Page 23 of Intrigued By Love

Thad had volunteered to meet them and show them to their bungalow, and I’d jumped at the chance to avoid them, but I knew Jax had probably accompanied Thad. I could only imagine how it went. Most likely an hour filled with complaints and demands.

“Hey.” I moved in his direction. “Is everything okay?”

He turned to face me and then set his hands on my waist. “What’s your safeword?”

Goose bumps prickled my skin, and a low throb started in my core.

“You have a fitting. We don’t have time.”

“Already handled. Now I asked you a question.”

I stared into his stormy gray eyes, seeing the need there, reminding me so much of the times back in Vegas when he’d come home from his trips to Los Angeles. He’d tell me that my touch was the only thing to settle him when everything else went to hell.

“Little Bird.” I licked my lips, holding his gaze.

“You will use it if it goes beyond what you can handle. I need to trust you, just as you have to trust me.”

I understood why he was saying this to me. Long ago, when we’d first become a committed couple, I’d refused to say my safeword and wanted to go further, but he’d known I’d reached my limit and stopped. It had been one of our first major arguments. After that day, I never allowed myself to push beyond my limit, and I honestly communicated how I was feeling during a scene.

“Yes, Jax. I promise to use it if it becomes too much.”

As if accepting my words, he nodded and then released my waist and stepped back to lean against a pillar. “Strip.”

“Here? Where any of my nosy family could see us if they came by?”

“No one will come. Everyone is too busy with plans for their free night.”

“Oh.” I’d forgotten.

His lips curved, softening the hard edge on his face from moments earlier when I’d found him. “Strip. I want to see that gorgeous body.”

My fingers went to the buttons of my shirt, unfastening each one slowly—the exact way he liked for me to undress.

Heat grew in his eyes, making my pussy grow slick with desire.

“Keep going.”

I shrugged out of my shirt, letting it fall to the floor. I opened my slacks, pushing the material down to pool at my feet.

Just as I was about to unclasp my bra, Jax said, “Fucking perfect.”

The huskiness of his voice added to the arousal coursing in me. His hot gaze felt almost like a caress.

“Keep going, Little Bird. I have plans, and they require complete access to every part of you.”

My heartbeat jumped. I knew that meant a mix of pleasure-filled pain and orgasms that might have me walking unsteadily tomorrow.

In the next minute, I stood before him naked, my underwear piled on top of my other clothes.

“Come here.”

I moved in his direction, stopping when I was a foot from him.

He studied me, not touching me, but taking in every inch of my exposed skin.

“I’ve kept it pretty tame up until now. I want to take you to the edge we last visited in Vegas. Tell me now if it’s something you don’t want to do. Once we start, I won’t stop unless I hear your safeword.”

I’d wondered if we’d ever go past the bondage and mild pain. I knew he’d been holding back. Why he was doing that, I wasn’t sure. But I was happy he’d worked through whatever it was that kept him from taking us to that place we both craved.

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