by Lea Griffith
Chapter Two
He unlocked the door, followed her in and when she would have moved to turn on the lights he stopped her.
“No.”
A part of her mourned. He was so beautiful to look at and he was hers for this space in time. She’d missed him and had damn well earned the right to look as her reward for the last year of being without his touch, his taste.
There was a small lamp beside the door and he flicked it on, bathing the room in muted yellow light. She knew better than to look up but in her frantic haste to experience everything she’d been missing these last months, she betrayed herself and glanced at him.
Sam’s black gaze was hot. He raised an eyebrow and heat swamped her. She kicked off her heels and reached for the hem of her tank, unwilling to not have contact with him any longer. His hands on hers stopped the action. He grabbed her chin between his thumb and forefinger, not enough to hurt but enough that she recognized he was on a hair trigger.
“You do nothing unless I tell you,” he bit out between clenched teeth.
Chills danced over her skin and she gasped. His finger stroked her cheek before dragging over her mouth and trailing down her neck. He wrapped his big hand around her nape, thumb on her pulse point, and she could have orgasmed from that touch alone. That’s how bad off she was for this man.
He smiled and that part of her she’d buried for a long while now wanted to be let out of its cage. Sam was the only one who’d ever been able to call it forth.
And he knew damn good and well what he was doing to her. Zoe locked her knees. She wouldn’t let him down tonight. He needed her. He needed this. It had been too long.
He dropped his hand to his side and relaxed against the door. “Take off that scrap of fabric you call a shirt.”
She didn’t move fast enough, his gravelly baritone taking her breath and her mind for a second.
He grabbed the tank at the top of her breasts and pulled, the frail fabric ripping into two pieces. “You’ll goddamn well move faster or I’ll rip up every piece of clothing you own.”
She nodded as excitement coursed through her blood. Potent. The greatest aphrodisiac next to Sam himself.
“I didn’t hear you,” he whispered and he was so close to her ear she shivered at the warmth of his breath.
This was a dangerous game to play with him. Tension swirled in the room, bouncing off her skin to return and sink velvet talons deep. Her muscles quivered in frustration. He’d not given her permission to speak. She inhaled through her nose and ventured onto a shaky precipice.
“Do you need the words, Sir?”
He moved then, lowering his head and biting the tendon at her neck just hard enough that she moaned. She stilled, fearful for a moment as his big body overwhelmed her. Would he punish her for the sound?
“There’s only one word I need from you. And until I ask you for it, you’ll stay silent.” He stepped toward her. “It seems you’ve forgotten how things go, Zoe. Since that’s the case I’ll give you step-by-step instructions.”
Could she handle that? Could her body handle that much overload? He knew exactly what buttons to push.
“Take off my shirt.”
She stepped forward, raising her hands and undoing each button precisely, exactly. With each button unclasped, the anxiety in her body ratcheted up higher. She felt scorched on the inside, unsure of what her next move should be.
His hands were at his sides but tightened into fists. She was testing his control and that’s not what she’d set out to do. Or had she?
“Take. Off. My. Shirt.”
Zoe’s hands shook as she lifted them to his shoulders, pushing the material off his broad frame. Her breath hissed in at the body she revealed. Even covered in white cotton it was breathtaking. She reached for his undershirt and he stilled her hands.
“Turn around, Zoe.”
She almost let her refusal be heard. Instead, she closed her eyes and turned around. The snick of the lamp broke her heart. Sam had never taken her in darkness, claiming he loved to watch every ripple of their passion on, in and over her body.
Something had happened. Her heart thudded heavily as she tried frantically to figure out what it was.
“I want your pants off. Nothing should cover that fine ass except me. I know you aren’t wearing panties. You wouldn’t dare disobey me in that.” He growled low in his throat. “And you fucking better have shaved that pussy bare.” He bit the shell of her ear then and she went liquid as her breath caught again.
His words, oh good God, his words—they never failed to move her. He reached around her body, running his hand down the valley of her breasts, skirting her furled nipples, gliding to the waist of her jeans. With one hand he unsnapped them and stroked down her abdomen, coming to her pubis and resting his hand there.
His heat sank into her bones, made her muscles go lax. His smell soothed the savage need that ricocheted through her mind. Her legs threatened to give out. His rough, callused hands spoke of the man he’d been. The man he still was. Hardworking, determined, larger than life.
“Good girl,” he murmured against her neck as he pressed one finger against the hood that covered her clit. “You remembered.”
Stinging bites along the column of her neck accompanied his words but they were followed by loving licks that eased the tiny pain. She couldn’t speak. Words caught in her throat as he rubbed gently, teasing her nub with a single finger. It was a ghost touch and her hips rocked forward, seeking deeper contact. Sam laughed, the sound pushing her higher.
“You want my fingers? Or my dick? Maybe you want both. Greedy thing like you probably wants my mouth too, yeah? Tell me, Zoe, did you forget how to mind me, baby? Did you forget how good I can make you feel while I was gone?”
He dipped that one finger lower, teasing her opening, and her breath hissed in. She wanted to call the sound back. He hadn’t given her permission to moan, hiss or talk. She wanted him inside, filling her, and she’d just set herself up for a long night of punishment.
“You’ve gone so still. You must have realized how many rules you’ve already broken. I think maybe you like to be punished, Zoe.” He bit her earlobe and licked along the shell.
She trembled.
He removed his hand, settling it at her hip. “I think you’re trying to push me to take you fast and hard. But I’ve had a year of waiting too and the fantasy of being buried in your sweet cunt is the only thing that’s carried me through. I won’t rush this. There hasn’t been a day that I haven’t thought about your heat and the clench of your muscles along my dick as I stroke in and out of your body. Not a second that I didn’t have the taste of you in my mouth or the sight of you in my mind.”
A tear slipped out of her eye. She’d been so close. But it had been so long and in the nights as she struggled with missing him she’d lost her way. She wanted him deep—so, so deep. And she’d get him now but first he’d make her pay for her disobedience. It had happened last time and the time before that.
It seemed the time between his returns stretched longer and longer. But when he came back he was always full of surprises, his demands making her hot—hotter than she’d ever been before. It was frightening how well he knew her. She would pay but she’d love every minute of it.
“Forget taking the pants off.” His voice was gravel over sandpaper, and chills danced over her body. “Get on your knees.”
Sam walked around her and opened the blinds at the front of the apartment. They were on the third floor so there was no worry of anyone seeing them. Weak moonlight filtered in but it was enough for him to see her skin glow and her eyes sparkle with tears. A part of him regretted the need he had for this control. She was aching, hurting. But this was who he was and what he had to have in that moment.
Maybe he wasn’t good enough for her. He was dominant in all ways but what happened in Africa had changed him. He needed this here with her to make sure he hadn’t become less than who he’d been when he’d left her. She was comforta
ble with their previous rules. What she wanted, would do and hoped to get out of this thing between them hadn’t changed. And not one damn thing had altered for Sam. He needed to prove he could take them both where they wanted to go.
“I have something for you,” he murmured as he came to stand in front of her.
She raised her gaze to his and he hissed in a breath. Sam pulled the slender piece of jewelry from his pocket, feeling its length and slight weight as he journeyed back for a single moment to the hell in which he’d obtained it. Diamonds. It had all been about pieces of pressure-hardened carbon that shone so bright they blinded men, made them into killers.
And now she would wear them and make them beautiful, thus taking away the horror of what they represented to Sam.
In the moonlight he held out the slender collar encrusted with diamonds. “Will you accept this?”
This was the second step. First negotiation and then acceptance of his ownership.
The tear that had fallen to her cheek seconds ago traveled down to her chin, a beautiful jewel in and of itself.
“I accept it,” she whispered. “I accept it all.”
Sam attached the slender choker, admiring the play of the diamonds against her skin as the rush of her submission almost overwhelmed him. His muscles shook and his jaw clenched, teeth grinding so loudly it could be heard in the silence between them. That collar represented his claim and yet so much more than that. Her gaze glittered and he could take no more.
“Close your eyes,” he instructed her as he walked in a circle around her trembling body.
She obeyed but it was with a shudder that shook his soul.
“First position, Zoe. You haven’t forgotten that much.” Sam rearranged his aching dick behind the denim of his jeans. She did this to him. Made him so fucking hard he wanted to pound into her for days at a time.
She shifted and it was poetry in motion. Back straight, chest thrust proudly forward, ankles crossed and palms facing outward, it was a gorgeous dance of her limbs ending in symmetry. She’d spread her legs perfectly even with the tight jeans and he could see a hint of her bare flesh at the top of her mound gleaming in the dim light that streamed through the slats of the blinds. He stopped behind her and inhaled, mouth watering at the smell of her musk.
How long had it been? He shook his head. Any time away from this woman was too fucking long.
He walked around and faced her. “I should blindfold you because I know once we start you’ll score me with those big blue eyes. But it’s been too long and if I can’t watch the blue contract into black as you suck my dick, I would be punishing myself. I’ve been punished enough.”
He went to his haunches right in front of her, so close but not touching her. Not yet. “You’re wet, aren’t you? I can smell it and soon I’ll have that taste in my mouth, down my throat, all over me, Zoe. But first you’ll take your punishment like a good girl.”
She kept her eyes closed and he praised her as he kicked out of his shoes, unzipped his jeans and stepped out of those along with his boxers. He left his undershirt on. Even though the moon was covered by clouds, there was too much light and he’d rather not scare her.
His cock sprang out from his body, hard and hurting. His balls drew up and the base of his spine tingled, all from simply looking at the woman kneeling so sweetly in front of him. Her breasts moved up and down with her harsh breathing, the nipples furled tight and begging for his mouth. She was aroused to the point of pain but he knew how well she liked sucking his dick.
Sam knew how hot it made her. And he needed this release before he took her to the floor and fucked her into oblivion. The edge was razor-sharp and dangerous. He’d skirted it a long, long time now.
Sam stood tall and placed his shaft at her lips. “Open your mouth, Zoe. Suck me deep, suck me hard. Make me believe you missed me and want this deep inside you forcing the pain away.”
She licked her lips and he tapped them with his dick. She opened then, tongue sliding over the head of his shaft to frolic and play as if they had all day. He hissed in a breath and he swore she smiled. She would seek revenge for her punishment? Naughty girl.
“I said suck me deep, Zoe.” He grabbed the back of her head and held her still. As soon as she opened her mouth wider he took advantage and pushed in farther.
She tightened her cheeks and pushed against him with her tongue, preventing him from going to her throat. In this she had control and he winced, the feel of her hot, wet mouth surrounding his cock better than anything he could’ve imagined besides her pussy. He would never force her but his hips pressed forward against his will.
“Such a stubborn girl you’ve become.” A deep breath, another flex of his hips and he could wait no longer. “Open your eyes, goddamn it, and take me all the way in.”
It was a harsh demand and she loved every fucking second of it. She sighed and hummed over his shaft, finally taking him to her throat where she swallowed convulsively and looked up at him.
“Hold me, Zoe. Stroke my dick as you suck it. Show me you fucking missed this.”
She was ethereal in the moonlight. Gorgeous and heart-stopping. Blue eyes bleeding to black as her pupils enlarged in arousal that circled them both. She reached up and circled his cock with her fist, pumping up and down in time with her mouth’s withdrawal.
She took him, laved his shaft and released it only to repeat the process over and over. His hands rested at the sides of her head, tangling in the golden strands that surrounded her face. She was his anchor. Sam stood over her, knees bent, dick in her mouth, and quietly lost his mind.
She sucked him deep, swallowing only to pull away and lap at the head. How long it went on Sam didn’t know. Lost to the heat of her mouth, he didn’t care as long as she took him all the way to the end.
She hummed again and it went straight to his balls. It was insanity, the play of the diamond collar over her throat as she sucked and licked his cock, the smell of her musk heavy on the air and the feel of his come boiling up his shaft. Then there it was—the ecstasy of the release shooting through him more than any sane man would be able to handle. And Sam was quite a long way from sane.
He bellowed her name as he came in her mouth. She sucked him dry, greedy and determined to give him as much pleasure as she possibly could. When his legs stopped shaking he pulled her away and she rested her cheek against his thigh.
It took him several moments breathing like a racehorse before he was able to get his shit together. They had not said the words he longed to hear and it felt incomplete. But he’d attained enough of a release to be able to play with her for a while before his body took over and demanded he get inside her.
He stood straight, his cock still semi-hard and bobbing proudly between them.
“Get up.”
He helped her to her feet. Her eyes were downcast.
He grunted. “Now you lower your gaze.” He allowed himself the feel of her skin under his fingers for a brief time. “Look at me,” he commanded.
She shook her head, caught herself and lifted her face.
Something shifted inside him, some need he’d not even realized he had. That she couldn’t maintain position, indeed that she so desperately wanted to look at him, spoke of her need and the time they’d been apart.
“We’ve got time, Zoe, for you to relearn everything you’ve apparently forgotten while I’ve been gone. I’ll give you a little leeway because I can smell your arousal and feel the tension in your body. But I won’t give you much. Tell me what you want.”
It passed between them then, an emotion so intense it left moisture in his eyes. She gave him her answer in all ways. Her body softened and curled into him, her hands grasping at his chest, her face rising to his, her tongue flicking out to moisten her lips.
He grabbed her neck, thumb just below the collar where he could feel her pulse. It reassured him like nothing else. He was alive. She was here with him. Everything was okay.
“Tell me what you want.”
&n
bsp; “I can’t, Sir.”
He squeezed gently and her head fell to the side. She’d give him everything if he pushed her for it. And he would. This was about more than a chance meeting at a dive bar.
“Tell me what you want. I’m getting tired of asking.”
“I want the light,” she whispered.
Fear shot through Sam. “I’ll give you anything right now but that.”
“Why?”
“Because you aren’t ready for that.” A heartbeat. “And neither am I.”
She sighed and it whispered through him. He’d hurt her. It was for the best.
“You asked me what I wanted and I told you. Since I can’t have that I’ll settle for you inside me, making this pain go away. It’s been a year. I’ve missed you.” A deep breath and then, “Sir.”
“Go to the bedroom and take off your clothes. All of them.” He breathed in deeply, waiting to see if she’d do what he’d ordered.
Zoe stepped back slowly, keeping her head down and turning to head to the bedroom. She stopped when he called her name.
“Second position, Zoe. I want to find you on your stomach, legs together, arms stretched out to the side and head to the left. I want your palms flat. Do not lower the duvet. Do not light any candles. I don’t want to hear you sigh. I don’t want to hear you moan. I want silence. You are not allowed to touch yourself, not allowed to rub against the duvet for relief. I want you still and waiting. If I find you any other way than what I’ve just ordered, I’ll punish you. The dick you want so badly inside you will be held back. I’ll get all the pleasure I want and you’ll suffer through orgasm after orgasm until you beg me to stop. Don’t make me hurt you that way, baby. Please.”
It would be all the warning he’d give her. Yet still she held all the power. No matter how submissive Zoe might be, he was the one under her control. If she rejected him he would splinter into a thousand pieces. She walked to the bedroom, her silence her assent, and Sam ran a weary hand down his face.
This next step would be the hardest. But he hoped it’d be the sweetest.