Take Me Now (Take Me Series) (3 page)

“You like it, don’t you?” He let go of her ankle. With a
shrewd smile, he stood and gazed down at her. He felt the heated throb in his
jeans and unbuttoned the snap, wondering which of them had been more aroused.
He was a fool if he thought that he was immune to her.

Sari curled her foot, one alongside of the other, and
slammed her thighs tight together. There was no way in hell that she was going
to give into this brute. He was mocking her. He might as well have laughed in
her face.

Brady dropped a log to the fire and sipped his Cognac. He
needed a cold shower, but he wasn’t finished with her just yet. She was playing
him, pretending that he hadn’t stirred the fire between her thighs when he knew
damn well that he had. Her panties were creamed and it took every shred of his
self-control not to rip them from her, to taste her.

She wasn’t going to make this easy. But be damned, if he
wouldn’t play back if that’s what she wanted. He left the room, stopped at the
bathroom to relieve his bladder then stepped out into the cool air.

Sari had written numerous fantasies. He had any one of them
to choose from, but this one hadn’t been one of hers. It had been his. From day
one, when Sari came into work wearing her open heels
–her toes
painted pale rose, he had wanted
nothing more than to taste every inch of her: the curve of her arch; the tiny
ankles; the hard lines of her slender calves; the crease of her knee to the hot
liquid between her thighs. He had to stop there. He had to place some
restrictions on the game until he knew what Sari’s perimeters were.

They were playing a dangerous game, he knew. Even with his acting
skills, and his ability at roll playing, there were those fantasies that were
going to be difficult to pull off.
 
Sure,
he’d taken drama in both high school and college, but acting out a scene and
physically hurting Sari were two different scenarios, and he wasn’t sure if he
could rise to the challenge.

It was going to be a battle of wills and the outcome was
going to be interesting, to say the least.

He poured another drink and returned to the bedroom.

CHAPTER FOUR

Sari suspected that he would return. It was just a matter
of time. He was enjoying the game
–
the power that he wielded over her. But she could play the game
just as well as anybody. She’d steel herself against every flick of his tongue,
every seduction. There was no way that she was going to beg him to take her, to
consent to his taking his every pleasure with her. That’s what he wanted
–
no guilt
–and t
he freedom to take what he
desired of her with no consequences.

It was going to be a long week, she realized, and she
wasn’t sure if she could rise to the challenge. If he knew all of her
fantasies, as she presumed he did, she had no doubt that he wouldn’t hesitate
to explore each and every one of them. Her mind raced, frantically. Some of the
fantasies in her novel were just that
–
fantasies
–but others, especially Lana’s, were filled
with whips, clamps and other sundry gadgets that had come from hard core
experience. What if he thought that all of them were hers?

She bit her lip when she heard the door creak open.

Footsteps crossed the room with purpose. She felt him
sliding across the bed, straddling her upper thighs and pinning her. Through
the denim of his jeans, she felt his thick hard prick press against her heated
flesh. Her breath caught in her throat. It was everything she had imagined
–imagined
of Brady
. Her head suddenly
swam. She had wanted Brady for so long and so desirously that everything
reminded her of him. She pushed him out of her mind.
 
If she didn’t
, then
she would succumb to her
fantasies of Brady and surrender to this stranger.

Suddenly, long fingers wrapped around her throat and
pressed her neck into the pillow, forcing the air from her lungs. She drew a
sharp breath. When it hitched in her throat she lay perfectly still.

Her stomach lurched when his lips covered her mouth and his
tongue plunged deep inside of her. The deeper his kiss
–
the tighter the pressure on her
throat
–s
he could
barely breathe. She’d been holding her breath, she realized.
Reality was
far more frightening than the fantasy.
He was scaring her now, and she wasn’t sure that she wanted to
play anymore.

Brady leaned back and removed his hand from her throat. He
looked down at her heaving chest, saw her staining for air and smiled. He had
scared the hell out of her. That’s what she had wanted from this fantasy and
he’d given it to her. It was exhilarating to hold that kind of power over
someone, but just as terrifying to know that in a fleeting second he could have
snatched her last breath from her.

He heard her gasp when he ripped open her robe and pulled
it back against her shoulders, exposing her breasts. He stared down at them.
She was already aroused. They were firm and full, and more beautiful than he
had imagined. Sharp nubs rose from the center of the dark circles as a beacon
signaling him to take them into his mouth.

There was more to the fantasy, and though he was willing to
explore whatever erotic desires it took to please her, it was not going to be
tonight, not now. Tonight, he was going to seduce her in his own way.

He bent over her and flicked his tongue over the peak of
her nipple, circling it while his hand slid toward her panties. She closed her
thighs, but the hitch of her throat and the heaving of her breasts betrayed her
desire. He sat back on his heels and parted them. His fingers playfully danced
over the silk panties. The flesh beneath was smooth, hot and damp.

He saw the slight arch of her pelvis, the strain of her
wrists against the leather, the trembling of her abdomen. If he didn’t stop now
he was going to ravish her.

Sari shuddered at his caress. She never imaged that a man
could drive her over the edge with the mere use of his tongue and his fingers.
It took every ounce of her reserve to not cry out when all she truly wanted was
to feel his cock deep inside of her and to allow him to take her to heightened
pleasure. But what he was doing to her was dead wrong and she wasn’t going to
give him the satisfaction of knowing that she wanted him.

Brady released a ragged sigh. He wasn’t going to take this
further, not tonight. Covering her breasts with her robe, he rolled away from
her and was nearly on his feet when Sari kicked out and caught him in the shin
with her heel. He grabbed her calve and held it firmly against the bed and
waited for her breathing to settle.

“You want more,” he taunted.

Leaning into her, he rolled his tongue from the hollow of
her throat to the lobe of her ear, drawing it between his lips, and sucking on
it.

Sari jerked on the restraints. He was driving her mad.

Through the thin fabric of her robe, Brady felt the swell
of her breasts, her nipples peaking against his bare chest. He breathed warm
air into her ear and whispered against it.
“I know you want me, Sari. Just say it.”

When she didn’t respond, he cupped her right breast in his
hands and tugged her lower lip into his mouth.

He pulled back with a start when she bit hard and drew
blood. “You wanna play rough? You wanna be my bitch?” he hissed. “Well
it’s
game time, Sari, and the ball’s in my court.”

Sari listened to the grind of his footsteps as he stalked from
the room. What had she done? If she had given him the impression that she
wanted to play rough, that had never been her intention. There were fantasies
that she had only imagined, but never truly experienced
–there was a
reason for that–they scared the hell out of her.
How far would her captor go to fulfill them, she wondered?

 
Brady stomped to the
porch, licked the blood from his lip and swore. So she wanted to play rough,
after all. Well, he’d made a promise, and now he’d have to follow it through.
If Sari wanted blood then he’d damn well give it her. He had dozens of her
fantasies to choose from. It would be easier now
–
knowing what she desired, what she expected of him.

Sari didn’t sleep well. Her mind reeled with every tale
that she had spun on paper. Many were sensual: licking; teasing; sucking;
gentle kisses over every inch of her body, as he had done to her this evening.
Yet, others were dark: biting; punishing; forceful and even painful. They were
what the market demanded, but were they necessarily what she wanted?

Had he read them all?

A tremor ran through her entire body. Could she endure even
one of them? Would she suffer through the pain or surrender to him? Wasn’t that
what he wanted
–
her
surrender? What if she did, would it bring closure to the game? She thought of
the puzzling email. She had gone home after work and read it several times,
memorizing each and every word of it. “
I want YOU. I want you squirming and
screaming for me to fuck you. I’m through with waiting
–
it’s
game time, Sari.
H
ow far would he go to punish her now that she had angered
him?

If she gave in to him what would he do with her, would he
set her free? It was unlikely.

She had to escape. She tugged on the leather, but there was
no give. Tears welled in her eyes. She was going to be his bitch, whether she
liked it or not.

An hour later, her bladder was crying for release. This was
her chance, she thought, her chance to get away.

Brady heard her calling out to him. He sipped his brandy
and ignored her. The third cry sounded urgent. He headed for the bedroom with
purpose, stopping at the foot of the bed. He stared down at her, realizing that
he was still angry. Not so much because she had bitten him, but because he was
going to have to dive head first into her erotic world, into places that he was
not comfortable with, and he wasn’t sure how deep he could plunge without
hitting bottom. When he brought her to the cabin, he had only intended to
seduce her in the sweetest ways possible. She was the one who made the decision
to play rough.

Sari knew that he was standing there, but he said nothing.
“I have to go to the bathroom,” she blurted.

Brady moved to the dresser and pick up the rope that he had
used when he captured her. He stood staring down at her, rolling it between his
thumb and his palm. When he plotted his scheme, he hadn’t considered that she
would have to relieve herself.

Moments passed before Sari felt the bed sink beside her.
Relief washed over her when he freed her wrist, but she hadn’t expected him to
flip her onto her stomach and straddle her before unfastening the second
shackle. He tugged one arm, then the other, behind her. She felt the jerk of
the rope and knew that he was still angry with her. Taking her by the arm, he
hauled her from the bed and shoved her into a walk. The bedroom door opened.
After five steps, she heard the second door creak and he was pushing her
through the doorway.

Sari expected him to untie her, but he didn’t. Shock
rippled through her when he roughly yanked on her panties and shoved them passed
her knees. An instant later, she was being pushed down to the toilet seat.

She heard the sound of running water. Barely, had she
finished peeing when he lifted her to her feet and swiped a warm cloth against
her crotch, from front to back. How humiliating, she thought. Then she was
caught between laughter and tears. How was this anymore demeaning than what
he’d already done to her.

CHAPTER FIVE

Sari resigned to the bed. She was exhausted, both mentally
and physically. She was grateful, however, that her captor had cuffed both of
her hands together, and to the same post, allowing her to sleep on her side.
The only disadvantage was that he had restrained her left leg, as well, so that
she couldn’t scoot to the top of the bed and remove her blindfold.

She had no sense of time, living in this dark world where
every scent and sound was sharpened, heightened. She listened to her breathing.
It was finally returning to a slow, steady rhythm.

It seemed like hours before she drifted to sleep, and even
then, it wasn’t a restful sleep. Dreams of bliss gave way to torture, and it
was Brady performing them.
 
She awoke,
trembling. The fog cleared from her mind and she suddenly realized that
sometime during the wee hours of the morning, her capture had covered her with
a soft, down quilt.

Brady awoke with a chill. It was half past ten. He’d slept
later than he intended. After preparing a pot of coffee, he stepped outside and
gathered an armload of wood. He set it beside the hearth then his eyes passed
over the door to Sari’s room. He’d barely slept, worrying over what he was
going to do next.

Pouring a cup of coffee, he turned on his laptop, opened
the file, “Homework” and scrolled through the documents. There were so many
fantasies to choose from. He randomly highlighted the fifth one down, opened it
and read. The words, “nipping, biting, sucking hard, pinching nipples,”
exploded from the page. He remembered it well. Of any of her fantasies that
contained rough sex, this would be the easiest for him to perform. He’d alter
them, mix them, fine tune them so that she wouldn’t know what to expect from
him next. It was the not knowing that incited the thrill of it.