doll,” Matthew murmured against my lips. “It’s the last time you’ll wear it until morning.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
We ran through trees and meadows of the spacious property like children in the night, toppling into the guesthouse with something akin to glee but which extended to someplace deeper. Someplace darker.
Matthew knew this house, of course. Had even stayed in it a few times over the years. For some reason, knowing that this too was a place he came to for its warmth and security, a place where he felt at home, only made me want him that much more. It wasn’t either of our homes, but it was better than a hotel room, or Central Park, or a public beach. It was a space that offered privacy and security, a place where both of us could trust that for the night, at least, we were safe.
As soon as the door shut behind us, Matthew kissed me once more, then resolutely set me apart from him.
“Strip,” he ordered, even as he began loosening his tie.
I licked my bottom lip, unable to respond from want.
“I’m not fucking around tonight, Nina,” he proclaimed as he yanked it off. “Do you understand?”
I honestly wasn’t sure I did, but I was too transfixed by the sudden expanse of brick-like muscle that appeared when he removed his shirt completely.
“Nina.”
I looked up. “What?”
Matthew yanked me to him and delivered another kiss that made my head spin. I barely noticed as he wrenched my blouse off my body and my skirt fell away like a shed chrysalis. All I knew was his mouth devouring mine. And the warmth of his skin under my hands as they slid over his shoulders and into his hair to pull him that much closer.
And then, just as quickly, he stopped again.
“Matthew!” I sputtered. “P-please!”
He wrenched his belt from his pants and the leather hit the wall with a loud thwack. Two seconds later, the rest of his clothes were on the floor, I was swooped off the ground, and Matthew was carrying me eagerly into the bedroom at the other side of the cottage.
“I’m so fucking tired of this,” he muttered as he let my feet drop back to the ground.
“Tired of what?”
“Needing you like this.” His kisses were so much more urgent now, desperate attempts to quench something burning within us both. “It never stops, Nina. It never. Fucking. Stops.”
“I know.” I took my share as well, grabbing his handsome face and yanking him back to me again and again. “I know, my love, I know.”
He buried his face in my neck, teeth drawing roughly over the delicate skin until he came to the base and sucked, hard. He trapped both of my wrists to the bed as he worked, pinning me against the soft, cool linens. I couldn’t have been more content.
And then, suddenly, he stopped.
“What?” I breathed, back arched, nipples inches from his mouth.
The hands around my wrists squeezed tighter.
“Fuck,” he muttered. “Fuck. I can’t fucking focus.”
“What?” I asked. “Why—why not?”
I was slightly hurt. I had practically tumbled down the rabbit hole just from his kisses alone, but he was losing interest?
He turned and felt around on the floor for something, then popped up holding his tie.
“Put your arms above your head,” he commanded.
Taken aback, I did as he asked. He pulled the fabric taut between his hands and grinned like the rake he so resembled at times. The rake he thought he was, though I knew better.
“Stay still,” he said as he began wrapping the scarlet silk around my wrists, binding them first together and then to the slatted wood headboard behind me.
“How can I give you what you want if I can’t touch you?” I wondered.
“This is what I want, doll.” He continued with his task, brow adorably furrowed, until my hands were securely bound. “There. Now you can’t go anywhere. Not until I say.”
“You were worried?”
“I’m always afraid of that,” he said quietly. “Because it always happens in the end, doesn’t it? One of us always leaves.”
I didn’t have an answer for that. Because, of course, he was right.
“Not tonight, though.” He pressed his face between my breasts, inhaling deeply as though his life depended on it. “Now you can’t leave until I say.”
“Why do you always want to see me in red?” I asked when the red of the tie caught my eye above us.
Matthew’s hands slipped up my arms to my bound wrists, then back down again.
“Because you’re so pale,” he said as he drew kisses down