Page 84 of Reckless Desires

“What does that mean?” she asks, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.

“A saying,” I shrug, casually, my gaze locked onto hers. “When someone knows how to get under your skin.”

“Did I scare you earlier? With the knife?”

“No.”

“Is it wrong to want to do that to someone?”

“You’re asking the wrong person. I’ve done worse to people who didn’t come close to what you went through.”

“Are you not afraid I’d kill you right now?” she asks.

“What reason would you have?” I shoot back calmly.

She shrugs. “Maybe I’ve turned into a serial killer.”

“Thinking about killing and actually killing are very different.”

“I scared you last night.”

I clear my throat. “You had a nightmare. I wasn’t the one scared.”

She pauses. “What’s up with the no kissing thing?”

“Too intimate.”

“And sex isn’t?” she challenges.

“Sex is sex. What makes it intimate is touch. But kissing is another level of intimacy.”

“Are you going to give me a Stasia lecture about triggering high levels of bonding hormones?” She raises a brow, but it’s rather flirtatious.

“If you’ve ever had a good kiss, you’d understand the intense sensory sharing of taste, matching the person’s rhythm, breath, and pace. Lips have sensitive nerves. Very easy to fall deep into an emotional attunement.”

“Are you bragging about being a good kisser?”

Her hand slides from my chest down to my stomach, her fingers tracing the line of my waistband. I hold my breath from hitching, but my body arches involuntarily, a silent plea for more, for less, for anything but this torment. I’m completely at her mercy, bound and breathless, and the control I fight so hard to maintain is crumbling, piece by piece, under her touch.

She doesn’t notice I am slowly weaning my way out of the ropes around my wrists. Just as she is leaning in and on her knees inches closer to my face, I get free and spin her around, catching her off guard.

I pin her back to my chest and grab her breast. My free hand clamps in between her legs, where I start to rub until she lets out a breath.

“Go run it off.” I take my hands off her and step back, slapping her ass cheek. “You’ll pay for that little stunt later.”

I turn and walk away, trying not to sprint into the house. I never thought being tied up would turn me on.

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Lily

Two weeks fly by, days blurring together, and I don’t regret anything. Killian and I sit in the tub, my back against his chest as we both seem to be in a pensive state.

“I’ll be gone for a day or two,” Killian says as he cups some water in his hand and pours it onto my shoulder.

I lean my head back on his shoulder and look up at him. “Can’t I come?”

“No. It’s business.”