Hold Me Close (9 page)

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“I would ask you the same thing but I’m pretty sure we were set up. Gabe sent me here on an assignment to check out their dungeon. Kept going on and on about how incredibly state of the art it is and that refusing the invitation to visit would reflect poorly on Purgatory. He also insisted there were personal matters going on in his life that prevented him from leaving town at the moment.”

Crushing disappointment pressed down on Bonnie’s chest. For a fleeting moment she thought he’d come for her. That he wanted her so badly he wouldn’t let her walk away and had literally come to what felt like the edge of the earth to find her.

“I’m supposed to be on vacation.” She blurted out the first thing that popped in her head besides how much she wanted him.

“Some vacation.” He pulled her into his arms and rubbed his hands from her shoulders to her ass. “You looked ready to sacrifice yourself to the angry gods out here.”

“I like it. Sunny beaches have never been my thing. They remind me of family vacations that sucked.” She also liked how his hands felt on her hot skin.
 

“What about this?” He rubbed his opposite hand across the collar at her neck. “Why are you still wearing it?”

Her brain froze for a second. She couldn’t tell him that she didn’t want to take it off. Instead, she shrugged. “Forgot about it in the whirlwind of leaving and hopping on a plane. The minute I left the club I was rushed to the airport and then here. I was so exhausted, I fell into bed and slept all day.” Obviously he didn’t want her wearing it.

“I’m sorry I forgot to take it off at the club.” She reached behind her neck for the buckle and started to undo the fastener.

“No.” He grabbed her hand and part of her hair, pulling both away. “When I’m ready to take it off, I’ll take it off.” The stern vibration in his voice washed over her, sending a jolt zipping through her body.
 

“But—”
 

“Bonnie, don’t. No more topping from the bottom. Is that clear? If there is something that you want, you can ask and I’ll take it under consideration. If I tell you to do or not do something, you say Yes, Sir. It’s that simple. At least until the collar comes off. Do you understand?”

With her heart racing faster than before she answered, “Yes, Sir.”

 
“Good. Now let’s go inside and you can tell me what got you out here on your knees.” He bent over and retrieved her robe. “I’m beyond curious.”

Her heart sank. There was something about this moment of the two of them in the wilds of nature with his hands on her naked body that she didn’t want to end. Talk would lead to him telling her what he didn’t want from her. She pulled back slightly. “I don’t want to go inside yet.”

“Why not?” he asked. He still held her robe but he’d stopped trying to wrap it around her shoulders.
 

“Inside is reality, however harsh it may be. I came outside to escape it.”

His brows pulled together. “Bonnie, look around you. Nothing about this place screams reality. Hell, I’m not even sure if you are really here or if my imagination has conjured you. And if one more person says the island is going to give me what I need, I’m liable to hit something.”

Bonnie raised her hand and tried to hide the smile threatening to burst free. She also worked to tamp down the joy she felt knowing that she’d been on his mind today too. “I know what you mean, Sir. But at least out here, I don’t know, there’s something wild about it. We’re free.”

He stared at her for several long agonizing heart beats. She really wasn’t trying to tell him what to do. Standing in front of her, he seemed as cagey as the storm. The short sleeve navy shirt he wore hugged his body in the wind and the ink on his arms drew her gaze. And now that she’d seen him fully naked, she ached to see all of him again. Too many tattoos to count covered his skin, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t run her fingers or maybe even her tongue over each and every one until she’d memorized them. Yeah, she liked that idea.

“I seem to have a hard time saying no to you.” He pulled her back into his arms and brushed the hair out of her eyes. “But you need to learn a lesson in not getting your way all the time. On your knees.” He dropped her robe at her feet, making a temporary cushion.

She blinked once, then twice, before slowly sliding to the ground, feeling happier than she’d felt since leaving Purgatory.
 

Dex tangled his fingers in her hair and pulled her head back until their gazes met. “Now tell me what brings my sub out into the unpredictable wildness of a passing storm?”
 

She thought about skirting the truth and avoiding any embarrassment when he discovered the real mistake she’d made. But she’d done enough damage keeping things inside. If nothing else, she’d tell him the truth, he’d reject her and then she’d know. “It kind of fits what’s inside me.”

“Elaborate,” he said while rubbing his fingers into her scalp. The firm, insistent pressure began melting some of her anxiety.

“I haven’t felt right since I walked out at the end of our scene.” She closed her eyes at the memory and fought back the rising tears.

His grip tightened. “Nope, don’t close your eyes, little girl. I want to see you as you apologize for your actions.”
 

Her stomach jolted at his use of ‘little girl.’ It never sounded quite right coming from him. Maybe because that’s what Jim always called her, or maybe she just didn’t want to be a little girl anymore.
 

“I am sorry. I acted like a child unable to handle the slightest change in our relationship.”

“We had sex, Bonnie. Considering that was one of your previous limits, it deserved some consideration. We needed to talk. We still do.”

Dex took a step closer and Bonnie held her breath. He was so close to her, she thought she felt the heat coming off his body. Not to mention his crotch was practically in her face and close enough to touch.

“What else?”

“I didn’t expect to feel so emotional. I mean after—you know.”

“After we fucked?”

She winced. Her brain had told her all along it wasn’t love. Just sex. Or more like just fucking. But she hadn’t listened as usual.

He must have sensed the drop in her emotions because he pulled her against his thigh and turned her head so that her cheek rested against his pants. “There’s never anything wrong with fucking, Bonnie sub. Especially with you. Every sweet moment was damned amazing. Then on the couch…”

His voice changed to a hoarse whisper before trailing off. She lifted her head and stared at him. His eyes were screwed shut and his jaw clamped tight. He was lost in a memory.
Of them?
But the tension made him look stressed not happy.

God she was so confused. What did it mean?
 

Whatever it was, she couldn’t pass up another moment to make a memory neither of them would forget. But this time she wanted to focus on his pleasure.
 

“Sir?”
 

His eyes flew open and he looked down, his gaze locking to hers.

“Can I touch you? I mean.” She paused. “Really touch you?”

She saw the little muscle work repeatedly at the side of his jaw as he considered her request. There wasn’t much chance in hell he’d say yes, but the tension lines in his forehead and neck told her he needed something. Maybe not exactly her, but maybe who didn’t matter as much as what right now. At least to him. To her, it meant everything in the world for him to allow her to give him pleasure.

Finally, after a minute or two passed he nodded his head and spoke. “I’ll allow it.”

She kept her smile small and polite, as protocol demanded, before she reached for the waistband of his pants. With shaking fingers she unbuckled his belt and pulled it slowly from the loops.

“Kiss my belt, Bonnie girl. Show it some respect because I plan to use it to warm your ass later.”

Her stomach flipped at the thought. He’d never used something other than a flogger or a whip. This felt far more personal. He wore it on his body and now wanted to use it on her. She pressed it to her lips while keeping her gaze locked on his. Damn, just the idea of him using this on her got her impossibly wet. Then she handed it back to him for safekeeping.

She lifted her hands and went for the button keeping his waistband fastened.
 

“No.” He blocked her hands. “Hands at your side and no touching until I say so.”

Her lip trembled with the need to protest. So much for getting her way.

He leaned forward and rolled one of her nipples between his fingers until giving it a pinch that nearly made her squeal. Her reaction changed something in him as he tore at his jeans, released the button and zipper, then shoved the pants out of his way until his cock bounced free from confinement. The thick gloriousness of him in her face made her mouth water. She couldn’t have stopped from licking her lips if she tried. But when he grabbed it and wrapped his long fingers around it in a tight fist, she moaned.
 

“Damn, Bonnie. How can you be this perfect? I should stop this.”

Fear shot through her. He couldn’t stop now. “Let me please you just this once.” She begged, not because she had to, but because that’s how bad she wanted to do this. “Just once.”
 

“You and I both know there is no just once between us. I’m afraid that’s going to be the problem. We need to talk about boundaries.”
 

“I promise we’ll talk. Right now I need you.”
 

The tight compress of his lips eased a fraction. “Then suck me, Bonnie sub. Suck me good.”

Oh. My. God. Her sex clenched as she leaned forward and slid her lips over the crown of his bulging erection. There her tongue went to work, laving the sensitive underside with frantic side-to-side sweeps. Heat flooded her from the top of her head to her feet. She no longer cared about anything else because she had him right where she wanted him.

“Fuuuck,” he said. It actually came out more like a groan than a word. He wrapped his hand around the back of her head and pulled her toward him, forcing her to swallow a lot more than the tip.
 

Bonnie focused on relaxing so she could give up control and take what he wanted to give. That’s all that mattered right now. What he wanted. Or what she could do to drive him crazy with pleasure, as he so often did to her. When he eased the pressure on her head, she sucked hard, determined to not only take more, but to prove how much she wanted him. Maybe, just maybe, if she showed him how much this meant to her, he’d understand she wasn’t exactly what he thought.
 

“Dammit, woman. Your mouth is almost as hot as your pussy. And it’s going to kill me.” His fingers tangled in her hair and tightened on the strands. Tingles erupted along her scalp and traveled on a shiver down her spine. She imagined goose bumps covering her flesh.

In a desperate attempt to not be distracted by how good he made
her
feel, she grabbed his thighs for balance and swallowed against him. For a second her gag reflex kicked in before it calmed again. To her surprise and great pleasure, he grew thicker and a pulse of precum landed at the back of her tongue. That burst of tang and musk broke her restraint. She pulled back and dove forward again, shoving him again as deep as she could take him. She didn’t stop there, repeating the move over and over again.
 

The tingles in her scalp turned to fire that only fueled her faster. Between her desire to give and his hand assisting her efforts, Bonnie began to shake. Despite the wind still gusting around them, all she heard was the heavy breaths sawing in and out of Dex’s lungs. The noises deep in his throat alternated between moans and grunts as she did everything in her power to push him over the teetering edge.
 

“Bonnie…” He half-yelled and half-groaned.
 

One minute she had him buried in her throat about to come and the next he’d pulled her off and was hoisting her over his shoulder.
 

“Dex. Sir. What are you—?”
 

He didn’t let her finish before she received a burning smack across the back of her thighs.
 

“Shut up, Bonnie.”

“But—”

Smack.

“Seriously. Stop talking now.”

Chapter Eight

Dex tightened his arm across the back of Bonnie’s legs and squeezed harder. Fucking woman and her goddamn mouth. No female should be that fucking talented. Two seconds more and he’d have come so hard down her throat she’d have choked.
 

Never in his life had anyone threatened his control like she did. He jerked at the door and it popped open under the force of his anger and slammed against the wall. He slapped his hand on the wood to keep it from bouncing back and hitting him in the face.
 

The need to be inside her rode him so hard, he could barely fucking breathe. His vision had blurred when they were outside and he’d not only crossed over to the danger zone, he’d kicked the fucking barrier out of his way. She wasn’t supposed to be his, but his body wasn’t listening to his brain. He had every intention of claiming her in every possible way before the night was over. Fuck the fancy dungeon and fuck this island.