Platinum (Facets of Passion) Read online

  More. She definitely wanted more.

  She emerged to find Steel sitting on the wooden stool she’d posed on, drinking beer from a sweaty can. He’d put his jeans back on but wore no shirt. The look he gave her was wary, uncertain still.

  Something had shifted between them and she wasn’t sure how to get it back.

  “Maybe I will have a beer,” she told him.

  Raising an eyebrow at her, he went over to a red-and-white cooler in the corner and rummaged in the ice inside. He brought her back a can of Dixie. She popped the tab and drank its cold sparkle gratefully.

  Steel propped himself on the stool, seeming like he was waiting for a cue from her. “So now what?” he asked her.

  “Why are you asking me?” she returned.

  “I dunno. You seem like maybe you regret it. Maybe you got what you wanted and you’re done with me now.” He shrugged and chugged his beer, his hard throat working as he swallowed. She felt as though she’d caught a glimpse of something, a hint of hurt inside the tough guy. What did she really know about him? Nothing at all. Except that he made her feel things she’d never imagined, had never known to even fantasize about.

  “I want…” She swallowed and took a deep, steadying breath. “You said the rule was, when I’m down here with you, I have to do what you say.”

  “Yeah? You know, Althea, we don’t—”

  “No. I want that.”

  He was caught short, a look of surprise morphing into that wicked grin she was growing to love. “You do?”

  “Yes.” She said it firmly, though her stomach butterflied. “I don’t want you to ask me. I want you to make me. Whatever you want. I…I liked that.”

  “Oh, princess. You know how to grab a guy by the balls.” He studied her. “Whatever I want, huh?”

  “Yes.”

  “I can think of a lot of stuff.”

  A thrill ran through her, putting her off balance again. Ah yes—this was how it should be. She drank from the beer. Swallowed. “Okay.”

  “You sure about this?”

  “I think so. And people have…” She felt silly saying it, but there it was. “Safe words, right? That’s how I tell you if it’s too much.”

  “That’s right. What do you want it to be?”

  “No.” She shook her head, stubborn. “You tell me.”

  He laughed. Delighted. Turned on. “Platinum. Gleaming and pure, like you, princess.”

  “I’m not so pure.”

  His smile faded into something feral. “You sure won’t be by the time I’m done with you.”

  The thought made her shiver. Dirty girl. “So, what now?”

  “To start, lose the dress.”

  With trembling fingers, she started to obey, then glanced at him coyly. “Make me.”

  His eyes flared and he pitched the empty beer can away with a stark rattle that made her jump. He stalked toward her, took her beer and chugged the rest, then pitched it away also. Grasping the neckline, he fisted the fabric in both hands. Paused. Looked at her. She returned his gaze evenly. Waiting for him to do it.

  With a snarl he ripped the dress down the front, the little pearl buttons flying. She flinched, but she was already naked with his hands roving all over her, lifting her up and delving into her sex while his mouth raced over her skin.

  She lost herself in it, wanted to be consumed by him. No thinking, only feeling.

  He set her on her feet and turned her around, bending her over the wooden stool with a firm hand on her lower back. Shivering, she complied.

  “Spread your legs,” Steel growled. A sharp spank stung her bottom and she gasped at the shock of it. “Wider.”

  She stretched as wide as she could, feeling deliciously slutty. No doubt he could see everything. If anything, the arousal shook her harder than before. As if each orgasm just built on the next.

  “Grasp the lowest rung of the stool. You might have to go up on tiptoes.”

  She did. By rising on her toes, she could stretch her arms to reach the lowest rung. The position put her bottom and spread sex perilously high in the air. He ran his hands over her sensitive skin and she sobbed out a breath.

  “None of your lovers has ever spanked you.” It wasn’t a question. Of course no one had.

  “No.” She breathed into the answer, nearly unable to imagine it. Her heart pounded against her ribs.

  “This would be a very good position for a spanking, don’t you think, princess? I could tie you to the stool like this and use a belt or a paddle. Of course, dangling you over my lap and spanking you with my hand has its pleasures too. Which do you think you’d like better?” He smacked her cheek, a light sting. “Answer me.”

  “I don’t know.” She sobbed it out, deeply shaken. “I don’t think I could bear any of it.”

  “No?” He crooned the word, gentle, and his fingers slid into her slick folds, lightning zinging through her strained muscles. Her hips moved of their own accord and he grasped one side with a wet hand and plunged two fingers into her while she cried out. “But you’re so very, very hot at the idea, sweet Althea. Would we tell your friends, do you think, about what you let me do to you? That you let that low-life spank your pretty ass while you cry out for him to fuck you?”

  “Oh, no,” she moaned at the thought, even as she writhed eagerly under his pumping fingers.

  He hooked them deep inside, then pushed a thumb into the ring of her anus. She froze, shuddering hard with such heightened emotion she couldn’t define it.

  “How about here? You have such a tight ass.” He worked the thumb in deeper and she groaned at the pleasure/pain, the shame. “Has anyone ever played with it, just a little bit?”

  “No.” She held onto the rung for dear life, blood pounding in her head. Would she use her safe word? Not just yet. “Isn’t it…dirty?”

  He chuckled. “Yes. But that’s real people—full of piss and shit and blood. Alive. Animal.” He pushed in deeper, the violation electrifying, and pressed from inside her vagina with his fingers, rocking her hips with the movement. She felt like a puppet in his hands, and his mercy. She wanted him to take everything.

  “I’m going to have you here.” The hand that had been holding her hip smoothed up her spine. “Not today. But I’m going to open you up, Althea. We’re going to stretch every boundary you have and, when you’re ready for me, I’m going to ram that tight ass of yours until you don’t recognize yourself.”

  She already didn’t.

  “Stay just like that.”

  She waited, tension riding her as his hand slid out of her, leaving her even more aching and open than before. From upside down, she watched him kick off his jeans and heard the condom crinkle. Then he held her hips in his hands and pressed against her vulva, just barely pressing inside, but already widening her.

  “Feel that, princess? Imagine when it’s that tight little ass of yours being spread.” He pushed deeper and she whimpered at the pressure. Again he pressed his thumb into her back entrance and the dual intrusion undid her. Sobbing out his name, she began to climax, in a long wrenching spiral. He plunged into her, thrusting so hard she would have fallen if he hadn’t kept a bruising grip on her hips.

  The orgasm seemed to go forever, pounding through in an endless rhythm until he shouted out, fingers digging into her hips, grinding her pelvis into the edge of the stool. The black and red waves overtook her and, swamped, she lost herself in it.

  Chapter Six

  He withdrew from her and gently eased her into a less-strained position, wrapping his arms around her and levering her up. She groaned and he chuckled, kissing her temple. His hands caressed down her front, brushing her nipples, belly and softly delving into her drenched sex.

  “So fucking gorgeous. You undo me, Althea. You really do.”

  She swaye
d, unsteady, and he lifted her in his arms, carrying her to a beat-up leather armchair. She sank into it, curling up. It felt odd to be naked in it, but now she had no clothes down here, thanks to her wild impulse.

  Steel came back with the damp cloth, now worse for wear, and another can of beer. She refused the beer, but took the cloth, wiping herself down. He cracked the tab and drank it himself, watching her. Oddly, she didn’t mind now. Of course, he’d seen everything of her there was to see and more. Had touched her in places she hadn’t touched herself. The blush took her then and he chuckled.

  “I love that you can still blush.”

  She took him in, tanned all over except around his cock, which lay against his thigh, still sticky and slightly engorged. Black hair concentrated there and dusted out over his strong thighs and flat abdomen. On his chest, the brilliant dragon circled, the golden ring seeming to be clamped in its teeth.

  “You want to touch it?”

  She nodded and uncurled from the chair, standing up and moving a hesitant step toward him. She felt a little like the virgin baiting the monster, though how she could still feel that way after all they’d done… Reaching out, she touched the little ring through his nipple, then tugged on it, looking up to see his reaction.

  “It would take more than that to hurt me, princess.”

  She smiled at him then. Giving in to the urge, she put her hands on his chest, took the little ring in her teeth and flicked her tongue on the flesh it impaled. Steel hissed in a most gratifying way and put a hand on the back of her head. She let go and he kissed her, soft and lingering. A tender emotion turned over in her heart and she found herself wanting to press up against him, wrap around him and hold him close.

  Spooked, she stepped back, needing distance. A flicker of something hard and cynical crossed his face.

  “How do you feel?”

  “Sore,” she admitted. “Wrung out.”

  “You got a bathtub up in that loft of yours?”

  “Yes, but—” She hesitated.

  “Don’t worry—I know you don’t want me up there.” He drank down the beer.

  “Steel, I—”

  “Don’t give it a thought, darlin’. We’ll take it slow.”

  She nearly laughed at that. If this was his idea of taking it slow, then taking things fast might have killed her. He followed the thought and grinned at her.

  “Go on up and get dressed. I’m taking you for a little outing. You got a pair of jeans? And boots?”

  “Out? On your motorcycle?”

  “Yep. Nothing like a ride on a warm evening with a pretty girl.”

  She glanced at the louvered windows, surprised to see it was still the warm glow of late afternoon. It felt like she’d been down here for days.

  “Don’t worry—we won’t go anywhere your friends will see you with me.”

  She wanted to tell him he was wrong, but it stuck in her throat. As a business owner, she did have a reputation to maintain. And no sense causing a stir over this temporary affair.

  “I have jeans and boots.” And a ride would be fun. “But I’m naked.”

  His eyes roamed over her in a leisurely tour. “Strikingly so.”

  “Where are my bra and panties, at least?”

  He leered at her. “In my souvenir box. You get these.” He pressed her glasses into her hand.

  “Can I borrow a shirt?”

  He tilted his head in that teasing, pretending-to-think move. “Hmm. Nope.”

  “But how can I get upstairs like this?”

  “You can go up through the gallery. Put your hair up in that sexy ponytail, too, like you had it the other day.”

  Torn between laughter and frustration, she went to the stairs. Looked up in trepidation at the light under the door.

  Steel followed her and gave her a little smack on the bottom. “If you scoot quick like a bunny, no one will see you.”

  Acutely aware of his gaze following her, she went up, disabled the alarm and peeked around the corner. No one was passing by on the street. With a frisson of delighted daring, she ducked around the corner and ran up the stairs to her apartment.

  Steel had an ability to go from fierce to light and teasing. Just when she thought the intensity would tear her apart, he’d turned it all into just a game. From the depths to daylight in one whooshing moment. And now they’d go for a motorcycle ride, a fun date on a pretty evening, as if he hadn’t just fucked her within an inch of her life.

  She turned the phrase over in her mind, relishing it as she pulled on a blush pink silk robe and padded into the living room.

  Artemisia and Tassi were crashed out in afternoon sleep mode and barely flicked an ear in her direction. She stopped to stroke Tassi’s invitingly offered furry belly and he stretched under the touch. She’d been like that, purring to Steel’s every touch, every stern command. Her sex dampened again—or more—at the thought. She didn’t care to examine what it was she liked about it.

  Excitement tingled every nerve and that was a great way to feel.

  The ponytail took some doing, what with all the snarls in her fine hair. The boots she had weren’t really motorcycle boots, but they’d have to do. She showered fast, pulled on a sky blue T-shirt, grabbed a leather jacket and went out the fire-escape way.

  He waited for her, down in the alley, looking nonchalant. Nobody seemed to be around. She locked the doors and nearly skipped down the steps to him, feeling girlishly pleased by the admiration in his expression.

  “You look hot in jeans, baby.” He shook his head. “Maybe we should go back downstairs.”

  She actually giggled. “No way. I can’t take another round.”

  “Yet.” He pinned her with a ravenous stare. “Because I have plans for you.”

  “Yes.” She whispered it, her nipples peaking.

  He grinned. “Good. Let’s go for a different kind of ride then, princess.”

  All gentleman now, he showed her the bike and where she’d sit, where her feet should go, how to buckle the helmet and tuck her hair inside. He clapped his on his head, climbed on the bike and started it with a roar. A little intimidated, she climbed into the space behind him, her tender crotch groaning at the stretch. She settled against him and wrapped her arms barely around his waist.

  Then tightened them convulsively, a squeal escaping her when the bike surged forward. “Not so fast!” She yelled in his ear.

  He glanced over his shoulder, grinned and shook his head. “We’re barely moving. Hang on.”

  Her heart pounded like a frightened bird as they raced up the street. But Steel kept to the back streets and she realized gradually that they weren’t going so fast—it only felt like it. Being out in the wind with the street so close made it feel faster. They stopped at a light and he put his feet down while they waited.

  “You doing okay?” he called back.

  “I think so.”

  “You want to loosen your grip then, so I can breathe again?”

  Feeling silly, she let go, but he retrieved her hands and put them back around his waist with a little pat. “Don’t go away, darlin’. Just a little less throttling.”

  “Sorry!” It came out as a squeak when the bike surged ahead and the wind blew back his laugh. The sound of it made her smile and she made herself relax more. It helped that they were heading out of town now on one of the rural back roads. Crape myrtles with their panicles of pink and white ruffled blossoms intermingled with the live oaks, draping languid limbs over the laneways, making verdant tunnels.

  When Steel had repositioned her grip, he’d put her hands under his leather jacket and now she could feel the hard muscles of his abs rippling as he balanced the bike. His tanned hands flexed on the handles, expertly handling the speed and curves. She watched them dreamily, remembering how well those fingers had
revved her. Her and the motorcycle, well-tuned instruments for him to play.

  They pulled into a shaded lane that led back to a lopsided bungalow. A car up on blocks sat near the edge of the yard, surrounded by heaps of stray metal pieces and parts. Kudzu grew up through a stack of old tires. The porch boards sagged and seemed in dire need of both repair and paint.

  Steel pulled around the side and cut the engine. The buzz of cicadas and spring peepers swelled in her ears, nearly as loud as the motorcycle had been, in their own way.

  “Is this your place?” She hesitated, not really wanting to go inside. Not really wanting to be here at all.

  He glanced at her, shaking out his hair and looping the helmet strap on a pin on the bike. “No. Belongs to a buddy—he asked me to keep an eye on it while he’s out of town.”

  “So, we’re here to feed his cat or something?”

  “Better. Give me your helmet.”

  “Tell me why we’re here first.”

  “Because if you don’t like it you’ll—what?—ride the bike back yourself?”

  “Fine.” She took off the helmet. “I can just call a cab.”

  He studied her. “What has you all het up now?”

  “I don’t like surprises.”

  “You like being out of control in the basement with me, but not out in public.”

  She wrapped her arms around herself, even though the jacket was a little warm now. “I don’t want to discuss that here.”

  “Fair enough. Come see what we’re here for and, if you don’t like it, we can leave. Deal?” He held out a hand to her and, not feeling at all thrilled, she took off the jacket, tossed it on the bike and took his hand.

  They strolled around to the back yard, fenced only by the dense ring of trees. It seemed ages since she’d held hands with a guy. Since college, maybe. Back then romance had seemed fun and easy. Why this…thing with Steel kept taking her back in her mind to a simpler, more innocent self, she didn’t understand.