Dare to Submit (5 page)

He slid one finger between the creamy folds of her sex. “You ready to take me, baby?”

“Yes,” she said, the word coming out in a hiss. Her pussy clenched, an unsuccessful attempt to pull his finger inside her.

He was teasing her, tormenting her, and she couldn’t take it. “I want to feel you.” She pulled against the restraints. “Untie me, please.”

His eyes grew hooded at the request, but she wasn’t deterred, nor was she above begging.

“I need to stroke you, to touch you, to hold your cock in my hand.”

Decklan hung his head and groaned. Damn, but he was tempted to do as she asked. Tempted for the first time ever. Other women had asked him to release them, but none pulled at his emotions. None made him want the same thing,
her
hands on his body,
her
fingers stroking his cock. He normally needed the women he slept with restrained and under his control. But if Decklan knew one thing, it was that if she wrapped those arms around him and pulled him in emotionally, he was a goner.

He held back, unable to give in, not even for this one woman who made him want with a ferocity that was foreign to him. He didn’t miss the irony. He’d pushed her boundaries and she gave. She pushed his and he withdrew like a fucking coward.

“I …
can’t
,” he said and hoped she understood how deeply he meant it.

Silence punctuated the next few seconds, and once again, he wondered if she’d use her safe word and walk away. His heart hammered painfully in his chest, begging him to give in and warring with his mind that told him to lock down his emotions.

She ran one leg up and down his calf, touching him the only way she could. “Okay, but you’d better hurry up and fuck me,” she said lightly. A request he already knew wasn’t easy for her to make once, let alone a second time.

He breathed out a groan of relief. Yet with her acceptance, something warm and tangible passed between them. Something he didn’t want to examine too closely. He already knew she threatened his well-erected walls. He was just now learning how dangerous she would be.

He shook his head and refocused his attention. Gripped his cock in one hand and ran the length over the distended pearl of desire beckoning him. Back and forth, he teased her clit until her entire body trembled beneath him. Her arousal coated his erection, and suddenly he couldn’t wait another second.

He lined himself up at her entrance and pushed inside. She was as hot as he’d imagined, as wet as he’d made her, and so fucking tight he didn’t know how he’d make it all the way into her without exploding.

“Oh God, Decklan, you feel so good. So big.”

He laughed. Actually laughed while thrusting the rest of the way in. “And you’re so tight I could come right now.”

“Don’t you dare,” she muttered. “Not yet.” She clamped her inner walls around him, deliberately, if he had to guess.

He knew he was right when she met his gaze and grinned.

“Damn, woman.” She wasn’t just hot and luscious, she was fun. When did he have fun with women? Fun during sex? “You can be damned sure you’re going to come before I do.”

“I’d better.”

He leaned down and sealed his lips over hers, really kissing her for the first time. Another thing he didn’t normally do, because it implied an intimacy he refused to feel.

Until now.

He thrust his tongue inside her waiting mouth. She tasted like cookies and cream and a slice of heaven, and his heart beat harder in his chest when she rubbed her tongue against his. Of its own accord, his body began to move, his hips rolling against hers, his mouth swallowing her groan of pleasure.

Then he took serious control. Hands braced on either side of her, he raised himself up and pulled his cock out, feeling the drag of her inner walls against his hard length before plunging back deep into her wet core.

God, he’d never felt anything like her before. What made her different, he didn’t know. And when his body demanded more, he stopped caring.

He picked up a demanding pace, and she met him thrust for thrust, her hips arching, her body accepting all of him as he pounded into her. He ripped his mouth from hers, gasping for breath, only to be greeted by frantic sighs and moans.

“Yes. Harder, please, harder,” she insisted.

Her sweet plea mixed with his rising desire. Sweat formed on his forehead, his balls drew up, his climax threatening to barrel into him when suddenly her back arched and she spasmed around him, her own orgasm hitting hard.

“Oh God, Decklan, yes!” she screamed.

His name had him slamming into her again and again, wanting to prolong her pleasure. Tremors shook her far longer than he thought possible, and he struggled to hold back his release. He lost the battle, coming inside her, spilling everything he had to give and more as mini climaxes shuddered through her. Finally, he collapsed against her soft, lush body, completely spent, aware of her breath in his ear.

As soon as he was able, he pushed off her, immediately undid the bindings holding her in place, and scooped her into his arms. He eased her back against the pillows, and she immediately curled into him. Still, he gently massaged her back, arms, and shoulders until he felt certain she’d feel no lingering effects from being tied up.

A little while later, he carried her into the bathroom and turned on the shower, washing the stickiness off them while arousing her body all over again. He towel dried her first, finished up after, and together they collapsed back into bed.

He knew when she fell asleep. Normally he’d get up, pour himself a drink, and wait until he could wake the woman in his bed and make sure she either left or he took her home.
Normally
seemed a long time ago.

For one thing, he hadn’t brought a woman here in a while, the restraints unused behind the headboard. No one had appealed to him.

He knew now he’d been waiting for her.

He didn’t know what the hell to do about the impact she’d had on him, but he couldn’t let it change anything. The fear that lived within him, the petrifying thought of ever experiencing loss and uncertainty again, had him keeping himself apart.

Hours later, the sun streamed into his bedroom. He awoke to a startling realization. He might have fallen asleep with Amanda snuggled against him, but he’d woken up alone.

FIVE

A
manda glanced around Brad’s office Monday morning, wondering how he’d managed to make such a mess in the span of one weekend. Although she ought to be used to his method of madness, she was always amazed that he worked in such chaos. She picked up the empty Starbucks cups littering his desk along with the rest of the barely visible surfaces and tossed them in the trash.

“You know the cleaning help will do that.” Brad walked into the room, looking every inch the adorable geek and not the billionaire software mogul he actually was.

His dark hair fell over his forehead, the need for a haircut long past bothering. Ripped jeans and a Star Wars tee shirt completed his daily look.

She glanced up and smiled. “Yes, but this way you can have clean space to start over and re-clutter sooner.”

“What would I do without my favorite personal assistant and best friend?” he asked.

“Star in the next episode of
Hoarders
, probably.”

“You do keep me sane.”

She laughed. “I aim to please.”

“Speaking of pleasing…” He walked over and pulled the papers she’d begun to straighten out of her hands. “It’s been over a month. When are you going to go back to the club?”

She stiffened. Until now, Brad had respected her moratorium on the subject of New York. Because she didn’t want to talk about
him
.

“I can’t go back,” she said, pushing memories of Decklan out of her mind the way she did any time she had a free moment of thought.

“And you haven’t told me why.”

She typically told him everything that went on in her life. That’s what best friends were for. Gay best friends were even better, since there were no messy hormones or potential hurt feelings ever involved. But ever since she’d snuck out on Decklan over a month ago, she’d been eaten up by guilt, flooded by memories of that night, and yes, consumed with desire for the man she’d left behind.

But worse than all those things combined was the vision that wouldn’t leave her, of the haunted look in Decklan’s eyes when she’d asked him to release her hands. As a result of the pain she sensed lived inside him, she’d been all too eager to let him have his way. She, of all people, understood limits and emotional hurt.

Obviously he bound women for a reason. Something was eating away at him, and she desperately wanted to be the one to help him overcome it.
Stupid, stupid, stupid
. She had her own issues that plagued her and another man’s life in her hands. Brad had been the best friend she’d ever had, the family she’d created, and without him, she might not be the woman she was today.

She couldn’t leave him vulnerable to his father’s inner circle of vultures and the special interest groups that funded him. If Brad were outed, dangerous people would be very angry. She wouldn’t abandon him just because she couldn’t forget a sexy man who’d touched her body and her soul one fateful night.

“Earth to Amanda.” Brad’s hand came down on her shoulder.

She jumped at the unexpected contact, her heart racing in her chest.

“Sorry. Where were you?” he asked her, concern in his tone.

“Nowhere important.” She turned to him with her sunniest smile. “Now can we get down to business?”

He eyed her with frustration in his dark eyes. “Amanda—”

“No. I don’t want to talk about it.” To make her point, she picked up another stack of haphazardly piled papers.

“I did some further digging…” Brad said.

Her eyes opened wide and anger immediately surfaced. “How could you? It was one thing to look into Decklan to make sure I was safe. Another to do it for kicks.” She clenched the papers in her hands so hard they crinkled irreparably.

“Do you really think I get my kicks seeing you miserable?” He both looked and sounded hurt at the thought. “I know how much you want to see this guy again. I figure eventually you will. That being the case, I needed to know more than he’s a decent guy with no serial killers in his family history.” He grinned in an attempt to soften her up. “Come on. You’d do the same for me. If you had my hacking skills, that is.”

She rolled her eyes. He was sweet and meant well, but she was still upset with him. “Don’t tell me what you found out.” If she learned anything about Decklan, it would be from him and no other way.

He raised both hands in a gesture of defeat. “Suit yourself.”

That was the problem. If she suited herself, she’d be back in New York, looking to find Decklan at the club.

*     *     *

Decklan sat at the club, nursing a drink and, yes, dammit, brooding. He had access to an entire police department database, giving him the ability to look into one Ms. Amanda Collins if he wanted to. But why bother with a woman only too happy to slip out of his bed and disappear on him for over a month?

Some would say the fact that he couldn’t get her soft moans and cries of ecstasy out of his head was reason enough. In Decklan’s mind, that only meant she threatened the stability he’d created in his life and the control that kept him sane. Which didn’t mean he wasn’t a staple at the club on weekends, hoping she’d return.

His cell rang and he glanced down. His lips turned up in a grin despite the hell he knew was sure to come. “Hi, Lucy. How are you?” he asked his sister.

“You haven’t called me back!” she chided him. Lucy lived in L.A. part time, and though she used to stay at Gabe’s when she visited New York, with him married, she’d taken to staying at Decklan’s. But she hadn’t been here in a while.

Last time, she and Max had gotten into some sort of argument, and neither was willing to discuss the reasons behind it. He shrugged. Not his business.

“Hey, Lucy. Sorry, I’ve been busy.”

“Arresting people? Because I’m not sure Gabe’s forgiven you for cuffing Isabelle.” She snickered into the phone.

He rolled his eyes. Yes, he’d arrested Isabelle before she was Gabe’s woman, but in Decklan’s defense, there’d been a warrant initiated by her asshole ex accusing her of stealing his car. Not that Decklan had known the details at the time.

“Quit causing trouble, Luce. That’s been over for a while.”

And he’d bribed himself back into Isabelle’s good graces with a bottle of Tums and aggravated his brother at the same time. A win-win, as far as he was concerned.

“Are you okay? Because Gabe says he hasn’t heard from you either.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. The one drawback to being close with his siblings was the way Lucy tended to push into his life under the guise of concern. Of course, both he and Gabe would do the same to her if they thought anything was amiss. Nobody would hurt Lucy if they could help it.

“I’m fine.” Just avoiding most of humanity and trying to decide what to do about the woman who’d breached his walls. He couldn’t get her out of his head.

Lucy huffed, and Decklan could envision the scowl on her face.