Dani almost laughed out loud at the comical mix of emotions that shifted across Rand’s face. Surprise, certainly. Curiosity. More than a little trepidation. “C’mon,” she cajoled. “You don’t really think I’d get you into that thing, then keep you tied up while I steal all your worldly goods, do you?”
“Why would I think that?” Rand’s words were dry, but he hesitated only a moment more. Then his hands moved to her right wrist, expertly freeing her from the cuff.
“There you go,” she purred, resting her hands on his powerful shoulders as he leaned down and released her ankles as well. Her fingers danced lightly over his skin, tracing the thin scars once more. To her eyes, they seemed even fainter than they had when she’d first seen them a month ago. Was she already growing used to them? Or did they just seem somehow less consequential now, an artifact of the past that had less and less bearing on the future?
Rand leaned back and stood, allowing her to step fully out of the restraints. “Mmm, and you’re definitely overdressed,” she said, letting her gaze skim over his naked chest and abs, then his pants. “I think it pretty much all should go, don’t you? For you to get the full experience?”
“Now you decide that you’re going to enjoy this?” But without any other protest, Rand slipped out of the rest of his clothes and stood again, going the extra step of spreading his arms and legs wide for her to lock him into the cross. The sight made Dani’s mouth go a little dry.
“Okay, so maybe I can see the fascination with these things,” she said. She quickly locked him tight into the wrist cuffs, then drew her hands down his body. “I don’t think I’ll need your legs restrained, though.”
Rand looked as if he were going to say something, then just smiled. His eyes were heavy on her face, her body, as if he were drinking her in, cataloguing her every move. As if nothing and no one was more important than she was in this moment. “Next time,” he murmured.
Dani didn’t take the bait, but Rand’s words made her heart thud almost painfully, deep in her chest. Next time. She hadn’t much believed in next times before she’d met Rand, and she knew better than to believe in them now. Next times were for people who made sense together for something more than what they had. But before she could let her mind stray too far down that path, she had other more important things to work through. Like what to do with Rand Sterling Winston IV right this very second, given that he was trussed up like a birthday present and all.
“You know, I could really get used to this,” she said, and she stood on her toes, brushing her lips over Rand’s. He leaned out toward her, and she pulled her head back just far enough for him to strain against his bonds, the sudden irritation that darkened his eyes warming her more than it should.
“There, there, big guy. Just let me play a little.” She grinned at him. “You wanna come up with a safe word or something?”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “How about ‘custom built,’ ” he said.
“We really have to work on your pillow talk.” She looked around the room, her brow crinkling, until her gaze dropped to a small duffel pushed off to the side. “Well, hello. I wonder what you have in there?”
“Dani,” Rand began, his voice holding a warning tone, but she ignored him, moving over to the duffel and unzipping it. What she saw made her burst out laughing. “What is wrong with you?” she asked as she pulled out a feathery toy, three different types of oil, and even a nipple-clamp-chain combination plated in bright chrome. “Were they having a sale at Hustler or something?” She held up the nipple clamps. “What were you planning to do with these?”
“I’m sure I would have come up with something.”
“Uh-huh. Well, I’m sure you wouldn’t.” She left most of the toys behind when she returned to him, then leaned forward to take his flat nipple into her mouth. Rand didn’t react until she closed her teeth around the small nub, pulling hard. The soft hiss of his breath between his teeth reassured her he was paying attention. She kissed his sleek skin, then glanced up again. “Don’t worry, I don’t have any need to see something hanging from your chest.”
“Your breasts are a lot more interesting than mine.”
“Nevertheless,” Dani said. She held up the bottle of oil. “But I think we can find something for me to play with.” She let her gaze roam over his body again, including his thick and ready shaft, and rolled the thin bottle in her hands. “It says warming oil,” she said. “Just the thing for a brutal February night, wouldn’t you say?” Rather than pouring the oil on her hands, however, she tilted the bottle up, allowing a thin stream to trickle out over Rand’s pecs, squeezing harder as the rivulets angled down the planes of his chest, and the harsh, beautiful curves of his abs. The oil made his skin gleam in the firelight, and she finally tossed the bottle aside, pressing her hands to his chest and stroking down his torso. Though she wasn’t looking at his face, she didn’t need to see his reaction to know the effect she was having. When she wrapped her hands around his shaft, she knew it even more clearly.
“I think I like it when you’re quiet,” she murmured, dropping down to her knees. She looked up as she curled her other hand around his balls, palming their weight, and the sight that greeted her made her own need knot up inside her. Rand hung from the cross like he could no longer hold up his own weight, sagging as she stroked her hand along his shaft. His eyes were darkly intent, and when she leaned forward to snake out her tongue, just barely nudging the tip of his cock, his whole body seemed to convulse.
“Something you want, Rand?” she asked, thrilling to the way that tremors of need and desire rolled over his skin. “Something I can give you?”
She didn’t wait for him to speak, but slipped her mouth over him, the shaft slick with oil. Rand’s curse was violent, electric, but she just pushed her mouth over him farther, taking him deep before drawing out again inch by slow, slick inch. She slid her fingers around the base of his shaft more firmly then, and repeated the movement, paying no attention to the tight, strained warnings Rand was releasing through gritted teeth.
“Dani!” The sound of her own name finally broke through her focus, and she blinked up at him, startled to see his chest heaving with effort, thin lines of perspiration now cutting through the thick sheen of oil. When his gaze connected with hers, she laughed at the scowl on his face.
“What’s wrong, Rand?” she asked, fluidly moving to her feet again. “You getting a little anxious? A little nervous that you might lose control?”
“With your mouth and hands and oil all over my cock?” He stared at her, heat rolling off his body. “Yeah. You might say that.”
“Mmm…” Taking her hands away from him, she shimmied out of her underwear, tossing it to the side along with the rest of her complicated lingerie. She grinned as Rand’s breath hissed through his teeth. “Then maybe we should see about that ride.”
Rand’s eyes about crossed as Dani stepped up again on her toes, leaning forward until their mouths met. The sight of her, naked and triumphant as she watched his reaction, was worth every dime the cross had cost—and from every indication, they were just getting started. His arms were about coming out of their sockets from the urge to grab her, to pull her close to his body, but she broke off the kiss just that quickly, moving her hands behind his neck.
“Brace yourself, soldier,” she murmured, and she locked her hands, using the leverage to lift her legs up in a quick hop until she settled against him, her legs riding high on his hips, his shaft pressed into the vee between her thighs.
Dani’s laughter as she scrabbled for purchase, first on his neck and shoulders, then on the bar of the cross, rang through the room. It was sharp and surprised, and quite possibly the brightest thing Rand had ever heard in his life.
“I can’t—I don’t have traction!” she half-choked, her legs slipping against his oil-soaked sides as she tried another hand purchase, succeeding at nothing but nearly falling off of him. “This cross thing needs work.” She tried hauling herself up against him again, the exquisite torture of her body compressing his shaft between them enough to make Rand see shimmering hot lights.
“Dani—” he began.
“You just hold tight,” she said, her face intent as she dropped her legs again. She kissed him, hard. “You may be a little too damned tall for this to work easily, but I’ll figure it out.”
“I think I have a better idea,” Rand rumbled. His gaze dropped to the front of her body, now as oil-soaked as his.
“Oh, yeah?” She laughed again as she stepped just out of range of his face, though he lunged forward, trying to capture her mouth again with his. “Maybe I like keeping you on a short leash, you ever think of that? Maybe being in control is pretty much my dream come true.”
He eyed her, trying to decide if she was serious or still playing a game. “Is it?”
She swayed closer to him again, just close enough to slide her tongue along his lower lip before pulling back again. “What if it was?” she asked teasingly. “Would that push you too far? Make you a little uneasy, knowing I held all the cards?”
He watched her with a growing need, his hands working the edges of his cuffs as if they had a mind of their own. “And if it did?” he asked, and something in his voice seemed to excite her further. She leaned even closer, fire in her eyes, her breath fanning over his face.
“Well, that’s kind of too bad, isn’t it?” she breathed, reveling in her power. “Since you pretty much don’t have any say in the matter, do you?”
With a sharp turn of his wrists, Rand engaged the quick-release toggle of the leather cuffs, the smooth metal responding as easily as it had when he’d tested it—extensively—in the hours since he’d had the unit set up in his apartment. Dani gave a startled cry and danced back, her eyes going wide as Rand stepped quickly off the cross, his arms coming down to gather her up in a bear hug and swing her around. “Hey!” she spluttered. “How?”
Rand’s answering laugh was dark, and he pressed his mouth to hers, savoring the curve of her lips and the feel of her body in his arms in a way he would never have thought possible before he’d been deprived of it. “Custom built,” he murmured against her.
“You cheated!” Dani tried to squirm away from him, but Rand fell with her, the two of them sprawling to the thick rug. Despite himself, he laughed at her outraged eyes, her mouth open in indignation. “I can’t believe you cheated!”
“Something I think we’ve both learned by now, Dani,” he said, drawing her face to his once more. “Playing by the rules is overrated.”
And then he leaned forward and branded her with his kiss.