“I’m not fucking you today, so you can relax for now,” he said, sliding his hands along her flat stomach, letting her get used to his touch. “But when I do, I can promise that I’ll make sure your pussy is nice and slick and ready to accommodate my width and length. I won’t take you like a battering ram, if that’s your worry,” he added in a lighter, teasing tone.
She laughed softly, and the last bit of tension seemed to ease away as her body yielded against his, light and weightless in the water. “Now there’s an image I’d rather not have in my head, thank you very much,” she said, her voice wry.
“Then let’s find something more enjoyable for you to focus on,” he murmured seductively, and proceeded to do just that.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Excitement shifted through Arabella as Maddux didn’t hesitate to do what he did best and took control. Before she realized his intent, he hooked his feet along the insides of her ankles and used that leverage to spread her legs wide and keep them pinned against the sides of the tub. Then he took her arms and folded them behind her back, with her palms flat against his chest between them, effectively immobilizing all her limbs.
She didn’t protest or struggle, but she knew the quickening of her breath told Maddux how aroused she already was by her restrained and exposed position. Once again, he splayed both of his palms on her belly, then simultaneously swept one hand up toward her chest until he captured the firm mound of one breast while the other slid down between her legs, his fingers stroking along the outer folds of her pussy, avoiding her clit and teasing her sensitive flesh with soft, light strokes.
“Maddux,” she moaned, trying to lift her hips to deepen the pressure of his touch, but with her legs held open by the strength of his, she could only manage to squirm restlessly.
He turned his head and nuzzled his warm lips against the side of her neck, the light growth of beard on his face abrading her skin and adding another level of pleasure she didn’t think was possible. “Something you want, Bella?” he taunted, nipping on her ear as he pulled on her taut nipple, lightly twisted, then pinched the hard nub of flesh, sending sparks of con
flicting sensations rippling through her body.
She cried out as that sting of blissful pain spiraled straight down to her throbbing core, where his fingers rubbed and swirled against her clit. “Yes, please,” she begged, panting, already desperate for relief. “Make me come.”
She felt him smile against her cheek, clearly enjoying having the upper hand. “Not yet. But soon.”
His strumming fingers backed off a fraction, leaving her bereft and teetering on the edge. In retaliation, she did the only thing she could think of . . . she gyrated back on his cock, stoking the length of his shaft between the cheeks of her ass—which increased her own desire, too.
“Fuck,” he growled, instinctively thrusting his hips along that crevice as he shoved two fingers deep inside her in his own form of punishment, making the water ripple violently around them.
She gasped in shock, feeling her body clamp down on those digits as he slowly withdrew them, then pushed in again, stretching and filling her while his thumb massaged her clit until the ache between her legs became a relentless, needy throb that he refused to appease.
She tried to thrash, and her hands he’d positioned behind her back dug into his stomach. Without thinking of the consequences, she raked and scraped her nails across his skin like a wildcat, hard enough to scratch and make him hiss out a harsh breath.
The fingers tweaking her nipples abruptly came up and wrapped around her throat beneath her chin, pulling her head back against his shoulder until she was forced to arch her spine to accommodate the position since her legs were still locked down by his. If she thought she was restrained before, now she was totally at his mercy, and the realization jolted her with a rush of forbidden, thrilling pleasure that only added to the knot of lust coiling tighter and tighter inside her.
His breathing was harsh and damp against her neck. “Jesus Christ, who knew you were such a filthy fucking girl who liked to fight dirty?” he mused, dark amusement threading his voice. “You like the struggle, don’t you? But mostly, you like this part. Where you fight and I dominate and control and take.”
She did . . . Oh, God, she did. Her skin flushed hotly, and a whimpering sound escaped from her throat at the thought of him doing dirty, wicked, shameless things to her body. She’d had no idea that such depraved behavior could turn her on so much, that a man’s sexually aggressive nature could make her submit willingly just to experience such power and immense pleasure.
But this man made her want it all.
“Make no mistake, Bella,” he went on in a silky-smooth voice as the fingers between her legs began dancing across her sensitive clit again in slow, torturous circles, and he turned her head just slightly so he could look at her face, though his hand remained anchored around her throat. “I could take you just like this, but I promised you I wouldn’t. Under normal circumstances, your little act of rebellion would earn you the flat of my hand against your tender ass, but I’m feeling benevolent this time . . . and selfishly, I want to watch you come for me. It isn’t going to take much, is it?”
The way his hand pressed firmly against her jaw, she couldn’t shake her head in answer. But yes, she was so ramped up that, with every illicit caress he made against that hard, aching nub of flesh, the monstrous need grew, so swift and so strong her entire body began to shake with the force of the orgasm threatening to overwhelm her.
He eased his hold on her chin, let his fingers relax from around her throat as the peak of rapture spilled through her veins. All the while he kept his dark, hot gaze on her face, watching every nuance, every reaction, his own expression etched with a lust and hunger that escalated her ecstasy. Her eyes rolled back, and her lips parted on a soft cry as her climax engulfed her utterly and completely, unlike anything her body had ever experienced before.
He only gave her a few extra seconds to come down from the high before he released her legs, then flipped her around so that she was facing him. He grabbed the backs of her thighs in his hands and jerked her upward so that she was straddling his legs and his erection jutted between them beneath the surface of the water.
“Put your hands on my cock,” he ordered, his voice a hoarse, desperate rasp of sound as he plowed all ten fingers into her hair, knocking the pins from the upswept strands as he brought her face closer to his, the color of his eyes like molten gold. “Wrap all ten fingers around me and stroke my dick, nice and tight, from the base all the way up to the head.”
Wanting to please him more than she wanted her next breath, she did everything he asked, at first awkwardly. She might have seen penises in pictures and online, but this was the first time she’d ever held one in her hands, and he was huge. But she managed to find a rhythm that made him groan like a dying man, and with his hands framing her face, he brought her mouth to his in a deeply searing kiss. She immediately opened to the hungry thrust of his tongue, savoring the dark, intoxicating flavor that was uniquely his, while trying her best to keep her grip on his shaft as tight as possible as his hips started to thrust erratically, his cock jackhammering between the pressure and friction of her palms.
He seemed to grow harder and thicker in her hands, if that was even possible. Then he was growling roughly against her lips, his body stiffening, his tongue delving deeper into her mouth as he gasped and grunted, his muscles tensing as he embraced his own orgasm. He tore his mouth from hers, let his head drop back against the rim of the tub as a hoarse, animal-like sound rose from his chest, then broke free from his throat.
His control seemed to shatter. Dirty, filthy, obscene words fell from his lips, and his hands released her hair and gripped the porcelain ledge, as if he needed the anchor as his hips jerked and his body shuddered. Against her clasped palms, she felt a pulsing sensation like a volatile heartbeat and glanced down to where she was still stroking him with both hands, watching in pure fascination as a thick stream of hot, slick fluid erupted from the engorged head with each subsequent throb of the bulging vein that ran beneath the length of his erection.
She’d never seen anything as hot, wild, or primitive as Maddux in the throes of pleasure, and even after, when he tried to catch his breath. As she tentatively, experimentally squeezed the flushed, swollen tip of his shaft and caressed her thumb over that plump flesh, his hips flexed and he cursed, grabbing both her hands beneath the water and yanking them away from his still-hard flesh.
“Trust me, vixen, there’s not a drop of come left in me after that release,” he said, his thumbs rubbing the insides of her wrists as he placed her hands on his chest. “Just like your clit is sensitive after an orgasm, my dick is, too.”
She had no idea, and she couldn’t deny that everything about his body enthralled her and made her want to learn more. She lifted her gaze to Maddux’s, his expression more relaxed than she’d seen it since they’d met, and a part of her recognized that she was responsible for that calm, satisfied look on his face.