He stopped, pressing her back against the circular staircase. “Reach above you and grab on to the railing.”

“But I want to touch you.”

“You will. But for now, baby, I need you to hang on.”

Her palms bit into the metal as she wrapped her fingers around the thin hand railing. She wasn’t supporting her weight—Ronin’s body bore every bit of that. Seeing the lustful expression as his golden-eyed gaze started at her breasts and tracked upward, her sex clenched.

He whispered, “Beautiful,” and dragged an openmouthed kiss from the inside of her arm above her armpit to the bend in her elbow.

Amery had no idea that tender section of flesh was an erogenous zone. A soft moan escaped. Each nibble and lick sent a bolt of electricity straight to her pussy. “Ronin. Please.”

One of his hands slipped between their bodies. He positioned his cock at her entrance, swirling the head through the thick cream pouring from her. “You’re so ready for me.”

He didn’t have to tell her to keep her gaze locked on his; she couldn’t look away from him. He pushed inside her on a slow, slow, slow glide until his cock was fully seated.

Amery fought the urge to close her eyes, wanting to savor the connection. The feeling of fullness. The heat and hardness of him finally inside her.

Then his mouth was on hers in a soft kiss as he withdrew. And just as slow as the first thrust was, the second thrust was fast and deep.

She gasped in his mouth as he began to fuck her with hard, steady strokes. Each time he bottomed out, tingles broke out across her body. Her nipples tightened. Her toes curled. She squeezed her pussy muscles around his shaft after every upward thrust.

Ronin broke the kiss to demand, “More.”

He’d moved his hands to protect her lower back from slamming into the metal framing of the staircase. His strength was such he kept her from hitting it even as his hips jackhammered into her.

She did close her eyes then and let the reality of the situation sink in. The hottest man she’d ever met was all up in her, driving her to the point of no return, making her body quake.

“I’ve wanted you like this since the moment I saw you,” he growled against her throat. “Sexy spitfire, throwing her pants at me.”

“Ronin.”

“Sassy with a side of sweet obedience.” He nipped her earlobe. “I never had a prayer of staying away from you.”

His words, coupled with the grinding of his pelvis on her clit, worked magic on her and she whimpered.

“You ready to come?”

“Yes.”

“And if I said I wanted you to wait?” he said against her lips as he stared into her eyes, without missing a single hard stroke.

Amery was so primed, her body so super-sensitized that one more hot kiss below her ear would ignite the fire he’d started inside her. But something in his glimmering eyes offered assurance that any delay he decided she needed would be worth it. “Then I’d wait,” she said softly.

That must’ve been the right answer, because his mouth was on hers, kissing her voraciously. He rolled his pelvis, keeping the contact on her clit continuous.

Her orgasm blasted through her and she fought the urge to let it send her spinning into cyberspace. With as hard as her cunt was contracting, Ronin would be coming right behind her. She wanted to see his face when he lost control.

Then it happened. His head fell back. His body kept pumping at the same pace, but it was as if everything had switched into slow motion. A bead of sweat rolled down the cord straining in his neck. She bent forward and licked it, which made his entire body tremble.

She whispered, “Such a beautiful man,” and brushed her lips across his rigid jaw.

After he stopped moving, she let go of the railing and twined her arms around his neck, threading her hands through his hair, craving closeness from this sometimes aloof man.

“Hang on. We’re not even close to done.” His cock slipped out of her and he hoisted her higher on his waist.

CHAPTER EIGHT

IT was the most marvelous thing ever, being in Ronin’s arms as he carried her upstairs. She pressed her lips to the side of his throat, breathing him in. The scents of man, sweat, and rain completely filled her senses.

“I like that little hum you just made.”

“That’s because you smell divine and it’s romantic how you’re whisking me off to bed.”

He laughed softly.

Then they were in her bedroom.

“Last time I was up here, you had on way too many clothes.”

“Not the case now, is it?”

“No.” Ronin set her on the bed. He covered her mouth with a languorous kiss. She melted deeper into the mattress and tried to tug him down with her. He pulled away and said, “Be right back.”

Amery was too sated to ask questions. She stretched. The sheets were cool and a little damp from the open window. Pushing the pillows aside, she rolled over onto her belly, spreading her arms and legs into an X. She loved the decadent feeling of nakedness. Although she lived alone, she rarely slept in the raw—just another weird taboo lingering from her restrictive childhood.

The bed dipped—no surprise she hadn’t heard his approach—and she started to face him, but his hand on the middle of her back stayed the motion.

“Let me look at you.” He swept her hair aside and placed a kiss at the base of her neck. “I’ll start at the top and work my way down.”

Ronin kissed and licked and caressed the nape of her neck. Her shoulders. Her arms. Her spine. Provoking her body to the point she might come again if his soft lips and rough fingers continued to trail over her skin.

Then his hot mouth found the dimples above her butt and she felt him groan. His breath drifted past those spots as he rubbed his lips across the dents. Over and over. “Your hair is strawberry blond here too. It’s so fucking sexy I just want to take a bite out of you.”

The image of him marking her with his teeth caused her to shiver.

He said, “You’d like that,” a beat before she felt the nip of his teeth on her right butt cheek and then her left. The pointed end of his wet tongue flicked across the spot.

“You . . .” She started over. “Your mouth and your hands should be registered as lethal weapons.”

“Technically they are.” His fingertips floated over the back of her thighs. “Right now I want to use my lethal tongue on your cunt.” He moved and said, “Turn over.”

When Amery faced him, his eyes held a gleam, his mouth a smirk, and a long scarf dangled from his fingertips.

Holy. Shit. “Ah. What are you doing with that?”

“Teasing you.” He snapped the end and the soft material floated across her skin in a serpentine curve from her neck to her pubic bone.

She shivered from the sensation.

Ronin twirled her scarf around her breasts, left, then right, and her nipples hardened. He trailed the fabric up and down her thighs. “Spread your legs.”

As soon as she complied he teased her pussy with tiny swirls light as butterfly wings but as effective as the flick of a whip. She moaned and arched her back, wanting more.

“Amery.”

Her gaze zipped back to his.

“Do you want my mouth here?” He fluttered the scarf over her sex.

“Yes. Please.”

“Arms above your head.”

She didn’t hesitate. Why didn’t she hesitate?

Because this man’s touch sets you on fire.

“Beautiful. Cross your wrists.”

Ronin twined the scarf around her left arm and slowly tugged it upward until the fabric brushed the back of her hand. He secured her wrists together and then looped the scarf through the slats in her headboard.

Amery couldn’t take her eyes off his face. A sort of serenity had settled over him that absolutely entranced her. And those wonderfully rough fingertips trailed over every inch of her arms with lazy sensuality.

Then he grabbed another scarf from her dresser, the one with fringed ends. He dragged the fringe over both breasts, a smile curling the corners of his mouth as her nipples peaked. He twisted the scarf before he slipped it underneath her, crisscrossing the silky material above her left breast and below her right breast. He created a knot in the valley of her cleavage, and pulled the roped scarf taut beneath her between her shoulder blades.

She glanced down at his handiwork. Her small breasts did look good—maybe even tempting—highlighted with the silk scarves he’d twisted and wrapped around her.

Ronin lowered his mouth to her right nipple. He sucked. Vigorously. Then softly. Opening his mouth wider to bring more of her flesh inside. When she started to wiggle, he placed the heel of his hand on the rise of her mound and pushed her hips down.

His control of the situation, of her, ratcheted her need higher.

Amery bit her lip when he positioned himself on the bed between her thighs and planted kisses in a straight line over her belly button, her lower abdomen, stopping when he reached the start of her bikini line.

He glanced up at her. “How many times should I make you come with my mouth before I fuck you again?” He nudged her thighs open wider with his shoulders. He ran the pads of his thumbs up the inside of her pussy lips and opened her like a flower.

“Um . . . twice?”

“Good answer. Even if you’d said once, I would’ve made you come twice.”

Ronin licked her. Delicately at first. Then he flattened his tongue and dragged it up her slit. He drew circles around her clit. Tiny, barely there circles before he pushed through her tissues and jammed his tongue inside her pussy completely.