His Private Pleasure

by Donna Kauffman

  She began pushing against his mouth, levering herself closer when he started to move away.

  “Like that, do you?” he murmured.

  “If you have to ask, you’re not as smart as I thought,” she said, a bit on the breathless side.

  Chuckling, he let her hands go and supported her back as she straightened, then abruptly stepped back and reached for the wine.

  “What are you doing?” She pushed her hair from her face, and he was pleased to see that her hand was a bit shaky. He wondered when someone had last gotten her off balance. And why he cared. He was enjoying the hell out of being the one doing it now, and that was all that mattered. Right? Eventually it would be her turn to make him pay. He could hardly wait.

  But for now, he was liking his turn too much to relinquish it. “You said you wanted another glass of wine.” He split what little remained of the bottle between the two glasses, then picked hers up and handed it to her.

  She stared at him for a long moment, then reached for the glass.

  “Uh-uh,” he said, pulling it back. “I want to.”

  “You want to what?” Her tone was a tiny bit wary, but her pupils were still swallowing up all that aqua blue. He intended to keep them that way.

  “Open your mouth.” He grinned. “Without saying anything.”

  She smirked at him, then opened her mouth. But snapped it shut again just as he lifted the glass. “I’ll have you know that wine doesn’t come out of silk. Or white cotton for that matter.”

  “I imagine you packed other clothes, right?”

  She actually spluttered. “You wouldn’t.”

  He laughed and wrapped a hand around the side of her waist and tugged her close. “I’m not going to ruin those sexy, clingy clothes of yours. And if I do, I’ll replace them. Problem solved. Now open up.”

  She glared at him and stuck her tongue out.

  “Not exactly what I had in mind.”

  She merely left it stuck out there and shrugged, but her eyes were flashing, all but begging him.

  “Fine then.” He tipped the glass to his own mouth instead, took a small swig, then abruptly snugged her head to his and drew that pointed tongue of hers into his mouth…and let the wine trickle back into hers. He kept her tongue hostage until all the wine was gone, then ran his own over her lips, catching the tiny trickle that had escaped the corner of her mouth. “Mmm.” He lifted his head, and offered her the glass. “You want to try some?”

  “You’d trust me after pulling that little stunt?”

  He smiled and dropped a quick kiss on her lips. “You want me to do it again, don’t you?” He kissed her again, only held it longer this time. “Don’t you?”

  “I think you’ve done quite enough of the doing. It’s my turn now.”

  “And here I thought you were the one with the uniform fantasy.”

  “You’re not in uniform,” she pointed out. “But even so, that was more curiosity than craving on my part. After all, I am supposed to be trying new things.”

  “Ah,” he said, “so my instincts about you were right. You have a little problem with authority.”

  That wicked smile slashed across her gorgeous face. “Only when I’m not it.”

  “I’m gathering that.”

  She folded her arms, putting a bit more space between them. “So this has been, what—a demonstration for my benefit, then? Showing Liza who the boss is going to be?”

  “I’m pretty sure Liza was enjoying herself just fine. It merely seemed to me that you slide into that upper-hand position pretty naturally. And so, being the renegade type that I am…”

  She snorted. “Says the town sheriff.”

  Now his grin was a bit wicked. “That badge might guide me…but it didn’t tame me.”

  “I see.”

  And so did he. She’d crossed her arms again and it wasn’t in annoyance. The wet spot he’d made on her shirt was a very revealing mood indicator.

  “So women bring out the predator in you, is that it?” she queried. “You’re used to women wanting that man-in-uniform fantasy? Maybe you do wear that badge in bed, symbolically speaking. You like being in charge on the streets…and between the sheets.”

  He laughed outright. “It’s been so long I’d have to think about that. But off the cuff, no, you’d be wrong in that assumption.”

  “What do you mean ‘it’s been so long’? You haven’t been out of town to see ‘Liza’ lately?”

  “Just haven’t gotten around to it, I guess.” And realized the tactical error he’d just made as soon as the words left his mouth.

  Her grin was wide and naughty. “Well, I’m surprised you’re not on your knees begging for it then.”

  He laughed again, couldn’t remember a time he’d enjoyed himself quite this much. And all he’d done was kiss her. So far. “As I said, I like to build anticipation.”

  “Hell, you’ve had months of it, years for all I know. Why waste more time?”

  “You in a hurry?”

  She sighed. “You’re impossible.”

  “But worth the effort.” He moved in again, framed her hips with his hands. “Like you, I imagine.”

  She let him playfully pull her close. “So what exactly is it that makes you want to push me around, tell me what to do? You have control issues?”

  “Me? None. I’m usually a willing slave to women.”

  “And I’m an exception why?”

  He lifted her chin and dipped his head, keeping his eyes on hers this time. “I have no idea. But I’m dying to figure it out.” He dropped a quick kiss on her lips, then another, then another, before finally sinking into her for a long, wet mating of tongues that had them both breathless when he finally came up for air. “And just as soon as I do, you can be in charge. For as long as you like.”

  She grinned and he saw the gleam of intent in her eyes as his hands slid downward. So he flipped her around and bent her over the island, pressing himself snugly against that sweet, tight backside of hers. “But not until I’m done,” he said against the side of her neck. He ran his tongue up to her earlobe, tugging it between his teeth for a quick nip. Her hips jerked in his hands and he felt her indrawn breath. “And I plan to take a long, long time.”

  7

  SHE’D ALWAYS BEEN ABLE to handle anything. And she’d handled a lot. Liza knew she could handle one Dylan Jackson. Uniform or no uniform. She’d let him get good and confident, thinking he had her at his mercy…then find the right moment and have him however she wanted him. Until he begged for more. All she had to do was wait for her opening.

  However, the extremely nice pressure of that hard bulge of his, pressing between the backs of her thighs, was making it a bit hard to think clearly at the moment. Her hips had a mind of their own and they wanted to grind back against him, hard, push up a bit more so that rigid length could press…just…right…. Dammit.

  He’d pulled her upright when she’d been a twitch away. Keeping her hands in his, in front of her waist, he shifted just enough so that she could no longer feel him pressed against her. She felt the pinch of his teeth on the nape of her neck.

  “You’re pretty sneaky,” he told her, amused.

  “Your loss,” she replied flippantly. But her breath was rapid and shallow as she wondered what he had in store for her next. She was only playing this little game because it seemed to interest him, she told herself. It was arousing her because it was arousing him. That was all. She was still in control. In her mind, she was allowing him this little fantasy play.

  Then she heard the rasp of steel and chain.

  Her breath stopped. Her thighs clenched.

  “What—what do you think you’re doing?”

  “Freeing up my hands.”

  She felt the cold metal brush her wrists as she looked down. And it wasn’t her own bracelets. “Where did you get those?”

  “Standard police issue.”

  “I mean right now.”

  “A good cop is always prepared.” He slid one
of the cuffs around her wrist.

  “Dylan—”

  “I like it when you say my name. Now hold still, this won’t hurt a bit.”

  “Yeah, that’s what they all say. Listen, I’m not sure this—”

  “Tell me one thing,” he interrupted. “Were you, just now, planning to take advantage of this situation at the earliest possible moment? Truth.”

  Why was it that his ability to climb inside her head was as arousing as it was threatening? Arousing enough for her to ignore the warning bells. “We’re a lot alike,” she said. “We both enjoy calling the shots.”

  “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  He snapped one bracelet shut and she felt a spurt between her legs. Dear God, what was she getting into here? Out in the middle of nowhere, with a man she’d just met, letting him—

  “I’m going to give you the key,” he said, snapping the other bracelet on, then pushing them just tight enough so that they didn’t slide off her wrists. He pressed a small key on a leather loop into her hands. “If you need help, you only have to ask me.”

  “Why not just tell me what to do and leave my hands free?”

  He blew a soft breath along the back of her neck, stirring the hair there…and stirring her, as well. Not being able to see his face as he spoke, as he shackled her hands, was affecting her enormously. She was so ready for him she could barely stand upright. Never in all her wild escapades—and in her former line of work, she’d had more than a few—had she ever put herself in this sort of scenario. At least not with the cuffs on herself. So why let him do this?

  Because I’m so damn hot I can hardly stand it.

  That, and her curiosity was engaged. Both powerfully persuasive elements.

  “Are you done figuring this out?” he whispered, nipping at her earlobe, then the side of her neck.

  Dammit, she’d never been this obvious to anyone. “You know, if this is the only way you can get women to do what you want, it’s no wonder you’re so hard up for a date.”

  He pressed a soft kiss to the nape of her neck, then another along her collarbone. The tenderness of it, along with the bite of steel at her wrists, made her shudder. With pleasure. Dammit.

  “Actually,” he said, quietly amused as he continued dropping hot little kisses here and there, “I’ve had women beg me to lock them up. I have to say you’re the first one who’s ever actually compelled me to do it, though. Probably something to do with the fact that you’d be the last one on earth to ask in the first place.”

  Damn him, he made her laugh.

  He slowly turned her around and looked her directly in the eyes. “Do you want me to take them off?”

  She swallowed hard, the smile gone from her face now. She could say yes, he’d take them off, and she was still pretty sure they could end the evening with some amazing sex. But there was something in those hot, candy eyes of his. Something pretty close to that wild, primal feeling he’d ripped to life inside her.

  This was arousing him in a new way, too. And if she wasn’t mistaken, despite his casually confident manner, he was just as surprised by it as she was. Which made her want to say no, and very possibly find herself somewhere she’d never been before.

  After all, she was on a journey of self-discovery, was she not?

  “It would have been easier if you hadn’t asked,” she said finally, unwilling to simply hand him the victory. “I have the key, you know.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  She merely looked at him. She’d tacitly given her consent, and that was all he was going to get from her. After all, he didn’t want this to be that easy. It wouldn’t be fun for either of them then.

  He stared into her eyes and she into his. This is just about sex, Liza, she reminded herself, fighting the sensation that she could easily wallow in all that warm, caramel brown.

  His grip on her hips tightened for just a moment, then he slowly turned her toward the stainless steel end of the center island.

  She resisted just enough to turn her head and look at him. “And I get my turn later.”

  He grinned then, only rather than relieve the tension now screaming between them, it only served to jack it up another level. “Oh, I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.”

  She turned back to the table, grinning herself. He wasn’t so tough. Besides, how long could all this “anticipation building” last, anyway? Sooner or later he’d want inside her. Her smile turned wicked. And that would be a perfect time to start her turn, now wouldn’t it?

  She was merrily sliding down that quite satisfying little mental path when he abruptly raised her locked wrists and slid her shirt up over her head. Before she could pull her head free, he’d popped the front clasp of her bra.

  She was still gasping at the sudden shift in action when, with her arms still held above her head, he slowly pressed her forward, his hips once again snugged up against her backside. The return of that rock-hard bulge to her now intensely sensitized inner thighs distracted her momentarily from her suddenly bared breasts.

  Which made the shock of cold steel coming up against her engorged nipples a real surprise.

  The rear juncture of her thighs all but burned with the heat of him pressed so intimately there, even as the cold island top sent numbing tingles all through her upper body. She was still sucking in air, unable to do more than simply feel the riot of opposite sensations he’d set off, when she felt a new one.

  His tongue, his very warm tongue, sliding slowly down the ridge of her spine. He drew his big, warm hands slowly along her arms, brushing them down either side of her body, making her want badly to push up so he could cover her hard, cold nipples with those wide, warm palms of his. But he kept her pressed down…and kept his hands sliding down until he gripped her hips.

  Just when it occurred to her to struggle, to try and pull her arms in so she could push up on her elbows and at least free her nipples from the shocking cold, he pulled her hips up, so that her toes just left the floor…and her slings dropped off her feet. She had to scrabble at the far edge of the table with her fingertips to keep from sliding forward.

  She’d instinctively braced herself for the feel of him nestling between her legs, knowing, just knowing that that scant inch he’d lifted her would put that sweet hard-on of his right where she needed to feel it the most.

  But instead of pulling her back up against him, he kept sliding her forward. And there was no sweet pressure. She whimpered before she could stop herself.

  “You keep thinking I’m going to do what you expect me to do,” he said quietly.

  She said nothing, bit her lip to keep from cursing him, realizing it would just give him the satisfaction of knowing he was right. But whatever temper he might have roused fled an instant later when he slid his hands over her backside, holding her on the island, with the edge hitting her midthigh. She couldn’t kick him, couldn’t get any leverage, as her elbows were now hanging off the far side.

  When he spoke, his lips were pressed against the small spot at the base of her spine. “Now, this I learned at the academy. However, I’ve never used restraint and control methods for quite this purpose.”

  He paused and she knew damn well he was waiting for her to say the magic word. Well, she wasn’t going to give up so easily. But neither was she going to give in.

  Which he probably also expected. Dammit. She hated being predictable. She was never that mundane. And yet her choices here were the proverbial rock…and the hard place.

  She grinned, knowing he couldn’t see it. It was precisely that hard place she was after. And damn if she wasn’t going to get it. She kept silent.

  But not for long. Just as he pressed his lips to that sensitive spot of skin, he slid his fingers from her backside to her inner thighs. One quick stroke of his finger along the center seam of her pants had her hips jerking…and her moaning.

  “If you’d just stop plotting and planning long enough to relax and simply enjoy this…”

  She had to bite her lip this t
ime. Though she wasn’t sure if it was to keep from swearing at him for tweaking her, or to stop herself from begging him to slide those fingers down there one more time. And slowly, please.

  She would do neither.

  She fought the shuddering response when he lightly drew a blunt fingertip along the back of one knee, then the other, before slowly following the inside seam of her pants. Pants she wished she could blink away. If he caught the scent of her, he wouldn’t be taking so much goddamn time tormenting her.

  The finger slid the opposite way and the heated epithet slipped out before she could catch it.

  He chuckled softly. “You relax, you get what you want.”

  “I’m relaxed,” she practically growled.

  He simply sighed. “I’m thinking you don’t know the meaning of the word.” He started his finger’s journey back up again, then stopped. “See, right there. You tense up the instant your brain kicks into gear. Do you ever let go? Completely, totally let go?”

  “I’m not aware of my partners complaining at any lack of enthusiasm or focus on my part.”

  “Which is not at all what I asked.”

  She paused, smiling despite herself. “Which I’m fully aware of.”

  He laughed. “You take the term ‘high maintenance’ to a whole new level.”

  “Just give me what I want and you’ll find I’m very easy to…maintain.”

  “Yeah, that’s what they all say. Liza—” He broke off, then laughed again. “By the way, what is the last name of the woman currently sprawled half-naked on my kitchen counter, anyway?”

  “Is it important?”

  “You know mine.”

  “Sanguinetti.”

  “Ah.”

  She tried to pull her elbows underneath her to lever her torso up, but the shirt and bra straps twined around them hampered her movements. One slick slide of his finger between her thighs had her jerking flat again…and twitching with pleasure at the sudden shock of contact.

  When she thought she could speak without begging him to finish her now—please God, now!—she said, “What, ah?”