No Holds Barred (4 page)

Raphaella
reveled in his harsh release, turned her head because it was the only major muscle she could move, and smiled. She’d wanted to do this since leaving him in his Chicago hotel room a year ago. Jake
Truhorn
enjoyed playing, could give as well as he could take and didn’t feel the need to break the bonds she’d tied in trust.

Bonds
.
She reached around and unsnapped his harness, released him, then released his ankles. He stretched with a satisfied growl.

“I thought maybe I’d remembered this better than it had been, built up the fantasy so that nothing could surpass my memories. You’ve managed,” he said with a smile on his face, skimming his hands over her ankles and up her legs.

“I thought the silk cords would be a nice substitute for my stockings. I bought the harness as a gift for you and wasn’t brave enough to send it,” she admitted.

“I can’t believe you’ve ever been cowardly about anything.”

She reached over his head and slipped his hands free. “I’m only brave in small doses.”

He flipped her under him, still gazing at her like she was the best present he’d ever gotten. It had been a long time since anyone had looked at her like he was now. Maybe they had and she hadn’t been paying attention. She barely had time to stumble over that thought when he started kissing her
again,
smiling against her lips as if he knew some delicious secret only he could tell her.

They fell asleep wrapped in each other’s arms, exchanging quiet murmurs, nuzzling and kissing, a soft echo of their previous passion.

* * * * *

Jake woke up alone and panicked until he heard the coffee pot gurgling. He threw on a pair of jeans and padded barefoot down the stairs that led to the living area. Ella was curled up on the couch, her chestnut hair thick and curling over the back of the fawn colored chenille, just as he’d seen it in at least a dozen fantasies.

“Did you think I’d disappeared again?” She didn’t turn around but her voice was lazy and relaxed and he breathed a little easier.

“You told me you’d give us seven days Ella. I trust you.” He’d only panicked for that one moment when he realized he was no longer touching her skin, nothing more.

“You think you know me so well?”

He leaned over the couch and noticed she was wearing the navy velour robe she’d sent him for Christmas. She looked up when he dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “I’ve spent this past year getting to know you and I have to admit you’ve been a surprise. You’re a cautious woman, Ella. I’ve always wondered why you took my first phone call. Honestly.”

She sighed softly and twisted around. “Men have told me before sex that I was beautiful. It was a dead giveaway to what they wanted, especially when they were looking at my breasts,” she said wryly. “You didn’t tell me I was beautiful that night until right before you fell asleep. You were looking into my eyes like you were trying to find something you’d lost and it was the same look I’d seen at the gallery when you handed me that glass of champagne. Even after I’d convinced myself leaving you asleep in your hotel room was the right thing to do, I couldn’t forget that.”

“I hadn’t lost anything Ella. I’d found it. When I woke up and found you gone, that’s when I knew that I’d lost something I hadn’t even known I’d been looking for. It’s taken me a year to convince you to meet me again.”

She reached up and pulled gently on a hank of hair that had come loose from his braid, drawing him toward her mouth. “It’s taken me a year to believe I should.” She squinted, angling her head back and forth. “You’re just so damn beautiful, it’s scary.”

“Look me in the eye when you say that,” he growled, playfully and she laughed and drew him down until their lips touched, then laughed again when her stomach growled. “I think it’s time to feed you dinner,” he said, feathering her lips with another kiss. “Nothing fancy but it is quick.”

He reached for her hand and led her into the open galley kitchen. She poured herself a cup of coffee and leaned against the counter watching him as he assembled the ingredients for
carbonara
. He set a pan of water boiling for the spaghetti and started slicing the pancetta, garlic and onions.

“You’re a careful planner, aren’t you Jake?” She laughed low in her throat and he almost nicked his thumb.

He looked up from slicing the onion. Her voice held only a hint of accusation and the smile that lit her face. “I thought I was very crafty about finding out what whetted your appetites.”

“You could make a lot of money as an analyst. People would tell you anything.”

“Okay, let’s test that theory. Who’s your oldest friend?” he asked, dropping a handful of spaghetti into boiling water.

“Maryann
Koska
, she once beat up a boy who called me a troll.”

“I think Maryann and I will get along. What happened to the boy?”

“He grew up and married the prettiest cheerleader in high school. They have six kids and a monthly mortgage that would feed a small country.” She shrugged. “Maryann decided tough love should be administered on a daily basis when she woke up one morning horribly attracted to the captain of the football team. I’m godmother to their oldest daughter,
Marlee
.”

“I can’t wait to meet them. What’s a secret you’ve never told anyone?” He smashed two garlic cloves with the flat of his knife and looked up when she didn’t answer. “Not a secret-keeping kind of girl? I must be slipping in my analytical assessments.”

She grimaced, looking miserable and embarrassed. “I once put brown hair dye in my beautiful blonde sister’s shampoo bottle.”

He fumbled the egg he’d been cracking into a bowl and had to fish a piece of shell out. “How much trouble did that cost you?”

“She looked our parents in the eye and with a very straight face told them she’d decided she wanted to look more like me and tried to dye her hair. I hadn’t realized until then how badly Francesca wanted me to be her friend. How vulnerable she was. How badly she could have been hurt. She never told, ever. She made me promise I wouldn’t either. It was our first pact.”

“Older sister?”

“
Frannie
is younger.”

“Remind me never to piss you off,” he said, draining the spaghetti while the pancetta, onion and garlic sizzled in a small pan. He put two heated bowls on the counter while he assembled the
carbonara
and divided it into them.

“Believe me, it was the last time I ever pulled anything remotely that stupid,” she said, searching through the cabinets, pulling out two wineglasses and pouring them each a glass from the bottle he’d already opened.

They ate at the long low coffee table, sitting across from each other on the turquoise and gold cushions. She taught him how to deftly swirl the spaghetti on the fork against his spoon, laughed when a sticky piece hit his chin, then licked it off.

“What about you,” she asked. “What haven’t you ever told anyone?”

“My best friend growing up was a kid named Casey Roberts. When we were fifteen he told me he was gay and swore me to secrecy. The secret of course is out now, it was his bachelor party I called you from at two in the morning. He’d just told me I was an ass for letting you hold me off for so long.”

“He sounds protective.”

“Yeah,” he looked up from his bowl, fork in mid-twirl and frowned. “You might not want to piss him off either.”

“Sounds like I might have already.”

“No, he was pissed at me—not you. Tell me what scared you most as a kid?”

“Aunt Rita’s curse.”
She arched an expressive dark brow, playful once again.

“Are we talking evil eye here?”

She shook her head, laughed. “When I was five I overheard Aunt Rita tell my mother that if Uncle Tony even looked at her she got pregnant. I spent years avoiding looking boys in the eye.”

“Did it ever occur to you to just ask someone if it was true?”

“I didn’t want anyone to think I was stupid on top of everything else. What about you?”

On top of everything else?
“Boredom.”
He slapped down the word like a gauntlet. “I was terrified I’d run out of things to discover, that nothing would challenge me. You challenge me, Ella and I don’t know how anyone could mistake you for stupid unless they weren’t paying attention.”

She laughed out loud, “Oh, you really have always been handsome and charming, haven’t you?”

“I just clean up good,” he said with a shrug but his gut clenched when she shook her head and set her wineglass down.

“No.
I
clean up good. You look like the cover of a romance novel. All you need is a wind machine.”

“I’m too lazy to carry around a wind machine.” He gulped a slug of wine. “I thought we’d gotten past all that ‘you’re prettier than me’ crap.” He watched her draw back from picking up her wineglass. Her fingers were shaking.

“Since the beginning females have looked for the strongest mates, the best hunters the most capable provider. It was survival and even with women’s liberation, I think on some level that still influences our choices. On the other hand, males traditionally have fought over the most aesthetically pleasing female and I don’t think much has changed in that respect either.”

He leaned across the table. “Ella, you are an artist’s dream. You’re all sharp angles and soft curves, perfectly proportioned,
perfectly
balanced. I could spend a lifetime painting you and never be bored.” She covered her surprise quickly but it was there and it was real.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been described…quite that way before,” she said and Jake heard the awe she tried to conceal.

“I don’t see a downside, so why do I hear
a
but
?”

She wiped her mouth on her napkin and sighed. “You’re new territory Jake. And I’m not just talking the ten-year age difference. You know my track record with long-term alliances. As much as I know it’s time for things to change between us, I think I’m a little afraid of what happens next.”

“I’ll make you a deal. You don’t treat me like a kid, I won’t act like one—that takes care of the age thing. The track record thing isn’t my fault and I’m not paying for it, period. I don’t want to change any physical part of you. No diets unless they include oysters and green tea ice cream. If you go near your nose with a knife you’d better have gone through a windshield. And don’t even think about liposuction. Trust me. Trust yourself.”

“Stop,” she groaned. “I’m starting to feel pathetic. I’ll even help you load the dishwasher if it will get us back to tearing one another’s clothes off.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear,” he said, standing up. “Who knew analysis could be so freeing?”

“Just about anyone who’s ever paid three hundred dollars an hour to an absolute stranger so that no one else knew their secrets,” she said handing him a bowl. “I think we should explore something else now if you don’t mind.”

“Well, we can go back to tearing one another’s clothes off or we could have a piece of chocolate torte I got from the bakery in town and then I could show you the rest of the place.” His plan had been to seduce more secrets out of her and when she’d looked up at him grinning, he’d thought he’d succeeded.

“I can’t believe there was a chocolate torte in this house and I didn’t smell it.”

The chocolate torte was decadent and the only secret Ella gave up was that she enjoyed licking it off his nipple. By the time they finished feeding one another they needed another shower and afterward neither of them felt like walking around in the dark to explore his studio.

They ended up back in bed laughing while Jake slipped Ella’s wrists and ankles into the red, silk cord ties. He restrained her just enough so she could do nothing but writhe when he settled himself between her legs.
Slipped his hands beneath her thighs.

“You’ve already had dessert.” Anticipation tinged her laughter, quickening his blood and hardening his cock.

“Yes, but now it’s time for something truly delicious.” He breathed a puff of warm air against her bare pussy, flattened his tongue and lapped against the slit until he reached her wonderfully responsive clit. He flicked the plump little nub until it quivered and Ella started to moan. When she strained against his mouth he couldn’t wait any longer.

He’d palmed the condom from the bowl on the bedside table when he’d slid in beside her. He ripped it open and covered himself. She licked her lips and smiled the instant before he lifted her hips off the bed and thrust inside of her.
Hard.
She bucked against her restraints, trying to get closer. As if her life depended on it. He couldn’t keep the smile from his face.
Yes
.

Chapter Four

Ella decided she liked Jake with golden whiskers
stubbling
his chin, tousled hair and morning mouth. He was also grumpy until his third cup of black coffee. They were finishing breakfast on the back patio lounging on wooden chaises. She wore a sleeveless pink tank top with matching sleep shorts that Jake had tried to convince her were against commando rules. He was naked.

“I suppose my cover boy image is shot to hell this morning,” he said, yawning wide and scratching his golden-hair dusted chest.

“Not even close. You do look deliciously, normally human though. I’m considering jumping your bones as soon as I finish my poppy -seed muffin and at least one more cup of coffee.”

“Second fiddle to a muffin and a cup of coffee, I must be slipping,” he grumped with a smile on his face.

“You’ll have to work hard to restore your image but I can’t imagine what you have planned next.”

“Good, at least I have the element of surprise on my side.” He took a bite of his own muffin. “Did you pack the hiking boots?”

“Why do you think my knapsack was so heavy?”

“I was hoping you brought more toys.”

“I did, plus my favorite movie—as instructed. I assumed you’d be contributing also. Should I have made a request?”

“You could have. I’m a volunteering kind of guy, equal opportunity and all that,” he deadpanned.