“And if I said I wanted you to wait?” he said against her lips as he stared into her eyes, without missing a single hard stroke.

Amery was so primed, her body so super-sensitized that one more hot kiss below her ear would ignite the fire he’d started inside her. But something in his glimmering eyes offered assurance that any delay he decided she needed would be worth it. “Then I’d wait,” she said softly.

That must’ve been the right answer, because his mouth was on hers, kissing her voraciously. He rolled his pelvis, keeping the contact on her clit continuous.

Her orgasm blasted through her and she fought the urge to let it send her spinning into cyberspace. With as hard as her cunt was contracting, Ronin would be coming right behind her. She wanted to see his face when he lost control.

Then it happened. His head fell back. His body kept pumping at the same pace, but it was as if everything had switched into slow motion. A bead of sweat rolled down the cord straining in his neck. She bent forward and licked it, which made his entire body tremble.

She whispered, “Such a beautiful man,” and brushed her lips across his rigid jaw.

After he stopped moving, she let go of the railing and twined her arms around his neck, threading her hands through his hair, craving closeness from this sometimes aloof man.

“Hang on. We’re not even close to done.” His c**k slipped out of her and he hoisted her higher on his waist.

CHAPTER EIGHT

IT was the most marvelous thing ever, being in Ronin’s arms as he carried her upstairs. She pressed her lips to the side of his throat, breathing him in. The scents of man, sweat, and rain completely filled her senses.

“I like that little hum you just made.”

“That’s because you smell divine and it’s romantic how you’re whisking me off to bed.”

He laughed softly.

Then they were in her bedroom.

“Last time I was up here, you had on way too many clothes.”

“Not the case now, is it?”

“No.” Ronin set her on the bed. He covered her mouth with a languorous kiss. She melted deeper into the mattress and tried to tug him down with her. He pulled away and said, “Be right back.”

Amery was too sated to ask questions. She stretched. The sheets were cool and a little damp from the open window. Pushing the pillows aside, she rolled over onto her belly, spreading her arms and legs into an X. She loved the decadent feeling of nakedness. Although she lived alone, she rarely slept in the raw—just another weird taboo lingering from her restrictive childhood.

The bed dipped—no surprise she hadn’t heard his approach—and she started to face him, but his hand on the middle of her back stayed the motion.

“Let me look at you.” He swept her hair aside and placed a kiss at the base of her neck. “I’ll start at the top and work my way down.”

Ronin kissed and licked and caressed the nape of her neck. Her shoulders. Her arms. Her spine. Provoking her body to the point she might come again if his soft lips and rough fingers continued to trail over her skin.

Then his hot mouth found the dimples above her butt and she felt him groan. His breath drifted past those spots as he rubbed his lips across the dents. Over and over. “Your hair is strawberry blond here too. It’s so f**king sexy I just want to take a bite out of you.”

The image of him marking her with his teeth caused her to shiver.

He said, “You’d like that,” a beat before she felt the nip of his teeth on her right butt cheek and then her left. The pointed end of his wet tongue flicked across the spot.

“You . . .” She started over. “Your mouth and your hands should be registered as lethal weapons.”

“Technically they are.” His fingertips floated over the back of her thighs. “Right now I want to use my lethal tongue on your cunt.” He moved and said, “Turn over.”

When Amery faced him, his eyes held a gleam, his mouth a smirk, and a long scarf dangled from his fingertips.

Holy. Shit. “Ah. What are you doing with that?”

“Teasing you.” He snapped the end and the soft material floated across her skin in a serpentine curve from her neck to her pubic bone.

She shivered from the sensation.

Ronin twirled her scarf around her br**sts, left, then right, and her ni**les hardened. He trailed the fabric up and down her thighs. “Spread your legs.”

As soon as she complied he teased her pu**y with tiny swirls light as butterfly wings but as effective as the flick of a whip. She moaned and arched her back, wanting more.

“Amery.”

Her gaze zipped back to his.

“Do you want my mouth here?” He fluttered the scarf over her sex.

“Yes. Please.”

“Arms above your head.”

She didn’t hesitate. Why didn’t she hesitate?

Because this man’s touch sets you on fire.

“Beautiful. Cross your wrists.”

Ronin twined the scarf around her left arm and slowly tugged it upward until the fabric brushed the back of her hand. He secured her wrists together and then looped the scarf through the slats in her headboard.

Amery couldn’t take her eyes off his face. A sort of serenity had settled over him that absolutely entranced her. And those wonderfully rough fingertips trailed over every inch of her arms with lazy sensuality.

Then he grabbed another scarf from her dresser, the one with fringed ends. He dragged the fringe over both br**sts, a smile curling the corners of his mouth as her ni**les peaked. He twisted the scarf before he slipped it underneath her, crisscrossing the silky material above her left breast and below her right breast. He created a knot in the valley of her cle**age, and pulled the roped scarf taut beneath her between her shoulder blades.