The Billionaire's Secret: A BWWM Romance Mystery (11 page)

I shrieked like a wildcat. Utterly at
his mercy, I plunged over the brink. Hot lava coursed through me as the ache I
had felt from the day I first saw him was finally, wonderfully, sated.

 
Liam drew a ragged breath and the rest of
his words were lost in an animal snarl. I watched him with slitted eyes as his
face contorted, eyes wide, then a sharp grimace. When he fell forward, he
roared out my name in my ear and the force of his thrust nearly broke me in
two.

I moved my hands from gripping the
couch to touch my face and they came away wet. Was I crying?

Liam touched the trail of tears,
swiping them gently away. "Shay?"

"It's good," I told him.
Which was the truth. "It's so good."

He grinned widely then, dimpled,
boyish and pleased with himself. The rough, dominant man of moments ago was
transformed back into the gentleman, eager to have his lady pleased. The
transition was enough to give me whiplash and I laughed out loud. "You are
the most interesting man I have ever met."

He kissed my shoulder. "And I'm
just getting started."

Chapter
Twenty - One

It was a good day. And it was payday,
which made it even better.

I still owed my divorce lawyer money.
And she was starting to get a little snippy about that fact.

But even that couldn't dampen my good
mood. I caught myself smiling, private, contented smiles as I remembered how it
was last night. Jasmine had come home later than she ever had before, and gone
straight to her room and shut the door. She was a good friend. I knew she
wouldn't press me...yet. Besides, I wasn't sure if I was ready to talk about
what had happened. That rough, dominant side...I wasn't sure she'd understand.
Hell, I wasn't sure I did. When I peeked at my ass in the shower this morning,
the marks made me smile. And the swollen lips of my pussy were so sensitive I
gasped in pleasure when I sat down in the office chair at Young's florist.

 
When I said I wanted to feel it, my wish
came true.

"Now that is a look I don't even
have to be straight to recognize." Kit was leaning against the doorway,
watching me with a Cheshire cat smile. "The look of a woman who has been
fucked and fucked well." He looked at his cuticles, shook his head and
walked away muttering, "Lucky bitch."

I bit my lip to keep from laughing
and following him. I didn't want to tell him what Liam had done to me...but I
also did. I wanted someone to tell me that it was okay to like it and I had a
feeling Kit would do exactly that. I wanted him to explain to him...and
myself... that Liam's roughness, his dominance, made me feel safe. Cared for.
Cherished.

Trusting.

That was it. I finally trusted him.
The realization made me laugh as I sat back on my stinging ass. Somehow all the
flowers and talking couldn't resolve what a simple, primal, smack on the ass
cleared right up. I let him spank me because I trusted him not hurt me. I gave
up control because I knew he'd give it back the second I asked.

I shot up from the chair as the
sudden burst of clarity propelled me to my feet. "Whoa!" Kit cried as
he nimbly sidestepped to avoid me jumping straight into his chest.

"Sorry!" I blushed. My ass
stung, which made me blush even harder.

"Shit, I was hoping you'd stay
sitting down so I didn't have to say this." Kit was holding an envelope in
his hand and his expression was more serious than I had ever seen him wear.

"Say what?" I asked.

He cleared his throat. "Shay,
would you please sit down?"

"Kit, I don't like you when
you're being serious. Freaks me out."

He pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Honey, I don't like
being
serious, period. But right now I'm in grown-up mode. " He looked down at
the envelope in his huge hands and looked for a moment like he wanted to cry.
"Shay, honey, we can't pay you today."

I stammered. "Really? I went
over the books...pulled in all those old delinquent accounts...."

"I know you did, but...."
Silently he handed over the envelope.

I looked at the front and saw the
postmark was from two days ago and it was addressed to Mrs. Young's home.

Inside was a new lease agreement.

"They're jacking our rent,"
Kit sighed heavily as I read the words myself. "Look, I'm on it. I'm
already looking for a new space, but mom? Well, she's pretty upset."

I exhaled heavily. I felt like
someone had punched me in the stomach. "She's been here...forever! Since I
was a kid!"

"Since before that," he
said grimly. "She watched the neighborhood change around her. It's getting
too gentrified here, too trendy. The landlord is no fool. He sees it. If he
gets rid of us, he can rent to some gourmet frozen yogurt stand. Or a dog
boutique."

I felt my lip quiver. This was
straight up injustice. Both to me and to Mrs. Young. "Kit...I need my
paycheck. I have bills."

"Honey, I know. I'm going to the
bank right now. I'll open a line of credit today. Hopefully payroll can pick up
with no issues."

I felt goosebumps march along my arm.
I did the books here. I knew how in the red we were. "A line of credit?
Another one?"

Kit just shrugged helplessly.

"Fuck," I exhaled, sitting
back. "We can't take on another payment, Kit."

"I'm out of ideas here, babe. No
credit line, no paycheck. At least until we can move somewhere cheaper."
He stood up. "I understand if this doesn't sit right, Shay. You don't owe
us anything. You've done amazing things with our delinquent accounts and we're
grateful as hell. But there's no reason you need to go down with this ship."

His tread was as heavy as my heart as
he stood up and walked back into the front of the store to wait for the
customers that just weren't showing up any more.

*****

"You look anxious." Liam
settled his hand on my thigh as the car rolled through the city streets. The
sound of slush ssshed against the undercarriage soothingly, and I rested my
head on his warm shoulder.

"Bad day at work," I
sighed, nuzzling up to him.

"Want to talk to me about it, or
do you want me to help you forget about it?" Liam asked, his voice clogged
with meaning.

I looked up at his incredible face.
The passing streetlights darted across in patterns of light and dark.
"Help me forget," I whispered.

He tilted my face up to his.
"Watch me. Eyes only on me."

I did what I was told, biting my lip
in anticipation. Every little move he made was erotic. The anticipation of what
he might do to me next made me wetter than I thought was possible.

He slid his hand over my thigh and in
between my legs. "Ah, you're so warm here," he said, pressing his
hand upward. I gasped to feel the downward rush. My body was already craving
him.

"I want to play a little game,
Shay. No, no, don't close your eyes. I want them open and on me, you
understand? The game is called, 'how many times can Shay come before we get to
my building?'"

I liked the sound of that game, and I
liked what his hand was doing. Rough and precise, he was touching me in exactly
the right spot. I sagged against him, but he grabbed my face with his other
hand, cupping my cheeks. "Eyes on me. I want to watch you. I want to see
you right at the moment you go wild."

He rubbed harder now, pressing upward
almost painfully. With nowhere to look but into his eyes, I lost myself in the
gray depths as he wrenched an orgasm out of me almost by force.
"Liam!" I gasped sharply, sinking my fingers into his thigh and
gripping with all of my might. "Holy...shit...," I gritted as the
violent sensations wracked my body.

"That's one...," he
growled, pulling his hand away. "Beautiful. But I want to take it to the
next level." His hand was at my zipper already. I gripped his thigh again,
shifting to give him better access.

When his thigh began to buzz.

The sick sense of deja vu smacked me
upside the head. Tulips, the kiss, the ruined night...I stared up at him as he
pulled his phone from his pocket and looked at the name, frowning.

"Is it Lily?" I asked.

He looked at the name, then back at
me. "And if it was?"

I swallowed. I trusted him, I
reminded myself. "Do...do you need to go?"

His face contorted. Whether it was
relief or something deeper, I couldn't tell. "No," he replied gently,
and slid the phone back into his pocket without answering. "I don't have
to go anywhere."

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.

"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.

"Are you good?" He liked
it, but he wanted me to like it too. It was important to him that I wanted the
same thing.

And I couldn't believe how much I
wanted it. The rope's gentle bite into my skin held me like an embrace. I felt
like I would fall to pieces if he untied me now.

"I'm good," I breathed.

"You're more than good. "
He wasn't looking at my face. His was taking in the work he had done, how the
white rope crisscrossed my dark skin.
 
I could feel his eyes. "You're beautiful."

I believed him.

He settled his head between my legs
with a sigh and there was a moment of hesitation.

And then his tongue found my clit and
it was like a bomb went off inside of me.

The sex last night was so good. But
right now it was something
more
than
sex. The way he devoured me with wild abandon - lapping, sucking, kissing -
just losing himself down there, it was like he was making himself as vulnerable
as he had made me.

I was the one tied up, but he was at
my
mercy.

The way he moaned and grunted, the
way he used the knot at my breastbone to pull me down against his tongue, to
fuck me deeper, to make it more, more,
more
,
had me cumming in seconds. The orgasm crawled out from my core, an electric
slide of pure bliss, and it was so intense that I couldn't take it. I pushed up
with my legs, trying to squirm away, but Liam pressed his strong hand against
my thighs. "No," he growled roughly, but it was still too much. I
tried to arch away from him.

Liam laid a sharp smack across my
uplifted ass.

The pain didn't shock me at all. It
only made me moan harder as it dissolved into delicious heat, He spread his
palm wide where it had landed and smoothed the sting away. But I knew better
now. Liam wasn't going to let me get away from him until he had his fill.

He lifted his gray eyes. "Fuck.
Look at you," he murmured, and then went right back to working magic with
his tongue. When he slid his finger inside of me, catching the sensitive place
Tre could never find, I exploded again. Falling to pieces so that only the web
of rope held me together, I turned to jelly, Or liquid, spilled across his
massive bed.

"I'm going to untie your wrists
now. It might hurt a bit coming off."

I moaned. I wasn't sure I wanted him
to free me. I looked down at the knot at my breastbone and he caught my glance.
"No. That stays. I need it."

He knelt above me and unknotted the
rope from the headboard. He was right, the sting of where the rope slid against
me made my breath catch, but his lips were right there behind the pain, kissing
it away.

He untied me, but he didn't release
me. Holding my arms pinned above my head with one hand, he unbuckled his pants
with the other. The jingle of his belt buckle had me practically salivating.

He gripped my hips and slid me down
so that I was under his belly. Pushing his pants down over his hips, he freed
himself and lowered down to my lips.

"Kiss it," he ordered.

When the silky head of his cock
brushed my lips we both groaned together. He held my arms in place and lowered
his hips. The head slid just in, and then just out of my mouth. "You like
that?"

I nodded weakly, He was teasing
me....and himself. Other guys, Tre included, wanted to jam it down your throat
immediately. With Liam, I wanted all of him, but he wouldn't give it to me.

He dipped his hips again and I swirled
my tongue around, tasting him. He tasted indescribable.

He pulled back when I did so, his
eyes so dark with lust that they were nearly black. I knew all at once that the
teasing was over.

He stalked to the side table and
pulled out a condom. I shivered everywhere as I watched him unroll it. I wasn't
tied to anything anymore, but I still held as still as if I were. I didn't want
to move without his permission.