With his free hand, he jerked at the b.u.t.ton and zipper of his pants until his c.o.c.k sprang free. Being released from confinement gave him little relief. His whole body throbbed to be inside her. f.u.c.king her until they"d both learned their lesson about separation.
"We can"t do this again. Do you hear me, Maggie? Never."
She nodded her head, tears falling down her cheeks. She cried out when he removed his hand from her p.u.s.s.y. He pinched a nipple to distract her. "Hold onto my neck and wrap your legs around me." He scooped her into his arms and she quickly complied, leaving his c.o.c.k perfectly aligned with the entrance to her c.u.n.t.
Without pause, he tunneled his way inside, sinking all the way to the hilt in one smooth continuous move. Her cry made him hesitate there as her body quickly adjusted to him. He pushed her back against the wall and withdrew to the tip. She gasped and tightened her hold around his neck and waist.
"Don"t worry baby, I"m not going anywhere." He pressed in and pulled out with more force than usual. It couldn"t be helped. His control was shot. He"d make it up to her later. h.e.l.l, there were an endless stream of ideas for what he could do to his sub constantly running through his head. She had no idea how much trouble she was in.
He slammed harder, making sure each thrust hit the spot she needed. He craned his neck to watch her beautiful face flush as she came apart in his arms. Never in a million years would he get tired of watching her come. The muscles of her p.u.s.s.y contracted around him and he realized she was dragging him with her. d.a.m.n, he loved her. He buried his face in her neck and groaned through the short, quivering digs of his release. Still, he couldn"t stop. The Neanderthal inside him wanted to ensure his claim would never be forgotten. Before long, common sense grabbed a hold of him and he slumped against her, using his weight to support them both.
"Mine, Maggie. Mine."
Her body jerked and the next thing he knew her small fists were pummeling his chest. "You can"t say that to me. It"s not right," she cried.
Afraid he"d hurt her in this position, he withdrew from her body and carried her to the sofa.
"Put me down this instant," she demanded.
Tucker arched his brow and considered doing a whole lot more than putting her down. Except they needed to talk, so he released her and she scrambled off the couch and grabbed her clothes.
"Don"t," he warned. They definitely weren"t finished.
"Don"t don"t me. It"s ridiculous, this is ridiculous." She waved her arms back and forth around them. "You can"t tell me this can never happen again and then call me yours. It"s cruel." Some of the fight left her body as tears streamed down her cheeks and she buried her face in her hands. She broke his heart.
"What are you talking about? That"s not what I meant. f.u.c.k." He fisted his fingers into his hair and collapsed onto the couch. "I can"t live without you."
Her head jerked up. "What?"
He wanted to cross to her and scoop her into his arms but he knew where that led. This time they had to talk so he stayed in his seat.
"I"m an a.s.s, Maggie. At the first sign of trouble I a.s.sumed you had lied to me. I wish I could take it all back but I can"t. I was cruel and harsh and everything I"ve always feared." He held his breath for a few seconds. She"d never forgive him unless he told her the truth.
"Trust is really hard for me. h.e.l.l, a lot of emotion is hard for me."
She stepped closer. "That"s now how I saw you."
He grimaced. "Saw being the operative word here. Until my paranoia got the better of me and I ruined everything."
She took another step. "No, don"t touch me right now. I"m like a live wire and won"t hesitate to have you under me again. We have to finish this. I have to get this out or I never will."
"You probably don"t remember much about my father other than what he allowed the public to see. He came off to everyone around him as a righteous religious man with hard-core beliefs. h.e.l.l, even I bought into that. He rode my a.s.s every day of my life until I left for college and even then he had no problem checking up on me at every opportunity. He nagged me to death and I hated him for it."
Tucker squeezed his eyes shut and tried to block out the image of his father"s last night. There were some things too painful to discuss. He pushed the memories out of his mind and went back to the easier part of the story.
"One Friday night while in college, I decided to come home for the weekend. I loaded a few of my friends into my car and we showed up here unannounced. The minute we walked through the door, the world went to s.h.i.t. A young woman was here. She"d gotten stinking drunk and chosen that night to come to the house to confront my a.s.shole father."
Despite trying to implement every coping mechanism he"d ever learned, much of the rage from that night bled through. "She wanted my mother to know what kind of man she"d married."
"I thought your mom already knew he"d had an affair?
"Oh she did and that"s why she left him for a while. Until he found her and convinced her that he"d confessed his sins to G.o.d and prayed for forgiveness. My mother had always been devout in her religion and she forgave him. Of course he"d lied through his teeth. What he"d managed to keep from us all was far worse. There wasn"t only one. Apparently, my father"s religious beliefs were more extreme than anyone knew. He"d married and impregnated over a dozen women during his marriage to my mom. There were children everywhere."
Maggie covered her mouth and smothered a small gasp.
"Still not the worst part." The rest of the story felt like a giant lump in his throat. He"d spent nearly a decade trying to forget. "The woman who confronted him that night was one of his children. On her eighteenth birthday he tried to..."
"No! Oh G.o.d, Tucker don"t. You don"t have to say it." She ran into his arms and wrapped herself around him.
Numb now, he rambled on. "Do you remember when my dad was hospitalized from a hunting accident?"
Maggie nodded.
"Not a hunting accident. That poor girl"s mother shot him."
"Tucker, I don"t know what to say. I had no idea."
"Don"t. There"s nothing you need to say. What I wanted you to understand is how f.u.c.ked up I"ve been. My mom hasn"t spoken a word since that day and it breaks my heart every week when I visit her. But I can"t stop going to see her. And my dad... Well, he was a s.e.x addicted serial cheater who used some whacked out religious beliefs as an excuse to impregnate half the county and I carry his f.u.c.king DNA. Do you understand what that means? Whatever short circuited in his logical thought processes could happen again. I could end up like him."
"Bulls.h.i.t!" she exclaimed. "I don"t believe that for a second."
The fierce look of belief on her face took his breath away. It made him sick how little trust he"d shown her previously. "I believe that now. But when I was twenty-one years old, my friends and I had already started Purgatory. We spent our spare time whipping women. In the face of the a.s.shole"s revelations it seemed pretty f.u.c.ked up. So we withdrew. We wanted to sell the club and cut our ties from the past, but my father"s will made a normal life impossible. He"d left a fortune behind. A fortune I might add that was built on the backs of this small town and everyone in it. He split everything equally among all his living children with a lot of codicils and conditions."
"That sounds complicated."
"Exactly. Being able to keep the money depends on keeping his secrets. All of them. Of course, the first thing I wanted to do was tell them all to go to h.e.l.l. The lawyers, the financial managers, everyone. As far as I was concerned every last dime could rot in the ground with him."
She touched his cheek with her warm fingers. "Family matters are never without complications and obligations are they?"
"Never," he answered honestly. "Fortunately, my friend Mason was here for me back then. When I couldn"t cope with it anymore than my mom could, he took over. There were babies involved. f.u.c.k, there are so many people wrapped up in my father"s lies it takes a small army to keep it contained. We"ve done a pretty decent job over the years."
"And then you met me."
He slapped her bottom. "Not what I meant at all. More like your return has woken me up and I want something more than just getting by. Things have to change."
"But I come with too much baggage. If privacy is what you need to keep everyone taken care of, I can"t promise that. If I stay here there"s a somewhat decent chance a news truck will eventually roll in and disrupt our lives. We can never work." The finality in her voice tore through him, wrapped around his chest.
"You"re not getting away from me that easy. You poked the bear and now you"re stuck with him."
She frowned up at him. "Hardly. More like the bear hunted me down and threatened to eat me if I didn"t do what he said."
Tucker laughed and Maggie smiled, transforming her sadness in a heart beat. "You"re so beautiful when you smile. I think I"ll have to find new ways every day to make you do that." He kissed her mouth, only lingering for a few extra seconds. "I love you, Maggie."
"Oh G.o.d. Tucker." Her smile vanished and tears shimmered in her eyes. "As much as I love you, I don"t see how we can work."
"One day at a time." He kissed her again, this time delving into her warm mouth. He"d drag her to his dark side using kisses and more if he had to. With more than a little reluctance, he released her mouth. "Mason and I will find a way to control the situation. We always do. What matters the most is that we can trust you and if you can live with who I am and where I come from, I"d really like to keep you."
"Which you? The hardheaded man who jumps to conclusions or the Dom who has the power to bring me to my knees and love every second of it?"
He grinned at her a.s.sessment of him. "That"s the whole package, Miss Maggie. Although I hope you"ll find it in your heart to forget and forgive the conclusion jumping. I was an a.s.s, but I"d like to think I learn from my mistakes."
"Are you ever going to quit calling me Miss Maggie?"
"Nope. Calling you Miss Maggie reminds me that you"ve been the one for me since that first kiss. I"m never letting that go."
Her mouth dropped open. "You don"t really believe that do you? Since the first kiss?"
Tucker shrugged. "You marked me that night. We might not have realized it then, but that"s what happened. No kiss since then has been as memorable."
She wiggled in his lap, rubbing her bottom across his crotch. "No kiss?"
He tightened his grip on her arms. "Careful, Maggie. Acting like a brat will get you more than you bargained for. I"ve already settled on how the rest of this night will go. So give me a kiss and then go in the bedroom and wait for me."
The change in her demeanor from his words alarmed him. She went from warm and happy to tense and awkward in a few seconds.
"I can"t. Oh s.h.i.t I forgot." She scrambled from his lap and reached for her tattered clothes. "I have to go home, I have an early morning flight."
"Maggie, stop. What the h.e.l.l are you talking about? Flight? Where are you going?"
She slowly turned in his direction. "I accepted a new job in Boston. I leave tomorrow."
Chapter Seventeen.
"You did what?" He couldn"t believe what he was hearing. "In just a few short days you not only found a new job, but you"re leaving tomorrow?"
"What was I supposed to do? Mope and eat bon bons? Maybe spend a month watching Lifetime sap? That"s not who I am. I might have cried while I did it, but I was determined to give you what you wanted and get as far away as possible."
"That"s not at all what I want, baby." She couldn"t leave now.
"Well, I know that now. Unfortunately I have a new commitment and I have to leave tomorrow."
He stood from the couch and crossed the room. He grabbed the clothes from her hands and threw them in the corner. "You can find a job here if you want."
She placed her hands on her hips and pushed out her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "Not like this one I can"t and I"ll thank you to quit manhandling my clothes already. Relax, I"ll only be gone six weeks. The college in Boston offered me a chance to be a guest lecturer for a special cla.s.s they are sponsoring."
He rubbed his temples, hoping to stop the spinning. She was d.a.m.ned hard to keep up with. "A cla.s.s? I thought your heart wasn"t really in teaching anymore. If you still want to teach, we"ve got a great college here in town."
She laughed and shook her head. "Right. Because the Christian college is dying to hire an instructor who specializes in alternative lifestyles. No thank you. The University of Boston is starting a series of cla.s.ses on s.e.xuality in today"s modern media and the first cla.s.s is about the runaway bestseller of erotic fiction that has seemingly turned the world upside down."
He closed and opened his eyes and examined the room. Nope still spinning. "This is for real?"
"I know! It"s all a bit surreal. As it turns out I"ll be using the book as a case study to discuss its impact on the American culture and s.e.xual health in general. It"s an opportunity too good to pa.s.s up."
She continued to describe her interview and the direction she wanted to take the cla.s.s in. The pa.s.sion she exuded excited him. There was a fire burning in her about this and no man had the right to squelch that. "I"ll go with you then," he blurted It took a few seconds before his statement sunk in. Her words trailed off and her eyes grew wide. "You"d do that for me?"
He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her against him. "It"s the least I can do for you. It will give me lots of time to make things up to you." He slid his hands into her hair, gripped the short strands and pulled her head back. "Now come to bed with me and let me love you like you deserve. There are still many hours until tomorrow morning."
"Oh, Tucker..."
Tucker stood at the end of the bed and let his gaze roam over the woman splayed on her stomach across the mattress. The sweet contour of her neck and spine was almost as beautiful as the full round curve of her gorgeous a.s.s. He"d thought about taking her there since they"d reunited, he"d even threatened it more than once.
He walked forward with the tools he"d retrieved from his studio. Fortunately for him, her arms were already spread out and in the perfect position. It took him only a few minutes to tie each wrist to one of the eyehooks attached to his bed.
He set the various paint brushes he"d brought to the room on the bed and chose the largest and softest one of them all. With a feather light touch, he brushed her porcelain perfect skin from shoulder to hip. "Time to wake up, my submissive."
"Ohhh..." she moaned.
He continued his path across her lower back and dipped into the swell of her a.s.s checks. To his delight, she began to squirm. Wouldn"t take long now for her to realize his intentions. He felt a smile tug at his lips. She looked particularly gorgeous spread out before him. He imagined enjoying this position quite a lot.
Tucker continued to paint her skin sans paint. It didn"t take much imagination to envision the vivid colors swirling across her skin. She definitely inspired him. If it were up to him he"d paint her over and over in every position imaginable. He"d fill their home with her sensual image.
Which reminded him that this wasn"t the house he imagined them beginning their life in. The property held so much bad luck and bad memories. They both deserved a fresh start. If she agreed, the first thing they"d do when they returned from Boston was house hunt.
He ran his paintbrush further between her cheeks and traveled the bottom curve of each b.u.t.tock before traveling down one of her legs. She stirred hard and her arms jerked against the restraints.
"What the h.e.l.l?"
He chuckled. "I told you this would happen. Did you forget?" He was her Dom and living up to things he promised was more important than ever. They were rebuilding the trust damaged the last few days. "Maybe you thought I was joking when I said I"d wake you up tied down with my d.i.c.k in your a.s.s." He slid the blunt end of the brush between her cheeks and prodded the tiny opening that awaited him. "We"re about to get to the second part."
She gasped. "You"re serious?"
"About that? Always."
Maggie shuddered, her legs opening a fraction more. "There isn"t time? I have a flight..."
"Stop worrying. This is about you and the pleasure I need to give you."
"But the flight," she half whined and half moaned.
He smacked her a.s.s with the wooden handle of his brush, the loud thwap music to his ears.
Maggie let out a breathy cry but didn"t protest again. Tucker grabbed her leg and spread it wider so he could fasten her ankle to the bedpost with another silk tie.
"There"s no need to even think about trying to catch a flight. We"ve got a private plane at our disposal, so we can leave whenever we"re ready." He picked up her second foot, fastened it in place and stood back to admire the beauty of his submissive tied and ready.
"You have a plane?" she panted her question.
He loved that sound. The edge of arousal when Maggie barely breathed and a slight tremor ran through her arms and legs. He made a mental note to make that his new daily goal.
"We have a plane, little one. What I have is yours and mine. Now stop talking about planes and keep quiet. The only sound I want to hear is your scream of pleasure or if you need it, your safe word. Is that understood?"