to rapture, but he was wrong. When he left her on the bed to riffle his jeans pocket for his wallet, she whimpered. The sound gored him like a hot lance. How much would he love to see her tied to the bed, bound and blindfolded and totally at his mercy? He’d really make her whimper then. He’d really make her beg—
The vision that thought incited made it harder.
His cock, for sure, but also strengthening his resolve.
If he gave into his baser urges, took her the way he ached to, it would cross the line. Blur it at the very least. He was here for a purpose. And that purpose wasn’t fulfilling his dark, snarling fantasies.
Yeah, he wanted to tie her to the bed. But he wouldn’t. And yeah, he really wanted to smack that lush, creamy ass.
But he wouldn’t.
He had one purpose here. And it wasn’t warming his palm.
When he came back to her with the foil packet in hand, her eyes glossed over and her lips parted and she nodded. She slipped her legs apart ever so slightly. In every way, she welcomed him to take her. And he would. He would please her. But in a hard, cold, calculated manner. This time he would show some restraint.
But then she did something that nearly made him lose his mind.
She got onto her hands and knees before him and thrust out her ass, that perfectly proportioned, tantalizing ass. Glancing over her shoulder at him, she smiled.
“Like this?” An innocent query. Hell. The woman had no clue. No clue what that position, that glance, that expression did inside his bowels. They clenched in a knot.
He curled his fingers in an attempt to control the compulsion raging through him.
God, he wanted to—
But he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. Not now. Not yet.
He forced a smile and turned away to slip the condom on, but truth be told, he needed the moment to recapture his control.
This was business, he reminded himself. Business.
Seduce her and soften her. Then come in for the kill. Find out who and what she really was, no matter what it took.
But fuck. Taking her, staring down at that tantalizing bottom—and not giving it the tanning it screamed for—was going to kill him.
He kneed up on the bed behind her and cupped her ass. Shivers rippled over her skin, although, if he were being honest, they racked him too, from the inside out.
He couldn’t resist bending down to kiss one cheek. And then, he took a bite. Just a nibble. Just the scraping of teeth. She shuddered and sighed.
Fuck.
That sigh. It spoke to her pleasure at the rough touch, it spoke to her desire for more. Her submission to him.
And fuck. It sent a raging wave of heat billowing in his veins. His passion, already high, rocketed to a fever pitch. The beast within rose. Broke its chains and roared.
Fuck his restraint. He needed to know. Had to know.
“Do you like it this way?” he asked, his voice a low, choked rumble. The words caught in his throat.
She waggled her ass in response.
A flame flared in his gut. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.
He couldn’t hold back. Not if worlds depended on it. Without warning, he lifted his hand and smacked her cheek. She squealed but held preternaturally still. The look she shot him, veiled through the skeins of her tousled hair, ate at him. Her lips moved. He was sure they formed one word. One word he knew well. Again.
And he complied. Oh God, did he comply. With smack after smack, he covered her ass with his handprint, heating her, heating him. Each smack overlapping another in a pattern he knew well. She didn’t protest, simply held herself there, soaking it in, glorying in the sensation of a wicked paddling.
Her skin turned a satisfying red, not just on her ass, but her back and shoulders as well. It was a tell, a dead giveaway, that she was in the throes of pleasure.
It didn’t make it any easier on him to know that she reveled in this, craved it. Not given who he was…and who she might be.
The thought made him ache somewhere deep in his empty soul, but he ignored it. He resolved to glory in this conflagration and let tomorrow worry about itself.
To that end, he decided to test her. Just how aroused was she? He slipped two fingers into her steamy channel and—
Holy ever-loving fuck.
Was she wet?
Dripping.
Her muscles closed around him; the tight grip sent a heinous shiver through him.