Not sure if she was real or just the remnant of a dream, he started to reach out for her, only to finally figure out that he was bound—hand and foot—to the bed.
“Hello, lover.” Genevieve’s voice was low and husky, and it worked its way through his body like an electric shock. “It’s about time you woke up.”
“What—” His voice was hoarse from sleep, and from the nerves just beginning to set in. “What are you doing? Let me go!”
She shook her head, and he trembled as her silken curls caressed her shoulders and breasts. “Oh, I don’t think so. At least not yet.”
He strained against the bonds, but they didn’t move—in fact, got tighter the more he struggled. Panic exploded in his chest. “Genevieve—”
She shook her head again and the smile she gave him was part siren, part queen. And all predator. “You might as well give it up. I was a Girl Scout, you know. And guess what I got my first merit badge in?”
“Knot tying?” His cock throbbed at the erotic promise of her voice, his early morning erection tightening to the point of pain.
“Bingo.”
“Let me up, Genevieve.” The words came out as a command. “Don’t do this.”
Reaching forward, she slid a hand languorously over his abdomen before following the light trail of hair down below his navel. He arched, involuntarily, as her fingers burrowed into the crisp hair at the base of his straining dick—caught between arousal and anger, hunger and hostility.
“I don’t think you’re in any position to be issuing commands, do you?” She brushed against his erection and electricity shot straight through his dick. Along with a need so strong he had to grit his teeth to keep from begging.
“Why are you doing this?” he asked from between clenched teeth.
She licked her perfect, strawberry pink lips and grinned at him. “Why not?”
“Genevieve.” His voice was low, warning. “When I get out of here, I’m going to spank your ass for this.”
Smiling wickedly, she leaned over and licked him from navel to collarbone. “Well, that’s not much incentive for me to let you go, is it?” she murmured. “Maybe I’ll just keep you here, turn you into my own personal plaything.”
As she threw his own words back at him, Cole felt his body ratchet up another notch, desire thundering through him until it was all he could do to think. All he could do to breathe without strangling.
“Baby, please,” he gasped out as he trembled—fear and fury mixing with a lust so strong he didn’t think he could survive it.
Genevieve’s lips pursed in mock surprise. “Are you begging already? But I’ve barely gotten started.”
He let out a low, warning growl, but she only laughed. Then sunk her teeth into his right pec hard enough to have him shouting. Her tongue darted out to soothe the small hurt before circling first one nipple and then the other.
“Fuck!” he ground out, his body spinning rapidly out of his control. He felt his cock jerk, felt himself leak, and he couldn’t believe she’d gotten him so hard, so fast. For a minute he was afraid he was going to embarrass himself and he began to strain against the bonds in earnest.
“Stop fighting, Cole.” Genevieve laid a soothing hand against his cheek. “It’ll make this so much easier.”
“Make what easier?” Was that his voice? he wondered. It sounded more animal than human.
“The loss of control. I know how much you love being in charge, but tonight it’s my turn.”
Cole swore, long and viciously, but Genevieve only laughed. “That’ll cost you,” she murmured as she tipped the bottle in her hands over. A honey-scented liquid squirted out and she rubbed it slowly between her palms.
He watched, mesmerized, as her pink tongue darted out and swiped a taste. And when she murmured, “Mmm, delicious,” his mouth actually watered.
What he wouldn’t give to be able to get free of these damn ties. He’d swoop her into his lap, paddle her gorgeous ass and then spend the rest of the night showing her exactly who was boss in this—
“Fuck!” It was both a curse and a prayer as Genevieve began rubbing the oil onto his cock in slow, thorough strokes that had his eyes crossing and his back arching convulsively.
“Stop!” he demanded, but it sounded more like a plea. “Don’t—” His voice broke and he sucked in huge gulps of air, trying to get enough oxygen to steady his breathing. But Genevieve was only getting warmed up, and as her hands glided down to his testicles, began rubbing the oil into the delicate flesh, he nearly whimpered.
The touch of her hands was amazing, the feel of the oil even more so as it warmed on contact with his flesh. Heat sizzled along his most sensitive nerve endings, nearly burning him alive.
His balls tightened. His cock throbbed. The urge to come was nearly overwhelming, but he fought it back. Genevieve might have the upper hand—for now—but there was no way he was going to give in that easy. No way in hell.
Gritting his teeth, he thought of baseball stats and camera angles and lighting choices—any- and everything to keep from losing it too early.
Genevieve’s laugh was low and sultry—as if she knew exactly what he was doing. And when she crawled on top of him, teasing his mouth with her nipple, he nearly said To hell with it. Control wasn’t that important.
Nothing was as important as getting inside Genevieve and fucking her until neither one of them could walk.
But old habits died hard, and as he fastened his lips around her nipple, he reveled in her moan. Her hands crept around the back of his head to help support his neck as he sucked and licked the ruby red areola, teasing and tormenting her nipple until it was harder than he’d ever felt it.
Her hips started to move against his and he nearly shouted in triumph. He could do this, he could hold on, could stay in control, even tied down for Genevieve’s pleasure. He could—
Suddenly, her nipple disappeared from his mouth and he groaned in disappointment. Then nearly choked as her warm, soft, wet mouth fastened around his strained-to-the-breaking-point cock.
“Genevieve, no!” he shouted hoarsely, his hips bucking wildly against her lips.
She pulled away and smiled at him, all temptress now. “Cole, yes!” She mimicked his words, but her voice was full of laughter.
“I can’t hold on. I can’t—”
“That’s the point, baby,” she whispered, right before she took him back in her mouth. “You can let go. You need to let go.”
“I can’t.” The sweet suction of her mouth combined with the uncontrollable heat of the oil, and he shouted in agonized pleasure.
He strained against the silk ties, his body arching and shuddering as she sucked his cock slowly down her throat. She lingered at the base, swirling her tongue up and around him until it was all he could do to remember his own name.
There was a roaring in his ears, a pounding in his blood that warned him he was on the brink of losing complete control. Biting the inside of his cheek, clenching his fists, he tightened every muscle in his body and fought to hold on.
“Fuck, Genevieve,” he groaned in between shudders. “Have mercy.”
She only laughed again, sliding him up and down her throat in a rhythm that made his eyes cross and his cock beg for release. When he was at the edge of a yawning precipice, and every ounce of energy he had had been used up in the effort not to come, she pulled back with a long, lingering swipe of her tongue. Then licked him like he was a Popsicle.
“Don’t tease, baby.” It was a gasp, sweat pouring off him as his body shuddered beneath her. “Let me fuck you. Let me come inside—”
“Let you fuck me?” Her voice was a low, warm murmur. “You still don’t get it, do you, baby? It’s my turn to fuck you.”
She slipped lower, her tongue stroking over his balls and behind them, finding a spot that made control a thing of his past and had his blood pressure shooting through the roof.
“Then do it!” His voice was harsh, guttural, his hips unyielding as he slammed them
against her. The satin ties grew tighter, dug into his wrists and he tried to relax, to calm down. But he was beyond calm, beyond gentleness, beyond thinking for the first time in his life. Everything he had and everything he was focused on the warm, wonderful woman above him.
“I don’t take orders.” She pulled away, climbed off the bed. And left him on the brink of madness.
“Where are you going?” he demanded as the liquid on his cock caught fire, began to burn in an incredibly pleasurable way.
She shrugged. “I’m thirsty. I thought I’d head down to the kitchen and get something to drink.”
“Genevieve!” It was a roar, the sound of a wild animal pushed past all endurance. His cock throbbed; his balls ached. His entire body was on fire, burning for her. Needing her.
A taunting laugh was her only response as she strolled slowly from the room.
Stressed-out, fucked-up, he lay there for what seemed like forever trying to get his raging erection under control. But the oil she’d rubbed into his dick and balls was making it impossible. Every breath he took had him throbbing more, every second that passed made his cock grow more and more sensitive, until just the brush of air against it felt like a caress.
“Genevieve,” he called again, but this time there was a pleading note he couldn’t keep out of his voice. “Come back, baby. Please. Come back.”
She appeared seconds later, a glass of ice water in her hand. “Did you miss me, baby?” she asked as she approached the bed.
“Fuuuuck.” It was a groan, a plea, and she seemed to recognize it as such.
“Good boy,” she said. “I think you’re almost ready.”
“I’m ready.” He strained against the bonds. “I’m so ready.”
She glanced down at his cock, gave a murmur of approval that somehow made him grow longer, harder, though he would have sworn that was impossible.
She licked her lips and said, “Almost.” Then she reached into the glass and pulled out an ice cube.
He shouted as the ice made contact with his rock-hard nipples, cursed as he felt himself grow even wetter. Glancing down, he saw pre-ejaculate glistening on the head of his cock.
Genevieve must have seen it to, because she leaned down and swiped her tongue over his tip, pausing to let those beautiful strawberry lips suck at him for just a second. “Mmm, you taste good.”
He groaned when she pulled away, ground his teeth together so hard he swore he could see stars. Writhing, shifting, bucking, he strained against his lover. “You have to … Genevieve, please … I can’t … baby, please. I have to—”
There it was, the note of surrender and desperation Genevieve had been waiting for. With a secret grin, she swallowed Cole whole, sucking him all the way inside of her. She used her mouth and tongue and throat on him, then lightly scraped her teeth across his great length. Just like she knew it would, that moment of combined pleasure and pain did it, sent him careening over the edge he’d been clinging to with battered fingertips.
With a hoarse shout, he arched up, thrusting again and again against her seeking mouth. And then he was pouring into her with long, brutal jerks of his hips, and she was loving every second of it.
The orgasm barely slowed him down, his cock still rock hard as he strained against her. Wanting more, begging for more.
Part of her wanted to string him out, to let him suffer more, but by then she was as hot and horny as he was. Maybe more so. Sliding up his body, she came down on him hard—taking him all the way to the pubic bone.
He shouted, his body arching convulsively beneath her. She rode him hard, striving for her own pleasure as much as his, slamming herself down on him again and again until both of them were shaking and covered with sweat.
“Finish it,” he gasped from between clenched teeth, his hips rising to meet hers again and again. “I love you, Genevieve. I love you.”
His words ripped through her, sent her spiraling out of control as her orgasm tore through her. “Cole!” she gasped as pleasure overwhelmed her. It was wilder and more intense than any that had come before it, and she found herself clinging to him in the middle of the storm.
He came with her, his body spasming as he poured everything he had, everything he was, inside of her. She took it all, took everything he could give her. Because as obnoxious as he was, as domineering and controlling and unyielding, he was also her safety net. Her only security in the craziness that was her life.
She only hoped that after tonight he would let her be the same to him..
As her orgasm finally wound down, she rolled off of Cole—settling herself beside him so they could be face-to-face.
His eyes were dark, shadowed—filled with pleasure and a wariness that pulled at her heartstrings. Bringing up a hand, she ran it gently through his wild tangle of hair, smiled as he shifted his head to nuzzle her palm.
“I love you.” His voice was hoarse, the words low but certain, and she felt them all the way to her soul. “I know I’m too controlling. I know I want everything my own way. I know—” His voice broke. “I know that I’m not the right fit for you. But I love you, Genevieve, more than anyone else ever has or ever will.”
Tears filled her eyes as she fumbled with the knots, blurred her vision so badly that she could barely see to untangle him. “I promise—” he started.
“Shut up,” she said as she clawed frantically at the knots. “Shut up, shut up, shut up.”
“Genevieve?” He looked at her questioningly, those sinful black eyes filled with uncertainty.
“I want your arms around me when you make promises to me for the first time,” she said as the first knot finally unraveled. “I want mine around you.”
She yanked and pulled until the second tie gave in and then he was holding her, his strong arms wrapped so tightly around her that she could barely breathe. “Say it again,” she ordered as her arms snaked around his neck and she brought her mouth within inches of his.
“I love you, Genevieve Delacroix. And I always will.”
Tears bloomed in her eyes—tears of love and gratitude and thanksgiving. “I love you too, Cole Adams. More than I ever imagined possible.”
“I know you do.” He pulled her so that she was on top of him, his cock nestling in the warmth of her sex as his hands cupped her breasts.
“Hey!” She tried to pull away, but he slid his hands to her hips and kept her in place. “I’m supposed to be controlling this.”
“Maybe next time.” He shifted his hips until her clit rested against his cock.
She caught her breath as he stroked her with each glide of his hips. “Really?”
Laughing, he pulled her down for a kiss. “Not a chance.”
Acknowledgments
Thank you so much to Sue Grimshaw, Gina Wachtel and everyone over at Random House for the wonderful, amazing, beautiful job you do with my books. I truly appreciate all you’ve done for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Emily Sylvan Kim, agent extraordinaire, and the best friend a girl could ever have.
Shellee Roberts, Emily McKay, Sherry Thomas, and Julie Kenner for being such great friends and sounding boards. This job would be so boring without you. You’re the best!
And finally, to my family. Thank you, guys, for all that you do. I love you.
Tracy Wolff collects books, English degrees, and lipsticks and has been known to forget where—and sometimes who—she is when immersed in a great novel. At six she wrote her first short story—something with a rainbow and a prince—and at seven she forayed into the wonderful world of girls’ lit with her first Judy Blume novel. By ten she’d read everything in the young adult and classics sections of her local bookstore, so in desperation her mom started her on romance novels. And from the first page of the first book, Tracy knew she’d found her lifelong love. Now an English professor at her local community college, she writes romances that run the gamut from contemporary to paranormal to erotic suspense.
THE EDITOR’S CORNER
Welcome to
Loveswept!
The holidays are approaching and I’ve so many things to do, don’t you? So why is it all I want to do is cuddle up on the couch with a good book? I’ll tell you why, there are so many amazing Loveswept stories on sale this month that all you’ll want to do is read too!! For starters, LOVING THE EARL (11/11) by Sharon Cullen features our hero’s sister from THE NOTORIOUS LADY ANNE (2/11), and OMG ladies, this book is for you! Sharon writes with wit and steam a combination that keeps me reading all night long. Double your historical delight with Samantha Kane’s finale in The Saint’s Devils, DEVIL IN MY ARMS (11/26) – its Hil’s story and what a match he’s made. Then, Loveswept debut, Serena Bell releases, YOURS TO KEEP (11/11), a captivating story of a woman living on the edge—and the man who’s destined to love her (sigh).
And there’s more!
Ruthie Knox releases a series of short stories, Roman Holiday. Over the next weeks look for each installment: CHAINED (11/12) - book one launches the series; followed by, HITCHED (11/19); then, BLINDSIDED (11/26), plus books four and five are right around the corner, ten books in all!!
And, you can’t miss these classics:
Fran Baker’s, THE WIDOW AND THE WILDCATTER, the captivating story of a woman haunted by the ghosts of the past, and a daredevil who promises a future filled with love; Sandra Chastain’s, REBEL IN SILK, about an unconventional beauty who refuses to back down from a challenge—or a handsome loner with a taste for trouble; and Sandra’s classics continue with, TOO HOT TO HANDLE, and, THE SILVER BULLET AFFAIR. Look for favorite Loveswept author Iris Johansen and her re-release of, STAR-SPANGLED BRIDE. Readers have continued to adore Ruth Owen’s Loveswepts including, SORCERER, a sexy tale of an emotionally guarded computer whiz and the princess who makes virtual reality come to vivid life. And, to wrap up the month Jean Stone’s, BIRTHDAY GIRL, and Connie Brockway’s, AS YOU DESIRE, will keep you toasty on those cold winter nights.
Holiday lovers won’t want to skip these contemporary reissues, ROOM AT THE INN by Ruthie Knox, and Molly O’Keefe’s, ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS, guaranteed to put you in the holiday spirit.