He crouched down and wrapped a hank of her hair around his fist, lifting her head ever so slightly. “You know how hot it makes me to hear you beg so nicely? I may even let you enjoy it now.”
He released her hair and stood. The sound of his belt buckle raised goose bumps on her sweat-slicked skin. She peeked upward to find him peering down at her as he doubled the belt over and tucked the metal part in his hand. He smiled a smile that could simultaneously melt her insides and break her open, then he stepped out of view.
Even knowing it was coming couldn’t prepare her for the blow. The belt landed across her ass, sending a rocket of stinging pleasure curling up her spine and down her legs. She cried out, her hands yanking at the ropes and inadvertently spreading her thighs wider.
Another swat came and grazed her exposed sex, jolting her and almost sending her into instant orgasm. Her back bowed, her head shaking back and forth like a restless horse trying to break loose. “Oh, God.”
He hit her again and again, but she lost count of the lashes when the hot pain softened and blurred into the intoxicating rush of pure adrenaline and pleasure. Her pussy throbbed and her skin felt tight all over her, like she had too much sensation to hold in one body. She wanted to beg, to scream, to cry…to love him.
“I can’t wait any longer for you, baby. You’re driving me fucking crazy.” The buckle hit the floor with a clang and the sound of a zipper filled in the space between her breaths. Then he was there behind her, his palms and mouth gentle and nurturing where he’d been brutal seconds before. “I need to be inside you.”
Her verbal abilities had slipped into the part of her brain she didn’t have access to at the moment, but nothing in the world sounded better than that. She tilted her hips upward, a silent appeal.
Cool liquid touched her backside, Grant’s fingers massaging and spreading lube he’d apparently brought with him. “Just relax for me, princess. Let me in.”
She didn’t think she was capable of fighting the invasion even if she’d wanted to. His finger pushed inside her, one then another, and a moan spilled out of her. He worked her backside with one hand and moved the other to her clit. She squeezed her eyes shut, the pleasure almost too overwhelming to process. Methodically and with tortuous patience, he coaxed her body to cooperate, to open to him. As soon as she thought she’d explode with orgasm, he’d back off her clit and ease her down. If she could’ve formed the words, she would’ve begged—shamelessly and profusely.
But soon he’d hit his own limit and he shifted into position behind her, untying her hands so she could brace herself and then spreading her even wider. His cock pressed against her, the blunt head feeling impossibly huge in comparison to the fingers he’d been using. “Relax and push against me, baby. I’m not going to hurt you.”
She breathed through one final whip of anxiety, then did as he said, mentally and physically accepting him. He moved through the last bit of resistance, and then he was gliding inside her, stretching her, setting off a circuit board of nerve endings that had her nails burying into the carpet and her body quivering with edgy need.
“Oh, Jesus, Charli,” Grant said, his voice full of grit. “I want to take my time with you, but damn, you feel good.”
She swallowed past her parched throat, her own words barely a whisper. “Please don’t make me wait too long.”
“Ah, hell,” he said, draping himself over her back and hooking his arm around her hip. “That’s a request I can definitely grant.”
His fingers found her clit and stroked as his pelvis tapped her backside, his cock buried fully inside her. She reared up, and a strangled moan that she didn’t even recognize as her own filled her ears. Grant sped up, his thrusts matching the urgency pulsing inside her. Her head sagged between her shoulders and she went down to her elbows, all her strength going toward holding back the dam of sensation threatening to overtake her.
“Please, please, please,” she said, a mumbled string of unintelligible, desperate words pouring out of her.
He pinched her clit and switched from nice and easy to commanding—his dominance fully unleashed. “Come for me, Charlotte.”
He fucked into her with long, spine-arching thrusts, rocking her against the floor and pushing her to a place she’d never visited before. Wretched sounds scraped past her throat as the need wound inside her, tighter and tighter, until she thought she’d die of sensory overload.
Then Grant moaned her name, and the erotic sound of his own loss of control pushed her over the cliff and sent her plummeting into orgasm. Tears pricked her eyes, and she screamed through the overwhelming surge of pleasure, the waves crashing against her over and over until she felt him empty inside her.
After a few panted moments and murmured words, he slipped out of her.
She melted into the floor, not sure she ever wanted to get up again. He kissed her shoulder, her hair, the top of her spine. “That was so, so perfect, Charlotte. I’ve never…” But he seemed to be struggling with intelligent speech as well. “Thank you, just thank you. You’re amazing.”
All she could do was sigh in response.
He laughed softly, his obvious affection rolling over her and wrapping around her. He laid his shirt over her quickly chilling skin. “Stay here, darlin’. There’s a hot bath with your name on it. I’ll be right back.”
Charli lay there snuggled against Grant’s chest, listening to the steady thrum of his heartbeat and enjoying the scent of her soap on him. Even after all that had transpired in her house tonight, it felt so normal, so right, lying there in her bed with him. Maybe she didn’t crave candles and soft music, but this—this she ached for. She hadn’t really had a chance to be like this with him yet, to simply cuddle and enjoy his presence.
For a moment, she let herself imagine that this was real, that he would sleep there beside her all night, that they were in a real relationship. But even with her system utterly exhausted, her logical brain wouldn’t let her go there. He’ll never be yours.
He traced his fingers along her spine with a languid motion. “What’s on your mind, freckles? Your muscles have gone tense.”
She frowned, staring at their intermingled shadows on the far wall. “It was nothing.”
“No. Tell me.”
She sighed. Did he always have to be so damn observant? She’d promised herself she wouldn’t let herself fall deeper tonight. But her best intentions had been left somewhere between her bedroom and laundry room. Beyond the electric physical connection they’d shared tonight, when he’d put her in the bathtub afterward, his expression soft, his words tender, she’d plummeted into the abyss. He’d probably chalk it up to bottoming out after their intense scene, but she knew better. She needed to tell him the truth. Put it out there.
She closed her eyes, drumming up the nerve. There was only one thing she could say. “I don’t think I can do this anymore.”