For 100 Days(70)

His teeth nip my ass hard, spiking the last aftershocks of my release into the stratosphere. I feel him shift behind me. I hear the metallic jangle of his belt as he unbuckles it, followed by the urgent rasp of his zipper. Foil crinkles, then rips as he tears open a condom packet.

His hands are hot on my bare pelvis, his fingers like iron as he yanks my ass toward him. His shaft is hard and thick against the cleft of my body, and my sex responds with renewed need. I whimper impatiently, tilting my hips to receive him.

I want to cry for mercy, dammit. I want to scream for him to drive home to the hilt. Instead, I clamp my teeth down so hard on my lower lip that I taste blood. Just when I think I can’t possibly take another second of this torment, Nick’s cock slides between my legs.

“Forget the punishment. I need to fuck you.” He slips one hand between us, seating the blunt head of his penis at my body’s entrance. “Hang on now, baby. Don’t you let go.”

He rams into me with a thrust that has me seeing stars behind my closed eyelids. There is no gentleness to his rhythm, only need. Hot and fast and slick and raw. The pleasure and pain is so intense, so exquisitely entwined, it nearly makes me weep.

And each savage pound of his body drives me closer to the steep fall below. The railing is secure, solid as steel, but I can’t deny my fear as my shoulders and chest drape over it, fully at Nick’s mercy. My breath gusts out of me in shaky gasps and blood rushes to my lowered head, my body rocking hard against the low wall as I absorb the impact of his possessive, dominating thrusts.

He’s taking me someplace tonight that I’ve never been. Someplace exhilarating and intense, where adrenaline is fuel to pleasure and punishment is its own sweet reward.

And I can’t get enough.

I grasp the railing like he told me to do, but in spite of his command I can feel that it’s really his firm hold on my hips that’s keeping me tethered. In spite of the danger he may one day pose to my heart, his strong hands are the ones keeping me safe now. It is his control that’s giving me the freedom to feel this intense pleasure, this ecstasy that’s made all the more explosive because of the fear, because of the risk.

As much as I crave this wildness, every clash of our bodies tells me that he craves it too, that he is as ruled as I am by this passion that exists between us.

He snarls with it now, hammering hard and furious.

Desperate for my own release again, I widen my stance and cant my hips to take him deeper, and the leash he holds on his control snaps. As he comes, he utters my name like a curse, one hand leaving my hip to twist in the length of my thrashing ponytail as his thrusts go deeper. As if he can’t get far enough inside me.

His climax trips my own. I splinter apart on a pleasured scream.

And when my hands start to give out from the blissful bonelessness of my spent body, Nick’s arms wrap solidly around me. He pulls me back from the edge and turns me around in his embrace, his eyes tender on me but dark with erotic intent. He scoops me up into his arms, then carries me back into the penthouse and to his waiting bed inside.





Chapter 28



Sunrise, as promised, is nothing short of spectacular from Nick’s penthouse terrace. While he’s on a call with a colleague in London, I wander outside with my cell phone to snap some photos of nature’s glorious pastel light show. My work may not be worthy of Nick’s gallery—a fact that stings more than I care to admit—but I want to remember these colors for the next time I paint. On a whim, I take another shot, one that also captures a pretty white sailboat cruising about a mile out from shore.

Recalling now my promise to touch base with Tasha, I select one of my new photos and text it to her.

Sorry I didn’t call yesterday, but this happened.

Here with Nick. All good.

Her reply buzzes back almost instantly. Are those friggin palm trees, bitch?! I really need to rethink this friendship with you...

I laugh and send a smiley face. Love you too. Be in touch when I can.

Glad you’re all right, she texts back. Call me soon! P.S. Work sucks even worse without you!

I can’t believe it was only yesterday that I walked out of Vendange. Less than twenty-four hours with Nick on this fantasy getaway makes Joel and the restaurant seem like a distant dream.

All the rest of my problems seem far off, too, held at bay by the pleasure Nick has given me and by the feeling of safety I know when I am in his arms. It’s not something I’ve had with anyone else—this sense that I am truly protected and secure.

That I am sheltered from everything. Even my past.

Hidden away up here with Nick in his paradise in the clouds, I can almost believe that nothing bad can touch me.