Grounded (Up in the Air #3)

Grounded (Up in the Air #3) Page 25

“I’ll walk you out, Roger,” James said to his back.

Roger waved him off. “No, that’s fine. Get some time with Bianca. It’s obvious that you don’t get enough of that. Have a good night.”

“Are you going to tell me what you two talked about?” James asked me as Roger strode out of sight.

I shook my head. “Why are you so curious?”

He moved into me, pressing his front against mine. He bent as though to kiss me. “I’m curious about everything you do, Bianca. What do I need to do to get you to tell me what he said to you?”

I just shook my head at him again.

He let out a little growl in his throat, kissing me. It was an overwhelming, possessive kind of kiss. We were in public, in one of his clubs, but he didn’t hold back. He sucked at my mouth, his hands moving to my butt to pull me hard against the proof of his desire. He rubbed against me like a cat.

I purred. My hand curled into the lapels of his suit jacket, gripping desperately.

He snaked one hand up into my hair, gripping it then pulling it sharply enough to elicit one involuntary little moan. He pulled back just far enough to breathe against my mouth. “You’re in the mood to get fucked against a wall tonight, aren’t you?”

He was kissing me again before I could respond, the hand on my ass moving to the back of my thigh, hitching it up so that he could grind right into me.

He stopped abruptly, pulling back but not away.

My hips twisted against him before I registered that we weren’t alone. Oh yeah. We’d never been alone. We were in a club.

He pulled back, grabbed my hand, and began to pull me.

“We’ll be right back,” he called out to Stephan. “We’re just going to go have a chat.”

I didn’t look at Stephan, didn’t hear him respond. I was lost in a sensual haze, just putting one foot in front of the other, following him blindly. James had said something about fucking me against a wall. Yes. That sounded perfect.

He led me out of the VIP lounge, down a long red hallway, and then another. He pulled me into a large office. There was a man behind the desk, typing on a computer. He looked startled at our entrance.

“Give us privacy,” James told him, his voice sharp.

The man beat a hasty retreat.

James shut and locked the door behind him. Handy that, a lock.

He started loosening his tie. When it was untied, he hooked a finger into the hoop at my neck. He pushed my back to the wall. Or rather, the door.

He reached above my head and I looked up. There was a coat hanger above me, hooked over the top of the tall door. James was tying his tie to it with swift, sure motions. He pulled my arms up and together, wrapping the tie around them, tying more swift knots around my wrists. This took longer, and I watched those skillful hands with rapt attention.

“This is going to get loud, Bianca. I’m going to fuck you so hard that you scream my name. And you are going to scream so loudly that nobody will doubt just why you’re screaming. Would you like to tell me what you and Roger were talking about before I’m inside of you? Or will this be a mid-fuck confession?”

I just shook my head again.

He smiled a very troublesome smile. Mr. Cavendish was about to take the reins.

He worked on his own clothing first, pulling his shirt out of his pants, then unbuttoning and spreading his slacks open. He pulled that delicious cock out slowly, tauntingly. He stroked himself while he watched me.

He pulled the strapless side of my dress down, saw that I was wearing a strapless bra, and yanked that down too. He bent slightly and began to suck hard at my nipple while he slid his hands up my skirt and slipped my panties off.

He straightened very slowly when he finished, leaning into me, pushing my leg up, and thrusting into me hard with that same motion. I watched him and I saw his cold smile when he elicited a sharp little gasp out of me.

He pounded into me so hard and fast that it did wrench a little scream out of me. A scream that formed into a very long version of the word James. I was on that fine edge when he yanked out, his eyes intense and angry on mine.

“Tell me what you and Roger talked about, Bianca,” he ordered.

It took me long moments to gain any semblance of coherency. When I did, a spark of anger shot through me.

“You can’t use sex to control me, James. You shouldn’t play with my heart like that.”

He laughed. It was sinister. “Oh Love, it’s not your heart I’m playing with. And I’ll play with your body whenever I damn well please.”

He moved back against me and then he was driving roughly into me again. “Don’t even think about letting yourself come,” he murmured to me in an almost offhanded way. He jackhammered into me, so hard and so fast, again and again, for long moments before wrenching out of me again. I made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a scream of distress when he pulled out.

He touched my bottom lip softly with an index finger. “Tell me, Bianca. Tell me what you talked about with Roger.”

“You’re being a bastard,” I told him after a while. He just smiled that sinister smile and stroked my lips with his finger. “A sadistic bastard.”

He laughed. “Yes. I am that. Just tell me what you talked about, Bianca. Before this gets out of hand.”

We had a long, silent standoff before I caved. I did it because I’d realized that it wasn’t really that important, and because I didn’t want to see how far he would go to prove a point just then.

“We talked about you, James. About your past, about your promiscuity, your…preferences. I think he just wanted to know what I knew. He seemed to think that you’d kept me in the dark about it all. I got the sense that he was afraid that something about your past was about to be leaked, and that it was something that would drive me away. Why did he think that, James? What’s going on?”

He cursed fluently. “Goddamn Roger. It’s nothing, Bianca. It’s being taken care of. Someone was threatening to be…indiscreet about some of my exploits. I’m handling it. I’ve been agitated because I’ve been trying to distance myself from my past, to clean up my image, if you will, for your sake, for the sake of our future, and this leak would have the opposite effect. But as I said, I’m handling it. Thank you for answering my question.”

He moved against me again.

I spoke just as he was lining himself up at my entrance. “It’s not like I had a choice,” I muttered sullenly.

He thrust into me, bottoming out in one hard motion.

I cried his name brokenly.

“How about I make it up to you with a handful of orgasms?”

I didn’t answer. He already had me incoherent as he made good on his offer.

He pounded into me relentlessly, one hand pulling my hair, the other rubbing my clit. He brought me over, again, and then again. He was merciless. I was completely wrung out by the time he let himself come with a rough groan, grinding deep inside of me, the hand in my hair moving to my chin. He gripped it hard as he watched me.

He gave me one swift kiss before pulling out of me.

He left me where I was, leaning against the door for support, my arms still tied, while he moved to the desk.

He cleaned us both as well as he could with just tissues. He kissed me deeply but softly, a romantic kind of kiss, while he untied my wrists. He pulled me against him, supporting me while I regained my balance, massaging the feeling back into my wrists slowly and thoroughly.

“I love you, Bianca,” he said when he finally pulled back.

“I love you, too, James, but that doesn’t give you a free pass.”

“No, it doesn’t. Being your Dom does that, Love. I’ve compromised far more for you than I’ve ever done for anyone or anything in my life. Controlling you sexually is something I won’t be bending on, but I’m pretty sure you already knew that.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Mr. Amenable

James was in a remarkably better mood as we returned to our group. We stayed for hours, laughing and joking with my friends. He was even friendly with Damien, though the man couldn’t get within six feet of me without James grabbing handfuls of me to prove a point. Though, if I was fair, he rarely kept his hands off me when we were together, Damien or no.

Damien, for his part, was giving James even less of a reason to be jealous than usual. He was distracted and quiet. He spent most of the night shooting Jessa baffled looks. I found that strangely encouraging. Maybe there was something there. It could have been that he just took it personal that she hadn’t enjoyed their one-night stand, but I was hoping it was more than that. I caught a little snippet of their conversation as the night was winding down, when Damien had managed to corner Jessa just behind where we’d been standing and chatting with Murphy.

“Hey. Are we good?” Damien asked her, his voice worried.

“We’re fine,” Jessa replied in a flat voice, sounding anything but fine.

“I feel like a jerk. I didn’t know you felt that way. Frankly, I thought you’d forgotten about the whole thing, since you never mention it.”

“Don’t worry about it, Damien. One unhappy customer out of a thousand should hardly mess up your average.”

He cursed, and I couldn’t help it, I glanced over at them.

Damien’s back was to me, but Jessa was facing me, and I saw her face clearly as she rolled her eyes.

“I didn’t know it was bad for you. It wasn’t bad for me. In fact, it was pretty amazing. I’d like to…make it up to you, if you’d let me. You could show me what you didn’t like—help me work on my technique.”

Jessa snorted loudly.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one shamelessly eavesdropping. Murphy started swaying and singing, “Player’s gonna play…”

“Here’s the thing, Damien. It was a hell of a lot more than your technique that wasn’t working out for me. The pining for a chick that’s never going to look at you twice thing was the biggest turn off, and the fact that you didn’t bother to clue me in about your little hang-up before we hopped in the sack. I never do the casual sex thing, and the way you turned into a stranger the second we were done reminded me very clearly why. Sex is not just a bodily function for me. I require some semblance of intimacy with the act, and you wouldn’t know intimacy if it punched you in the face.

“I hear you’ve been celibate for the last few months,” Jessa continued mercilessly. “Waiting for a chick that is never going to want you. You’re not an idiot, you know she’s not going to leave her drop-dead gorgeous, so fucking hot that they look like they want to fuck each other in public, billionaire boyfriend for you. It’s just another crazy-ass way for you to avoid real feelings. The only way you could be good in bed for me would if you became a complete person, not just some shell of a man that doesn’t have a middle ground between putting women on a pedestal and degrading them with meaningless sex.”

Murphy clutched his chest, falling to his knees. “I felt that right here, my friend!” he called out to Damien, not even bothering to hide the fact that we’d all been shamelessly listening to the entire exchange.