Page 12 of Bound By Words

I rolled my eyes, and his grip on my chin tightened, jerking my gaze back in his direction. He narrowed his eyes at me, one eyebrow arching.

“You seem to be doing a damn good job of making a girl feel like she’s a desperate mess around you. I can’t manage to keep myself from making an ass of myself, and then you keep reminding me about falling on my actual ass. And laughing at me. I get it, my life is one big joke.”

The muscles around the sharp cut of his jawline flexed as he tilted my head backward, leaning further into my personal space, one of his feet slipping between mine and spreading them apart so he could get even closer. “I laughed at the situation, not how you looked. The glimpse I got of what’s hiding under that dress makes me want things I shouldn’t. But I know this is probably my only shot at getting you alone, so here I am.”

I could smell the alcohol on his breath, but he didn’t seem drunk. His dark eyes entirely focused on my face.

“I don’t even know what that means.” I rolled my eyes again and tried to push him back from me, but he didn’t budge. His fingers loosened momentarily before he slipped his warm hand along the side of my neck.

“Stop doing that,” he growled as he leaned forward, his dark eyes flaring angrily as he met my challenging gaze.

“Doing what?” Why was my voice so breathy? Damn him.

“Rolling your eyes. It makes me want to bend you over my knee.”

Whoa.

“Sorry, I’m not into the whole Daddy thing, stud,“ I sassed, hissing a little as the grip on the side of my neck tightened momentarily.

“I don’t want to be your fucking Daddy.“ His voice was filled with disgust. I’d obviously hit a sore spot with my choice of words. He was doing that jaw-clenching thing again, but it’d been hot when he growled the word fucking. “And watch your mouth. I didn’t give you permission to call me that.”

“I didn’t realize I needed permission to talk. What do you want from me?”

His face softened momentarily, his head tilting slightly as he drew in a breath, his chest pressing forward into mine. “I want you to tell me why you’re out here crying when I’ve been trying to find you for the last half hour. I’m worried about you.”

“Yeah, right,” I scoffed. “Sort of like you’ve meant to return that last text I sent you six months ago before I finally realized you weren’t interested in me. Because no one is interested in me. I can’t even fucking swing a date to my little brother’s wedding. He hates people, and he even found someone to marry him.”

I hadn’t meant to blurt all that out, but I couldn’t take it back now, and I watched as a few emotions flitted across his expression: amusement, confusion, pity. That one made me pause. I didn’t want his pity or anyone else’s.

“Kelly,” he sighed, leaning forward so his lips barely brushed my ear. “I’m more than interested in you, but I shouldn’t be.”

Geez, again with the cryptic shit. I knew what he was into. I wasn’t naïve. I may joke around and say inappropriate things, but I wasn’t stupid.

“You think I care about that?” I whispered. It seemed that he, too, was used to people judging the book by its cover.

He sighed, his warm breath ghosting along my cheek. “You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. My life is complicated.”

“Oh, come on,” I chuckled, my heart pounding as I touched his firm chest. “You think a little kinky stuff is going to scare me off? I think I can handle myself.”

Technically, I’d never been involved with someone who used playful spanking, much less the kind I imagined he engaged in, but I had an open mind. I wasn’t completely inexperienced. I could handle rough sex and being told what to do. At least, I had imagined the possibility when I’d met him before, but he’d shut that down when he ghosted me.

“What you see in movies doesn’t begin to cover it,” he whispered, his bottom lip barely grazing my ear lobe. “Books can come close, but even those can’t cover the depth of what you’ll feel while completely surrendering yourself to another person to bring you what you need. A person who knows everything about you. A person who is so focused on your pleasure that they deny themselves to make it better for you.”

He paused, releasing his hand, but he didn’t move away. “I shouldn’t even be touching you, but I can’t seem to help myself.”

“Then show me,” I challenged, my voice breathy and my chest heaving. His solid form was immovable against me, his body heat burning me despite the chill in the air. “If it’s that intense, why don’t you show me and back up all those intimidating words?”

“Oh, beautiful girl, what I’d like to do to this mouth of yours…” His thumb softly drifted across my bottom lip, pulling it forward before his hand disappeared.

“Uh-huh…” I could vividly imagine what those hands would feel like on the rest of my bare skin, tracing, taunting, pushing past all my boundaries, on me, inside of me, his voice just as rough in my ear as it was now. “I’m listening.”

“Are you sure you can handle me, sunshine?” His lips grazed the soft skin behind my ear, slowly tracing down my neck until they reached the delicate lace covering my shoulder. My back arched into him as I gasped, my hands gripping the open sides of his jacket. He was barely touching me, but that voice and his lips were making me forget why I was out here in the first place. “Can I call you that? I keep taking liberties with you that I shouldn’t. You should tell me to leave you alone.”

“I don’t think I feel very much like sunshine right now, but I don’t want you to leave me alone.” I nodded as I tried to make my voice convincing, but the way my voice broke gave me away.

Nathan’s hand slipped into the loose hair under my bun as he pulled lightly, angling my head back so he could trace his nose along the neckline of my dress, tugging it lightly with his teeth. His soft hair grazed my neck, and I keened softly, already completely under his spell.

“This sexy dress, and what I know is beneath, is making it hard for me to keep my hands off you,” he whispered, his voice rough. “I want to do bad things to you.”

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