When I reach her shoulder, I remove the blindfold from my back pocket and gently place it over her head until I’m sliding it down over her face, ensuring I stay far away from the stitches that are lower down on her head. Then I do what I ache to do: I lean down and kiss her mouth, licking my tongue across hers and sucking it into my mouth, tasting every little inch of her, until I’ve had my fill.
“Are you hurting at all?” I ask when I break the kiss.
“No.”
“Good girl.” I slide my fingers over her round belly, while using the other hand to reach for the bundle of rope I’ve left on the table.
Slowly, taking my time, as I’ve always liked rope work, I move around the table tying her wrists and then her ankles until she’s bound, though not completely. I like—and crave—to watch her move while I enjoy her, but still keep her bound enough that she’ll feel restrained and trapped to my desires.
Once I tie the final knot on her ankle, I move to the fridge and take out the small glass of ice cubes I’d prepared earlier from the freezer before returning to her. Her breath hitches when I place the glass down on the table and her head turns in that direction. I’m sure she’s curious what I’m doing, but I want the unknown to happen. I want the woman who loves control to be completely out of it. I want her totally in my hands. That’s how she’ll surrender to me, and it’s tempting enough I want to absorb her submission.
I’m careful not to make too much noise when I take one of the ice cubes out of the glass and place the tip into my mouth to dampen it. Then I drag the ice cube across her lip, giving her a taste of what’s to come. She gasps, arching off the table and parting her lips.
“More?” I ask again.
“Please,” she whispers, flicking out her tongue.
The begging nature of her voice wrecks me, testing my control. I flick open my jeans and reach for my cock, stroking myself to soothe the ache, while I drag the ice down the center of her chest and swirl it over each nipple, causing a harsher moan.
Not allowing the high to fade, I drop the ice back into the glass and then I lick up the droplets of water left on her flesh, blazing heat across the icy path. But I’m not nearly done with her, not even close.
“More?” I ask.
“More,” she breathes.
Her chest is falling and rising rapidly when I reach for a leather crop that has a round-tip, black-glass dildo instead of a handle. When I drag the leather down one of her arms, she arches beautifully off my table, begging for its tingly hit.
Perfection.
I drag the crop from her arm, over the curve of her breast, down her stomach, and over the top of her thigh. I watch her breathing, and just as she inhales, I smack the flat end of the crop against her swollen clit. She moans, arching again into the sensation.
Determined to bring that sensation higher, I walk around her, tapping her flesh as I do, her thighs, her nipples, her sex; I don’t stop until her breathing becomes raspy and thick and I notice her legs trembling a little. Then I slide the cool glass dildo of the crop against her skin, and her soft, eager moan tightens my groin.
I reach for a fresh ice cube and insert it into my mouth. Standing beside her, I drag the glass dildo down her body and lean over her in the same moment, and as I hold the ice within my lips, I drag it over her clit to introduce her to the sensation. She shivers beneath me, and then I don’t stop.
Over and over again, I drag the ice atop her clit, until she’s arching against her restraints. Then I swallow the remainder of the ice and drag the flat of my ice-cold tongue over her swollen little bud, while inserting the glass dildo inside her soaking wet folds.
She gives me a sharp gasp that aches in my balls as she begins working her hips in the same movement that I’m thrusting the dildo inside her. I tongue her, bringing her higher, and I stroke the dildo into a rhythm she can’t ignore.
But she’s hanging in there.
“More?” I ask.
She arches off the table. “God, yes—”
I blow against her ice-cold clit, and that’s all it takes. A high-pitched scream blasts through the air and then she’s coming hard, her entire body a quivering mess of satisfaction, as I pump the dildo into her with fast strokes.
When her screams quiet and her body goes lax, I smile to myself, withdrawing the dildo and placing it onto the cloth I’ve left on the table. While her orgasm continues to play out with small shudders and she slowly drifts down from the high, I remove the ropes from her feet and move to her hands, leaving the bindings attached to the table, except for one. I grab that piece of rope, as well as a clip I’ve left on the counter, and then I remove her blindfold.
Her eyes slowly open, and while they’re sedate, the moment she sees me, pants open and cock out, they heat again.
“More?” I ask.
“More,” she rasps.
My cock twitches and throbs, as I help her sit up, then reach for her wrists and bind them in front of her, not surprised that her breath hitches as she watches me. Just the way I like her, in ropes. She likes me putting her in them, I’m sure.
Once I’ve created the second cuff, I insert a clip into the middle of her bound wrists before finishing up with the knot. Then I lift her off the table, holding on to her until she finds her footing, all the while shoving my pants down to the ground.
When she’s solid on her feet, I lead her by her bound wrists to the black leather tantra chair in my living room and take a seat, tugging her with me, helping her climb onto my lap. I place her bound hands over my left shoulder and clip her to the metal loop there. Then I grab her sexy round ass and lower her onto my cock.
A girl like Hadley takes what she wants. And she’s high, higher than maybe she’s ever been, and it’s no surprise that she comes to orgasm fast, grinding herself against me. I slap her bottom with both hands again…and again…and again, letting her use me to get herself off.
Her raspy moans excite me. But it’s the way she watches me that builds pressure in my groin. It’s the way she’s bouncing atop me. It’s the way her sexy body is joined with mine. But it’s her eyes that drive me wild, because there’s something special in them. Something that owns me so completely.
But this night is mine. Tonight she doesn’t take my pleasure. I give it to her.
Just when my balls tighten to blow, I grasp her hips, pushing her onto her feet, withdrawing my cock from her tight heat, ass up in the air. From below her, I thrust my fingers into her soaking wet folds, thrusting hard and fast, until she’s coming on my fingers.
“More?” I ask, grasping her chin.
“Mmmm…” she barely manages.
I slide out from beneath her arms and unclip her from the chair. Then, keeping her on her knees, lifting her hips to where I want them, I clip her to a loop on the other side of the chair, near the seat.
“Show me that pretty ass, Hadley,” I murmur, stepping in behind her.
She does so, wiggling her bottom, offering herself to me.
I place one knee on the chair and my other foot up next to her leg and reach around, massaging her breasts, tweaking her nipples. She wiggles her bottom again against my cock until the tip is at her entrance. I don’t give her what she wants, though; instead I lean away and bite her ass…hard.
She screams a sound of pleasure, and it’s in that moment I rise up and enter her, right to the hilt. She arches against me and I lean over her, pumping my rock-hard cock into her warmth.
Now I take my pleasure. She’s bound in the way I’ve wanted her to be, screaming out in the pleasure I’m giving her. Owned by me. Possessed by me. Safe in my arms.
It’s enough to make me blow. I can’t wait. Don’t want to wait.
“I’m going to use this sweet little cunt to come.” I grasp both hips and slam forward against her ass, clenching my jaw as pressure builds and builds.
“Yes!” She places her head between her bound arms, quivering against me. “Don’t stop. I’m right there…”
I slap h
er ass. Hard.
Then she’s wild beneath me, causing my orgasm to hit with little warming. A growl rises from deep in my chest and my muscles contract, holding me captive…until I’m bucking and jerking my release, and I’m roaring, finally doing what I should’ve done so long ago.
Claimed her.
Chapter 23
Ryder
Sometime later, we’re dressed again and standing in my kitchen, the crop and rope all put away, and I’m pouring Hadley a glass of wine. “I need to go,” I say softly, not surprised to hear her squeak of objection. I turn to her and hand her the wineglass. “Remember the trouble with the tabloid?”
“Yeah,” she says, accepting the glass.
“This has to do with that, nothing more, nothing less. You don’t need to be involved, and truthfully, I don’t either. After tonight, this will be finished, and there won’t be another night I’ll have to leave you for anyone.”
“God, don’t say it like that,” she exclaims, placing the wineglass down on the counter. “You make me sound so needy.”
“You, Hadley Winters, are anything but needy,” I tell her straight, leaning against the counter, folding my arms. “But it so happens that I’m a needy man and I don’t want to leave you alone.”
She smiles and stands on her tiptoes, kissing me like she means it.
A sudden knock at the door has her looking away before she looks curiously back at me. “That’s Alex,” I tell her.
She reads between the lines. “Ryder, I do not need a babysitter,” she grumbles, putting space between us. “Tobias is in jail. The hitman is dead. You did some crazy emotional intervention tonight. I’m okay to be alone.” She turns, I assume to promptly tell Alex to go away.
I grasp her wrist, stopping her in her tracks. “Don’t you go anywhere.” I step forward until she’s walking backward, and when I have her trapped between my body and the kitchen cabinet, I add, “Alex would tear a strip off you if she ever heard you say she’s your babysitter.” I lean down, inhaling her scent. It’s a mix between flowers and vanilla, and it’s all hers. “I called her to come over tonight because I want you to get to know a friend of mine, and there would be no one better than Alex.”
Hadley nibbles her lip, watching me carefully, and then finally shrugs. “Okay, you’re forgiven. Let her in.”
I kiss her again, quickly but efficiently, then move to the door and open it.
Alex gives me a grin and holds up two bottles of wine. “Just so you know, I’m not working tonight. Like, at all. Hadley and I are getting shitfaced.”
I chuckle, moving out of the way so she can enter. “Good. You’ll both entertain me.”
“No, we won’t, because when you get back, you’re getting shitfaced with us, too. After all this, we deserve it.” Alex steps forward, but stops then reaches into her pocket and hands me a note. “You’ll need this tonight.” Then she moves into the kitchen and both women hastily ignore me, chatting about the gorgeous Gabriel Macht, whoever that is.
I smile, pleased that Hadley didn’t fight letting Alex inside. Because her being there made me feel better, and I’m glad to see them getting on so well. I guess I’m not ready to leave her alone yet. And it’s true that I want Hadley to meet those who mean a lot to me. And Alex is one of them.
I glance at the note Alex gave me, reading her handwriting and sighing to myself. Then I look up again. Hadley lifts her very full wineglass to her mouth and gives me a little wave.
I smile in return.
Determined to return to her fast, I leave my loft through the front door. Two of my favorite people are back at my place, and there’s something pretty damn great about that, I decide as I move into the parking lot.
Right away, I spot Darius, Gabe, and Micah waiting for me outside headquarters.
When I reach them, I wave them forward. “Come on.” I get us inside and past my security quickly, and then I lead them into the command center, which is empty tonight. My team deserved a couple days off after the last few days, and they got it.
I move into the briefing room and flick on the lights, and once everyone takes their seat at the table, I get right to the point of why I’ve called them here. “Earlier tonight I gave away my club.”
“Come again?” asks Micah, giving me a puzzled look.
I laugh softly and explain, “I contacted the manager I’ve had running Impulse for some time now. I told her I wanted to wash my hands of the club and asked her if she wanted the title of the building transferred to her to accept full ownership of the club, and she happily agreed.”
“Well, of course she did,” says Darius, exchanging a long look with the others before addressing me again. “You honestly walked away from all the money you put into that building?”
“That’s right. I’m out,” I reply, glancing among them. “This is the last time we’ll meet like this. The next time we meet, I want Hadley to be introduced to your women and for us to do what we should be doing, spending time together as friends. Not dealing with tabloids, and not discussing sex clubs that three out of four of us no longer have any interest in.” Our priorities had changed. Our lives had changed. We didn’t want lots of kinky sex with plenty of women. We wanted lots of kinky sex with one woman. “Tonight I proposed to Hadley,” I continue, knowing I was dropping a lot of information on them at once. “That means the past needs to be cleaned up neatly and put to rest for good.”
Gabe slowly shakes his head, as if confused, then frowns at me. “Let me get this straight. The Dominants’ Council, which had four members a little over a month ago, is now nonexistent?”
“Yes,” I confirm.
He curses, then adds, “How in the hell did this happen so fast? You’ve all been domesticated.”
Micah scowls at Gabe before he turns to me and asks without the scowl, “I’m still stuck on something else you said. You proposed to Hadley? The last time we saw you, you wanted nothing to do with her.”
“Well, a lot can happen in a handful of days.” And a lot had happened.
“Apparently that’s true,” he goes on. “Well, then, let me be the first to congratulate you and Hadley. This is wonderful news.”
“It is. Thank you.” I smile.
Micah adds, “But please explain what transpired that has you doing something so very unlike you?”
I draw in a deep breath, not wanting to relive what Hadley and I had been through, but the guys need to hear it all. Knowing that, I begin, “It all started when Hadley received a video…”
There’s not a detail I leave out, because there is nothing I don’t share with these men. That’s our oath. That’s our friendship. Whatever is said here won’t leave this room. They need to know what they’re facing now. Because for me to step away, they need to take control of this.
I finish with, “Which brings me to now. Tobias Harrington and the other crony are in jail. Viktor Sokolov is dead.”
Darius’s brows furrow over his intense eyes as he scrubs a hand across his stubble. “Just to be clear, so there’s no misunderstanding here: the governor, our governor, is the reason our stories have been told to the tabloids?”
I nod, understanding his surprise. “In part, yes.”
Micah asks, “What’s the other part?”
“Harrington hired someone to plant the bugs in your pub,” I report to Gabe. “They didn’t do it themselves, and it’s that person who’s selling the information to the tabloids.”
Gabe thrusts a hand through his hair, a familiar frown marring his face. “Why do I have a feeling I’m not going to like this?”
“Because you probably won’t,” I tell him, and get straight to the point. “Earlier I asked Alex to send a signal disrupting one of the bugs so that it would appear broken. I knew whoever planted it was still using the information to sell to the tabloids, so I knew they’d go in and fix it.”
Darius asks, “Did they?”
I nod. “It’s McKenna.”
Gabe’s eyes slowly begin to narrow. “
Not my Kenna.”
“Sadly, yes, that McKenna,” I say gently, because I sympathize with what he must be feeling. He cares for McKenna, the bartender at his pub, and has for some time now, and everyone at this table knows that.
“You have video of her doing this?” Micah asks.
I shake my head. “No, but she used her security code to get into the locked room where Gabe keeps his servers. She entered the code an hour ago, two minutes later the security feed went down. She entered the code again, the feed went back up.”
Gabe’s eyes are directly on me and focused. “Please explain to me how you knew in the first place that someone at my pub was behind this? What changed? You thought this was about the senator and had nothing to do with us.”
I run a hand over my tired eyes and start to explain. “I went to talk to the governor earlier and had some leverage on him that got him talking. He told me that he paid an employee at your pub to obtain certain information about the senator, hoping I’d leak information.”
Micah instantly picks up where my thoughts took me, too. “But he didn’t mention the tabloids to her?”
“He had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned the magazine,” I tell the group.
“And you believe him?” Micah asks.
I give a firm nod. “I do.”
“While I trust your judgment,” says Darius, fiddling with the button of his cuff, “there’s some logic missing here. If she were already being paid good money to place the bugs in Gabe’s pub, why would she go even further and sell stories to the tabloids for more money?”
“That’s what I don’t know,” I explain. “Does she seem like someone after a lot of money?” I ask Gabe.
“No,” he says, glaring down at the table.
I gently offer, “I can have my team dig deeper and see what they can come up with.”
Everyone looks to Gabe, as that’s his choice now.
“Dig as far as you can possibly dig…and then dig even deeper.” He lifts his head, his eyes dark, betrayal in their depths. “Then she’ll answer for why she burned me.”
Restrained Under His Duty Page 19