Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

WINTER

My mind went blank for a moment as I tried to remember where the zipper was situated on my dress. Back? Side? I had no idea. I considered telling him the truth, but I didn’t want to break the spell of our sensual dance. It felt too good being in the moment with James. Obviously. He had me so turned on I couldn’t even recall how my own dress worked.

"Turn." One sharp word, but it was plenty. James had figured out my dilemma and was taking charge. Oddly, a wave of pure relief crashed over me as the decision was lifted away from my sphere of responsibility. The heat of his fingers finding the zipper and dragging it down seared into my skin despite the layers of silk in between.

Now opened at the waist, my dress allowed the cool night air to dance over my exposed skin. I could feel his eyes staring at my back. "Sorry," he whispered into my ear as he turned me around to face him once more. "I forgot about this." He drew my injured hand to his lips and kissed the back of it through the silk. "It won’t happen again."

Why was he apologizing?

I was the one so stupefied by the sensual, dangerous man before me.

He stared at me; so serious, and even slightly harsh, but with a predatory gleam. I was about to be devoured.

Fear of the unknown mixing with desire twisted low in my belly and reminded me to take a breath. Depriving my body of oxygen was just as involuntary as the air I was forced to swallow in response. I waited.

"Now the dress. Off." His words—so precise—were a definite command.

Determined, I gripped the bodice of the dress where he’d unzipped me, worked the fabric over my hips, and let go. Gravity took hold, pulling it into a satiny heap around my calves. I stepped out carefully one shoe at a time, the chill of the night air sweeping over my skin. Designer ball gowns came with built-in bras and underlying slips, so once it was off my body, there wasn’t much left to remove. Panties, stockings, gloves, shoes—was all that remained.

Slowly I lifted my eyes to his, meeting his stare. The harsh look on his face would’ve startled me if I wasn’t so aroused. I could hardly breathe. The cool autumn air swept over my skin tightening my nipples to nearly painful peaks. James noticed. He stared leisurely before meeting my eyes again with a slow shake of his head.

"I used to imagine you like this—what you’d look like standing before me, waiting for me to tell you what to do next."

I took in a shuddering breath, unwilling to speak. I was too far into the exchange to even think about forming any words of my own. The look in his eyes.

"The reality is so much better, beautiful. You’re perfect in every way."

I wished he would touch me. The longer I stood on display the more desperate I felt. Surely I would combust soon.

"Are you afraid?"

I nodded my head.

"Answer me with words, baby. I need to hear you," he scolded gently.

"Yes, I am afraid," I answered honestly.

"Afraid of me?" He raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Never of you."

"What then?"

"That I might burn up if you don’t touch me." Even I could hear the frustration in my voice.

He gave me a wicked grin. "You want to be touched?"

"Yes."

"What else do you want?"

"I…I want…I want you to kiss me again."

"And?"

"I want to feel your hands on me." I wanted more than just his hands, and he knew it. I waited for him to command that I say how much I wanted his cock, but it didn’t come. He kept staring at my body hungrily as if he couldn’t decide where to start.

"We need a bed for the many things I want to do to you before this night is over."

"D-don’t you have a bed?"

He laughed. "Oh, I have one. And I’m going to fuck you in it just as soon as you walk that very fine ass of yours up the stairs."

A bolt of heat hit me so hard my knees nearly buckled.

James saying the words, "I’m going to fuck you," in any context related to me would certainly do it. I sucked in a breath and looked toward the staircase, wondering how on earth my legs would manage to carry me up so many steps when they could barely hold me up. I’ll never make it on my wobbly ass legs.

"You’ll make it because I’ll be right behind you enjoying the view. If you stumble, I’ll catch you, and for the record, your legs are sheer perfection," he said, jerking his head the direction of the stairs.

Mortified to realize I was speaking the thoughts in my head out loud for him to hear, I closed my eyes tightly in frustration.

"You’re going to have to open your eyes before you start walking, though," he said, clearly amused by my dilemma. "Go upstairs to my bedroom, Winter. We’re not doing this anywhere but in my bed tonight. At least the first time."

The promise of something I’d desired for so long staring me right in the face was so different than how I’d imagined it would be. James was different. He was so demanding…and dominant.

I loved everything about this new, bossy James.

From the stern look on his handsome face, to the piercing eyes raking over my mostly naked body, along with the promise of something I’d always believed forbidden with him.

Some really hot, filthy, dirty, amazing sex.

But James must have similar thoughts about the "forbidden" aspect of being together. Both of us were in uncharted territory. We’d always been friends. And right now we were friends who were about to fuck. How would things be after the hot sex was over? Would James still care about me in the same way? Would I?

"If you’re having second thoughts, you tell me now. Remember my rules, Winter," he warned.

"I remember."

"Repeat them." Another command delivered with the darkness of tone I’d quickly come to appreciate, because I had made an important discovery. Bossy James was hotter than hell and slapped every sexual button. Hard.

I licked my bottom lip and dragged it under my top teeth before answering. "First rule, complete honesty. I’m to tell you if I want you to stop, or if I need more. Second, is that you are in charge." His second rule had me on the verge of incineration already, and I was beginning to recognize why. My years’-long attraction to him, the hot blushes that consumed me whenever I found myself on the receiving end of one of his penetrating stares, the flash of understanding how powerfully those penetrating stares had affected me. My submission was as natural as my attraction. I wanted it.

Needed it. From James only.

"Very good." He pointed in the direction of the stairs. "After you, beautiful."

Feeling strangely detached from the insanity of exactly where I was, and what I was about to do, I took a first faltering step toward the stairs. And then another. I focused only on taking steps; moving my body through the motions of climbing the winding staircase that would take me to James’s bedroom. His determined footsteps from behind pushed me forward. The delicious scent of his spicy cologne intoxicated me. The heat from his eyes staring at my ass framed in nothing but a little bit of skimpy lace burned my skin. I couldn’t see him staring, but I felt him.

I wanted James Blakney, and he wanted me.

This might be my only experience of knowing what it felt like having his hot stare on my ass. Supremely sexy and strangely empowering. I hoped not, but I’d learned early on that what we wanted and what we actually got were often very different. Not far apart right now, though. I pushed my doubts aside and embraced the moment instead, found strength in knowing my time for wondering was over.

The closed door at the end of the hallway loomed before me. The final barrier to what would happen between us. I realized that we’d pass our point of no return.

James must have had similar thoughts.

"Last chance to change your mind," he said softly against my ear, his lips nearly brushing the shell, "because once I have you behind that door, you’ll definitely feel my touch." He pinned me to the door, crowding me with solid arms that boxed me in. "For hours," he added as he pressed his body against mine. Those last two words pulled a desperate shuddering moan out of me, especially combined with the purposeful press of his very hard body behind me. Sandwiched between a cold wooden door and the heat of his erection that stole the breath right out of me.

He must have turned the doorknob because I felt the coldness of the wood fall away from the front of my body as he pushed me forward. I tried to register my surroundings, because I was being led into his inner sanctum of sorts. He might not come here often, but it was still his private, intimate space. For a split second I thought about the others he must have brought here over the years, but I couldn’t deal with imagining it. I had no patience for doubt. Forget everything else.

James broke through the pounding silence of my indecision with a clear directive. "Get on the bed and lie back. I want to look at you."

Somehow, I moved my body and did as he asked. I lowered myself onto the black covered bed that looked like a huge industrial modern sculpture. Tall bedposts at the four corners with metalwork incorporated into the head and footboards dominated the entire space of the room. I shivered against the coolness of the fabric as it met my back. I was so very exposed, but it felt completely right, as if this was the only way for us to ever do this act together.

I watched James as he looked his fill with fiery eyes that roved hungrily over my body. As he moved closer to the edge of the bed, I could feel the heat coming off his stare. And then he grinned…and licked his lips. "Arms up over your head, hold on to the headboard, and let me take care of you, beautiful. That’s what I want from you."

The ache at my core grew stronger, as did the tightening of my nipples as I drew my arms upward to find a place to grip the headboard. My body yearned for his touch, but I knew instinctively he’d deny it altogether if I voiced it. I’m in charge in the bedroom. It’s the only way I can do this with you.

I wanted his mouth. His tongue. Some part of him. Any part of him.

Before I died a slow, agonizing death due to sexual frustration.

"I’m taking a picture of you in my head. I don’t ever want to forget how you looked in this moment." He’d taken off his tuxedo jacket and removed his tie at some point. His shirt was half-way unbuttoned. I appreciated the glimpse of his chest where his shirt gaped open. I wished he’d strip for me right now. Now that would be an added sweet torture I’d love to experience.

"And how do I look in this moment?" I asked.

"Flawless." He toed off his shoes, tore open his shirt, and pulled it off. The sounds of threads ripping and buttons scattering pulled a wave of anticipation that hit me so hard between my thighs I arched my back and rolled through the sweet ache. "Like you’re meant to be here." The bed dipped from his weight as he put one knee on the mattress, and then the other. Straddling me, his arms and legs boxed me in underneath him. "Ready for me to take you," he added darkly.

I moaned at his last comment. I wished he would take me. I needed him to. Desperate and unable to wait patiently for even another second, I begged, "Please, take me."

"Do you know how long I’ve wanted to have you just like this? Naked in my bed and dying for me to make you come? Desperate for my cock?"

"Too fucking long, James."

"I know," he said as his mouth came down onto mine, pushing in hard and deep with his tongue—owning me.

Finally.

I welcomed the surge of primal energy that bolted through me the instant I gave myself over to him.

The very instant of the act of him taking what I wanted to give.

His mouth moved down to my neck and then to my shoulder as he trailed kisses and gentle bites with his teeth. I felt each mark as he made them, each pinch soothed by soft caresses of his tongue to temper the cruel heat of want and desire. As his lips moved over my breasts, so did firm hands, cupping and lifting each peak in turns to his mouth to suck. He took as much as he was able into his mouth and sucked hard before drawing back until just my nipple was left between his teeth. He teased me relentlessly with more soft bites and sucks and kisses. I knew he was marking me.

The marks he made were the visual evidence of the crossing over in my head to my body, to the understanding where I knew if he stopped…I would most certainly die.

I felt determined fingers at my hips digging under the sides of my panties to slide them down my legs. Panties were tossed and then his hands slid roughly up my legs to my knees where they stopped. I knew what was coming next.

A firm grip to the insides of my knees pushed them apart, placing me on full display for his hot stare. A hot stare I could feel burning the flesh of the most intimate part of me. I was so grateful for the spa treatment I’d done earlier in the day with Brooke—at her insistence. Bless you, sweet Brooke. Because of her resolve, things were as tidy as they could possibly be where he was looking.

"You are so fucking beautiful," he said with his eyes glued to my very wet and aching pussy. But I had to look away. The sight of him staring so hungrily at me was far too much to take in. So, I closed my eyes and embraced the anticipation instead, focusing on the fact that this was always going to happen. Fate had decided for us a long time ago. We were always going to find our way to this point.

And we had. We were here.

His busy fingers found me first. Tracing around my clit slowly, teasing me with careful touches just shy of where I really needed him to be touching me. Delaying sexual gratification was definitely amongst the skill set of James Blakney. Bastard.

"So pretty…so soft…and so very wet," he said admiringly, just before he put his whole mouth on me and licked me from bottom to top. My entire lower body came up off the bed as a lightning strike of pure pleasure commenced at my clit. I heard a shrill cry from somewhere in the room and was forced to accept that it could only have come from me.

With my thighs pinned open by firm hands gripping hard enough to leave marks, James devoured me. I reveled in what he did. Every melting lick, each teasing flick, each delicious tap of his magical tongue brought me closer to nirvana. I didn’t need to be told it was going to be bigger and better than any orgasm I’d had before tonight. It was happening whether I was ready for it or not.

"Give me all of it. Give me everything," he grunted in between licks and sucks with the power to detonate me into the next galaxy. I moaned in protest when he pulled his mouth off, thrusting my hips upward to try to reclaim contact. "You want more."

It wasn’t a question.

"Yeeess, more, please give me more." Speech seemed impossible, but yet words still tumbled from my lips.

James flicked his eyes up to meet mine, flaring wide in frustration. "There’s so much more I want to give you…and I can’t—I can’t do it all at once."

"I don’t want you to do it all at once," I insisted, hoping he understood me. And since I figured his good judgment was heavily clouded by what he was doing with me, I was honest. "I need you to do it over and over and over again. I need you to never stop."

My words seemed to please him. "I won’t stop. Not until I feel your tight little cunt clamp down around my tongue when I’m fucking you with it."

The things that came out of his mouth only made me burn hotter as he went back to work at licking my pussy. Thank Christ’s heavenly angels. The heat that had been building low in my belly flared white-hot as the convulsions took hold of me…and catapulted me into sweet ecstasy. I let out a long, low cry as the climax seized me, incoherent to everything but the pleasure. I felt myself fall away as I rode his mouth. There was no way to describe having James inside me, even if only his tongue. The intimacy so much greater than the act of touching mouths in a kiss. It was James revealing himself to me. An epiphany in understanding, that for the first time in my life I didn’t have to do anything other than take from him.

Pure bliss. Relief. Love. I felt all of those things. I also discovered something else after the mind-blowing climax from his tongue doing very dirty and lovely things to me.

I am ruined for any man on this earth that isn’t James Blakney.

The opera gloves neededto come off, so I could touch him and feel him without anything in between. But James wasn’t having any of it, as he shrugged my hands away from where I’d buried them in his hair.

Bossy James was still new to me, but I loved him a lot.

As if he were reading my thoughts, my arms were firmly pushed back above my head and returned to the headboard. I didn’t remember letting go of it, but I must’ve during the sheet-clawing orgasm I still felt coursing deliciously through my body. From head to toe.

James loomed over me, his eyes questioning, looking for answers. "Are you okay?"

"I’m fi—"

His lips dropped down to kiss me, taking away my ability to answer. I didn’t mind, because I didn’t need to talk. I wasn’t sure if I was capable of anything beyond accepting what he was doing to me right this second. Which was kissing me ravenously while devouring my mouth and lips. I could taste myself on his tongue, and it all felt so filthy and wicked…and divine.

His hands were all over me. No part of me was left untouched. He feasted on my breasts, sucked them, pinched them, teased my nipples with teeth that knew just how hard to bite. His long beautiful fingers pressed their way inside me, fucking in and out of my pussy while his thumb teased my asshole. He would have all of me. Everything was relentless in forcing me into a tailspin of sensation and pleasure. Every kiss and bite and penetration of my fevered flesh was demanded wildly but done in a way that gave me everything in return. I had no idea how, but it was as if my body had been waiting for him. For him to pleasure, cherish…consume. As if he’d known my body forever. Because my body already knew him.

The second orgasm incinerated me into another realm as hot tears slid from my eyes squeezed tightly shut. I tasted the sex in the air that I drew in for my next breath. I heard him say, "You’re coming for me. Only for me."

I did what he asked.

Almost brutally hard with fingers stroking deep and relentless in their purpose, with no censure of any kind. He took what he wanted from me...and then demanded more as he owned my second climax. I lost track of...all things, understanding only that I was utterly in his care.

James taking care of me.

This I knew without explanation of any kind. And so, I drifted away to a place I’d never been before, but where I wanted to stay forever.

I wasn’t ever coming back.