by Ace Gray
One hand shifted to my face and it stung ever so slightly. He didn’t linger. Instead his hand travelled down my neck and across my breastbone, coaxing me to lay back along the counter. My body vibrated against the cold stone.
The fabric of his pants whispered as he folded onto the barstool. His hands slid down my legs to grasp my ankles. He placed one foot on his thigh and the other on the stool beside him. His hands skated back up to my knees, and shoved them open.
“You’re so beautiful.”
I flushed at the compliment and the image of him staring between my open legs. He sat frozen long enough for me to start fidgeting. Nicholas shifted his gaze to meet mine.
“I’m an incredibly lucky man.”
Keeping his eyes on mine, he slid one long finger into me. I couldn’t help but arch my back and let a whimper slip across my lips. He shifted his eyes down to watch his finger glide easily through my wetness. In and out, in and out—my eyes fluttered shut. He added a second finger after too many thrusts to count. He spun his fingers, opening and closing, thrusting and circling. There were jolts of pleasure I’d never felt before, shooting from my belly to my toes, then even my fingers. I felt rigid and relaxed all at once. I didn’t think my body would be the same again. He ran his free hand up my leg and started gently pressing on my thigh.
“Keep your eyes open.”
His voice was gritty. Hot. I opened my eyes, bit my lip and nodded, unable to formulate words between moans. His answering smile was to die for. His hand left me and a garbled, “No,” fell from my lips. I kept my eyes open and on him and was rewarded with a wink before he slipped his fingers into his mouth.
“I’ve been waiting to taste you again.” He dramatically twisted his tongue around his digits. “You are everything I remember and more.”
I was panting. My body had gone limp, and without him there my knees fell together. He took his hand from his lips and pushed them back open; then he did the most devilish thing. He licked his lips and leaned in to kiss my clitoris then down my slit. I cried out when his kisses turned to soft nips up and down my inner thighs. When he refocused on the apex of my thighs he started to alternate slow laps and quick thrusts into me. He switched speeds and directions, lighting my body on fire. Heat spread from the pit of my stomach, and tension ebbed and flowed through my every muscle in time with his rhythm.
I couldn’t help but try and squeeze my legs shut to control the sensation overload. He wrapped his hands around my thighs and held them open wide. He was merciless. Every time I was close to coming he would pull away and start to suck and kiss down my leg instead. It took me a long time to realize he was purposely keeping me from orgasming.
All this time he barely made a sound, only rough grunts and grumbles when I tried to shut my legs. I remember those sounds more than my own movements. I wasn’t in control. Even my brain was short-circuiting.
No one had ever taken me like this. I was usually in control and now I couldn’t even keep my legs apart. I was on the brink of orgasm or crying; I couldn’t decide which. He seemed to know how badly I was suffering and hauled me off the countertop by my shirt. My body was slack as he pulled me to his chest and carried me upstairs to the bedroom.
He set me at the foot of the bed, standing, which surprised me. I thought he’d throw me down and fuck me. Instead, he grabbed at the hem of my shirt and lifted it, careful not to touch my skin. His movements made my body sway and knees buckle. Nicholas reached for me and held on just long enough to steady me. When I found my balance again, he let go and reclined in the plush chair by his armoire to watch me.
One hand moved to his chin, which he softly stroked. He cleared his throat and spoke with quiet authority.
“Turn around for me. Face the windows.”
I felt a deep compulsion to follow his orders; the sunset across Manhattan met my gaze a moment later.
“Spread your legs a little wider than your shoulders.” I shuffled my legs apart. “Good. Now bend down and grab your ankles.”
What?
My rational brain was wondering why on earth I would do that as my body folded neatly in half.
“Perfect, Sweets. Don’t let go.”
Nicholas didn’t make a sound as he moved his chair forward. Another long finger pushed between my legs. He started slow then picked up pace. And added fingers. I was so wet I could hear him moving in and out. When I was on the brink he pulled out, leaving me hanging. Again! I cried out loudly, the sound almost agonized.
After the moan escaped my lips he did the most unexpected thing. He spanked me, hard. His hand landed with a snap, catching both my trembling sex and fleshy cheek. The roughness forced me over the edge and I came. Hard. His breath audibly caught as he watched me shake, still standing, still holding my ankles.
When my knees wobbled, he stood to catch me and I sagged into his strong arms. His body draped over mine and he cleared his throat to rasp, “Let go of your ankles and lie on your back on the bed. I’m going to fuck you this time.”
My knees shook as I partially followed his command, flopping face first onto the bed simply because that was all I could manage. My eyelids drooped until a jolt of need moved through my veins in response to his husky chuckle.
The idea of him filling me was enough to find a precious little energy. I gracelessly turned onto my back and watched my chest rise and fall and tremble with the flutter of my heart. He moved, obviously aroused, toward the side table. He opened the drawer and reached in; clanking metal echoed inside the drawer rather than the crinkle of a foil wrapper. Out came two sets of bright silver handcuffs that glinted in the last bit of daylight. He crawled onto the bed and moved in between my legs. He pushed them up so my heels almost hit my butt.
“Grab your ankles again.” He growled and I reached. “I’m going to cuff your wrist to your ankle on each side. If you don’t want this, all you need to do is say stop.”
I nodded.
No fucking way.
My heart was racing faster because of the cuffs, arousal dripping from me. His sly, wicked smile returned as he did just what he said, cuffing my left wrist to my left ankle and my right wrist to my right ankle. My back was still on the bed but to take the bite out of the cuffs my shoulders had to round up or arch back. I was holding myself as wide open and exposed as he had on the breakfast bar.
I squirmed a little, testing the bonds. His bright blue eyes devoured me as he pushed his sweatpants to the floor. I saw him reach for a condom.
“No! No condom, please.”
What?
Why were those words flying out of my mouth? I always used condoms. My brain knew that, but I wanted him, just him, and no barrier between us.
“I can’t risk that, Kate,” his voice broke.
“It would be a bigger problem for me. I have a fucking company to run.” I was whining and I couldn’t stop. “I get the shot. I’ve had an STD test recently, too.”
His mask faltered and he murmured, “I want to be inside you.” It was nervous but hopeful.
“Yes,” I gasped. “Do whatever you want to me. Please!” I moaned as a tear fell down my cheek.
He shut the drawer and leaned to stroke my neck.
“Please, please, please!” I begged breathlessly.
A second tear fell. Nicholas, please… I didn’t know if the words actually came out of my mouth. The cuffs were painful, but the wanting was worse. I closed my eyes, hearing my heartbeat thunder as I waited.
I was completely trapped when he pushed into me. I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t been restrained.
“Good God,” Nicholas cried out painfully. Had he not been inside me, I would have been worried he was hurt.
His dick was hard and soft, warm and thrilling inside me. A puzzle piece I didn’t know I’d been missing. Every fiber in me pulsed with the skin-to-skin contact. The cry that loosed from my chest was so pleasure filled it made Nicholas shudder.
He took his time, thrusting slow and bending to kiss m
y neck or bite my nipples. As he thrust in and out, over and over, I wanted to shift or move—do something—to receive a release, but couldn’t. I was pulling on the cuffs hard enough to bruise, but the edge of pain actually felt good. That edge kept me from losing my mind completely.
His hips rolled relentlessly into me. I could do nothing but whimper. My head lolled side to side with my sounds. I wanted to wrap my arms around him and pull him up against me, or to wrack my nails down his back and coax him to come.
When I was about to explode he pulled out of me and rested his heavy cock on my belly. He let his body press into mine.
“Hang in there, Sweets.”
He thrust gently against my slit without entering, driving me wild. Then, in one swift move, he flipped me. My cheek and chest were lying on the bed and my ass was high in the air. The position pulled tighter on my wrists and ankles, and another tear fell. All my pained cries and thoughts lurched to a stop. I spent any brainpower left on breathing.
He spanked me hard again, causing my mind to jumpstart. I knew I shouldn’t like being spanked; it was demeaning and controlling. But I did like it. The clenching of my sex and shivers running up my spine told Nicholas just how much.
Six smacks reddened my backside. When the last one rang across my ass he plunged into me and started fast and furious thrusts again. I couldn’t push into him like I wanted to and instead found him moving my helpless body toward the pillows.
When he noticed, Nicholas grabbed my hips and pulled me back violently onto him. The roughness of his actions and the full feeling made me scream. My arousal was dripping down my leg again. He noticed too and rolled his finger around, collecting the lubrication from my thighs. He didn’t break pace with his furious thrusts as he lifted his slick finger to my backside.
Tentatively, he pressed his finger toward my other opening. He slowly circled the soft pucker of my ass, going for broke. He had me trapped with cuffs and flesh. His thrusts hadn’t faltered for even a moment.
Now this?
I was used to one-night stands and they rarely led to the trust necessary for any kind of real surrender. I could stop him with a word. He kept moving his hard shaft inside me and gently played with his fingers, waiting for me to decide.
For some inexplicable reason, I trusted him. Completely. And I wanted him to have me however he pleased.
“Whatever you want,” I breathed.
I cried out when he decided to plunge one finger into me. He slowed his hip thrusts to match those of his finger. I couldn’t help my constant mewling.
Nicholas switched from synchronized to alternating thrusts. He would shove all the way into me with his cock and then glide out. As his finger slid past, he made sure he pressed through the thin skin inside me to feel himself. His free hand was still wrapped firmly around my waist.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t I decide whether I wanted to come, or for this all to stop, or to possibly fall off the face of the earth all together. I was building. The thought of him stopping again made me nauseous. As it was, I felt like this brutal orgasm might kill me.
He removed his finger, and immediately I worried he was going to stop. Instead, he spanked me one more time before grunting and grabbing my hips. He dug his fingers in hard, pushing fast and deep inside me.
“Kate, come for me.”
His ragged voice was my undoing. I did come, harder than I ever had in my life, crying out his name. I clenched down hard onto him. I couldn’t move except for the waves that involuntarily shook me to my core.
Gasping breaths wracked my chest and full-fledged tears streamed down my cheeks. He came almost instantly after me. His spurts were fast and his heat spread inside me then slipped down my leg when he kept thrusting. Cum tracks matched my inexplicable tear stains.
Nicholas collapsed over me, trying to take deep breaths. My mind was hazy and blank, my heart hammering in my chest. It felt like my entire being had been lit on fire and left to smolder as ashes. He reached to kiss my upturned cheek and when he discovered the wet trails his breath caught.
“Sweets! Are you hurt?”
He scrambled to the drawer for the keys to the cuffs. He removed the metal from my limbs and carefully unwound me. He pulled me to his chest.
“Kate, answer me, please!”
“I’m fine,” I managed. “Fuck, I’m better than fine.”
I went to wipe my tears away, but he caught my hand and tucked it back between us. He lifted his own hand to dry my cheeks.
“Why are you crying, then?” He smiled, but was still obviously distraught.
“I have no idea.”
Despite my response, I had the suspicion it was because I’d finally let my guard down. And I’d given up control. I already cared for him more than I’d planned to care for anyone. Ever. I’d built walls so I would never feel the pain of a loss like my parents again. Without a conscious thought I’d let Nicholas Bryant shatter them all to hell. The ridiculous sentiment made my stomach turn, but I smiled to reassure him.
He held my face gently. His kiss was anything but. When he broke away, he pressed his lips to my glistening cheeks.
“I don’t think you know how much I care about you,” he whispered into my hair.
Or I about you, Nicholas. Ugh.
11.
I took my sweet time with the inventory of my body as I stretched across an empty bed. Everything was sore. My barely healed nose ached from being face down on the bed. Thin purple bruises wore like tiny bracelets on my wrists and ankles. My hip joints twinged. Faded fingerprints crossed my pelvis.
But it wasn’t the slightly morbid list that told me I was in trouble. It was my heart. I’d pushed everything aside except Nicholas Bryant. Vesper had slipped from my mind, and why I originally wanted to meet Nicholas didn’t remotely register. I hadn’t checked my BlackBerry in twenty-four hours.
I sighed and pushed myself up from his bed. I told myself I was going to find my phone, but deep down called bullshit—it was to find him. I grabbed my adopted T-shirt from the floor. It made me blush just thinking about what he’d done after it’d landed there.
A girl could get used to that.
The third floor was empty so I made my way down to the first floor. I didn’t see him anywhere there, either. I did, however, see my clutch on the side table where I’d left it. It wasn’t too far from the green puddle that was my dress or the exquisite windows. They made me blush. Again.
I shook my head at myself as I grabbed my BlackBerry. There were missed calls from Laura, one from Dr. Gross, two from Gemma, and another from Kevin. I suspected email was out of control. I turned to lean against the back of the couch as I scrolled through messages, and laughed when I read Laura’s.
i assume you’re getting laid so your skanky ass can wait to call, but it better be soon!
My work excuse hadn’t been very convincing after all. I didn’t really care. When my stomach grumbled, I looked around again for Nicholas, who was still nowhere to be found. I reached down for my dress. It was probably time to go back to the real world anyway.
“Nicholas?” I called out.
“You aren’t going now, are you?” He startled me when he spoke from the stairs. “I was going to order some food. I was just waiting for you to wake up so you could tell me what you like.”
“Well then.”
My smile slowly spread and I dropped my dress. Truthfully, I didn’t want to go. Work would always be there. Only part of me revolted, pissed I was picking a man over my career.
I shrugged that side off with a, “I’d love Chinese,” before walking up to him and threading my arm around his neck to pull him in for a kiss. My fingertips wandered along the edge of his hair, the other still held my BlackBerry. His hands wandered up and down my backside. He shifted and bumped my nose. I winced.
“Sweets, are you OK?”
“Just stung a little.”
I downplayed it as much as I could. But he took his thumb and skated it gently across my cheekb
one. I tried not to make a face; he noticed anyway. His eyes travelled down my body and he lifted the shirt from my hip. One fingertip traced the handprint shaped bruise he’d left. I held my breath and stayed fixed on his eyes; they started to churn. He grabbed my arm from around his neck to inspect my wrist. I couldn’t hide the thin mark showing there, either.
“Jesus Christ.”
His face twisted, contorted with horror as he tried to back away from me.
Oh hell no.
He wasn’t ruining this. They didn’t hurt anyway.
“Yeah, it was pretty fucking amazing for me, too. I took the Lord’s name in vein more than once myself.” I winked then added, “I bruise easily. Always have.”
Nicholas studied me, his eyes tumultuous. I took my fingertip and traced the contours of his chest. I smiled as I let my finger wander down the washboard. I skated along the waistband of his sweatpants and then went to slip my hand underneath. My stomach chose that moment to grumble again. He blew out a loud breath that rustled the hair falling across his forehead. I laughed, loud, light, and genuine; he just looked so befuddled.
“Chinese it is.”
He walked away from me and into the kitchen to grab a phone. He pressed one button and asked Jaime for twice his usual. He aimlessly traced his hand across the breakfast bar and I blushed. He caught me red-handed.
“Are you blushing?” He smirked.
Damn it.
I never used to blush.
“Do you have twenty-four hour help at the press of button?” I needed to change subjects. Quickly.
“Don’t you?” He pointed at my BlackBerry.
“Not to order my food.”
He smiled and purposely ran his fingers across the breakfast bar again. Just like he wanted, heat rose in my cheeks.
“Let me give you the tour.” He came over and laced his fingers into mine and I set the BlackBerry down without a second thought.
The apartment occupied the 58th, 59th and 60th floor of One Madison. It was a glass box on top of the modern skyscraper. Part of the first floor had vaulted ceilings, making the wall of windows breathtaking. We walked through the rest of the kitchen; he showed me the large formal dining room that opened to the living room—I’d somehow missed it.