Gen’s heart kicked in her chest and her mouth went dry. Slowly, she rose from the couch and worked free the loosened knot on her bathrobe. With an easy shrug, the fabric slipped off her shoulders and pooled at her feet.
Franco surveyed her from head to toe, his expression pleased. “Very good. Do not resist my orders, because you want this even more than I do.”
God help her, she did. She wanted to know what that rope felt like across her naked skin. It looked so smooth, and the way he stroked it between his tanned fingers was incredibly arousing. He slid it back and forth in an erotic rhythm, the tight weave not even the least bit frayed. Perhaps she could fully let herself go if she knew the rope would contain her.
He nodded once, as if satisfied. “Spread your legs.”
She moved her feet a few inches apart.
“More,” he barked, and she jumped to obey.
“Very good.” He trailed the rope over her shoulder and down her arm. “Feel the power in the rope. It’s dormant now, but touching your body will wake it up until it’s a living, breathing thing.”
“Like the candle,” she whispered, seeking it out again. The flame seemed to wink at her, and for a moment, she saw another face, another man smiling at her, pure light in his eyes.
The vision dispersed when Franco took hold of her left arm and then her right, pulling them behind her until they met at the small of her back. He slid the rope over the sensitive skin of her wrists, wrapping the cord around and teasing back and forth. Every muscle in her body grew taut, clenching.
There was a sharp tugging, and she bit back a moan as he cinched her wrists together. She struggled against it, but the knot held firm, not yielding an inch.
“Do you want more?”
Gen didn’t know, but she wasn’t about to back out now. Gaze locked on the candle, she nodded.
“Are you wet?”
“Yes.” His commanding presence did nothing for her, but the feel of the rope and the flickering candle light had aroused her body. With a start, she realized it was the teasing she enjoyed, the anticipation.
He brushed the ends of the rope over the swells of her ass and her sex clenched. Instead of moving the rope down as she half hoped he would, he doubled the line and wrapped it around her waist, not tightly like a belt but more like an embrace, like a lover circling his arms around her.
Eyelids at half-mast, she watched Franco angle the rope to just above her hips with enough play to move her hands away from her back a few inches. Restrained, yet not entirely immobilized.
Once her binding was in place, he rose to his full height, purposefully trailing the ends of the rope over her pubic hair. His every move held intent, meant to provoke an erotic response, and Gen appreciated his adept skill. The same way she would enjoy a fine work of art displayed in a museum or a night at the symphony. From a distance.
Fingers gliding over the smooth rope as though masturbating it, Franco watched her. “You want to feel the rope caress your sex, don’t you?”
She licked her lips and nodded.
Crouching before her, he skillfully measured out the exact amount. Then, eyes fixed on her face, he tied a knot in the length with an abrupt tug. A whimper escaped her and he smiled, obviously pleased by her response.
Slowly, he eased the rope between her legs. The knot brushed against her engorged clit and her channel clenched. Her knees felt rubbery, as though they would give out at any moment. Franco maneuvered the smooth length through the tender folds of her labia, so every part of her could experience the unusual and delicious touch.
The glide of the fibers through her sopping wet sex created a delicious friction. Her lube coated the rope, easing its way. The knot pressed against the bud at the top of her cleft. Her chest rose and fell in time with her rapid breaths, her heartbeat thundering in her ears.
“Do you feel it? The power the rope wields over you? The power I have over you?” As though to illustrate his point, he let go. The rope fell away, dangling down the front of her body uselessly.
She groaned in frustration. “Put it back.”
“I beg you to put it back, nawashi,” he corrected.
Staring straight into his eyes unflinchingly, Gen said, “New Chicago.”
He blinked. “What’s wrong? You were enjoying yourself.”
Frustration sharpened her tongue. “Yeah, and you keep getting in the way. Just like last time.”
His mouth fell open. “What do you mean? You came like a rocket.”
“I was faking it.”
He reared back and rose to his full height. “What the hell are you talking about? I felt you go off!”
His narrow-eyed glare didn’t intimidate her. She thrust her breasts forward, lifted her chin. Even naked with both arms tied behind her back, she could take this guy. “I’m just that damn good.”
He ran a shaky hand through his hair. “I don’t need this crap. I’m outta here.”
The door slammed behind him as he left, leaving her arms bound and her gaze riveted on the candle, which danced merrily as if in celebration.
5
“W
hat the fuck do you mean, Franco quit?” Steven thundered as Javier untied her. “Where the hell is he?”
“He’s gone. Took the rental and zipped off.” The men exchanged another look of silent communication, and Javier held out his hands, palms up. Her fingers tingled as circulation returned. Gen shrugged back into her robe, stealthily storing the rope in her pocket. One day, after she met the right man, it might come in handy. Javier helped her to her feet, and she made a beeline for the candle. For some bizarre reason, she couldn’t bear to let it out of her sight.
“Day-um, that must be some snatch you’re packing to make a seasoned pro like Franco hightail it after just one shot.” Javier licked his lips. “Is it my turn yet?”
He activated his germ shield and unfastened his pants with a speed that made her dizzy. His erection stood straight out, demanding attention. Gen studied it, biting the inside of her lip to keep from laughing and insulting him. What was it about the sight of a naked man that was so damn funny?
She turned to Steven to get a male reaction to the same stimulus and was surprised to see he’d looked away. A flush of red stained his cheeks, and his shoulders had rounded as though he was bracing for a hit. She glanced back at Javier, who had started stroking his shaft and eyeing the gap in her robe where her cleavage was revealed, then to where Steven’s erection tented his sweatpants as he stole little glimpses of Javier’s movements.
Gen stroked her finger over the wax base of the candle. “Follow me, gentlemen.” Without looking back to see if they followed her, she headed toward one of the spare bedrooms.
“You’re going to take both of us on at once?” Steven’s voice sounded strained. Gen ignored him as she set the burning candle on the dresser. The loss of warmth ran deeper than just missing the heat it yielded, almost as though it melted something deep inside of her.
Funny, the wax hadn’t been displaced at all even though it had been lit over an hour ago. She wondered if it was some experimental kind of illumination, but she felt the heat from the flame.
Dismissing her curiosity, she dug through the boxes of supplies the men had brought with them. One crate had obviously been Franco’s, as all sorts of restraints and handcuffs in every color of the rainbow nested inside, a tribute to his profession. Gen set that crate to the side.
The next one held all sorts of creams and lotions, every flavor she’d ever heard of and then some. She glanced at Javier. “What’s your preference?”
A huge grin split his face and he winked at her. “Strawberry.”
Sorting through the stack, she came up with a bottle of strawberry-flavored warming lubrication and tossed it to him. Snatching it out of midair, he flicked the top up. “Come here so I can lube you up good.”
Gen shook her head. “Nuh-uh. Not for me. For him.” She pointed at Steven.
Both men’s eyes went wide. “What?”
She focused on Steven and gestured over the open crate. “Pick a flavor, any flavor.”
His mouth opened and closed a few times before he finally uttered, “Vanilla.”
She chucked it at him, then hefted herself up on the dresser next to her candle. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Steven looked from the bottle in his hand to Javier, then back to her. “Gen, I don’t know what you’re trying to do here, but we’re not—”
She waved her hand in a sharp, slicing motion. “I want to watch. Customer’s always right, right? I’ve seen the way you two look at each other. Now I want the whole show.”
There was no further hesitation, and Gen grinned as they came together, arms reaching, bodies caressing. Her instincts had been right. They wanted each other more than either wanted her. They were both handsome men, and watching them was aesthetically pleasing in every sense.
Masculine lips met, tongues twining together. Their skin gleamed golden in the light of the flickering candle and the moonlight spilling in through the east-facing window.
Entranced by the erotic sight, Gen’s breath came out in shallow pants. Javier’s dark brown hands smoothed down Steven’s heavily muscled shoulders, his short nails clutching his lover to him. Inexplicably, her nipples tightened, abrading against the silky fabric of her robe. The reaction eased something she hadn’t realized was bound in her chest as tightly as one of Franco’s intricate knots.
Her thighs tingled when Steven bent Javier backward, bracing himself in position to trail his lips and tongue down the smooth chest. Worshipping his way down to the jutting erection waiting for his attention. Liquid heat pooled between her thighs, and for a moment she thought she might come from observing the sensual dance.
Yup, that settled it. Two men together were not about the foreplay. She bit her lip as Steven sucked the straining cock into his mouth, his hands molded to the back of the other man’s thighs, creeping upward to cup his butt. Gen squirmed on the dresser, tilting her head, greedy to see everything at once. Javier’s chest heaving, his dark brown fingers tunneled into Steven’s blond hair. He placed his feet flat on the mattress to help him buck his hips toward the sensual onslaught.
Steven pulled back, until just the tip of his tongue laved the slit of Javier’s cock head. Moisture beaded there, and he swirled it around with his thumb, his gaze roving up the smaller man’s shuddering body.
The look shared between them was so intimate, Gen felt horribly guilty for watching what should be a private moment. Job or not, she wouldn’t want her lovemaking put on display. “I’ll just leave you two alone ...”
Steven glanced over his shoulder at her and winked. “You can watch if you want. We’re good with that.”
“Oh, she wants. Would you look at the pretty blush on her cheeks?” Javier winked at her. “Does watching him suck my cock do it for you?”
She nodded. “It makes no sense to me, but yeah, more than anything has in a long time.” She’d sort out the whys later. Now was all about living in the moment.
“Then you’re gonna love this.” Javier flipped open the top to the strawberry lotion and pulled Steven up to him so their tongues could tangle. His hands glistened as they smoothed over the bulging muscles along Steven’s arms, chest, and taut abdomen. The lube shimmered in the light of the flickering candle. Steven moaned as Javier sucked his earlobe into his mouth, whispering words too low for Gen to hear. Javier licked his way down the other man’s neck, his dark-skinned hands skimming across every bulge and dip in a sensual caress.
She bit her lip when Javier straddled Steven’s chest, mounting the larger man and lying across the top of him so his mouth aligned with Steven’s erection. His gaze locked with hers as the tip of his tongue darted out to trace the thick pulsing vein on his lover’s shaft. Glistening hands wrapped around him from behind, scooting his hips back until they formed a sparkly sixty-nine position.
Gen had been wrong; they were
all
about the foreplay, teasing each other, working themselves up and then stopping before they reached the point of no return. Like a contest in which one player would up the ante to see who could hold out the longest. Javier caressed Steven’s balls, hefting the twin weights while he deep-throated his lover’s cock. Steven gasped and retaliated by lubing his fingers and inserting them into Javier’s ass. Javier groaned and rolled to the side. Splaying Steven’s legs wide, he licked the small bundle of nerves centered on the other man’s anus. All while his hand pumped faster on Steven’s cock. Their dexterity and flexibility amazed her. Sweat mingled with the gleaming oil as each man strained, loving each other with lips and tongues, their hands and minds all working toward mutual release.
Gen’s body clenched up as they found their satisfaction, the amount of pheromones in the room making her dizzy. Steven came all over Javier’s chest, while swallowing what his lover’s body yielded.
Though she really wanted to keep watching, she popped up off the dresser and gathered her candle and the coconut verbena lotion she’d pilfered. Afterglow was not a moment they ought to be forced to share with a secret shopper.
They didn’t look away from each other as she shut the door behind her. With a sigh, she murmured, “And then there was one.” She headed to her room, the only one with a private bath. Stopping to check her reflection in the mirror, Gen wondered if it wasn’t better to just admit defeat now. She’d craved sex, real, honest, raw, heel-pounding sex. The cherry on top of Alison’s sweet offer. But with those guys ...
Not gonna happen.
Rhys had never been more aroused in his entire life. Gen wanted him, couldn’t bear to be parted from him, or at least from the candle, which essentially was him since his own body lay in stasis on a distant world. The click of the door closed them in together. He sensed no other person in the room, but her emotional frequencies were so bright that any other being would be a pale reflection, a moon to her burning sun.
Though he could feel no direct connection to the candle, he knew she was touching it, and he pressed his empathic essence against the wax wall, trying desperately to touch her back. She could free him, just like she’d done before, give him enough emotional fortification to manifest into corporeal form once again. And once he got there, then what?
One step at a time, Rhys.
Her arousal was a deep pink, and he drank it in greedily, pulling on her mental desire. She was a smoking-hot love goddess, a volcano that needed to erupt. Rhys understood what those other men had missed—Gen wanted to be wanted, to be craved like the delicious morsel she was, yet he had no way to convey his admiration to her.
But he could stoke her fire. Collecting all his pilfered energy, he projected the thought directly into her head.
Go lie on the bed.
Fabric rustled and bedsprings creaked. A soft thump as she put the burning candle down, and he could imagine how she looked. The warm radiance from the candle’s flame would seem to dance over her skin, heating her flesh as it kissed her, caressed her like a lover’s touch.
Run your hands over your body.
With a moan, she did and he imagined the feel of her beautiful, full breasts cupped in his hands, the silk of her skin as he trailed his fingers over her luscious curves. Her breaths came out in short, sharp pants, her desire intensifying as her pull on him grew stronger than that of the candle.
More
, he urged her, eager to break free, to see the pleasure written across her face when she climaxed. To be the reason she exploded.
Show me where you want me next. Show me how wet you are for me, how ready your body is to be filled.
A breathy sigh escaped and she answered him out loud. “I wish you would kiss me.”
Oh, I want that. You have no idea how much I want to taste every last bit of you, until you beg me to stop.
It wasn’t enough, the pull of the candle was still too strong as her desire plateaued. What would send her over the edge? He recalled his fantasy, of what he most wanted to do to her.
Let me lick you, Gen.
“Oh, yes,” she gasped, on the verge of going up in flames herself. His prompt sent her higher, and his essence was pulled toward her, the strongest emotional presence available.
Concentrating, Rhys focused his energy into taking humanoid shape once more. To her he would look, sound, and feel absolutely real, but he was a shallow echo of the man he had been, his mind and soul divided from his body.
He gazed down at the erotic banquet on the bed. She was even more incredible than he remembered. The flush of her face—eyes squeezed tightly shut, both hands between her legs, one rubbing steadily on her clit and the other plunging in and out of her wet core. She cried out in frustration, grasping for the release that eluded her.
Rhys refused to make her wait another second. Though he wanted to fall on her like a ravening beast, he sensed that right now, at this moment, she needed tenderness. If he did it right, there would be time for more later. He eased onto the mattress, positioning himself between her spread thighs, careful not to disturb her until he was ready for his first taste.
His tongue darted out to caress the entrance to her body. She stiffened, her eyes still squeezed tightly shut. He pushed deeper, loving the sweet lube that poured from her in a wet rush. He kissed her fingers, which still worked her clit in a frenzy.
Why hadn’t she stopped him? Or at least opened her eyes and demanded his identity? The notion that she didn’t care rankled, especially after all the time he’d spent envisioning this exact moment. He needed to see her come.
“Look at me, Gen.”
Her head thrashed wildly. “No, I can’t. I’ll lose it ...”
He licked again, his tongue dragging through her folds slowly, savoring her. “I want to see your eyes, watch your face as I send you over. Please, give me this.”
It was the “please” that did it. Her eyelids fluttered up, and she gasped as their gazes locked. Something clicked into place as he stared into the blue-violet depths, innocent and wanton, hot and cold, all delectable woman. His for the taking.
Rhys smiled and licked his lips. Her chest heaved, her straining nipples pointed toward the ceiling. He circled one taut bud, then drew his index finger down her abdomen. The digit was calloused, such a delicious contrast to her smooth skin, and she shivered as he moved it lower, between her legs.