chilled from where his hands had just been.
He gave her a feral smile. “You know me better than that.”
He moved forward, his warm chest pressing into her back and his erection rocking slowly against her. For a moment, he surrounded her—his heat and strength impossible to escape. But then he slowly eased back until he wasn’t touching her at all. “We’re going to make this an even challenge. So, if you want to be touched, you’ll have to touch yourself.”
Her whole body clenched with a strong pulse of lust, but she gave a little huff of amusement. “I’m pretty sure I can resist.”
“Not for long.” His eyes were crawling over her body in the mirror again, as warm and lingering as a caress. “Remember when I had you bent over the desk in my office.”
Her body tightened again at the memory. “Of course I remember. That was more of your ego.”
“I had you bound, just by the sound of my voice. You wouldn’t move until I told you. That’s how much you wanted to surrender control to me.”
Her pussy was throbbing so deeply it actually hurt. Her cheeks were flushed hot, and she could see her breasts rising and falling with her fast breaths. “But you couldn’t hold out that day either. You released me prematurely, if I recall correctly.”
“Remember when I turned you over the table for a spanking,” Caleb murmured thickly, his eyes hot and dominant the way they’d been that other day. “Your tight little ass was aching for more. I know how much you wanted it. My fingers were in your pussy, so I could feel how wet you were and how hard you squeezed around me every time you felt my hand.”
Her breath hitched and she clenched her fingers around the edge of the dresser. She was so turned on, just from the sound of his voice and the memories, that she was trembling now.
“You couldn’t even wait for my cock. You were so eager you came all around my fingers as I spanked you. Your body knew exactly what it needed, even as you tried to hold out then. Just like your body knows what it needs right now. Doesn’t it?”
She closed her eyes, making one final effort to shut out his voice and hold on to her resistance.
“Open your eyes,” he murmured behind her.
She did.
“Let your hair down for me.”
She’d twisted it up in a formal updo for the party, but she reached up and pulled out the clip. The hair fell in long waves down her back and around her shoulders, and she saw the awe awaken in Caleb’s eyes as he saw it.
He’d always responded that way to her unbound hair.
“Now you can touch yourself.” His voice rasped, clear evidence that he was deeply aroused.
But she was like a lit fuse, and there was no way she could hold herself back from reaching down beneath her legs.
“Not yet,” Caleb said. “Touch your breasts first.”
With a little moan, she made herself raise her hands to cup her breasts. She chafed her nipples through her bra and sighed at the resulting sensations. Her head fell back, and her pussy clenched hard around nothing. But Caleb was reacting too. She saw his body give a little twitch in the mirror as he watched her.
“Very good. Tell me how it feels.”
“Good,” she gasped, tweaking her nipples. “But not nearly enough.”
“Then you can rub your pussy too. But if you come, then I win.” He was smiling, but his expression was very tense.
She slid one hand down and rubbed her clit through her panties, and she couldn’t hold back a groan of pleasure at the relieving sensations.
“You’re so close to coming, aren’t you?”
She was. She was so close she could feel the pressure of the orgasm threatening to overwhelm her. She managed to hold it back, though. “And you’re just about to lose it.”
“You first.” He smiled again. Then in a gruff voice, he said, “Bend over. Show me your ass. But don’t stop rubbing yourself.”
She did as he said, bending down over the dresser, bracing herself with one arm and rubbing herself with the other. The position exposed most of her bottom, barely covered by her little panties. She felt vulnerable and slightly embarrassed by her shameless eagerness and so turned on she was making little whimpers.
She closed her eyes, trying to shut out the sexy sight of him standing behind her, staring down hungrily at her bent body.
“Open your eyes,” he told her again. “I want you to see how much you want this.”
When she opened them again, she was confronted by her flushed, eager face. She had to stop rubbing her clit because she almost came from the sight.
“I told you not to stop.”
She gripped the dresser with both hands, trying desperately to hang on to control. “And I say that’s cheating, unless you’re going to touch yourself too.”
He smiled, as if he admired her response. “Fair enough.” His stared down at her body again. “Damn, your ass is the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. And you’re just dying for me to spank it, aren’t you?”
The most frustrating thing was he was right. She was so aroused that her juices were dripping down her inner thighs now, and her bottom kept pushing up toward him very slightly.
“You always did like a firm hand.” He reached out toward her, but held his hand still just over her butt. “Just ask me, and I will.”
She panted desperately, trying to resist. This man wasn’t just her lover. He was also her enemy. But it didn’t seem to matter at all. She heard herself gasping, “Please. Please, now.”
He gave her bottom a firm spank, and the pleasure uncoiled from the sharp impact.
“Again,” she cried, pushing her bottom up toward his hand.
He spanked her again, the smack loud in the room and the sensations stinging.
“Again.”
On the third spank, she came, all the pressure unleashing around nothing.
“Oh, fuck,” he muttered, as she shook and moaned. He dropped the towel and pulled aside her panties to slide himself inside her.
The penetration was thick and substantial in her already tight pussy, and she cried out loudly as the pleasure erupted again.
He fucked her through the orgasm, hard and fast and rough. And then he lifted her upper body, wrapping one arm around her, and they rocked together tightly as the angle of penetration shifted.
She watched as her face twisted with helpless pleasure, completely letting go of any restraint she’d intended to cling to.
“Oh, Blossom, you feel so good when you come for me,” he was murmuring against her ear. “Oh, fuck, nothing has ever felt as good as you.”
And her heart and her mind and her body all let loose, overwhelmed by him, unable to resist the power of his claim on her.
She couldn’t look away from his face behind hers in the mirror. His eyes were hot and possessive as they crawled over her body, and occasionally he would clench his jaw and suck in a wet breath through his teeth.
Kelly was breathing erratically too, but the deepest of her pleasure was already past. Her hair was all over the place, strands sticking to her back, her arms, and her warm, damp face. And she had the most overwhelming feeling of ownership as she watched and felt Caleb claim what he needed in her body.
“Yeah, Caleb,” she urged him huskily, her eyes never leaving his face in the mirror. “Yeah. You come too.”
He was beyond words now, just making primitive sounds of pleasure and dominance in rhythm with the slapping of his pelvis against her ass.
Then he suddenly bared his teeth and his whole body clenched like a fist.
And Kelly saw it—every detail. Saw the intense pleasure slam into him, saw it overwhelm the tension on his face with waves of release. Saw the way his nostrils flared and his neck arched back as his body thrust forward one last time.
She was whimpering in pleasure, both from the physical sensations and from the powe
r of his climax.
When Caleb finally slid his softening cock out of her, Kelly felt warm, limp, and replete. But she had enough wit about her to slant him a teasing look and quip, “Well. I guess someone is feeling macho and caveman-like this evening. But I declare, just for the record, that you still cheated.”
He gave her a smug look of satisfaction. “I don’t think so.”
“I didn’t come until you touched me.”
“You would have. But you were begging me to touch you, and I’ve always had a soft heart.” The irony in his tone was obvious. Caleb Marshall had never been known for having a soft heart.
She couldn’t help but laugh, feeling warm and relaxed and deeply replete. “As good as that was, now I’m all messy to go to the party. And I’ll have to redo my hair and makeup.”
“You don’t need to redo your makeup.” He looked sated and slightly flushed, but otherwise in better shape than she was. He’d reached for the tuxedo he was going to wear this evening. “Or your hair.”
Drawing her brows together, Kelly peered at herself in the mirror. Her cheeks were deeply pink, and her skin was a little too dewy. And her hair was a tousled mess, cascading all around her. “You have got to be kidding. I at least need to powder my face. And my hair—”
Caleb had put his pants on, but now he moved up behind her again. His body was relaxed now, but she could still feel heat radiating off of it. “Leave your hair like that,” he said huskily, skimming the side of her face with a few kisses.
She rolled her eyes. “I never wear my hair like this. You just want me to go to this party with you looking well and thoroughly fucked so people will think you’re a real stud.”
He didn’t object to this sentiment. Instead, he walked over to open a drawer of his nightstand and pulled out a box.
“What’s that?” she asked, as he carried it over to her.
She really had no idea, but it looked about the right size for a necklace or maybe a bracelet.
Caleb handed it to her. “This is for you.”
Drawing her brows together, she accepted the box and opened the top. Inside was an oval pendant on a platinum chain. The pendant was a polished stone—made of deep, compelling swirls of gray and silver.