She gave a happy little sigh.
He walked behind her and knelt so he could whisper in her ear. “I’m going to give you pleasure now. Ready?”
“I’m nervous.”
Stone placed his hands on her shoulders and stroked his way down her arms. “Nothing but goodness from here on out. I promise.”
“Yes, Stone.”
She barely breathed the words and trembled under his touch. Fuck, if that didn’t arouse the hell out of him. Most of the women he’d taken to bed had been jaded, afraid to be vulnerable with the man inside them. But Lily seemed not to have much of a filter when it came to shielding her reactions. She laid herself bare more often than she realized, and he wouldn’t want to change that for anything.
“Move the hair off the back of your neck,” he whispered against her nape.
He heard her breath catch; then she raised both hands to lift the shimmering, pale mass and push it to one side, exposing the narrow column and that delicate sweep of flesh into her other shoulder.
“Good,” he praised, then followed that up by pressing his lips against her sensitive skin there in reward. Fuck, she smelled good, sugary-sweet with a hint of something spicy.
He breathed her in—and his dick went harder. How the fuck was he going to restrain himself from throwing her to the mat and shoving his way inside her? He had to; she wasn’t ready for that, Stone knew. But damn if he didn’t burn to take her in every way known to man.
“Tell me how you’re feeling.”
“A little restless.” She squirmed as she sat back, butt on her heels. “A little achy.”
“Aroused?” he prodded.
“Yes, Stone.”
God, he loved hearing his name from her lips, especially in that slightly breathy tone.
He stroked her shoulder, peeling away the frilly little strap. His lips followed his hand, setting a slow trail of kisses all the way over the slope. Lily’s breath caught as he made his way back up, adding a nip of his teeth, followed by a soothing lick of his tongue.
When he reached her neck again, he moaned in her ear. “You taste sweet.”
She shuddered in his arms.
“Are your eyes still closed?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Do you feel safe?”
This time she took a bit longer in answering. “Having my eyes closed may never be comfortable for me, but it’s not a reflection of you.”
So something about having her eyes closed must remind her of a bad experience. Her friend’s rape and murder? He had to keep her from falling into her own memories and fears and failing to reach orgasm.
“Picture the playroom we’re in. Remember the soft lighting. Feel the mat under your knees. Can you do that?”
She nodded.
“Are you uncomfortable beyond what you can bear?”
“No,” she assured softly.
“That’s what I want to hear. Now, keep that image firmly planted in your mind. Don’t let your thoughts usurp that visual with anything else. If you start to drift, bring back the hardwood floors and play equipment. Picture me right here with you.”
“Yes, Stone.”
The sensual song ended then slid into another, this one with some chanting and panting and a seriously sexual vibe.
“Focus on the music,” he instructed. “You hear that? You like it?”
She nodded.
“Tilt your head back. More. Yes, all the way.”
Once she complied, Stone trailed a fingertip from the tip of her chin, down her throat, into the hollow beneath, and descended slowly toward the swells of her breasts. “Can you feel me behind you?”
She nodded. “You put off so much heat. Your skin is soft but everything beneath is muscled and hard. Every time I take a breath, I smell that you’re a man.” She let out a shaky breath. “I like it.”
That was more honesty than Stone had expected, and he decided to reward her again with another kiss to her neck, another murmur in her ear. “You’re so delicate under my hands.” He caressed her arms again, then let his palms drift down to her waist. “So tender under my lips. Tell me, baby . . . are your nipples hard?”
“I think so.”
But she didn’t know for sure? That told him that her brain and her body might not be syncing up yet. “Touch yourself and find out for me.”
Lily didn’t move right away. Was she wondering why he didn’t check himself? She didn’t ask, simply placed her fingertips over the baby doll’s wispy fabric where it covered her breast, then yanked her hand away quickly. “Yes.”
He smiled. “Are you sure? Check again. Be really thorough.”
“You just want to watch me touch myself,” she accused breathlessly.
“Damn straight.”
She didn’t obey right away. Stone felt the second she went up in her head and thought too much about the mechanics of what he’d asked. Then he’d bet she weighed how she would look to him or if arousing herself more while he watched would earn her praise or make her feel ashamed.
“You’re taking too long,” he warned.
“I can’t stop thinking that you’re going to be looking over my shoulder and watching me.”
“Let’s make that worry go away. I’ll just ease around you and plant myself right here,” he said inches from her face. “So now, I’m not looking over your shoulder anymore. I’m just looking.”
Her cheeks turned a pretty rosy shade and she opened her eyes, focusing in on him. “You’re going to leer at me while I touch myself?”
He chuckled, liking the dreamy expression in her eyes, her slightly dilated pupils. “Pretty much. Unless that bothers you for some reason.”
“No. It’s just not what I’m used to.”
“I know. Right now, there’s only us and whatever we want.” He cupped her cheek. “You got that? I’m not judging anything. I just want you to be all right. I want you to feel pleasure.”
Lily nodded. “Being with you . . . it’s so different.”
“I’m not Axel.” And though he understood why she still had the man on her mind, it pissed Stone off that she couldn’t think about him when he was in front of her, half-naked and wanting.
“Obviously,” she agreed.
He grabbed for his patience. “Different isn’t bad.”
“It isn’t,” she acknowledged, and he let out a sigh of relief. “What I meant was that everything feels so different when the purpose of the play is to feel good, not simply to screw my head on straight. It’s . . . nice to be wanted.”
Her words took him aback. He should have put two and two together earlier and realized she wasn’t really used to indulging a man’s desire. On the other hand, if Thorpe was right, she had the heart of a submissive. She wanted to please. It had been one thing to obey Axel when he’d merely been trying to lead her down a path to help her grow. It was another for her to actually satisfy a man she would kneel for and eventually give herself to. She’d want that.
And Stone intended to give it to her.
“I’m still waiting—and not very patiently. Touch your nipple. Take your breast out of your nightgown and caress that hard nub. Right where I can see everything.”
Lily’s breathing turned choppy. She trembled a bit as she lifted her hands from her lap and pulled the side of her baby doll down with one hand and lifted her sweet breast above the fabric with the other. The sight of the gentle swell in her hand aroused the hell out of him, but when she dragged her thumb across the turgid pink peak and sucked in a little gasp, Stone nearly lost his fucking mind.
“That’s it. Again.”
When she complied and looked at him with the big eyes seeking approval, he couldn’t resist cupping his hand around her shoulder and coming closer.
“Did that feel good?” His words came out rough and low, and he hoped that wouldn’t scare her.
The brave girl gave him a little nod. “Knowing that you’re watching and liking what you see is its own pleasure.”
Just her ton
e made it clear she hadn’t expected that.
“Do you ever touch yourself when you’re alone, make yourself come?”
At that question, she frowned. “Not so much. I feel awkward, weird, touching myself when I’m alone. I never got the chance to before I left home as a kid since I shared a bedroom with my little brother. I know toys exist so that it’s more expedient and less messy, but I don’t like hearing things buzz. I don’t like plastic. And then there’s the whole feeling-too-alone thing. Masturbation just isn’t for me.”
Stone would bet she just hadn’t had the right impetus. In the past, she’d probably tried doing it for the same reason she tried sex with Axel, to feel normal. When she figured out how to tune her brain to pleasure and simply indulged, he suspected she’d feel very differently about the subject. And if having him watch turned her on, then he was totally game. Because seeing her touch herself even now was about to make his cock bust through his zipper.
“Keep touching that nipple for me,” he coaxed. “Just flick it back and forth . . . Yeah.”
Her eyes slid shut. Despite the fact that he’d told her earlier to close them and focus, now Stone felt shut out of her experience, and that he wouldn’t tolerate.
“Look at me, baby.”
Lily was slow to comply. She lifted her thumb away from her breast before her lashes fluttered open. “Am I doing something wrong?”
“No. I want you to touch yourself again but look at me. Right at me. Don’t look away.”
“You really want to watch me?”
“Fuck, yeah.”
A nervous little smile crept up her face, but she didn’t refuse. Instead, she dragged her thumb over the hard point again. At the flick of her digit, Stone watched her peak bend, bounce back, then harden even more. She was so close that he could nearly touch it himself. Hell, he could nearly taste it. His mouth watered just thinking about working the stiff bud with his lips and tongue, giving her a slight sting with his teeth.
He groaned. At the sound, her eyes widened. She blinked, then looked down his body, right where his hard cock fought to escape his pants.
Stone grabbed at his bulge. “This is for you, baby. This is what you do to me. Watching you is excruciating torture, and yet I can’t stop. Pinch your nipple. Squeeze it. Just like that,” he encouraged. “Does it feel good? Can you feel the blood filling it? Do you like the tingle and bite?”
Her breath wasn’t quite steady as she nodded and tried to close her eyes again. “Yes.”
“Open those pretty eyes. Look at me. Don’t look away.”
With a flutter of her lashes, she did as he demanded. Her eyes had darkened from the color of melted chocolate to sultry midnight. Stone couldn’t help himself. He had to touch her, stake a claim.
“Do it again. Don’t stop until I tell you,” he murmured across her skin as he brushed his knuckles along her collarbone.
Her eyes widened. She rewarded him with gooseflesh and a little whimper. Then she did exactly as he’d instructed, taking the hard nub between her thumb and finger and giving it a squeeze.
Her whimper became a moan.
“Harder,” he commanded. “Do it now.”
To his satisfaction, Lily obeyed readily, almost viciously; then she rasped the edge of her fingernail across the sensitive peak. It tightened, turning rosy as it filled with more blood. Stone watched in utter fascination. And when her moan became a high-pitched keening, he smiled.
“That’s fucking pretty, baby. Can you do that to the other breast?” he asked as he tucked his fingers under the other strap of her baby doll and lifted it off her shoulder, letting it fall uselessly down her arm. “Show me. Tease your nipple.”
Lily didn’t hesitate to lift her other breast from the nightgown and reveal the perfect swell along with its tight berry tip.
“Damn,” he choked out. “So fucking beautiful. Look at you.” He trailed his fingertips in a light caress down the side of her breast, then withdrew quickly in case she objected. But he shouldn’t have worried. Lily’s eyes softened in thanks.
As she let out a sigh, she first brushed the newly exposed kernel gently with her thumb, then frowned as if the sensation displeased her.
She blinked at him in confusion.
“You want more now,” he supplied. “You’re sensitive and you want to feel. Pinch, tug, twist. Make that nipple come alive. Show me how you want them touched.”
With a shaky bob of her head, Lily clamped her fingers around the barely touched peak and gave it a hard yank, a vise of a pinch, then a scrape with her nail. Her whole body seemed to melt as she tossed her head back with a shiver.
Stone thought he might crawl out of his skin with wanting her. He curled a hand around her nape and forced her stare back to his. Her not-quite-focused eyes and pleading glance began to unhinge his restraint.
“That’s the way I like to see you. You like it, too. I can tell.” He leaned closer, whispering against her lips. “Do it again, but tease both your nipples at once. Right now.”
The moment she clenched her nipples between her thumbs and forefingers, she yelped. Then she groaned as sensation hit her. Stone swallowed the sound by covering her mouth with his own and surging deep inside. In this moment, he owned her. And he craved more. He loved the idea of having every part of her belong to him, spread out for his viewing pleasure, ready whenever he wanted her. Which would be always. But with such a beauty, who could blame him?
She keened out and he drank in her need, itching to touch those sweet nipples himself. As he changed the angle of the kiss and rose on his knees above her, bringing her closer, he let his fingers trail from her shoulders, down to the swells of her pouty breasts. He covered her hand with his palm, helping her support the drawn-up curve while he caressed her so-soft skin and itched to put his fingers right where hers worked.
The moment she released the reddening tips, he moved in, dragging his thumb over what had to be her supersensitive flesh.
Lily tore her lips from his. “Stone!”
“You like it when I do that to you? Do you like my fingers tugging on your nipples, baby?”
“Yes.” She stared, looking somewhere between pleading and helpless.
“You’re asking for more with that expression,” he warned. “Just begging me for the answer to the gnawing ache growing between your legs. You’re wet, right?”
“I am,” she said with such tortured honesty.
“Have you ever felt this need?”
“Not this sharply. You can’t leave me . . .”
“I won’t,” he assured, brushing her right hand from her breast and taking over. “You like your nipples toyed with and you like it rough. I love touching you, baby. I’ll take care of it.” When she flushed all over at his words and her little candy peaks hardened again, he groaned. “Look at you. God, I don’t ever remember anything sexier. You want more?”
She nodded adamantly, demanding without a word.
“You want more of my fingers?” He pinched, teased, toyed, twisted, enjoying her gasps and the way she wriggled as if the ache of her cunt was becoming too much to fight. “Or do you want something more? Do you want me to suck you?”
When he bent to her breast, he tested both her arousal and her fear by drawing her nipple into his mouth and rolling it around on his tongue. Lily gave an animal cry of desperation and wrapped her arms around his head, clutching him closer.
With a pop, he eased her bud from his mouth and smiled. “Would