Leaning over, he lowered his face to her groin and slid his hand out of the way, only to replace it with his mouth. Knowing he'd have to use the element of surprise to his advantage if he was going to have any chance of prying her thighs apart again without hurting her, a split second after he planted a hard kiss against her soft, aroused flesh, he was drawing her legs apart and securing her ankles, one after the other, to the foot board.

* * *

Anna reacted instinctively to her imprisonment by pulling and yanking at her silk bindings. But although they weren't tight, they were firm. "Cole," she begged, "please untie me."

"Let me look at you first," he murmured. "I've never seen anything so pretty. You should see how sexy you look all spread for me, so wet and aroused, so ready for me to love you."

Without touching her--even though she was frightened by how vulnerable she was now

--his words of approval sent her to new peaks of arousal. Especially when he'd used the word love. Because even though the rational part of her knew there was no way they could be feeling more than lust--and like--for each other after meeting only hours before, her heart clearly wanted to believe in the fairytale of love at first sight.

Feeling the heat of his stare, even though she couldn't see him looking down on her through her blindfold, she could feel her breath coming too fast, knew she was actually shaking within her bindings.

The next thing she knew, his warm breath was brushing against her earlobe. "You're being so brave, sweetheart."

But she wasn't. She was begging him to release her at every turn, telling him she couldn't do what he was asking her to do.

Just like she'd been doing her whole life.

He sucked the fleshy lobe of her ear between his teeth and she arched up off the bed as far as the bindings would let her. Her ni**les brushed against one of his thickly muscled arms.

"Touch me, Cole." She was still begging, but in an instant what she wanted had changed.

No, that was a lie. She'd wanted him to touch her from the first. All that had changed was she had finally stopped getting in her own way.

His mouth moved from her ear to trail a hot path down her neck. "Here?"

"Yes," she said as her head fell back to give him better access to her sensitive skin. But the way her br**sts were aching for his touch had her changing her answer. "No."

She heard him chuckle, felt his soft laughter against her skin a moment before his tongue dipped into the hollow in front of her shoulder.

She gasped at the delicious pleasure racing through her and pulled at the bindings at her wrists. Only, this time she was pulling because of the pleasure, rather than trying to get away from it.

"Is this where you want me, Anna?"

His mouth moved across her skin with the question, lingering behind with a lick and a nip when the words were done.

Knowing how close he was to her br**sts--and yet so damn, frustratingly far--she said,

"My br**sts. Please, Cole. Touch my br**sts."

"Sweet Anna," he said, that surprising thread of humor lacing his response, "you should have just asked."

But he'd known she couldn't, that she didn't have the words, the sexual experience to play the kind of games he probably played every single night with beautiful women.

And then, just as it had before, humor turned to instant heat as his mouth came down over one breast, his tongue laving her nipple beneath her bra in hot and heavy strokes.

It was good, so good, better than anything she'd ever felt before. But she wanted more.

Oh God, she wanted more.

Cool air rushed over her when he lifted his head. "Am I doing it right?"

His question would have been funny if she weren't lying there burning up, wanting things that had her all but squirming with embarrassment. Not the sexual act itself, which she'd done before, but the verbal element of their sexual interaction, something he was clearly insistent that she try.

Anna was surprised to realize that putting voice to her desire was almost more scary than being tied up and vulnerable to his every touch.

So many times in one short night, Cole had asked her to be brave. To take a chance by dancing with him. To marry him. To let him tie her up. And, now, to tell him what gave her pleasure.

He was the first person who had ever looked at her and seen someone who might have guts.

A woman who might be willing to take a risk.

She'd been so afraid of falling her whole life that she hadn't ever known the feeling of leaping and not knowing where she'd land.

But Cole had taken her hand and given her the opportunity to jump.

The chance to take a free fall and feel the wind in her hair.

Sucking in a breath, she told him something she'd never thought to say to anyone. "My br**sts are really sensitive. Good sensitive."

She felt the air go still in the room, realized neither of them were breathing. And then, his fingers found the clasp at the front of her bra and cool air was rushing over the heated tips of her br**sts.

"Anna." Her name was almost a prayer on his lips. "Sweet Anna, no one should be this beautiful."

She thought--prayed--that he was going to drop his head down to her br**sts, especially when she felt the soft ends of his hair brushing against the super-sensitive flesh.

"Tell me what you want me to do to your perfect br**sts, sweetheart."

Before she could say a word, his hands came around the undersides of her br**sts and cupped them together.

"Lick them."

His hair brushed against the outside of one breast, his tongue laving between her soft flesh and her rib cage. "Like this?"

She couldn't believe she was smiling, but it was such a surprise that the big, hard man she'd married loved to tease.

And, oh, was he good at it.

"What if I said yes?" she found herself teasing back.

After a bit of a pause that only served to ratchet up her anticipation, his tongue came down over her again, laving small but intensely sweet circles of pleasure against the side of her breast. And then, after a quick sweep of his soft hair over her chest, he found the mirror-image spot on the other breast.

She knew what he was doing, that he wasn't going to take another step on his own without forcing her all the way to the edge, but not off. Jumping was all her own responsibility.

She knew that now, understanding it for the first time ever.

"My ni**les, Cole." She felt him lift his head slightly, pressing a soft kiss to her skin before moving away completely. "Lick my ni**les."

She was instantly rewarded for her bravery by the wet flick of the tip of his tongue against the rigid points. His hands were wonderfully rough on her as he pushed her br**sts close enough together that he could lick first one hard tip and then the other, again and again in such rapid succession that she never had a chance to recover.