Chapter Twenty - Two
I walked into Liam's penthouse on unsteady legs. He had made me come two more times before Darius had finally pulled into the underground garage.
But even if I hadn't been suffering some kind of orgasm-hangover, this place would have still made me feel unsteady. For one thing, we were so high-up it was vertigo inducing. His building was at 23rd Street, right up against the banks of the Schuykill River with a west facing view out over the low buildings of West Philadelphia and the suburbs beyond that. The sun was sinking below the horizon, shining through the haze of snow falling in the northwestern sky up near Manayunk and Roxborough. Down south near the airport, another snowsquall was marching through. To be able to see both at once was incredible.
I reluctantly turned from the view to take in the apartment itself. It took up the whole floor and had a distinctly designer tough. It looked like he paid someone a lot of money to choose everything and put it in place, and since then had never moved or touched a single thing.
As far as I could tell, there were no personal effects; no pictures on the exposed brick mantle, no battered paperbacks on the built-in shelves. It looked like it came from a catalog and the effect was closed off and eerie, but I didn't know how to put it in words. "Hey Liam, your apartment...it's too nice, what gives?" No, that would hardly work.
Instead I turned to look at him.
Only to see that he had been watching me all along.
"What?"
He leaned back on the leather sofa and raised his eyebrows. "I like looking at you."
"Yeah?" I was blushing already. His voice had that dangerous rasp. And in spite of three successive orgasms, I was still greedy for more.
"There's a small problem though."
"What's that?"
He gestured impatiently. "All those clothes."
I looked down. I was still bundled up from head to toe, but I was feeling overheated for an entirely different reason.
"Take them off, Shay, " Liam ordered softly. "One by one. Starting with your scarf."
I unwound the scarf from around my neck. "Very good. Now the jacket please." He was focusing on me with such intensity that I imagined myself in a spotlight. The jacket fell to the floor. "Boots now." I leaned over, unzipping my boots one by one, wobbling unsteadily. "Very nice, have I told you those are my favorite pants of yours?"
"No."
"They are," he growled. "Now take them off, please."
I unzipped them and stepped out. The cool air of the apartment hit my soaked panties and I shivered. "You'll be warm soon enough, Shay. Those socks need to go too."
I yanked them off, hopping from foot to foot on the cold floor.
"Now the shirt."
"Don't you want to do that?" I asked him with a grin.
"I just want to look at you," he repeated. The tightly restrained desire in his voice made my breath come quicker.
Yanking the sweater over my head, I threw it across the room. My hands went to my bra strap. "Ah, not until I say so," Liam corrected me.
I let my hands drop to my sides and waited, quivering, while his eyes raked up and down my flesh. There was something so sinful about doing what I was told.
He waved his hand. "Now."
I reached behind me and undid the clasp, letting my generous breasts swing free. Liam inhaled sharply. He rose from the sofa. "Stay there," he instructed as he walked across the room.
His bedroom, if you could call it that, was an open alcove off the main room. He stood at the edge of the bed and turned, crossing his arms deliberately.
"Come here. " He cocked his head at me. Wanting to watch me obey.
I lifted my chin and walked to him. The cool air of his apartment swirled around my overheated skin. The way he looked at me made my nipples tighten and constrict.
I stood in front of him, waiting.
He didn't touch me.
"Take off my shirt," he instructed.
My fingers shook as I undid the buttons one by one. His chest rose and fell in measured breaths, and the heat coming off of his skin was incredible. When it fell to the floor, I waited, shivering, for him to tell me to take off his pants.
"Kiss my neck," he ordered me instead. His voice had gone over to that tight whisper. God, it just went right through me like an electric jolt, overloading my circuits. His voice alone made me a marionette, moving without input from my brain. I lifted my lips to his neck. My nipples brushed deliciously against the light dusting of hair on his chest. I pressed my lips to his neck, wondering if I would feel his pulse racing like mine was.
But it was slow and steady under my lips. He was till completely in control of himself and it drove me absolutely wild.
"Kiss my chest," he exhaled and only the raggedness of his breath betrayed him.
I trailed my lips down. His skin was warm, so warm. I pressed my hands in the center of his pecs, my thumb and forefingers meeting, and kissed the little window that formed between them.
"Kiss my stomach."
I couldn't do that without bending down. Which was what he wanted. For me to get on my knees in front of him.
I knelt down on the cold marble tile and cupped my hands around his ass. As I kissed his flat stomach, I cast my eyes upward, so he could see me doing it.
His belly hitched and his abs tightened. I felt the throb of his desire and moved my hands to his zipper.
But he caught me by the wrists. "Go lie down," he told me firmly.
He wasn't ready to lose control yet.
Walking naked across the wide expanse of his bedroom while he watched - still covered - felt vulnerable as hell. The kiss in the dark of his car, the dark in Jasmine's apartment, those times were very different.
Now I was on display in the bright lights. And he could see everything.
"All the way up," he instructed. "There, now grab the headboard and look at me."
I did as he told. The bed dipped as Liam knelt over me. Through his hands ran a length of shiny white rope. He must have seen the question in my eyes. "I bought it the day I first kissed that sweet pussy of yours," he explained. "I knew how incredible it would look against your skin."
I remembered that day well, how his hands had held me so firmly in place. It suddenly made sense "You've always wanted to tie me up, haven't you?"
"It was all I could think of as I had you on that counter. But I had to wait for you to want it too."
He brushed a kiss across my lips and the impish dimple popped out for a split second before his eyes turned intense again.
He was right. Now I wanted it too.
He slid the rope around one wrist so that the center lay against it and wrapped the length around twice. Then he caught the other wrist and did the same, finally catching them both with the same knot. The long tendrils of rope trailed down on either side of my body as he pulled me tight to the headboard. I could feel the silken slide against my skin, but I couldn't move my arms at all.
&
nbsp; "Is it too tight?" he asked, running his finger down the inside of my arm.
I caught my gasp in my teeth. "No."
He caught the trailing lengths that pooled on either side of me. With great care, he lopped them around and around each other and then across my chest, catching each loop in an intricate knot that formed at my breastbone. My breasts were on full display now, and when I saw him look down at me with his lips slightly parted, I could tell he liked me this way.