He returned his mouth to her legs, tasting her once more through the cotton. She was so wet her panties were soaked through. The scent of her arousal washed over him, desire coursing thickly through his veins. He pressed his hands on the inside of her thighs, spreading her wider, lavishing fast, quick flicks against her wet center. It was as if the scrap of fabric was no longer there. He could taste her juices on his tongue, her desire so intense that she cried out loudly with every touch. Panting hard, she tried to grab at his hair again. He gently swatted her hands away. “Let go,” he said roughly. “Let go so I can bring you there.”

“Bring me there, Clay,” she groaned as she wriggled her hips into his face, trying to get closer to the source of her pleasure. “Please bring me there.”

“I will, gorgeous. I always will,” he said, his lips returning to her wet pussy that tasted so delicious even with her underwear still on. He reached his hands underneath her ass, holding onto her cheeks as he pressed his tongue harder against her clit, licking, kissing, tasting until she bucked against his mouth.

She cried out, her mouth falling open, her eyes squeezed shut, her body writhing into him.

Once her movements slowed, he rose and pulled off her panties, and brought them to his nose. “You smell so fucking good,” he said, then stuffed them into his pocket. “These truly are useless now.”

Her lips rose in a sweet smile. “What if you turn me on again? And I walk around the reception hot and dripping between my legs?”

He buzzed his lips against the column of her neck, traveling up to her ear. “Then tell me and I will slide my hand up your legs, coat my fingers in your wetness and suck it off.”

She breathed out hard, her reaction telling him she liked his idea.

“Now, I believe you wanted me to make love to you?”

She nodded, biting gently down on her lip. “So badly.”

“I’m going to,” he said, stroking her cheek, then running his fingers along the smooth skin of her collarbone. “And I want you to know that all this time I’ve been fucking you and making love to you. But this time, I’m only making love to you.”

“That’s what I want right now from you. That’s all I want,” she said, her voice layered with honesty and need as she leaned her face into his hand. Then held up her wrists in front of him. “But what about this?”

“Put your hands around my neck,” he instructed.

She shot him a quizzical look as she raised her bound hands. He offered his head, letting her slide her hands behind his neck. “Like that?”

“Yes. Now you can’t let go of me as I make love to you,” he told her as he reached inside his briefs, and freed his erection once more.

“But I don’t want to let go of you,” she said, and she felt like a new woman being able to say these things to him, speaking so freely, even if it was about sex. Saying all those other things, as hard and as harrowing as it had been, had lifted a terrible weight from her shoulders, and now she experienced a freedom she hadn’t known in a long time. She could say what she felt and not be afraid. And she could tell from the look in his eyes, so tender and hungry too, that he loved this side of her.

“Good. That’s how I want you to feel,” he said as he gripped his cock, and rubbed the head against her wet folds. She cried out again in pleasure.

“I want you so badly, Clay. Please.”

“I know you do,” he said, dragging his hard length along her. She wanted him to know how much she trusted him with everything. In this moment she was trusting him with her pleasure, so she opened her legs more.

“I’m yours,” she whispered, holding his gaze. “Take me how you want me.”

He breathed out hard, her words of submission clearly sending him soaring. “You are mine,” he said, his voice rough, but his touch so tender, as he slowly pushed inside her.

“Oh God,” she whimpered. “You feel so good.”

“It’s been too long,” he said, but still he took his time entering her, and she savored it, the feeling of being filled inch by delicious inch. He was so hard and so thick, and she could feel him stretching her once more.

“I don’t want to go without you again,” she whispered.

“Don’t go without me.” He buried himself in her, holding on hard to her hips as he sank deeper. She couldn’t move. She was under his control, from him holding her hips, to her hands locked around his head, but he took care of her, thrusting in that deliciously tantalizing way he had, rolling his hips, taking his time.

He rocked into her, and she moved with him, hitting an exquisite synch. He groaned against her neck, pushing the strap of her dress down her arm. “I love it like this,” he said, brushing his lips along her naked shoulder.

“Why do you like me tied up sometimes?”

“Because.” He cupped the back of her head in a strong hand. “Because the way I feel for you is so out of control that this is one way for me to feel in control again,” he said, his voice a low rasp in her ear.

She shuddered from his words. “Then control me,” she whispered, arching her back, showing him that she could give in to this need he had. “Because,” she began, echoing his word as hot molten sparks shot through her body, “I love everything you do to me.”

“And do you love this?” he said, holding on tight, driving into her so she could feel him deep and hard inside her. “You like when I make love to you like this? Because that’s what I’m doing right now.”

“I know,” she said breathlessly, and after a night of revealing her secrets, she could no longer keep the truth hidden. “You are, and I love it because I feel everything. I feel everything for you,” she said, coming as close to saying those three words as she could.

He hitched in a breath. “God, Julia. I feel everything for you. Every single thing. And I want your pleasure again. I want to feel you come on me. Show me that I can do this to you over and over, and make you feel everything.”

Pleasure spun through her body on a wild ride, racing through every corner, touching down in her belly, in her breasts, along her thighs. Even in her toes. “You can do anything to me,” she cried out, as she felt herself reaching the brink. She tightened her arms around him trying to tug him as close as he could be. He held onto her, his cock buried inside of her, his lovemaking touching her so deep with its intensity that she was in another world, another realm, where she was bathed solely in the never-ending bliss of a climax that promised to rocket through her body.

Her head leaning back, her mouth falling open, she tried desperately to keep her noises to a minimum but it was futile as waves of pleasure slammed into her, and she came hard on him. He followed her there, his body shuddering, his chest heaving, as he thrust one final time. She felt as if she could never be close enough to him.

Never.

“I’m going to help you,” he said, his voice strong as he promised her something she knew would be tough to give. “This is a promise. I’m going to find a way to help you out of this, and then I’m going to find your ex.”

She didn’t know that he could do either, but the fact that he wanted to was one more reason to fall into him.

CHAPTER NINE

The bride sat on the groom’s lap, and his arms were wrapped around her waist. Julia held a glass of champagne and laughed at something Chris said. Jill reached across to punch Chris on the shoulder, and he rubbed the spot where she swatted him, clearly pretending it hurt. Then they all laughed, and Clay made up the words they were saying in his head.

He stood outside, watching the reception unfold through the windows. His phone was pressed to his ear.

“So what did you learn?”

“That Charlie Stravinski loves greenbacks more than anything in the world,” Cam said.