Storm Watch(48)

She blushed deeper. Her knees bumped his as she fumbled with the key while trying to keep her towel from falling off. “I’m so sorry. I’m trying to free you. Hold still.”

“Back in high school you once told me to let someone else make the first move.” He jerked his hands and the cuffs clinked noisily, reminding them both that he couldn’t make any move at all. “Maybe this is one of those times.”

She went still. “This woman already made her move. She told herself no more.”

“Because you’re afraid.”

“No. Not afraid. Wary.”

His eyes softened. “I’d never hurt you, Lizzy.”

“I know that.”

“Do you?”

“Yes.” She had to kneel on the couch to reach his hands. Plus, she had to lean over him. Two things that worked in his favor, especially considering that the towel—the only thing covering her—got caught beneath her knees and very nearly slipped.

Unfortunately, she stopped and tugged it back into place, securing it by once again tucking the ends between her breasts. She reached for the cuffs. “Are you all right?”

“I’m not shot,” he said. “So, yeah.”

“He wouldn’t have shot you.” She grimaced. “Probably. Look, I really am sorry. If I’d known what was happening, I’d have—”

“What? Come running out here completely naked?”

She dropped the key.

He looked at it on the floor, then into her face. She nibbled on her lip and went to shift off the couch to get it.

Then stopped.

“What, are you enjoying me helpless and at your mercy?”

He’d only been kidding, but then she murmured with some surprise, “A little bit, yeah. I think it’s the power. It went straight to my head.”

He looked into her eyes and saw it, along with something else—excitement. “Ah, Lizzy, don’t you know? You’ve always held all the power. Here…” He spread his fingers, the biggest gesture he could make. “Do what I’ve never let anyone else do. Have your merry way with me.”

“Are you telling me you’ve never let a woman have her merry way with you?”

“Never,” he murmured. “Be kind.”

She stared at him, her hair falling like a silk curtain to her shoulders, her breathing speeding up a little. His did, too, because though he’d never had a bondage fantasy, he was nothing if not flexible.

And then there was how he felt about this woman. How hard he’d fallen. How much she meant.

He’d do anything for her.

Including this.

She looked down at him, at the way his shirt was clinging to his torso, molding to his skin. Her mouth opened a little, as if she needed it that way just to breathe, and he went hard. He knew the exact moment that she knew it, too, because her eyes widened and her breathing quickened. “We’re mad at each other.”

“Apparently certain parts of my anatomy didn’t get that memo.”

“Huh.” She moved, and he thought that’s that, she’s done, but it turned out she wasn’t done, not by a long shot. Slowly, she slid her thigh over his, lowering her weight more fully over him as her eyes drifted closed.

His entire body reacted to the sight of her straddling him, her lips parting in a hungry sigh, her hands going to the back of the couch on either side of his head as she rocked her hips to his and pretty much sent his heart rate through the ceiling. “Lizzy,” he managed, sounding low and husky even to his own ears. He reached for her, came up against the confines of the cuffs and swore roughly. “God. I want to touch you—”

She slid her hands to his face, tilted up his head and kissed him.

Deep.

Long.

Hard.

No, she wasn’t finished, not by a long shot, and she made a soft sound deep in her throat as she turned more fully into the kiss, not holding back.

He opened his mouth wider, moaning when she slid her tongue deeper, her hands tightening on him. He wanted to tighten his hands on her, too, wanted to run them up the outside of her thighs and under that towel where he knew she was all soft, satiny smooth skin.

But he couldn’t, and when she broke off the kiss, he was slow to pull back from the only connection he could make, taking his time, breathing her in, letting his mouth rest on hers so he could absorb the soft tremors that shook her, shook him. “God, Lizzy.”

Humming her agreement, she kissed his jaw, his ear, revealing to him what she’d so readily denied with those very lips only a little while earlier—that she wanted him, that she needed him, that she felt more for him than she’d intended to reveal.

“Jason?” she whispered, her mouth on his throat.