Naked & Unleashed (6 page)

“Sir, we’ve arrived.” The driver’s voice filtered back.

“Later,” he muttered before licking into her a second time. His chin pressed against the delicate flesh below her entrance and he opened his mouth wider, scraping with his teeth as he worked his tongue deeper and deeper.

“
Sir,
” William repeated. “Your flight will be boarding soon and there isn’t another available until midday.”

Mikal turned his head and swore against her thigh. “Delay it.”

“I don’t believe that’s actually possible,” William said drily. “You’ll have to check in immediately.”

“No,” she moaned. Desperate for completion, Callista finally gave in to the urge to shove her fingers through his hair. She dislodged his ponytail as she pressed her fingertips against his scalp and pulled him back to her, forcing his mouth to her pussy. “Mikal, please. Just a little more time. I’m so close and—”

“Callista, be quiet,” he said, cutting her off mid-reasoning. “As much as I enjoy it when you beg, I’m not making you now.”

She bit the insides of her lips and stared down at him. Mikal gave a satisfied nod before he shifted position and lifted her left leg to drape over his shoulder.

“Hold your pussy open and pull the hood of your clit back,” he instructed as he folded his forearm across her stomach, pinning her to the seat.

Deep muscles contracted in response to his explicit instructions. Wetness overflowed her well and slid between the cheeks of her ass. Barely breathing, she slipped her hand between them and did as he told her to do, pushing her fingers through the thick, hot honey and spreading them wide to part her lower lips for him. She used her other hand to gently pinch her clit and draw the protective hood away from the slick tip.

Mikal dragged his hand down through her cream and, while she watched, slowly worked three fingers into her pussy. He angled his wrist toward the roof and twisted deeper, so deep her toes curled against his legs and she squirmed against his hold on her torso. So deep she needed to escape.

But he didn’t let her go. His little finger disappeared into her sheath and her head lolled against the leather, the muscles in her neck no longer willing or able to support the weight of her head. Mikal fingered her like he was searching for something, dragging his fingertips along the wet, sensitive nerves, pressing first against her cervix and later against the roof of her tunnel. Her clit throbbed, needy and hot, but she was afraid to touch herself. Afraid he’d stop if she did, afraid she’d fall apart if he stopped.

The sounds of their breathing and his slick, wet strokes filled the car. She practically panted, unable to draw quite enough air to fill her lungs. When he skimmed across her G-spot, she broke the silence with a wail. Mikal teased her toward the edge of something dangerous and when he got her in position, he sucked her clit into his mouth and bit so hard, her wail became a shriek and she fell off the edge. Great, racking contractions shook her body. Her pussy clamped down hard around his fingers and the renewed pressure on her G-spot flung her out into some black space where gravity didn’t exist and only the weight of his forearm kept her on the seat.

The tremors went on forever. She was dimly aware of Mikal pulling her onto his lap and holding her against his chest, of him telling William to reschedule their flight if he couldn’t arrange for a delay. Eventually she calmed to the soothing rhythm of Mikal’s hands rubbing her back and his heart beating beneath her cheek. She relaxed her grip on his shirt and came back into herself, taking mental stock of her situation—which was a state of total satisfaction. And total helplessness.

The helplessness bothered her. She licked her dry lips and said, “I really did something dangerous last night.”

His hands stilled but he didn’t loosen his embrace. “You made yourself extremely vulnerable and defenseless. You could’ve been hurt in much more extreme ways than a few shallow cuts.”

“I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t get rid of these overwhelming urges. They were messing with my head. Making me lose touch with reality. Yesterday, with you—” She stopped herself and opened her eyes to look up at him. “You must think I’m out of my mind.”

“I think you’ve been denying yourself what you need.” He smoothed the strap of her camisole over her shoulder and kissed the bridge of her nose. “I know I have.”

“Time to talk?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Talking, breakfast and we’ll find something else for you to wear while we wait for the next flight.”

Chapter Six

“Several years ago, I walked away from this kind of relationship,” Mikal said after their server delivered coffee and mimosas. He chose a strawberry from a dish and turned it over between his thumb and forefinger. “The ‘someone’ your friend knows—her name is Maria. She had an obsession with forced sex. Except she didn’t really want to give up control, she only wanted to play a game where she got to choose when and where to say stop and go.”

Ignoring the array of sumptuous dishes spread between them, Callista rubbed her palms down the thighs of the slim black pants Mikal’s driver had miraculously and speedily procured. Mikal frowned fiercely at his strawberry, his tension visibly obvious. Jealousy churned in her stomach. She hadn’t given any thought to his previous partners beyond a general acknowledgment that he had them. And that he probably had current partners too. Putting a sexual personality on one of the faceless women in his life…she didn’t want to do it.

Mikal cleared his throat. “It’s not natural, wanting to physically overwhelm someone. Men who stalk and attack possess an evil that can’t really be righted. I managed to restrain myself for a long time, but Maria gave me permission to indulge and for a little while she convinced me it was all right to loosen up and let go with her. When it became too much for her, she threatened to go to the media and accuse me of being a sexual predator. That kind of scandal would have devastated my family’s business.”

When he stopped talking and reached for his coffee, Callista moistened her lips. “I didn’t mean to put you in this position. I didn’t target you because of what I heard. I had no idea you’d be at that club. Going there was…I don’t know what it was. Stupid, but I didn’t know what else to do. I went because I
didn’t
want you involved. I didn’t want you to know.”

She looked away from him. Mikal had arranged for balcony seating in the restaurant. Except for the server, who maintained a discreet distance, they were alone on their level. Normal people ate and talked in the dining room down below. Average people, whose ideas of a perfect romantic encounter involved candlelight and rose petals.

“I couldn’t just create an eHarmony profile and list ‘rape fantasy’ in the about-me.”

“Callista. Look at me.”

Miserable with guilt, she reluctantly obeyed.

Mikal nodded slightly, an indication of approval that warmed her even in this muddy sea of awkwardness.

“After the situation with Maria, I vowed to keep my relationships so clean the public eye would have nothing to look at. A few months passed before I felt like I was going to crawl out of my own skin. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I approached the owner with a job title and a list of duties and he created the position for me. I got to live with all the energy but none of the risks.” He reached across the table and picked up her hand, toying with her fingers. “It hasn’t been enough. I don’t want to watch. I want to control and possess. And I want you. On my terms, which are ‘no terms’.”

“That doesn’t sound safe.” But it made her hot all over anyway.

He folded his hand around her fingers. “It’s not safe. Most people you saw in that club last night would disapprove very strongly. If you came to me and told me someone else laid down the same statement to you, I’d tell you to run and don’t look back. But I don’t think you want safe. I think you want me.”

Her mouth was dry. Callista reached for the mimosa, but Mikal beat her to it and moved the champagne flute out of reach. He pushed a glass of water into her hand instead.

“You have a decision to make and you’ll make it sober,” he said. He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a letter-sized envelope packed thick with paper, which he placed on the table between them. The second object he put on the table made her stop breathing.

“That’s a ring,” she managed to gasp, staring at the blue Tiffany’s box. “Mikal, no.”

“Prenuptial agreements and diamonds come together as a set,” he said.

“I don’t understand.”

“Prenuptials are legally binding. I need something with more weight than the kind of contract typically drawn up between BDSM couples.”

Callista blinked rapidly. “You want me to marry you so we can have sex.”

“I want you to marry me so I can have
you
. The contract only serves as a clear definition of the marital rights you confer upon me.”

But she was shaking her head before he finished speaking. “No. This is insane. You don’t love me.”

“Yes I do.”

“Don’t say that. You left me with a stranger last night.”

“I left you with someone who could take care of you because I couldn’t. Callista, read the terms of the contract and at least consider my proposal. You don’t have to decide now, but I’m going to want to know soon. You think about how much of your free will you want to give away and about how much trust you can give me. If you decide you want to be with me, you’re going to have to be somebody I can trust too. I’ll take care of you but you can’t fuck me over just because you get scared.”

Anger spun through her but instead of taking her to a boiling point, it froze her solid. She swallowed a calming sip of water and gave him a level look. “This is for your protection. You’re not thinking of me. You’re thinking of you.”

“Callista—”

“No,” she said, cutting him off. “My answer is no. The ‘no means no’ kind.”

Several emotions crossed his face as she stood from the table without once touching the envelope or the ring box. He didn’t say anything else, for which she was grateful, and he didn’t try to stop her when she walked away.

* * * * *

He called her several times an hour throughout the day and into the night on Friday. Callista turned off her phone after the second after-midnight call. Saturday afternoon, a courier delivered a package from Mikal. Since the bag she’d left in his car couldn’t have fit inside the padded envelope, she didn’t bother opening it. She did e-mail him a curt message requesting the return of her bag, then arranged for her ISP to block his e-mail address so he couldn’t reach her via that method.

She went to bed early Saturday night, heartsick but committed to her decision. The reasons to marry him were few while the reasons to walk away were many. No matter how many times she rolled those reasons over in her head, she always came back to the certainty that she had to protect herself from him. When sleep finally came, it was uneasy and fitful.

Sometime in the night, she startled awake. Heart racing, she lay in the dark listening to the window-unit air conditioner. The heat wave that had begun two weeks earlier wasn’t showing any signs of ending. Even with the AC, she felt too hot in her skin. And she missed Mikal. The urge to hear his voice overcame her willpower. She reached for her phone but found the nightstand empty of anything besides her alarm clock.

Sighing, Callista climbed from the bed and felt her way through the dark apartment. She tripped over something just inside the living room and caught herself on a bookshelf. Cursing softly, she stooped to move the obstacle out of the way. Her fingertips touched corduroy and a chill slid down her spine, only to turn into heat between her legs.

Throat dry, she wrapped the long strap of her Fossil purse around her hand and slowly pulled it toward her. “Mikal?” she asked softly.

The AC hummed and rattled. Callista stared into the dark at the familiar shapes of her furniture, alternately trying to pick out anything—anybody—that didn’t belong and praying she would find nothing out of the ordinary. She wasn’t sure how long she crouched in the dark before her aching calves compelled her to move. Easing onto her hands and knees, she crept around the end of the futon and fumbled on the low coffee table in search of her phone—which she was not going to turn off ever again.

She huddled on the floor until a rectangle of light alerted her to twenty-seven messages, all from Mikal. Easing up onto the futon, she bypassed the messages and went straight to dialing his number. As she lifted the phone to her ear, she caught movement in her peripheral vision. A scream rose in her throat but a large, strong hand clamped across her mouth from behind, cutting her off before she made a sound.

A powerful arm banded across her ribs, hauling her backward and over the futon’s low back. Adrenaline spiked, racing through her veins and roaring in her ears. Callista clawed at the arm across her chest and kicked her feet, but her bare soles didn’t elicit so much as a grunt from the man behind her.

He was silent through her struggles, even when she raked her fingernails across the back of his hand so hard she felt the wetness of his blood on her fingers. In her bedroom, he dropped her facedown on the narrow bed and quickly straddled her hips, holding her down with his weight on her thighs and his hand on the back of her head.

She finally got her scream but the mattress muffled her cry. Above her, her assailant grasped the waist of her panties and wrenched them down over her ass. He plunged his hand between her legs and roughly spread the lips of her pussy. Wetness eased the way as he sawed his fingers back and forth, spreading her juices up between the cheeks of her ass.

Callista flexed her hands in the sheets and whimpered, squirming beneath him. Her clit jumped every time he caught it between his fingers and her tight nipples jabbed the mattress below but some sane part of her told her she should be fighting, not enjoying. Digging in with her knees, she tried to gain enough purchase to buck him off. He delivered a hard slap to her hip. The crack of flesh on flesh rang in her ears, lingering as he bent over her back and rocked his erection against her ass.

“Go ahead and fight, lover,” he whispered, kissing her ear. “Scream too. Your squirmy little ass makes me hard. Before we’re done tonight, I’m going to fuck you there, good and deep, and I want you crying and telling me how much it hurts.”

She strained to hear Mikal’s voice in the rough words but the whisper could have belonged to anybody. When she heard his zipper open, reality struck hard. Fear swelled in her chest, giving her strength. She reared up on her hands and managed to dislodge the hand he held on her head. He cursed quietly and lunged, hooking his forearm around her neck. While she panted, frantic for air, he drew his fingernails up her stomach, under her camisole and over her left breast.

“Good girl. This is nice,” he murmured, twisting and pinching the nipple until she yelped in pain. “You all terrified and turned-on. Are you ashamed that your pussy’s wet?”

Callista squeezed her eyes shut and arched her back, trying to relieve the pressure on her throat. The motion shoved her ass harder against him and drove his cock between her thighs. He didn’t enter her but he did slide up along her slick folds. His broad head butted against her clit and a tide of pleasure lapped at her nerve center.

Mortified, she moaned, “Please.”

“Please what? Please stop? Please fuck me?”

“Oh God.”

“That’s not an answer.” He loosened his hold on her neck only to push her down and flip her onto her back. Callista stared at the big shape looming above her and whimpered when he slid his arms beneath her thighs. He crowded closer, pressing her knees against her body and spreading them to make room for his chest. “Please what?”

“Mikal.” But she wasn’t sure. Seeking proof, she reached to touch his face. Hard planes, the sandpaper scrape of stubble, thick sloping brows…but no piercings.

“No,” he said, giving voice to her findings and pushing her for more. “
Please what
?”

“Don’t do this.” But deep muscles contracted and said
do this
.

He pulled her hands away from his face and pinned her wrists to the bed at either side of her shoulders. Long, silky hair fell across her breasts.

“Callista.” He breathed the syllables at the corner of her mouth and moved against her. The head of his cock lodged at her entrance, pressure without penetration. No condom. Nothing at all to protect her from what he was going to do.

His lips coasted along her jaw to her ear, where he whispered, “I’m going to fuck you now.”

She swallowed past a huge, horrible lump in her throat. “I know.”

“Tell me no again.” He licked the shell of her ear, the caress wet and soft, but also hard as a piece of steel jewelry slid along the delicate rim.

That piercing could belong to anybody. Anybody in the world. But Callista turned her face into his neck and dragged his scent into her lungs and took the chance. “I don’t want to.”

He drew a deep breath and paused as if he wanted to say something else, but a beat later he plunged hard and deep. And then he did it again, driving into her over and over. She gasped in startled pain as he forced her to accommodate his size without any preparation and then groaned with the ecstasy of pain becoming something more. His teeth found her shoulder and he bit down in time with another bone-jarring thrust. Callista strained against him, needing contact, but he didn’t give, only held her immobile against the mattress, helpless and powerless.

She reached her peak quickly, too fast, the physical sensations sped along by the friction of his pelvis pounding against her clit. She struggled for breath and some measure of control over her own body but he took those things from her too when he covered her lips and lowered all his weight on top of her. As she came, she groaned into his mouth and felt tears slide from the corners of her eyes into her hair. He climaxed with her, his thighs tight against her ass and his come hot against her inner walls.