Because We Belong: A Because You Are Mine Novel (34 page)

“Ian,” she exhaled, a convulsion of emotion going through her. “Ian, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be. The last thing you should be doing is apologizing,” he whispered harshly, grimacing, absorbing her shudders. “It pains me to see you in this place, but . . .” He shook his head and swallowed, loosening his hold on her and caressing her temple. “It strangely helps, too, I think. I don’t know. It’s strange. Tonight, I feel like it really is possible to maybe wrap my head around this whole nightmare. And I really don’t think it’s just because of Lucien being here, or discovering what an . . .
interesting
person Kam Reardon really is.”

“I don’t want you to feel alone,” she said. “If I’ve made you feel that way, because you knew I wouldn’t accept any of this, I’m sorry. That was selfish of me. I thought you were the one being selfish with all this, but I was wrong.”

He leaned down, tilting her face up. He kissed her hard. Gentle. She didn’t know which, and never did when it came to Ian. She felt his body stir and pressed closer, desirous of his heat and hardness.

“You are the most generous woman I know,” he said against her lips a moment later. “The last thing you’re being is selfish.”

“You always think this poison you speak of is going to taint me, Ian,” she murmured breathily. “But love is the strongest antidote to your fears . . . and yes . . . even against this supposed taint.” She combed her fingers through his thick, short hair, scraping his scalp. He closed his eyes and groaned. “Let me make love to you here. Right here. In the middle of all your darkness,” she said emphatically as she began to kiss his jaw, tenderly abrading her lips with his whiskers. She kissed his leaping pulse and he started.

“No,” he said harshly, running his hands along her arms and captured her wrists. He held her and stepped away. His eyes shone with barely restrained emotion. “But you came, and I can’t change that. And now that you’re here, I have to have you. I suffered too much in this very room, your absence like a gaping hole inside me. I can’t turn you away now. So
I
will make love to
you
. And then we’ll both know if what you say is true, or if I am just using you to chase away the shadows.”

He transferred her wrists to the small of her back and held them there with one hand. He bent down, forcing her back to arch, and began to devour her.

* * *

He became even more quickly intoxicated by her taste tonight, as greedy as he was for it. How he wanted to believe what she said was true, that her sweetness wasn’t just a temporary escape from all this darkness, but a true home.

His rightful place.

He used his free hand to touch her, relishing restraining her supple body in the taut arch, knowing she was his to do with as he pleased, all because it was her pleasure as well. She was a decadence he couldn’t believe he deserved, but he must, because her eagerness was inescapable. His cock swelled at the sensation of the taut lines of her back and ribs, the delicious round, firmness of her breasts beneath the fitted button-down shirt. He filled his hand with her, absorbed her soft moan into his mouth, felt her heat begin to resonate from her sex against his belly. His cock reared almost furiously.

He hissed and broke their kiss, releasing his hold on her wrists. Taking a step back with a goal in mind, he paused abruptly at the vision she made. Her lips were dark pink, damp and parted, her cheeks flushed. Her dark gold, red-tinted hair fell in loose waves down her back and arms. Her dark eyes shone with lust and love, her gaze like a steamy blessing.

He strode rapidly to the edge of the room, where there was a wooden bench. Ian thought it once might have served the purpose of being a location for placing shoes and slippers, but the lowness of the seat was what he wanted for his purpose. He lifted it and rapidly carried it to where Francesca stood, watching him silently. He set it down, his gaze once again glued to her luminous face and pink, lush lips.

She really was here.

“Sit,” he rasped. The bench was much lower than a normal chair, so when she sat she was at kneeling level.

“I don’t like to think of you kneeling on that disgusting carpet,” he muttered, holding her stare as he fleetly unfastened his button fly. Her nostrils flared slightly as her gaze lowered over his abdomen to his crotch. He grimaced as he pulled his heavy erection free of his underwear and pants.

“No,” he said when she immediately reached for him, her small hand tempting him, making his voice harsher than he intended. “I’m going to restrain you.”

He hadn’t unpacked, preferring for some reason to live out of his suitcase while he was at Aurore than to put his clothing in the closet and drawers, like a regular resident would. He found the tie he’d worn to the press conference and went behind Francesca. His cock jerked in the air when she immediately put her wrists behind her back. He knelt behind her, letting the tie fall to his knee, and moved her rose-gold hair aside to kiss her fragrant neck.

“You’re so sweet,” he murmured thickly as he began to unbutton her blouse, referring to her readiness to be bound, her insistence upon being there with him . . . everything. “I used to think I was taking advantage of you because you always gave yourself so freely, but you truly want to, don’t you?” he asked, his lips moving on her tender skin. He opened the placket of her shirt, his hands immediately seeking out her warm, satiny-smooth skin. He groaned at the sensation.

“Yes,” she whispered harshly. His fingers slipped over the front of her bra, and he grunted in satisfaction when he felt the front clasp. He opened the garment, spreading the cups back over her breasts.

“Yes,”
she added emphatically when he filled his hands with the bounty of her bare breasts, shaping them to his palm, massaging them, pinching the plump nipples, glorying in her flesh. He watched over her shoulder, spellbound by the sight of his large hands on her full, soft breasts.

“Arch your back again,” he ordered softly near her ear. He salivated when she did as she was told, her spine curving, the mounds of her breasts rising. He pulled her shirt and bra down over her upper arms and left them. She was bound by the garments, but it pleased him to restrain her wrists as well, so he did so quickly with the silk tie.

Her hair was scattered on her shoulders when he walked around to the front of her, her bare breasts heaving. She kept her back arched, displaying herself without a trace of the embarrassment she might have shown in the same act even a year ago. Her eyes glittered with excitement when her stare lowered to his cock protruding from his fly.

His hands itching to touch such a flagrant display of erotic beauty, he leaned down and stroked the sides of her ribs, feeling her shiver. He squeezed her breasts into his hands, knowing just what she liked—a little rough, a little sweet, greedy, and even lewd. He slapped the side of one breast lightly, watching as she bit her lush lower lip to stifle a moan.

“You’re mine,” he said.

“Yes.”

He bent and ravished her mouth with his, continuing to stimulate her breasts, squeezing them together and finessing the nipples until she moaned feverishly against his stabbing tongue.

“Your mouth is so hot,” he muttered, straightening. “This is going to feel so good.” Without another word, he arrowed the fat, tapered head of his cock between her lips. She clamped around him immediately, sucking him deeper. He grimaced in pleasure, pulsing his hips, enjoying the sight of his cock stretching her pink lips and her dark eyes gazing up at him, so radiant . . . so giving . . . so helpless.

She had always been willing to accept her helplessness when it came to this thing between them. Why hadn’t he?

He growled in pleasure at the sensation of her pulling at him, tempting him deeper. He’d first taught her how to perform fellatio when she was bound, and he continued to have a preference for it thus, even now. She knew the only way she could control the act was with the movement of her head and her strong suck, and now he took away the former, gripping the hair at the back of her head so that she couldn’t drive him mad with her bobbing. It left only her suck, and she used what resource she had to perfection, making him snarl, his eyes rolling back in his head.

“There. Is that what you want?” he said roughly as he began to pulse his hips, fucking her mouth shallowly, sparing her throat. She almost imperceptibly nodded, her gaze never wavering from his face as he looked down at her. He continued to hold her immobile, using her for his pleasure, plunging his cock between her rigid lips. She sucked determinedly, her nostrils flaring. He gasped at the delicious sensation of the soft side of her cheeks brushing his stabbing cock.

They maintained eye contact as he carefully breached her throat. She shuddered, but quickly stilled herself. God, it felt divine.

He grunted gutturally and slid his cock out of her. She said nothing when he turned and hurried to the bathroom, coming back with a towel and a bottle of lubricant. He’d washed the towels when he arrived, so he knew they were clean. He’d washed the sheets, too, but the bedding itself was dusty and moth-eaten; it was only a matter of time before the sheets grew befouled. Francesca shouldn’t come into contact with that bedding.

He shoved back the heavy velvet coverlet. A puff of dust rose when the bedspread landed. He quickly lay down two clean towels and returned for Francesca, helping her to rise. She just stared up at him as he reached around her and unbound her wrists, then begun to undress her.

“Do you remember the evening . . . before I left?” he asked hoarsely, removing her shirt and bra and unfastening her jeans. She didn’t try to help him, but stood there compliantly while he undressed her.

“I’ll never forget it,” she said.

He glanced up at her face, pausing in the process of working her jeans and underwear over her hips and ass, her smoky voice capturing his attention.

“I must have watched the tape of your face a thousand times,” he said starkly. He blinked, rising out of the spell of her eyes, and bent to remove her boots and socks. “I used to watch it here. In this filthy room. You think I’ve been obsessed by Trevor Gaines, but I was obsessed by the image of you giving yourself to me.”

He stood, having removed all her clothes. He cupped her jaw. “I’m going to make love to you now like I did that night, like I’ve thought about doing in this room too many times to count. It was the image of you that kept me going when I was so alone here in this cursed place. Now you’re here.”

“Yes. I’m here with you,” she said in a low, quavering voice.

He moved her toward the bed and the spread towels. He urged her sit at the edge, where he again bound her hands, this time in front of her.

“Now lie back and place your hands above your head. That’s right,” he muttered thickly, adjusting her slightly so that when she lay back, her bottom was at the very edge of the bed. “Now bend your knees toward your chest.”

He stared down at her positioned body as he began to undress.

* * *

She trembled with excitement and love as she watched him remove his clothing, twisting her head on the mattress to see what she could between her bent knees of his muscular thighs, large, erect cock, narrow hips, tight-as-a-drum abdomen, and powerful chest. She licked her lower lip, almost tasting her anticipation as he poured some of the silky lubricant onto his fingers and placed the bottle next to her on the bed. He stepped between her thighs, so big and powerful. The thrill of submission that went through her at that moment, perhaps the strongest she’d ever experienced—pure and concentrated, true and complete. He grasped her knees and rolled them back, exposing her sex and ass to him. He slipped his middle finger into her anus, and she moaned.

Neither of them looked away from the other’s face as he finger-fucked her ass, his arm moving faster and more stringently as time passed, their breathing coming more erratically. After he’d prepared her sufficiently, he lubricated himself and pushed the thick head of his cock against the resisting hole.

“Press against it, lovely,” he rasped.

She pushed with her hips, moaning at the pain as he slipped into her ass. He opened both hands on her hips, holding her secure, and began to pulse in and out of her.

“Sweetest ass in the world,” he said, his blue-eyed gaze boring down on her face. “Sweetest everything.” He appeared to be utterly rapt as he deepened his strokes, impaling the snug flesh, his manner not harsh, but firm. Demanding.

His pelvis bumped against her ass cheeks.

“Look at you,” he said, pausing, his chest heaving, perspiration gilding his muscular torso. “God, it can’t be possible, but you’re giving even more of yourself tonight.” The realization seemed to enflame him. She saw the flash of lust in his blue eyes. He thrust, their skin smacking together. “Aren’t you?” he asked more harshly as he began to pump, fucking her in earnest.

“Yes,” she moaned, overwhelmed by the sensation of being filled by him, inundated by forbidden, delicious pressure. Her head twisted on the mattress. “Use me,” she pleaded. “I’m here, Ian. Use me for whatever you need.”

He growled viciously and accepted her invitation. She watched him as he abandoned himself to his own dark, primal nature, pushing down on her calves so that her knees pressed tightly against her breasts, fucking her with long, forceful, thorough strokes. Her clit throbbed and burned at the vision, but she strangely didn’t wish he’d see to her pleasure. It was a thrill enough to see him lose himself. He’d always expressed amazement that she could give herself so trustingly to him, but at that moment, he trusted himself enough to give completely to her.

“Yes. Just like that,” she chanted between swollen lips. “Fuck me so hard.”

The ancient bed began to rattle on the wood floor from his forceful possession. She stared dazedly at the trembling canopy above her, utterly consumed.

“Look at me,” he ordered roughly.

She stared at him, panting for breath, as he flexed his hips powerfully. She whimpered as he drove into her. He jerked and swelled inside her. He released one calf, reaching between her legs, his thumb finding her clit.