Page 46 of The Bargain
“Oh, you can touch me, baby.” I ease back to look at her. “You can put your hands and mouth anywhere you want, just not until I spank you.”
“And if I don’t want you to spank me?”
“But youdowantme to spank you.” I sit down and drag her close, my hands on her hips, my mouth temptingly close to her body, my fingers sliding between her thighs, wet heat dripping over my fingers. “Oh yeah, baby. You’re so fucking wet for me.” I dip my fingers inside her, and she leans forward, her hands pressed to my shoulders.
She trembles, and her lashes flutter, settling in dark half-moons on her creamy skin. “Look at me,” I order softly, my fingers exploring her, teasing her, and when her eyes open and her stare meets mine, her gaze is glazed with arousal, her inhibitions slipping away. “Good girl,” I say softly, and captureher hips, dragging her closer to press my lips to her belly, my tongue lapping at the soft skin there, but it’s not where she wants me. Her hips arch with the loss of my fingers, her body aching for my touch.
Her fingers twine around my hair, and I can feel the urgency in her build. “Should I lick your clit or spank your beautiful backside, baby? You pick.”
“Ethan, please.”
“All right, baby. I’ll lick just a little, and then you’re going to lay across my lap.”
Her eyes go wide. “What? I’m—”
I lick her clit.
She pants and twists rough fingers in my hair as if she’s afraid I’ll escape. As if I want to escape.
My lips curve, and I lick her again, suckling her gently, exploring her with my fingers as she arches into me again, but I’m not even close to letting her come. I pull back, my mouth just out of reach, my breath warm where she wants me, and then I kiss her belly again. She moans, a soft, sexy sound that has my cock twitching in my pants and wishing I was buried inside her.
Just not yet.
Notyet.
My arm slides around her waist, and I force her to straddle me, cupping her head and bringing her mouth to mine, and I can taste her need on my tongue, taste how much she needs the release she thinks she needs now. But she’s not ready. She twists her fingers around the cotton of my T-shirt and tears her mouth from mine. “Ethan.” There is a plea in her voice, as if she is asking for something but doesn’t know what.
But I do.
I dive my fingers into her hair and tilt her gaze to mine. “It’s time. I’m going to spank you now. I want you to lay across my lap.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Sofia
Ihaveamomentofuncertainty, of fear, but then Ethan says, “Trust me,” and strokes my hair from my face as he whispers, “I will never hurt you.”
And the truth is, I believe him. It’s unbelievable to realize how much. Deep down I know his words are honest. I know he’s honest. He’s real. “I know,” I whisper. “I’m just nervous. I’ve never—”
He kisses me, and somehow, it’s as tender as it is demanding. “I like being your first,” he says. “I like the idea of being the only one even more.”
I don’t even allow myself to read into that confession. We’re in the moment. He’s not talking about forever. It’s a sex kink. Just that. He shifts me to my back and leans over me before pressingmy knees together and kissing them. “This is just you and me, baby. What happens between us is our little secret to share.” He pushes to his feet.
I scramble to a sitting position and pull my knees to my chest while he starts unbuttoning his shirt.Yes please, I think. Finally, he’s undressing. He toes off his shoes, and when he tosses his shirt aside, his body is muscle and hotness, and I’m lost in the trail of hair from his belly button to his pants, which don’t seem to be coming off. He’s already stepping back in front of me.No, I think.No, that’s not what’s supposed to happen.
He sits down next to me and shifts to face me, his hands settling on my calves. “What are you thinking about?”
“Just you. Us. Just this.””
“That’s what this is all about. Nothing but us. Pleasure. Escape. The inability to think of anything else for a tiny sliver of time. It’s not about kink. It’s about trust and escape from everything that isn’t in the moment with us. And it’s about the rush and passion that follows, and I promise you that’s like nothing you have ever known. And I want to spank you because I want to feel those things with you, Sofia. Do you want to feel them with me?”
“You’ve spanked someone before?”
“I’ve had my share of kink, baby, but I told you, that’s not what this is, not with us. I want to do everything with you and to you that you want, that you need, too. I know I keep saying this, but maybe if I say it enough, you’ll believe me. You’re different, Sofia. So fucking different, you make my head spin. You make me crazy, and I seem to like your kind of crazy.” His mouth crashes over mine, and my body softens, knees lowering as he drags me close and folds me under his arm, his hand on my breast, and somehow I end up on my knees facing his lap.
And when our lips part, we’re breathing together, and my hand is on his chest. “Ethan,” I whisper, and I’m not even surewhy or what I’m asking. I think…I’m saying yes. I want this. I want how he makes me feel. How he pushes me out of my comfort zone and into something wholly different. I want to live in a place where grief and fear don’t rule my life, and that’s here, with him. He strokes my hair from my face, his touch somehow as sexy as it is tender, and he studies me, searching my face for something I cannot name. Something that tells him what to do next, and that’s what really gets to me with him, really speaks to me. He’s not looking inside himself for what comes next. He’s looking to me.
Finally, he captures my chin, our gazes colliding. “I’ll tell you before I spank you. Then I’ll do it five times. Each time a little harder. You count with me. Okay?”
