'No. Just you.'
Her gaze travelled over his face. 'I believe you.'
'I told you, I'm not a good liar.' He wanted to let his fingers drift higher, to the inside of her thighs. He wanted to find her slippery heat. Instead, he took his hand away.
She noticed, her eyes going to her knee and then to his face, but she didn't comment on it. 'I like knowing I've provided you with everything you need to know in order to please me. It gives you no reason to disappoint me.'
'Me? Or any guy?'
She pulled the trigger of an imaginary gun. 'Bingo.'
That stung, a little, that she was making a point of him not being special. 'Is that true?'
'You think I'd lie?'
'It wouldn't be the first time I've been lied to by a beautiful woman.'
Everything that had been open in her face shut down. 'Just because you don't want to believe it's not true doesn't make it a lie.'
Brandon didn't move, though it took a lot of effort not to get up and get dressed. Walk out. It was probably what she wanted anyway.
Well, screw that.
'From what I can tell, you didn't boss your ex around.'
Her mouth thinned and anger flashed in her eyes. It was better than the blank look she'd given him a moment before. 'That's none of your business.'
'It's my business when he comes to where I work and threatens me,' Brandon said matter-of-factly.
There was no hiding her surprise and anger now. 'He did that? What did he say?'
Now he sat to lean against the headboard. 'He told me to back off. You're his.'
'Well, I'm not!' He shrugged, deliberately. 'Hey, if I'm just a stepping stone, that's cool.'
It wasn't.
'Or if I'm just a reason to make him jealous -'
'That's not it at all!' Leah slammed the pillow from her lap on to the bed and got up.
She was so gorgeous it almost hurt to look at her. Brandon had been with women who had perfect bodies, not an extra ounce of fat or a stretch mark or a wrinkle or blemish anywhere on them. They'd been the ones who wanted to make love with the lights off or who threw on a robe the second they'd finished. Leah didn't bother.
Naked, she turned to face him, her hands on her hips. The pose emphasised her sweet curves. He made no effort at hiding his interest either, as he looked over her. Beneath the pillow his prick was thinking about round two, even if his mind was trying to convince him to cut his losses and get the heck out of there before it got ugly.
'What else did he say about me?' she demanded.
'He said he loved you and wanted you back.'
She pointed at him. 'You're lying. I can see it.'
'He said he was going to get you back.' He was doing his best, he really was, not to let irritation get the best of him, but he wasn't quite able to keep from frowning.
She saw it. 'Tell me what else he said, Brandon.'
He'd known her for three days and she already knew how to lead him. He couldn't force himself to hate that. So, moving slowly and deliberately as he'd done just about everything else that afternoon, he got out of bed.
If she could argue naked, well, he could too.
'He said you liked to get on your knees and suck his cock.'
He watched her face carefully when he said it and, though he could see his words affected her, she didn't flinch.
'What else?'
'He said . . . you liked him to tie you up and spank you.'
Her chest rose and fell with her breathing, getting faster. A flush not unlike the one that covered her when she came rose up her chest and her throat. His own heat swept through him when he saw the mark he'd put there with his teeth.
'Do you want to know the truth about me?' she asked in a voice trying to be cold and impassive and failing by only a fraction. 'You want to know my secret?'
He nodded, watching her.
Leah lifted her chin. 'The first time I ever actually had an orgasm during sex was with a boy I'd tied up in a barn.'
It wasn't quite what he'd expected to hear, but he didn't interrupt.
'I'd had lovers before him. I'd had orgasms by myself. But it wasn't until . . .' She faltered, then drew herself up and looked him squarely in the face. 'It wasn't until I put the ropes around his wrists that I realised a boy could make me feel the way my own hand could.'
Sweat broke out on his upper lip as she spoke and Brandon licked it away. Leah watched him. Her voice got lower, huskier, as she talked.
'Those ropes wouldn't have held him if he'd really wanted to get away,' she said. 'But knowing that he wasn't trying to get away, knowing he was getting off on letting me do whatever I wanted . . .'
He'd tensed without realising it, but he stayed still, not daring to move towards her.
'I could never forget it. I could never forget how it felt to have someone so totally under my control, willing to do whatever I wanted, however I wanted it done. I never saw him again after that summer, but I knew what I wanted. The problem was finding it.'
His throat had gone dry, so he swallowed. 'I find that hard to believe.'
She crossed her arms over her breasts. 'Well, it's true.'
'I didn't mean that you were lying,' he said. 'Just that I find it hard to believe a woman like you couldn't find whatever she wanted.'
Her head came up at that and she stared into his face. 'I found glimmers of it. Is that a better answer?'
'Don't you think a lot of people are looking for something and mostly only find glimmers?'
'Unless they're lucky,' she said.
He reached to twine a strand of her hair around one of his fingers. She put her hand over his and squeezed it before pushing it gently away. She turned and went to the window, where she stood hidden by the curtain and looked out.
'Mike made it very easy for me. He knew what I liked in bed and he gave it to me. He liked playing games.' She glanced at him over her shoulder. 'Probably not the sort a guy like you would know.'
'I'm from Iowa,' Brandon said. 'Not another planet. I have the internet, Leah. I'm not naïve.'
She turned to face him. 'Really? I'm not talking about fuzzy handcuffs and blindfolds, Brandon. Or a French maid's outfit. I'm not talking about some late-night soft-core flick on Skinemax where the women never take off their stiletto pumps when they fuck. I was his slave.'
'I don't believe that either.' He shook his head.
'That's what he called me.'
'That might have been what he called you,' Brandon said, 'but that's not what you were. Not really.'
'No,' she said after a second or two. 'No. Not really.'
They stared at each other for a very long time, until he found his voice.
'I like knowing you've given me everything I need to know to please you.' He was glad for the words she'd given him to use, so he didn't have to search for his own. He was certain he wouldn't have found them. 'If it takes a list, then it takes a list.'
Her voice was heavy with sarcasm. 'So you can do your job? Take care of business?'
'No,' Brandon said with a shake of his head. He wanted to convince her but didn't know how. 'Not for my job.'
Leah drew in a hitching breath and turned away again. He hoped she wasn't crying. He didn't want to make her cry. He wanted to take her in his arms and kiss her, and not just because the sex had been so great.
He wanted to please her.
He wanted to hate that about himself too. The desire to make a woman happy had caused him no end of trouble in the past. But he couldn't find it in himself to hate that desire.
He could think of only one thing to do right now. One thing he could give her. So he went to where he'd left his pants. His belt came free with a single tug, the leather making a smooth thwap as it left the loops.
At the sound, she turned, her mouth open. The flush deepened. Brandon slid the end of the belt through the buckle but didn't hook it, making an easily adjusted noose.
He held it out to her.
'Use it.'
&nb
sp; 28
For one awful string of moments he was sure he'd made a mistake. Standing with the belt held out to her, but Leah not taking it, Brandon wished he'd at least put on his briefs. He felt more than naked now. He felt horribly vulnerable too.
But then she let out a small strangled moan and took a step towards him. She didn't reach for the belt, but hearing that sound sent the heat ratcheting through him again. He hadn't screwed up. Not this, at least.
'You don't know . . .' She couldn't seem to finish.
'I don't know,' Brandon said. 'But I'm willing to find out. OK?'
It was like gentling a colt, his hand offering a treat she badly wanted but was afraid to get close enough to take.
Only for the time it took for him to breathe in and out five times though. He knew because he'd counted each breath.
'I liked that, when I told you to get on your knees for me, you did it without a second thought. And when I told you to leave, and you did . . .' She drew in a long slow breath and plucked the belt from his hand. 'I fucking loved it.'
He couldn't help noticing once more how much smaller she was when she stepped up to him and ran the belt, looped around her fist, over his belly. There was nothing small about his prick though when she touched him. She looked up at him and she was smiling. The hand not holding the belt smoothed down his back to rest on his ass as she pulled him closer, until their bodies pressed together.
'I love that you could break me with one hand but you don't even try.'
'I wouldn't ever try to break you, Leah.' He stroked his hands down her hair and let his fingers tug it gently so she tipped her head back. 'Unless, you know. You wanted me to.'
She laughed, but her eyes glistened suspiciously. 'I don't want to scare you.'
'I'm not scared.' His heart had set up a ferocious pounding, but not from fear.
Leah shook her head so her hair moved back and forth over his hands, now planted on her shoulder blades. 'Oh, Brandon. I don't even know what to say.'
He raised an eyebrow. 'You didn't seem to have any trouble before.'
She buried her face against his chest. 'You're making this so easy for me . . . I don't know what to do . . .'
'Hey.' He tipped her face up so she had to look at him. She was biting her lip and he ran a fingertip over it to part her mouth so he could kiss her. 'Maybe you shouldn't think so hard.'
She broke the kiss. The hand holding his belt came up between them and used the other to take his wrist. She put some space between them and gave a low murmur of approval at the way his cock sprang up between them. When she crossed behind him, still holding his wrist in one hand and trailing the leather across his flesh, Brandon tensed.
Was she going to hit him with it?
Would he even like that?
She traced his spine with the belt, then down lower, over his ass. His cock wouldn't have just drilled brick, it would have pulverised it. When she let go of his wrist to stroke his ass, then lower, into the ticklish spot just above his thighs, he couldn't stop the groan from leaking out between his clenched teeth.
'Spread your legs wider apart.'
The confidence was back in her tone, and his balls throbbed in anticipation of what that meant. He did. Her hand slipped between them to caress his balls from behind and he ducked his head, eyes closed, not sure what the hell was going to happen but only knowing he wanted whatever it was.
Her fingers toyed with the sensitive skin between his balls and ass before withdrawing. He heard the snick of leather being slid between her hands and tensed again, but she laughed and stroked a hand down his back to pat his butt.
'I'm not going to hit you.'
Relief flooded him. She laughed again, lower, and came around the front of him. She kept a hand on him at all times, and every place she touched came alive beneath her fingers.
'You have such a delicious cock,' she said.
He opened his eyes. Her gaze danced with mischief. She stroked him from base to head, her fingers circling his shaft and lingering at the top before she let go.
One touch and he was ready to pop.
'I loved it when you were on your knees for me, licking my pussy.' She licked her mouth.
'I did too.'
'Were you hard for me that night, Brandon?'
He nodded, not trusting his voice.
Her hand came back to steal up and down his prick and then lower to cup his balls again. 'As hard as you are now?' She squeezed, gently, and he moaned.
'When I ask you a question, I expect an answer.' She said it in a no-nonsense voice, not mean but matter-of-fact. 'I like hearing your voice when you're struggling not to groan.'
'Yes. I was this hard for you. Tasting you made me hard.'
She hadn't done anything with his belt yet but hold it in one fist. The anticipation was killing him. She wasn't going to hit him with it, and he couldn't pretend he wasn't glad . . . but was she going to tie him up with it? What?
'I want your face buried in my pussy right now,' she breathed.
Hearing the slight shake in her voice made his cock even harder, though a minute ago he'd have said that was impossible. He was already moving but her hand on his chest pushed him back in to place. She slapped his hip just lightly with the belt.
'If you get on your knees right now, will it hurt you?'
'I'll be OK,' he told her, already tasting her.
She slapped his hip with the belt again. It didn't hurt. Didn't even sting. But he stayed still.
'Don't lie to me,' she warned.
'Yes,' he admitted with a sigh. 'It would kill my knee. But I don't care.'
'Well, I do. I told you before I don't want you to get hurt.' She shook her head, frowning. 'And from now on, if I ever ask you to do something that will hurt you or make you uncomfortable, you have to tell me.'
He opened his mouth to reply but she put a hand over his lips before he could.
'This is not a joke,' she told him. 'I have no intention of making you call me mistress or putting you over my knee or putting you in my panties. Those are not my kinks. But if you ever put yourself in a position where you could be harmed in anyway, even if it is to please me, I will never forgive you.'
He didn't need an advanced degree to figure out this was important to her. He cupped her face. 'I won't. I promise.'
She turned her face, eyes closed, to kiss his palm. But when she looked at him a moment later, the serious mischief glittered again in her eyes. She stepped back, the belt slapping lightly into her palm.
'Put your hands behind your back.'
He did, crossing them at the wrists and grinning. 'Good?'
'Very good.'
She wasn't going to hit him, and she wasn't going to make him kneel, and she was clearly getting into this. Which, of course, turned him on. He wanted her to be into this. He wanted her to go with what worked for her. There was nothing sexier than a woman who knew what she wanted and how to get it, and Brandon intended to do his best to make sure he gave it to her.
He wasn't prepared, though, for the lightning bolt of lust that speared him when she used the belt to secure his wrists. His bad knee actually almost buckled as a throb of desire uncoiled in his gut, but he recovered quickly. She tugged the loop tight, but not so tight he couldn't have pulled free if he wanted.
Brandon didn't want to.
'Has anyone ever tied you up before?'
He wouldn't have answered if she hadn't made it clear she expected him to reply even through a mouth that felt filled with sand. 'No.'
'Never?' She moved back a few steps so she didn't have to tilt her head to look into his eyes. 'Not even with a scarf or a ribbon?'
He shook his head. He'd never been so aware of the way his arms angled when his hands were behind him, or how the centre of his lower back felt against the backs of his hands when they were behind him.
And it wasn't, just like she'd said, that he couldn't get free if he wanted. It was that he could loosen the bonds she'd placed on him. He just didn't wa
nt to.
'Do you know how fucking sexy that is?' She shook her head. 'God, that makes me so wet.'
She put a hand between her legs and stroked herself with a shiver, then lifted her fingers to show him the wetness gleaming there.
'You are so beautiful,' she added, and that broke a laugh from him. 'And you blush. That is so adorable, I can't even tell you.'