She wrapped her arms around herself, chilled. "So this is where you do the tying-up."
"Yeah."
Oh, Jesus… She didn't want that kind of good-bye. Trying to stay calm, she said, "You know, it makes sense, given what happened to you. That you'd like that." Shit, she couldn't handle this. "So… is it men or women? Or, like, a combination?"
She heard the creaking of leather and turned back to him. He was taking off his jacket, and a set of guns she hadn't seen were next. Followed by two black knives that had been hidden as well. Christ, he'd been totally armed.
Jane tightened the hold on herself. She wanted to be with him, but not tied down and masked while he pulled a 9 1/2 Weeks on her head and whipped the shit out of her body. "Listen, V, I don't think—"
He took his shirt off, his back muscles flexing up his spine, his pecs pumping fully, then settling. He kicked off his boots.
Holy… shit, she thought, as it dawned on her what this was really about.
His socks and his leathers were next, and, as he'd gone commando, there were no boxers to get rid of. In total silence he padded across the glossy marble floor and got up on the table in a coordinated surge. Stretching out, he was utterly magnificent, his body heavy with muscle, his movements elegant and masculine. He took a deep breath, his rib cage rising and falling.
Fine tremors licked over his skin… or maybe it was the candlelight?
He swallowed hard.
No, it was fear that was making him twitch.
"Pick out a mask for me," he said in a low voice.
"V… no."
"A mask and a ball gag." He turned his head toward her. "Do it. Then put the cuffs on me." When she didn't move, he nodded at what hung on the wall. "Please."
"Why?" she asked, watching the sweat break out over his body.
He closed his eyes, and his lips barely moved. "You've given me so much—and not just a weekend of your life. I tried to think of what I could give you in return—you know, fair-trade shit, throwing up oatmeal for deets on my scars. The only thing I've got is me and this…" He tapped the rack's hard wood with his knuckles. "This is as exposed as I could ever be, and that's what I want to give you."
"I don't want to hurt you."
"I know." His lids flipped open. "But I want you to have me as no one else has or will. So pick out the mask."
As he swallowed, she watched his Adam's apple roll along the column of his thick throat. "This is not the kind of gift I want. Or the kind of good-bye."
There was a long silence. Then he said, "Remember I told you about the arranged-marriage thing?"
"Yes."
"It's going down in a matter of days."
Oh, now she really didn't want this. To think she was with someone else's fiancé—
"I haven't met the female. She hasn't met me." He looked over at Jane. "And she's the first of about forty."
"Forty?"
"I'm supposed to sire all their children."
"Oh, God."#p#分页标题#e#
"So here's the thing. Sex is all about biological function from here on out. And see, I haven't really ever put myself out there, true? I want to do this with you because… Well, anyway, I just do."
She looked at him. The cost of laying himself out like this was in his wide, bouncing eyes and his pale face and the sweat that beaded his chest. To say no was to degrade his courage.
"What…" Holy shit. "What exactly do you want me to do to you?"
When V finished telling her, he turned away and stared at the ceiling. The candlelight played across the broad, black expanse, making it look like a pool of oil. As he waited for Jane's response, he was hit by vertigo, feeling as if the room had flipped itself over and he was suspended above the ceiling, about to be dropped into it and swallowed by Quaker State's best.
Jane didn't say a word.
Jesus… Nothing like offering yourself raw and being shut down.
Then again, maybe she didn't like vampire sushi.
He jumped as her hand came to rest on his foot. And then he heard the metal-on-metal sound of a buckle being lifted. He looked down his naked body as a four-inch leather strap looped around his ankle. At the sight of her pale hands working to restrain him, his cock punched into an erection.
Jane's face was all concentration as she put the end of the leather tongue through the buckle and tugged to the left. "Is this okay?"
"Tighter."
Without glancing up she gave a good solid pull. As the strap bit into his skin, V's head dropped back on the wood and he moaned.
"Too much?" she asked.
"No…" He trembled outright as she anchored his other leg, both terrified and really fucking aroused. The feelings intensified as she did one wrist, then the other.