“Something soft, I think,” he murmured. “Japanese silk perhaps. Definitely red.”
Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. How had a bruised knee led to silk rope? Paige swallowed with eyes wide. She fell into his gaze and tried not to whimper.
“I know many types of knots,” he assured her with a deepening growl. “Army stuff mostly, but I did pick up a few bondage tips doing movie research.”
Yeah. She remembered. The movie he referred to was how she’d been blessed with the firsthand visual of a cock-socked Gideon Shaw in as near to all his naked glory as an R-rated film allowed.
“Um,” she croaked. “How does tying my wrists make up for my knee getting hurt?”
He leered at her and nodded. “Easy, babe.”
Keeping a firm grip on her wrists, he lifted her arms and pressed them into the back of the sofa in a silent demand to play along. With her mimicking being tied to an imaginary bed, her hands out of the way and completely at his mercy, she stared at his face while excitement built inside.
“Best way to take away pain is to replace it with pleasure.”
“Oh.” Was that her voice? Geez. It sounded so … small.
His big, solid hands swiped excruciatingly slow along a line following the sensitive skin from wrists to underarms bringing the sensual caress within millimeters of her breasts.
“Breathe, babe.” Edward chuckled as he continued to stroke down the sides of her torso until those strong, masculine hands stopped to span her waist.
With a quick jerk, he yanked her hips forward to the edge of the cushion and used his hips at the same time to wedge his beefy body between her spreading legs.
Her sharp gasp made his already wicked eyes glimmer with approval. Forceful, but not overly aggressive, and with just the right amount of Alpha sweetening the deal, he controlled every response, incited the reaction he wanted, and reduced her to a mass of overexcited flesh. Here was a side of her friend she’d only ever dreamed about until now.
His hands slid beneath her bottom until she angled them just right then squeezed hard until she whimpered.
“While the idea of having your incredible legs wrapped tight around my waist is appealing …”
He let go of her ass and put his hands under her knees, lifting and swiftly tilting her backward until her feet left the floor, and she dangled over his arms.
“This would be more pleasurable for you—to surrender your legs and be trussed to the bed, naked and spread-eagle.”
And then he settled his body in the curve of her open thighs. Paige closed her eyes and moaned.
She felt his warm breath against her neck and stilled … dangling precariously on a knife-edge of desire and arousal.
“That’s right, my beautiful girl. Moan for me. Let me hear your pleasure.”
His words set off a firestorm that tore through her with such force that any inhibitions she had were overpowered with a need desperate to be satisfied.
Shimmying against him, Paige took control by winding her legs around Edward’s hips with a fierce grip aided by her feet digging into his ass for leverage.
He barely had time to react with a heavy grunt before she arched off the sofa back and slipped her arms around his neck. From there, it was an off-the-hook full frontal assault meant to pave the way to carnal victory starting with her mouth desperately licking, sucking, and biting his corded neck.
He tasted like heaven mixed with sex—an aphrodisiac for her starved senses.
Reaching into his shaggy mane of hair, Paige gripped his head with both hands, sucking on his flesh while moaning and wiggling against him.
With his arms holding on to her, he stayed still, letting her feast wherever her mouth landed. His encouraging grunts were like the turn-by-turn voice commands on her GPS. She licked then bit. He grunted and angled to give her more room to maneuver. Before long, she’d practically mauled him alive from the collar of his t-shirt up to his chin. When she licked his Adam’s apple then nipped the edge of his jawline, they each let out a strangled groan.
They were both breathing heavily and hadn’t even kissed yet.
Before she achieved her aim of taking his mouth, he had palmed her bottom with one hand then taken her earlobe into his mouth. Following a skin-prickling nibble, he growled, “Bet that knee isn’t on your mind.”
Huh? What knee? Her knee? Whatever … she strained to take his mouth, but he held her at bay.
Yelping in frustration, Paige felt him loosening her arms from around his neck as he drew back. Her disappointment was brief, however, because he’d only moved enough for him to hook some fingers into the waistband of her stretchy workout pants and purposefully slide them down. He swept them off one leg at a time until she was spread wide before him wearing only some very sensible cotton panties that came in at a solid three on a sexy lingerie ten point scale.
Her mind went a bit fuzzy then. Especially when she searched his face and found his eyes glued to the area between her legs that felt like it was on fire. She worried briefly that a damp spot would be visible through her plain undies but quickly lost the thread on that thought when he spoke.
“Let’s have a look at that knee.”
Oh, right. Her knee. That was what had started all this.
Hooking one of her legs comfortably around him, he gently palmed her other calf then slid his hand to the underside of her knee, bringing it up for close inspection.
Sprawled on the sofa cushions, Paige flung her arms wide for anchor and observed him through hooded eyes.
His intense expression as he examined the gash turned to a deep frown. A harsh, guttural groan turned into a barked expletive once he had a good look at the injury.
“What the fuck, Paige!”
It was probably all kinds of wrong that the ferocity of his reaction made her private flesh pulse wildly and flooded her center with a rush of heat.
“That’s way more than a boo-boo.”
Really? Right that second she didn’t give a damn. The fact was, she’d have gladly taken six stitches without Novocain if he’d growl at her like that again. Probably not the best time to wiggle her ass but the lightning bolt of lust that hit her straight on also managed to scramble all her thoughts.
Shit got real when his mouth lowered to the banged up knee. Her leg jerked involuntarily as his lips touched her skin.
This time when she groaned, it sounded like a slow motion rumble that went on and on and on. Her back arched and she dug her fingers into the cushions, holding on for dear life.