His fingers worked against her cleft, getting to her as if nothing was between him and her most sensitive flesh. “Yes.”

  “I’m done being afraid to be myself, so I’m going to hold you to that. As long as I’m protecting you, Madison, you’ll give in to my desires. You’ll surrender your body and your soul. You’ll lay them at my feet and thank me, no matter how I choose to use them for my pleasure.”

  “I will.” Electric thrill seared her body. “But should I?”

  Hadn’t she learned too much in the last few years to blindly give anyone power over her?

  “You want to.” He slipped his fingers beneath the elastic of her underwear and skimmed his fingers over her slick, swollen clit. “Oh, you’re wet as fuck.”

  Sensations nearly sent her bolting off the stool. She reached out to steady herself, but only managed to flail against the dark burn of ecstasy.

  He steadied her from behind with firm hands. “If you need something, tell me. I take care of what’s mine. That includes you. So what’s wrong?”

  Something—innate caution? Deliciously agonizing fear? Or her foolish need to play with fire?—made her hesitate. “I want this. You have no idea how much. But I’m afraid. What will you do with the power I give you?”

  “Oh, honey. I know others have taken advantage of you. I won’t,” he vowed. “All you have to do is say the words for me like a good girl, the way you did at the motel. Tell me that I own you, and that as long as I’m protecting you, I’ll have you. Then you’ll have me on you a lot, and I’ll take care of you in every single way. You’ll be safe and protected.” His fingertips brushed her clit once more. “And thoroughly pleasured.”

  The obsession roughening his voice twisted her desire into a dark, throbbing thrill. The cotton rasping over her rigid nipples with every harsh breath aroused her. But it was the sincerity in his words that moved her the most.

  “Matt…” Her voice wobbled as her body seized up, already on the precipice of orgasm. He’d barely touched her, and she shook with trembling need from head-to-toe.

  “Do you want to say your safe word? I need you to be honest—with me and yourself.”

  She weighed her fear against the desperate pang for him in her heart. “I don’t.”

  With a groan, Matt tongued his way up her neck. Then he gripped her chin with his free hand and twisted her head to meet his kiss. He delved deep, stroking her tongue, eating at her mouth with a dizzying urgency, before he pulled away and left her weak.

  “God, you’re perfect,” he breathed against the back of her neck. “Spread your legs wider.” Instantly, she obeyed, and he rewarded her by giving her swollen nub a long, decadent swipe with his fingers. “Good. Keep them spread for me.”

  “I will,” she promised.

  As she shivered, he worked his free hand under her pajama top. “Take this off.”

  Swallowing a moan, Madison reached for the hem. Since she’d been napping, she hadn’t bothered with a bra. The second the cotton cleared her body, a blast of cold from the air conditioning swept across her nipples, beading them blissfully tighter.

  Matt peered over her shoulder and groaned next to her ear, his fingers slowing over her frustrated clit. “You have beautiful tits. Those nipples…

  Madison gripped the stool, desperate to make this ravaging ache go away. “Matt…”

  “Pinch them.”

  While he watched? “What?”

  “You heard me. Roll them between your thumbs and fingers. Squeeze them. I want to see you touch yourself while I torment your pussy.” When her womb clenched, he laughed low in her ear. “You like that idea, too. You just gushed in my hand. Pinch them now.”

  Her hands shook as she took hold of her nipples. She turned and squeezed the tips, then gasped. The sensations blended with the slow burn of his fingers, melding into an achingly delicious fever that had her on the edge.

  “Yes,” he praised. “Show me how you like it.”

  She brushed them with her thumbs, then skimmed her fingernails over the distended tips until they puffed up even more, pouty and begging.

  “So fucking pretty…” he praised. “But I need a closer look. Stand up.”

  Was he crazy? Her knees were like Jell-O. How did he expect them to support her?

  He fitted his free hand under her arm and nudged her to her feet, then sidled behind her and pressed her body against his chest. He was like fire, his skin an inferno as he rocked his thick cock against her backside as if to remind her of what she was missing.

  “Now take off everything else. I don’t want anything between me and your pussy. Say ‘Yes, Matt.’”

  She squirmed with both arousal and a hint of shame. “Yes, Matt.”

  When he lifted his hand, the absence of his touch hurt like a physical cramp that nearly brought her to her knees. Quickly, she peeled off the last of her clothes, stripping her body bare for him.

  “Good girl. Now say it. ‘You own me, Matt.’”

  Madison had to believe he would treasure and keep her safe. And she was too far gone to do anything but give in. “You own me, Matt.”

  “For as long as I’m protecting you, yes. You are my price. Now sit and spread for me again.”

  He assisted her onto the stool. The second she opened herself, he covered her clit. “You’re soaked.”

  Madison felt it, heard the slide of his digits through her flesh in the otherwise silent room. The sound both enthralled and embarrassed her.

  When she tried to close her legs, he grabbed one knee and nudged them apart. “No. When I’m with you, your legs are spread unless I say otherwise. Do you understand? Say ‘Yes, Matt.’”

  Resisting the onslaught of his questing fingers was hard enough, but his demands were the titillating whispers of her fantasies.

  “Yes, Matt.” Madison spread herself open for him again.

  “Good girl.”

  “Are you going to let me come?”

  Matt’s low laugh added another layer to her arousal. “You haven’t been that good.”

  She moaned in protest, but he didn’t budge, merely manipulated her clit so slowly her spine twisted. She whined with need, shaking, clawing, and begging.

  “Fuck, you’re pretty when you plead.” He withdrew his hand from between her legs, ignoring her protest, and led her across the room. “Stop here.”

  Madison did, hoping an end to her agony was in sight. Her sex cramped in need. She felt empty without Matt inside her. She shifted, trying to find relief, but all she managed to do was exacerbate every swollen, sensitive nerve.

  “Stop. I won’t let you wriggle yourself into an orgasm.”

  Then an unfamiliar sound filled the air—metal sliding through a track?—followed by a click, as if something snapped into place. She stiffened.

  “Everything is fine,” he assured. “Nothing to worry about, just setting up to heap more pleasure on you.”

  She breathed out a sigh of relief. “I couldn’t see and—”

  “I’ve got you,” he vowed, dropping a kiss to the top of her shoulder as he caressed her hip and grazed his way down her thigh. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  He lifted her onto a padded surface before he nestled one foot on the corner. He repeated the process with the other. Then he braced his palms on her knees and slowly pressed her legs apart, leaving her gaping open, where he could see everything.

  Her nerves spiked. Her breathing turned choppy. His thumb slid across her clit, tearing a fresh round of tingles through her. Then his touch disappeared. A moment later, he grabbed her hips and pulled her close to the edge as he stepped between her spread thighs.

  Suddenly, he affixed his lips under her gaping jaw, then dragged his mouth down her throat, before bending to take her aching nipple onto his tongue. He sucked deep. Lightning sensation tore through Madison, shredding the last of her defenses. In surrender, she arched, offering him the tender tips, silently granting him permission to do whatever he wanted.

  He nipped the first, sucking it to the roof of his mouth. Then he released it with a tug before giving the other the same attention. Back and forth. Over and over as his fingers slid over her clit in a too-slow prowl.

  Time lost meaning. He drove her arousal to unfathomable heights, until she felt faint and needy and eager to give him anything and everything he wanted just to grant her relief.

  “How are you?” he asked softly as he lapped at her nipples, now tender and on the verge of burning. “Do you know how to answer using the traffic light system?”

  “Green,” she gasped.

  “Exactly what I wanted to hear.” He dragged one swollen tip in his mouth again, nipping it gently until she hissed. Instead of trying to lurch away from the stinging he inflicted, she writhed in a silent plea for more, loving the delicious, subversive pain.

  “Are you enjoying this?”

  “Yes.” She wrapped her hands around his head and cradled him against her. “I love it.”

  He switched to the other breast, torturing it with even more vigor. “Hmm. Aren’t you just perfect?”

  When he pulled away, she whimpered, then bit her lip to stop herself. God, she was surrendering so much to him. He demanded it…and she couldn’t wait to give herself over. But if she didn’t slow down, what would happen when she didn’t need a bodyguard anymore? When she was divorced from Todd? Would Matt just let her go? She didn’t want to believe that…

  Suddenly, he lifted her, set her on her feet, then turned her away. She felt the loss of his body heat keenly. He took a few steps to the left, and she heard the whisk of fabric before he guided her to lean over the padded table, his bare chest now pressing against her back. “Bend over. Put your elbows here.”

  “Okay.”

  He kissed the line of her spine, his fingers dipping back into her sex, settling right where she needed it. Right where he could take her apart. His touch was both a balm and a torment. She craved it almost as much as sunlight, food, or air. Without it, she might implode.

  Then his touch was gone again, and he exhaled in her ear. “Open your mouth.”

  Trembling, she parted her lips, her eyes closing behind the blindfold. Seconds later, he settled two of his fingers against her lips and nudged them onto her tongue. She smelled her tart scent, tasted her slick, silken juice. Her whole body tensed. Her first instinct was to rebel.

  But when she turned her head to dislodge his digits, he grabbed a handful of hair at her crown. “If this is beyond what you can handle, say your safe word. Otherwise, stop squirming and suck my fingers.”

  Madison wrestled with herself…but she needed his hands on her somewhere, anywhere. She gave in and tightened her lips around his digits, her breath shuddering with a confusing mix of thrill and disquiet.

  The rumble of his approving groan lit her up. And though giving in to his demand twisted something inside her, knowing he could bend her to do something she’d once considered vaguely taboo aroused her even more.

  “That’s my girl… I want you to taste how addictive you are. I’ve remembered that flavor for three years, and I’m dying to get you on my tongue again. I’m going to devour you, savor you, and worship you. But I need you in so many ways; I can’t decide where to start.”

  “With you inside me?” she all but begged.

  “Not yet. Stay where you are.” He kept her in place with a gentle pat to the small of her back.

  Madison danced, her feet almost cold on the floors. Behind her, Matt rummaged around. Her curiosity to know what he had planned was almost overwhelming, but she stayed rooted, fearing he would withhold the orgasm she craved if she misbehaved.

  Finally, he returned, his rough breaths telling her he approached. Her skin flared with goose pimples as he leaned in, covered her back, and took her wrists. He wrapped something heavy and supple around one, then the other. Leather; the smell of it filled the air. Her insides leapt as he positioned her arms where he wanted them. Another pair of clicks sounded. Suddenly, other than curling her fingers around the edges of the table, she couldn’t move her hands. A moment later, he bent and secured her ankles to something—the legs?

  Beyond moving her head or arching her back, she was utterly immobile. The thought was both terrifying and thrilling.

  “Matt?” Her sharp voice shook in the darkness he’d inflicted on her.

  He pressed a gentle but heavy hand to her back. “Do you need to use your safe word?”

  Madison forced herself to breathe. It was arousal—not panic—that gnawed at her composure. “N-no.”

  “You sure? I always want you to be sure.”

  His words calmed her. She breathed out the anxiety. “I don’t need it.”

  “Good. Then arch for me.”

  She did. With her legs affixed apart and her backside in the air, she seemed so exposed. She felt his stare all over her.

  “So beautiful…” He ran one work-rough palm down her ass, then skimmed his fingertips back up her inner thigh until she was dancing on her tiptoes and whimpering for the kind of pleasure only he could give her.

  She flung her head back and moaned.

  “There are so many ways I want to heap sensation on you for the sheer pleasure of watching you writhe and beg, but it feels like it’s been forever. I need to be inside you.”

  “Yes! Please…yes.”

  The hurried shuffle of clothes and the crinkle of a foil packet sounded behind her. Moments later, he nestled against her, aligned his thick crest at her opening, then nipped at her shoulder as his fingers sailed over her clit again, renewing the debilitating ache.

  “God, I feel you trembling against me. Your body… Every muscle is so tense. Tell me you need me.”

  Her breath rattled in her lungs, burning for relief. “I need you.”

  “Inside you?”

  “Inside me now.” Madison felt as if he’d opened her mind and read every forbidden thought, then handed it to her on a silver platter. She wriggled, pushing back and trying to swallow his cock with her greedy sex.

  He wrapped his arm around her middle. His other hand found its way into her hair and fisted the strands. “Right now?”

  “Matt, please. Yes. I’m desperate.”

  “There it is… All afternoon, I fantasized about this exact moment. Take me.” His voice dissolved into a growl as he surged inside her, the flesh-and-blood key that unlocked her ecstasy.

  Sensation tore fire through her. “Matt!”

  “Yes. That’s it. Every inch. To the hilt. Just like that… Fuck! You. Are. Everything, honey.”

  Despite his rough intrusion, Madison didn’t feel violated or used or even owned. She felt treasured. She felt worshipped. And she felt like Matt’s, especially when he tightened his fingers in her hair and sank his teeth into her shoulder while he penetrated her again, sliding against a spot that sent her leaping onto her toes with a shocked gasp.

  Pleasure flashed like lightning. Thunder followed like a thick opiate filling her veins. Thoughts of everything but Matt blurred and slid away. Her whole focus narrowed to him.

  In that moment, she couldn’t care what was smart or what tomorrow might bring. He was her world. Now was the only moment in time.

  She surrendered with a cry, giving in to the dark drag of tingles threatening to starburst into an explosion that would leave her his forever.

  But wasn’t she already?

  Madison grabbed the edges of the table, the bite of the metal the only thing grounding her to a reality beyond him. Without it, she feared she’d disappear into this insane ecstasy for good. Need clawed at her. Her defenses crumbled, and the rubble settled at his feet with each rattling thrust. Her damp skin slid across the table as she crept closer to climax. She ran headlong toward her own destruction, heedless of the cost and uncaring that she might cease to be without his touch.

  “You’re tightening,” he hissed out.

  “Yes,” she breathed out.

  “I didn’t give you permission to come.”

  Delicious dread slid through her. “Pleeeeeease…”

  His fingers bit into her hip as his thrusts gathered speed and force. The orgasm swelled, heated, thickened as it threatened to overtake her.

  “Give it to me. Give everything over,” he panted as if he could barely restrain his own need. “Watch us come together.”

  Suddenly, he ripped the blindfold away and yanked on her hair again. Madison found herself looking into a mirror just above. In searing fascination, she stared as Matt shuttled into her, his head back, his expression a twisted mask of savage, teeth-baring need. Seeing the way she affected him, the ecstasy burned across his face, in tempo with their slapping bodies, her rising cries, and his grunts of need completely undid her.

  “Matt!” She managed to get the word out before she disintegrated into a fathomless, perfect bliss and landed into a heap at his feet.

  Thankfully, he caught her, and with a throaty growl and one last body-lashing stroke, he gave all of himself back to her, pouring out his worries, needs, and passion.

  Together, they stayed joined, poised at the pinnacle of a weightless, sublime moment, breathless and timeless, before melting together.

  He wrapped her in his arms, buried his face in her neck, and struggled to breathe as she clung and cried, finally feeling whole for the first time in forever.

  “Shh,” he soothed. “I’m here. Did you enjoy that?”

  Was he kidding? “Yes.”

  “It was pretty perfect.” He skimmed his lips across her shoulder, then up her neck. “Don’t you think?”

  “Yes.”

  He petted her in reward. “Again, honey?”

  She couldn’t answer fast enough. “Yes.”

  Chapter Twelve

  July 16

  Twelve Days Later

  Matt wrapped his fingers around Madison’s delicate wrists, firmly secured to the four-poster bed, grinding his way deep inside her, groaning at the gush of sensation.