“Shh, no talking.”
Instantly, Rachel closed her mouth.
Cole added, “You aren’t to make a sound, or you will wait until tomorrow morning to come.”
As her eyes narrowed on him, he felt his lips twitch, but he didn’t let the grin appear. Instead, he stood and moved around to the leather chair behind his desk. He sat down, barring her from any view of him from the waist down.
Lifting his chin slightly, he raised a brow in a gesture that shouted, Begin. Leaning back in the chair, Cole settled in to enjoy the show.
What is he doing? Rachel thought as she kept her eyes on him.
He looked so incredibly attractive right now as he sat behind his desk with his shirt rolled up his arms, baring his tattoos to the naked eye. Add in the way he had undone the top two buttons of his shirt, and the man looking back at her, her husband, was the sexiest man she had ever seen. His eyes were focused on her, and his mouth was pulled taut into a neutral expression.
Well, let’s see if I can change that with what I do since I can’t talk.
Rachel fingered the bottom of her sweater where the wool had come loose. With a smile meant to seduce, she took the loose piece between her thumb and forefinger, and gently, she started to pull on it. More and more wool came away, and as Cole’s eyes dropped to her fingers, she let it go and began to flirt with the edge of the blue wool resting against the top of her thighs. Slipping her fingers under the sweater’s edge, Rachel gripped the fabric and swiftly tugged the material up and over her head, bringing into view her creamy white skin and breasts encased in black lace with a pearl at the center clasp.
Keeping her eyes fixed on him, Rachel toed off her black heels and kicked them aside, and when her feet touched the hardwood floor, the firm surface felt good and solid as though it would never be pulled out from under her.
“Leave the bra. Now, take off the leggings. And, Rachel? Keep your eyes on me while you do it.”
Dipping her hands into the waist of her pants, she made sure to do as she was told. She peeled the tight fabric down her legs. Bending in half with her neck arched back, she made sure she never lost eye contact with the man who was currently undoing his shirt buttons one at a time.
When her pants hit her ankles, she took one step toward him, leaving her pants where they lay. Even though she was dying to drop her gaze and look at the skin he had just revealed, she kept her eyes locked on his.
“Christ, Rachel. Do you have something you’d like to tell me about this lingerie fetish of yours?”
She parted her lips to answer, but then she caught herself at the last moment and remained silent.
“Good decision,” he acknowledged. Raising a hand, he twirled his finger. “Turn around. I want to see your tight little ass.”
Biting her lip to keep herself from talking, Rachel pivoted on the wood floor until she was facing the wall full of rows and rows of books. The room had fallen silent, and Rachel strained to hear any kind of sound, but there was nothing.
Suddenly, she felt a slither of fear slip into her mind. Closing her eyes, she reminded herself that this was not Ben. This was Cole, the man she loved and trusted to never hurt her. Telling herself to relax, she took several deep breaths. She almost flew out of her skin however, when a fingertip grazed down her back to the center bow of her panties where it held six ribbons together at the base of her spine.
“I have never seen such sexy lingerie in my fucking life,” Cole said, his voice floating over her bare shoulder.
He must have been standing close, but Rachel didn’t dare look or ask. Instead, she continued biting her lip while his finger traced the ribbons one at a time from the lace that barely cupped her ass cheeks to the pearl at the center of the bow.
After he outlined the final ribbon, the hot touch of his finger left her skin, and when his mouth moved by her ear, she felt moisture pool between her thighs.
“Move in front of the ladder, Rachel, and do not turn around until I tell you to.”
With her heart pounding in her chest, Rachel moved to her left and stood in front of the large wooden ladder. It was attached to the top of the bookcase by a brass bar and secured at the base in a similar fashion. The only difference was the bottom had bulkier rollers.
Knowing she was unable to ask why, she found herself focusing on the books behind the rungs of the impressive ladder—Hemingway, Dickens, and, huh, Aristotle. Classics. Next to those, she saw thrillers written by James Patterson, Stephen King, and Stieg Larsson.
God, is there anything sexier than a man who reads?
“Spread your legs to the width of the ladder, and put your hands on the rung above your head.”
Yes, Rachel decided, there is something sexier.
A bossy man that reads—that is sexier.
Cole pulled his shirt out of his pants, removed it, and threw it on the desk behind him. He had to remind himself—and his impatient cock that was ready to sink inside her—that this was for Rachel.
What he was about to do was for her. It was about making her forget the terrible night she had just endured. It was also a fantastic opportunity to remind her of why she was in love with him, and one of the reasons was the way only he could make her feel.
As she parted her legs, Cole closed his eyes and said a prayer of gratitude for the sheer fucking pleasure he felt from her following his orders.
In the back of his mind, he knew that she would without question, but for some reason, now that they were married, he had a moment of concern that things would somehow change. That was certainly not the case, he was discovering, as Rachel raised her arms above her head and wrapped her fingers around the rung above her.
He’d never witnessed a more erotic scene in his life, and he’d looked and been in plenty of potential moments. There was something about her bare feet on the hardwood floors, the long creamy legs parted invitingly, the wicked lingerie that tantalized and teased, and the black symbols that marked her spine as they disappeared up and under her brightly highlighted hair.
Fuck yes. She was the most erotic picture he had ever seen, and she hadn’t done anything other than stretch her arms above her head as she waited for him.
Stepping forward, Cole pushed her hair to the side and over her shoulder. As he leaned down to place his lips against the curve of her neck, he heard a swift intake of breath but no words. Brushing his lips along her soft, sweet skin, Cole couldn’t help the little nibble he took of her ear.
“I’m going to take these,” he whispered in her ear, raising a hand to the bow holding the ribbons together, “off now, and once they’re gone, I want you to put your right foot up on the bottom rung of this ladder. Nod if you understand.”
When he saw her head dip in acknowledgment, Cole felt his cock harden as he ran his tongue across his top teeth.
Don’t speak. Don’t speak, or he will stop, were the words repeating over and over in Rachel’s mind as she faced the books with her hands above her head.
Swallowing back a moan that was threatening to break free, she tightened her hands around the wood and held on as she felt his dexterous fingers slip into the sides of her panties. Ever so slowly, Cole dragged the scrap of lace down her legs to her upper thighs. When he got there, she felt his warm breath on the back of her thigh.