Ransom (Dead Man's Ink Series Book 3) (13 page)

“Do
you
love
me
?”

“So much it scares the shit out of me sometimes,” I whisper. And that’s the god’s honest truth. I care about this woman so much. Too much, I think. If I didn’t care about her one way or the other, I’d be free to do whatever the hell I pleased around here. I could have launched a Hail Mary, attacking Ramirez in his farmhouse and ending this bullshit months ago. I could have torched the place with everyone inside. I would have had to fight off the memories of all those women and children screaming out in the desert, but I could have done it. With with Sophia here, I have to remember who I am, though. Who I
want
to be. She told me once that I was still a good man, and over the past few months I’ve found myself craving to be that for her more and more. To be someone good and honest and kind. I thought those days were long gone for me. I’ve done too much, seen too much, hurt too many people to believe that I could ever go back to being wholesome again. But something about Soph makes me want to fucking try, and it’s so goddamn inconvenient that I could weep.
 

“I don’t think you’ve ever been scared a day in your life,” Soph says into the dark. I try to stifle my laughter, but it escapes me, coming out in hard, clipped bitter sounds.
 

“Oh, I’ve been afraid. More times than I can count. Any man who’s found himself on the other side of the world, watching his friends get blown up, shooting thirteen-year-old boys because they’re about to firebomb a hospital, running around inside sandstone houses, screaming at the top of his lungs, trying to survive, to save other people, to make things right…anyone who claims to have done that and remained unafraid is a fucking liar.
Believe me.
”

Sophia doesn’t say anything. I don’t think she
knows
what to say. I run my hand up and down her naked back, letting my fingers trace over the soft silkiness of her skin, and I feel her body slowly, unwittingly responding to me. She probably doesn’t even realize she’s doing it, but her back arches, pressing her breasts up against my chest as she shivers a little.
 

“Can you do something for me, sugar?” I say.
 

“Yes. What?”

“Come up here.” I turn suddenly, taking her with me, lifting her on top of me as I lay flat on my back. I can feel her everywhere, our bodies flush against one another, hot and slightly sweaty—with summer in full force, that’s almost impossible to avoid. I love tasting perspiration on her skin, though. It’s sweet and salty at the same time, and the gentle sheen of it on her skin gives her a sexy, flustered look.
 

Sophia’s bottom lip is only inches away from my mouth, plump and deep red, swollen a little, it would seem, from where she’s been worrying at it with her teeth.
 

“I don’t want to think about it anymore,” she whispers. “It’s so exhausting. I just want to feel…I just want to be free of it all. Just for a moment.”

“I can do that for you, sugar.”

She gives me a wry smile. “You seem pretty sure of yourself.”

“I am. I have a proven track record, after all. Would you like me to demonstrate my capabilities?”

She nods silently. I want to bite at the smooth, soft, delicate skin of her neck for some inexplicable reason, hard enough that I leave a mark, but I feel like that kind of foreplay might not be appropriate in these quiet, heavy hours of the morning. I cup her ass in both my hands instead, squeezing slightly, testing my boundaries. Her ass is phenomenal—her curves are perfection in so many ways; she has a butt most Hollywood celebrities would pay good money for. My hands are just big enough to grasp the swell of her toned cheeks. She breathes in sharply when I spread them apart a little, running a finger over her exposed flesh, down, down, toward her pussy.
 

She’s not soaking wet yet, but she will be soon. For now, I stroke my fingers over the soft skin of her pussy lips, enjoying how smooth and responsive she is. I love teasing her from behind like this. Coming from a different angle means our bodies are still crushed together, hers on top of mine, and I can still feel her heart beating against my ribcage, feel her chest rise and fall against me. It’s fucking perfect.
 

My dick is growing harder by the second. Sophia must be able to feel it digging into her as it increases in size, pressing into her belly, demanding attention. I want to push my way inside her so badly. It would be easy enough; I could grab her by her thighs and yank them apart, pull her up a little so we were in the perfect position for me to slam myself home. Where would the fun in that be, though?

No, I need her to be ready for me when I finally sink myself inside her. I need her to want me more than she’s ever wanted anything in her whole entire life. Only then will I know I’ve fucked her right. I kiss her, winding her hair around my free hand, holding on tight so I can control her head. I work my tongue over hers, stroking the inside of her mouth with the tip, tasting her, licking her, making her breath quicken as she writhes on top of me.
Fuck yes.
Gradually, she begins to grind her hips against mine, causing the most intense friction between our bodies, making my dick throb.
 

My balls are aching like they’re about to burn up and ignite from the inside out—they need her hands on them, her wet, hot, perfect mouth—but I can wait. I’m on a mission, and Sophia has no idea what I’ll do to accomplish it. “Kneel,” I say to her. I pant the word into her open mouth as she moans. “Get up on your knees, Sophia.”

She looks at me like she doesn’t understand for a second, and then realization dawns on her. “Okay.” She straddles me, her beautiful tits bouncing a little as she repositions herself. I can’t stop myself from cupping them in my hands, rolling her nipples, my balls aching even more when the delicate pink skin of her areolas tighten, puckering into sensitive buds, just begging me to twist and pinch them. Sophia’s back arches when I do this, her chest heaving as she grinds her pussy against my dick. She’s definitely much wetter now. My cock is slick with her as she rocks back and forth, and it’s almost impossible not to lift her for a second so I can grab hold of my shaft and pull her down on it.
 

“Fuck, sugar. You’re so fucking sexy. I can’t take it. Come here.” I take hold of her by the hips and I do lift her up a little, but not so I can fuck her. I guide her up my body, pulling her so she has to crawl on her hands and knees up my body. At the same time I slide myself down the bed, and within a second she’s kneeling over my face, her pussy slick and glistening, no more than an inch away from my tongue.
 

“God, Jamie. Fuck, I don’t know if I can—”

I know all too well that she
can
. She’s been self conscious about me going down on her before, so hovering over my head like this is bound to make her uncomfortable. I want it though. I need it badly. “Sit on my face, Sophia. Be a good prospect and ride my mouth like it’s my goddamn dick. Do it now.”

She hesitates.
 

I growl, deep and low in the back of my throat. “If I don’t have your clit on my tongue in the next three seconds, I’m going to punish you.” So much for avoiding inappropriate foreplay in the silent, heavy hours of the morning. I can’t help it, though. I can see every single last pink, delicate, perfect fold, can smell her sweetness, can almost,
almost
taste the saccharine, silkiness of her and I’m about to lose my fucking shit.
 

“Jamie, I—”

I dig my fingers into her thighs, warning her. I mean it. I really will punish her, and while she’ll have an orgasm so powerful she’ll probably be bed-ridden for the next twenty-four hours, the things I’ll do to her will make her feel far more vulnerable than this. “
One
,” I say.
 

“Please, Jamie. Please, I need you to fuck me,” she whimpers.
 

“Two.”

“Oh my god, don’t,” she cries. “Please, please, please. I can’t take it!”

“
Three
.”

“Jamie!”

It’s too late now. I gave her a chance to take the easy road. She didn’t take it. Now she has to accept the consequences of her misbehavior. I take hold of her by the waist and move her off of me so that she’s not kneeling over my face anymore. I’m sad about the change of scenery, but I’ll get my own way in a moment. Sophia scrambles, trying to get away, but I snake my arm around her waist and I pin her to the bed. She starts laughing, her fingers trying to prise my arm from around her, but she knows she’s got no chance. It’s so strange to hear her laughter. Only a few moments ago, it seemed like she was never going to laugh again, and now it’s as though the tables have been turned. I’m glad they have. She needs this, if only for a little while. A brief moment where everything is on hold and she can clear her head.

“If you don’t let me go right now,” she says, “I’m never blowing you again.” She can barely keep a straight face as she says this. That’s how I know she’s lying through her back fucking teeth.
 

“You wouldn’t be able to stop yourself, you love my cock in your mouth.”

She shakes her head from side to side, squirming. “Nope. It’s the worst. Arggghh, it’s the worst!” She dissolves into throaty, gurgling laughter as I tickle her with my left hand, still keeping hold of her with my right. I can’t help but laugh too; she thrashes on the bed, her legs kicking frantically as I tease her sides and her belly with my fingertips. Her laughter will transform into something very different in a few short moments. She’s going to be begging me to lick her. She’s going to be screaming out my name, and I won’t oblige her until I know she’s going to behave herself in future.
 

“I’m going to let you go now, Sophia,” I tell her. “And I’m going to get something. I’m telling you now, if you move from this bed there will be hell to pay.”

She nods, unable to speak, unable to catch her breath properly. “O…okay. I won’t. I won’t move, I…swear.”

I don’t trust the little minx, but I have to do it in order to grab the items I’ve decided I’m going to use on her, so I don’t have a choice. I release her and she flops backward onto the mattress, grinning at me. “I didn’t think you’d make me smile,” she whispers, biting the knuckle on her index finger. “I didn’t think I’d be smiling for a very long time. Thank you.”

“You might not be thanking me in a minute.” I prowl toward the closet and open it up, fetching the coil of rope I’ve left there on the floor. Sophia’s eyes glint, full of fire when she sees what I have in my hand.
 

“What are you going to do with that?” she asks. I don’t answer her. I head into the bathroom, and I come back a second later with my other hand behind my back, hiding the white plastic object I just retrieved so she can’t see what it is.
 

“Jamie?” She says my name as if it’s a warning. “Jamie, don’t even think about using eyebrow tweezers on my sensitive areas.” She blushes a little. “I should have just let you eat me, shouldn’t I?”

I give her a slow, sadistic nod. “Yes, ma’am. Yes, you really should.” I climb up onto the bed, still hiding the contents of my left hand. “On your stomach,” I command. “Better do it right away, or you’re gonna make things even worse.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Then we go back to sleep.”

“That doesn’t sound like it would be too dire a consequence.”

“Maybe not. But I won’t fuck you for a month. That will be even worse than what I have planned for you now. I’ll tease the living shit out of you, I’ll get you so close to coming every single day for thirty-one days, and as soon as you’re about to tumble over the edge…I’ll suddenly remember I have somewhere else I need to be.”

Sophia’s mouth falls open. She looks horrified. “You wouldn’t. That’s just cruel.”

“
On. Your. Front
.”

“Fine. Have it your way,” she says, pouting. “But just so you know, I’m not going to enjoy this on principle.”

She will. She really will. She won’t be able to deny herself. She rolls onto her front, falling limp like a ragdoll, sulking in the most comical way. I’m smirking on the inside, but on the outside I imagine my expression is pretty severe. This is going to be an experience she won’t be forgetting any time soon.

“Spread your legs,” I tell her.
 

She does as I ask, opening her legs wide, and I’m tempted to duck down and bury my tongue in her pussy anyway. That would be cheating, though. I take hold of her ankles and pull them together instead, grabbing the end of the rope and quickly tying a honda knot with one hand, then threading the loop over both of her feet. Jerking it tight, I take her closest hand and guide it behind her back, until she’s almost able to touch her own ankles. Perfect.
 

“Are you about to hog tie me?” Sophia asks.
 

“Perhaps.”

She tenses a little. “I don’t know how I feel about that.”

I sit back on my haunches, stopping what I’m doing. “Take a moment to decide then.” I want her to be thrilled right now. I want her to be filled with adrenalin. I want her heart to be racing. But I sure as hell don’t want her to be fucking frightened in any way, shape or form. I would never do anything against her will. If she tells me no, she’ll be too freaked out to do this, then I’ll untie her and let her go immediately, no two ways about it. I’m not that kind of guy.
 

A moment passes where Sophia considers her options. After a full minute of silence, she reaches behind her with her other hand, offering it to me, so they’re both resting in the small of her back. “Do it,” she whispers. “I want to know what it’s like. Show me.”

I tie her quickly and efficiently, until her wrists and her ankles are bound together, finishing the job in a matter of seconds. Sophia strains at the ropes, testing them, trying to see if she can escape them.
I
tied the knots, though. No way they’re coming loose until I
un
tie them again.
 

“You’re going to beg,” I tell her. “You’re going to scream. I’m only going to stop what I’m doing if you say
Kansas
, though, Sophia. Got it?”