“You want to come?” I ran my finger down the side of my neck to my cleavage.
“Yes.” The single word was little more than a whisper.
“What will you do if I let you down off that cross?”
“Anything.”
I grinned. “Perfect.”
Chapter Five
I was up and releasing his handcuffs, doing my best to keep steady on my feet. Between my shaking hands and his balled fists, the Velcro was initially uncooperative and I had to try several times to get it to cooperate even a little.
“I’ll do the other. Get on your bed.” His voice had gotten low, domineering. Not the pliant and submissive man I wanted him to be.
“No.” I stepped away, leaving him still fastened tight. “I’m in control tonight. You’ll do what I want or you’ll damn well stay secured to this cross.”
“What the hell, Liz?” Gareth tried to yank his hands out of the cuffs, but the Velcro held fast. “Let me go.”
“Not until you promise me that you’re going to keep playing by my rules. You gave me control tonight. Me. I’m the one looking after you, making sure everything is fine. I thought you trusted me to do that?”
I would never have admitted it to him, but if Gareth said he didn’t trust me the way I trusted him, I was going to let him off the cross and ask him to leave. Then I’d lose his phone number in my
deleted items
folder. Great sex is awesome, but I wanted a relationship and I wouldn’t settle than anything less than a mutually satisfying one.
Deep down, I knew he wouldn’t let that happen. The sex was one thing, but our time together was something else. My side adventure to IKEA tonight proved that much. We’d had
fun
. I haven’t seen him smile that much in a long while. And more than once I thought he might actually hold my hand.
But this would only work if he met me halfway.
There must have been something in my expression that told him I wasn’t screwing around. Gareth turned his face away from me and let out a huff. “I trust you, Liz. More than I think you realize.”
Well. Good. “And are you going to let me stay in charge? Because we can stop right now if you want.”
“No.” He rolled his head so his cheek rested on his biceps. “You’re the boss, Mistress.”
It really was impressive the power one little word held.
Rather than go back to his wrists, I bent down and freed his feet. I had to force my concentration back into the
being in charge Liz
, because it really wasn’t my normal state. Not with Gareth at any rate. This time when I returned to work on his wrists, he didn’t struggle, though he didn’t do anything to help either.
I nearly forgot to take his arms down one at a time, making sure to give his shoulders and arms a rub as I went. Even though he hadn’t been up there for long, sometimes it didn’t take much for that dull ache to set into your muscles.
Through the whole thing, Gareth said nothing. I kept sneaking glances at him, but his gaze was fixed somewhere on the floor. I knew that expression—I’d seen it enough in the mirror. The bastard was thinking again.
“I want you to lie faceup on the bed. Make sure you grab hold of my headboard and stretch out as far as you can.”
Not for the first time I was thankful I’d purchased the wrought iron frame when I’d first graduated from school. I intently watched as he climbed along the length of my mattress to stretch out onto his back. Tight muscles flexed as he shifted and adjusted into place. He still wasn’t looking at me, which was beyond odd for him. Normally Gareth can’t take his eyes off me.
No, that wasn’t conceit.
I understood the appeal of simply being able to stare at an attractive naked body. There was something raw about it, as if you were able to see more than the bare flesh. I wanted to find a way to imprint myself on him, somewhere he’d never be able to get rid of. Maybe a place in his heart close to where his late wife was.
The leather and silk I was wearing had suddenly grown uncomfortable. I’d often wondered why Gareth never bothered to dress up the way Stephen did. But now I got it. The clothing was only a mask. The real control, the place where the dominant part of him lived, didn’t need the barrier to slip in and out of existence. It was a distraction from what was really important.
I sat down on the side of the bed and unzipped my boots. Okay, that felt a hundred times better. I set them to the side before going to work on my corset. The muscles in Gareth’s arms tensed and relaxed as I stripped, but he still wouldn’t look at me. I didn’t bother doing anything with the clothing, letting it fall to the floor in a silent heap.
My knees pressed into the bed, causing his body to shift as I got into position. I leaned over him and placed a kiss to his sternum.
“No matter what I do, don’t let go of the headboard.”
Oh, that got his internal hamster wheel spinning.
Gareth flexed his grip on the spindles and widened his legs. Still no words. God, we were going to have to work at this whole not-talking thing.
“Gareth, how long have we known each other?”
Another tiny huff. “Four months.”
“Hard to believe it’s only been such a short time. I feel as if I’ve known you a lot longer.”
He swallowed hard, but no other comment.
I shifted my knees so they pressed against his side. A sheen of sweat covered both of us now. I should get up and turn on the fan, or at least open the window. I wouldn’t because either action would take me away from him.
Instead I licked a slow path from one of his nipples to the other. “What did you think of me the first time you saw me?”
“That thank God you weren’t some crazy woman. And why the hell had you spent so much on me at that auction.”
That earned him a bite on the collarbone. “Smart-ass. I mean when you saw me in the crowd. When you were still standing behind the curtain.”
When he didn’t answer right away, I started to work my way down his body, nipping and licking every enticing bit of skin I saw. It wasn’t until I reached the side of his stomach that he tried to squirm away.
“I thought you looked a bit lost. Stop that!”
“No. I’m in control and this is what I want to do.” This time I licked across his bellybutton, pointedly ignoring his cock. “What do you mean I looked lost?”
Gareth bucked his hips. I shifted to lick down his thigh.
“Liz…”
“Gareth…”
“I mean you looked as if you wanted what was being shown to you so badly, but you didn’t have the first clue how to ask for it. You looked as if you were waiting for someone to take you by the hand and show you how good your body could feel. You wanted someone in your life who understood you.”
Somewhere in his speech I’d stopped teasing him and simply looked. His face was flushed and his breathing had gone shallow and rapid. More importantly, he was looking at me.
Me.
I curled my fingers around the flesh of his leg. “Did you think…” I had to swallow. “Did you think you were the one? Who knew what I needed?”
He opened and closed his mouth a few times before nodding.
Now, I don’t know if it was because of all the teasing, or if I simply didn’t have the resolve to continue with the game anymore, but something in me simply broke. Without asking, I swung my leg over him, pressing my damp pussy to his stomach. I leaned my hands against his shoulders, forcing him to stay in place.
“Say it. Please, I really need you to say it.” A tremor started deep inside me and for a moment I wasn’t sure if it was from desire or emotion. Either way, I knew I was standing on the edge of something big.
I wanted to jump off the ledge, but I wouldn’t unless he came with me.
Gareth lifted his head off the pillow, closing the already short distance between us. I didn’t know where to look—his eyes, his mouth, the freckles that were only visible from close up. I found myself staring at his lips, wanting to be certain I understood the words when he actually spoke them.
“Yes.” His tongue peeked out from behind his lips, teasing as he spoke. “When I first saw you, I thought I could be the one to show you. It was the first time I’d thought anything close to that in a long time.”
My head began to spin.
He wanted me. He saw something inside of me that that spoke to him.
I leaned in and sucked on his bottom lip as I pressed my cunt to his stomach. “Me?”
“Yes.”
The tip of his cock brushed against my ass, proving to me that I wasn’t the only one interested in this. It would be easy to shift backward and impale myself on him. I couldn’t do that though. He’d been holding out on me for a long time and I couldn’t cross that line, abuse the trust he’d given me.
“Gareth, I want you. I want you to fuck me.” I paused, wanting to give my words a moment to sink in. “Really, I want more than that, but for now I’ll settle for riding your cock until we’re both screaming and begging. Can I do that?”
Now no girl wants to hear
no
in the bedroom. No more than any man does, I imagine. But in that moment I would have been okay with it, if only because I understood. He’d been stuck in a rut for so long, scared to move forward and leave the past behind, having to deal with some crazy woman he’d just met at a charity auction wasn’t the easiest thing to get ones head around.
But now, I knew we were both starting to see things in the same light. We were slowly converging onto the same path and if the fates were smiling down on me, we’d have each other for the journey.
However, when Gareth groaned and nodded his consent, I was ready to jump out of bed and do an actual Snoopy dance.
“Condoms?” His voice shocked me out of my mental jubilation. And of course he was grinning. He knew exactly what I’d been doing. “We need condoms, Liz.”
Right.
Safe sex.
I shoved my hand under my pillow, blindly searching for the strip I’d shoved there in my haste after Connie and Stephen had left. “I had them here somewhere…”
He had to roll to the side and I had to lift up the pillow, but eventually I found them. Waving the strip of four in front of his nose, I grinned. “I had high hopes for tonight.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less from you. Now am I allowed to let go of this headboard?”
“Oh, hell no!” I gave his hands a slap on principle. “I’m still in control.”
“Of course you are.” And he winked. He actually winked.
“You are such a smart-ass.”
“It’s called topping from below. You should be familiar with the concept.”
“I’ll show you topping—”
I pushed myself so his cock scraped along the outside of my bare pussy. I was quite wet at this point, and his head came back shiny. Always the curious one, I leaned down and sucked his head into my mouth, enjoying the taste of my arousal on him. His cock pulsed against my tongue. He wouldn’t be able to take much more of the teasing.
For once my hands were steady as I tore the condom package open. It had been a long time since I’d put one on a man. The lube was slick and made it a bit challenging to get the condom in place. Once I did, it was fun to roll it down the length of his shaft, teasing his balls when I hit the bottom.
“If you keep doing that, you’re not going to get your ride.”
Fuck that.
As soon as I grabbed the base of his shaft and lined myself up with his head, it suddenly became quite hard to breathe. This was it. After months of waiting, wondering, dreaming about it, I was finally going to get the one thing I wanted. I knew he was going to be amazing, because Gareth settled for nothing less. But what if he wasn’t satisfied with me? What if I was a colossal letdown and that was why he’d been putting off—
“Liz! Breathe.”
I sucked in a breath.
“It’s going to be amazing. I want you so bad, baby. Fuck me. Please.”
And a part of me died a happy death.
I let my body lower, trying not to think of anything beyond the amazing sensations. Holy shit, he was so big. My muscles stretched to accommodate him, pulling him in as deep as I could take him. When my swollen clit brushed against his pubic hair, I nearly came undone.
I had to force myself not to move, taking several deep breaths so I wouldn’t come on the spot. This was it. Gareth was inside me. The smell of his arousal mixed with mine filled the room. It was different from the times we’d played. That was only the smell of sex.
This was something different.
Shifting my feet so I had leverage, I placed my hands on his shoulders and began to slowly ride him. Before Gareth, anytime I’d had sex with a man, I’d always had to have direct stimulation to my clit to be able to get me off. Now, as I rode him, I could feel every inch of the press of his thick cock against the inside of my cunt. The tingle that filled me ran hot through my body. My nipples hardened and my clit pulsed.
On every down thrust I would grind myself. Gareth groaned a few times and I could feel his body shaking. I knew if I said the word he would grab my hips, flip me over and pound me into the mattress. That really did sound fucking fantastic. Maybe next time.
“Hands still.” I slurred the last word as he slammed his hips up to meet mine, crushing my clit between us. “Do that again.”
Okay, so I could compromise.
Our rhythm started off steady. I made sure he was looking at me before I widened my legs and let my pussy slam against him with every thrust. There was something wonderful about seeing his eyes widen with every contact. The way his mouth would part and the saliva on his lips would dry, making the skin pucker.