Page 151 of Carnal Wagers

She looked absolutely gorgeous like this. All riled up, hair and makeup a chaotic mess, and flushed red from exertion as she fought the restraints. Powerless despite how strong she was, and most importantly, in my control, with no sign of a panic attack on the horizon. She was my woman. This left no doubt about that, and after today, she’d no longer doubt it either, even if she had to relearn everything she thought she knew.

“Cillian, this is messed up. You’re not thinking straight.”

“No, I’m thinking more sensibly than I have in years. You do that to me.”

“I do what?”

“Make me better.”

She suddenly stopped struggling, a look of shock then skepticism scrunching her forehead.

“That…doesn’t make sense.”

“Why not?” I didn’t hold back from caressing the furrowed lines of her brow and evening out her smooth skin. Having her at my mercy stoked my darkest desires and pried me free from the sinking abyss of my thoughts. “I mean everything I say. The words ‘I love you’ weren’t carelessly thrown out.”

“Except you didn’t actually say the words, did you? It was nothing more than some cryptic bullshit to make me think you did.”

I gripped her chin to hold her still, her legs and feet lightly swinging. “Then let me make it clear. I love you, Alizé De Villier. I’m in love with you as my lover, my partner, my wife. I refuse to be apart from you until I’ve spent my dying breath. That clear enough for you?”

Her jaw hung open in stupefaction, her gaze flitting over my face, searching for the lie, but there was nothing to find. To emphasize my point, I erased the inches of distance between us.

Our lips met like it was the first time. They brushed each other. They sampled what we each had to give. They scouted for more. It was a playful, torturous tease. I licked the seam of hers, a gentle demand to open for me as I savored her taste. There was nothing better than the way these moments with her made me feel whole. With her, complicated became beguiling.

“You drive me crazy.”

It wasn’t just her kiss I wanted. It was her mind, her snark, her body, every bit of her she gave me. Only me.

I stroked my hands over her breasts, the layers between us hampering the feel of her curves. I groped her arse and drank down her moans. Our tongues flicked. She sucked on mine, and my cock twitched in envy. I bit the tip of her bottom lip and tugged, needing to mark her in a way she’d feel and see.

She snapped her head to the side and broke the connection, her shoulders heaving.

“No,” she panted out.

“No?”

“No, you don’t get to say that after tying me up to torture me. People in love don’t hurt their significant others.”

“You’ve got this all wrong, sweetheart.”

I stroked my fingers around the cleft of her butt cheeks, down between her legs, where her pussy hid safe between layers, to her precious little clit. She squirmed as I applied pressure.

“We’re here to play a game.”

“What game?”

Dappled sunbeams rained down on her face and glimmered against the depths of her glare. Beautiful and mesmerizing, just like her, my fierce síbhean.

I pressed the spine of my knife under her chin. “It’ll take trust.”

“You have an odd way of asking.”

I grinned at that. Not once had she begged me to end it, gone into a panic, or thrown a fit, aside from attempting to detach herself. She hadn’t even yelled for help. Subconsciously, she knew what she’d yet to let herself acknowledge. She trusted me.

I dragged the face of my curved knife down her jumpsuit—through the valley of her breasts, over the harness straps, and down to the apex of her thighs. Her breath hitched.

“We’re going to see how much edging it’ll take for you to be honest with me.”

“Edging?” She groaned as I seesawed the curved spine over her pussy. Like a sultry, little temptress, she spread her legs with a whimper. “You won’t hurt me?”