by Sara Fawkes
Holy hell, that hurt. And felt good. Oh God, she couldn’t even tell where the pain ended and the pleasure began. The leather ribbons caressed her roughly, wakening nerves and forcing blood to rush to the tender crevice between her legs.
She was close, so close, and she couldn’t believe it was because he was flicking her with a whip.
One more flick, and the taut string of her need snapped. She screamed as the sensation whipped through her, hot and hard. A noise roared in her ears, the sound like the waves outside, and she tensed as the pleasure lanced through her.
It left her weak in the knees. Little quivers were still making her tremble when she felt Marco unfastening her cuffs. She blinked owlishly as he gestured to someone, and a young woman dressed in neon yellow leather hot pants and a bright red bra scurried over with a fuzzy blanket and a bottle of water.
As if from a distance, Ariel noticed the girl give her one wide-eyed stare of recognition.
She didn’t care.
Marco wrapped her in the blanket, then picked her up in his arms. Something nagged at Ariel’s mind, even through the haze of contentment she felt at being held so tightly.
Finally, realizing what it was as he settled onto a sofa in an area with several others, some with blankets, some without, she turned to look him in the face.
“What about you?”
MARCO GROUND HIS teeth together at the innocent question and tried to hide it. He was trying to prove a point, to show her that he was interested in her beyond taking his own pleasure quickly, but the truth was that his cock was hard to the point of aching.
He wanted to be inside Ariel’s soft heat more than he wanted his next breath.
Soon, he told himself. It was almost time.
“Ssh, baby. This isn’t the time for questions. It’s time simply to enjoy being with one another.” He lifted his hand to smooth it through her hair, but she brushed it away, ducking her head.
“Marco, please. Let me . . .” Ariel’s voice trailed off, and he watched as a rosy blush spread over her cheeks.
His feisty little starlet was embarrassed to say the words. As a Dom, that only made him want to push her out of her comfort zone.
“Let you what, baby?” Her mouth snapped shut when she realized that he was going to make her say it. He waited, patient, and her sweet expression turned to a glare.
“Scowling at your Dom can be risky, baby.” His palm itched to give her a warning tap on the round cheek of her ass, but he refrained.
“You’re not my Dom.” Her smart mouth only turned him on more, but he hid his grin.
“Is that so?” Shoving away the blanket, he wrapped one arm around Ariel’s waist and, with the other hand, undid the zipper of his pants.
She hissed when his erection sprang free of his pants, pushing into the flesh of that delectable, heart-shaped ass.
“Your mouth says one thing, but your body is telling me another thing altogether.” Holding her in place as she sputtered above him, Marco worked the foil packet of a condom out of his pocket, ripping into the wrapper with his teeth.
She recoiled at the noise, tension stiffening her body.
“Marco! There are people right here.” There were indeed, Marco knew, and some of them would even watch. A touch of voyeurism often added to his excitement, and he had a hunch that Ariel, with the career she had chosen, would be the same.
Though it was difficult to do with one hand, he managed to sheath his erection with the condom. Then he slid his fingers through her folds and found that she was still wet.
He grinned against the naked skin of her back. She was turned on by the thought of others watching, no matter what she said, or even what she thought.
“You have your safe word,” he reminded her then, tugging the strings of her panties to one side, positioned his cock at her entrance and pushed in. “Fuck, yes.”
He groaned as he slowly pushed his way into her tight, wet heat. Her cunt was a vise around him, pulling at him, and he knew that he wasn’t going to last long, not this first time.
“Marco!” Ariel gasped as, clasping her by the hips, he pulled her down until he was fully seated inside of her.
She didn’t use her safe word though he could still feel the tension radiating through her body.
“You can say I’m not your Dom, but your reaction to me doesn’t lie. You are mine to do with as I will,” he reminded her, pulling out a bit, then surging forward again. “Right now, I want others to see you, to want you, and to know that you’re mine. You want it too, if you’ll admit it to yourself. You want to please me.”
He felt her suck in a breath, and she tightened around him. His arm tightening around her waist, he pressed his forehead against her spine, which was slick with sweat.
She felt so fucking good.
On his next thrust upwards, he peered over her shoulder. He saw Alexander, one of Mancusi’s longtime employees, with a curvaceous redhead held tight in his arms. Alexander winked at Marco as he slid his hand into the shorts the stunning redhead was wearing, eliciting a gasp from the woman.
He knew that Ariel could see what was happening in front of her, that she knew the other couple’s lust was fueled by her own.
Though he didn’t think she knew it, he felt her body go from tense and resistant to pliant and open. From the direction her head was turned, he knew that her stare was trained on the other couple. He understood why and wasn’t the least bit threatened—the tall Greek Dom and his curvaceous sub were stunning together.
The lust of each couple fueled the other. As Alexander removed the top of his sub and began to caress her breasts, he did the same, pulling at Ariel’s nipples and savoring their response.
Her entire body tightened with excitement, and Marco moaned, not sure how much longer he could last against her suddenly frenzied movements. His hand splayed flat on her belly, he pushed the other couple from his mind and pulled Ariel back to meet his every thrust. He heard the grunts escaping him as the beginnings of a mind-numbing release began to tighten at the base of his spine, spreading into the heavy weight of his testicles.
“Ariel.” He gasped out her name and slid his hand from her belly to the hard nub of her clit. He didn’t waste time, plucking at the stiff flesh with his thumb and forefinger until she pushed down onto his lap and vibrated with her release.
One more push into her seductive heat, and he felt his arousal drawing up the shaft of his cock. He came with a roar as he emptied himself into her, his arms clutching tightly to the woman he was inside.
She relaxed before he did, and the Dom in him smiled as she fell back against him, spent. He wanted to stay nestled in her soft heat, but they hadn’t yet had a discussion about birth control, and it was better to be safe.
She hissed as he pulled out and tugged the condom off of his still-semihard cock. He tossed it into one of the bins that stood by the couch for just that purpose, then returned his attention to Ariel.
He thought that she might have fallen asleep, she was so quiet and still, but then she murmured something that he had to lean forward to catch.
“When I have the strength to move, I’m going to turn you over my knee for this.” After a stunned moment at her boldness, he burst into laughter, and, a second later, she joined in, her giggles pressing her body into him in interesting ways.
“All right, little sub.” Wrapping her in the blanket again, he stood, his muscles flexing as he kept her in his arms while he moved. Before he could stop himself, he pressed a light kiss into the flaxen hair that was falling out the satin tie.
“I think that’s quite enough for one night.”
Chapter Five
“YOU’RE GOING THE wrong way.” Ariel frowned for the first time since leaving the extensive area that Mancusi and Alexander had set up for Fetish Week. She was still wrapped in the blanket, and in Marco’s arms.
The comfort from being so simply held was the icing on the cake of great sex. She’d have to remember this in two days’ time, when sh
e was surely left with a broken heart and wondering why on earth she’d agreed to this in the first place.
“Indeed I’m not.” Ariel had caught glimpses of another facet of Marco while they were playing, one that was more open than the charismatic businessman. But then, as now, he was in control.
It was really hot.
“What are you talking about?” Squirming, she tried to extricate herself from his arms but had no luck. The man might wear suits, but he was built.
She hadn’t had a chance to see him naked yet, and that was a shame. She needed to remedy that as soon as possible . . . after he took her to her room.
“Look, Marco, I’m really tired. Let’s call it a night, and we can . . . um . . . start again in the morning.” She wasn’t lying—the evening had exhausted her. But more than that, she wanted some time to herself, time to sort through what had happened and to shore up some of the reserves that Marco had so effortlessly smashed through.
“I’m tired as well.” Undeterred, Marco swiped the keycard, then kicked open the door to his room. It was nearly identical to hers . . . in fact, for a moment her tired brain wondered if they were indeed in hers. There was her suitcase . . . her toiletries bag . . .
“Marco, what the hell.” She elbowed him in the gut, and, when he whooshed out a breath, she slithered from his arms. Arms akimbo, she faced him, her jaw set.
“You had my stuff brought here? Didn’t you ever hear the little saying about people who assume?” Frustrated and exhausted, Ariel yanked the satin tie from her hair, then raked her fingers through it.
“I want your complete submission, Ariel.” Marco’s voice was quiet but stern. When she looked into his eyes, she again experienced the sensation of being hunted. “And I don’t always play fair to get what I want. For the next two days, unless I plan otherwise, we will be together.”
Ariel’s mouth fell open in shock. People didn’t talk to her like this—people bent over backwards to make her happy.
Her mind was still working this through as Marco peeled her dress up and over her head and undid the bows at the sides of her damp panties with ease.
She shivered, more with cold than with nerves. Marco frowned at the gooseflesh that prickled her skin, rubbing his hands briskly up and down her arms to warm her.
“Do you have to use the bathroom?” he asked.
She blinked as he retrieved a plain white T-shirt from a masculine-looking leather suitcase. Bunching the cotton up so that it could easily be slid over her head, he dressed her in the T-shirt, smoothing it down over her hips.
The cotton was light but warmed her skin. She sniffed at the shoulder surreptitiously, and, when she scented a hint of his cologne, found herself a little weak in the knees.
“The bathroom, Ariel. Do you need it?” She pursed her lips together as he repeated his question. Cologne or not, she wasn’t sure she liked the fact that she’d been involuntarily moved into his room.
“You know, that’s not a level of detail that most lovers ask for.” Flippantly, she turned on her heel and sashayed to the far side of the king-size bed. The sheets had already been turned down, and as she slid between them, her shivers returned for a moment until the space between the cotton and her body heated.
“Perhaps not lovers that you’ve had.” Ariel watched warily as Marco stalked—there was really no other word for it—around the bed, bending over her. Thinking she was about to get a good night kiss, and smiling at the sweetness of it, she started when she felt something cool click around her wrist.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
Bolting upright, Ariel gaped at the cuff that was now locked around her wrist. It was attached to a length of fine, almost delicate-looking chain, then to another cuff that Marco clicked around the iron bar in the headboard.
After running a finger between the cuff and her wrist, he walked away from the bed, stripping out of his clothes as he walked. Through her outrage, she noted that he simply dropped his clothes where he left them, probably, she thought, because he paid someone to pick them up.
“Marco”—Ariel tried to make her voice sound as reasonable as she could—“this really isn’t necessary. If you want me here overnight so badly, you could just ask.”
Marco turned and winked at her as he pulled off his pants and, with them, his briefs. Ariel nearly swallowed her tongue when she was treated to her first sight of Marco Kennedy in all of his naked, fantastic glory.
His body suited his height: brawny, with sharply defined muscles. His golden skin stretched tight over his washboard abs, and her fingers itched to trace the ripples of hard flesh.
His hipbones were narrow, and . . . she sucked in a breath . . . his cock was standing at attention again, jutting forward from its nest of dark, silky hair.
“The cuffs have nothing to do with keeping you here all night, Miss Monroe.”
Completely comfortable in his nakedness, Marco made his way to the bed, climbing beneath the sheets and bringing a rush of cool air to Ariel’s skin as he did.
When she shivered, he reached out for her, pulled her down to the pillows and in close to his long, lean frame.
“Marco . . .” she began, as he pressed his front to her back. His erection nestled into the soft flesh of her bottom. She tensed, waiting for his hands to move to the expected places, but instead he wrapped one arm around her waist and seemed to settle in.
His other hand toyed with the cuff that fastened her to the bed. The chain was long enough and thin enough that she could sleep normally, but if she tugged, it was a sharp reminder of her restraint.
“I told you that I wouldn’t play fair,” Marco reminded her as he tucked the extra length of the chain beneath her pillow. Brushing his lips over the base of her skull, he nipped at her earlobe and chuckled when she started. “The cuff is another reminder of your submission. Another reminder that you don’t have to worry because you are with me.”
Ariel opened her mouth, then closed it again. She felt like she should argue, but she found that she didn’t actually want to.
Despite the fact that she was handcuffed to a bed, she was . . . content. She couldn’t deny that she quite enjoyed the sensation of being cradled in the arms of this big, strong man.
Pondering that, Ariel let her mind wander back through the strangeness of the day. She had barely begun hashing through the moment that Marco had proposed his bargain to her when she felt the foggy tendrils of sleep weaving their way through her mind.
Within moments, she was asleep, the hand with the cuff cradled beneath her cheek, the scent of Marco’s cologne in her nose.
PLEASURE TEASED AT the edges of Ariel’s dreams. She felt her nipples peak and her breath quicken as she slowly worked her way out of sleep.
She opened her eyes to find Marco’s ridiculously handsome face right above her.
“Morning, baby.” He dropped a quick kiss onto her nose at the same time that he spread her legs and pushed inside of her. She cried out as he hilted inside of flesh that was still tender from the night before, trying to close her legs against the onslaught of sensation. “Awake yet?”
She tried to glare up at his cheerful grin but found her eyes rolling back in her head as he set a relentless pace, his flesh slapping against hers as he rode her. She found herself arching up to meet his thrusts, rubbing against the friction of his coarse hair on her clit.
His fingers found her clit, and he rubbed it hard and fast as he picked up the pace. Her entire body tensed with need as pleasure coiled tightly inside of her. Within moments, she felt the muscles of her womb clench, then the bright sunshine of her orgasm burst through her body, sending tingles of bliss all the way to her toes.
Marco seated himself between her legs, groaning as his own release overtook him. She watched, fascinated, as the tycoon lost control of himself in her body.
They lay there, panting, for a long moment. As the sweat dried in the breeze from the fan above them, Marco propped himself up on his elbows and smirked d
own at her.
“Sleep well?”
She pursed her lips as she regarded him. She wasn’t about to admit it to him, but she’d slept better than she had in . . . well, years. Ever since she’d signed her first record deal, she’d had trouble sleeping, the constant need to exceed her past successes dogging her every step.
But last night . . . last night, held so tightly in Marco’s arms, all of her demons had stayed far, far away.
“Are you keeping me chained here all day?” Ariel arched an eyebrow at him, waving her cuffed hand in the air. Marco caught it in his long fingers and pressed a kiss to her palm.
Pressing some mechanism on the circle of silver, the cuffs opened. Ariel was flustered from the sweet kiss on her hand but still noticed that he hadn’t needed a key.
“They aren’t locked?” She felt foolish, and pulled away as soon as her wrist was free, gathering the bedsheet around her, which was silly since she was still wearing his T-shirt. “I could have left at any time?”
Scrambling off of the bed, Ariel turned to face him, her feet planted, frustration riding her.
She thought she saw something flicker in Marco’s eyes, but it was gone before she could be certain.
“You could have, yes. But would you have?” Rising from the bed, looking like nothing so much as a Greek god, he stalked his way across the floor toward her.
Ariel took a step back, but then he was on her. He dragged the bedsheet from around her hips and hoisted her over his shoulder.
“Marco!” Conflicted, Ariel slapped the palm of her hand across the flat of his back. “Not okay!”
She cringed as a thrill went through her. God, but the way he just took charge was so sexy. There was none of the fluttering around her like most people.
Oh, if those people could see her now, inelegantly slung over Marco’s shoulder as he strode toward the massive bathroom.
“Marco, no.” Ariel pushed back against him as he unceremoniously set her back on her feet, inside the monstrous shower. Turning the knobs, he first drenched her with cold water. Ariel shrieked as the burn of icy water hit her. It felt like fire on her tender ass and cunt, and her nipples contracted so quickly that it hurt.