Oh my God, I’m going to asphyxiate myself. Cruise will find my body, wearing nothing but this stupid contraption and my Hello Kitty robe. Then, of course, my mother will show up in time to see that I’ve strangled myself with a sex toy. Just perfect.
A pair of familiar headlights flood the living room.
Cruise!
Reflexively, I jump on the couch and pull his grandmother’s afghan clear up to my nose. I’m pretty sure she didn’t anticipate her grandson’s incompetent girlfriend needing it to hide sexual accessories.
God—Cruise is going to think I’m such an idiot. He’ll probably trade me in for Blair by midnight.
“Hey, beautiful.” He bursts through the door with his right hand cleverly hidden behind his back and bolts on over. An iced tail of wind follows him through the opened door. “Surprise.” He reveals a giant bouquet of long-stemmed roses. They bring the entire room to life with their gorgeous tongues of crimson fire.
“Oh—I love them!” I beam with the blanket still snug to my ears. “They’re perfect. Really, you shouldn’t have.” And I’m betting in less than a minute he’ll more than agree.
He cocks his head to the side and examines me in this impractical semi-fetal position. Cruise looks resplendent with his dark coat, his pale blue shirt glowing from beneath.
“You feeling okay?” His dimples depress with concern. He looks amazingly tall from this vantage point and impossibly gorgeous, per usual.
“I feel great.” And lying to Cruise makes me feel like shit. “Well, not really great.” I hate this part because I’m totally going to have to do the big leash-thingy reveal.
He backtracks and shuts the door.
Cruise makes his way back, smoldering into me with a sexy as hell, rather stern expression. His chin dips. He’s hedging a maniacal smile like he suspects something is up, so I play along and pull down the blanket with a false air of confidence.
“Holy shit, you started without me.” His eyes grow in amazement at my sexual misadventure. And, strangely, I think I’ve managed to arouse him in ways I’ve never imagined.
“That’s right.” I swing the butter soft leather like I meant it all along. “Just waiting for you to catch up.”
Cruise grabs a hold of the chain and gently lifts me off the couch. He reels me in and growls a laugh that echoes right down to my belly. “You do realize I have no idea where the key is.” His stomach vibrates against mine as he says it.
“No idea?” I swallow hard at the thought of spending the rest of my days embellished with purple feathers.
He dips his gaze. “I see you’re wearing a robe. How perceptive of you. Otherwise I’d have to cut your shirt off to undress you.”
“No cutting.” It speeds from me in a flurry.
Cruise licks his lips. He peels off my ode to Sanrio, leaving me naked and vulnerable, and suddenly all too aware of those cruel watts of electricity glaring down from the kitchen.
Cruise leads me across the room with the leash—slow—never taking his magnetic gaze off me. He brazenly washes over my body with his eyes as though he were a cartographer mapping out the lay of the land.
Heat rises to my face as he gives the hint of a smile. His eyes burn like gas flames, blue as the ocean. Cruise reels me in and turns me around. His warm fingers press into my waist like he were the potter and I were the clay—the perfect medium for him to indulge in, create whatever he liked out of me.
With my luck my mother will magically burst through the door. I’m sure finding her only daughter naked, in a strange man’s living room, with a chain dangling from her neck is not what she’s expecting. She’ll most likely think I’m being held as a sex slave and call the police. The feds will haul Cruise out to a prison for the criminally insane. More like, insanely gorgeous. Regardless, I don’t want to think about my mother, nor do I want to think about bitchy ex-girlfriends. Right now, Cruise Elton is doing an incredible job of arousing the hell out of me without so much as laying a finger on my flesh.
He takes up my wrists behind my back and binds them with one of the stray leather straps. I guess he’s forgoing the cuffs since we’re one key away from confining me to permanent restraints.
“You like this, Kenny, don’t you?” It comes out low, almost chastising, and my insides throb at the sound of his voice.
He double wraps the leash around his hand before giving a swift tug.
Cruise leads me to the bedroom, and I don’t resist.
It’s exhilarating like this, following my scorching hot boyfriend through the dimly lit hall, my hands tethered behind my back while at his complete sexual mercy.