Chapter One
I’m going to punish you.
Jake said it so calmly that I almost couldn’t understand the words. Then the full meaning hit me, and my chest tensed.
Blindfolded, handcuffed, gagged, completely undone with desire, I’d decided to stay. My curiosity had already decided that for me. But that one word—punish—filled me with dread.
His hands were gone. They left an absence on my body that ached like a bruise.
“Lacey, you beautiful girl. You beautiful, silly girl. You’re the innocent gift I was hoping for. That other girl, she wouldn’t have done anyway. But you—”
Even though I was blinded by the dark silk fabric, I could feel his weight as he leaned over me, his hands pressed on either side of me against the sheets. In my mind, I could see his green eyes, dazzling and fierce.
I tugged with one arm, then the other. Both wrists, cuffed on either side of me. I couldn’t go anywhere. I couldn’t even touch him unless he touched me.
“You are something special, Lacey. As unhappy as I am about your lying to me—”
“Mmm!” I cried out from behind the gag.
Jake’s knees were between my thighs and the very thought of it made me sick with want. I had never had such an ache, as though my body had been hollowed out. I shook my head back and forth.
“Yes, you lied. But as unhappy as I am about your lying, I think that you did it on purpose.”
One of his hands touched my breast, and God help me, my body arched into him. I needed him. I needed that pressure. Needed that release.
“Yes, you did it on purpose so that I would have to punish you.”
I moaned. He had brought me to the brink of orgasm and left me waiting, hanging off of the edge and not being able to fall.
My hands were tied. So were my feet. I struggled, but only for a moment longer. Was I giving him what he wanted? It didn’t matter.
He would take what he wanted.
I moaned again.
His hand brushed down my chest. The back of his fingers grazed my exposed breast, sending electric thrills through my limbs.
“Ohh,” I moaned behind the gag. I was wet, so wet. Last night he had touched me and made me come. But now…
“I said I wouldn’t harm you. And I won’t. But that doesn’t mean it won’t hurt. Do you understand?”
I blinked behind the fabric of the blindfold.
I didn’t understand.
My bra and panties were still on, albeit in a state of wild disarray, and he made no motion to take them off. Instead, he slid his hand over my panties, fondling me through the fabric.
Oh God. I couldn’t imagine that this was how it was with every man. No other man had ever made me burn so hot with a single look. It wasn’t only his fingers that were sending me into spasms of want. It was the fact that it was him.
Jake Carville, a man I knew almost nothing about. I knew only that he was rich—
—you knew that his fingers were long and hard, and probably so was his—
rich, yes, rich and powerful, but the greatest power he had was this, the power to make my body sing under his fingertips.
Before, he’d yanked down my bra so that my breasts were exposed. I could feel the chill of the air and the warmth of his breath. His hair brushed against my collarbone as he lowered his head to my chest.
I would have screamed if I hadn’t been gagged. I screamed anyway, but it came out as little more than a gurgle behind the black silk fabric.
His tongue slipped down the line of my throat, leading down between my breasts. He turned his head there and rested his cheek against my chest.
Could he feel how fast my heart was beating? The quick throb of my pulse that beat through every vein of my body? It felt like the room was beating and all I could see was darkness.
A dark, beating air pressed hot against my face, and he pressed his fingers against me. I moaned, my hips bucking out to him, trying desperately to drain pleasure from his touch.
But no, he withdrew those long, terrible fingers and brought his hands up to my chest instead. He cupped my breasts in both of his hands. My first thought as he did so was that his hands must be so big to fit around me completely. Then he squeezed me, pressing a soft kiss against the space over my heart, and I didn’t think anymore.
His hands caressed softly, but I didn’t want him to be soft. I wanted him as he had been before. I wanted his hands to thrust roughly into me. I needed relief. I needed satisfaction.
Behind the gag I growled with need.
Hearing me, he smiled. I could feel the curl of his lips against my skin. He pinched my nipple slightly, teasing me. With the other hand he continued to massage my chest, kneading the soft, aching flesh.
“Lacey, my darling. My innocent,” he whispered. I heard his voice swimming in the darkness, and I tossed my head from one side to the other. The pounding need inside of me was ready to swallow me whole. All I needed from him was one thrust. One finger inside me, one hand pressing against my swollen clit. God, I needed it.