Author: Bella Andre

She arched against him, her hands going to his hair as she cried out again. She couldn’t be this close again, couldn’t possibly be right on the edge of coming entirely apart.

But, even though she should have known better by now, she hadn’t counted on Chase. Hadn’t counted on the way his tongue slipped and slid over her aroused flesh so perfectly, so sweetly.

So sinfully.

She had to watch, had to open her eyes again and look down to watch him love her like this.

Obviously in tune to her every movement—every thought—as he swiped his tongue over her, he lifted his eyes to hers. She read lust, need, and desire in them.

And so much love that all it took was one more swipe of his tongue for her to come apart all over again. Her skin was slick with sweat, her heart had never beat so fast, as he took her to that incredible place she hadn’t ever realized was there waiting for her. Not until the first time Chase touched her. Kissed her.

Until he loved her.

When she finally caught her breath, she said, “I should be sated now,” as he shifted up her body so that he could press soft kisses to her stomach and the underside of her breasts as he fondled them in his big hands. “I shouldn’t need more.”

“But...” he prompted, his tongue laving her belly button before his teeth gently nipped at the skin around it.

“But I do,” she confessed. “I need so much more, Chase.”

Chloe knew what would happen next. He’d rise up above her, she’d wrap her arms and legs around him, and he’d take her the way she so desperately needed to be taken.

Instead, she watched as he moved from the bed and opened a dresser drawer. He pulled out four of the most beautiful pieces of fabric she’d ever seen.

“I’ve been saving these for you,” he told her as he moved back toward her. “I was hoping you would be able to use them for your quilts.”

She reached out to stroke the fabric. “Chase.” Her eyes filled with tears. Gathering these fabrics for her was the nicest thing anyone had ever done. “I don’t know what to say.” But she did. “Thank y—”

He smiled down at her and pressed a kiss to her lips before she could finish. “You can thank me later, after I’ve made you scream with even more pleasure,” he teased. He dragged the edge of one of the soft fabrics across her breasts. “Who knew this fabric would be so handy tonight?”

She felt her breath go in a rush. They’d come into the bedroom for him to tie her up, but she’d needed him too much to remember her goal.

“You’re going to tie me up with them?”

Giving her one of his beautifully sinful grins, he nodded. “And you’re going to have to be a good girl and not pull too hard on them when you’re coming for me so that you don’t ruin them.”

Seeing her obvious look of distress, he bent down to kiss her again. “I’m just teasing you, sweetheart. Yank as hard as you want. Come as hard as you need to. I’ll find you more beautiful fabric.”

She was so focused on what he was saying in his low, sexy voice, she was hardly aware when he lifted one arm and began to wrap the fabric around her wrist. But then she did notice, and she instinctively tensed.

He slowed his movements, more stroking the skin at the inside of her wrist than continuing to tie her up, and she relaxed into his touch. Trying to take her mind off her fears, she said, “Tell me more about how hard you’re going to make me come.”

She liked the way he sounded surprised by his laughter. “Are you sure you can handle knowing?” Her right wrist was attached by the fabric to the bedpost by the time he finished asking the question.

Oh God, she wasn’t sure about anything right now. Only that she needed to press forward with this, no matter what. She wouldn’t let her true sexuality be stolen from her for one more night. Not one more goddamned night. This was who she was, who she’d been made to be, and Chase would never hurt her.

Only love her.

It would have been easier just to close her eyes as Chase worked from her wrists to her ankles, but she didn’t want to let herself hide from any part of this. That’s why, instead of waiting for him to lift her other arm up, she made herself put it into place for him.

She was rewarded with his smile, followed by his swift intake of breath as she purposefully shifted her hips against his erection when he moved to tie up her other hand.

“Thank God I’m tying you up, or I might just embarrass myself,” he said in a low voice.

She couldn’t believe he had her laughing when every single one of her panic buttons should have been pressed instead by the position he had her in.

“Give a tug on the fabric for me.”

Even without her legs being bound, he’d tied her wrists securely enough to the bedposts that she couldn’t get away or protect herself if she needed to.

She waited for the panic to take her over, knew it had to be coming. Any second now it would swamp her and she would be begging him to untie her, to let her go back to safety, back to a place where she wasn’t forcing herself to face down every goddamned fear.

But as the seconds ticked down, all she felt was the warmth of Chase’s gentle caresses to her hip, to her waist, to her face. And all she knew was that he was looking at her as if she was the only person in the world who mattered.

And that was when she realized something she should have realized long before now: Chase was just as afraid as she was.

He was afraid that she wouldn’t ever let herself love him back.

She would have reached for him if she could have, if her arms weren’t bound above her head. “I’m scared, Chase.”

He didn’t hesitate even a single second before beginning to untie her.

“No,” she said through a throat that felt dry and raw. “Not because of the knots in the fabric.”

His hands stilled on her wrist. “Chloe, sweetheart, you don’t have to do this.”

She felt a sob rise up from her chest. “Believe me,” she said, “I’ve tried not to.”

She closed her eyes, but even with that sense gone, Chase was everywhere, his scent, the sound of his breathing, his warmth against her bare skin.

“Love.”

She’d whispered the word against his neck once before. She hadn’t been able to keep it inside, not when so much pleasure had been turning her inside out. It had been there on her lips, a silent vow to the man from whom she’d been unable to stay away.

She waited for him to ask her to actually say it, braced herself for it.

But Chase had never played by the rules and instead of making her admit her feelings for him, especially when she was bound before him and he had the clear upper hand, she was startled by a shifting of weight on the mattress and the warm caress of hands on her legs, down her thighs to her knee, massaging her calf muscle before finally reaching her ankle.

Her eyes flew open in shock. Here she’d been on the verge of confessing her love to him and he was simply continuing to tie her up.

But, oh, wasn’t it just the most lovely sensation, feeling him spread her thighs apart wider, watching him bend over to press a hot kiss to the needy flesh between her thighs right before he moved his concentration back to the fabric around her ankle.

“I love the way you taste,” he said almost as if in passing, and when his tongue licked over her again in a sinful assault on her every sense, she would have come off the bed if she hadn’t been tied to it.

“So lovely,” he murmured against her slick heat. “Always so responsive for me.”

She moved her free leg to open herself to him even more.

“Only one limb left,” he said softly and she was just on the verge of processing what he was saying, the fact that she was almost entirely bound, when his tongue speared inside of her.

Everything in her body coiled into that one spot that was about to explode and she stopped breathing, stopped thinking, couldn’t have remembered to be scared for the life of her, even as he shifted again and tied up her other ankle.

But he didn’t give her synapses any time to start firing again, because as soon as she was fully bound, his mouth was back there, between her thighs, giving her more pleasure than any woman had surely ever known before.

And then she wasn’t fighting her ties to try and get away from the wicked stroke of his tongue, the diabolical thrust of his fingers inside her clenching heat, she wasn’t even struggling because she was at all scared...no, she was tugging and pulling against her bonds for the simple reason that it felt good, so good to know that she was giving herself over, one hundred percent—every ounce of all of her faith and trust—to the man she loved. He’d already made her come twice, but it didn’t matter, because she already knew she’d never, ever have enough of him.

She could hear moaning, begging, in the room, but she was so far gone that by the time she realized she was the person making those desperate noises, her world was being split apart by a pleasure so intense only one thing had any chance of remaining.

“Love.”

The word fell from her lips again and again until Chase was there with her, until his mouth was saying the same word against hers and then they were kissing and he was inside of her, thick and hot and so wonderfully big she felt like she might burst from how full her body, her chest, her heart, felt as he loved her. She couldn’t wrap her arms or legs around him, but somehow, she felt closer to him than she ever had before as he lifted up onto his knees and slid up so that she could look down her naked body, slick with her sweat and his, too.

“Look at how lovely you are, Chloe. Look at how brave you are.”

He hadn’t pushed her earlier when the word love had slipped out of its own volition, he’d simply let her fear dissolve all on its own.

Her thighs were spread far enough apart by his bindings that she could easily see his shaft, slick with her arousal, sliding slowly in, then out of her.

The act was impossibly beautiful.

Shockingly sensual.

“How can you be the one who’s bound,” he said in a voice that shook, “and yet I’m the one who’s utterly helpless?”

She’d never known a man to be so honest with his feelings, with his emotions. She hadn’t thought it was even possible.

Chase was so much more than her knight in shining armor.

He was her own personal miracle.

“I love you.” Happiness flooded her alongside the incredible pleasure. “I love you so much.”

So quickly she wasn’t sure how he did it, he pulled her bindings loose and then they were wrapped around each other and Chase was rolling them over so that she was straddling him, looking down at the man who had managed to find a heart so deeply buried she hadn’t even known it was there anymore.

In the end, it was the look in his eyes of love—a love that promised forever, a love that would never, ever let her down—that pushed her all the way over the edge.

Straight into Chase’s loving arms.

Chapter Nineteen

Chloe woke up with her legs entwined with Chase’s and his eyes on her as he propped himself up on his elbow. “Good morning.”

She felt sleepy and warm and impossibly content. “Hi.”

Chase gently stroked the hair back from her forehead with his free hand, but even though his touch was gentle, even though she was still pushing sleep away, she could feel how tense he was.

Their night had been so incredible, start to finish, she’d barely been able to keep up with it, with the incredible pleasure of simply being with Chase.

The perfect, romantic dinner.

The fun game of bocce ball.

And then lovemaking so sinful yet sweet, so totally beyond any ecstasy she’d ever thought to experience.

“I love you.”

The tiniest bit of tension went out of his expression, out of his muscles, as he smiled down at her, then pressed his mouth to hers in a gentle kiss that somehow managed to steal her breath away without even trying.