He leaned down, tilting her face up. He kissed her hard. Gentle. She didn’t know which, and never did when it came to Ian. She felt his body stir and pressed closer, desirous of his heat and hardness.
“You are the most generous woman I know,” he said against her lips a moment later. “The last thing you’re being is selfish.”
“You always think this poison you speak of is going to taint me, Ian,” she murmured breathily. “But love is the strongest antidote to your fears . . . and yes . . . even against this supposed taint.” She combed her fingers through his thick, short hair, scraping his scalp. He closed his eyes and groaned. “Let me make love to you here. Right here. In the middle of all your darkness,” she said emphatically as she began to kiss his jaw, tenderly abrading her lips with his whiskers. She kissed his leaping pulse and he started.
“No,” he said harshly, running his hands along her arms and captured her wrists. He held her and stepped away. His eyes shone with barely restrained emotion. “But you came, and I can’t change that. And now that you’re here, I have to have you. I suffered too much in this very room, your absence like a gaping hole inside me. I can’t turn you away now. So I will make love to you. And then we’ll both know if what you say is true, or if I am just using you to chase away the shadows.”
He transferred her wrists to the small of her back and held them there with one hand. He bent down, forcing her back to arch, and began to devour her.
* * *
He became even more quickly intoxicated by her taste tonight, as greedy as he was for it. How he wanted to believe what she said was true, that her sweetness wasn’t just a temporary escape from all this darkness, but a true home.
His rightful place.
He used his free hand to touch her, relishing restraining her supple body in the taut arch, knowing she was his to do with as he pleased, all because it was her pleasure as well. She was a decadence he couldn’t believe he deserved, but he must, because her eagerness was inescapable. His cock swelled at the sensation of the taut lines of her back and ribs, the delicious round, firmness of her breasts beneath the fitted button-down shirt. He filled his hand with her, absorbed her soft moan into his mouth, felt her heat begin to resonate from her sex against his belly. His cock reared almost furiously.
He hissed and broke their kiss, releasing his hold on her wrists. Taking a step back with a goal in mind, he paused abruptly at the vision she made. Her lips were dark pink, damp and parted, her cheeks flushed. Her dark gold, red-tinted hair fell in loose waves down her back and arms. Her dark eyes shone with lust and love, her gaze like a steamy blessing.
He strode rapidly to the edge of the room, where there was a wooden bench. Ian thought it once might have served the purpose of being a location for placing shoes and slippers, but the lowness of the seat was what he wanted for his purpose. He lifted it and rapidly carried it to where Francesca stood, watching him silently. He set it down, his gaze once again glued to her luminous face and pink, lush lips.
She really was here.
“Sit,” he rasped. The bench was much lower than a normal chair, so when she sat she was at kneeling level.
“I don’t like to think of you kneeling on that disgusting carpet,” he muttered, holding her stare as he fleetly unfastened his button fly. Her nostrils flared slightly as her gaze lowered over his abdomen to his crotch. He grimaced as he pulled his heavy erection free of his underwear and pants.
“No,” he said when she immediately reached for him, her small hand tempting him, making his voice harsher than he intended. “I’m going to restrain you.”
He hadn’t unpacked, preferring for some reason to live out of his suitcase while he was at Aurore than to put his clothing in the closet and drawers, like a regular resident would. He found the tie he’d worn to the press conference and went behind Francesca. His cock jerked in the air when she immediately put her wrists behind her back. He knelt behind her, letting the tie fall to his knee, and moved her rose-gold hair aside to kiss her fragrant neck.
“You’re so sweet,” he murmured thickly as he began to unbutton her blouse, referring to her readiness to be bound, her insistence upon being there with him . . . everything. “I used to think I was taking advantage of you because you always gave yourself so freely, but you truly want to, don’t you?” he asked, his lips moving on her tender skin. He opened the placket of her shirt, his hands immediately seeking out her warm, satiny-smooth skin. He groaned at the sensation.
“Yes,” she whispered harshly. His fingers slipped over the front of her bra, and he grunted in satisfaction when he felt the front clasp. He opened the garment, spreading the cups back over her breasts.
“Yes,” she added emphatically when he filled his hands with the bounty of her bare breasts, shaping them to his palm, massaging them, pinching the plump nipples, glorying in her flesh. He watched over her shoulder, spellbound by the sight of his large hands on her full, soft breasts.
“Arch your back again,” he ordered softly near her ear. He salivated when she did as she was told, her spine curving, the mounds of her breasts rising. He pulled her shirt and bra down over her upper arms and left them. She was bound by the garments, but it pleased him to restrain her wrists as well, so he did so quickly with the silk tie.
Her hair was scattered on her shoulders when he walked around to the front of her, her bare breasts heaving. She kept her back arched, displaying herself without a trace of the embarrassment she might have shown in the same act even a year ago. Her eyes glittered with excitement when her stare lowered to his cock protruding from his fly.