Echo (Bleeding Hearts #1)(39)

He set my bags on a velvet ottoman in the corner of the room and turned towards me. “This is where you’ll be sleeping. The bathroom is through there as you probably remember.”

As I glanced around the room, I tried to recall the small details I’d picked up during my last stay. It was so different seeing it in color.

“You can take a bath if you’d like,” he suggested. “Are you hungry?”

“No.” I smiled, liking his first suggestion much better. A bath sounded nice right now.

“Okay.” He eased towards the door as though he were relieved. Perhaps he was second guessing himself for bringing me here after all. “Well, I have some work to do. There’s a library down the hall on the right if you get bored. And of course, the televisions work as well.”

I nodded and let him slip away without any protest, sensing he needed to put some distance between us.

I made my way into the bathroom and eyed the clawfoot tub. Forget libraries or televisions. This was where I’d be spending the next hour.





Chapter Sixteen



Something stirred me from sleep, and it took me a moment to realize it was Ryland. He was hovering over me, kissing his way along my throat. On instinct, my hand came up and threaded through his hair. His moved between my legs and started to rub against my panties.

“I like this,” he groaned.

He’d only touched me for a minute, and already I could barely string together a coherent sentence.

“What?”

“Having you in my bed whenever I want,” he murmured.

I thought that was the whole point of the game. But right then, I didn’t really care. All I cared about was the heat his hands created on my body. The ache between my thighs that burned only for him.

I ran my hands over his muscular back, and he leaned down and nipped my lower lip.

“Tell me you like it too,” he insisted.

There was something in his voice that told me this wasn’t an order. He really wanted to know if I liked it. The hormones surging through my body gave me permission to be honest.

“I think you already know the answer to that,” I whispered.

He stopped and held me captive with the intensity of his stare. “I want to hear you say it.”

His entire being was like a vortex, pulling me in and devouring me completely. How could I ever deny him?

“I like it,” I admitted. “But I like it better when you treat me badly. It makes me remember not to get too close to you.”

He smiled, and I was mortified. God, I couldn’t believe I’d just said that to him.

His eyes drank me in, inch by vulnerable inch, committing it all to what was no doubt a photographic memory. The places where I was soft were what he lingered on the longest. Where a spark of the familiar fire that was always present inside of him flared to life.

His fingers continued to rub me through the fabric of my underwear, leaving me just on the edge of sanity. I needed more.

At this point, I would have let him string me up and whip me all night long if it was what he wanted to do. I half expected it. So when he reached down and gave me a gentle kiss, it surprised me. It lacked his usual roughness and held the promise of something more. Something dangerous.

He kissed his way down my belly, and I arched into his touch. When he got to the apex of my thighs, he nuzzled against the fabric of my panties and inhaled.

“You smell so f*cking good,” he whispered.

I moaned, and he lifted my hips and slid my panties off. I expected him to tease and torture me the way he always did, but he didn’t. He leaned forward and lifted my thighs over his shoulders, burying his face between my legs.

I jerked and bucked against him, squeezing the covers in my fists.

“Ryland.”

I was panting, desperate, and it was driving him crazy.

His tongue lapped at my clit while he stuffed me so full of his fingers I couldn’t breathe. I sucked in mouthfuls of air as I clamped down around him. Shockwaves of pleasure ricocheted through my body, plunging me into the hypnotic state only he could induce.

He groaned and nuzzled against my thigh before collapsing beside me. I reached for his arm, wondering what he was doing. I blinked up at him, his eyes soft and calm, his breathing even and relaxed. Ryland was comfortable being still, I’d come to realize. That was when he was in his element. He wielded that stillness like a weapon, making me wait in agony for my next fix.

“What about you?” I whispered.

He smiled. “I want you to ride me, baby girl.”

“Oh.”

His request made me nervous, being on display for him like that. I didn’t even know how to do what he asked. But I didn’t want to displease him, and that’s how I knew I was lost.

I crawled up his body, pausing to kiss him in places like he’d done to me. I wanted to see how he would react. When my lips dragged across his abs and he shivered, I smiled against him. He was giving me free rein, and I kind of liked it.

I straddled his hips and positioned myself against his cock. It lay hot and heavy against his belly, and I had the strangest urge to rub against it. So I did.

When I slid my arousal against him, he groaned. It spurred me on, and for a while I just enjoyed rocking back and forth along his length, teasing him for a change.

“Jesus,” he rasped. “For someone so innocent, you know how to drive me crazy.”