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One kiss and Arden was ready to drop to her knees.
Okay, so it had been a phenomenal kiss. Even back when they’d been a couple of young adults trying to find their way, there hadn’t been kisses that powerful.
There was a confidence in his kisses now. A bolder side she craved. He kissed with a passion that signaled just now much he wanted her, and he wouldn’t stop until he had her. That kind of genuine need was persuasive.
Garvey wasn’t just dangerous—he was fucking lethal.
The ride to his home had been enlightening. He’d asked about her likes and dislikes, delving deep to educate himself about her interests. He shared his too.
As it turned out, their desires were surprisingly similar. Time hadn’t altered their compatibility in the least. As she followed him through the front door of his place, she thought about all the regrets she was going to have tomorrow if she went through with this.
If, hell. There was no if.
She would regret every single moment that happened from this point forward wearing a great big satisfied smile. The desire to surrender to Garvey was stronger than anything she’d ever craved.
Arden expected gleaming metal appliances in the kitchen. Structured cabinets with frosted doors, and spotlights shining down on expensive china. Instead she found simple wood cabinets, a white refrigerator, and soft ivory countertops that showed many years of wear. Everything was still remarkably Garvey. But his selections reflected how much his residence wasn’t simply a place to live.
This was a home.
Several feminine touches showed a young woman had lived here at one time. A spray of dried wildflowers tucked into a pretty vase near the toaster. A pudgy penguin on a hand towel draped over the oven handle. A lace doily under the bread box.
A crayon drawing tacked to the fridge door. A report card. A tardy slip with Garvey’s sharply tilted scrawl across it in thick black marker. All signs Garvey hadn’t been as ready to let Keira go as he’d wanted everyone to believe.
“Want something to drink?”
“Water would be nice.”
Garvey pulled two bottles of water out of the fridge and offered her one.
As she sipped, she noticed a picture clipped to the appliance with a magnet. The snapshot was of a group of people laughing and smiling for the camera. Garvey was in the center of the crowd, flanked by some of the men she’d met at the clubhouse.
Avery and Kane were in the picture as well, but from the way their bodies were angled away from each other, Arden wondered when the picture had been taken. Certainly a story there.
Her gaze continued on, locating Garvey’s familiar face again. This time Arden looked closer. A smiling female had crawled onto Garvey’s back, her arms ringed around his neck. She had Garvey’s sharp, curved nose. The same dimple in one cheek.
“The family resemblance is astonishing between you two. She looks like just you.”
“Poor girl.” He pointed. “That was last year. Just before she started her senior year. Calls it the summer of her womanhood. Whatever the hell that means. And if you decide to try to enlighten me, I have a feeling I’m better off not knowing.”
Oh yes, Garvey hadn’t been able to totally let Keira out into the world. His protective instincts were still going strong. “You miss her.”
“Yeah. I do. But she’ll be all right. It’s her time now to find her place without me lording over her.”
“You met her dates at the door with a gun, didn’t you?”
Garvey smiled around the mouth of his bottle. “A broadsword.”
Arden burst out laughing. An image formed in her mind, inserting Garvey into the overprotective guardian role. “Sounds about right. From what I can see, you did very well with her. You should be proud of yourself.”
“Who says I’m not?” He pushed away from the counter. “Want a tour?”
They wandered around, his pride showing each time they came to a new picture of Keira. He’d scattered them around the apartment, as though he couldn’t bear to be totally alone now that she was off to college.
Most of his place was much the same as the kitchen. They circled back around to the kitchen, where he pinned her against the waist-high bar in the center of the room.
“So tell me about your outburst earlier. It seemed to be about more than stress. More than just me not speaking to you, or talking to a beautiful woman.”
She worried her lip as she leaned against him. “I...masturbated in the shower after you left.” Embarrassment crept into her cheeks as she focused on the small indention at the hollow of this throat.
“Tell me what you were thinking about.”
“You’re not upset?”
He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth as he tucked his finger under her chin and lifted her face. “Why would I be?”
“I thought...well, now that I’m about to say it, it seems ridiculous. Lot of that going around tonight, apparently. I thought you would be upset because somehow the orgasm you’d given me wasn’t enough. I was involved with a Dom once who refused to let me touch myself when he wasn’t around. Like it damaged his ego if I got off without him.”
Garvey’s deep chuckle resonated through her, sparking the heat he’d roused earlier. “Arden, I’d’ve been worried if you hadn’t been affected somehow. You were all but vibrating in my arms when I, regrettably, left. And I’ve never instructed you not to seek pleasure when I wasn’t around. Not to say that I never would. But I wasn’t your Dom at the time, so such a demand wouldn’t have been right. Now, tell me what you fantasized about when you pleasured yourself.”
“At first I imagined myself as the woman with you in the video. Bound. Gagged. Pleading.”
“But your tone makes it sound as though that wasn’t enough.”
“No. It wasn’t right. Because it wasn’t me. Wasn’t my scene to intrude on. I wanted my own.” When she felt his heart thump, she decided it was time to confess something she’d been thinking about since day one. “I was bound differently. On my knees. Pleasing you. Tasting you. You made adjustments. Spread me wide. Did things I’ve never imagined were possible. In that moment, I knew I would do anything you asked of me. Commanded of me. I’ve never wanted that from anyone else before.”
“Never?” With one question, one single word, Garvey had just validated what she’d been wrestling with for most of her life. He’d exposed every doubt, fear, and insecurity as though he’d pulled a length of rusty wire across her heart and made it bleed.
Garvey was certainly an original. The kind of guy she could feel comfortable around no matter what. “I was too afraid.”
He cradled her face. “I’ve got you now. And I will do everything in my power to make sure you’re never afraid again.” Her heart surged as she glimpsed the honesty in his expression. This was normal for him. And her new horizon.
“And my promise will start right now. As beautiful as you are in this outfit, you’re overdressed.” He turned her, sliding his hands over her bare shoulders. Her skin sizzled at the contact. “I’m going to fix that.”
Something deep in her core fluttered at the quiet command underlying his tone. She expected him to whisk away her clothing with little effort, but he surprised her by slowly drawing the zipper of her dress down.
When he’d reached the bottom, he slipped his hands under the fabric, gently pressing his palms against her shoulder blades. “I thought you were naked under this dress.”
“That’s the fun of being a girl. Presenting the illusion of beauty.”
He huffed as he pressed his lips to her nape, pushing the dress apart and away. The silky column fluttered to the floor. ”Any man can tell you that you’re beautiful, Arden. A Dominant will make you believe it.”
Again he used his hands to trace her body. To map the fullness she had finally come to accept a few years prior. She embraced every single one of her curves, and judging by Garvey’s heavenly touch, so did he.
He bypassed the clasp of her bra, flipping open the small clips holding her thigh-high hose in place. With careful and slow movements, he drew her panties down to her ankles. Once he placed them to the side, he refastened her garter straps, smoothing all four of them before rising to stand behind her again.
“Down on your knees. Hands clasped behind your back. Knees shoulder width apart so I can look at you while I get undressed.”
A sense of calm settled over her as she adopted the position. She lifted her gaze to find he’d toed off his shoes and kicked them out of the way. He’d also removed his jacket and was now working on his tie and the row of buttons on his shirt.
Each movement was fluid and smooth. Confident. In control. This was a man who wanted to savor every moment. After he undid the last button, he parted the starched fabric, exposing the chiseled, flat ridges of his chest and abdomen.
She wanted to stop him. To be the one to undress him. Uncover his olive skin for her inspection. But she understood a switch had been flipped. He’d bound her in place on her knees with his words, and he would only allow her to move when he decided.
As he tugged open his belt, her attention zeroed in on the lines of muscle at his waist. The jagged scar tissue from the incident with the rival club he’d spoken about at the temple. The strip of fine, dark hair that disappeared under the waistband. The zipper he was preparing to open. She held her breath as the material parted.
Oh sweet mother of God, he is like a king-size candy bar of fuck me.
He paused, studying her. “Knees apart.”
In watching him undress, she’d forgotten how he’d instructed her to kneel. She adjusted, wondering if this encounter was going to come to a crashing halt because of her attention span.
“Better.” Her eyes fluttered closed when he brushed his finger down the side of her face. At this close distance, she’d noticed the ridge that marred the line of his underwear.
It had been years since she’d last seen his cock. She wasn’t able to recall the finer details, but the size of the bulge indicated she hadn’t forgotten how hard and thick he was.
“I’ll let you get away with the slip for now, but only because I know you’re as anxious as I am. Which is why we’re going to take this slow.”
Seriously? They were moving at excruciating levels already, and he wanted to go even slower? The man was going to kill her with the way he liked to draw things out.
When he stepped back, he tugged his belt free of the loops. The thwack of the leather as it cleared the last loop and its ends snapped together drilled through her, touching off a hunger like nothing she’d ever experienced. Immediately she decided he could continue to go as slow as he wanted, because that sound was made of awesome.
Had she not been so set on following his command, she would have pulled his cock free to hold it in her hand as she asked him to spank her with the belt. And as that first bite of the thick leather slapped against her ass, she’d take his hard thickness into her mouth, then her throat. Taste him as she collected his precum from the slit and swallowed. Feel his fingers holding her head, flexing in her hair, as he pulled her down onto his dick. Her scalp tingling from where he’d pulled as he guided her.
As he fucked her mouth.
Contact on her face cleared her focus.
He stood over her, holding his belt in one hand, her chin in the other. “Your eyes unfocused, and you went somewhere else. Am I so horrible that you need to escape me?”
