I sit up to examine the damage. There are reddish rings around each of my wrists, and they’ll be full-on bruises in a couple of hours.
“Shit,” Calder says again, taking my hands in his and massaging them. “I didn’t realize it was so tight.”
I hadn’t even noticed my fingers were numb. They tingle as the blood returns.
“I’m all right,” I assure him. “It doesn’t hurt.”
He raises each of my wrists to his lips in turn, kissing the darkening red bands across my skin.
“What kind of man does it make me,” he says, “if I like that I left these marks on you?”
His words send a thrill through me. I want him to leave a thousand marks on my skin.
His hands roam over my body as if he can’t bear to let me go.
“I hope you don’t have any plans today,” he says as his hand sweeps across my breast.
“Why?”
He closes two fingers around my nipple. “Because I plan on making up for lost time.”
CHAPTER TEN
This is a bad idea.
Calder’s upset—a storm waiting to erupt—and I have yet to understand the extent of his pain. He’s dangerous for me. He’s too unstable, and I feel too strongly. Not to mention the fact that I’m still pretty pissed at him. My gut tells me that this will only end badly, but my heart doesn’t care.
I don’t know what secret burdens he still carries, or how those secrets might tear us apart. I know only that he no longer wishes to deny the cravings of our bodies, and that I am too weak to resist him, in spite of my reservations.
The time for talking is past, at least today.
“You still owe me a dare,” he murmurs.
I smile. “Then I dare you to remove your clothes. And you’re not allowed to put them on again until I say so.”
He flashes me a devilish grin as he climbs off the bed and pulls off his shirt again, revealing his broad, muscled shoulders and chiseled chest once more. The pants go next, and by the time they hit the floor it’s quite obvious that he’s as excited for this as I am.
“As commanded,” he says, moving toward me again. He leans over me on the bed, bringing his face close to mine.
“Your turn,” he says. “Truth or dare?”
There’s only one choice. “Dare.”
He reaches across my body and grabs the shirt he used to bind my hands.
“I dare you to wear this for the rest of the day.”
My heart flutters in my throat. I hold my wrists out to him, but he shakes his head.
“Not like that. Stand up.”
I obey, letting him pull me out of the bed. When I’m standing, he steps around behind me and places the rolled-up shirt across my eyes. The fabric blocks what little light there is in the room, and now there’s only the heat of him at my back, the feel of his fingers in my hair as he knots the blindfold behind my head.
When he’s done, he moves his hands to my shoulders. His touch is like a flicker of fire across my skin. His breathing is fast, shallow, but his fingers are slow and deliberate as they trace invisible paths down my arms. It’s the exact opposite of the way he touched me last night.
He moves around me, and suddenly his mouth is against my throat, wet and hungry as he kisses a blazing trail down to my collarbone. His hair tickles my chin as I roll my head back, basking in the sensations coursing through my flesh.
He drifts still lower, and I gasp as his mouth closes suddenly around my nipple. My hands fly to his hair as his tongue flicks across the nub, and he licks and sucks and draws it into a hard point.
I sense him drop to his knees in front of me, and his hands dance across the backs of my thighs as he kisses his way down my stomach. I suck in a breath when his nose brushes against the folds between my legs. His tongue slips across my clit at the same moment that he slides his finger into me from behind, and I let out a whimper.
He chuckles darkly. “Am I overwhelming you already?”
He doesn’t even give me time to respond. He pushes his tongue between my legs, attacking me with the same skill I experienced just moments ago. I dig my nails into his shoulders as I fight to remain upright. My knees are trembling, and I feel light-headed.
“Calder…” I moan, but I’m already sinking. Or is he pulling me down? I can’t tell. Suddenly I’m in his lap and his mouth is on mine. I throw my arms around his neck and lean into him, ravenous for his kiss.
His hands move to my hips, shifting me, guiding me onto him. He slips into me easily, as if our bodies were made to join perfectly together, and he groans as I sink down onto his hard length. Our chests are pressed against each other, and I can feel the hard beating of his heart against his ribs. He tightens his grip on my hips, yanking me down while he thrusts up, and now I’m the one moaning.
I bite down on my lip, trying to stifle the sound, but Calder growls in my ear. takes me a moment toCalder . I don
“Don’t hold back anything. I want everyone within a mile of this place to know that I’m fucking you raw.”
He drives into me again, and this time nothing can keep me from crying out.
It’s been too long.
Calder rolls forward, shoving me down on my back. The cheap apartment carpet is rough against my skin, but I don’t care. Nothing matters but the feeling of Calder inside of me.
He rocks against me like an animal. His mouth moves roughly across any bit of skin he can reach. I wrap my legs around his hips, allowing him to go deeper, and I tilt my head up and grasp desperately with my lips until I manage to catch his earlobe between my teeth.
This is how we’ve always done it best: this rough, unapologetic coming together. We’ve fucked to forget the rest of the world, fucked to lose ourselves in each other for some beautiful, fleeting moment in time. We’ve fucked to stop worrying. We’ve fucked to live.
Calder pauses, and a sob escapes my lips. If he stops now I’ll go mad.
But no: he only wants to flip me over. I obey the silent orders of his hands, letting him guide me onto my elbows and knees.
He doesn’t enter me again immediately. Instead he slides the tip of his cock up and down the length of my folds. He’s teasing me, and I try to push back against him, but he grabs me and holds me firmly by the hips.
When I’ve stopped wriggling, he makes one final stroke along the length of my lips again, from my clit up to the opposite end.
“One day,” he says, his voice rough and breathy, “I’ll fuck you everywhere.”
I shiver at the implication of his words, but he’s already shifting back to more familiar territory. He doesn’t even give me time to catch my breath before he thrusts into me again, tearing a strangled gasp from my throat. He doesn’t seem to notice. My fingers dig into the carpet as he drives into me, again and again. He’s hitting my very core, sending waves of sensation through me, and I can do nothing but submit to his body. His grip on my hips is brutal, but I don’t care. I’m lost in the feeling of him, of his length filling me and his hands clutching me and our warm bodies moving together.