Beth Ciotta - Evie Ever After

I didn’t want him looking at my face tonight.

“You know what your problem is?” he asked as he nabbed my robe’s sash and tugged me into the bedroom.

“Aside from the obvious?”

“You focus too much on the physical. The external, yeah?”

“Yeah? Well, my roots are in entertainment. Call me shallow.” Or realistic. Granted, it had probably been this way for decades. Youth and sexuality taking precedence over talent. Not all the time, of course, but more often than it should. Not that I’m bitter. Okay. Maybe a little.

He angled his head. “So you’re only hot for me because of what you see?”

“What? No. I mean I like what I see.” A lot. “But that’s just, I don’t know, cake.”

“Icing.”

“Right. The frosting on the top.”

“Cherry on the top.”

“Whatever. I can name a hundred reasons why I’m attracted to you that have nothing to do with your movie-star looks.”

His mouth quirked. “Name one.”

“You make me feel sexy.”

“You are sexy.”

I snorted. “Nic is sexy. Gina is sexy.”

“There are all kinds of sexy, yeah?”

Kind of like there are all kinds of lies? “Also, you always say the right thing. I don’t know why I find that appealing since I know it’s a honed skill. Con artists always say the right thing. It’s part of your toolbox. Squeezed up against confidence, sincerity, and calm. Qualities that allow you to manipulate—” I squealed as he yanked off my sash and wrapped it around my head, covering my eyes. “What are you doing?”

“Helping you to focus less on the external.”

Not only had he blindfolded me, but without the sash my robe gaped open. I felt violated and exposed and, hello, aroused. “But I look—”

He kissed away my protest. I wondered if he had anti-itch cream on his face now, but only fleetingly. Hard to think coherent thoughts with a sizzling Scot’s tongue in my mouth. Not that I could see the man. But I could taste and smell and…Zing. Zap!

Desire snaked through my body as he palmed my bare butt and ground his erection into my belly. Erotic thoughts boogied through my head as he maneuvered me…somewhere. Or maybe that was the world shifting beneath my feet. Could this man kiss!

Delirious with desire, I think I actually whimpered when he eased away. I figured his little experiment was over and I was feeling a little ridiculous between the blindfold, my gaping robe, and my smiley face socks. Not to mention the splotchy pink cream. I reached up to untie the sash.

“Leave it.”

I’m not sure which was sexier—the fact that he’d ordered me to do so or the anticipation of his next move. I scrunched my brow. “Are you still wearing all of your clothes?”

“Aye.”

Hmm.

Before I could ask another question, he tore the robe off my body.

Um. Okay. That was exciting. I couldn’t see his mesmerizing eyes or that tribal tattoo or his ripped torso, but yeah, baby, yeah, I could feel.

Before I knew what hit me, I hit the mattress. I could feel my soft comforter beneath my bare back and Arch’s hard body—fully clothed—on top of me. “What—”

“Dinnae talk.”

Another order.

Zing.

I was officially, totally turned on. Clothes off, I said to myself while fumbling with the buttons of his shirt.

“Dinnae touch.” He grasped my wrists and pushed my hands over my head.

Zap.

I felt my knuckles brush the brass railings of my headboard. “Grab hold,” he said close to my ear, “and dinnae let go.”

My heart pounded. Should I be nervous? We’d had a lot of creative sex, but never anything kinky. This was kinky. For me anyway. At least he hadn’t used handcuffs. Although if I disobeyed and let go, he could always lash my wrists to the headboard with my socks. Which reminded me, I still had them on. Arch has a thing for my collection of cartoonish socks. He thinks they’re sexy.

Definitely kinky.

My thoughts scrambled when he bit and sucked my nipples—no allergy medicine there. I gripped the brass rails and endured sweet ecstasy as he lavished attention on both breasts before kissing his way south. My heart raced as he kissed and nipped at my thighs, his warm hands urging my legs apart. I listened for the sound of his jeans unzipping and instead felt the pressure and warmth of his mouth down there, working magic. I bit back an enraptured, oh-my-God—no talking allowed—and settled on a lot of moaning.

Twice I almost climaxed. Twice he pulled away. Delirious with need, I wanted to anchor his head between my legs until I peaked, but…no touching allowed!

I could’ve ripped off the blindfold and taken back some control, but the experience was so erotic, so amazingly exciting, I didn’t want it to end.

I held tight to the headboard and endured Arch’s teasing. I squirmed and moaned, and when he finally took pity and tongued me to climax, I uttered gibberish which in my mind did not count as talking. Not that I could form a cohesive sentence right now anyway.

I lay in blindfolded darkness, breathing hard, heart racing, waiting for him to tell me to let go of the rails, only he didn’t.

“My turn,” he said, and my imagination galloped. Numerous erotic images pounded my brain only to be blown away when he mounted me missionary-style.

Given the kinky circumstances, I expected a fast and hard shag. But Arch wasn’t cooperating with my predictions. He took it slow. Achingly slow. My body trembled with delicious sensations as he tormented me with his thick, hard shaft, withdrawing completely before filling me once more.

Just when I thought I couldn’t take anymore, he pulled off the blindfold and nailed me with a gaze that sent me over the moon. I relinquished my hold on the rails and latched on to his shoulders. I cried out his name. I came and I came and, “Oh, my God!” came.

Arch shuddered with his own release and dropped his forehead to mine.

My body and mind sparked and sputtered. “That was…”

“Aye.”

After a moment he rolled aside and pulled me into his arms. His heart pounded as hard as mine and he gazed at me as though I were the most beautiful woman on earth. I thought about how awful I looked and how wonderful he’d made me feel. He was right. I did focus too much on outer appearance. I thought about all the whining I’d done over the past few weeks. How I constantly compared myself to women in their twenties or Bond-type women and came up lacking. Yet I’d given a bad boy, a younger bad boy, a hard-on even with my less than perfect body slathered in chalky pink medicine.

I felt a shift deep inside. A snap.

I palmed Arch’s cheek, smiling when I noticed a pink smudge on his chin. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure.”

“Not the sex. Although that was…”

“Fan-fucking-tastic?”

I grinned. “Actually I was thanking you for the life lesson.”

“Just reciprocating, Sunshine.”

I blinked. “I’ve taught you a life lesson?”

“A couple, yeah?”

“Really?”

He kissed me. “Really.”

I wondered what, but I didn’t ask. That could wait. My need to exert my newly found confidence, couldn’t.

Looking down, I palmed John Thomas. “All tuckered out, big guy?”

“If he could talk,” Arch said, clearly amused, “he’d ask what you have in mind.”

I rolled out of bed, naked as a jaybird and more comfortable in my skin than I’d ever been. So, I looked like a flamingo threw up on me. So, I had a few smile lines and could stand to lose a couple inches in my hips. So, what? I strode to my closet and whipped out two costumes for his pleasure. “French maid or harem girl?”

Arch’s eyes twinkled and I knew he was a goner. “Bollocks.”

Yup. Toast.