Chapter Three
“Crap.”
“Maddy, open the fucking door before I break it down!”
Nate! The fury in his voice flooded me with a mixture of excitement, hope, and rage.
I hissed and unscrewed the clamps, squeezing my lips together to keep from crying out when blood flowed into my tortured nipples—taking them off was a lot less pleasurable than putting them on. Jumping from the bed, I grabbed my purple chenille robe, threw it on, and double knotted the belt.
The banging turned into pounding.
I kicked my discarded dress out of the way and opened the door a crack. “What do you want?”
“We need to talk.” Fire flashed in his eyes as he ran his hand through his already mussed hair. He’d removed his jacket and tie, and the top three buttons of his white shirt lay open, giving me a glimpse of his downy chest hair.
“No, we don’t. I wanted to talk to you before, remember? You left your key and took off.”
Tears stung my eyes, but I wouldn’t let them fall—he didn’t deserve them. I shoved the door to close it, but Nate’s foot blocked me.
He pushed his way inside, forcing me to step back as he stalked into the apartment.
He wheeled around and faced me. “Goddammit, Maddy. I made a mistake—a stupid mistake. I was afraid.” He fell to his knees, desperation twisting his face. “Marry me.”
My stomach flip-flopped, and I reached for the back of an afghan-covered armchair to keep myself from ending up in an undignified heap by his feet.
“Do not do this to me. A few weeks ago, you wouldn’t even consider moving in with me, and now you expect me to believe you want to get married?” When I could walk without falling over, I strode toward the bedroom. “Since you’re here, take the rest of your stuff.”
Nate stormed after me, grabbed my wrist, and pulled me around to face him. “I mean it, Mads. Marry me. I can’t live without you.”
Doubt coursed through me and I stared into his hopeful face. After being MIA for weeks, how dare he ask me to marry him?
“I can’t do this,” I whispered. “It’s too late.”
Wild rage flared in his eyes. But then they flickered and softened, and an amused smile formed on his lips.
“Your eyes… your face. I know that look.”
I lifted my chin, avoiding his gaze, and took a deep breath. “What are you talking about?”
He raised my fingers to his nose and inhaled. A small whimper fell from my parted lips, and I reeled back, trying to get away, but Nate’s grip didn’t give.
“I know the scent of your excitement—intimately.” Parting his lips, he brought my fingers to his mouth and drew them in.
Heat spiraled through my veins, leaving me woozy, and my eyes fluttered closed. No matter how much my body wanted him, I wouldn’t—couldn’t—give in.
“Nate. No.” My feeble words were a mere whisper on my breath, and when I opened my eyes, he stared down at me as if in a trance.
He lowered his head until his lips were a hairsbreadth from mine. His champagne-laced breath brushed over my skin, and with knowing fingers, he untied my robe and drew it apart.
My back curved, pushing me toward him. It would be so easy to forgive, to forget the hurt.
“This can’t—won’t happen,” I murmured.
Nate smiled, but it didn’t reflect in his eyes. “Let me make it up to you.”
Not trusting myself to speak and not wanting to meet his eyes, I retied my belt and strode into my bedroom. Deep-seated emotion stirred within my soul, and my resolve began to weaken like a dam during a torrential storm.
Should I believe him? Trust him? Could I spend the rest of my life with him? What if he got cold feet again, or freaked out?
Nate walked into the room after me.
I pointed at the garbage bag filled with his things, then crossed my arms. “Please leave. You need to give me time. I need to think things through.”
He was oddly silent. I looked at him and followed the line of his eyes to the rumpled bed where the abandoned vibrator and nipple clamps lay on the comforter.
“Looks like someone had a party.” His voice sounded thick.
Heat crept up my chest and blistered my cheeks. “And?”
“And nothing.” A slow smile shaped his beautiful mouth, and his eyes searched my face.
I uncrossed my arms and propped my hands on my hips. “It’s not like we didn’t use them together.” My gaze fell to his crotch, where the outline of his cock strained against the material of his pants. With an unconscious lick of my lips, I forced myself to look away.
A low growl came from his throat as he stalked toward me.
“No.” I pressed my hands against his broad chest. “We’re not doing this.”
Nate grabbed my waist and crushed his mouth to mine, dipping his tongue inside. The rasp of his day-old beard scratched my skin, and I didn’t know if I should pull him closer or throw him out.
Breaking away, he whispered against my ear. “Is that still no?”
“Yes. No. Yes… I…” Seemingly, desire had stolen my power of speech, and I couldn’t make sense of anything.
I backed up. Nate followed, step-by-step, until my calf muscles hit off the foot of my bed, and the only thing I could do was sit. The bulge in his pants was now in perfect line with my mouth, but no matter how loudly my mind screamed no, my body craved his taste.
In one swift motion, Nate slid off his black leather belt, dropped it on the comforter, and grabbed my wrists, raising them above my head.
My breath hitched, and my pulse quickened. “What the heck are you doing?”
“Making you say yes.”
In a weak attempt to break free, I shoved against him, but Nate pushed me down until I lay on my back.
“You’re not going anywhere. You can protest all you like, but you can’t tell me you don’t want this.”
He held my wrists with one hand and reached for his belt with the other. Picking it up, he looped it around my wrists. I tore at my makeshift bonds, but it only served to tighten the knot.
Even though we’d played rough before, Nate had never tied me up. My body’s reaction told me I loved it. Obviously, my body desired something my mind knew nothing about.
I hauled in a breath and kicked at him for making me want him like this, for turning my body into a rushing mass of hormones. “You’re crazy. This is crazy.”
His jaw tensed, and he caught my ankles, holding them against the mattress. “If you don’t stop kicking, I’ll tie your legs up, too.” There was no amusement in his voice, which meant he was serious.
I stopped struggling. At least if my legs were free, I would have some sense of control.
Nate stepped away from the bed and tore off his shirt. His chest and washboard abs looked more defined, more perfect than ever.
He reached between my thighs and stroked his fingers along my tender folds, making my clit swell to bursting point. I yearned for him to take me fast and hard.
“You don’t want this?” A slight smile lit up his knowing eyes. “Tell me to stop and I will.”
I firmed my lips and shook my head. My body said more than I ever could.
Nate parted my robe, which by now revealed a lot more than it covered, and kissed the tips of my tightened nipples one at a time. I arched against him, craving more.
He removed the belt from my robe and ran it between the valley of my breasts, tickling the skin. I bit my lip to stifle a giggle.
“What do you need that for?”
Nate grinned. “You’ll see.”
He moved behind me, fumbled with the leather belt, and wrapped his arms around my biceps as he maneuvered me to the top of the bed.
It took a few seconds for me to realize what he was doing, and when I did, I fought against his firm grasp. “You’re so not tying me to the bed.” A surge of liquid heat coated my thighs, making a mockery of my words.
Nate held firm. “Is that so?” He lodged a pillow beneath my head. “Because I think I am.”
I moaned and tilted my head back, watching helplessly as Nate coiled the belt from my robe around the leather one on my wrists and secured it to the spindles of the headboard.
I squirmed, struggling to resist the inferno roaring inside of me and the moisture flowing between my legs. Nate could send me over the edge with a few flicks of his fingers, but I would resist him as long as I could. Giving in to my need would only show how much I wanted and missed him.
I gritted my teeth and pulled against my bonds. “I’m not going to marry you, Nate.”
He stood and pulled off the rest of his clothes, and when his cock sprang free, I squirmed and pressed my lips together to prevent crying out.
A pearl of liquid glistened at the tip, and more than anything, I wanted to curl my fingers around his hard shaft, take him in my mouth, and swallow his cum as it spilled down my throat.
Anxious to touch him, I tore at my restraints, but my struggles only caused the leather to chafe my skin.
He wrapped his hand around his jutting erection and stroked back and forth. “You want this in your mouth? In your pussy? What if I jerk off right now and shoot my load all over your chest and face?”
“You’re all talk.” I groaned and thrashed against the mattress.
“Is that so?” He released his cock, got on the bed, and straddled my chest, gripping the headboard to take the bulk of his weight. He positioned himself so the satiny head of his erection grazed my parted lips.
My tongue darted out, flicked over the tip, and caught his salty moisture. It tasted like heaven. It tasted like him, like us. I raised my head and made a move to draw his swollen tip into my mouth.
Nate inhaled with a hiss. “As much as I want to, not yet.”
He backed down my body and paused to swirl the tip of his cock over my breasts. I writhed beneath his muscular legs as tiny jolts of pleasure raced to every nerve ending.
He moved further down my body until he knelt between my spread legs, and when his mouth was a fraction away from mine, he pried my lips open with his tongue.
His slow, heated kiss stole my breath. He rocked his stone-hard cock against my clit, and my pussy ached with a dire need to be filled, stretched.
“Nate. Please”
He continued teasing me, rubbing the swollen head of his cock up and down my slit. “Did you say yes?”
“No,” I replied, continuing to squirm beneath his torture.
I squeezed my thighs together, trapping him between my soft folds. The tension in my body ratcheted up to unbearable levels. I was desperate for release, and with a tad more pressure, I could bring myself to orgasm.
He moved back, captured my legs beneath the knees, and draped them over his forearms.
“Uh-uh. I know what you’re up to. It’s not going to happen until you say yes.”
My jaw clenched, and I cried out between gritted teeth. “I’m not going to.”
“Say yes, and I’ll put you out of your misery.” Leaning over, he kissed my labia apart and tongued my swollen clit.
Desperate longing filled every cell in my body. “I will kill you for this.”
“Kill me?” Laughing, he clamped his mouth over me and tortuously sucked my clit. Blood rushed between my legs, and my inner walls contracted, longing for another orgasm.
He lowered my legs, and I spread myself wider, urging him to enter. Instead of taking the invitation, Nate traced his fingers down the curve of my neck to my chest and made idle circles over my breasts until he reached my nipples.
My skin burned with his every touch, and the fingers that knew me so well drifted from my breasts, to my stomach, to my clit, causing me to tug at my restraints and rise to meet him.
The tension expanding within me threatened to give way as he torturously worked me with his fingers.
Nate chuckled. “Why so tense?” He cupped my spread lips and massaged the heel of his hand over my clit.
I gasped. “I hate you. Please.”
“Hate?” He tapped his thumb against my clit. “Will you marry me?”
I closed my eyes and answered with a shaky voice. “I can’t.”
He continued tapping. “You can. We can do this for as long as it takes you to say yes.”
Nate slid two fingers inside my opening and made slow come-hither movements against my G-spot. All rational thought abandoned me, and I couldn’t hold back my moans. My walls clamped around him, and I crossed my legs, anchoring myself around his forearm.
He delved deeper. His thumb continuously circled my clit, sending me higher and higher into the stratosphere.
For a split second, time stood still and then everything dissolved. A powerful orgasm overtook me, shaking me to the core. Heat whirled within my body, and I came hard, convulsing on his pumping fingers, screaming out as sizzling pleasure assaulted my thrashing body.
Dizzy and disorientated, I sank into the pillows. My body trembled, but I didn’t know if it was from anger, contentment, or both.
Despite my climax, Nate’s slow-moving fingers continued to work, sending quaking aftershocks through my body.
Eventually, he withdrew from my warmth and trailed his fingertips over my hypersensitive clit, up my body, and to my lips. He slipped a finger inside my mouth, but his tongue soon replaced his fingers as his lips moved over mine in an aggressive kiss.
“Marry me,” he begged between kisses.
I turned away from him. “Nate. I don’t—”
“Marry me and I’ll spend eternity making everything up to you. Tell me what I have to do.” His voice was rough with lust.
My thoughts raced in a million different directions. He was serious. Had the three weeks we’d been apart changed him that much?
I wiggled my fingers. “Releasing my hands would be a start.”
Nate’s eyes crinkled with laugh lines, and he reached up to untie me. “Does that mean yes?”
I paused and wondered if it did. “You’ll have to wait and see.”