SAOIRSE
Ihonestly don’t know what I expected. Maybe some kind of dungeon with chains hanging from the ceiling, but that’s not what I see when I step into the room, my heart pounding.
For one thing, there’s an actual bed. It’s large, the iron headboard against the far wall, which is stone like all the others in the club, with an iron chandelier above it. It’s covered in a thick red velvet duvet and piled with cushions, and I’m so startled by it that it takes me a moment to look around the rest of the room.
When I do, I feel my heart in my throat all over again.
There’s a padded bench by one wall, with leather cuffs at each end. Next to a black lacquered cabinet, along another wall, is one of those X-shaped structures made of gleaming mahogany wood. The floor is smooth stone, covered with plush fur rugs in places, such as in front of a red velvet wing chair and a tasseled pillow atop that same rug. I feel my face flush hot as I imagine justwhya pillow would be in front of a chair.
I look up and see a metal grate attached to the ceiling, with cuffs hanging from it, and I swallow hard. I turn towards Connor, my heart racing, and it takes only one brief glance at him to see that he’s already hard, his cock straining against the front of his dark jeans as he looks at me with his keen blue gaze.
“Well?” His mouth twitches humorously on one side. “What do you think of my little pleasure palace, Saoirse?”
I stare at him, utterly speechless. I don’t know what to think or feel.How many other women have been up here?I want to blurt out, but I don’t. He’d probably laugh at me, and I’d be willing to bet he’s lost count. I shouldn’t feel so jealous over it, but I do. He brought me here to prove to me that what all those other women have been eager to do, I won’t. That I can’t satisfy hisneeds. And standing here, looking around this foreign bedroom that looks like no bedroom I’ve ever been in, I think he might be right.
“You’re welcome to try anything in here that you’d like, of course,” Connor says, his smirk growing. “Just say the word, Saoirse, and I’ll introduce you to any desires you please. Except, of course, my cock in that virginal pussy of yours. We can’t go that far.”
I blink, trying to regain my composure. I feel like a naïve idiot, and I can’t stand that, can’t stand that he might see me that way, just as he sees me as uptight and prissy. “I’m supposed to be the submissive, right?” I challenge him, pulling myself upright and staring up defiantly into his blue eyes. “What wouldyouwant to do, if you brought me up here like one of your other women?”
Connor’s gaze flickers dangerously. “Oh, Saoirse,” he says, his voice lowering an octave. “Trust me, you couldn’t handle that.”
“You keep saying that.” I tilt my chin up, trying not to let him see the nervousness on my face. “Try me.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking for.”
Oh god.I want to run—and I want to stay. The reason I don’t flee screaming for the door is simple—I don’t want to go the rest of my life wondering what would have happened if I’d stayed. And I know I will if I leave.
“Maybe not.” I shrug with a bravado I don’t actually feel. “But isn’t that why you brought me here?”
Connor’s eyes darken, and he takes one long stride toward me. Before I can so much as suck in a breath, his index finger hooks in the ring of my collar, yanking me forward and pulling me flush up against him. I gasp, breathless with shock, as I feel every inch of his hard, muscled body pressed against mine, right down to the rigid, throbbing length in his tight jeans. “Just remember, Saoirse,” he warns. “You asked for this. And the Connor you remember, the stiff gentleman who was once the prince of Boston?”
He lowers his head, his lips an inch from mine. “He’s gone, Saoirse. I killed him. That man was afraid of his desires, but I’m not. And when it comes to you—I havesomany.” His other hand, the one not holding my collar, skims over my waist, settling on my hip so he can pull me tighter against him, so I can feel just how hard he really is.
“Your safeword is emerald,” he whispers. “Don’t forget it.”
And then, with his finger still hooked in the ring of the collar at my throat, his lips come crashing down onto mine.
His kiss sweeps me away every time. I wonder in a fog of pleasure how long it would take for it to stop feeling like this, for the hot pressure of his mouthnotto sear over my nerve endings like a brand, setting me alight as I arch instinctively against him, my mouth opening for his insistent tongue.
He doesn’t hesitate, doesn’t falter. I gave him permission, and he takes full advantage, the pressure of the leather against the back of my neck only stoking my desire even more as he plunges his tongue into my mouth, devouring me. His other hand slides around to my ass in the tight leather dress, squeezing it as he kisses me, holding onto me fiercely as he takes full possession of my mouth.
It’s in that moment that I know that if he wanted to, he could own me, body and soul. If he fucked me the way he kisses—
He’s said I could have other men, but I’m not sure how any other man could ever compare.
I know that the kinds of men I once imagined marrying—men like the old Connor,respectablemen, men who wouldn’t demand more than I was willing to give, could never satisfy me after this. I always told myself I was the kind of woman who wasn’t interested in bad boys, who had no time for scoundrels or rogues, but it seems I was very, very wrong.
Connor has awakened something in me that I never knew was there—a need for passion, for roughness, for blatant desire. I’ll never be happy with anything less, ever again.
I don’t hesitate, either. If I’m going to give myself this night of freedom to push my boundaries, to find out what it is that Connor would actually want of me, I’m going to do it—up to a point. I’ll let him push, but I'll stop if it’s too much.I can stop. I can. I won’t let him go too far.
Emerald. All I have to do is say it, and he’ll stop. Until then, I can let go.
I’ve never let go. I’ve been a tightly wound ball of decorum, duty, elegance, and sophistication for my entire life. And now, at this moment, it feels as if floodgates have broken loose.
I clutch his shirt in my hands and pull him closer. I open my mouth for his tongue and arch my hips against his. I slant my mouth and kiss him back, as fiercely and hungrily as he’s kissing me.
Connor pulls back, his eyes wide. “Christ,” he swears, breathless from the kiss. “Saoirse—”