Destiny pushed her hair behind her ears, even though it was already there. She searched her mind, trying to find equilibrium. Ronan’s voice alone, either the accent, or the tone, or the combination, was practically lethal, but when that voice says those words, how on earth was a girl supposed to think rationally?
She licked her lips. “Was that a proposal?”
She wanted to make certain he wasn’t just making a pretty speech like he’d been known to do. He smiled up at her and touched her cheek.
“That was very much a proposal. I could teach you, if you’d let me. I could help you find the appropriate place for your submissive tendencies so they would stop fucking with the rest of your life. On top of that, I’d bring you pleasure like you’ve never known. I’d satisfy everything you are until you wouldn’t be able to move.”
“And what do you get out of it?”
So far it all sounded like perfection, but it also sounded entirely one-sided. No man was that selfless, and she knew Ronan sure as hell wasn’t.
“As a natural Dominant, minx, your submission feeds me. It’s difficult to explain or to understand unless you’ve experienced it, but I crave the submission of a strong, willing woman. It’s sustenance for my soul.”
He made it sound like blood to a vampire. It was too much. She couldn’t possibly. She closed her eyes for a moment and remembered what had just happened between them. She remembered all the times they’d been together. She remembered his promise to help her fulfill her fantasies.
“What if it’s too much or I can’t do it?”
“It isn’t something you do, darlin’, it’s something you are.”
She felt like she understood that on a deeper level than she could rationalize.
“And you see this in me?” She of course already knew the answer.
“You are the most potent combination of strong, kick-ass woman and submissive I’ve ever seen, and I can’t believe my luck in having stumbled across you.” He grinned.
His words were like a pure shot of whiskey, and elation swept through her.
“Is it okay if I agree, even if I don’t entirely understand?”
“Understanding takes time. Taking the first step is a leap of faith, and I have it on good authority, you’re pretty damn good at those.”
She giggled. His words thrilled her. No one had ever recognized that before, and it warmed her heart to hear him say it.
“I think I am.” She beamed with pride, then softened to curl back into his arms.
“I don’t like labels, minx. I think they’re destructive. What we’ll share, what we’ll have, stands on its own and doesn’t need formal definition. I will always respect you, and as I’ve said from the beginning, you ever want me to go, all you need do is say so. Are we clear?” He tipped her chin up so she was looking into his eyes.
“I trust you…and more, I trust me.”
“Very good girl, Destiny.” He pulled her tight into his arms.
His warmth seeped into her bones. She felt like someone had uncovered the beginning of an old, decayed path and pointed it out to her. She had no idea where it led, if it was safe, or if it was even passable, but everything in her screamed out to take it, and with Ronan at her side, she knew she’d be safe.
“Yes,” she uttered softly.
It was one word.
But it was the only one needed.
Ronan kissed the top of her head and curled himself around her. Everything was exactly as it should be. It was such a surreal feeling, one she’d been having more and more ever since arriving in Florida. She really had no idea what to expect from Ronan, but what she told him was true, she trusted him, and more, she trusted herself. She could say no if he pushed her too far. She wasn’t going to be a doormat for anyone ever again. Now she simply needed to learn the difference between doormat and submissive, and she assumed that was up next.
Chapter Eleven
Destiny was trying to figure out the numbers on the spreadsheet in front of her, but her mind kept wandering to thoughts of amazing sex with a gorgeous man. She checked the clock on the wall again while she sat at the heavy oak dining room table, papers and books spread all over it so that no one could have had a meal there no matter how badly they wanted it.
It was barely after nine, and Ronan said he couldn’t see her that night until after midnight. She tapped her pen impatiently against the papers before her. She was utterly disappointed that, when she found him earlier to tell him she’d have her place entirely to herself the whole evening, as Max and Austin both had plans that were going to keep them overnight, he told her he wouldn’t be able to make it. She’d been excited to have him over, but he had oh so politely turned her down. Maybe it was silly, but most times they were together it was in his room, and she had wanted to have him in her home for some reason.
Sadly, it hadn’t worked out that way, but at least she was still going to get to see him later that night, and she couldn’t wait. She got up and poured another glass of wine. She had spreadsheets to figure out, and that would keep her busy, easily until midnight. She told Aiden about her plans to turn this one building into more of an apartment setting for people who needed a place to live longer than a week and for whatever reason weren’t able to get a permanent home. As it was, it was half-full already with employees in that very situation.
He hadn’t been thrilled from a business standpoint, but he seemed to understand her need to do this and hadn’t argued, just forced her into figuring out the finances for the project on her own. It felt a bit like punishment, but at the same time he had offered her help and a computer program that was supposedly able to figure all this out effortlessly. Of course, as was her way, if there was a hard way and an easy one, she’d take the hard way every single time, hence why she was sitting there with spreadsheets, pens, pencils and a heavy-duty calculator. She was determined to come up with a way to do this and not put the hotel at risk.
She pulled the sheer fabric of the long blue dress she wore up into her lap as she sat back down, one leg beneath her, and started to stare at the numbers again. She moved numbers from one column to another and looked at the bookings they had coming up over the next three months. It amazed her how many they’d been able to grab. Aiden had gotten her hotel a write-up in a local arts-and-leisure paper, and people had been coming out of the woodwork ever since to hold luncheons, banquets, and meetings.
The knock at the door pulled her attention. She growled as she looked at the clock again and figured it was most likely her sister looking for leftovers.
“Abby, can’t you buy your own damn…”
She smiled. She blushed. She laughed at herself. “Hi.”
“Expecting company?” Ronan had his shoulder leaning on the doorframe. He was, as always, in a faded, worn pair of jeans, but tonight he had on a black button-down shirt, the cuffs rolled back to just below his elbows. She inhaled and picked up the hint of his cologne, rich and spicy.
“No.” She stood back and waved him in. “Come in.”
He sauntered in, carrying a black duffle bag on his shoulder which he placed on the floor just inside the door.
“You look positively beautiful.” His gaze roamed her body all the way to her bare feet.
“I wasn’t expecting anyone.” She fidgeted, fisting her hands in her dress.
She was wearing a very comfortable gown that she loved to laze around the house or pool in, her hair was down, and she only wore mascara. She felt a little self-conscious.
“Then I’m never telling you again when I’m coming over.” He pulled her into his arms, kissing her possessively until she lost all thought.
She loved the way he just took possession of everything she was. It was something that happened in an instant, and his kiss only confirmed it.
“Do you trust me, minx?”
She was coming to love the way he called her that, but a little shiver of apprehension broke free and slithered up her spine.
“Yes?”
He brushed his finger down her nose while she remembered their conversation of the other day, and she wondered if that’s what this trust was about.
“Hmm.” He reached down and grabbed the bag from the floor, then took her by the hand and led her to the dining room. “We may be about to find out how much.”
His smile was positively wicked, and though her nerves were attempting to draw all her attention, her curiosity was winning this battle.
“Can we clear some of this away?” He gestured to the dining table, and she wondered if he’d brought dinner.
“Ronan, I’ve already eaten.”
He started to carefully gather her work and move it to the kitchen bar.
“I’m not here for dinner, minx.”
She watched, her curiosity growing as Ronan carefully cleared off her entire dining table then took one of the chairs and turned it away from the table. He went around the room turning off her lights until they were left with minimum illumination, then pulled open the curtains on the sliding glass door. Any privacy they may have had evaporated with the maneuver.
He came back to her and tugged on her dress. “Lovely.”
She smiled, warm in his praise.
“But take it off.”
Her mouth dropped open. He pushed it closed with two fingers beneath her chin.
“Ronan, I don’t…” She looked into his eyes. He was waiting for her to deny him or challenge him in some way. She closed hers and drew a deep breath, then allowed her gown to pool at her feet.
She was, of course, completely naked beneath and felt that thrill she always did when there was a possibility of being seen this way and with the curtains open and the lights on, even on low. There was a definite possibility now.
“Good girl.” His voice rumbled from his chest.
She grew wet. She opened her eyes and stared into his.
He took her hand and placed it directly on his cock. Even through the denim, she could feel how hard he was.
“This is what you do to me when you obey me, minx. It’s not all about the orgasm for me. Your surrender makes me hard. Do you understand that?”
She wasn’t entirely sure she did, but her surrender to him made her high, so she wasn’t completely at a loss for comprehension either.
“I think I would obey anything you asked, whenever you asked.” It scared her to make that confession, but in her soul she knew it was true.
“That pleases me.”
“It doesn’t make me pathetic?” She half laughed.
He only stared at her. She found it hard to breathe when he looked at her as he was now, like she was the most priceless thing in the world and he wanted to possess her more than anything.
“Someday, you will understand how beautiful your willingness to submit to me is and how it is in truth your greatest strength.” He fisted his hands in her hair and tugged, making her gasp. “You are never pathetic.”
She swallowed, and her knees went weak.
“Climb onto the table.”
She tried to switch gears enough to assimilate his instruction. She allowed him to help her step on the dining chair he’d left, then onto the table. He brought to her a pillow and placed it on the table beside her.
“Kneel.”
She instantly obeyed and kneeled, feeling awkward and exposed.
In order to kneel on the pillow as he had intended, she had to turn her body to face the glass door where she would be best viewed from anyone on the outside. He pushed her legs open further. The height differential now made them nearly eye level with each other.
“Where are your toys?”
She of course knew what he meant. She bit her lip and breathed slowly. “The nightstand drawer.” She pointed toward her bedroom.
He took her chin and pulled her toward him, placing his lips to hers for a moment then backing away.
“Don’t move.”
He went into her room and she stayed in her place, kneeling on her dining room table on display for anyone who could see in at that moment. She refused to let the thoughts of how sick that was enter her brain. Much anyway. In truth, she was more aroused than she ever remembered being before, though it struck her as odd how, clothed, she always felt a certain level of dissatisfaction with her body, but naked and on display, she felt beautiful and sexy. She had no idea what Ronan had planned, but she was desperate to find out, and she was going to throw herself into the experience with all she was.
He came back with her three vibrators, one still in its packaging though she’d bought it last year sometime.
“Don’t use this one much?” He placed all three on the table before her.
“I’m not sure I know how.” It was one that was meant to enter both holes at once. The idea intrigued her, but the application was over her head.
“Touch yourself.”
She held his stare, licked her lips and drew courage to obey.
She found her clit and rubbed.
Ronan took one of the chairs and placed it so when he sat in it, he was watching her as if she was a stage show in a strip club. The thought made her shiver. She viewed the entire situation just a little bit differently now. She wasn’t pathetic. He had said so. And the look in his eyes told her how pleasing she was to him. Behind him the dim lights of the other rooms across the courtyard acted as her audience, but Ronan, was the prize.
She relaxed, moaned, and got more into the moment.
“Push two fingers inside.” He folded his arms across his chest appearing so cold and removed, but the fire in his eyes told her what an act that was. “Fuck yourself. I want to see how you pleasure yourself.”
She moved a little hesitantly, a little shy, but soon she was fucking herself, two fingers pushed into her pussy, sliding in and out of her wetness.
“Harder.”
She did, harder and faster and shivered as she felt that first inkling of needing to come.
“Stop.”
She froze in place, waiting his next direction.
“Suck those fingers into your mouth.” His tone was so level as if he was unmoved by any of this, but she could clearly see how hard he was as the outline of his cock pressed hard against the front of his jeans. “Lick them clean.”
The thick, sweet taste of her cunt lingered on her own tongue. It was so wickedly naughty, and she loved that he pushed her to this place.
“Good girl.” He gave her an inkling of a smile before passing out his next order. “Now lay down.”
She did, and he moved the pillow she kneeled on beneath her head.
“Spread your legs so I can see your pussy.”
She lay there, wet, aroused, not moving while he viewed her.
“Beautiful. Stick your fingers back in your cunt, minx.”
She did, immediately, without question.
He came beside her, stroked his fingers over her body. Her nipples peaked. She was hopelessly lost to the feelings. His gaze traveled her body as his fingers aroused her skin. He picked up one of her vibrators, the small clit stimulator and handed it to her.
“Show me.”
She took the small purple vibe from him and placed it between her legs, running it through her wetness before gently turning it on and pushing it to her clit. She instantly moaned. Fingers were good, but there was something about the vibration that sent her over the edge every time.
“Such an obedient little slut.”
Her breath caught at his use of the word. She locked on his gaze, needing some reassurance. All her life that had been such a negative word, her mother’s use of it was legendary for any girl she disapproved of in anyway. In truth, Destiny had always secretly wanted to be like those girls, free to seek their own pleasure and not needing approval from their mothers.
“Lick your nipples, minx.”
She searched his eyes. She’d never done anything like that before, wasn’t even certain she could, but she wasn’t going to stop the game now. She gently cradled her breast in her palm and brought it as close to her lips
as she could get. It was a stretch, but she was able to just fit the nipple between her lips. She licked and sucked as she was instructed while keeping the vibe stimulating her clit.
“Bite them, but don’t forget your clit.” He gave her a half smile.
She bit down and shivered. She kept moving her vibe along her clit, licking and biting her nipples until she was writhing and near madness.
“Please, please, may I come?”
“No.”
Her heart stopped. He had never told her no before. He never made her wait.
“I want to touch you.” She reached for him, but he grabbed her wrist.
She lay on her table completely naked, exposed for not just him, but in full view of the window, while he was still clothed.
“Not tonight.”
On the one hand that seemed unfair, but on the other, it made her feel exceedingly naughty, and she thrilled at that.
He reached out and took her vibe. Turning it off, he laid it beside the others on one of the chairs. He pulled from the bag long black ties and began knotting them around her wrists then tying them to the legs of the table so her arms were above her head spread to either side. She was so drunk on arousal that she could barely breathe. He next took more ties and secured her legs. She was spread wide, exposed, but there wasn’t any part of her that feared it. She was mad with wanting it, wanting more.
He stared into her eyes while he ran a feather down her throat, between her breasts, over her nipples and down her stomach. She wriggled and shivered, but the binds he tied held her firm and even with all her movement, they never came loose. She watched him as he studied her body, running his hands over her, his gaze a traveling companion to his hands. First, one hand moved from shoulder to hips, then the second. She moaned and arched into his touch.
He soothed and relaxed her with scented oils he rubbed into her skin. She breathed deep. Sighed. Though she was tied to a table, this was the most relaxed she ever remembered feeling in all her life. She felt utterly and totally owned. A possession, yes, but a prized one, and that pleased her to no end.
The Seduction of Destiny Rhode [The Seduction 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) Page 12