It wasn’t him. She stared at him in surprise. It had never been his needs that had her running.

She shook her head slowly. “I ran because my own feelings, my own needs, terrified me. Not you,” she whispered. “You never frightened me, Jesse. Ever. But I scared the hell out of myself.”

“Because of who I am. Because of what I wanted,” he said roughly.

“Because of who I am.” She shook her head quickly. “Don’t you see, Jesse? It wasn’t you. It was me. I couldn’t make sense of my own needs, my own desires. I couldn’t understand what I wanted.”

“And now?” He looked so alone, so braced for her rejection.

She rose slowly to her feet, revealing the items she had left on the bed behind her. Handcuffs and leather ankle cuffs attached to chains. She saw his gaze flicker to them.

“Will you trust me to love you, Jesse?” she asked him softly. “I trust you. With everything I am. Everything you need. Will you trust me as well?”

Silence built within the room for long, intense seconds as he stared at the bed.

“I take it those aren’t for you?” He nodded to the items.

She looked up at him from the corners of her eyes, a small smile playing at her lips. “No, they aren’t for me.”

He tensed, his expression darkening with such latent sensuality she felt her pussy creaming in response.

He cleared his throat. “No means no, Terrie,” he reminded her firmly. “I can be man enough to give you want you want, within reason.”

She smiled gently. “You’ve always given me more than I deserve, Jesse. But now, I want to give to you. My gift to you, because I love you.”

He pulled his hands from his slacks, his fingers working slowly at the buttons of his shirt. He looked around the bedroom curiously.

“Why am I suddenly nervous?” he asked her with a half smile. A halfhearted attempt to remind her how dearly he loved being in control.

She moved to him, her hand lifting to touch his chest, reveling in the feel of the hard, warm muscle beneath his dark skin. She felt his breath quicken as she laid a kiss between the edges of his shirt as it fell open. His hands lifted, running up her back as he drew her closer.

“God, Terrie, you make me lose all my control. You know that?” He lowered his head, his lips pressing to her temple, her cheek, then her lips.

Terrie moaned in rising hunger as his tongue swept over her lips, licking at them, tasting her, savoring her as his arms tightened around her.

“That’s only fair, because you do the same to me,” she panted breathlessly against his tongue, then moaned in pleasure as his lips took control of hers, his tongue forging into her mouth in a stroke of heated pleasure.

His fingers clenched on the material of her gown. His body tightened. The small signs of his arousal, his need for her, built her own need higher. She moved against him, reveling in his kiss. His lips were hard, rough, yet incredibly gentle on hers. His tongue thrust into her mouth with forceful strokes, making her hungry for more and more of his taste.

His hands moved to her bare shoulders, smoothing over the flesh, making her tremble from the hot pleasure that streaked through her body. A touch so simple, she thought in awe, just his fingertips, yet her vagina clenched with the sharp darts of lightning-hot sensations they created.

His lips moved over hers slow and easy. So gentle. His very gentleness was at odds with the tension that made his body tighten, made him harder, stronger than ever before. The tenderness never changed. He groaned with rough hunger. His tongue plundered her mouth, mating erotically with hers, yet each touch was so controlled, so light and adoring it made her soul weep with the need it transmitted to her.

“Wait. Wait.” She pulled back, aware that once again Jesse was giving. Overloading her senses, capturing her with a pleasure so seductively erotic she could do nothing but respond.

She couldn’t lose control of herself, she thought frantically. This was for Jesse. His pleasure. His need. She had to return to him the bone tightening ecstasy he gave her each time he touched her.

“Terrie.” He was panting for breath as he laid his forehead against hers, his hands, palms only, smoothing across her shoulders. “I need you so bad I’m shaking with it, baby. I could devour you now, standing here against this fucking wall.”

“No.” She shook her head, moving back from him until his hands caught at her hips, holding her still. “Please, Jesse.” She stared up at him, knowing he wanted to give to her. Needed to give to her. But first, she needed to give to Jesse. “Let me do this, Jesse. Please. Just this once.”

He groaned roughly, his head falling back against the wall as he stared up at the ceiling. “Terrie, you torture me all night and I promise I’ll paddle your ass for sure.”

“Promises, promises,” she grinned as her fingers went to his belt. “Come on, Jesse, be brave.”

He looked down at her as he toed his shoes from his feet, his abdomen clenching as her fingers stroked across it. “No piercings.” He frowned fiercely. “You put a ring in my nipple, Terrie, and all bets are off. I’ll have to retaliate.”

She ran her fingers over the hard little pebble of his male nipple and grinned teasingly. “Gold would look good on you, Jesse. You should think about it.”

He snorted roughly. “I don’t think so, baby,” he groaned as she slid the zipper of his slacks down, the backs of her fingers caressing the hard ridge of his cock beneath his silk boxers.

She removed the pants and boxers slowly, planting kisses down his hard thighs as she went. The muscles there tensed, his cock jerking as her tongue stroked his skin languidly.

“Son of a bitch, you’re killing me,” he groaned, his hands spearing through her hair as she blew a soft breath across his tightening scrotum.

“I’m loving you, Jesse. Loving you with everything I can give you.” She leaned closer, her tongue stroking over the tightening sac. His legs spread for her, his cock so hard, the flesh stretched so tightly on it that it glistened in the candlelight.

His scrotum was bare of hair. She loved it. The sac was so silky, so soft with nothing to hinder her light strokes. His hands tightened in her hair as her teeth raked him gently, his hips pushing the flesh closer to her teasing tongue.

“God, Terrie.” His voice was deep, strangled. “Your tongue is killing me, baby.”

One last loving lick then she moved back, licking her lips as she rose from her kneeling position on the floor.

“On the bed,” she whispered.

His gaze flickered to the cuffs. “Fuck,” he breathed out roughly.

“We’ll get there,” she laughed softly. “In ways that will leave you screaming in pleasure.”

“That screaming part.” He glanced at her nervously. “Nothing too heavy, right?”

She lifted a brow. “Don’t worry, Jesse, I promise not to breech any restricted areas.”

He breathed out in relief. “I knew I loved you for a reason,” he quipped. “Okay.” He squared his shoulders with such a show of courage she had to smother her laughter. “Let’s do this before I chicken out.”

He plopped down on the bed, spreading his arms and legs with such reluctance she almost laughed out loud. Instead, she moved quickly to his wrists. She restrained them in the metal cuffs then clipped the other end to the chains that ran from the bottom of the bed rail. The leather cuffs were harder to attach, but within minutes she had his ankles restrained as well.

He watched her with narrowed eyes, the brilliant green heating to an almost dangerous level as she trailed her fingers up the inside of his taut leg. She took a deep breath. Despite Tally’s plan, she had no intention of blindfolding him.

“Do you remember when I threatened to share you with one of my friends?” she asked him softly as she rose to her knees and pulled the silk gown quickly from her body.

His eyes widened. At first in surprise, then in growing heat. “What have you done, Terrie?”

“I want to give you a taste of what I know you’ll give me eventually,” she whispered. “Pleasure, Jesse. The most erotic pleasure I can think of for you. Would you let me do that? I can’t do it without your permission.”

He breathing was hard, rough. “Fuck. Tally.” The moan wasn’t one of pleasured anticipation. “I know damned well you wouldn’t let anyone else in this room with us.”

She could hear his nervousness now. “Terrie, honey, I would do anything in this world for you, you know that. But that woman is dangerous.”

She moved from the bed, controlling her grin. “You didn’t say no, Jesse,” she reminded him. “Are you saying no?”

He cleared his throat. “No piercings, right?” His voice was thicker, almost slurred with his arousal.

“No piercings, Jesse,” she promised as she turned on the light, held it a second, then turned it off again. “Should I blindfold you?”

“God, no!” he growled. “I’m going to watch, Terrie, every move you make. And baby, when your turn comes, I’m going to make you scream for mercy just as hard and as loud as you make me scream. You better remember that.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” she murmured as Tally stepped into the room. “You have no idea, Jesse, how much I’m looking forward to it.”

Chapter Eleven

Jesse watched the two women carefully. He’d had a feeling, years ago, that Terrie could more than match his desires, but he’d be damned if he ever expected this.

Tally. Hell, he had suspected she was a wildcat, but he couldn’t profess any driving desire for her. He had to admit she was damned pretty, though. Just a few inches shorter than Terrie, her skin a dark contrast to Terrie’s creamy flesh. Her long black hair rippled down her back, her dark eyes glinted with amused desire.

“You owe me, boss,” she murmured as she moved along his side, her lips whispering along his ear as Terrie moved to the other. “Big time.”

A whiplash of scalding lust seared his body as Terrie’s lips feathered over his neck. The twin sensations were stronger, more powerful than he had expected. He tugged at the restraints, his fingers curling into fists with his need to touch now. Two hands stroked over his chest, his abdomen, raising his blood pressure and his arousal level past heights he would have never dreamed it could.

Both hands were soft, silky and warm. Yet Terrie’s held a heat, a gentleness he would have known anywhere. She stroked him as though her pleasure came from the touch of his skin alone. Not that Tally didn’t know how to use her hands. Damned if she didn’t. And her nails. Every muscle in his body clenched when she used them across his nipple. Shit, that shouldn’t feel so damned good.

“Terrie,” he growled her name as his gaze darkened with the spiraling pleasure.

It felt as though lips, tongues and seductive fingers were everywhere. His nipples, his chest, his abdomen. A wash of silken heat as Terrie’s lips feathered toward his, Tally’s drifting to his chest.

“Do you feel good, Jesse?” Terrie breathed against his lips, her eyes dark in the candlelight and filled with emotion.

“Kiss me, Terrie,” he growled. “Before I go insane for your taste.”

She smiled. A slow tilt of her lips that had his cock jerking in response. It was an erotic, captivating smile and had him groaning in sensual frustration. She leaned over him, her breasts brushing against his arm, his chest. The gold nipple ring taunted him as he glanced down, glowing against the rosy peak as she raked it across his chest.

Her lips touched his, her tongue stroked. His body bucked as Tally’s lips moved to his chest, her tongue lapping at his nipple. Dammit, that wasn’t supposed to feel that good.

But Terrie’s kiss fried his brain. He struggled against the cuffs, desperate to touch her. He needed to touch her, to run his hands over her body, to show her with his touch, with his kiss, what she meant to him.