Playing with Desire (The Players Club Book 6)

by Erika Wilde

  So, no, he didn’t do committed relationships, and Rick was right. He needed to make sure that Summer understood what he was proposing.

  After imparting his brotherly advice, Rick picked up the last of his things. “Go take care of Summer,” he said, effectively ending the conversation as he headed for the door. “I’ll see you later.”

  As soon as Rick let himself out, locking the door behind him, Summer spoke from her spot on the bed.

  “Did Rick leave because of something I said or did?”

  Hearing the worry in her voice, Declan turned to face her, shaking his head. “No. You were amazing,” he said, giving her a reassuring smile. “I asked him to go.”

  She tucked the covers beneath her chin, her vivid blue eyes widening in surprise and confusion. “Why would you do that?”

  “Because I want you all to myself,” he replied as he headed over to the cabinet against the wall where they’d selected their earlier items to play with and opened the far-right door to find what he needed.

  “Oh.” Her voice was quiet, her tone unreadable.

  Declan glanced over at her, his gut twisting at the thought that maybe she wanted Rick instead. “Are you okay with that? Me having you all to myself?”

  A slow, sensual smile curved her lips as she nodded. “Yeah, I’m more than good with that.”

  An insane amount of relief poured through him, and he returned his attention to the cabinet in front of him, looking over the various items lined up on the shelves.

  Summer groaned softly from the bed. “No more toys tonight,” she pleaded playfully. “I think I’m done being poked, prodded, and having every part of me stuffed full. I’m too sensitive. Everywhere.”

  He chuckled. “Ahh, but there are so many more things to try,” he teased.

  “What are you going to do to me?” she asked, her expression skeptical.

  “I’m going to make you feel good,” he promised as he selected a bottle of edible, lickable massage oil in peach flavor. “Without poking or prodding.”

  Still naked from their earlier encounter, he approached the bed. “Covers off and lie down on your stomach.”

  She complied, resting her cheek on the pillow and arms slightly above her head in a comfortable position. He opened the new bottle, and after drizzling a line of oil down both of her legs, he started massaging her calves, then all the way up to her thighs, doing his best to soothe her abused tendons and relax her body—and ignore the hardening of his dick all over again. He’d assured her no poking and prodding, and he wasn’t going to fuck her again tonight, no matter how much his unruly body demanded otherwise.

  Summer exhaled a pleasurable, encouraging groan, and Declan kept moving upward, gently kneading the soft globes of her ass where he’d smacked her a few times with the crop. Warming more oil into his palms, he flattened his hands at the base of her spine and slid them up her back, using his thumbs to press firmly into tightly drawn muscles until he reached her shoulders. Brushing her hair aside, he kneaded the taut tendons at the base of her neck, earning him another blissful moan.

  She gradually grew pliant beneath his ministrations. “My God, that feels and smells incredible,” she said as the fruity scent permeated the air, luscious and decadent. “Like peaches.”

  He bent over her from behind and put his lips near her ear. “I bet you’re gonna taste just as good when I get around to licking you, because the massage oil is edible.”

  She shivered at his seductive words, and he moved away, to the foot of the bed again. “Turn over, kitten,” he murmured huskily.

  She rolled to her back, looking down at him with slumberous eyes as he began the process all over again, rubbing the soles of her feet before his slick hands traveled upward, until he reached the apex of her legs. Holding her gaze, he traced his thumbs along the outer flesh of her pussy, smearing the peach-flavored oil in intimate places for his tongue to find later. His touch was a deliberate teasing caress over her sensitive flesh that had her squirming and her arousal escalating. She tried to part her legs to give him access to deepen his strokes, but he denied her silent plea and moved up her body to straddle her thighs.

  Now that he had her close to where he wanted her—willing, responsive, and compliant—he decided it was time to make his intentions known. He slid his oil-slickened hands up along the curve of her waist and met her heavy-lidded gaze. “I want to see you again,” he said, doing his best not to make the statement sound like a gruff demand, as was his normal approach.

  Her head tipped curiously on the pillow. “You mean here? At The Players Club?”

  “No.” His fingers massaged her stomach, and he liked that she wasn’t self-conscious about her fuller figure, which he loved. “I want to see you outside of the club.”

  Surprise passed across her relaxed features. “So, you want to date me?” she asked, clearly trying to articulate what he was getting at. “Or is this all about having a booty call lined up until you have to return to active duty?”

  He tried not to wince at the direct tone of her voice or the pang of guilt he felt at that last question. Dating implied something more serious in his mind, and a booty call sounded crass, and he chose his response carefully. “I want to spend time with you until I leave in three weeks, and enjoy your company. Whatever that may entail. Dinners. Hanging out. Having my way with this gorgeous body,” he said as he swept his thumbs beneath the curves of her breasts and watched her nipples furl into tight points. “I want exclusive rights to fucking you.” So much for not sounding like the caveman Rick accused him of being.

  “And what happens when you leave?” she asked as he passed over the temptation of kneading her breasts and began massaging her arms instead.

  “We go our separate ways.” He refused to lie or lead her on in any way.

  Her brows furrowed slightly. “I won’t see or talk to you again?”

  “No. Not while I’m gone.” His own disappointment over that was acute, even though they’d just met tonight. “Summer . . . I’m going to be overseas for at least a year, and with what I do in the army—the traveling to third-world countries, the special missions and assignments that cut me off from contacting family or anyone else—any correspondence or maintaining any kind of relationship just isn’t feasible. I know this from personal experience.”

  He exhaled a harsh breath, hating the sadness in her eyes, which was the last thing he wanted to put there. “Trust me, we’re better off parting ways as friends when my time here is over and leaving it at that so no one gets hurt and you can find someone who can be physically present in your life on a regular basis. I can’t be that guy for you.”

  “The whole situation seems so isolating and lonely for you,” she said, her tone soft and caring.

  He forced a nonchalant shrug. “It’s what I’m used to. It’s how I’ve lived my life for over ten years, and I’m trying to be as candid with you as I can be so there aren’t any expectations about what I’m suggesting.” Done with her arms and hands, he sat back on her thighs, not wanting to move off her until they finished this conversation and she agreed to be his for the next twenty-one days. “I’m proposing a casual, no-strings-attached affair with a firm end date. That’s nonnegotiable. I want you. More than any other woman I’ve desired in a very long time. But I can’t and won’t make you any promises, and you need to know that up-front.”

  Her expression turned thoughtful as she seemingly digested everything he’d just laid out for her. “I appreciate you being so honest. It’s a lot to process.”

  The twisting sensation in his chest was an unfamiliar one—a pang of dread that she’d walk away tonight and he’d never see her again. Never touch her again. Never feel her come around his cock again. How fucking contradictory was that after the spiel he’d just given her?

  “That wasn’t the yes I was hoping for,” he said, focusing all his effort on swaying her to agree.

  A slow, sensual smile appeared on her lips. “It wasn’t a no, either,” she said, s
urprising Declan and giving him hope.

  He grinned at her, feeling a shift between them, as though their connection and attraction far outweighed any other obstacles Declan had put in her way. “Maybe I need to be more convincing,” he said, and taking a more wicked approach, he braced his hands on the mattress next to her chest. He bent down and took a nipple between his lips, sucking gently since he knew they were still tender from the clamps. The flavor of peaches filled his mouth as he swirled his tongue over and around the tight bud of flesh until she arched beneath him and moaned oh so sweetly before he released the tip with a soft popping sound.

  He lifted his gaze to her face, feeling a sense of satisfaction to see the flush of desire sweeping across her cheeks. “Maybe I need to show you what you’d be missing out on if you walked away now?”

  The sudden daring light in her eyes stole his breath—as if maybe, possibly, sometime during the past few minutes she’d come to the decision to accept his terms and agree to their brief tryst. “Yes, I think you need to try really hard to persuade me.”

  Accepting her flirty challenge, he moved down her legs, pushed them apart, and settled in between. To start with, he blew a warm gust of air across her wet, glistening sex, followed by a long, slow lap along her swollen slit that made her gasp and grip the covers next to her hips.

  “If you don’t agree to be mine for the next three weeks, you won’t get to feel my tongue on your pussy again,” he said, delicately pulling her clit into his mouth and savoring the taste of ripe, juicy peaches mixed with her own delicious flavor, “licking and eating you until you come so hard you see stars.”

  Her breathing escalated as he continued to tempt and tease her with his tongue while giving her more reasons to say yes. “You’d miss out on more hot, kinky sex.” Another soft, luxurious lick that had her hips rising to meet his mouth. “And me fucking you every way imaginable.” A leisurely swirl of his tongue over and around her clit made her thighs shake. “You wouldn’t get to feel me touching your nipples, biting them, and sucking them.”

  He slid his hands up her torso until her breasts were in his palms, and his fingers gently rolled those hard points. “No more spankings or being restrained and at my mercy while I do filthy, depraved things to your body,” he added, giving her a hot, wet, suctioning kiss between her thighs that had her crying out with need as he brought her to the verge of climax.

  He smiled against her peach-scented pussy in near victory and inhaled her essence like a drug. “Anything you want, I’ll give it to you. Anything I demand, you’ll willingly submit to.”

  A frustrated, needy sound escaped her throat, and she speared her fingers in his hair in an attempt to press his mouth harder against her sex to give her the pressure and friction she needed to end the pleasurable torment he was inflicting.

  “Declan, please . . .” she moaned desperately.

  Please was not the word he was waiting for. “Say yes, kitten,” he murmured, and lightly bit the inside of her thigh for an added sensation that made her gasp. “Say you’ll be mine, and I’ll give you the orgasm you want so badly.”

  “Yes,” she panted, begging him, willingly surrendering to him. “Yes, I’ll be yours. All yours.”

  “And you’re coming home with me tonight,” he added, and the remark wasn’t a request but a statement of fact.

  “Yes. I’ll do anything you want,” she said deliriously, her fingers pulling on his hair impatiently. “Just please give me my orgasm.”

  A primitive kind of satisfaction rushed through his veins, and with her acquiescence, he didn’t hesitate to end her suffering, along with the ache he’d built that needed to be assuaged. Opening his mouth over her pussy, he proceeded to ravish her, reveling in the way she writhed and trembled beneath the onslaught and lash of his tongue.

  Her breathing grew more labored, and she threw her head back, thighs trembling against the sides of his face as her climax rose up hot and fast inside her. He homed in on her clit, and she exploded with an uninhibited scream that echoed in the playroom.

  As she floated back down from her cloud of sublime pleasure, replete from the orgasm he’d given her, only one gratifying thought filled his mind.

  For three weeks, she was all his.

  Chapter Six

  “Wake up, kitten.”

  Summer slowly stirred to the arousing feel of warm lips nuzzling her neck and those coaxing words whispered in her ear in a husky masculine voice. Smiling like a woman who’d enjoyed many glorious orgasms during the course of the night—and morning hours—she let her eyelashes flutter open and elongated her body in a catlike stretch beneath the covers that had her groaning in contentment.

  Remembering she was in Declan’s bed, in the home he’d brought her to after leaving the club, she turned her head and found him reclining casually on his side next to her, his head propped up with his hand, looking wide-awake and too energetic when he should have been just as exhausted and wasted as she felt. His hair was mussed, and a golden scruff lined his jaw and chin, which only added to his rugged appeal and made his hazel eyes appear the color of rich whiskey.

  Heat and awareness slid through her veins, a reaction she was getting used to when it came to him. God, it wasn’t fair that he could look so damn sexy and gorgeous in the morning, when Summer imagined she was a complete hot mess after a night of unending debauchery.

  “Morning,” he murmured, grinning at her as he brushed long strands of her disheveled hair away from her face. “How are you feeling?”

  “Like I could sleep for the rest of the day.” As if on cue, a big yawn escaped her, and she covered her mouth with the back of her hand until it passed.

  “You can stay in bed for the rest of the morning and afternoon if you’d like,” he said indulgently.

  “You wore me out,” she murmured, her tone threaded with a playful accusation.

  “Guilty as charged.” He didn’t look the least bit contrite. “And just to point out, not once did I hear you complain or say no more when I had my hands and mouth on your body.”

  She bit back a smile and shivered at the decadent memories, and how rapacious he’d been even after they’d left The Players Club. The man clearly was making up for lost time without sex, and she was reaping the benefits.

  “You’re very persuasive,” she replied and realized that while she was still naked beneath the covers, he was wearing a T-shirt that molded to his broad shoulders and chest and what looked like running shorts.

  “Why are you already dressed?” she asked curiously.

  “Because I’m about to head out for my morning jog,” he explained. “I’ve been up for a while. You were sleeping so soundly you didn’t even hear me getting dressed. And I’m really sorry to get you up, but I didn’t want you to wake up alone in a strange house while I’m gone and wonder where I am.”

  “Oh. Okay.” That totally made sense, considering they’d arrived at Declan’s place past midnight, it had mostly been dark inside, and she didn’t even know the layout of the house. She would have been concerned had she not known where he was.

  “You can go back to sleep, or you can take a shower while I’m out and I’ll have breakfast with you when I get back.” He gave her an endearingly hopeful look for a man who wasn’t categorically the charming type.

  “I’d like that,” she said to the latter.

  He moved off the bed and stood by the side for a few extra seconds, hands on his lean hips and his gaze meeting hers tentatively—another anomaly for this alpha male who’d oozed confidence since the moment she’d met him.

  Finally, he spoke. “Spend the day with me?”

  It was a thoughtful request, giving her a choice in the matter. Not a blunt demand like all the others he’d made last night, and that noticeable change in him made something in her chest flutter. He genuinely wanted to spend time with her, and honestly, she wanted the same. It was a Sunday, she didn’t have work, and the only thing waiting for her at her apartment was dirty laundry. Her decisio
n was a no-brainer.

  “I’d like that, too,” she said with a smile.

  His grin was so wide it crinkled the skin around his eyes. “Then consider it a date as soon as I get back.”

  A date that wasn’t a real date, according to his spiel the night before, but she’d take it and enjoy the time with him.

  “I’ll see you in a little while,” he said, and walked out of the bedroom, closing the door behind him.

  Sighing, she pulled his pillow to her chest, inhaling the scent that was uniquely his, already putting these simple things to memory because she knew three weeks with him were going to fly by fast.

  When he’d told her last night that he wanted to see her again, she’d been elated, followed by disappointment when he’d added stipulations to that clause. Three weeks of bliss, and they’d go their separate ways. Even though a part of her understood his reasons for keeping their affair casual, it had felt like an all-or-nothing proposition, and the thought of walking away from Declan, even after only knowing him a few hours, wasn’t something she was willing to do.

  Her decision to say yes wasn’t all about the promise of hot sex, either. When he’d admitted that he wanted her more than any other woman he’d desired in a very long time, well, that confession had clinched the deal, because she felt the same way about him. And considering the kind of combat he’d most likely return to for a year or more, she wanted to give him something good and memorable to look back on.

  After their conversation, she was going into this situation with her eyes wide open, knowing and accepting that nothing would come of their short time together. He was a man who didn’t do relationships or commitment, and for good reason. She respected him for being so up-front and honest with her from the get-go, even if a part of her knew the potential for heartbreak on her end was possible. It was a risk she was willing to take.

  After one more languorous stretch, she got out of bed and padded to the adjoining bathroom completely naked, smiling at the brand-new packaged toothbrush sitting on the vanity, along with fresh towels. The thoughtful gesture warmed her. She dared to glance in the mirror and wasn’t too shocked by what was reflected. Yes, her hair was tousled, but it looked . . . surprisingly sexy. She had slight smudge marks beneath her eyes from her liner, but her skin had a rosy glow to it, and her eyes sparkled happily. And the rest of her body, well, there were various faint red marks here and there, but she’d enjoyed receiving all of them.