But he held her just on the edge of the pinnacle he’d built for her, turning all that pleasure he’d offered her into a brand that scorched her soul.
“Nick — please,” she moaned, trying to urge him on.
His arm tightened around her, and for a breathtaking moment she thought he would stop. But even his revenge wasn’t that cold. His free hand found her derriere, caressing her, pulling her closer — tilting her just an inch, just enough to give him a fresh angle.
She came apart then. Everything disintegrated in a violent blast of heat. Her heart shuddered; her legs trembled. Without his arm around her thighs, she might have fallen. Her mouth fell open, but she swallowed her scream as he’d taught her, back when they were young and she still had chaperones.
As she fell from the peak, as her legs stopped quivering and her pulse slowed, the past caught up with her. She reached for her blindfold, wanting to see Nick as he was now — wanting to see whether there was any emotion in his eyes that matched the beat of her damnable heart.
“Not yet,” he murmured, breaking away from her skin to catch her hand.
He swept her off her knees and onto her back. The old Nick would have checked her comfort, touched her softly, kissed her slowly — made sure she was ready.
The new Nick didn’t ask permission. He plunged into her moments later, and she gasped as the force of it rocked her back against the bench. His trousers, softer than the brocade beneath her, brushed against her thighs. He’d waited only long enough to free himself before taking her.
The depth of his need for her shocked her — a depth she couldn’t anticipate when all she’d felt was the deliberate, calculated seduction of his tongue. But he wasn’t deliberate now. He surged again. She slid a hand down his back, under the waistband of his trousers, settling on the firm muscle of his backside to urge him on. He found her breast with a heavy hand, more conquest than caress. She moaned under him as he sank into her — moaned again as he took her free hand in his. She might have found the gesture sweet if their fingers twined together. But he grabbed her wrist instead, pinning her arm above her head as he sunk into her again.
He was claiming her, not loving her.
And she would damn herself later for letting him — but at that moment, she didn’t care.
He leaned in to her ear. His unshaved cheek rasped against hers. “Beg me, Ellie.”
He withdrew his cock as she hesitated, until only the tip remained. “Tell me you want me,” he whispered, flicking his thumb across her linen-covered nipple. “Tell me you’ve always wanted me.”
She arched up to him, wanting him to fill her. “Nick — it was always you. Please…please, Nick. Don’t leave me again.”
His hand crushed her wrist as she said more than he’d asked for — more than she wanted to reveal. Her words fell apart as he rewarded her, driving into her with a force that could make her believe he was just as lost as she was. Three more strokes and she came again, her body rising off the couch like she was possessed. But she couldn’t move far, not when he still held her pinned. The torment of wanting to touch him, to see him, when he denied her, added an edge to her climax, sending her faster and harder into the void.
She sensed, as she slowly returned to her body, that he was about to join her. She felt the tension in his back where she still stroked him — heard his harsh breathing as he fought for control. But he didn’t bury himself — didn’t succumb to temptation as she clenched around him. He withdrew with a groan that went straight to her heart and spent himself on her belly.
Ellie squeezed her eyes shut beneath her sash as he collapsed, half on her, half on the couch. She told herself she didn’t care — he almost always withdrew, a wise precaution. He had only spilled inside her once before — when they’d first made love, before her father denied his proposal. Still, as his seed cooled on her skin, she felt deflated, somehow — like the dream he’d given her in the dark could only turn sordid in the light.
By the time Nick could breathe again, he’d already lost her to her thoughts.