Suddenly he grasped my wrist and brought is up behind my back, pressed into the center. It didn’t hurt, but it surprised me and I gasped. The feel of it, how he held me, hard, twisting my arm up behind me.
“Now I’m controlling you, Anika. I’m restraining you, binding your arm back. Do you see how you’re more vulnerable now?”
I opened my eyes and saw it, how large he was behind me, how securely he had me fastened, how very naked I was and how erotic it looked as he forced me to arch my back into him, my breasts and aroused nipples thrust up into the air.
“How does it feel with me in control?”
I groaned at his words, but more from the feel of it. To be ensnared by him, trapped, at his mercy, in the dark. It got me, deep. A tense coil of desire unfurled within me, draining thought from my mind, leaving me panting with need.
“So slick, so wet for me, Ana.” His fingers found my sex once again, plunging in me deep, then slowly drawing against my clit. “Holding you here like this, I can play with you all I like. I decide how I want you, how long I take with you.”
“Ah,” I gasped, overwhelmed with the feel of it. He consumed every sense.
“That’s it, surrender. Surrender to how good it feels. Surrender to me.” His words spun a spell around me, entrancing my senses, leaving me unable to think, only to feel, to sense, to love every second of it.
“Let me control your pleasure, Ana,” he coaxed me, his wicked fingers stroking, thrusting. I felt so warm and liquid under his touch. “I want you to think about what you fantasize about when you touch yourself, Ana. Picture your most secret fantasies. The ones you surrender to when you’re alone in bed, late at night. The fantasies you feel guilty about having. The ones that are wrong.”
Oh, his words were so wicked, so sinful, wrapping themselves around me as his fingers stroked, parting me, plunging into me. How did he know I had dark fantasies? The kinds of things I only allowed myself to think about as I brought myself to orgasm, when I stroked myself late at night. I had never voiced them aloud. But I fantasized about being dominated, controlled, possessed. Bound.
“The next few days, we’re going to be trapped here in this cabin. Snowed in. It will be our private world, just the two of us. No one ever has to know what we do.”
I quivered at his words, my core liquid fire. I couldn’t believe what he was saying. My breath came fast.
“Give yourself to me, Anika.” His fingers stroked as his voice coated me in velvet seduction. “Surrender to me.”
I moaned, close to coming, close to overflowing with his stroking, his coaxing.
“It will be our secret, Ana. Let me possess you, bind you, control you the way no one ever has. Let me release the pleasure in you. More than you’d ever dreamed.
“Yes, Ash!” I cried out, wanting every word he said, craving him, all of it.
“You have to trust me, Ana. Give yourself over to me. Give me total control. Can you do that? Can you let yourself be completely vulnerable?”
“Yes.” The word escaped from me, needing to be released. Trusting him, giving myself over to him was my instinct, my need. I couldn’t not do it.
“I can’t wait to learn your fantasies, Ana. To discover them together.” There in the dark, the snow swirling around us, cut off from the world, I was ready to let it all go. I was ready to let him lead me wherever he wanted. I knew I’d love wherever he took me.
“But not tonight,” he said, withdrawing his hand, gently bringing my arm down and back along my side. “Tonight you need to rest.”
Gentle, soothing, he drew the sheet up over me, smoothed the down comforter up and over my shoulders.
“Ash?” He’d taken me so close, right up to the edge, and I still buzzed, still hummed with need. But I could also feel the drowsiness, the languorous slumber pulling at me, reaching me in deep.
“It’s going to take a lot of energy, what I have planned. I want you to be fully present.” He stroked my hair as he spoke, arranging the pillows for my comfort.
“I can’t wait to drive you stark raving mad with pleasure. But tonight I want you to go to sleep. You’ve been through a lot. You need to rest.”
The pulse, the throb between my legs, I didn’t know if I could. One touch down there and I could bring myself to orgasm, give myself satisfaction.
As if he could read my mind, he added with a wicked smile, “But don’t touch yourself. I know you’re slick with need. I want you to fall asleep like that, let it bring you dreams, spinning out your fantasies. Heightening your anticipation.”
Heavy under the covers, I could already feel it happening. My eyelids dropped, my limbs sank into the mattress.
“That’s it, Ana.” He leaned down and kissed my hair. “So sweet. Sleep now.” Sleep drifted over me, like the snow outside, piling up and covering me in a thick, heavy, restful blanket.
CHAPTER 3
Ash
The next morning, Ana slept and slept while the storm raged on. Outside, I could see nothing but white. I turned on the weather channel and learned we were in for more of the same all day. Tomorrow it was supposed to start subsiding, but not abruptly. The storm would taper, leaving in its wake up to two and a half feet of snow in some parts of the mountains.
Like our part. We were officially snowed in. The property’s caretaker had done an excellent job in the short time frame I’d given him. We had more than enough of everything. This cabin was built as sturdy as they came, the perfect escape. Now I just needed my woman to wake up.
I decided to take a shower. Ana needed her sleep, I reminded myself. She needed to rest. I was furious that someone had probably slipped something into her drink. Yesterday, my unease had grown the longer she’d slept. At first I’d been pleased she didn’t wake up to learn I was abducting her. Stealing her away.
But when she hadn’t even woken up as I’d carried her into the cabin through a snowstorm, that had w
orried me. I’d tried to rouse her when I’d first settled her on the couch. I couldn’t do it. I’d been so relieved when she’d finally awakened, brief as it was. One of the things about getting snowed in was you couldn’t get to a doctor if you needed one. I hadn’t thought about that at first. But, thank God, it seemed like she was going to be all right.
Who’d done it? Chances were good they weren’t even targeting Ana. Drugs like that flew around at those kinds of parties. And who even knew what it had been? True roofies weren’t all that common any more, but giving a girl some X or a little benzo, that happened all the time. Hell, more than half the time it was the girl choosing to take it herself, wanting to loosen up and join the party full-throttle.
When Ana had also realized what happened yesterday, I’d kept my cool. I’d kept my fear and my temper under wraps. I didn’t want to frighten her. But I was furious, especially at myself. I should have protected her, but I’d been off, pulled around in ninety different directions instead of by her side. It pissed me off that there was so much out of my control. Money, wealth, fame meant nothing if I wasn’t able to care for the ones I loved.
There was that L word popping into my head again. Crazier still, it was starting to frighten me less. Three weeks together and I was already thinking like a lunatic.
The warm water pounded down onto my shoulders and back. I was holding a lot of tension. Coiled up, I needed Ana for release.
When she woke up, would she remember the conversation we had last night? There in the dark, just the two of us in the bed, it was as if we’d been transported into another world. I’d felt as if she’d opened the door to her fantasies and allowed me entry.
Leaving her in that moment had taken about all of the restraint I had and then some. I almost hadn’t been able to do it. She’d been quivering and panting, so swept away by my words, the suggestions I made to her. So eager to explore, to tap into all of the erotic energy pulsing within. But it had also taken her all of three minutes to fall completely asleep once I’d told her to get some rest. She was ready to go, but she still needed more time to recover.