He grinned and spoke quite firmly. “No.” Then he extended his hand, finger outstretched as he stroked it down my cheek, then curled it under my jaw. “See? You’ve been rejected. Now ask me something else.”
Understanding flashed and I felt stupid for not figuring this out earlier. He was stroking my neck, sliding his fingers down my cleavage.
“Ellie—”
“Balk.”
He froze for a split second, then stepped back. His gaze was searching my face, but his hands were down by his side. “Ellie?”
“Just checking,” I said. “I needed to make sure I understood the rules.” In truth, it was really simple. Whatever I asked for, he’d deny me. So if I asked for him to kiss me, he’d say no. But if I asked him to stay away, he’d be all over me. Just like I wanted. And the safe word was “balk.”
I tilted my head back, trying to decide how I wanted to play. I got the feeling that whatever I wanted, however I dared, he would satisfy my most secret fantasies. And I did have a lot of those…
“Ellie,” he said, “ask me—”
“I believe I’m asking the questions here,” I interrupted. “I’m in charge, right?”
He shook his head, answering with a no, just as I’d expected as he stepped closer. “Nope. Not in charge.”
Except I was. In this backward way, I was telling him exactly what I wanted. “Will you please keep your mouth away from my breasts?”
“Absolutely not.”
He wasn’t tall for major league baseball, but the man towered over me. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I framed my question, though it wasn’t that he’d wink at me, then suddenly disappear back into his hotel room. But then a second later, he came back with a couch cushion that he let fall to the ground right in front of my feet, then dropped to his knees.
That brought his face level with my breasts, and my face heated in embarrassment. I wasn’t even sure why, but to have a man on his knees before me seemed so arousingly powerful.
Then he leaned forward and took my breast in his mouth, right through the dress. He used his hands to help shape me, but mostly he used his teeth. What a sensation that was! Rough fabric, the bite of his mouth, and his hands lifting me, holding me, keeping me right there while my heart slammed triple time and my knees went weak.
And then suddenly, he stopped. He pulled back with a grin as he looked at me.
I waited, unsure what to do. And then he smiled slyly at me. “Ask me something else.”
I liked this game. I like feeling powerful enough to demand the things I was thinking. And with his green eyes daring me to be wild, I found myself saying things I never thought I could.
“You promised me something a little while ago,” I said. “But I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want you to… to…take off my panties.”
He grinned. “That’s not a question.”
“Will you leave my underwear alone?”
He glanced at where my bra lay discarded on the floor. “Obviously not.”
Then he set his hands on my ankles. Heat flooded me as he stroked the knobby bone just above the sandal strap. There was a single pause as he teased the flesh there in a circle, and then suddenly he was sliding his palms up my calves, along the back of my knees, and then up my thighs. The dress was in his way, but he slipped underneath it. And while fire tingled in his wake, he slid those hands under the skirt as he pushed all the way to my hips.
Seconds later, he was framing my ass and grinning the whole while.
“What?” I gasped.
“You’re not wearing any panties.”
“Of course, I …” Oh, right. Thong. Rachel had insisted I wear one, so that there wouldn’t be any panty lines.
“Do you have a particular fondness for these?” he asked.
“What? No. They’re Rachel’s.”
“Good.” Then he started to tug the thong upward. High enough that it dug into places that were already wet and sensitive.
