I couldn’t help the little groan of relief that escaped me. I suspected it made Lugh smile smugly, but I didn’t want to open my eyes and see.
His hands were so big, he could massage me from chin to forehead all at the same time, which he proceeded to do. His skillful, dextrous fingers found every knot of tension and gently but firmly erased them. I relaxed even further, abandoning myself to hedonistic pleasure, shutting down my worries and cares so I could better concentrate on the physical sensation.
I don’t know how long I lay like that, basking in a warm glow, feeling safe and comfortable for the first time in ages. I think it was a long time, because my every muscle felt like heated candle wax, soft and malleable, when I started noticing sensations other than Lugh’s hands on my face. His fingers were still at work, still drawing circles on my skin, but there was no more tension left to find. The headache had disappeared entirely.
Which was all very nice, but now that I wasn’t drifting anymore, I couldn’t help noticing that my, er, pillow was very, very hard. I kept my eyes closed and tried not to tense, but of course there was no corner of my mind Lugh couldn’t see into, so he knew how aware I was of his arousal. He was also aware that it didn’t exactly repulse me.
Considering how many times Lugh had made advances, you’d have thought that by now I’d be ready for it. But no, I had relaxed into his caresses as if he couldn’t possibly have any ulterior motives. Worse, I wasn’t leaping to my feet and putting as much distance between us as possible.
I could tell Lugh was leaning over me, because the tips of his long black hair tickled my neck and shoulders, which were apparently bare. I didn’t think they had been when the dream had started, but then my clothes frequently seemed to morph or downright disappear when I dreamed of Lugh. The tickle moved down the slope of my breasts. Beneath my head, Lugh’s arousal pulsed, making my traitorous nipples tighten.
“Don’t,” I gasped, but I didn’t move away or try to close my mental doors. One thing was for sure—if I allowed myself to drown in the pleasure of Lugh’s body, no thoughts of my fucked-up life would enter my mind and hurt me. Would it be so wrong to finally stop saying no, to put off for just a while longer the necessity of dealing with everything that was wrong in my life right now? After all, it seemed like Brian and I were history.
“Don’t give up yet, Morgan,” Lugh said softly just as his hair finally brushed over one of my nipples and caused me to arch my back. “Brian is worth fighting for, and it’s high time you put some effort into the fight yourself instead of making him do all the work.”
I’m sure I would have had something clever to say to that, except at that moment the hands that had been caressing my face began following the path his hair had taken. Another moan escaped me, and my whole body vibrated with tension as I tried to tell myself I wanted him to stop.
I rallied my mental troops enough to speak, though not nearly enough to make myself avoid his caress. “How can you be trying to fix Brian and me at the same time you’re trying to seduce me?”
“As I’ve said before, I’m not in competition with Brian.” He chuckled softly. “I like him, and I enjoy your time with him almost as much as you do.” His fingers slid around the outside of my breasts and then under, avoiding my aching nipples. “And I believe I’ve proven before that I can pleasure you without making love to you, so I’m not sure this counts as a true seduction.”
Forbidden arousal tugged at my center as I remembered the erotic fantasy Lugh had created for me. It had been my own hand that brought me to climax, but it had been the visual Lugh had created of Dominic giving Adam a blow job that had made that climax inevitable.
I was still too prudish to be comfortable with the idea that seeing two men together aroused me, but there was no way I could deny that reality. And even the fact that Lugh had been distracting me with sex while he drove my body around without my permission didn’t erase the memory of that pleasure.
“Trust me,” Lugh murmured, and I don’t know whether it was his words or his tone, but the shiver that ripped through me then was equal parts excitement and alarm.
I felt, rather than saw, the change in scenery around me, since I still hadn’t gotten around to opening my eyes. The bed disappeared from under me, and suddenly, instead of lying on my back, I was on my feet, hands stretched above my head. My eyes flew open, and I took in my new situation in quick, almost photographic flashes of awareness.
Hands up, wrists circled by decadently soft, fur-lined manacles that attached to a metal bar above my head.
Legs shoulder-width apart, similarly shackled to a pair of metal poles that reached from floor to ceiling.
Body encased in a tight, stretchy black minidress.
Lugh’s enormous bed about five yards away, now draped again in his favorite red silk sheets and sporting a footboard that had never been there before.
“Lugh!” I gasped, alarm overtaking the arousal I’d felt before.
“I’m right here,” he whispered from behind me, his breath warm against my cheek. His hands rested on my hips.
I tugged at the restraints on my wrists. “I don’t like this,” I said, my voice coming out in a hoarse croak I barely recognized as mine.
“Shh,” he said as he pressed his delicious, warm body up against my back. “Remember, this is just a dream. Nothing bad can happen to you here.”
I swallowed on a dry throat, my emotions ping-ponging wildly, moving too fast for me to identify them all. I hated the sensation of the cuffs around my wrists and ankles, hated the fact that I couldn’t move, couldn’t run away. And yet it was hard to deny the tingle of anticipation that existed beneath it all, the desire to find out what would come next.
“Think of this as a very realistic sexual fantasy,” Lugh whispered in my ear, his breath hot upon my skin. “You can enjoy things in fantasy that you know you wouldn’t like in real life.”
The room was lit by a multitude of candles, which rested on a collection of end tables clustered near the bed. Beyond the reach of the candles’ light was an impenetrable darkness. As my heart palpitated in continued confusion, two figures emerged from the darkness.
Considering the events of the last erotic dream Lugh had conjured, I was not entirely surprised to see Adam and Dominic. Adam was fully clothed, but he was clearly dressed for success. His black jeans clung to his every contour, showing off an erection of prodigious size. His black T-shirt was similarly clingy, giving me a mouthwatering view of his well-muscled chest and six-pack abs.
Dominic was stark naked and looked to be very happy about it. His erection was no match for Adam’s in sheer size, but it was nothing to be embarrassed about, either. His nipples were so tight they looked almost painful, and the look on his face was one of dazed pleasure. His eyes were almost black with lust, his olive-skinned cheeks flushed with it. The fact that he was wearing a studded leather collar and that his hands were bound together by an intricately knotted length of black satin cord didn’t seem to bother him in the least.
Lugh’s hands moved on my hips, and I jumped, having almost forgotten he was there. A low, sexy chuckle emerged from his throat, and the sound seemed to vibrate through my every nerve.
Giving me a smoldering, dangerous look, Adam put his hands on Dom’s shoulders and roughly jerked him around to face the bed. Dom didn’t seem to have any objection to the rough handling; in fact, if it was possible, his erection seemed to gain even more enthusiasm.
I had a feeling I knew why Lugh’s bed suddenly had a footboard.
“Bend over!” Adam barked at Dom, who shivered and broke out in goose bumps.