AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He held her gaze, and as he did images flashed through her mind, images of them locked together in passion, images of her crawling to him, confessing her darkest desires. Her heart hammered in her chest. She nodded.
While his mouth claimed hers she pushed her fingers into his hair, her desire rising to meet his. His hands on her were possessive, giving their shared kisses the deepest intimacy. Even after their kiss broke, she clung to him, her cheek against his chest where she could feel his heart beating.
She stared with unseeing eyes at the lights zigzagging through the damp streets as the cab sped across the city. Rex kept his hand locked around her wrist, holding her, anchoring her. Time blurred. All she could think about was that—his hand holding her. Oddly the action made her feel as if she were flying, as if freedom was there, under his hand. That was exactly how she experienced him, though. As a lover he’d unleashed some part of her that had previously been untapped. It was little wonder that she couldn’t refuse another taste of his sweet medicine.
When the taxi drew to a halt and they emerged, she saw that he hadn’t taken her home.
“My place,” he explained as the taxi drove away.
“Oh.” Why did that make her nervous? He’d taken her to his home, somewhere she’d never been before.
He took her hand and led her to the door.
I am in his private space, she thought when he ushered her inside.
He turned on a lamp, and in the half-light she scoped a sparsely furnished bachelor pad. Clinging close to the door, she watched as he did a quick circuit of the room, dropping his keys in a dish on a shelf as he passed. He shrugged off his jacket, resting it over the back of the sofa, and then turned back to look at her.
Tension built fast, as if the dimly lit room magnified it. We’re alone, and I have agreed to this, to whatever he wants of me.
When he ran his fingers along the back of the sofa, she almost felt as if he touched her instead. His gaze covered her possessively. “Come here.”
His request triggered her reaction—a racing pulse, an inability to do anything other than step closer.
“Take off your jacket.”
She did so, leaning forward to rest it over the back of the sofa, next to his. She thought he was going to tell her to strip, as he had done before, but he went back to the shelves where he’d left his keys.
“I brought you a little something I thought you might like.” He lifted an object and held it up.
Carmen took one look at the sparkling cuffs in his hand and gave a soft laugh. It sounded nervous, because the implications made her that way. “You were so sure of my capitulation?”
His mouth lifted at one corner. “I’m a man who likes to be prepared for every eventuality.”
He closed on her, and held the cuffs aloft in front of her as he observed her reaction, his stance at once powerful and so easily attuned to the suggestive object.
Covering for the fact that the sight of the cuffs made her weak at the knees—her mind flooded with thoughts of being bound and at his mercy—she observed the way they glinted in the light from the lamp.
“You like?”
“Maybe.”
He stroked her wrist. “I would happily keep you locked up around the clock, but I know that’s only part of what you are. It’s an important part, though, and I want to honor it, to show you what it means to me when you give yourself into my hands so totally.”
Carmen wavered in his grasp, feeling both light-headed and restless. His natural air of command was pure seduction under normal circumstances. The added intensity of the conviction he’d offered overwhelmed her.
He stepped closer still, resting his hand on her waist, and the gem-studded cuffs rested heavily against her hip bone. The weight of it against her felt like a warning and a promise all wrapped up in one. “No objections?”
She shook her head. The pounding pulse in her core wouldn’t allow her to pretend otherwise.
“I thought not.” His insinuating tone ran fire along her nerve endings. “Too tempting a toy for you, my precious.”
This was when he was fatal to be around, because he was so sure and that broke her apart.
“Offer me your hands, and in doing so accept that this is more than a game. This represents so much more to me than that. It’s a deep bond, and I want you to acknowledge that, too.”
Tremulous, aware of the immensity of what was passing between them, Carmen put out her arms.
He closed the cuffs around one wrist.
