“Whose bright idea was this again?” Cory kicked the heavy door shut behind them and grabbed a lantern off the wall, illuminating the gloom for one startling moment before her eyes adjusted.
“Mine. But no one said you had to go along with it.” Noticing another lantern, she snatched it off the wall. She smiled as he wrapped his arms around her waist and nuzzled her neck.
“Your wet panties said it.” He slapped her ass just hard enough to make her cry out—in approval, not distress. “No sane man could ever say no to you.”
“You’re sane?” She darted away, laughing, as he grabbed for her, then turned on the second lantern. The two lights offered a nice, warm glow.
Just enough for what she had in mind.
Misty whinnied from the corner and Vicky leaned up on her tiptoes to try to get a glimpse of the beautiful horse. “I always wanted to ride her,” she said wistfully when her big, dark head popped over the top of her stall.
“You can ride me instead.” He pulled her against him, backing them toward a huge pile of hay bales. “We need to make heat somehow.”
“Uh-uh. No riding.” Playfully, she pushed at his chest and dangled her lantern above her head so she could see the surprise flitting across his face. “We’d be picking hay out of our asses for weeks.”
“Now there’s a picture,” he muttered. “See why I like beds?”
Nerves flared deep in her belly but she ignored them. She wasn’t timid by nature. Long ago she’d banished fear to the basement of her life. If something made her nervous, she faced it head-on. Hell, look at Cory. He scared her shitless and she’d fallen—
No. This was sex. Dirty, inventive sex that would burn any memories of any other woman but her from his brain. Maybe she’d even burn herself out on him eventually, if she applied herself to the task. She’d always been good at studying hard.
“You’ll also like this,” she murmured, reaching for the hem of her dress and pulling it up and over her head before her anxiety had time to rear its warty head.
There was no reason to be afraid of Cory. He would never hurt her, not physically. And maybe he’d help her to forget that this was just pretend, and the family she’d spent the evening with would never be anything but on loan. Her own family would most likely never be in one place again, not with the way they were scattered around the country. Each of them alone in their own special kind of hell.
But not her. Not tonight. Tonight she would feel everything she could. She’d fill herself with experiences and sensations she could take out and examine after he’d gone.
After they were done.
When she stood before him in just her bra and lacy thigh-high hose, she stepped back until her spine hit one of the support columns that extended to the exposed beams of the ceiling. She wrapped her fingers around the wood above her head, stretching herself up like his very own unwrapped gift. Then she spread her legs and invitingly rocked her hips.
His gaze drifted from her face to her breasts, her nipples as hard as little stones, to her belly button with its tinkling silver bells, to the damp area between her thighs. His attention was as hot as a caress, as silky as a swatch of ribbon over her eyes.
She already felt bound, and he hadn’t lifted a finger. Only his chest rose and fell, betraying the extent of his desire. And his cock pressed against his trousers, a silent sentinel of his needs. Her needs.
Time to test the boundaries of both.
“Wanna tie me up?” She arched onto her toes, savoring every sharp hiss of breath he released. “Now’s your chance. Going once…going twice…”
Chapter Nine
“You don’t know what you’re asking for,” Cory grated.
Victoria’s golden hair tumbled across one eye, making her look like an ingenue. And her body… God, it was a work of art. Honed like her agile mind. She never stopped pushing herself to the limits.
Now she was pushing him.
“So teach me.” Vicky drew her toes up the inside of her opposite leg, looking more like a ballet dancer than an interior designer. “You accused me of being afraid before. Yet you’re the one not moving. Who’s scared now?”
She asked it almost lazily, but her eyes stayed steady on his. Measuring. Gauging. Looking for the chip in his armor that would allow her to burrow so deep inside him he’d never get her out again.
He moved quickly, striding forward and gripping her throat. She startled at that, her pupils going wide as he scraped his fingers along her chilly, vulnerable skin. As pale as snow, as soft as a dream. He bent to sip from her lips, drawing gently while his thumb circled her fluttering pulse.