“You were wearing that under your dress?”

I did a slow turn, letting him see the whole thing. By the time I was facing him again, he’d removed his shirt and had taken two steps in my direction. I reached behind me to unhook my bra, but a hoarse command stopped me.

“Leave it.”

I dropped my hands and waited for his next instruction.

“Sit.”

I sat on the edge of the bed, and he went to his knees. The hands that skimmed my calves up to my thighs were hot, but it only added to the fire already burning my skin. My pulse raced as he pressed his lips to the side of first one knee, then the other. He took his time trailing tickling kisses up my thighs, then across my stomach and up to my breasts. He gripped my waist as he latched onto a nipple through my bra, and I cried out as a jolt of electricity went straight south. I squirmed, the suction and pressure nearly too much, but he held me tight, took me right to the edge.

“Fuck,” I groaned, digging my hands into his hair.

“Soon,” he said with a smile. “I fully intend to make you come this year and next.”

My nails scratched his scalp as he turned his attention to my other breast. He worried at the tip with his teeth, the sensation intensifying until I wasn’t sure I could handle any more. Unable to articulate what I was feeling, I tugged on his hair until he raised his head.

Wickedness gleamed in his eyes as he stood. “Do you remember your safe word?”

I nodded, everything in me clenching in anticipation.

“Up on the bed.” Once I obeyed, he followed and pulled off his belt. “Let’s get those hands out of my way.”

Less than two minutes later, my hands were tied together and lashed to the headboard as I knelt facing the back wall.

“Now what?” I asked.

“Now I get back to where I was before I was so rudely interrupted.”

I almost asked what he meant, but then I didn’t need to because he was under me and pulling me down until he could run his tongue along the already-wet fabric.

“Shit,” I gasped.

He didn’t say anything, but his tongue was busy. It caressed my skin, slipped between my lips, danced over the abundance of nerves that throbbed and pulsed under the oral assault. I came once with a shudder, but he didn’t stop. I closed my eyes, my hips moving in short jerks as another wave of pleasure rolled over me. As if from far away, I heard soft whimpering sounds that, on some level, I understood I was making, but I couldn’t stop myself.

“Had enough?”

“J…” I grabbed onto the headboard.

“One more, sweetheart.”

I shook my head but didn’t say the word I knew would stop him. My muscles trembled, and I wanted to tell him that it wasn’t going to happen, but if I’d learned anything during the time I’d known him, it was that he could do anything he put his mind to.

I cursed as I came again in an explosion of ecstasy and color. For a moment, I thought the latter was in my head, but then I heard loud pops that my brain registered as fireworks in the distance.

“Happy New Year,” Jalen said breathlessly as he moved from underneath me to behind me. He leaned over and kissed my shoulder. “Ready to help me ring it in properly?”