Bring the Heat by Margot Radcliffe (13 ebook reader .txt) 📕

He lay on the bed, propped up against the headboard, watching intently as she slid the smooth vinyl rope through her fingers, teasing him. “Did you buy this just for me?” she asked. “Or do you do this stuff with all the women you sleep with?”

He understood the question she was really asking and wanted nothing more than to reassure her. “It’s all for you.”

A light eyebrow raised. “You tied me up pretty deftly.”

He grinned. “I was a bosun for years,” he reminded her. “I know my knots inside and out.”

This had her smiling as well and he took a deep breath, energized. She loved him, too; he knew it. All he had to do was get her to realize it and then convince her to stay with him.

“Fair point,” she allowed, considering him as he lay naked and spread before her. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and then dropped the rope on the floor. “I’m not sure if I want you tied. I want you to obey me of your own free will.”

He exhaled through his nose and met her eyes. “I will always do that.”

She nodded in satisfaction before she spread his legs apart in one smooth motion, her eyes locked on the upward jut of his cock.

“You like this,” she said, half question and half observation.

“I pretty much like anything you do to me, Molly.”

“I thought being at your mercy would make me feel overwhelmed or taken advantage of, but I felt powerful instead. Is that how you feel?”

“Kind of,” he admitted. “I trust you enough to let you be in control so that kind of intimacy is a turn-on. I’ve never let a woman have that much power over me before.”

She leaned down to take his mouth, her soft tongue teasing his lips open as she invaded, the shallow thrust of her tongue sensuous and loving, so much so that it nearly killed him not to be able to touch her, to show her with not touching her how much she meant to him and how much he needed her to stay.

When they disconnected, he said the truth. “With or without the ropes, you have all the power here, Molly, because I’d do absolutely anything to make you happy. Literally anything. When you frown it’s like I’m being punched in the gut—that you’re leaving is like you’re ripping out my heart, Molly. I need you.”

She met his eyes, hers dark and stormy and full of flashing emotion—pain, love, confusion, but in the end settling on determination. “That’s exactly how I feel about you,” she whispered, her voice urgent. “That’s why you need to let me go so that I can do that for you.”

Christ, he wanted to argue so badly but like an idiot he’d walked right into her trap.

“I love you, Molly,” he told her, the words slipping out before he had a chance to think about the consequences. Maybe while he’d promised not to touch her wasn’t exactly the best time to reveal one’s love for the first time, but hell, maybe it was. He didn’t have defenses or pride when it came to her. He was just a bleeding vein and when she left he’d spill out empty onto the ground, deflated and useless. “I think I’ve loved you for so long, and if you’re really going to leave, then I need you to know.”

She audibly choked back a small sob and he furiously whispered to her, begging her to let him touch her finally and she nodded her head.

Her mouth met his in a messy, tear-streaked kiss, her hands holding the sides of his face as she straddled him, still fully clothed. He could smell her subtle citrus scent, feel the smooth cotton fabric of her shorts against his throbbing dick, the gentle fall of her hair against his shoulders. He was drowning in her, the soft skin of her palms against the stubble on his chin that she’d earlier coined as vacation chic. Their tongues met, his focused on hers as it moved through his mouth, teasing, getting more intense as she took over.

Eventually, she broke away, tracing a featherlight trail of kisses down his chest, and then his leg, her deft fingers kneading the balls of his feet, the rough calluses of his toes while she murmured things he couldn’t hear, but the tone was loving and warm and he couldn’t believe their time together was ending already. It wasn’t anywhere near the lifetime he’d aimed for.

“There are a lot of toys in that bag,” she finally said, her mouth very, very close to his cock and yet so goddamn far away. “I thought when we got around to me being in charge, I’d have a field day with them. You know, really put you at my mercy.”

He grunted when her finger grazed the root of him, teasing him. “I’ve been at your mercy since you stepped onto this boat.”

She looked up at him and when she spoke, he felt it on the stretched skin of his head. “I like that, Oliver. You’re always so good with words that for a long time I didn’t believe the things you said. I thought you were too glib to actually mean anything you said.”

His gaze shot to the ceiling as her hand came around his width. “Yeah, well, I like getting what I want and people generally don’t respond to it when I’m an asshole.”

“That’s what I mean,” Molly explained, her tongue ever so lightly dabbing at the liquid on top of his cock.

Jesus Christ, this was torture.

“I never knew if you were just trying to get what you wanted or if you were being honest.”

On some level, Oliver knew what she was getting at. That maybe she didn’t believe him when he said he loved her, or thought he was playing her. Hell, if he were her, he’d have his own doubts. “I’ve never had to work