Sinful Rapture (The Rapture Series) (4 page)

Her eyes slid shut. She didn’t want to discuss her feelings.

Not with a man who treated her as if she was little more than a spoiled child.

“What do you know about my emotions?”

“This isn’t the time for a prolonged discussion about your daddy issues—”

“Don’t.”

He lifted his head to study her with an unnerving perception.

“But we both know that you’ve spent the past year pretending to be someone you’re not,” he pressed.

She parted her lips to tell him to go to hell, only to give a gasp when he grabbed her hips and turned her to face the wall. There was a clank as the bar above her head swiveled to accommodate her new position, her wrists still firmly held by the handcuffs.

“What are you doing?”

Without warning, a blindfold was tied over her eyes.

“Just feel,” he whispered in her ear.

“Liam?” She struggled to free her hands, not afraid he would hurt her, but…

What?

That he would reach the vulnerable place she kept tightly guarded?

Wasn’t that one of the reasons she’d gone to such an effort to keep him as her enemy?

“Relax, princess,” he urged, his hands pushing her arms against the polished boards as he sensed her instinctive urge to escape. “In here, I’m the master. All you have to do is enjoy.”

“My friends—”

“Trust me, they’re happy as hell to give us some privacy,” he interrupted her protest. “They hated that dickhead fiancé of yours as much as I did.” His fingers tightened on her arms. “Forget about everything but what I’m making you feel, do you understand me?”

“Okay, Liam, that’s enough—” She caught her breath as she felt him lower himself to his knees behind her, then with a shocking intimacy, he was jerking her legs farther apart. Holly’s fingers dug into the wooden post as a shudder of sheer delight shook through her. “Oh…god.”

“It is too late for prayers,” he muttered, nipping at the sensitive curve of her ass before he gave her legs one last tug and he was able to find the damp heat he was searching for.

Holly gave a strangled scream, her body clenching with shocked joy. There was something extraordinarily erotic in standing handcuffed to the wall as Liam made love to her with his tongue and teeth.

Lost in the darkness, she concentrated on the sizzling excitement in the pit of her stomach. Hell. She’d accepted that tonight was a night to forget the worthless men she’d tried so desperately to please.

Why not relax and enjoy the one male who wanted nothing more than to give her pleasure?

Again and again his tongue swirled over her sensitive clit, occasionally dipping into her opening with a skill that had her swiftly tumbling toward her climax.

As if sensing she was close, Liam abruptly surged to his feet, kissing a searing path up her spine.

“Keep a hold of the board,” he rasped, his hand tugging her leg up until her foot rested on the edge of a low bench next to the rack, leaving her feeling open and vulnerable.

Expecting Liam to instantly enter her, she floundered when she felt his hands explore over her shoulders and up her arms, before returning to slide around the front of her body. He cupped her breasts, then allowed his fingers to glide down her stomach.

Almost like he was trying to memorize each line and curve of her body.

The sensation that he was utterly focused on discovering every inch of her was disturbingly intimate.

Far more intimate than a quick slam-bam.

“Liam?”

“Patience,” he insisted, his hand sliding down her inner thigh at the same moment his cock nudged at her slit from behind.

“Oh.”

Her head fell back to rest against his shoulder, her neck boneless with pleasure as he at long last thrust deep inside her. Oh, hell yeah. She thought she knew what passion was all about.

Obviously she didn’t know a damned thing.

Holding onto the board to keep herself in place as his thrusts deepened, Holly groaned in sheer bliss. It was rough, and wild, and exactly what she needed.

He buried his face in her throat as his clever fingers spread her folds, stroking through her damp heat in pace with the fierce, relentless pump of his hips.

Downstairs her friends were no doubt taking bets on whether she and Liam were fighting or fucking, but at the moment Holly didn’t care. Let them enjoy her moment of insanity. Right now all that mattered was the beckoning orgasm that hovered just on the horizon.

With a rasping moan, Liam branded savage kisses against her damp skin.

“Tell me we belong together,” he demanded. “Admit it, princess.”

“No.”

“Tell me, Holly.” He pounded deeper, faster. “Tell me.”

“It’s nothing more than…” Her body bowed and the chains of the handcuffs rattled as the shattering bliss clutched at her body. “Lust.”

***

The huge bed in the center of the room wasn’t actually meant for cuddling. The mattress was hard, and the sheets designed for an easy cleanup, not comfort.

Still, Liam heaved a sigh of pure contentment as he held Holly tightly in arms, her head resting on his chest.

The sex had been…

He struggled for the words to describe the cosmic orgasm that had rocked through him.

Hell, he’d nearly blacked out as he’d climaxed deep inside her.

And even while he’d gently tugged off her blindfold and unlocked the handcuffs so he could carry her boneless body to the bed, he’d continued to savor the tiny quakes of pleasure that made his knees weak.

Still, as much as he’d enjoyed making love to this woman, and as enthusiastic as he was to repeat the shattering experience, nothing could match the simple beauty of this precise moment.

For the past year he’d waken in the middle of the night, his arms aching with loneliness.

At long last, he felt…complete.

Pressing his lips to the top of her hair, he allowed his fingers to skim down the curve of her spine.

They’d rested in a sweet, silent peace for nearly half an hour.

Thirty minutes longer than he’d dreamed possible.

But just when he was hoping that Holly might actually accept that she was precisely where she was supposed to be, he felt her stiffening.

“I should go.”

His arms tightened around her. “Forget it.”

She lifted her head to glare at him. “I warned you about giving me orders. I’m not on the clock.”

His body instantly hardened.

God almighty, she looked insanely beautiful with her dark hair tousled around her flushed face and her eyes still smoldering from the intensity of their earlier passion.

Exactly as a woman should look after she’d just been thoroughly satisfied.

“Thank god,” he growled, rolling until he was perched on top of her. He groaned as his cock settled against her lower stomach. His powerful orgasm had taken the edge off his hunger, but he was far from sated. Hell, he wasn’t sure there’d ever come a time when he wasn’t desperate to be inside this woman. “Despite my vivid fantasies, I do at least pretend to be a professional at the office.”

She sucked in a deep breath as her hands lifted to press against his chest, her cognac eyes shimmering with a golden beauty in the muted lighting.

“It’s late.”

His gaze moved to the pulse that fluttered at the base of her throat.

As much as he’d enjoyed taking her from behind, he couldn’t wait to watch her expressive face while he made her come.

“Do you have somewhere you need to be?” he asked.

She licked her lip, making his arousal twitch. Oh hell. He wanted those lips on him.

On his mouth. His skin. His cock.

A flush of arousal touched her cheeks, but predictably she tried to hide behind her walls.

Nothing with this woman would ever be easy.

Which was exactly why he’d gone to such drastic measures.

He grimaced, refusing to allow himself to recall exactly what those drastic measures had entailed.

That was a worry for another day.

“Back to my apartment,” she muttered.

He bent his neck to brush his lips over her wide brow, savoring the warm scent of vanilla that filled his senses.

It wasn’t perfume, or even lotion, but just the natural aroma he always associated with her.

“Is there some pressing business that you have to take care of at this hour?”

“I just want to go home.”

“And I want you to stay,” he admitted with blunt honesty. “I’ve waited a very long time to hold you in my arms. I don’t intend to let you go.”

Her eyes widened, something that might have been panic rippling over her face.

“Don’t say that.”

“Why not?”

“Because…” She struggled to come up with one of her usual excuses. “We can barely stand one another.”

His lips skimmed down the narrow blade of her nose. “I think we proved we can stand each other just fine with the proper motivation.”

She turned her head, trying to disguise the way her eyes darkened with need.

“Sex.”

He continued to stroke his lips over her face, refusing to be tricked into losing his temper. She was a master at keeping others at a distance. Including him.

It wasn’t happening again.

“Sex doesn’t make the earth shake,” he murmured, tracing the curve of her ear with the tip of his tongue. “And don’t even try to pretend that you didn’t just have the best orgasm of your life.”

She kept her gaze averted, her nails digging into his chest.

“Arrogant.”

His lips twisted. Like that was a newsflash?

“Look at me, princess.” Palming her cheek, he urged her face back so he could study her wary expression.

She sank her teeth into her bottom lip, grudgingly meeting his steady gaze.

“This was a mistake.”

“No. No more pretending,” he rasped. “Tonight we stop the games and speak the truth.”

“I don’t play games,” she denied.

Liam snorted. Was she being serious?

He remembered the first time he caught sight of her across the crowded room in painful detail.

She’d been dressed in the mandatory little black gown with her hair pulled up to reveal the long, fragile curve of her throat and a meaningless smile on her beautiful face as she tried to disguise the same boredom that was driving him to drink.

Threading his way across the reception room, he’d hoped to ease the tedious evening with a bit of harmless flirtation. And if she could be convinced to take the party someplace more private…well, so much the better.

What he hadn’t expected to discover was that she was the illegitimate daughter of Vigo Angeli. Or that the minute he’d taken her fingers into his hands and lifted them to his lips, he would be lost forever.

“It’s all you’ve done since we crossed paths,” he reminded her, his jaw clenching as he recalled her instant retreat from the sizzling attraction that flared between him. “You knew as soon as our eyes met we could have something special, but the realization made you panic.”

“I didn’t panic,” she protested. “I was already in a relationship. For some of us, loyalty happens to be an important virtue.”

His lips curled at the mention of her spineless fiancé.

“You were dating Ted to please your father,” he said. It’d taken him months to figure out why the exquisite beauty would waste herself on the worthless, narcissistic idiot. “You became engaged to him to protect yourself from me.”

Her eyes flared with a sudden fire. “It never occurred to you that I might love him?”

Liam tensed, his chest tightening to the point he could barely breathe.

“Do you?” he snapped, his voice suddenly as cold as the Artic.

Dammit. He was tired of Theodore Wentworth Junior being used as a weapon against him.

Her defiant expression faltered. “I—”

“The truth,” he warned.

“I…I cared about him,” she at last hedged.

“Christ.” He gave a short, humorless laugh. “I would almost feel sorry for the bastard if he wasn’t such a grade-A asshole.”

She scowled at him. “Why?”

“You would have made him as miserable a wife as he would have made you a husband.”

“You don’t know that,” she retorted. “We had a lot in common and we enjoyed each other’s company. That’s a far more intelligent basis for marriage than sex.”

“It’s at least safe, I suppose.” His hand stroked over her cheek before following the line of her neck. Then, almost absently, he traced the prominent thrust of her collarbone. His brief annoyance disappeared as he felt her tiny tremble beneath the soft caress. This woman had spent her entire life trying to earn the love of a man who had no heart. “And to be honest, I get it.”

“Get what?”

“Your father taught you at a young age not to offer your heart to a male.”

She snapped her lips together, but it wasn’t anger that darkened her eyes. No. That was pain. A lingering gift from her father’s betrayal.

“I don’t need your psychoanalysis,” she snapped.

“No,” he instantly agreed. “What you need is a man who isn’t afraid to bust through your walls with a good fucking and some painful honesty.”

She made a sound of disbelief at his blunt response. “Nice.”

He lowered his head to seal her lips in a kiss that held no hint of apology.

There was no more pussyfooting around.

“I don’t want to be nice,” he snarled against her mouth. “Or proper. Or pre-approved by Vigo Angeli.” His hand cupped her breasts, his fingers tugging at her nipples with a sharp urgency. “I want to be the man who makes your heart race and your knees weak. The man who challenges you to take risks. And to believe in your own self-worth. Ted would have chained you to mediocrity.” His head lowered to capture one of the tightened nubs between his lips. “I intend to help you soar.”

She shoved her fingers into his hair, her back arching in invitation.

He’d already learned her breasts were incredibly sensitive.

“Liam,” she groaned.

“Let me in, princess,” he husked, moving to tease her other breast with tiny bites.

Her fingers tightened in his hair, giving it a painful tug.

“What do you want from me?”

He allowed one hand to slide down her body, slipping between her legs.