She wanted to grab him and pull him to her, force him inside her. But all she could do was twist and tear at her own restrained flesh. His fingers dug hard into her outer thighs, likely hard enough to bruise. But it still didn’t distract her from the throbbing inside.
“No.”
The word, and the lack of emotion in it, sent her crashing back to the cold, hard ground. He’d wanted her to beg—she’d begged. What the hell?
She opened her eyes without permission. Her body stiffened as he sat back on his haunches and watched her. He was still completely dressed. And she was sprawled out for his convenience. Everything hurt. Ached. Throbbed.
“No?” Now she felt ashamed. Humiliation washed over her, dousing her in the cold buckets of rejection she was used to. “Then why? Why go through all that with the ropes and the riding crop? This your idea of pleasure?”
He arched a brow. And she got it.
“Oh wait, this wasn’t about pleasure. It was torture. I forgot.”
He leaned forward, hovering above her. “How do you feel right now, Stella Jo?”
She glared into his face and withheld her words. Fuck him. He wanted to be an asshole, rile her all up, and then let her down? Then he could go to hell. She’d told him how she felt, what she wanted. But playing games was not her thing. They were playing a dangerous enough one as it was.
“Tell me. Tell me how you feel.”
His hand reached over and clasped the riding crop. She couldn’t stand the thought of letting him hit her with it again if he wasn’t going to finish what he’d started.
“I feel pissed, all right? And if you hit me with that fucking thing one more time and do not let me come, then you better leave me tied up.”
His answering grin made her want to slap his face.
“What do you want to do to me right now?”
“Slap you. Hard,” she answered honestly as hot tears filled her eyes.
“But you can’t, can you?” The gleam in his eyes further ignited her fury.
Her chest heaved, bringing her breasts into her own line of sight. “No. I can’t. But I doubt you plan to leave me like this forever.” She would’ve shrugged to feign nonchalance if it were physically possible.
“Tell me what you’re going to do when and if I untie you.” He stared down at her, clearly exerting his dominance.
Just as she opened her mouth to answer, he thrust two fingers roughly inside her.
“Oh!” she cried out unexpectedly.
“Tell me or I stop,” he said, plunging in and out steadily.
“I need to know… I need to know where this is going,” she whispered as she fought for breath. She had no idea how much more her body could take.
His arm flexed as he controlled every bit of her pleasure with his hand. Licking his lips, his eyes met hers. “Seriously? I think a better question might be where is it not going. And whether or not I plan to untie you.”
“I-I’m going to… I’m going to…” She let her head fall back as she enjoyed his assault.
When his mouth descended on her left breast, her body bucked against him.
“Please untie me.”
He sucked her already hardened nipple into his scorching-hot mouth and released it with a wet sound. “Why? Tell me what you’re going to do.”
She moaned as his mouth ravaged her other breast.
“I want to touch you,” she confessed.
“Where?” His tongue trailed a path between her breasts and up her neck.
“Everywhere.”
After kissing her softly on the lips, he crouched above her and began untying her wrists.
“Ankles too, please, sir,” she requested quietly.
“Not yet.” A small grunt of disapproval escaped her lips, and he captured it with his mouth. “You can touch me now.”
She grabbed him by the shoulders, clutching tightly as he returned his hand to that needful spot between her thighs.
“I can’t fucking wait to be inside you,” he practically growled in her ear.
“What’s stopping you?”
“I don’t like to rush things.”
She would’ve laughed if she hadn’t been on the cusp of a heaving orgasm.
“Tell me, cowgirl. Let go. Let me hear you.”
She cried out as she came. “Harder. I want it harder.”
He complied, adding a third finger. “Come for me, Stella. Come hard for me, cowgirl.”
She tore at his back with her fingernails as he deepened his thrusts. Her entire body felt as if it were about to explode around him.
“Van, oh God.” Just as he hit that spot, soothing that painful ache, she came, and he covered her mouth with his. She poured her carnal pleasure right into his mouth, biting and moaning against him. He took what she gave—kissing her with a nearly violent enthusiasm that equaled hers.
“Good girl,” he murmured into her hair as she fell back to Earth from whatever the hell had just happened to her. “Good girl.”
When Stella came to, her ankles had been freed. She wrapped herself around the warm body next to her.
“You back with me, cowgirl?”
She grinned into his side. “Mmhm.”
“You begged, you screamed, you threatened me with physical violence. I’m guessing you felt something.”
She felt her face flush as she buried it into his chest. “You are so bad.”
“Or so good, depending on your perspective.”
“Why was it… I mean, why did you, um…” She felt stupid. After what they’d done, talking about it shouldn’t have been a big deal. But it was. Apparently she was still the same old Stella, despite the multiple earth-shattering orgasms.
“Why did I tie you up and make you beg?”
She nodded against him, still unable to look him in the eye.
“Why do you think?”
She sighed. “I don’t know. That’s why I asked.”
He rolled onto his side and brought his face to hers. “I took away your control so that you could let go. So you could focus on feeling and not thinking. You’re always so in your head. I had to pull you out somehow.”
Well that made sense. If anyone else had done something like that, she’d have expected it to be for purely selfish reasons. But somehow this man seemed to know what she needed even more than she did.
“And it was one hell of a view. I snapped some pictures on my phone while you were unconscious.”
She gaped at him, glaring when he grinned.
“Kidding. I’m in rehab, remember? I’m not even allowed to have a phone here.”
She relaxed against him. “Yeah, I remember.” She couldn’t help the bitterness that laced her words. Why couldn’t he just be a regular guy she was dating? Why did it have to be so damn complicated?
“Speaking of which, I should probably go.”
Stella glanced over at the alarm clock on her nightstand. It was well past lunchtime. She hadn’t realized she’d napped for so long. “Jesus. How long was I out for?”
Van shrugged as he sat up. “’Bout an hour.”
“Sorry.”
He pinned her with a strange look. “Do not apologize. I took some serious pleasure in wearing you out.”
That damn blush blossomed on her face again at the memory. It was one she planned to keep.
“You’re gorgeous always, but you’re fucking edible when you blush.”
His words lit her up inside. She wrapped her arms around him from behind as he put his boots back on.
“You know, I could, um, return the favor.” She slid a hand down his muscular denim-clad thigh.
Van leaned back and angled his head so he could kiss her. Softly at first. She wasn’t sure which one of them deepened the kiss, but soon she was straddling him on the edge of her bed.