Carter's Cuffs (15 page)

Behind her, he moved slowly, gently, and she could tell he’d rubbed more of the aloe on his shaft because when it began to glide in, it felt slick and cool and then went instantly deep. “Oh!” she cried.

“Is it okay?”

“Mmm,” she said, nodding. More than okay. It was unbelievable. Astounding. Impossibly filling.

And when they both began to move, pumping their cocks in and out of her—oh! She felt it in every inch of her body—she pulsed with pleasure from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. Sensation buffeted her everywhere. From the pressure of the blindfold around her head to the fur rubbing on her wrists to the many hands that roamed her skin. She cried out as they pummeled her most sensitive areas with thrust after hard thrust, feeling at once high, lost, dizzy, heady and consumed with heat. Her sobs turned to screams. How could a body feel this much?

But then, oh God, came even more—when the tail of the flogger was thrust between her thighs from underneath. She didn’t even know which man wielded it and didn’t care—she only knew that the leather strips rubbed and teased her pussy, and oh! Oh! She was going to come. That fast. “I’m coming!” she yelled. “I’m coming!”

And as the release blasted through her, more powerful than anything she’d ever experienced, she heard Carter say, “Christ—me, too,” and felt the strange wonder of him spilling his seed in that newly opened orifice. She’d barely recovered from that when the other man let out a huge groan and drove deep, deep, deep into her pussy.

After which she collapsed on the bed, unable to bear even one more sensation.

* * * * *

Erin didn’t know how much time had passed, only that she’d slept. And that Carter was slipping the blindfold from her eyes and then unlocking her handcuffs.

She drew her arms down, feeling strange to be untethered. Her lover lay next to her, close, his eyes focused tightly on hers. They were the only two in the room. “I’m just going to say this, Erin,” he told her, his voice deep and serious. “I’m in love with you.”

Oh. Oh God.

“I made you give up your precious control tonight, and I know you loved it, so don’t deny it. And I proved that losing control of yourself can bring you more pleasure than you ever even imagined.”

He looked at the red fur handcuffs in his fist and said, “So now you’re free. To stay or to go. I hope you’ll stay.”

Chapter Eight

When Carter woke up in the middle of the night, she was gone.

He knew the outrageous sex had really happened because the evidence remained—the red cuffs on the bed, along with the flogger and the tray of shaving supplies on the floor. But Erin and all her clothes were gone.

Shit.

He’d done all he could do. And hell, maybe he’d gone
too
far, too extreme, bringing Drew in to give her the ultimate fuck without giving her a choice. But he’d known she would never agree if he’d asked her and he’d also known she would relish it—and she had. And, all things being equal, he didn’t see it as being much different than her and her girlfriend fucking him at the hotel, which is what had started all this.

It had been…the most profound, intense sexual experience of his life. Up until meeting Erin, that honor had lay firmly with the night he’d spent with Marc and Diana a few years ago—but Erin had changed everything.

He’d fallen in love with her, fast.

And she’d run from him, just as fast.

And the fact that she’d left now, tonight, after all they’d shared…hell, he’d tried his best to be patient and help her overcome her hang-ups, but he wasn’t gonna beg anymore.

Part of him was tempted to—part of him didn’t want to give up on her, ever. But with a girl as stubborn as Erin, he had a feeling he could beg all his life and until she decided to change, be brave and take a chance on love, nothing he could do would change
anything
.

He loved her, and he feared this was gonna kill him—but he was done chasing the lady cop.

* * * * *

“You’re an idiot,” Danny said when Erin slid into the beat-up Nissan next to him.

She just glared. But he was right. She’d gotten too close to a guy soliciting her tonight—trying too hard to make him say the words, offer the money—until he’d grabbed her arm and tried to pull her into his car with him.

“Do you have any idea how fucking stupid that was? What if he’d gotten you in that car, Sparks? What if I hadn’t been able to get to you? What then?”

She let out a huff of breath. “Look, I know, okay? I screwed up.”
Just like my dad once did.

And she’d been preoccupied, just like her dad once had.

She’d been quietly mourning how much she missed Carter, and how she’d hurt Carter, and how much she still
lusted
for Carter—and when a car had pulled to the curb, she hadn’t been ready, hadn’t had her game face on. It had thrown everything off—and she’d soon found herself in real danger. Thank God Danny and the guys had been quick to respond.

“If anything happened to you…” Danny said, then shook his head. “I couldn’t take it, Sparks. So you gotta be careful out there, got it?”

She sighed, nodded, feeling contrite.

“And you gotta get that guy off your mind, since I know good and well what you were thinking about out there tonight instead of your job.”

And that’s when it hit her.

Square in the face.

Plain as day.

Bright as the neon lights that lined the Las Vegas Strip.

“I’ve been so stupid,” she said quietly, amazed.

He raised his eyebrows. “Oh?” He sounded as taken aback as she felt.

“All these years, I’ve been angry at my dad for letting worries over someone he loved cloud his brain when he was on the job. And I’m doing the exact same thing.”

Now Danny blinked and went smug. “And this is news to you?”

She blinked back. “Yes. Because…I thought by staying out of a relationship, it would protect me. But instead, fighting it so hard is causing the same exact problem.”

“No shit, Sherlock.”

She scowled at him slightly, but then sank back into her thoughts. She was endangering herself just as much by denying her love for Carter as she’d feared she would if she got into a relationship with him.

Which kinda meant she’d be just as well off
in
a relationship with him.

At least then—well, if everything went all right, if he didn’t break her heart—she’d have a pretty good chance of being happy,
really
happy. And a happy cop surely meant a safe and alert cop.

“Can you do me a favor?” she asked Danny, her heart beginning to beat erratically. “Can you drive me home? Not back to the bureau for my car—just straight to my place? I need to get to Carter—now. In fact, floor it. This can’t wait.”

Danny smiled over at her and said, “Sounds like you finally got your head out of your ass, Sparks.” Then he pulled the blue dome light from under the old car’s seat, set it on the dash, turned it on and sped toward Erin’s condo.

For the whole ride, Erin’s mind whirled. She’d just decided to declare her love for Carter and—oh Lord—nothing had ever felt so overwhelmingly right. So good. So…
safe
. He would make her safe, in every way, she just knew it. It was suddenly so, so clear.

“Honk the horn,” she said when Danny screeched the car into the parking lot, racing toward her building.

“Are you sure?”

“Honk it!” she insisted.

He honked, two long blares of the horn, and Erin jumped out of the car, looking anxiously up at Carter’s balcony. “Carter!” she yelled. “Carter Brooks! I love you!”

A moment later, Carter’s balcony door opened and he stepped out, looking confused as he peered down, then said, “Erin? What the hell’s going on?”

“I love you!” she cried again. “I’ve been so stubborn, hanging on to insane fears, but I’ve just figured out—there are no guarantees in life, Carter. Maybe you’ll hurt me or maybe you won’t. Maybe the sky will fall tomorrow, too—who can say? But it’s stupid to waste my life worrying, right? I love you, and I’m not afraid of it anymore. Will you give me another chance?”

Her lover appeared dumbfounded—and beautifully handsome in a pair of flannel pants, no shirt, hair scruffy, face unshaven. “Of course,” he finally said, his voice quiet. “Of course, baby.”

A tear rolled down her cheek then, and she was no longer afraid of that, either. Crying a little didn’t mean you were weak—it meant you were normal. And more than anything right now, that’s what Erin wanted to be—a normal woman in love.

“And I
won’t
hurt you, honey,” he told her, shaking his head. “I promise.” Just like he’d told her in the bedroom the other night. But this was different—bigger. It was about their love, about their whole lives.

“I believe you.”

“Can I make a suggestion?” he said.

“Anything you want.” She meant that, too. He’d taught her that giving and trusting could be amazingly intimate, and she was so ready to give to Carter, and to trust him, too.

“Why don’t you come inside so all the neighbors don’t think I’ve hired a hooker to come here.”

She looked down at herself in her tight red mini-dress and stripper shoes. “Oh.” She’d kind of forgotten how she looked right now. “Yeah, okay.”

Then she waved goodbye to Danny, thanking him for the ride and seeing him wink as he drove away—then she sprinted for the stairs, hoping she didn’t break an ankle in her heels.

A few seconds later, Carter met her in the hallway and she threw her arms around his neck. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “So sorry I’m an idiot.”

He grinned. “I love you anyway. And you’re forgiven.” But then he drew back slightly. “As long as the idiocy is over for good.”

“Cross my heart,” she said, drawing a big X across her chest.

His gaze dropped there. “You know what I think I’m really gonna like?”

She tilted her head. “What’s that?”

“Having a girlfriend who pretends to be a hooker for a living. I foresee definite after-hour perks.”

She grinned playfully. “Oh? And they would be?”

“Well,” he confided, “since I met you, I discovered I’ve got a little bondage fetish going on. And right now, I think I just found out there’s a shoe fetish in the mix, too. Because I’m picturing you naked except for those shoes, and I’m getting a major erection.” He leaned against her, and
mmm
, the man wasn’t lying.

She eased her arms provocatively around his neck, rubbed her breasts against his chest and went into her hooker routine. “Want a date, mister?”

“How much?” he asked, skimming his palms over her ass.

“For you, a freebie.”

“Are you opposed to being handcuffed?”

She smiled. “Not at all.”

He motioned toward his door, a few feet behind them. “I predict a long and naughty night ahead.”

“I predict
lots
of them,” she promised.

Erin had spent a long time pretending she didn’t need a man, a relationship, someone to love, trying to make herself believe she was stronger without those things. But now she realized that love, with Carter, was going to make her stronger than she’d ever been before. So from now on, pretending would only take place when she was on the job, catching smarmy guys—or in the bedroom, seducing her man.

Also by Lacey Alexander

Behind the Mask
anthology

Brides of Caralon: Seductress of Caralon

Brides of Caralon 1: Rituals of Passion

Brides of Caralon 2: Master of Desire

Brides of Caralon 3: Carnal Sacrifice

City Heat: Lynda’s Lace

Hot In the City: French Quarter

Hot In the City: Key West

Hot In the City: Sin City

Hot For Santa!

Unwrapped