Chapter 27 #2
I shivered at the contact. “N-no.”
For that, I received a sharp nip on my lobe that made me squeak.
“Tomorrow.” His order was absolute. “Don’t make me worry about you anymore than I have to, all right?”
I nodded, and he moved to give my other ear the same treatment before bending his legs to pick me up in one sudden movement, urging my legs around his waist.
“Upstairs,” he murmured before giving me another kiss that made time stop. “I need room.”
He kissed me the rest of the way up, releasing my hands only long enough to push me against another wall of build-in bookshelves. This one was full of Greek and Roman dramas, mostly tragedies. Probably every translation of Sophocles ever made, along with Aeschylus, Livius Andronicus, and Seneca.
Suddenly, he grabbed my hands and pulled them above my head, urging me to take hold of the edge of one of the shelves.
“Have you ever used a safe word, Laney?”
“I—once, yes.”
I didn’t elaborate. The one and only time Derek and I had even tried to venture into BDSM territory was after he convinced me to watch 50 Shades of Grey with him, thinking it would make me all hot and bothered.
It did, but not because of the sex scenes.
I got more out of imagining it was Jamie Dornan and his gymnastics-developed abs blindfolding me than my own boyfriend.
“What do you think about a theme? Elysium for good, Styx for slow down, Tartarus for stop?” He bent down and pressed a kiss to my right clavicle.
For a moment, it was hard to breathe. Still, I shook my head. “I think we talk too much about Classics for that to work, don’t you?”
Another kiss landed on the other side of my neck. “I see what you mean. So, the boring color system then?”
I nodded, though my skin tingled with anticipation. “Boring or logical?”
“Red, yellow, green. Got it?” His mouth returned to mine, but he didn’t kiss me as he waited for my response.
“Got it,” I replied, reduced to a breath.
“Good girl. Now, keep your hands there. And don’t move them unless you’re ready to pay for it.”
I’d never heard him sound like this before. There was an edge to his voice, something dark and needy and barely controlled.
I nodded again, my breath catching.
He left my hands pinned above my head and wrenched my robe open, exposing my taut nipples. A low groan escaped the back of his throat as his voracious gaze raked over my exposed skin.
“How is it possible you’re this beautiful? Like every fantasy I’ve ever had come to life…”
He seized a nipple with his teeth and tugged. It wasn’t gentle—not by any stretch of the imagination. And yet, it felt good—even better when suddenly he released it, allowing the blood to flow back to the tortured bud.
My fingers curled, aching to reach for him. His curls were a mess now, and I longed to thread my hands through them and yank.
“I said don’t move,” he growled before performing the same act on my other nipple, this time sucking harder before he released it.
“Ronan,” I gasped.
His mouth landed on mine again, pulling the hunger I felt for his body lick by dangerous lick. I kept my hands above my head, fighting every instinct to touch him, the restraint making everything more intense.
I lifted a leg, wrapping my thigh around his hip to pull him against me, but he stubbornly held himself back, refusing to let me draw him closer.
“Do you have any clue about the wretched things I’ve imagined doing to this body?
” His voice was ragged as his teeth grazed over my breasts again.
“I’ve been trying to be…well, not gentle—I’m not capable of that—but at least to be what you deserve.
But I’m not that either, Laney. I’m a fucked-up asshole who punishes people for a living.
I’ve never made love in my life. Wouldn’t know how if I wanted to.
But right now, I just want to fuck. I need to feel something real instead of this goddamn emptiness—”
That was it. I grabbed his hair as hard as I could and yanked. “Then. Do. It. Stop talking about it and stop holding back.”
Something in his expression cracked open before his gaze darted to the shelf where my hands no longer gripped. “I said not to move.”
I froze. “You did, didn’t you?”
His brow lifted. “Color?”
Once again, every part of me tingled. “Green.”
He pulled my hands out of his hair. His eyes were dark, almost feral as he stepped away. “Wait here.”
He disappeared into his closet, and when he returned, he was holding two things—a riding crop made of sleek brown leather and a belt to match.
My eyes widened.
“Bought it last week, just in case.”
I blinked. “I thought you didn’t know about the survey.”
“Doesn’t mean I don’t like plenty on it, sweetheart.” He cocked his head to one side as he smacked his palm with the whip. “One more time.”
“Green,” I said automatically. My voice didn’t even feel like my own. “Use them.”
His mouth curved into the sexiest smirk even known. “Then take off the robe and give me your hands.”
I let the robe fall to the ground, enjoying the way his pupils dilated again at the sight of my body completely naked. Then I offered my wrists and watched as he wrapped the belt around them and cinched it tight enough to pinch.
“Color?”
“Green,” I stared down at my bound hands. I’d never been so turned on in my life. “So green. I trust you.”
Something in his expression completely broke, but reformed just as quickly. “Then turn around, grab the shelf above your head, and don’t move.”
Immediately, I obeyed, setting my hands back where he’d put them before.
“Gorgeous,” he murmured.
I shivered as his fingers traced down my spine, lingering over the curve of my ass, then followed its crease just before he pulled it away from the place I ached most.
“Ronan,” I mewled.
“Not yet.”
And then I heard the soft whistle of leather cutting through the air right before the first strike hit my cheek, a sharp sting that somehow begged for more.
I gasped, my whole body tensed, but not unwillingly. “Oh!”
The crop landed again, on my left cheek this time. The sting bloomed into heat, spreading through me, making my pussy clench with unexpected need.
“When I tell you to do something,” Ronan said just before he did it again. “You’ll fucking do it.” His teeth found my shoulder and bit lightly. “You look so beautiful marked up, Ari. A real work of art.”
I arched, offering my flesh as he continued to wield the crop, finding the spaces that hadn’t been struck with unparalleled accuracy.
“Ronan,” I moaned again. “Please—”
His palm slid over my cheek, soothing and warm. “What, baby? What do you need?”
“More.” I could barely speak. “I need more. Please.”
I heard the crop fall to the floor, and seconds later, his palm cracked against my already-tender skin. The difference was immediate—fuller, harsher, an impact that made my whole body sway.
“Fuck.” His breath was ragged as he went to work on both sides, his hand finding skin over and over again. “You have no idea how perfect you look like this. How much I needed this. How much I—I need you, Laney. My Laney.”
As if the confession had pulled something else out of him, he grabbed me by the hip and spun my back against the books again. Then he fell to his knees and shoved his face between my legs like a beast set to his final meal.
“Oh God,” I moaned, my head knocking against the wood while my thighs squeezed his head. I couldn’t help but stare. The sight of this man, humbled yet still in control, on his knees, but fully in charge as he took exactly what he wanted from my body—it was too much.
Just as I was about to come, he pulled back.
“You’ll wait,” he ordered. “Wait until I’m inside you.”
He stood, shoving down his pants so that his cock fell against my leg, hard and heavy. He looked wrecked, lips glossy with the sheen of my desire.
“Are you–can I—” He could barely speak himself as he looked down to where the head of his bare cock pressed against my entrance. “I’ve never—not without protection, Laney. Not with anyone, ever. And there’s been no one else… not since I met you.”
I knew what he was asking. And the common sense part of me that had always made these decisions knew I should say no.
But every other part of me really didn’t want to. Everything had been stripped away between us, and I didn’t want to put any sort of barrier back in place.
“Have you been—are you—”
“Tested?” Ronan was shaking now with need, but he managed to nod. “Yes, of course. Right after we met in Vegas. And again, before you—before you came here.”
I swallowed. We were more alike than we thought. “Me too.”
The tip of him slipped through my slick, but he waited while I mentally counted through my cycle.
“It’s okay,” I said a few moments later. “Do it.”
His eyes popped open. “You’re sure?”
“Can you release my hands?”
His eyes shot upward, and with a few quick, harried moves, he freed me from my bonds.
I grabbed his hair and yanked. “Don’t you dare stop.”
It was all he needed to hear. He thrust forward on a howl, filling me completely. My own cries were almost immediately covered by that mouth, hypnotized by his tongue and the taste of myself on his lips.
“Fuck,” he groaned. “My—Ari—Laney—”
There was no waiting this time. No time to adjust to his size or his harsh movements.
My hands were freed, but his domination was still supreme as he used one hand to grip my hips hard enough to bruise while delivering stroke after unforgivable stroke that should have made me run but instead set me alight.
“Mine,” he demanded as his other hand slid up to wrap around my throat. “Tell me you’re mine. Say. It.”
“I’m yours.” I gasped. “I’m yours, Ronan—”
“Then come, Ari. Squeeze me so tight it hurts. Let me—fuck—let me feel how much you need me too.”
“Ronan!”
His hand left my throat, and with both hands under my legs, he pulled me off the wall suddenly, whirling me to the bed, where the soft sateen sheets were balm to my poor, punished skin.
“Let me see you.” His voice broke as framed my face with his hands and slid back in, slower this time, though no less intense. “Laney.”
My name was half growl, half whisper.
Just as animal, I pawed through his hair, threading my fingers through the soft curls to pet back every anxiety we both shared. “Ronan.”
His rhythm grew erratic, desperate. I could feel him getting close, could see it in the tension of his jaw, the wild look in his eyes.
“I’m going to—oh, God, Laney—” he choked. “Fuck—do it now. Come with me now!”
His sheer, broken desperation sent me over the edge again, and I didn’t stop to wonder what it said about me that I seemed to want his surrender just as much as he demanded mine. We broke on the same shout, my body going rigid as he shoved deep to break, fill, pin me down and make me his, his, his.
Yours, yours, yours.
The admission thumped with my pulse, which was shockingly steady, all things considered.
Maybe because my body knew it was the truth after all. And maybe there was nothing to be scared of in that.
“Christ, Laney.” Ronan’s voice was hoarse when he found it sometime later. Then, a lower murmur, almost too faint to be heard: “‘You burn me.’”
I inhaled deeply, unsure if he was quoting one of Sappho’s simplest erotic poems or not. Knowing Ronan, it was hard to be sure.
Either way, though, I knew how he felt. My whole body had been alight under his touch.
“Too rough?” he mumbled.
I tugged light on his hair, still in my tired clutch. “No. I believe my exact words were, ‘don’t you fucking dare stop.’”
He chuckled, rolled off me and to the side before gathering me close. “I’m definitely a bad influence on you. Or at least on your language.”
“Well, since my husband drops F-bombs every other sentence, it was probably to be expected.”
That prompted another chuckle. “Fuckin’ A, sweetheart.”
He found my wrists, which he started to massage where the belt had bound them. Then his touch traveled down to my backside, where there were almost certainly going to be marks. The look on his face when he propped himself up to check told me I was right.
“Stop.” I pushed him back down. “You had my full consent.”
“Not to be a monster.”
“You were in charge. There’s a difference.” I tilted my head up to kiss him, and he let me do it until I could feel him relax again. But only until I pulled away.
“Laney—”
“Stop.” I shoved him onto his back, then straddled his waist so that he was forced to look up at me. “I’m your wife, not your sex slave. But more importantly, I meant what I said, Ronan. I’m yours. Are you mine too?”
Those dark eyes were fathomless. “I… yeah, you know, I think I am.”
I bent to brush my lips over his. “Then take me again, however many times you need it. Take me until you believe it. Until we both do.”
Our kiss was slow but deep, sharing the new truths between us.
Then, suddenly, I was flipped onto my back again.
“Ahh! Ronan, what are you doing?”
I was met with a grin that was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen. Joy shone from Ronan Black’s face, full of hope that was for once untarnished by his past or the shadows of guilt.
“Just following orders,” he told me as he spread my legs wider. “Happy wife, happy life, right?”
I snorted even as he started to slip back inside. “If you believe in patriarchal clichés, I guess.”
“I believe in that one now, only because in this house, I’m pretty sure it’s true.” He pressed me into the mattress, holding my body with his, my soul in his heart. “Now, take me again, wife. If it takes the rest of the night, we’ll make believers of us both.”