Claimed Series

Sex Ritual

Her lover had made her wait until her anticipation had built to fever pitch, as he so often did, but the nature of the question indicated how important the answer was to him. Giles always made her beg for it—which turned her on immensely, much to her initial surprise—but he’d never walked away from her before, and he’d never quizzed her like this when he’d already begun to undress and prepare her.

Normally he’d stay close, his hands on her constantly, staying her urge to flee or to deny her need to be under his control. Why now, when she was so keyed up, was he examining her need to be independent after she submitted to him?

Giles lounged back in his chair, somehow regal even though he was stripped to the waist and barefoot, his tailored trousers almost incongruous, given how easy this man was in his own skin, a quality she not only admired, but craved. His firm, sensuous mouth made her ache for him.

Only he could do this to her, and it made her feel so vulnerable. His chiseled cheekbones and hard jawline seemed to be visual symbols of the inner strength that called to her. Here in his sparse bachelor apartment he’d revealed just how easily he could take charge of her, a woman who never gave in under normal circumstances.

She braced herself. “You know I have to be this way. Your question is too…personal.”

“I mean to be personal with you, on every level.” There was no hesitation in his come back.

Again she swayed. His provocative stare had her skin prickling.

One corner of his mouth lifted in a naughty and dirty smirk.

Erotic suggestion hung in the atmosphere between them. “Please, Giles. You’ve got me in a state.” She tripped on her words, her rising objection making her speak before thinking. “I can’t think straight because I want you so much.”

When he lifted an eyebrow knowingly, she looked at the floor.

“I want you too,” he replied, “but the better I know you, the better this will be.”

“It’s already too good,” she blurted, then bit her lip, realizing what she’d said. She was afraid of getting too deep, afraid that one day she would submit to him and lose herself totally.

“It is good.” The hungry look in his eyes as he glanced over her body made her shiver. “But you deserve better than a quick shag at the end of your work day, and I want to give it to you.”

What they did was hardly a quick shag, but it was true that their time together was something she engaged in between work and sleep, and that’s how she kept it compartmentalized in her life, just like everything else.

He shifted in his seat, resting one ankle on the opposite knee as if they were having a casual chat about business and no more. “Now, tell me how well I know you.”

Despite the directness of his comment, his commanding tone made her melt.

Up until that moment she could have turned away, asked him to unlock the cuffs and let her leave. Not now. Not after he’d asked her again, and said it with such deliberate inquiry. It made something inside her begin to buckle.

The truth of it was she didn’t want to leave, she wanted him too much. She thought they’d found a plateau in their relationship, one that they were both happy with. Obviously not. His dominant nature and her need for an edge of pain to heighten her pleasure seemed to slide nicely along each other.

Now he was pushing her beyond her comfort zone. How did he do that to her, she wondered. She’d been lured by his dominant nature, even though it was so far from what she really wanted out of life. To be an independent woman who didn’t need a man, that was her goal.

“I’m not even sure how well I know myself,” she whispered. It felt like a confession. She stared at his chest, broad and hard and dusted with fine dark hair that tapered into a thinner line leading her gaze from his breastbone to the button on his fly.

What she knew without any shadow of a doubt was that when he claimed her, he owned her. In the throes of passion she was his willing submissive, and it was this edgy feeling before she gave in to it, this tight, breathless anticipation he caused in her that made every encounter so darkly delicious. She couldn’t risk falling, though.

Giles seemed to sense her hesitance. “Your feminine strength fascinates me,” he stated. “You go after everything you want but you always move on, fast, and that concerns me.”

She felt her face heating. That was how she worked, but he wasn’t just talking about work, that was quite obvious.

By day she was a high-ranking government minister, and Giles was a press officer who had broken through her self-imposed isolation. She’d devoted herself to her job. The intense encounters he offered had become the only ripple in her orderly life, a treasured hour-long reprieve from being proper, formal and dignified. “I’m highly motivated, I have to be, but what’s your point?”

“My point is that even powerful people can grow by challenging themselves.” He clasped his fingers together, his hands drawing her attention, her skin aching for the touch of them. “You might benefit from more…restraint.”

The way he said that indicated he’d thought it through. A darkly suggestive glance flitted through his eyes, and his handsome mouth pursed slightly as he considered her.

Her sex swelled. The nape of her neck felt damp. “You’re suggesting more than the cuffs?”

He nodded.