Chapter 25 #2
Longer. Deeper. Still slow, but now deliberate. I let myself sink into the sensation of it, the firmness of his mouth, the way he met me with reverence instead of urgency.
His lips parted under mine.
That’s when I lost my footing.
The kiss deepened naturally, not because he pushed, but because I fell. Into him. His steadiness. Into the safety of being wanted without being taken.
Time blurred.
I kissed him until my knees pressed between his, until my hands grazed up his shoulders and into his hair, until the world narrowed to breath and heat and the soft, helpless sound he made when I kissed him just right.
He kissed me back like he was memorising me. Still controlled and holding the line, but fully there.
When I finally stopped, and it took effort, I rested my forehead on his.
We stayed like that. Breathing. Trembling.
“We don’t need to do more.” His voice was wrecked.
Something in my chest loosened. I hadn’t been testing him anymore.
I’d been trusting him.
I slid my hands down to his chest, felt his heart hammering beneath my palms. “Come with me to the bedroom?”
Tyler followed my lead, the blindfold still in place and his hand out to feel the way. In his room, he waited beside the bed. Uncertainty stole a piece of my good feeling.
“I’m used to doing all the work. I don’t know how to do this for myself.”
“Guide me and I’ll get ye there,” Tyler breathed.
I tried to focus over the loud rushing blood in my ears. I needed more, and the next step had to be our clothes.
“Undress me?” I asked.
He raised a hand, and I guided it to the back of my neck, needing that warm grip. He caressed my skin, then skimmed down my spine to slide a finger under my top. He peeled it off me.
Tyler discarded that first item of clothing and felt for my hand, placing it on his chest. “Mine?”
I nodded, not that he could see, and helped him out of his black shirt.
Nerves had my fingers trembling when I moved to his waistband.
Tyler let me undo his jeans, then sat on the bed so he could remove his boots and socks.
I got down to my underwear. There was nothing hurried in our actions. No urgency or demands from each other.
“Lie back in the pillows,” I whispered.
I followed him, stretching out at his side.
“Whatever happens next is entirely up to ye, but I have a request for how it ends. A new rule.”
“Tell me.”
“I can’t come. This is all for ye.”
My breathing stuttered. “That’s a terrible rule.”
“But an important one. No part of this will be for my gratification. It’s all about ye. No danger. You’ve told me that you’ve never done this for enjoyment, and the last time…” He rolled his shoulders, pushed up on his elbows. “Ye want to reclaim ownership of yourself.”
“I’ve never done anything like this where I wasn’t faking it.” That scared me more than anything.
“Perhaps that’s why earlier was so emotional.”
“It hit close to why I started selling my body in the first place.”
“Because ye never had a choice that time.”
I buried my face in his arm. Tyler brought it around me, holding me close.
I shuddered with a chill I hated. “No, I didn’t.”
“Well, it’s all ye have now. So work out what ye need. If it’s a hug, wrap yourself around me. If it’s more, give me my orders. There’s only one rule.”
“You won’t come.”
“Aye, doll.”
Slowly, the world began to make sense again. This would be so much easier if I just went with how I felt. No fake performance. No getting him to the finish line. I stroked his arms. “Roll on top of me. I want your weight.”
He flipped us so I was under him, braced on his forearms so he didn’t crush me. He’d been hard when I took his clothes off, and I extended my legs down his then wrapped them around him, pinning his dick between us through two layers of clothing.
“Lips on mine.”
He kissed me, taking us back to that place where the world disappeared, and all I knew was the happiness of his mouth.
Long minutes passed of taking and giving, of building each other up slowly.
Tyler kept his restraint, but it didn’t hide his want for me.
There was no concealing the energy under his skin and how hard he was.
I broke the kiss to breathe, dizzy with lust. “Reach between us. Strip the rest of our clothes.”
Tyler obliged, underwear lost, and returned us to skin on skin. I unclipped my bra, the last item separating us. It was so strange that he couldn’t see me. The body I’d honed as a selling point was all mine now. I stretched into him, my breasts against his chest, his hard cock trapped between us.
How good he felt scared me. I couldn’t do this slow. It was killing me.
“Slide into me. I don’t want to wait. I need to feel you there.”
Tyler stilled, holding himself above me, and with his chest rising and falling on his heavy breaths. For a terrifying moment, I thought he’d refuse, but then he ducked his head to my shoulder, took his dick to the centre of me, and slowly pushed inside.
Bright pleasure spilled from the stretch of him.
My eyes sank closed, and I tipped my head back, mouth open on a soundless gasp. Tyler pressed in an inch at a time, letting my body adjust to take him. He was big. I could feel him everywhere.
When he was finally fully seated, he held himself rigid. Waiting.
I wriggled under him and tested the connection. Everywhere felt good. The burn at my entrance, the places he pressed inside, how deep he was.
Tyler was holding so still, I could feel his heartbeat, but more, I loved the sensation of him pinning me. Taking me over completely.
“Move, please.” Emotion I tried to contain filled my voice.
Tyler rocked gently. A slight drag over everywhere good.
My breathing caught, and he brought his lips to my temple. “If it’s too much…”
“It isn’t. It’s perfect.”
He kissed my cheek. Kissed away the tears he found there.
Tyler kept up the steady action, letting me just feel. He stayed slow, and my body needed that so much. The tender care with no demand other than chasing desire.
My fear left me.
Only he remained.
I tightened around him with the first warning that I could make it to the finish line.
A muscle in Tyler’s jaw ticked, but he didn’t flinch.
He just kept moving. Filling me. Giving me what I’d asked.
He fisted the sheets at my next spasm, and I rocked my hips to hunt it down.
The thread he was pulling. The line that led me to the discovery I’d needed.
Oh God, this was everything I’d always wanted. New, and wonderful, and strange. It choked me up, how everything he did drove me to a precipice.
The grind of our bodies together. The trust and the twin souls needing each other.
I came with a wordless cry, shuddering and shaking beneath him. Every other thought fled my mind. Nothing but how good it felt. How happy I was to know that pleasure.
Relaxation swamped my body, and I collapsed. Tyler withdrew and grabbed a pillow, shoving it between us before sinking back into the tight hold.
“You’re incredible.” He kissed my hair. My temple.
I couldn’t ignore how tense he remained. I couldn’t imagine what it had taken him to hold back at that trigger moment. But he had. He’d done it for me.
Fresh tears sprang into my eyes. I pressed my hand to my mouth to stop a sob.
No, no. I didn’t want this. I wanted to be normal about sex.
That was a fantasy. The sobbing started.
Tyler hushed me. Held me tight. Kissed away my tears. He wrapped us both in the blanket so all I knew was the safety of his arms.
Neither of us spoke for a long while.
I processed today’s emotional breakdown, and he kept me warm.
Eventually, I came out the other side and remembered the other piece of trust I wanted to give him. “You asked about all the people who hurt me. Do you still want to know?”
“I do. Can I take the blindfold off?”
I reached to slide it from his face. Calm, intelligent eyes settled on me.
I loved being the centre of his gaze.
“When I was talking to Mila earlier, I nearly told her about the first one. But I stopped myself. I wanted to do that with you.”
Tyler’s pupils dilated, a faint flicker in the reflected light from the city coming through the big arched windows. He liked that I’d put him first. I’d remember that.
I held my gaze on him. “The last was Sullivan, which you know, but he had two men with him.”
“Henry Davies and Justin Skinner. Sullivan gave up their names.”
I blinked. “They weren’t the ringleaders, but they were almost as bad.”
He inclined his head. “So we have three. How many more?”
“Two. There was whoever did this.” I brought my fingertips to my throat. “I know everyone believes it was that serial killer, but I don’t. I was kidding myself that it could be so easy.”
“I trust your instincts. Who’s the fifth?”
I dropped his gaze, my eyelashes fluttering. “A friend of my grandfather’s.”
“One of his trusted company cronies?”
“Got it in one. I’ve never told anyone about that.”
“Ye can tell me anything.”
I knew that. He was the safest pair of hands I could imagine for a piece of history so fragile it could crack me open. For the first time in forever, I didn’t feel alone anymore. He could have all of my secrets. I could only hope that one day he’d give me his.