«Jericho. Jericho, please. I need…I can't…please.»
«Oh, but I think we've already established that you can.» He all but purred the words, his lips brushing against her clit as he spoke.
She licked her lips, trying to focus. «I want you inside me, Jericho.»
«I want to be inside you,» he whispered, his cool breath on her hot flesh making her pussy clench around his fingers. «I want to be deeper inside you than you've ever let anyone. Even me. I want you to trust me enough to let me in that deep.»
The words sent an ominous shiver down her spine, and she knew he was talking about a lot more than trusting him during sex. It was more than she could give him. She closed her eyes, pulling at the silk around her wrists. She wished it was just the bindings that made her helpless in his embrace, but she knew it wasn't. He didn't need to know that though. She swallowed, moaned when his hand began thrusting again. «Jericho, please…»
He sighed, and she could feel his disappointment roll over her, and it hurt to upset him. She knew she shouldn't feel that way, but logic and emotion were two very different things. Rising on his elbows, he settled over her and slid his cock into her. It was so good she wanted to cry.
The hair on his chest rasped her nipples, and she couldn't help how she arched under him to increase the stimulation. He moved within her in tiny thrusts that drove her mad. She lifted her face for him to kiss, wanting his lips on her skin, but he just smiled down at her. His fingers stroked over her cheekbone, and the way he looked at her, so hot and sweet and tender… God, it was the look he used to use when she'd told herself he loved her. What a joke. And, in the end, the joke had been on her. She turned her head into her arm, unable to bear the memories that bombarded her, but she was tied down, so there was no escaping him, even if she wanted to. She shivered. What a horrible, awful mess.
«Don't look away from me, darlin'.» He feathered a kiss over her jaw. «Be here with me.»
Meeting that silver gaze that always saw too much, she waggled her bound wrists. «I'm not going anywhere.»
His gaze searched her face for long moments before a look of stubborn determination molded his features. «That isn't what I meant, but it'll do. For now.»
The slow strokes of his cock picked up speed, and she wished she could wrap her legs around his waist to lift herself into his thrusts. As if he'd read her mind, he angled his hips so he moved within her just right. It was so perfect it was painful, and something crumpled inside her. God, it was going to hurt to lose him again. She stared up at him, wanting to see his every expression, wanting to remember every detail. Wanting something to offset the ugly way things had ended the first time.
Squeezing her walls tight around him, she smiled when he groaned for her. She saw the moment his control snapped, felt the shudder that wracked his big body. He plunged into her hard enough to make stars burst behind her eyes, and she gasped. He buried his face in her neck, but his rhythm didn't falter and his cock filled her again and again, his sharp hipbone slapping against her clit. Orgasm shimmered through her, building so high and fast, she had to bite back a scream.
His bellowing breath rushed against her throat. «No one else has ever done this to you before, have they, Tori?»
«Only you.» As if she'd ever been able to let anyone take control of her pleasure this way. As if she'd ever put herself out there again after how monumental her failure had been the first time. She bucked beneath him, jerking at the silk ties. She wanted him to go even faster, to push her over that blissful edge.
«Only me.» His voice was warm, possessive. Dangerous.
A warning sounded in her mind, distracting her from the drive to ecstasy. Her movements faltered.
His didn't.
If anything, he only made it worse, going faster and deeper, just the way she needed him to. He pounded into her, grinding against her clit, and sent her careening into ecstasy. Her sex pulsed around him, and she did scream then. His head lifted, and his gaze snared her. There was nothing but him, her whole world narrowed to this moment with this man, this fulfillment. Her pussy milked his cock, the contractions rippling deep within her, her orgasm going longer than she'd ever experienced before. He kept thrusting, kept dragging it out for her. She whimpered, writhing in her bindings, her skin so sensitized it was almost more than she could bear. «Come with me, Jericho.»
Shuddering, he gave her what she wanted, coming hot and fast inside her. His eyes closed, and he groaned, the sound rough and helpless. «I love you. I've loved you since that very first night. I love you so fucking much it's enough to kill me again.»
Shock punched her in the belly, knocked the breath out of her lungs. Then reaction kicked in. The agony was like ripping open a festering wound that had never healed. Bitter rage screamed through her, blackened her vision and she heaved underneath him. «Untie me, Jericho! Untie me right now.»
His reaction was immediate. He lunged for the scarves that bound her, letting her loose. She jackknifed on the bed, scrambling to get away from him. He caught her wrist to steady her when she tripped over the tangled bedspread. «Don't touch me,» she shrieked, ripping her arm from his grip. «Don't you touch me ever again.»
«Okay. Okay, let's just be calm for a second.» He lifted his hands in a placating gesture, wariness and hurt flashing in his gaze. «I'm confused by what's happening here. I told you I loved you and-«
«Liar.» The word exploded from her throat. «You never loved me. Never. Don't even try to feed me that line of bullshit. Those words never crossed your lips, not once. Don't try to rewrite the past, Jericho. I was there.»
«Never loved you?» His laugh was an ugly, painful sound. «Hell, woman, I never stopped loving you. I couldn't. And God help me, I tried.»
«Right,» she sneered. Tears stung her eyes, but she blinked them back. She wouldn't cry in front of him, and he sure as hell didn't deserve her tears. He wanted to have this out? Drag the past into the present? Fine. Jericho always got what he wanted anyway, so she might as well give it to him. With both barrels. «That's why I found you in a brothel, draped across a prostitute's bed. If I remember it right-and I do-you left me with Enrique and never bothered looking back. Yeah, you loved me. You loved me so much, you couldn't even go a whole night without a woman to warm up the bed. You never stopped loving me, but I sure was easy to replace, wasn't I?»
Fury flushed his face, and he loomed over her, every muscle in his body taut with rage. «That wasn't what happened. I never even looked at another woman, let alone touched one while we were together. I took you back to your brother like you wanted, and I was so fucking miserable about it, I got drunk enough that I couldn't see straight. Hell, I don't even know how I got up the stairs to the room you found me in. I passed out, and I didn't wake up until you came to get me. Nothing else happened.»
Her laugh was every bit as horrible as his had been. God, she hated herself for still loving him. Her voice was little more than a scathing hiss, bile burning the back of her throat. «Nothing happened in a prostitute's bed? Sure. Of course. Right. That's an easy claim to make now, but I know what I saw.»