Mine to Hold (18 page)

But she wanted more. Needed it, he knew.

He laid his mouth over hers, gently nudging her lips apart, then let her take the lead. Del grabbed his shoulders with a desperate gasp and surged against him, thrusting inside his mouth with a moan. Her fervency ripped away his restraint. Tyler grabbed her, met her, took her in greedily. Crap, he wanted to soothe her, but he couldn’t stop himself from trying to consume her in one fiery kiss.

Everywhere, they were entangled—arms, tongues, heartbeats. He clasped her hair tightly in his fingers, keeping her right where he wanted her. She felt so perfect to him. How the fuck could he ever let her go again?

Tomorrow, she might hate him, regret whatever happened next, but she needed something from him. He wouldn’t turn her away, even if she just wanted to be held. The first time he’d touched her, he’d done it at Eric’s request, trying to push aside how badly he burned for Delaney. But even then, he’d wanted to give her what she’d needed. Right now, he’d think not of his throbbing dick, but only of Del and how he could ease her.

With a sharp intake of breath, she pulled away, chest heaving as she stared. Her eyes were so damn blue and resolved.

“Tyler?”

“Yeah?” He panted.

Please, God, don’t let her push him away.

She whispered, “Will you . . . make me forget everything?”

Chapter Nine

E
VERY
word Del spoke tingled through Tyler’s body. He clenched his jaw. “I only know one way to do that, angel.”

“Please.” She tugged at his towel and brushed her soft lips against his neck.

Lightning shot down his spine.

An instant later, he eased her back and pressed her to the mattress, staring at her through the shadows. Need and insecurity, fear and vulnerability—they were all over her face, and it damn near broke his heart.

Maybe she and Eric would have divorced, eventually. But he’d certainly helped the situation along, unleashing all his buried feelings for her that night. It was at least half his fault that she’d been alone for the last two years. No fucking way was she going to be alone tonight.

Tyler wrapped his arms around her and captured her mouth under his. Sweet. Always so sweet. Open and ardent and tasting like soft woman. From the second he’d torn away the veneer of their platonic friendship and kissed her two years ago, he’d searched for this sense of connectedness with every other female he’d touched.

As he sank into the kiss, he wondered if he’d ever find it with anyone else. His road seemed to lead back to Del.

Tomorrow was far away, and he had no idea if he was truly built for the long haul, but he’d stay with her and love her well until this road ended.

Pulling back, he cupped her cheek. “God, I’ve missed you.”

A little smile lifted her rosy lips for a moment, then the frown came back. Damn, she was working hard to fight tears.

“I missed you, too. I wanted to talk to you so badly so many times.”

Her words were like a stab to the chest. He didn’t want to blame her; he hadn’t tried hard enough to get over his hurt and pride and stay with her. Her rejection had stung like a bitch, and he’d gone off to lick his wounds. Now he knew that she’d been through a lot, but he looked at all his wasted time and wanted to punch a fucking wall.

“Why didn’t you? I was aching to hear from you.”

“I . . .” She shook her head. “I didn’t know what you’d say. I wasn’t anything like the girls you dated. I know me asking you to leave that night hurt you. Part of me wondered if you’d take Eric’s side, since you two were so tight. I guess I didn’t want to burden you.”

What the hell?
“I would never have skipped out on you when you needed me.”

“You’re different now. It’s clear you’re more . . . solid.” She shrugged. “I think at the time I felt incredibly guilty for betraying Eric in my heart. And I was most afraid of hearing that you’d done it for Eric and didn’t want me anymore.”

Her confession shocked him, and fire charged through his veins. “I know the guilt. I felt it, too, for making love to you because I wanted to for reasons beyond Eric asking. But regardless, we gave him exactly what he wanted. Don’t ever forget that or take the blame on yourself.”

“I’ve worked hard to get to that realization, too.”

“I felt guilty because I wanted you too much.” He swallowed. “I still do.”

After a breathless pause, Del wrapped her arms around his neck and lifted her mouth to his. She didn’t have to ask him twice. He angled his head and nudged her lips apart, opening her wider to him, sinking deeply to drink in that addictive taste of hers and the rightness flowing between them.

Refusing to waste another second, he tore off her T-shirt, exposing her delicate shoulders, narrow rib cage, so-soft skin. Tyler kissed his way down her jaw, her neck, nipping at her lobe, loving the way she turned her head to give him greater access. She clutched him, keeping him close, and moaned softly.

The sound went straight to his cock. Tyler closed his eyes. He wanted to pin her beneath him, taste her until he felt her pleasure on his tongue, then force his cock into her so he could drown deep inside her. He wanted to do every nasty, possessive thing to her that he’d ever imagined.

But now wasn’t the fucking time to unleash his inner caveman. She needed comfort.

With a ragged sigh, he propped himself on his hands, lifting his body off her.
Slow, dumb ass. Go slow
. “You okay? I’ll back off.”

“No.” She panted, reaching for him. “More.”

Did she know what she was saying? He eased down onto her again. “How long has it been?”

She bit her lip. “Since the night we conceived Seth.”

Shock blanched him, but a possessive fever rolled right behind it. It didn’t matter that she’d been married to someone else. He was the last man she’d taken into her body. And right now, he burned to keep it that way.

Mine
.

No way he could go slow now.

Tyler covered every inch of her, pinning her to the bed as he gave her a blistering kiss. He pressed her mouth open wider, demanding she take more. Del opened sweetly, accepting the ferocity of his desire, which only made him rage hotter. He wrapped one arm around her waist. The other worked the clasp of her bra. In seconds, it melted away. He tore it from her body and flung it across the room.

Del gasped and moved to cover herself. Tyler wasn’t having any of that. He grabbed her wrists and pinned them to the bed, glancing down at the lush press of her breasts against his chest, her beaded nipples searing his skin.

“Don’t,” he growled. “I’m going to get my mouth on those, angel. I’m going to roll them around on my tongue, suck and kiss and lick them until your pussy is soaked and you’re scratching at my back.”

“Oh God.” Del’s voice wobbled.

Yeah, she was finally starting to get the idea that he wanted her fiercely. And she still didn’t completely understand. But she would.

Slowly, she arched up, offering herself to him so beautifully.

“Fuck, yes.”

Keeping her wrists pinned, he slid down her body until his lips hovered right over one of her nipples. Rosy brown, plump, puckered. Her clean feminine scent was strong here, and he inhaled. That hint of sunlit cotton on her skin, along with musky female, drugged him.

He could have started gently, kissed the side of her breast, tongued its swell. Fuck, no. He opened his mouth over her nipple, sucking it in fiercely, pressing it between his tongue and the roof of his mouth before nipping at it with his teeth.

Del gasped. “Tyler . . .”

In her voice, he heard surprise and pleasure. That was green light enough for him. He did it again, swirling his tongue around the luscious tip, toying, torturing, swelling it. Then he pounced on the other and did the same.

Beneath him, she thrashed but didn’t fight his hold. Her little sighs, gasps, and moans went straight to his dick. Her skin flushed; those gorgeous blue eyes were dilating. She liked being manhandled.

That realization ripped away what little restraint he had.

He needed more control, wanted her immobile, where he could do anything and everything he chose. A glance at the headboard had him cursing. Nothing to tie her to there, and he knew from their conversation earlier that she fantasized about it. Those pretty flushed cheeks had proven her denials false.

Tyler had never been much for bondage. He could take it or leave it. Del was different.

Flinging himself to his feet, he prowled around the room, searching, seeking . . . He wrenched open the closet doors and found exactly what he needed.

“Tyler?” Her voice shook.

He grabbed the two aging, overbleached bathrobes the hotel had provided from the closet, then tossed aside the hangers. As he dropped the garments on the bed next to her, Del frowned.

Yeah, she didn’t get it. But she was going to real quick.

With impatient hands, he tore into the first robe, pulling the tie completely free from the garment. He did the same to the second.

Let the fun begin
.

He gripped the two terry-cloth strips in his hand and stalked closer. Del’s pretty eyes grew round.

“W-what are you going to do?”

Tyler might think she was nervous if her nipples hadn’t gotten harder.

He just smiled and tore through the snap and zipper of her capri pants, then shoved them down her thighs. She wore a little blue thong with a small, silky bow right above her pussy. The cotton was faded and comfortable and damn near transparent.

Enough to see that she was bare and lovely.

“Take them off for me or I’ll rip them. Your choice.”

She blinked, hesitated. “What’s going on?”

“Not quick enough.” He grabbed the little panties in his tight fists.

“Wait!” On wobbly legs, she stood. He didn’t give her a spare inch of space, but kept her wedged between him and the bed as she lowered the thong down her hips.

Tyler took over, forcing them past her thighs, to the ground. Then he threw them across the room, thinking that they really belonged in the trash. Damn things had been in his way. He was beginning to see that they’d always be an unwanted barrier between him and—he looked down and lost his mind, staring at Del’s perfectly bare pussy.

God, he couldn’t wait to have that.

He guided her back to the bed. “Give me your wrist.”

Slowly, warily, she extended it to him. She wasn’t exactly sure what he was up to, but she trusted him, and it was beautiful. Suddenly, he began to understand Jack’s, Hunter’s, and Logan’s quest to push their wives’ boundaries. It wasn’t just to please them, but to know how fully those vibrant women would surrender because they loved and believed in their men. The push-pull he felt now only seemed to reinforce his bond with Delaney.

Tyler wanted more.

Silently, he looped the tie around her wrist, then rested her arm back against the bed, near her shoulder. With his other hand, he grabbed her thigh, spreading her legs wide to get his first full look at her cunt.

Fuck. So wet, already swollen. Pink, perfect. Beautiful.

“You want this.” His stare drilled into her as he willed her to answer.

“Yes. I shouldn’t, but . . .”

“Fuck shouldn’t. This is about you and me and what feels good. I’m going to silence that destructive little voice in your head spouting this ‘shouldn’t’ crap.”
And make sure you don’t worry about Seth, danger, or death anymore tonight
. “I’ll give you something much better to focus on.”

Del’s breath caught. The edge of fear was getting to her. The anticipation. He was loving dishing out the dominance and making her tremble.

Tyler looped the bathrobe belt around her thigh, then pulled on both ends, forcing her wrist down and her knee up at her side.

“Give me your other wrist,” he demanded.

Understanding dawned in those pretty blue eyes. Del realized that he intended to spread her wide open and immobilize her completely.

He waited a second, breath held. He was asking for a lot of trust after everything that had passed between them. His heart chugged, and desire gnawed at him viciously while she worked it through in her head.

Finally, she held her free hand out to him, looking right into his eyes with all the trust in the world.

That giving expression sizzled right down to his dick.

Tyler didn’t hesitate another moment before he wrapped the belt around her delicate wrist, then reached for her knee, opening that leg to her side, and knotted the fabric there. Now, she was wide fucking open, each arm and leg attached, resting at her sides. The restraints lifted her hips to him perfectly. God, he wanted to pounce on her that second and lay claim to her sweet flesh—seduce her into wanting only him.

He forced the urge down for a second. “Is anything too tight? Hurt?”

“No.” She sounded breathy, looked flushed, as she gazed at him softly, with need.

Clenching his fists, he forced logic for one more minute. “Any requests before I take you in every way known to man?”

Her breath caught. That pretty little tongue swiped across her lips, then she looked down his body, lingering on his hard cock, before her wandering gaze made it back to his face.

“Just one,” she whispered. “Can you make the knots tighter?”

Oh fuck.
Six little words, and he was at the brink. She wanted to be more completely under his control? “Absolutely.”

He made a mental note to thank Jack and the Edgington brothers later for their frequent conversations about handling the pretty, willful women in their lives.

Tyler bent to his knots, tightened, rechecked that she still had circulation. “Move your hands and ankles. Anything too tight now?”

She shook her head, her eyes silently begging him. “Nothing.”

“Then get ready, angel. I might be done with you by dawn. Maybe.”

Del barely gasped in a single breath before he was on her again. He pushed past her lips to taste the deepest recesses of her mouth, gripped her hips, and shoved his cock right against that pretty pussy. God, she was so wet and bare, he could feel her sliding all over him, coating him with her cream. He ground against her. It had been good this morning, feeling her lush curves all against his cock, but this . . . Fuck, he was going to lose his mind.

Tyler tore his mouth from hers to stare down at her. Oh yeah, she was still with him, jagged breathing, pleading blue eyes. How had he never gotten the upside of bondage before?