Bound by Bliss (Bound and Determined #2)(83)

His gaze sharpened and then the tiniest hint of a smile curled at the corner of his mouth. “I would like you to take the oil and pour a small amount on my belly, and then I would like you to rub it in, slowly moving lower until you reach the base of my cock, circle around my shaft, and lightly, using only the tips of your fingers, work it into my balls. Do not touch me with anything except your fingertips. I want only the lightest, breeziest of touches. And do not stray from what I have requested.”

“Bossy,” she mouthed, but did not let a whisper of sound escape. Rising up on her elbows, she leaned over him, letting the peaks of her breasts brush against him, as she reached for the oil. She waited to see if he would comment.



He did not, but again his lips curled as if he knew something she had not yet realized. Should she ask? She wanted to, but asking would reveal that she could not read him as he read her. Trailing her nipples back across him, she returned to kneeling and poured a small puddle of oil into her hand. Cool and sweet, the scent filled her nostrils. Rubbing her hands together, she allowed the oil to warm.

“Do you need to be disobedient?” Stephan questioned.

“I suppose that I do,” she replied, placing her oiled palms upon him just below his navel.

“I cannot decide if you are merely obstinate or are trying to give me an excuse to punish you.”

“Would you punish me simply because I poured the oil on my hands and not on your belly?” She moved her hands, pressing deep into his skin, up and then down to his sides, enjoying the slide of his skin and the subtle changes in texture.

“You know that is not really the point.”

Yes, she did. Her mind stopped there. She would have liked to pretend that it was because she was so overcome by the sensation of him, but deep in her heart she knew better, knew she was once again avoiding confronting what she truly felt. “I just want to concentrate on this, on how I feel right now. I don’t want to think. Cannot this night simply be about tonight?”

“Will you marry me, Bliss?” Stephan’s voice growled, and the words seemed to fill the room.

The question caught her by surprise, no warning, no clue that it was coming.



She wanted to answer carelessly, to joke or act coy, but the words would not come. “No,” was all she could say, her throat closing so that even the one syllable was hard to speak.

“Why? I still do not understand why you are so resistant.”

Duldon watched as his simple question hit her face as if hitting a wall. He could see it penetrate, and yet see the denial that marked her features.

“Why do you ask? What does it matter? And I thought that was what we just talked about, my avoidance of love and the pain it might bring? And why ask now in the midst of our play? You already knew my answer.” The words that had been halted a moment before now rushed to her lips. Her hands grew still upon him.

His body still screamed for more, screamed for satisfaction, but his mind took control, pushing all other thoughts back.

“I ask because it is now. You want this to go forward between us and yet you will not be honest with me. I am growing impatient. You know what I want and yet you seek to play with me.”

She drew herself up. “You knew what I wanted, what I was willing to give. Yes, this is a game, but I believe you set the rules.”

Were they at that moment? He feared that they were. “That may be true, but I think your actions, if not your words, indicated that you wanted more than you now pretend.”

“I have told you I do not want love in a marriage. We have just finished that discussion.”

It was time to push for more. “What is really preventing you from giving me the answer I want, Bliss? What have you held against me for all these years, that even now prevents honesty between us? Why am I worse than any other man of your acquaintance?”



Her features drew even more closed. There truly was something he did not know, something she was not prepared to tell him. Somehow he needed to break through those barriers, to find out what had stood between them these last years. He could not pinpoint when she had changed, and no matter how often he had played back events in his mind he had never solved the riddle of what had happened.

He waited.

She said nothing.

He waited.

Her eyes dropped—and then she settled her hands upon them, letting them move in small, magic circles.

It would be so easy to go along with it, to take what she would offer and let the battle slip until tomorrow.

His body cried for him to give in, to take pleasure and satisfaction, to let her explore and trust that all would be resolved.

He had never been a man to take the easy path. He needed Bliss to surrender to him, to bare her soul and all that stood between them. If she kept up the walls of her resistance they would never proceed to the place he wanted them to be, needed them to be.

Somehow he must force her to open up, force her to spill her secrets.

With a sudden twist, he turned his hips away. His hand moved and pulled out the small drawer in the table beside the bed. Bless Ruby, she did know her clients.



Another twist and a surge forward and suddenly she was below him in the bed, his body pressing hers into the soft mattress. “It is time that we take this all a step further. You can tell me to stop, Bliss. But if you do, know that it is truly the end. I am done with this game. Just say the word at any point and we will rise from this bed and return to our lives and I will never again bother you except as your brother’s friend.” He lifted his head and stared down at her.