His eyes were locked onto mine, emphasizing his point. I blinked through my surprise because the thought that I may be converted to the lifestyle had not occurred to me.
He nodded and I wondered if I had spoken aloud. “You acted on impulse but you didn’t really think this through. As a man who has become enchanted by the siren’s call, let me at least warn you before you take the plunge.”
“Show me.” When his lips pursed to argue with me, I placed my palm over his mouth. “How can I know if I’ll like it or not if you don’t show me?”
I knew so little about what to do so I followed my desires, folding onto my knees and scooting closer to him. Taking his angular face between my palms, I composed my features and hoped that I sounded, well, irresistible.
“I want to submit to you.”
Why was saying it out loud so arousing? I felt the power of those vulnerable words pull my shoulders back and blaze behind my gaze.
He touched my chin, pinching it slightly in his fingers. I waited calmly as he studied me and felt a thrill course through me as he shuddered with acquiescence. My eyes fluttered closed as I waited for him to kiss me, ravish me in some way, but his chuckle made them spring open. He was smiling at me with something close to tenderness as he drew two fingers down my throat, hovering over my throbbing pulse.
“Not tonight, siren. As I said, this isn’t a game and if we are going to do this then we will do it properly.”
He looked into my eyes with the kind of intensity that was meant to scare me, and honestly, I felt a shiver of apprehension race across my skin but before I could react, he was pulling away from me, swinging to his feet with feline grace.
I watched his small, firm buttocks as he bent over to pull on his charcoal grey lounging pants. When he turned back to me, the shutters were once again pulled down over his emotions and his gorgeous blue eyes were only vacant pools.
“I have work to do,” he stated, coolly staring at me as if I was a business associate and not his lover.
In some ways, I supposed, I was no more than an agreement, a pleasurable one certainly, but still just an equal investor in a mutual asset. The thought made me suddenly sick to my stomach.
An angry flush burned my cheeks as I scrambled out of bed and into the other room to search for my discarded summer dress.
He entered just as the cool fabric dropped down over my damp skin. I knew that he watched me as I adjusted the skirt and ran my fingers through my hopelessly tangled hair. I didn’t know why he s
tood there when it was obvious that he wanted me gone and it only made it more awkward to have him wait impatiently at the doorway to his bedroom.
Resentment fizzed across my skin, infusing me with sudden shame-fueled hatred. I turned to him, mouth open and ready to snap at him for treating me so callously, for being the most mercurial man I had ever met. But something in his face arrested me. His hands flexed restlessly at his sides and he rocked lightly back and forth on his feet while his face – the devastating face I was coming to like entirely too much – stared at me with that wolf-like hunger I had only caught glimpses of before. But this time, after a round of passionate lovemaking, the expression was skewed by something other than lust, tenderness maybe, and an undercurrent of regret.
As if he knew my thoughts, he nodded and cleared his throat to softly bid me goodnight, “Get a good sleep, Elle. You need it.”
The fight left me. There was indecision in his stance and in my heart, I wondered if it had been the right thing to come back to his room. It could have ended so amicably if I had just stayed away, but now it was too late, I was invested and as I nodded curtly at my Frenchman, I could already feel my heart clench painfully with foreboding.
My hand was on the door handle when I felt him grasp my arm. Without turning me, he pressed himself against my back and placed a gentle kiss to the side of my face.
“Sweet dreams.”
Chapter Eleven.
“So,” Cosima practically yelled. “How are things going with the married man?”
I hushed her even though I sat alone on the sand and no one could hear her through the phone. The midday sun beat down on the landscape, hammering everything into gold. It had been a productive morning, swimming followed by a few hours of photographing and sketching the surrounding area. Now, I lay pleasantly exhausted in the sun slathered with sunscreen. The heat was the only thing I really missed about Naples and despite being a redhead with freckles, my skin loved a good golden tan. Even though I hadn’t heard from Sinclair, I was beyond content, especially listening to the familiar spiced tones of my sister through the phone.
“He is an enigma,” I murmured, shifting sand through my hands.
“Oh no, you never have been able to resist a mystery. And I’m sure the sex is fantastic. You must have it bad.”
“Cosi!” I protested through my laughter. “I haven’t even told you about our sex life.”
“I know.” I could hear her smile. “Which tells me it’s excellent. Otherwise, you would have a million questions and complaints.”
Fair enough.
“I do still have a few questions.” I took a deep breath and fought the flush I could feel flaming across my skin. I stood up to walk to the water, hoping the cool ocean would steady me. “He is, well, he’s a bit into domination.”
“Oh.” The single syllable was loaded with meaning. I could picture my beautiful sister pursing her lips, trying to decide how to approach this. “And are you into it, as well?”