When he disappears down the hallway beside the bed, I shrug off my clothes and quickly check out the vast open-plan space, at least five times as big as my old apartment, and dominated by floor-to-ceiling windows covering two walls. Cross-training and weight equipment take up a corner of the room along with a spread of mats and a giant punching bag. A sitting area in front of a sleek sandstone fireplace looks both masculine and comfortable with a big, gray, overstuffed couch and matching chair, curved glass tables, and blue accent pillows. His pristine kitchen, all black granite and stainless steel appliances, looks like it has never been used. And of course, beneath me, a delightfully cold, polished, hardwood table. Very Jake.
“You have a great place here,” I say when he reappears with the box of condoms in one hand.
“Back in position.”
A thrill of excitement floods my veins as I bend over the table. This is clearly Jake’s show.
Minutes pass and then his warm hand caresses my ass, smoothing over my cheeks. “Fuck,” he murmurs. “You’ve got the sweetest ass. I could look at it all day.”
“I love it when you whisper sweet nothings in my ear.”
“Only thing I’m putting in your ear, baby, is my tongue, and that’s after I’ve licked every part of your body, including your pussy.”
My gasp goes unheard as his feet thud across the marble floor to a credenza beneath the flat-screen TV. My heart pounds against the table, and I push myself partway up.
“I’ve…never allowed anyone to spank me before, Jake.” My voice drops to a low whisper. “I don’t know if I’ll like it.”
He holds up a coil of soft rope and a pair of nylon cuffs. “You’ve never been spanked? With that smart mouth?”
Affronted, I frown. “This mouth is usually busy doing things that warrant the opposite of a spanking, and I’ve never had any complaints.”
Jake freezes midstep. “Baby. Do NOT, and I repeat do NOT put images into my head of you and other men. There is no past. There is only now and soon, and you’re going to get spanked in both of them. And knowing what I know about you and seein’ the way you’re nibbling on your lip and watching your cheeks burn, I know it’s gonna make you fucking hot.”
He squats in front of the table and tilts my head up with a gentle finger under my chin. I push myself up on my elbows to meet his gaze.
“You okay if I restrain your arms? It will give you something to brace against and knowing you can’t interfere…it heightens the sensation.”
I look from Jake to the cuffs and back to Jake. “In the past, which I know exists only in the hypothetical universe, and aside from the tie episode at my house, which was escapable, I only ever allowed restraints I could release myself.”
“Then you weren’t really restrained,” he murmurs. “You won’t be able to let go if you’re in control. Trust me, baby. You don’t like anything we’re doing, you say the word and I’ll stop.”
“I trust you.”
Jake wraps the padded Velcro straps around my wrists and then threads the rope through the attached rings to the legs of the table, spreading my arms wide.
“These cuffs are handy,” I mumble through my trepidation. “I guess you never know when you might need padded Velcro cuffs with rings attached. Maybe when you need to hang from your arms or if you have a lot of shopping to carry home. I should get a pair.”
Jake chuckles and looks away. “If you don’t stop talking and making me laugh, I’m gonna gag you too, or maybe I’ll fill that lush mouth with my cock and give it something else to do.” He makes me pull against the restraints until he is certain they won’t hurt me and I am certain I won’t be able to get free. My first taste of real restraint is a heady experience. By the time Jake walks behind me, I am struggling through both intense fear and intense arousal.
“I can’t do this,” I rasp. “Let me up.”
Jake smoothes his hand down my back and then over my ass. “Give it a minute, baby. Let your mind and body adjust.”
He kicks my legs apart and strokes a rough finger through my folds, then trails my wetness along my inner thigh. “I’m thinking you’re already there.”
Oh yes. Hot, wet, and desperate to be touched. Arching my back, I look over my shoulder, just as Jake leans over me, pressing his bare, slick chest against my back, covering me with his body. His erection presses against the cleft of my ass and I moan.
Jake brushes a kiss over my cheek, trailing his lips down my neck to the sensitive spot between my neck and my shoulder. “Need to mark you.” The deep rumble of his voice vibrates through my body. “Let everyone know you’re mine.”
“Okay.”
He bites gently at first and then sucks hard until my eyes slit closed at the pleasure pain and my breath comes in short, hard pants. He licks over the wound and then kisses the bruised skin.
“Mine.”
“Yours,” I agree. “In the most primal sense of the word.”
He licks again over the wound. “Wish I could make it permanent.”
“Like a tattoo on my forehead that says ‘Renegade’s girl. Don’t fucking touch or I’ll break your arms’?”
Chuckling, he brushes my hair to the side and then nuzzles my neck. “That would be a good start.”
A shiver of pleasure runs down my spine as his five o’clock shadow rasps over my sensitive skin. I gasp and arch under him, pushing back against his hardened length. His obvious arousal sends a wave of need through my body, and I whimper and wiggle my ass, hoping he might forget the spanking and skip to the good stuff.
“Naughty girl,” he warns. “Punishment first, then pleasure.” He pulls away, leaving me cold and bereft, then his hand smacks my ass with a loud, terrifying crack.
My breath leaves me in a rush, as does my brain’s ability to register the sensation. Stunned, I don’t move until suddenly fire streaks across my left cheek. I suck in air and release it with a gasp as he murmurs in a calm, perversely soothing voice.
“Next time you feel scared or overwhelmed, you talk to me. I’ll listen. I’ll be there for you. You don’t guess what I’m thinking and you don’t push me away.”
Smack. He hits my other cheek, harder this time and pain radiates down my thighs. Then he alternates side to side, never striking the same place twice. The sound of his sharp, hard slaps on my skin fills the room, a curiously erotic sound that makes my sex tingle despite the burn.
Instinctively, I tug against the restraints and instantly understand the appeal. Without them, I might have turned around and given back what he gave me: a few slaps on the chest, maybe a punch to the jaw. With them, I am totally at his mercy, but I’m not afraid. Deep inside, I know Jake would never hurt me. Relieved of the burden of having to decide how much of myself to give, I let go and the burn turns into gut-churning arousal.
Jake rubs his hand lightly over my heated skin. “Beautiful.” His fingers slip between my thighs and glide along my dripping folds.
“You like being spanked.” He gives a satisfied grunt and then eases two fingers inside me. “So hot, baby. So wet.”
With a whimper, I rock up on my toes, riding his fingers as hard as I dare. “Can’t take any more.”
He presses his hand against my lower back, pinning my hips to the table. “I decide how much you can take, and I know you can take a lot more.”
I brace myself for more smacks, but instead, he eases a third finger inside me and pushes in deep. My body tenses up so tight I can barely breathe. But with his hand on my lower back, I can’t move, can’t rock, can’t even squirm or writhe or wriggle. I am helpless, spread open, impaled by the relentless thrust of his fingers, and I am hotter and wetter than I have ever been in my life.
My need escapes in a low, guttural groan and sweat sheets my body.
“I’ll take care of you, baby, but I need you ready. You have me wound up so tight, I’m gonna be rou
gh when I slide between those sweet thighs, but when I come, I want you coming with me.” He angles his fingers inside me and rubs over my sensitive tissue. Heaviness curls low in my belly and I ease my legs farther apart to give him better access.
“Good girl. Now relax for me.”
Relax? Not with every muscle in my body tense and aching, my need coiled tight and ready to spring. Not with my calves burning and my thighs shaking and my nipples rock hard and pressed painfully against the table. I am primed and ready to detonate, not relax. “I…can’t.”
“Wrong answer.” He pulses his fingers against my G-spot and the heaviness in my womb increases in intensity until moisture gushes from my body and I am engulfed in a tidal wave of sensation, deep, fierce, and unrelenting—a low roll of thunder instead of the sharp crack of lightning. My G-spot orgasm pounds through my body overwhelming every nerve, every fiber, every tissue of my being, and when I am finally able to suck in a breath, it rips a scream out of me that doesn’t end until I am limp on the table.
“Christ.” Jake’s voice in my ear is thick with desire, and only then am I aware he is leaning over me, covering me with his body, holding me through the last waves and tremors of my climax.
“You still with me, baby?”
Unable to speak or move and barely able to think, I whimper, resting my cheek against the cool surface of the table.
Jake eases away, and I hear the crinkle of a condom wrapper and the whisper of latex.
“Need you now.” His voice drops to a low, husky growl. “Never seen anything so fucking hot in my life.” His hand cups the curve of my sex and he circles my throbbing clit with his finger. Almost instantly I am shot back to the peak of arousal, and I draw in a ragged breath.
“I can’t, Jake. Not again.”
“You can.”
He grips my hips, and with one hard thrust, he is inside me, his piercing scraping over my swollen, overly sensitive tissue. I let out a long, low wail, and then he drives in farther, filling me until my inner muscles clench around him.
“You got me running so fucking wild.” He groans, twists his hand through my hair, and yanks my head back as he rocks hard inside me, and my whimpers melt into a deep, guttural moan.
“Oh God, Jake. Fuck me.”
My words set him off. He pulls out and drives forward, his piercing tearing a sob from my throat as it slides over my swollen, oversensitized G-spot. With his free hand, he grips my hip and moves faster, harder, deeper, riding me until my breaths come in short, choked pants, and I am slick with sweat and need and poised on the edge of a cliff so high I am afraid to jump.
“Now, baby.” He slides his hand over the curve of my hip to my throbbing clit and gives it a merciless pinch.
I come. Screaming. Falling. Splintering into a million pieces as a tidal wave of pleasure rushes through me, pounding in time to the frantic beating of my heart.
And Jake is with me, shouting his release as he comes with one last hard thrust, his cock pulsing against my swollen inner tissue. Then he collapses on top of me and for a long moment we don’t move.
“My baby’s so fucking hot.” He presses a soft kiss to my cheek. “So damn beautiful it hurts.”
Finally, he releases the restraints and carries me to the bed then disappears to dispose of his condom. My heart pounds violently in my chest, and I am caught in a maelstrom of emotions so thick I can barely breathe. Every time we’re together, he pushes me further. What if he doesn’t stop? He’s a fighter, and fighters fight until the opponent breaks. Anxiety surges through me like a tidal wave, and I push myself up to sitting just when Jake climbs up beside me and gently strokes my cheek.
“Breathe.”
“Jake…”
“Shhh. You’re safe. Let me hold you.”
So I bite my tongue and snuggle into his arms, and I pray he can keep the fear at bay.
We lie in blissful silence for all of three minutes, and then…
“Fuck.”
Hovering on the verge of sleep, I murmur into his chest, “You swear too much.”
“Baby.” He pulls me up so I am lying flat on top of him, his unbelievably ever-hard erection pressing against the juncture of my thighs. “When a man feels strongly about something, he doesn’t waste time choosing words.”
I rest my chin on my hands, cupped together over his chest, and look up at him through my lashes. “What are you feeling strongly about now, when the only thing you should be feeling is relaxed and sleepy like me?”
He strokes a gentle hand over my cheek. “When you told me about having to sell your house, that meant a lot to me. More than you could possibly know. And when you showed up at my door…” He chokes on his words. “I love you, Amanda. I love you so much I don’t know what to fucking do when things go wrong. I want you with me all the time so I can make sure nothing bad happens to you and no one hurts you and nothing makes you sad. I want to wrap you in a blanket and keep you in my arms, safe and protected and mine. You had a hard time growing up, and I know you’re having a hard time now. I just want to make the world beautiful for you again.”
My body stiffens. Oh God. Nonononononono. Not that word. I don’t want to hear that word. My breath leaves me in a rush and I look up and study him—his golden hair curling at his temples, lightly tanned skin, chiseled jaw, the faint shadow on his jaw, his blue eyes curious, silently questioning.
My chest constricts and my stomach clenches. Closing my eyes against his penetrating stare, I fight off the waves of panic, wrestling the urge to push him away and run. When did things stop being just sexy and fun? When did it suddenly get so serious?
Emotion wells up in my chest, a fierce, unsettling, rush of affection, deeper and more powerful than anything I’ve felt before. But ultimately where can it go? I am fundamentally flawed in both the happiness giving and receiving departments. He’s shown me how to let go in the bedroom, but in the real world, I’ll never be able to give myself completely to him. Not in the way he needs. Not in the way love demands.
“You just had to throw a fuck in there, didn’t you?” I say, gently teasing, hoping he won’t notice that I haven’t said it back.
He gives me a beautiful, sleepy smile and pulls me up for a kiss. “Fuck, yeah.”
***
I am warm. Safe. Secure.
I drift. Content.
And then I am not so warm. Awake. Displeased.
“Wake up, baby. Time to play.” Jake gives me only a second to focus before he whips the covers off me and pounces like an overeager puppy. First stop: my breasts.
“Beast. Get off.” I slap his head as he draws my nipple into his mouth, shifting his position so he straddles my hips.
“I feel like I just fell asleep a minute ago.” I look over at the clock on his bedside table. “Ohmigod. I’ve only been sleeping for an hour.”
“And I’ve been ready for you since you drifted off. I couldn’t wait any longer.”
From the rock-hard erection poking into my thigh, I believe him. “You couldn’t wait an hour?”
He gives my nipple a sharp nip and then turns his attention to the other one. “You’ve actually been sleeping for twelve hours, so don’t be grumpy. It’s late afternoon.”
“It doesn’t count as twelve hours of sleep since you woke me up ten times to satisfy your insatiable sexual appetite.” Then my sleep-fuzzed brain kicks into gear and I shoot up to sitting, dislodging him from my breast. “TWELVE hours. Omigod. I’m supposed to be at work.”
Jake slides a thick thigh between my legs and gently presses me back down. “Couldn’t bring myself to let you go, especially when you were naked in my bed. Decided not to tell you. It’s Saturday, after all. Time for a day off.”
“I’ll make sure to buy some pajamas next time I stay over,” I say, “so as not to entice you.”
Jake nuzzles my neck, sending a delicious
shiver down my spine. “There’s nothing you can wear that wouldn’t entice me because I know what’s underneath.”
“Don’t I get a chance to wake up?” I moan as little bursts of pleasure zing straight to my core.
“No. You get this.” He sits back and hands me a tiny butterfly-shaped vibrator from the bedside table. The elastic straps dangle between my fingers.
“You bought me a butterfly?”
Jake holds up a tiny remote control and presses a button. The vibrator buzzes in my hand. “Special, deluxe butterfly. Controllable only by me. I can turn it on or off and control the intensity.” He pushes a button and the butterfly almost takes flight. “Have you ever used one?”
“Um…no.” Anything with a remote control that would give someone else control over my orgasms has never had a place in my sex toy pie cupboard.
With a wicked smile, he takes the vibrator from my hand. “The top two straps fasten around your waist. The other straps wrap around your thighs. And the butterfly”—he makes it buzz again—“rests against your clit.”
My body heats in an instant as all sorts of naughty scenarios play through my head. But no way. Not unless I’m holding the remote control. “Thank you. But…”
He slides his hand around my waist and pulls me hard against him as his lips brush over my ear. “You’re wearing it tonight at Redemption. I have a class to teach and I want you to watch.”
I look at him aghast. “I am not.”
“You are.”
“You want me to hang out with a bunch of fighters with a vibrator buzzing inside my panties?”
He licks his lips. “God, yes. I’m going to keep you on edge all evening, so when I fuck you at the end of the night, you’ll come so hard you’ll pass out.”
My lips quiver with a repressed smile. “Coming so hard I pass out isn’t really one of my lifetime goals. I didn’t even know it was possible.” I push myself higher on the pillows, away from him. I shouldn’t be tempted. Not at all. But the whole idea is so deliciously naughty and so deeply erotic, I can’t stop the beat of desire pulsing between my thighs.
In Your Corner Page 22