“God, Matt.” His reaction to her initial deception came back in a blinding rush. The anger on his face when he confronted her outside the party. I don’t tolerate liars. Suddenly everything came into startling focus. I’m a liar in his eyes. He can’t tolerate me. “You really one-upped my orange dress story,” she choked out.

For a moment, she thought the joke had gone too far, but he finally laughed, sounding a little dazed. “Only you, Lucy.” His hand coasted over her hair. “That’s my past. I’m not going to lie, it messed with my head. I came back to a place I didn’t recognize, to people who didn’t know me anymore. Everything felt like a lie. Sometimes I still don’t feel normal.” His rush of breath fanned her hair. “But there’s more.”

Something about the way Matt’s voice dropped caused the atmosphere to shift in the room. He dipped his head and traced his lips across her temple, making her shiver. She wanted to talk more, to tell him none of what happened was his fault. That there were people here, namely his friends, who knew and loved him exactly as he was, but the words felt trapped in her throat. He’d physically and verbally changed the subject, effectively causing her body to take notice.

“More?”

Matt nodded. “Yeah.” Using her hair, he tugged her head back, running his tongue up the side of her neck. A decadent buzz raced along Lucy’s skin, but it was tempered when she met Matt’s gaze. She could feel he was turned on, oh yes, but his eyes were troubled. “I want, I need, control, Lucy. Always have. I don’t want to scare you away.”

Her heart pounded in her chest. She was terrified of him, but not in the way he meant. Terrified that she’d given him the power to annihilate her. How’d she get here this fast? It was Matt, he’d pulled her in so deep, so quickly, she hadn’t had a fighting chance. Now, curiosity was a living thing inside her. “I don’t scare easily,” she whispered, already knowing that no matter what he said, she wasn’t going anywhere.

He scrutinized her for a beat, then surprised her by reaching for a grape. She watched his teeth sink into its skin with fascination, every muscle beneath her waist clenching at the sight. When he rubbed the remaining half over her lips, coating them with grape juice, heat rushed between her thighs. Needing an anchor, she reached behind her to grip the counter. “Would you like to hear one of my fantasies about you, Lucy?”

She chewed the piece of grape he’d pushed past her lips. “Yes.”

Matt began unbuttoning the bodice of her dress, her chest rising and falling beneath it. “You come to my apartment, wearing those jean shorts you had on the day we met. The ones that made my cock so fucking hard, I wanted to bend you over in the coffee shop.” When he finally pushed the fabric apart to reveal her breasts, her nipples were hard points. From the drugging quality of his voice, the anticipation of his touch.

He picked up another grape, bit half of it off, then circled her nipples slowly with the remaining half. Somehow the cold sensation sent heat streaking through her center. With a moan, she pushed her breasts higher, begging for more of the same.

Matt popped the rest of the grape into his mouth. Rough hands rose to cup her breasts, massaging them rhythmically. “When you get there, I’ve made you a meal. Just for you, not me.” He bent down to take a deep pull of her right nipple. “I sit you down on my lap while you eat, your bare thighs draped over mine. By the time you finish, you’ll be wet because you’ll feel me underneath your ass. You’ll know what’s coming.”

Continuing to torture her breasts with long licks of his tongue, his hand slipped up her inner thigh and tugged her panties down, letting them fall to the floor. Lucy felt like her lungs might explode from the racing of her breath. “What happens next?”

Before she could anticipate his next move, he boosted her up onto the counter and spread her legs, baring her damp center. He tested her with one finger, licking his lips slowly, and Lucy swore she heard herself moan. “I push your shorts down to your knees and sink in. You grip the table and ride my dick until your legs give out. Then I put you facedown on the table and finish you off hard.”

Yearning twisted in her belly. “Th-that sounds doable.”

A corner of Matt’s mouth twitched, but his eyes remained mysterious pools. He reached over and picked up another grape, placing it between Lucy’s teeth. “Do not bite down. Keep it right there. And close your eyes.”

After a moment, she nodded, trusting him to help her fight the insistent ache he’d built. When her eyes slid shut, she felt Matt’s tongue drag up the inside of her thigh. Strong hands palmed her bottom, pulling her to the edge of the counter and tilting her at an angle. His mouth nuzzled her core, lips brushing over her sensitive skin. Then he tasted her, humming in his throat, taking his time. Balancing herself with one hand on the counter, Lucy urged him closer with impatient fingers in his hair. She needed relief, couldn’t last much longer in this heightened state of arousal. Matt seemed to sense her overwhelming need because his lips closed around her clitoris, worrying it, before sucking it long and deep.

Her teeth sank into the grape with a cry. Already the pressure between her legs was whipping around, looking for an outlet. She could feel half of the grape sliding between her breasts, down her belly, but she didn’t care. Matt’s tongue was circling her now in tight strokes, big hands massaging her backside in time with his mouth. Her thighs began to shake. More, more.

Matt’s mouth stopped and he straightened, thumb running over her bottom lip as she gasped for air. “You bit down. Now we have to try again.”

“Matt, please.”

“Shh.” His hand dropped from her mouth to massage the bulge behind his fly. With his other hand, he replaced the ruined grape with a new one in her mouth. “Trust me to make you feel good. Trust me to be obsessed with making you come, Lucy.”

Her pulse jackhammered in her ears. Not just from what he’d said, but the way he looked at her. Could this be enough? This irresistible man wanting her simply for her body? Right now, she didn’t have a choice. Her body was making decisions for her. “Yes, Matt.”

Firm hands spread her thighs wider on the counter as his skilled tongue brought her to the precipice of climax once more. Half her focus went toward finding that desperately needed peak, the other half concentrating on keeping the grape whole between her lips. Not breaking his rule. She found herself sucking on the fruit, mimicking the movements of his mouth, moaning as her tongue skated over the smoothness. Her orgasm rolled over her in a blissful ripple, making her body tremble and cling to him, riding out every ounce of perfection. Still, she wanted more. Needed to feel his skin moving against her own.

She let the grape fall. “Please. I want you inside me, Matt.”

His mouth collided with hers in a hot, wet kiss. “I decide when I’m going to fuck you.”

Oh, Lord. Renewed heat coursed through her, suffusing every inch of her body. “Fine. As long as it’s now.”

Amusement leaped into his eyes, but was quickly extinguished by determination and desire. Keeping his focus locked on her, he unhooked his belt and whipped it through the loops of his pants. The whooshing noise sent her pulse tripping over itself, a whimper falling from her mouth. She tried to relax as he reached behind her, bringing her wrists together and securing them tightly with the pliable strip of leather, but the pulse between her legs had begun beating out of control once more. Being restrained felt foreign, yet handing over her trust completely to Matt felt freeing. The position made her back arch, displaying her stiff nipples, filling her with seductive power. God, she needed to be filled.

As if he’d heard her internal plea, he drew down his zipper and rolled on the condom he’d removed from his pants pocket. In one swift motion, he dragged her off the counter onto his waiting erection. Lucy screamed in her throat at the sudden fullness. Matt bit into her shoulder and groaned, but wouldn’t allow her to wrap her legs around his waist, pushing her knees down when she attempted to bring them higher.

With their height difference, her toes barely scraped t

he floor, Matt’s erection the only thing keeping her upright. She screamed at the sensation, her bound hands scrambling behind her for purchase, but they weren’t close enough to the counter. He wrapped her hair around his fist to keep her still, and even the sting of pain was welcome. The anchor she desperately needed. It distracted her from the fullness that had become the center of her universe, filling her, supporting her entire weight. Her nerves felt strung as tight as piano wire, body screaming for relief. Words with no meaning fell from her lips, most of them his name.

“Who decides when you need to be fucked, Lucy?”

“You,” she sobbed, attempting to plant her toes on the floor and failing. “You decide. Please.”

“Please, what?” He bit her ear and tugged. “Please prop you up against the counter and pound into you like the madman you’ve turned me into?”

“Yes. Yes.”

“When I’m ready.” His teeth grazed her bottom lip. “I’ve been imagining you bound and begging every minute since I met you. Maybe my whole life. And I’m damn well going to enjoy it.”

In a move of desperation, she tried to climb his body and wrap her legs around him once more, but he pushed her sweat-slicked knees down. The heavy fall of her legs impaled her on him even further and another scream ripped from her throat. She tugged at her restrained hands and saw Matt’s eyes flare, a groan escape him, when she couldn’t get free. It ratcheted her need even higher, tightened the growing ache in her belly. The realization that she could orgasm just like this, watching Matt want her, flitted through her buzzing head. She forced herself to still, even though her breaths were coming out sounding more like gasps. Tension built in her belly and she let her head fall back, still being held up by Matt’s grip in her hair. She could feel her climax looming like an oncoming storm.

“No, you don’t. Not until I allow it.” He tugged her head back up with a growl. At the same time, he walked her backward toward the counter. As soon as the hard surface met her lower back, she wrenched her legs high and circled his hips with a cry. She was heedless of anything but chasing relief. The feel of Matt’s unyielding body. Again and again, she rolled her hips, her thighs shaking from gripping his body so fiercely.

“Ah fuck, baby, I love it when you work me like that.” He pressed his forehead against hers and drove into her hard. His gruff moan filled her ear. “Christ. This is why I make you wait. One thrust and you’re already clamping down around me. It makes me goddamn crazy.”

When he stilled inside her after only that single drive, she cried out. “No. No. Please don’t stop.”

Desperate, mindless, she kissed him without holding anything back. Showing him with her mouth how badly she needed him to move. Requiring oxygen, she finally broke away. “Harder. More. I want all of you. Everything.”

Matt’s eyes were intense, breathing harsh. “When you kiss me like that, I’ll do anything you want.” His throat worked. “Maybe I should have kept that secret to myself.”

She struggled to focus on his words. “No. I like knowing you have a weakness.”

He shook his head. “You have no idea, do you?”

Lucy was growing restless. His body was locked inside hers, thick and throbbing. Her nerve endings snapped everywhere their skin touched. The longer he remained unmoving, the more the ache grew. It was dense and demanding, crying out to be assuaged. On top of it all, possibly more potent than anything, were his eyes. They were coated with lust, but somehow darkly excited by the control he had. In turn, it made her feel powerful. Made her question who was really in control after all. With that thought in mind, she arched her back on the counter and tossed her head back, putting her stomach, her breasts, her throat on display. Tempting him.

Matt growled. “Mine.”

“Prove it,” Lucy whispered.

Chapter Seventeen

Possessiveness, furious and consuming, laced through Matt’s system. She was spread out in front of him like a goddess and he had the honor of being buried inside her. Every second that passed made him hotter, heightening the anticipation of that moment when he would fuck her into the screaming orgasm she deserved. He’d taken her too quickly the first three times and he’d regretted it afterward, wishing he’d taken time to savor her. Even now, his body shook with the need to slide his cock out and ram it back into her slick heat. Knowing she’d love it, would whimper and writhe for more, only made it twice as difficult to deny the urge.

The physical nature of his need was only heightened by the connection he felt to her. Beauty shone out of her and wrapped around his throat. She was the one thing that had been missing his entire life without him realizing it. How had he been walking upright, talking, accomplishing things this long without her?

Savor. He ran his fingertips up the center of her body to tease her nipples. “You asked me what the extent of my need for control is…” Unable to stop himself any longer, he eased his hips back and rolled them forward, memorizing the way her hands clawed at the counter, her lips parted on a moan. “When I walk in the front door after a shift, Lucy, I want your mouth on mine before I even get my jacket off.”

Matt let one hand circle her delicate neck lightly as he drove into her again. And again. He couldn’t stop now, not with her clenching around him like that. Not with her tasty little nipples pointing straight up as her chest heaved, her body undulated.

“I want to punish you in the mornings, so I can spend the day thinking about your sweet, pink ass, thinking about ways to soothe it when I get home.” He reached behind him and grabbed her ankles, raising them above her head. His Lucy liked that. It put him right where she needed him to be, bumping against her luscious clit. He could see the tremors race across her abdomen, feel her feet flexing in his hands. God yeah, she was close.

“Faster, Matt,” she gasped. “Please, please.”

A growl broke from his throat. He’d never get used to her begging for him. Or the fact that she loved doing it. Loved submitting to him the way he needed.

“I want to tie your delicious little body up and fuck you. For hours. Until the goddamn sun comes up.” He rolled his hips inward, then pressed down, rubbing the base of his erection against her sensitive bundle of nerves. “I want to fall asleep with your gorgeous ass cradling my satisfied dick. Your breasts in my hands. I need it, baby.”

“Yes.”

The way she continued to encourage him…warmth expanded in his chest. Made him want more of her. Damn. He couldn’t go as fast as she needed at this angle. With each drive of his body, she inched back slightly on the slippery surface. With a growl, Matt yanked her off the counter and wedged her against the cabinet, supporting her hips with his forearm so she wouldn’t be hurt. The position bent her in half and put her ankles up around his ears. Matt shouted a curse at the ceiling it put him so goddamn deep. Every slick inch of her was like a manacle around his driving cock.

She threw her head back on a sob and began to shake. Almost there. Come on, pretty baby. “Oh, Jesus…Matt…”

Just a little more, and she’d blow. “Lucy, if I wake you up at two a.m., dying to eat your pussy, I want you to open your thighs and say yes, please, Matt. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, yes…oh.” He felt the telltale squeeze grip him and pushed hard into it, holding deep so he could feel her quake all around him. It was the closest to heaven he would ever get and he absorbed every shudder, every word. Eyes appearing blind in the dim light, she chanted things that made no sense, still pinned to the counter by his hips. “Matt.”

After a moment, the tension in her lessened slightly, but not completely. He was still hard enough inside her to break through steel. Seeing his woman rosy and satisfied in front of him shot a fresh surge of hot, pulsing adrenaline through Matt. Her chest rose and fell on gasping breaths when he twisted his hips, to let her know they weren’t finished. Oh no. We’re far from done. You’re going to get it again. She must have read his thoughts on his face because her lips parted on a breathy moan and she nodded.

>

She’s perfect for me. I want to be perfect for her. He released one of her legs and let it drop to his side, continuing to hold the other by the ankle. Keeping his eyes trained on her face, he moved it across his body, slowly turning her around so she faced the counter, remaining inside her the entire time. A sweat broke out on Matt’s forehead at the twisting sensation, the inside of her body stroking him sideways as she turned. By the time he had her completely shifted around, he’d gone a little insane.

He forced her up against the counter, unable to stop himself from sinking his teeth into her neck. Lucy tilted her head on a cry. “I’m going to fuck my little spinner now. She’s had it too easy so far.” With a hand on the back of her neck, he urged her facedown onto the cool surface, hands still secured behind her back with his belt. It put her ass on display for him and he had no choice but to slap that tempting flesh, once, twice, before surging into her. Her knees gave out, slamming into the cabinet beneath them as she screamed. “Feel that, Lucy? That’s as hard as it fucking gets.”

“More, please. Again.”

His vision blurred around the edges at her husky request. Never. He’d never had this part of him accepted before, countered so perfectly, and it felt like coming home. He wanted to shout at the rightness of it, but his body was begging to be relieved. Everything before now suddenly felt insignificant. This is where he belonged. She was where he belonged.

Matt reached down and gripped her shoulders as he rode her. His hips bucked against her hard, bringing him in and out of her with blissful friction. Their groans mingled with the sound of smacking flesh, sending him toward his peak quicker. With a final drive, he came with a roar, feeling as though his soul were expanding even as his body depleted. He fell on top of her, giving in to the compulsion to hold on to her. In fact, he couldn’t hold her tight enough. In his current state, the irrational fear slipped in that she could be taken away from him and he actually bared his teeth over the thought, tightening his grip.