Not until Braden Black.
And now he’s holding it over me, dangling it like a carrot in front of a rabbit’s mouth.
He pushes my thighs forward and lowers his tongue, sliding it over my asshole. I tense. No one has done that before, and it feels… It feels…
“Oh!”
He’s jabbing his tongue into my ass gently, but it feels like a probe.
Smack!
His hand on my ass. I jerk against the sting of his slap to my ass cheek.
“That’s for talking.” Then he slides his tongue back over my asshole and up my pussy again.
My clit is throbbing in time with my rapid heartbeat. Before I can think, I let my hand wander to my vulva. If I can just touch my clit, just one little flick…
Braden grabs my wrist. “No, you don’t. That clit is mine tonight. No one touches it but me.”
“But I have to come.”
The blindfold slides off my eyes, and he meets my gaze. His chin and lips are wet from my juices, and he’s chuckling. He’s fucking chuckling!
“I told you I’d punish you for talking.”
“The smack?” I say.
“No, that was for pleasure.”
Pleasure? It hurt, but only minimally. Now my cheek is warm where his hand was. Warm and tingly…and yes, it feels nice.
I never imagined.
What’s the punishment, then?
His lips form a suction against my clit once more, and his fingers are ramming in and out of my pussy. I shudder on the bed, my hips moving frantically against Braden’s lips and tongue. His delicious fingers massage the inside of me in a deliberate way that drives me nearly to the edge. My God, my God, my God…
The fuse is lit again, and it’s burning, burning, burning…
Until he pulls away from my clit and removes his fingers from my pussy.
He moves forward, the texture of his shirt abrading my nipples. They’re so hard. Every part of me is wound tighter than a bowstring.
He presses his lips to one nipple and then the other before he kisses my lips chastely. I taste myself on him. The citrusy tang of my juices.
“Do you understand now, Skye?”
“Understand what?”
“That punishment doesn’t have to physically hurt.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Tension is coiled through me. I’m covered in slick perspiration, and my clit is throbbing in time with my heart.
That orgasm… The one I wanted so badly…
“I was right,” I say when I can finally relax enough to speak. “You knew what you were doing the whole time.”
“Of course I did.”
“You freak.”
“What’s freakish about denying you a climax?”
“Most men love it when their partner comes,” I say.
“I’ve never in my life been ‘most men.’” His eyes are heavy-lidded. “That’s not to say I don’t enjoy it when you come. I do, actually. I enjoy it a lot.”
“Then why—”
“You know why.”
Because I didn’t keep my mouth shut. He promised he’d punish me if I spoke again. My body is so hot and needy, I almost wish he’d flogged me rather than deny me an orgasm.
I don’t actually want to be flogged.
But God, I want to come.
I want to come so badly.
Please, Braden. Let me come. Tell me what I have to do to come.
The words hover in the back of my throat, never quite making it to my tongue.
“You’re still resisting, Skye,” Braden says. “If you weren’t so determined to be in control, you could have come three times by now.”
“Why?” I ask.
“I’ve already answered that. You know why.”
I shake my head. “No. I mean, why do you need me to give you control?”
“I don’t need it.”
My eyes pop into circles. “You don’t?”
“That’s what you asked. You asked why I need it, and the truth is, I don’t.”
I shake my head. “I don’t understand.”
“I don’t need it. I want it.”
“Why, then? Why do you want it?”
His face darkens, and God, all I want is to take him in my arms and tell him I’ll do whatever he wants, just to keep that sad look off his face. But is it sadness in his eyes? Yes, but it’s also something else. Something I can’t read.
“Does there have to be a reason?” he finally says.
“Yeah, there does,” I say. “How am I supposed to understand if there isn’t a reason?”
“Still trying to stay in control, aren’t you?”
I sit up, my cheeks warming. “Just because I want answers—”
“Means you’re not giving up control.”
“You said if I gave up control, you’d show me pleasure like I’ve never known. Then you deny me a climax. That’s not showing me pleasure, Braden.”
“True, but there’s still an element missing to that agreement.”
“What’s that?”
He trails a finger over my cheek, almost a loving gesture. “You haven’t given up control.”
My cheek tingles from his touch. “But you want me in your bed, Braden. You’ve said that from the beginning.”
“I don’t deny it.”
“Why not take me as I am?”
“Because you and I will both like it better my way.”
“What makes you so certain?” I ask, sounding a lot more sure of myself than I am.