“It’s that, or this ends now. And I’ll give you fair warning—I won’t let you hide from me indefinitely.”
Although the stand-off lasted only a few seconds, to Guy it felt like a lifetime until she acquiesced.
“Come with me.” He took hold of her hand, firmly enough to lead her, but loosely enough for her to pull away if she changed her mind. He’d never forced himself on a woman, and he wasn’t about to start with her.
Every cell in his body seemed to have regressed to the stage of being a randy teenager desperate to get an attractive woman into bed. Attending to the lights on the way, he led Maddie to the sofa. His sane, mature head still held sway and demanded he take it easy with her. He was more than old enough to appreciate that the journey could be every bit as enjoyable as the destination.
He held her hand until she was seated. “Would you like that drink?”
“Please. Just a small one, though.”
He splashed some whisky into a second glass. Maddie cradled the tumbler between her palms, rolling it back and forth, apparently fascinated by the movement of the amber spirit within. Not wanting to risk intimidating her, Guy made himself comfortable a little distance away from her.
“Thank you for agreeing to come with me this evening. You made it a pleasure and not a chore.”
“Thank you for asking me.” She sipped her drink. “I enjoyed it.”
Guy took a healthy swallow of his whisky, knowing it would be the last alcohol to pass his lips that night. He deposited the glass on the low table in front of them. Though he’d kissed her before, it somehow seemed appropriate to ask her this time, given that it could be a precursor to something far more intimate.
“May I kiss you, Madeleine?”
She stared into what was left of her drink, then turned to him with a sparkle in her eyes. “I think I’d be disappointed if you didn’t. For the record, though, you don’t need to ask.”
Determined to do this right, Guy kept the first kiss gentle, more of a promise of things to come. He touched his lips to hers, teased them with the tip of his tongue, and withdrew when she would have allowed him entrance.
It was true, some things did get better with age. Guy wasn’t proud of his behaviour in relationships before he’d discovered his true nature—the phrase “reckless youth” had epitomised both him and his contemporaries. Then a chance comment had inspired him to explore alternative lifestyles. Mentored by a Domme who’d remained a great friend for many years until her death, he’d discovered a taste for Dominance with a well-defined streak of sadism.
“Is that the best you can do?” Tease and challenge shone in Maddie’s eyes.
“Oh, like that, is it? I haven’t even started.”
Taking the bait, he issued a demand of his own. He leaned in for a second kiss. This time, he nipped the fullness of her lower lip between his teeth before curving his hand around the back of her neck and demanding more. Finally given free rein, lust surged through his body.
“If you had any idea how badly I want you, you’d run back to your room and lock every damn door and window to keep me out.”
Her lashes swept upwards, and what he saw stole his breath. Her gaze gave him tingles as if he were a teenager again. Electricity crackled between them.
“Do you want me to run?” She asked the question as if she already knew the answer.
“I want you.”
“To…?”
“To… nothing. I want you.”
“It’s that simple?”
“It’s that simple.” In his view, it didn’t get much simpler.
“And if simple is the new complicated?”
This question was different. Guy sensed an undercurrent to it that hinted at a story, one that she believed might affect what was growing between them, and deny the hunger that matched his own. “What’s complicated?”
“The moment you walked into my office, I knew you’d be dangerous. I knew you’d want more from me, and it would be something very personal… intimate. I knew I should steer well clear of you.”
Her words were contradicted by a blaze of need in her gaze, so intense that it ignited an inferno inside him. Her husky voice merely added fuel to the flames engulfing him. “That doesn’t sound so complicated to me. So why didn’t you steer clear of me?”
“Because sometimes, all you want is to burn.”
Her incendiary comment turned his blood lava-hot. To hell with taking it gently. He crushed her mouth beneath his, pressing her back against the sofa. He wanted her in his bed, so he could drive her insane with desire. Once he’d done that, he’d settle between her thighs and fill her body so she’d never want any other man inside her but him.
He grasped her hand as he stood, pulling her up with him. Unable to detach his gaze from her, in case this was all some fabulous fantasy, and if he looked away, she’d be gone, he backed them towards the huge bed. She came willingly with him, stepping into his arms as he bore them both down onto the bed. He rolled, taking her with him.
Even with their clothing still separating her skin from his, the feel of her body up close to his was a heaven he’d never thought to experience again. He’d forgotten what it was like to long for a woman the way he longed for Maddie. His hand on her hip pulled her closer, tucked her into the shelter of his body as their lips met in a kiss sizzling with passion.
How had he not noticed the thigh-high split in her nightgown? His fingers slipped beneath the silky material, and found soft skin and hot temptation. And toned muscles that flexed beneath his touch, in a movement that invited further exploration.
“Yoga,” she whispered. “Every morning.”
“Really?” He let his fingers wander to the apex of her thighs, felt her shift again to allow him even more intimate contact. She was delightfully wet already. “How’s your… What’s it called? Something to do with doggy-style?”
With a quiet chuckle, she punched his biceps. “Downward-Facing Dog, and mine is fine, thank you.”
“This body is more than fine.” He kissed her collarbone. “I’d like to see more of it.”
His blunt statement made her breath hitch and her nipples pucker. Blood raced to his groin. Unable to resist, he suckled on the ripe berry, drawing it deep into his mouth along with her nightgown. She gasped again when he nipped her with his teeth—a gasp of arousal that stirred his quietly lurking sadistic streak.
“You like that?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
Her breathy admission scored a direct hit on his dick. “I can make it feel even better with this gone.” He hooked finger under a shoulder strap but made no attempt to remove it.
“Of that, I have no doubt.”
Guy lowered his head to kiss her shoulder. “Wait for me. There’s something I need. I won’t be a moment.”
Maddie must have moved like lightning. When he returned, she was lying beneath the single sheet he’d left on the bed earlier. Her nightgown lay discarded on the floor.
“You were planning to get lucky?” Maddie raised an eyebrow in the direction of the box he’d just dropped on the nightstand.
Guy removed his cufflinks, finished unbuttoning his shirt and yanked it free of his trousers. “The word is hoping, not planning, and if you didn’t want this, they’d have stayed in the bag.” He froze. He didn’t want to say it, but he had no choice. “You can still change your mind.”
“I don’t think so.”
Her soft admission stoked the flames once more, and had him fumbling like a virgin schoolboy. With a deep breath to steady his hands, he shed the remainder of his clothing and slid under the sheet with her.
He had to hand it to her—there was something primitive and deeply sensual about the low lighting and the two of them together in the huge, decadent bed. Plenty of room for him to use all his skill to wring every last drop of pleasure from her body.
“What’s that smile for?”
“Nothing.” The reply came easily enough, but deep down, he knew it was something.
“Now where was I?”
“Hmm, about here?” She cupped her breast, almost in offering.
Guy inspected the hard bead of her nipple, surrounded by the puckered areola. He replaced her hand with his own, and flicked his thumb over the dusky flesh, before leaning in to suckle once more.
If she’d been a taste of heaven before, now she was divine. Every soft moan she gave stirred emotions he’d believed extinct. The drugged pleasure with which she regarded him was an almost tangible caress to every part of his body.
“Let me touch you.”
“You don’t have to ask.”
Her hands danced over him, lighting more fires wherever they connected with his skin. He burned with need for her, his desire for her overwhelming everything except the instinct to bury himself in her body and never leave it. They rolled and he was between her thighs, his cock trapped between them.
They fit together as if made for one another. Her nails raked down his back and he groaned. How had she made him want her so much, to the point where he could barely think or reason? He couldn’t wait—what he denied her, he denied himself. While a last shred of sanity remained, he grabbed a foil packet from the box, ripped it open, and rolled the condom into place.
“I had the snip a while ago, but until you’re sure of me…”
There’d only been one woman he’d wanted to make babies with, and she’d died a long time ago. After her, he’d thought long and hard about the future, and come to the only conclusion possible. The future he’d wanted was gone, and he’d refused to settle for an inferior facsimile.
Maddie had shown him he’d been wrong—she was not inferior, in any way, shape or form, but what was done was done.
“I am sure of you.”
Her hand on his cheek incinerated the last vestige of his self-control. He wouldn’t last long before he claimed Maddie and made her his. He pinned her hand to the pillow. With the slow, deliberate, sinuous prowl of a jungle cat stalking its prey, he moved over her. Her lashes lowered, and his inner Dom roared in triumph.
“I thought about being here with you, like this, all evening,” Maddie confessed.
“Sounds like both of us were a little distracted.”
“Would you like to distract me a little more?”
“My pleasure. Would you like to play a game?”
She smiled and wiggled her eyebrows. “Mm, that sounds interesting.”
“Let’s see how long you can keep your hands where they are.”
“And if I can’t?”
“You pay a forfeit.”
“Which is?”
“My choice. You up for it?”
She gave a telling glance south. “Feels like you are.”
“Minx. I’ll take that as a yes.”
She didn’t object.
On his hands and knees over her, Guy selected the spot where he would start kissing her. When she turned her head to expose the side of her neck to him, his cock lengthened and thickened even more. A smart-arse comment about vampires died on his lips as he bent to kiss the delicate skin.
He nuzzled her hair and inhaled deeply. She smelled so good, like a summer meadow tempting him to laze around for days. He explored her with his mouth, learning her reactions to everything he was doing to her. A lick here, and she purred—a nibble there, and she moaned. And with each purr and moan, his desire for her grew deeper.
He longed to do so much more than lick and nibble.
Every inch of her body was beautiful, even the scars on her weakened leg. When he reached the puckered lines, she tried to pull away from him, but he wouldn’t let her. He hated what had happened to her, hated that she suffered the lingering effects of it, but it didn’t change how he was coming to feel about her. She’d awakened a hunger in him that would only be satisfied once he was inside her.
“Remember—you can’t move your hands.”
He took her nipple in his mouth and bit down, a little harder than she probably expected, and her mewling cry scored a laser-accurate hit on his dick. God, it felt so good, to be with a woman and want her for himself. It had been so long.
“I won’t, sir.”
His pulse kicked up a gear. Had he heard correctly? Had she just called him sir?
Don’t read anything into it. She doesn’t know about you, she doesn’t know what you are… keep it that way…
Vanilla wasn’t his favourite flavour, but it was what Maddie needed from him tonight. His focus belonged to her, not memories of what he’d had with Liz. And certainly not to identifying the annoying niggle at the back of his mind.
It had started when he’d first laid eyes on the naked beauty beneath him. Damned if he could put his finger on it, but right now, his fingers were occupied elsewhere. They strayed towards the silken secrets at the apex of Maddie’s shapely, toned thighs.
“Guy?”
Maddie’s tentative enquiry drew him out of his head and back to where he belonged, with her. “You okay?”
The trepidation that had suddenly appeared in her gaze took him by surprise.
She nodded, but didn’t seem positive. The compulsion to reassure her was overwhelming, and Guy gave in to it gladly. “Whatever’s worrying you—”
“It’s been a long time. I haven’t been with a man in years.”
Years? How blind were the men who’d been around her in that time? Still, their loss was his treasure. “It’s been a while for me, too,” he confessed, suddenly fascinated by her hair. He twisted a strand around his fingers, captivated by the multitude of shades glinting in the gentle light cast by the bedside lamp.
“It can’t be. A man like you?”
An undercurrent to her tone caught his attention. Another question prowled beneath the one she’d asked, as if she knew more about him than was feasible, given the newness of their relationship. On that basis, he chose to ignore it, and addressed her statement instead. “It is. You have my word.”
And just like that, her misgivings were replaced by a smile of sunshine so dazzling, it lit up parts of his soul he’d believed withered and dead for years.
Her gaze connected with his, and when her hand found his cheek once more, he covered it with his and kissed her palm. “And now I have to think of a suitable forfeit.”
Though he hardly thought it possible, Maddie seemed to glow even more. “You’ve already spanked me.”
“And you enjoyed it, so that’s not going to work.”
If only they hadn’t been at a hotel. At Stonehaven he’d have had access to no end of implements to deliver a suitable chastisement. If they’d been in Maddie’s bedroom back at Remington Grange, he could have improvised, but here?
What the hell was he thinking? She might have found pleasure in a mild spanking, but that meant nothing. It certainly didn’t give him carte blanche to expose her to anything more intense. Tonight was for her, and that meant vanilla all the way, which all at once wasn’t the chore he might once have imagined it to be.
“I’ll come up with something, but right now, I have other plans.”
When he kissed her again, he felt her hand curve around his nape, gentle but firm, anchoring him in place—not that he had any intention of going anywhere. He’d enjoyed the evening, and now it was time to enjoy the woman, as he hoped she would enjoy him.
The simple act of looking at her, being close to her like this, made Guy want to take it slow. These were moments to be savoured one by one, as if they were the pearls in an exquisite necklace. If the moments made the necklace, then Maddie was the diamond clasp holding it all together. He wanted to explore every inch of her, but he remembered how she’d recoiled from his touch. He wanted to know why.
As if he were approaching a skittish, unbroken filly, Guy moved his hand closer to her face, closer and closer, until only a breath separated his fingertips from her skin. He hated the apprehension in her eyes, but this time she didn’t move away from him.
Why she’d been so nervous, he had no idea. He traced a slow, easy line down her chee
k. When her mouth opened in a tantalising invitation, he couldn’t resist. The pad of his middle finger wandered over the fullness of her lower lip, and then she closed her mouth.
The sight of Maddie sucking his fingertip tested him beyond endurance. His desire for her rocketed into orbit. “I’m so glad I met you.”
“Likewise.”
The need for words faded away. Throughout his life, Guy had been a man of action, and right now, action would tell Maddie more than words ever could. One more honeyed taste from her lips, then he’d gorge himself on the rest of her.
Her soft moans and sweet sighs were music to his ears, as he came to know her with his eyes, his hands and his mouth. She purred beneath his touch. He kissed her, and her sigh of longing triggered another crashing wave of lust.
Her hands on his body turned the waves into a maelstrom. A crazy combination of want and need swirled through him. It seemed she knew exactly where to touch him, how to tease him and drive him closer and closer to the edge, until he could bear it no longer. If he didn’t regain control fast, his good intentions would go out of the window, and their first time together would be over far too quickly.
Leaving a trail of light, teasing kisses over her abdomen as he went, Guy scooted down the bed to focus his attention on the treasure between her thighs. Sensing his intent, she tried to clamp her legs together, but offered no resistance when he coaxed them apart and settled in to feast on her glistening flesh.
Her clit was already standing proud, and at the first lick she gasped and convulsed beneath his mouth. With one arm he held her still, so that with his free hand he could add to the sensual torment. Her moans changed, became cries of sheer pleasure when the fingers he’d slid inside her found that special, sensitive spot, and drove her to climax.
That was only the beginning. Guy sucked hard on the fleshy, nerve-filled bud, and inflicted a second, even more powerful orgasm hot on the heels of the first. Maddie cried and whimpered, writhed beneath his arm as he held her pinned to the bed, but she made no attempt to stop what he was doing to her.
His inner sadist prowled back and forth in the recesses of his mind, eager to snatch all the pleasure he could from this encounter. During his training as a Dominant, Guy himself had been subjected to what he’d termed “Death by Pleasure”. Though it was many years ago now, he still remembered all too well the agony of forced orgasm.
No Going Back (Club Aegis Book 6) Page 7