STORY EXCERPT

“I just don’t want this.” She looked him in the eye. “I don’t want you.”

“Liar.”

His harsh response tore into her, and she gasped, but couldn’t find a response to his accusation, especially since it was true.

He kept her hands pinned above her head and brought his face just as close as it had been when he was kissing her.

“I think you dream about me when you sleep. I think I make your panties wet. I think when you come at night by your own hand, you think of me and wish it was my hand or better yet, my tongue. And do you want to know how I know this?”

She shook her head a bit frantically. He was too close to the truth, and she didn’t want to hear any more. She tugged at her hands, but he held them too tight.

“Because I’m in the same boat, sweetheart. I lay awake at night, hard as fucking granite thinking about you. I walk across that lobby twenty times a day just to see if I might get a glimpse of you and if you’ll notice me. I jack off as often as a kid, and every time I’m holding my cock, I imagine my hand is your pussy…” He ran his thumb over her bottom lip. “Or your lips. So don’t tell me you don’t want this, because I won’t believe you.”

Any words she might have used against him dried up in her throat. She didn’t know what to say or what to think. She’d never met a man like Ronan before, not in looks, not in personality, certainly not in directness, and she clearly didn’t know how to handle him.

“I just…” She closed her eyes briefly and released a long breath before looking back up to him. “I’m bad with men. I had a rotten marriage. Even worse, I cheated on him with Aiden. I can’t…I don’t trust myself.”

She looked away, acutely embarrassed.

“Princess, I’m not asking to marry you. I only want to fuck the life out of you, and far as I can see, you aren’t married now, so there won’t be any cheating. Call me thick, but I’m not following. I don’t see the problem here.”

She tried again to tug free of him, but he was simply much bigger than she was. It wasn’t that she was in any danger, just feeling exceedingly exposed.

“You don’t have to see the problem. I do.”

He looked at her for a long moment before speaking. “When was the last time you had an orgasm…and I mean with a man, not whatever electronic devices you keep hidden in your panty drawer.”

She felt her cheeks heat and could only imagine how red they turned. She felt equal pulls to tell him a lie, slap him, though he still had her hands bound, and simply tell him the truth of it all.

“Why won’t you let me make you feel good, Destiny?”

“Oh, so you do remember my name.” She was relieved to find something neutral to grab onto.

“Oh, I remember your name all right. I have a splendidly fine memory for things. Like last week when you were wearing that brown pencil skirt, did you know I could see the line your garter belt made beneath it?”

She sucked in air so fast she choked on it, but not showing her the least bit of compassion, he continued.

“I could. And did you know I spent the entire rest of the day trying to guess what color it was? I imagined laying you out on your prissy little desk behind the front check-in, running my hands up those silk stockings you wear right up until I found that garter.”

She was finding it exceptionally hard to breathe, but attempted to act as if he was having no effect on her at all.

“I know I shouldn’t spend money on such luxuries right now, but the silk feels nice against my skin.”

He purred into her ear then nipped the lobe before whispering against it, “Baby, I’d feel good against your skin.”

She moaned. She was rapidly losing the battle to stay detached.

“You wanna know what the trouble is with men and women?”

“Wh…what?” The apparent change of subject made her head spin.

“The trouble. Why relationships don’t work and marriages fail and men hate women and women hate men and you and I have to do this dance when we could be fucking. Do you wanna know?”

She didn’t know why she felt the need to defend marriage and love. After all, it hadn’t worked for her, but she couldn’t let the hope die she secretly held in her heart that someday, somehow Prince Charming would show up.

“It works for some people. Look at Cassidy and Aiden! He loves her.” She had a valid point there, and he couldn’t possibly argue with her on it.

“And you know this how? You been in their bed at night with them? Honey, that ‘love’ you speak of, the way you mean it, doesn’t exist. That romantic, fairy-dust love spell that turns all women into desirable goddesses and men into drooling imbeciles is a fantasy. You women all want the fairy tale, but God help you, if you ever got it you’d be bored senseless within ten minutes. Prince Charming isn’t gonna make your panties wet, darlin’. He can’t grab you by the hair and make you breathless. He can’t bring you to your knees with a single look. He’s never gonna satisfy that ache so deep inside you that you can’t breathe at times for it. It takes a real man to do that. A man that doesn’t ride horses, write poetry, and bring flowers, but that can fuck you so that you feel it in your soul. That’s what you want, Destiny. I can read it all over you.”

She was speechless. Part of her wanted to deny it vehemently, but she couldn’t. What was worse was that he’d been able to read her so well. She was embarrassed and off balance and felt a rising need to run. Her brain started to overload, struggling between what she held so hard in her heart and the words that he spoke that resonated in an even deeper place.

“I could do things to your body and soul that would leave you so satisfied you wouldn’t remember your own name.”

ADULT EXCERPT

He kissed her. He kept the kiss warm, soft, and tender. After everything she’d been through that night, he wanted to give her something more. Maybe he was kidding himself. Maybe he just wanted something more.

He slowly removed the cloak and allowed himself to touch her. He ran his hands down her arms and interlocked their fingers. It was such tenderness of which he’d forgotten he was capable.

He wrapped his arms around her and allowed his body to adapt to the shape of hers. His tongue explored her mouth, circling with hers, tasting her, accepting what she gave so freely to him.

He was hard for her, from just a kiss. It amazed him the effect she had on his body. It usually took so much more than a kiss to make him hard, and with Destiny, sometimes all it took was a look.

He began to remove their clothes. She moaned when he left her, but it was only long enough to undress and grab a condom. She lay on the bed so prettily, staring up at him. Completely naked except for her red shoes and the red ribbon around her throat, she gave him a wicked smile and parted her legs just enough to give him an erotic view.

“Minx.” She was, and he loved it.

Before he could react further, she reached between her legs and slid her finger through her folds, bringing that finger to her mouth and sucking it clean. His cock stiffened further, and he didn’t think that to be possible.

“Touch yourself for me. Make yourself come.” He really wasn’t sure he could handle the sight of it, but what he wanted more than anything was to watch her bring herself pleasure.

Without argument or even any hint of uncertainty, she reached between her legs and started touching herself.

She started to moan and writhe almost instantly. The walls of propriety she usually wrapped around herself were still nonexistent, and she began to put on a show for him. She grabbed her breast and pinched her nipple.

“I may be able to help you out with that, darlin’.” He reached into the pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out two bejeweled nipple clamps. “I had planned to give you these earlier, but this works.”

She lay still while he worked each one onto her nipples, tightening until she gasped. Her eyes were still slightly glassy, and he knew she was still in some level of subspace. For him, it was the ultimate high to be able to give that to a woman. Christian was so right when he spoke of how desperately a Dom needed his sub. It had been too long since he’d had one, or even played with one. There was no way he could ever give back to her half of what she gave him, simply in her willingness and her open trust in him.

He stood back and looked at her now with the addition of his clamps, and good God he nearly came. He drew a long breath and regained his legendary composure.

“Now touch yourself again.”

She licked her bottom lip and spread her legs wide so he could see everything. She touched herself, hand and body fucking one another as she writhed in a rhythm she set and mastered and rode until she came, moaning her release into the still surroundings like an ethereal vixen.

He climbed atop her, slowly moving up her body with his own. She had her fingers in her mouth sucking off the juices when he arrived at her lips.

“Such a selfish minx,” he scolded playfully. “Put your fingers back inside then bring them to my mouth instead this time.”

He loved the heat that flared in her eyes. She did exactly as he commanded her without a single hesitation.

He sucked her fingers hard, and she moaned.

“Again.” He held her stare as she complied.

He made her repeat the process several more times, loving how she was feeding him her juices. He’d never done anything quite like this before. It was like he was her master and he needed her essence to survive, and she was dutifully providing him with everything he needed.

The last time she brought her fingers to him, he pushed them into her own mouth, and as she slowly pulled them out, he engulfed her in a deep kiss, sharing her flavor more fully.

He pushed his hands into her hair, sucked her tongue into his mouth, and ground his body against hers. He wanted to go slow and make love to her, but his need was greater than he’d felt in a very long time, and he didn’t think he’d last. He pushed his cock inside her and began a slow dance with her, pushing his cock as deep into her cunt as he could get it. It was almost as if he wanted to become a part of her, a need he’d never felt before with any other woman. Of course, Destiny just wasn’t any other woman to him.

She pulled away from his kiss, a moan escaping her lips. She pushed her head back into the pillows and began a string of earthy moans and sighs that had him desperate to make her come. The nipple clamps were still in place and pressing into his own flesh as he lay atop her. He reached between them and released one and then the other.

“Ohh God, Ronan.” She closed her eyes and moved her body in sync with his.