Asa (Marked Men #6) (22 page)

We just stared at each other for a long-drawn-out moment. I needed to ask her why she was here after all this time. I needed to know what all of this meant. Instead I reached out a single finger to push some of her hair off of her shoulder so it wasn’t covering her up anymore and I could let my eyes feast on all of her. She was so beautiful. I grasped the chain that kept the handcuffs together and gave it a little tug to draw her closer to me. She crawled toward me without a word.

“I bought you a house today.” The truth of that statement rang steady in my voice. Her mouth fell open in a little gasp of surprise.

“What are you talking about?” I tugged on the handcuffs again until I had her arms high enough to loop them around my neck. All her plush and naked curves pressed into me and I finally felt finished. She was what I needed to be a complete man. Whole.

“I bought a house today. But I need you to make it a home, Royal.” I bent my forehead down so that it was resting against hers. I shouldn’t have been pouring my heart out to her until I knew why she was here, if this was as real for her as it was for me. It was going to kill me if she walked out again. “What’s up with the hardware, Red?”

The metal around her wrists was hard and cold around my neck.

“Well, I had this brilliant idea to show you that I trusted you, that I need you more than I need the truth. I figured getting naked and handcuffing myself to your bed would not only illustrate that I do trust you to do the right thing by me but also fulfill one of the fantasies you’ve been throwing around since the beginning. Only I forgot you don’t have a headboard, let alone a headboard I could attach these to.”

“No one has a headboard made for handcuffs in the real world.”

She rolled her eyes and a smile tugged at her mouth. I was a goner. I wasn’t going to let her go again even if she wanted me to, but I needed to know why she was suddenly here, so I told her, “We need to talk about your change of heart, Royal.”

She lifted one of her burnished eyebrows at me and her dark eyes danced in merriment. “I know. But I’m naked. I have on handcuffs and I really missed you, Asa.” She turned her head a little so that she could touch her lips to my own. “Plus you bought me a house. I think I need to say thank you in a way you’ll always remember.”

My better judgment told me to figure out where this was leading, to remind her that I had a major secret I was never going to be able to tell her, but she kissed me again. Every predatory instinct I had ever had roared to life with the need to claim, possess, mark, and own her forever as mine. Common sense had never been my strong suit anyway.

I tumbled her back on the bed with a growl.

I spent weeks vacillating between the overwhelming amount of love I had for this man and the burning need to know what he was keeping from me. One day I was sure that whatever secret Asa was hiding didn’t matter because I wanted to be with him more than I wanted anything. The next I would be eaten alive with curiosity about what he was hiding, and I knew I would never be able to let it go. It was like being caught in the middle of an emotional tug-of-war between my head and my heart, and neither one was winning.

My mom kept telling me to get over him. Dom kept telling me to go after him and I had no idea what the right thing to do was. I was lonely and I missed him, but it wasn’t until Ayden called me today and told me that Asa had bought a house and that he never would have done that if it hadn’t been for me, that I really understood that I did love him enough to let him lie to me. Ayden also hinted that if I really thought about it, I could probably figure out why he was adamant that he keep this particular thing from me and that got me bogged down and long-repressed instincts churning back to life. When some of the pieces started to click into place, I had to evaluate whether I really wanted to know the truth or not. I loved him and I loved my mother, and I had a feeling prying into that particular Pandora’s box was going to change how I felt about one if not both of them forever. Plus, while Ayden wasn’t about to let the proverbial cat out of the bag, she had given me enough hints and clues on top of my suspicions to know that certain lines that were unforgivable no matter how much I loved either of them hadn’t been crossed. I knew whatever had happened between the two people I loved the most wasn’t pretty, and I was resigned to leave it at that if it meant I got to keep them both.

One secret wasn’t enough to give up a love that felt like it was going to come along only once in a lifetime. Ayden eased the remainder of my fears by reminding me that the only reason Asa was keeping something from me in the first place was because he was trying to protect me … just like he had done all those months ago when I was in a downward spiral and he stopped my fall. He wasn’t lying to me to hurt me; in fact it was the opposite of that. Even when he was being secretive and cryptic he was always there to catch me.

I had to trust him and I had to show him that I did; thus I was handcuffed and naked while he crawled all over me. I was supposed to be vulnerable and open to him, only I didn’t feel that way. I felt right. I felt like this was where I was supposed to be all along.

I knew he needed a grand gesture, something more than words to show him I needed him more than I needed the truth, and this was all I could come up with in a pinch. Besides, he’d had a thing for my handcuffs since the very beginning, so I called Dixie and asked her to text me when they were done for the night, parked around the corner, and then snuck into his place with a key Cora had snagged for me. There was something entirely exhilarating about stripping naked and binding your hands together in a symbolic gesture for a man like Asa. Handing myself over to him both body and soul should have been terrifying, but as soon as he opened his mouth and told me he had bought the house for me, I knew I had done the right thing. No secret was worth giving up a man that told you he needed you to be his home.

His heavy weight settled on top of me, and for the first time in two months I felt like I was grounded, not floating between what I was craving and common sense. This was where I needed to always be, with him, under him, inside of him. He made me feel real.

“How does it feel to be the one hooked up for a change?” He moved my arms from where they were looped around his neck and stretched them out as far as they would reach above my head. I drove the tips of my breasts into his chest and made every line of my body arch up into his. His eyes glowed hot enough to light up the entire room and his gaze made a warm flush work up under the surface of my skin.

“Under the circumstances not so bad.” I gave the unforgiving metal a little tug and felt the response in Asa where our lower bodies were pressed together.

“They look way better on you than they ever did on me.” The dry humor in his tone wasn’t lost on me as he bent his head and sealed his mouth over mine.

It had been far too long since we had shared a real kiss. Not one filled with good-bye or regret. I missed it almost as much as I had missed him. His tongue twisted with mine while his hands swept down my naked sides and slipped around to grab on to the curve of my backside. He ravaged my mouth with his own. He ate up my response and I hardly noticed that he was moving us to the edge of the bed. He lifted his head and kissed each of my eyelids, the tip of my nose, and then moved on to the tip of each of my breasts, which were ridged and practically begging him for attention.

I nearly bolted upright at the first flick of his tongue across one turgid nipple. It felt like my entire body was electrified everywhere he touched. I lifted my hand to thread it through his hair and stopped short when both my arms jerked up over my head, forcing my eager flesh even farther into his waiting mouth. He laughed when I grumbled in frustration and lifted my eyebrows at him as he climbed off the edge of the bed so that he was on his knees between my legs.

He smirked at me, lifted one of my legs, and rested it on his shoulder. I squirmed a little bit because his delicious intent was clear all over his handsome face.

“Asa …” I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to say to him, but apparently his name was enough to convey all the emotion that was churning around inside of me.

“I know, Red. Believe me, I know.” And then his head disappeared between my legs and all conscious thought ceased.

I couldn’t stop myself from shoving my bound hands into his hair as the first swipe of his tongue across my sensitive folds had my entire body arching up off the bed. It made him chuckle, and the soft puff of air across my heated core sent every muscle in my body quaking. He let go of my backside with one of his hands and used it to tickle the delicate skin along my inner thigh. The double stimulation had my breath wheezing in and out and my blood running heavy and thick through my veins.

When he used the edge of his teeth on my clit and twisted so that he could sink his fingers inside the wet heat that he had stirred up, I almost came all the way off the bed. I yelled his name with a hoarse cry and let my head roll around on the bed because I felt like I was going out of my mind.

He stroked me with his tongue, he stroked me with his fingers, and he didn’t stop even when I was yanking on his hair like a wild woman, the handcuffs rattling around between us. I told him I was close and that just seemed to urge him on even more. He tortured my center of pleasure, not letting up with his gentle ministrations even after I broke apart under him. I was panting, spent, and told him I wanted my turn, but he just slid his fingers out and lifted me up higher so that he could feast on me some more and started all over again.

If it was possible to die from pleasure, I was pretty sure I was looking death right in the face. It was only after two more spine-bending and voice-breaking orgasms, one with his mouth, the other with his clever fingers and his mouth on my nipples, that he finally let up on me. I was a boneless, worthless pile of satisfied goo when he climbed to his feet and started stripping off his own clothes. I wanted to touch, to pet all the rippling muscles that he revealed as his shirt hit the floor. That was hard to do with my hands locked together, but the way his eyes followed my palms as they skated over his abs and down lower so that I could help him with his belt made the awkwardness worthwhile.

“No one else does for me what you do, Royal.” His voice was thick with passion and sweet with the South that still colored it. I looked up at him from under my lashes as I pulled his waiting erection free from the confines of denim that was keeping it from me. “You made this second chance I got at life worth living.”

I blinked up at him and wrapped a hand around the base of his cock. I had to admit there was something extra sexy about the sight with the twin bands of silver around my wrists while I moved my hands up and down the thick shaft. I could feel the blood surge in the heavy veins underneath as he watched what I was doing with intent eyes.

“You cared about me when I was having a really hard time caring about myself. You have always challenged me and never once made me feel like a pretty showpiece and nothing more. You have always valued me, Asa, and I can’t tell you how important that was for me.” I grinned up at him and gave the rigid flesh that was throbbing in my hands a little tug. “And some of your games are fun, Asa, so don’t ever change.”

He sucked in a breath that made all his stomach muscles contract in a delightful way as I bent forward and ran the tip of my tongue all along every hot and hard ridge of his cock. He groaned and bent forward a little so that he could thread his fingers through my hair as I took him all the way into my mouth and hollowed out my cheeks. I sucked on him and swirled my tongue around the plump head. He grunted my name as I took him deep enough that the short, golden hairs of his happy trail tickled my nose. He tasted musky and strong on my tongue and all I wanted to do was undo him the way he had just done to me.

His fingers pulled harder and he started to move with less care as the tip of him hit the back of my throat. I used the edge of my teeth carefully and forced him to spread his legs just enough that I could get my hands between them and around his tightly drawn up sac. I tickled him on the outside in much the same way he had tickled me on the inside, which was apparently too much for him to take because he pulled away with a jerk and toppled me back onto the bed in an ungraceful heap.

He forced my legs up around his sides, looped my arms back around his neck, and sank into me with a satisfied sigh. He gazed down at me like I was the only girl in the world and then lowered his head so that his lips were resting right next to my ear as he started to move in and out of me at a furious pace.

“I was without this for too long. As much as I like that pretty mouth, I like being inside you a hell of a lot more.” Well, that was good to know.

I gasped as he bit down on my earlobe and used the hand that wasn’t holding his weight off of me to twist and tug at one of my overly sensitized nipples until it just hovered on the edge of being painful. The way he moved, the force with which he took me, made it clear this wasn’t about makeup sex or even about reconnecting after months apart. No, Asa was marking me, making me his, and it was imprinted on every thrust of his hips, every sting of his teeth as they scraped across my neck. He was letting me know that this was it, and it made my heart and body so deliciously happy.

I felt my inner walls contract around him, trying to hold him inside as he moved within me. I could feel how wet I was around his hardness, could feel every little internal flutter along his shaft as he pounded into me. My hips automatically lifted up to his, trying to match the fervor with which he was loving me. He was filling me up with emotion and his impressive erection. All of it felt so good I wasn’t sure I was going to survive any more of his attention. Not that I was ever going to ask him to stop or go easy on me. I liked that he was rough. Liked that along with all the pleasure there was the occasional bite of discomfort. It reminded me that Asa was never going to be like any other guy and that being with him was always going to mean I needed to stay on my toes. He wasn’t an easy man to love, and frankly that was one of my favorite things about him. No one would ever meet my needs the way he did, and he proved it by sinking one of his hands into the hair at the base of my neck and giving it a tug that wasn’t at all gentle.

I couldn’t do much with my hands, so I had to hold him to me with my eyes. I refused to look away. I watched everything. I watched the way desire and passion made his eyes go hazy. I watched the way he watched me. I watched the way it made him smug and satisfied when he could see that I was once again close to falling over that edge of completion only he had ever been able to bring me to. I watched the love that shone out of him for me when I broke, and then I watched him drown in the love I had for him as he followed me over a split second later. He collapsed on me with a groan and buried his face in the curve of my neck where it was tender from his nipping at the skin there.

I rattled the handcuffs over his head with a little laugh. “I’m ready to be able to touch you now.”

He pulled out of me, which had us both gasping at the sexy glide, and rolled so that he was sitting next to me. He shoved his hands through his hair and grinned down at me. “Not sure I would have lasted for more than a minute if your hands had been free, Red. Where is the key?”

I had put it someplace where I absolutely wouldn’t leave it behind or forget it. While playing around like this with Asa was fun, there was no way I wanted anyone outside of this room to know that my cuffs had been used for anything other than hooking up a criminal. I directed him to the pocket in my purse where I had stashed the key, and it only took him a minute to set me free. The skin underneath the cuffs immediately started to tingle as a rush of blood began to flow back to my hands, and Asa picked up each wrist and put a kiss on my pulse. It made my heart flutter and the way he smiled against the skin touching his lips made me think he could feel it.

“So this is us, Royal. Me and you from here on out, and I’m not letting you go again.”

I reached out a finger and ran it across the arch of his eyebrow. “You get one secret, Asa. Everything else is mine. I’m not going to bring it up because I’m going to trust you and believe that you wouldn’t keep something from me that I absolutely need to know in order to make this relationship between us work. I’m not going to ask about it, but this is the one and only thing you get. The rest is all mine.”

He was a man with a past. He was a man with a promising future. He was a man that had a lot to give right now, and I needed to know that he was willing to share all of it with me. I didn’t care if that made me seem greedy or unreasonable. I was asking for it all.