Chapter 28
Penelope
There was a sensory overload that came with being unable to see or touch him while he could do just about anything he wanted
to me.
My heart roared as it began to come down from the haze. I could feel his finger glide along my wrist. Seconds later the tie
that affixed them to the headboard loosened.
Over the last two days, I was experiencing a new, overwhelming sensation every few hours with him. I’d had orgasms before,
on my own, but never like these. The ones that made my vision blur, that felt like every drop of blood was set ablaze as it
rushed through my body.
“Turn around.” His gravelly tone, set between heavy breaths, settled low in my stomach.
The mattress dipped as he began to move, putting his hands on my hips to help me turn. The blindfold stayed tightly wrapped
around my head as my trembling muscles worked to steady me. I turned around, his hands kneaded my hips.
I never gave much thought when I added those two items to the list. All I knew was that when I used my vibrator at home, that
was the scenario I imagined. The idea of being completely under the control of a partner during sex was wildly arousing, but
something I kept to myself.
It wasn’t as though I had a partner who knew what to do with that power, until now.
“You have no idea how good you look, Poppy,” he said slowly. His hand spread along the small of my back while the other gripped
my hip.
I couldn’t see him, but my imagination conjured up just how filthy the scene was, making it almost more erotic than if I’d
witnessed it with my eyes. Tied to the bed, blindfolded and completely at his mercy. The only other souls for miles were the
birds that were most certainly startled away from the sheer volume of the sounds we were making.
“Tied up, coming on my mouth.” His hand moved up my back, he slowly teased my entrance. Shivers erupted all over my body.
“Xander,” I gasped as he slowly entered me, teasing for a few moments, allowing me to feel every inch of his cock stretching
me as he went in.
Then, with another heavy breath, he pushed all the way in. A needy whimper escaped my lips.
“Fuck.” He released a loud, tortured groan.
Taking only a few seconds before he was fully unleashed, I felt every inch pushing, stroking, taking me apart. Second by second.
Inch by inch.
Another orgasm began to swell deep in my core.
He was relentless. The heat began to coil and twist at the base of my spine. His hand roved up my stomach and caressed my
breast, before giving my nipple a hard pinch.
I screamed but at the same time waves of electric pleasure crashed over every muscle fiber. It became muffled as I drowned
in the overwhelming pleasure.
He continued fucking me through my orgasm and with a deep, low groan his body tightened and he succumbed to his own.
He stilled and after a few moments, the blindfold loosened and the saturated sunset flooded into my vision.
I collapsed onto the bed.
“You did amazing, Poppy.” He held me close and kissed my head.
His praise felt like basking in the sun. I never thought I’d do something like that, but God, did that feel good.
***
The next morning, a series of vibrations across the nightstand woke me. I shifted and turned in bed. Xander’s arm fell from
around my waist to my lap as I sat up.
Olivia: Before you go back to Manhattan, maybe you and Bella can talk.
Olivia: She doesn’t talk to me much, but even I can tell she misses you.
Olivia: Don’t hate me for suggesting it.
I read them, pushing the hair from my eyes as the morning breeze swept through the room. The white linen canopy around the
bed billowed, filling and deflating as the air passed through it.
With a sleepy groan, I looked down at Xander and the emerald peeked out from his slowly opening eyelids. He let out a long
yawn.
Xander was a dichotomy between mesmerizing and menacing, kind and sinister. It was enthralling to see up close.
The charisma that could disarm a madman one moment. Then, he was the man who stripped away every single layer of propriety
with a ruthless determination.
And in the morning, he was as innocuous and lovable as a golden retriever.
“What’s wrong, Poppy?” He sat and dropped a kiss on my shoulder.
“I think I need to go see my half siblings.” I leaned my head into his chest. He shifted slightly and put his arm around me.
“Arabella and Silas?”
I nodded.
He didn’t know much about my family, by design. But it was time I told him more, especially since I told him I wanted to preserve
the peace and that would likely mean relying on his legendary good nature when inevitably Silas acted out.
“And I need to tell you something.” I sat up and straddled him on the bed. “You asked me about the merger and Maddox months
ago when all of this happened.”
His grip tightened on my hips. Maddox always seemed to elicit that response in him. An uneasy tension, which was precisely
why I wanted to address it.
“When the news of the merger and our arranged marriage came around, I was in London with Sloan. Maddox came to see me and
at first, we sort of accepted it. We figured it was time to start acting the part.”
“You can skip the details.” His warning felt razor-sharp. My heart fluttered at the jealousy.
“It’s nothing like that,” I assured him. I hadn’t been with Maddox since London and even then, sex with him felt like a chore.
“I just want you to know that the reason I try to keep things with Maddox amicable is that he’s sort of stuck in the same
situation I am. I don’t think he realizes it but his family sees him as a pawn as well and, I dunno, I feel bad that he’s
collateral damage. That’s all.”
The idea that Xander might be carrying around the suspicion hurt, and I didn’t want him to. Wherever this went, I didn’t want
him believing that there was something left between Maddox and me.
“It was never Maddox,” I added. The whole point in bringing up this story was to give Xander an idea of all the reasons I walked away that night at the masquerade. For him to at least understand that if it were simpler, if there had been less going on that cluttered every available neuron, I wouldn’t have. “He just... seemed like the most reasonable option for a long time.”
“And now?” He tucked my hair behind my ear.
“That day in my foyer when I—how did you put it?—blindsided you with a proposal,” I teased and he chuckled. “It was the first
time I really considered another way, and now the path of least resistance doesn’t seem fair.”
And I couldn’t go back to being the people-pleasing Penelope.
“But, I don’t want to fight,” I added. I wanted this to be behind me. “Maybe if I talk to Silas, once and for all, I can make
some peace. Move on.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“No.” I leaned forward and brushed a kiss against his lips. “I have to do this myself.”