26. Chapter 26
twenty-six
The night changed course in a way Chris hadn't expected. He hadn’t planned to say this much about that dark time in his life. It’d happened. He’d learned to cope and move on. But Rowan’s question opened up a childhood longing.
“No,” Chris answered her question. “But I learned to need him less each year I was away.”
Her witchy gaze pierced through him, as if she could see right through the falsehoods of his words. The truth was, he never stopped missing the father he'd lost, but he’d accepted that father was gone for good.
“Enough about me.” Chris kissed the inside of her wrist, taking back control of the night. “If I recall, I was giving you a full body massage. I rather we finish that than talking about me.”
Rowan chuckled. “I think we’re done with the massage part. I’d rather we skip to the good part.”
“Oh, yeah?” He pulled her to him with one tug. “What is the good part?”
“The part where you get as naked as me,” she suggested with her siren voice.
Chris couldn’t help himself and captured her mouth with his. He’d been longing to kiss her again since she’d left his bedroom on Friday afternoon. He tried to honor their one-day agreement, but why deny the chemistry between them?
Quiet explosion erupted inside him as their foreplay resumed. A touch, a kiss, or even a look was all it took for Rowan to turn his engine back on. He didn't know what it was about her that made him act like a hormone-crazed teenager.
But good thing he had better control than a teenage boy. Gently pushing Rowan onto her back, Chris left the bed to grab the belt from the robe she’d discarded earlier.
“What are you doing with that?” She eyed the belt.
“You’ll see.” He wrapped the cotton length around her wrists.
Rowan’s eyes went wide when Chris guided her arms to rest above her head and secured the end of the belt around a post of the bed frame.
Chris stood by the side of the bed and swallowed hard as he admired the picture Rowan presented.
“God, you are exquisite,” he said under his breath. He wanted to sink into her right then and there, but he had a mission to complete.
Rowan inhaled deeply, raising her breasts higher, knowing what the simple act of breathing did to Chris’ control. Her eyes never left him, all blue fire, burning hotter as he took in every enticing curve of her body.
“I feel an imbalance of power in this scenario,” Rowan said regally, even as she lay naked with her hands tied up above her head.
“I know.” Chris blew a breath. “You may not see it this way, but you hold all the power, Rowan.”
“Do I?” Rowan laughed. “Let’s test that out, shall we? Strip.”
Chris just stood there, totally mesmerized by her.
“Let’s level the playing field.” She gestured with her chin.
What Rowan wanted, she would get. Chris shed his clothes.
“Finish it. Finish me,” she urged as her eyes roamed over him.
“If you don’t finish me first.” He rubbed his heart as it became hard to breathe.
“I can’t even touch you,” Rowan said with a frown.
The woman doesn’t even know what she does to me with a look.
“For a good reason.” Chris took the oil bottle and poured a few drops onto her chest, right between her breasts. Her torso bowed in reaction, making her pink nipples jut out invitingly.
He perched on the edge of the bed and rubbed the oil around the fullness of one breast and then to the other in a figure-eight pattern. Each time he came near the tips, he evaded her nipples. He expanded the move to her collarbone with firm yet gentle pressure before doing another round around her breasts .
Rowan’s eyelids shuttered when Chris tightened the perimeter of his pattern, and his fingertips just brushed the tips of her breasts. He could feel her tremble with each not-so-innocent touch. She moved her body to force his fingers where she wanted, but Chris expected her antics.
Groaning in frustration, she complained, “You’re such a tease. I’ll get you back for this.”
Chris laughed. “Honey, believe me, I’m suffering more than you.”
“No more games,” she decided.
“No games.” He bent over her and kissed one bud. “How about that?”
“More.”
He licked around her areola while his fingers circled its twin, making her squirm under him. “Better?”
“Christopher Sullens, I swear to god!” Rowan groaned in frustration.
A laugh burst out of him, hearing her use of his name. But he didn’t have the heart to prolong the teasing. He captured her nipple fully into his mouth and feasted. Her relieved moan sounded like music to his ear. He coaxed more out of her as he trailed his mouth to lave on her other breast, absorbing every tremor under her skin, feeling how her muscles tensed and eased with her pleasure.
His body was wired as he craved her warmth to envelop him. But he’d promised himself her needs first. His right hand reached down to her heated center, sunk into her wetness, and her lower half bucked in response.
Chris pulled up from her chest to see her face. Rowan was so expressive when she was on the brink of orgasm, and he could see after the prolonged foreplay she was desperate for it.
“Untie me,” she asked.
“In a minute,” he promised and positioned himself between her legs. “Open for me, love.”
“Oh, fuck,” she cursed as his mouth found the center of her pleasure.
Chris loved she had a mouth on her when they made love. And he loved she wasn’t afraid to tell him what to do. He might not do everything she wanted on command, but by the love of god, he would give her the results she wanted.
Oh god, have mercy!
Rowan tugged at her hands, desperate to touch Chris. But as he lapped and sucked at her clitoris, she was glad they were bound. The lack of freedom to touch somehow heightened the sensation on her other nerves—the ones he was engaging eagerly.
The waves of pleasure rolled into her. Each one was higher and stronger than before until she couldn’t handle it anymore. Her whole body bowed as she braced for the ultimate roll of a wave hit her, and she screamed Chris’ name as if he was the anchor she needed to come back ashore.
The tension in every muscle of her body seemed to have melted away, and her limbs lay lifeless, though every nerve was still firing sparks into her bloodstream. Rowan couldn’t do much, didn’t want to, really. Even as she felt Chris’ beautiful, full lips trace their way back up her body, she languished in the aftermath of her orgasm.
Suddenly, her arms were free and fell to the mattress around her head. She stretched them out with the bit of energy she had left but let them drop again. She could slide into oblivion right now. Her body and her mind were in a state of perfect bliss.
Rowan felt the cool sheet draped over her and was grateful for how good it felt. A drop of consciousness knocked at her brain.
How about him?
Rowan’s half-asleep brain realized Chris hadn’t demanded his release. He was letting her fall asleep instead of waking her up with his kisses and more toe-curling caresses. Though she wanted to sink into this rare peacefulness, she couldn’t be that selfish to him.
Rowan opened her eyes and saw Chris climbing out of bed carefully, trying not to shake her. She grabbed his hand. He looked at her, surprised.
“We’re not done,” she whispered.
Chris looked amused. “You’re falling asleep.”
“A testament to your prowess in the art of cunnilingus.” Rowan smiled .
“Go rest, Rowan,” he told her as he caressed her hair. “I’ll be fine.”
“No. We take care of each other.” She pushed herself up to kiss him as she pulled the drawer on her nightstand and found what she was looking for.
She ripped the foil and gently covered his still-hard cock with the sheath. She looked into his eyes and asked, “Make love to me?”
She knew she didn’t have to ask twice. Chris gently pushed her back onto the mattress and covered her with his larger body. Rowan relished the feel of his hardness against her softness and opened up to him, ready to receive him. But Chris took her lips in a slow kiss. The type of kiss that melted your muscles, as if she wasn’t already liquid under him.
Then he was inside her—unhurried and tender.
Pulling away slightly over her, Chris looked into her sleepy eyes as he moved at a leisurely pace, stroking her still-sensitive nerves with sweet friction like the gentle laps of the surf at low tide.
“Oh god,” the words escaped her mouth as he stoked the rolling sensation back within her. She couldn’t believe what she was feeling.
How is he doing this to me? Rowan wondered as another orgasm came to her after fully expecting to only get his release this time.
“Come with me,” she whispered as she wrapped her arms and legs tighter around him as he crashed against her. Her whole being needed to surround him, to make him entirely hers.
And when he groaned her name in ecstasy, she almost believed he was.