Page 38 of Smoke and Glitter

The club is dark except for the low lights behind the bar. Sam reaches toward the wall switch, but I catch his wrist before he gets there. He turns, and I use the tie I fixed for him earlier to pull him down to me.

The first kiss is not careful enough for a school gym. Sam's hand lands at my waist and tightens, drawing me into him while I taste wine and the bourbon he had after dinner. I back him against the locked front door, and the sound he makes into my mouth sends a clean line of heat through me.

His fingers slide into my hair. I catch his hand and bring it down between us. "No." Sam looks at me, breathing harder now. The loosened tie hangs crooked against his shirt, and the fact that I did that to a man who spent the entire night looking offensively composed is doing excellent things for my mood.

"That's a no?" His voice is rough enough that the question lands somewhere low.

I take another step into him. "Upstairs." His mouth shifts and he reaches for me again, but I move out of range before he can get both hands on my waist. When I start toward the stairs, Sam follows before I reach the first one.

By the time we reach the apartment, his jacket is off and the tie is hanging loose around his neck. Sam closes the door behind us already wearing the look that usually means he has decided exactly what happens next. Tonight I don't give him the chance.

I put one hand flat against his chest and walk him backward until the backs of his knees hit the bed. "Sit." His eyebrows lift, but he does it slowly, the amusement in his face doing nothing to hide what is happening to his cock.

"You seem pleased with yourself," I say as I step between his knees. Sam settles his hands on my hips and tells me he is cooperating. I take both wrists and move his hands to the mattress beside him.

He looks down at where I put them, then back at me. I hold his gaze. "Do you want me to run this?"

Recognition strips the joke out of his expression. Months ago those were his words, his question, the offer that let me put down every decision I was tired of carrying. Sam's eyes move over my face before he answers. "Yeah. I want you to run it."

Heat rolls through me so fast I have to resist the urge to reward him by handing the control right back. I remove his tie from his collar and toss it on the bed. "Then keep your hands there."

His jaw flexes. He leaves them on the bed.

I unbutton his shirt one button at a time. He watches my fingers, then my face, then my mouth when I lean in and kiss the center of his chest. His breathing changes. I follow the line of ink toward his stomach and feel one of his hands shift against the mattress.

I glance up and ask whether he has a problem. "No problem," he says through his teeth, so I smile and keep going.

By the time I sink to my knees, the amusement is gone from his face entirely. Sam's head drops back for half a second when I free his dick from his pants, and when my mouth closes around him his hand grips the edge of the mattress hard enough that the tendons stand out along his wrist.

Usually Sam watches everything. The room. The door. Me. Tonight his eyes close when I take him deeper. Seeing him stop monitoring the world for a few seconds and let me decide what happens next goes straight through me.

I slow down on purpose and wrap my tongue around his tip. His breath leaves him in a rough sound, and one hand lifts before he catches himself. I sit back just far enough to make him look at me. "You can touch me. You just don't get to take over."

His palm slides into my hair. "I can work with that." He doesn't guide me. His hand stays heavy against the back of my head while I choose the pace, and every time instinct makes his fingers tighten, he loosens them again.

I don't let him finish that way. When his breathing gets too uneven and I feel his balls tighten, I stand and push him farther onto the bed. Sam leans up to reach for the zipper at my back, but I turn before he gets there and pull it down myself.

"You're cruel," he says, watching the dress drop to the floor.

"I think you'll survive." I climb onto the bed before he can turn that look into something he gets to direct.

Sam's hands find my thighs when I straddle him. I let him have that and the kiss he presses below my collarbone while I reach into the nightstand for a condom. He watches me tear it open and roll it onto him, his fingers tightening against my hips. Then I reach between us and guide him inside me.

His head drops back against the pillow. Mine nearly follows. For a moment I stay still because there is a difference between wanting control and being immune to what this man feels like underneath me.

Sam looks up, checking my face. "You good?" I brace one hand against his chest. "Very. Don't help." Then I move.

The first few strokes are slow enough that I can watch him try not to help. His hands tighten on my hips, but he doesn't lift me or change the rhythm. I roll my hips again, and the sound that leaves him is almost a laugh until I do it harder.

"Fuck, Autumn." His eyes flash when I tell him to stay exactly where he is. He does.

I find the angle I want and keep it, while I use my hand to make tight little circles on my clit. I use his chest for leverage while Sam watches me come apart above him. His hands move over my body, grip my hips, slide up my back. He meets every movement I give him without stealing the rhythm from me, and I can feel the effort in every flex of his fingers.

It makes me reckless. I lean down and kiss him while I move faster, and Sam's mouth opens under mine. His hand slides up my back, holding me close without changing anything else.

The pressure builds until I stop caring who is in charge of breathing. My face drops into his shoulder, and Sam turns his mouth into my neck while I ride through the first sharp pull of release. His hands clamp around my hips, but he waits until I start moving again before he follows me.

A few strokes later his body goes tight beneath mine. My name comes out against my skin, rough and stripped of everything he normally keeps between himself and the world.