“Yeah.”

  As Damon returned the container of water to the refrigerator, Audra’s eyes remained glued to his tattooed back. Immense longing filled her. Her husband stood only feet away, and she didn’t feel as if she had the right to touch him.

  “What happened to us?” she whispered.

  He faced her with bleak eyes. “You know what happened.”

  “Don’t assume, remember?” she said, reminding him of the lesson they learned in Dr. Lewis’s office.

  “Right.” Splaying his fingers on the island, he glanced sideways at her. “I think it was the miscarriages. They…” He shook his head, unable to continue.

  Audra’s face crumbled and she nodded, choked up.

  “I didn’t mean to upset you,” he said.

  “It’s okay.” She took a tremulous breath. “You’re right. That was the beginning of the end for us. It was slow. Gradual. Like a snowball rolling downhill, the rift between us became wider over time.”

  Damon came to where she stood and used two fingers to angle her chin higher. “Did I fuck up?”

  His touch lifted the air from her lungs, his warm fingers inflicting heat on her skin. She almost crumbled at his feet.

  “I think we both did.”

  “I’m sorry if I wasn’t there for you. If I didn’t give you what you needed.”

  He seemed inclined to take the bulk of the blame, but she couldn’t allow him to do that. A marriage was made up of two people, and they both needed to put forth an effort to make their relationship work.

  “I’m sorry too. I’m so sorry.” Her voice cracked with the tears that filled her throat.

  Damon pulled her into his embrace, and she wrapped her arms around his waist. It felt good to nestle against him and receive comfort. Breasts flattened against his chest, her nipples tightened at the contact.

  “Damon…”

  “Yes?” His voice, low and husky in her ear, caused tongues of heat to lick at her skin. She was full on aroused. Her insides clenched, brittle nerves shattering from the wear and tear of the past seven months.

  Her hands coasted over his warm skin, and he let out a soft moan, grabbing big handfuls of her ass.

  “Baby,” he breathed. The single word sounded like a plea.

  With the long fingers of one hand clenched on her butt, Damon used the other to tug her head back and slant his mouth over hers. He kissed her hard, ravaging her lips and practically devouring her whole.

  Audra strained toward him on her toes as their tongues twisted and twirled around each other. She moaned at the delicious taste of him. Her husband. Her lover. Her heart. Her forever.

  She had missed the intimacy and explosive chemistry she’d only ever experienced with him. Cradling the fullness of one breast in his hand, he squeezed and dragged his thumb across the tight peak beneath the robe’s silky material.

  As his mouth trailed down the side of her neck with openmouthed kisses, she kept her head tilted back to fully indulge in the heady sensation of his lips touching her skin. He hadn’t touched her like this in so long, she shuddered as if thrown naked into Arctic air.

  “Damon…”

  “Shit, baby, I’m sorry,” he rasped in an apologetic voice, lifting his head.

  “No, don’t stop.”

  Audra grabbed the elastic waistband of his pants. She didn’t want to sleep alone tonight. The touching and compliments earlier in the evening had affected her. Tightly wound, she longed for him to untwist the chord of need in her body.

  Cupping his hair-roughened jaw with one hand, she gazed into his eyes. “Come to bed with me. Please.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Audra stripped out of her robe and nightclothes and stood naked beside the bed in front of Damon.

  “Fucking gorgeous,” he said, his husky voice frayed with hunger.

  “Now you,” she said quietly.

  She strutted over to where he stood and hooked her thumbs in the waistband of his pants. Slowly, she pushed the garment down his hips to his ankles, revealing powerful thighs and a rock-hard erection. As she slowly rose to her feet, she dragged her tongue from the base of his shaft to the tip. His chest heaved with a deep inhale, his whole body tense as he watched her intently and took the licking.

  Damon kicked his feet out of the pants and lifted Audra in his arms like she weighed no more than an armful of feathers. He marched to the bed and pulled her down on top of him with his back against the pillows.

  She took a moment to simply enjoy the sensation of their connected bodies—skin to skin, soft on top of hard.

  With his long fingers flat against her spine, Damon kept their bodies together as he dragged his tongue along her lower lip. Audra’s stomach clenched tight, fingers curling into the soft sheets. He tugged her lip between his teeth, sucking on the soft skin until she emitted a moan of frustration and grabbed his face to take control. A needy, hungry, devouring kiss ensued.

  Having him beneath her was like a return to the gates of heaven. She opened to his demanding tongue and rotated her hips against his rock-hard flesh.

  Smoothing her hands over his beautiful body, she slowly made love to him with tender kisses on his throat and along his collarbone. She teased his hard nipples, first pinching with her fingers and then laving with her tongue. He let out a sound of pleasure—a deep grunt of male content that encouraged her to continue.

  Using openmouthed kisses, Audra tasted his skin with the excitement of a new lover. He was salty yet sweet—a deliciously complex mix she had always savored.

  Tenderly, she stroked his hardness with her fingers, relishing the smooth, hard texture of his full erection. She eased between his legs and dragged her teeth along the inside of his thighs. Turned on by his scent, she locked eyes with him and kissed the head, then flicked the sensitive frenulum, satisfied when his fingers tightened to fists at his hips. She moved to the veined underside, playfully teasing with the tip of her tongue. The tender kisses left him immobile, his abs tense as he watched her perform for him.

  Finally, with a saucy smile, she tugged him into her mouth. She sucked with enthusiastic pulls and slurps, pretending his dick was the most delicious popsicle and she needed to gobble it up before it melted in the sun.

  With an audible gasp, Damon’s body arched off the bed. “Ah fuck, baby. Goddamn.”

  His penis throbbed and precum leaked into her mouth, so she focused harder on bringing him to completion. Pulling him farther into her mouth, she loudly moaned because he liked to hear her enjoying the task.

  His low, satisfied groans were her reward, and so were his fingers, which abandoned the bed and curled into her loose hair. Their clasp on her scalp tightened, and his undulating hips conveyed how much he enjoyed her mouth.

  Audra knew when he was about to come because Damon had a tell. His right knee bent slightly to fight off the pending orgasm, but he was no match for the swirl of tension building in his loins.

  She took him deeper still and played with his balls, watching as his knee bent toward the ceiling at a deeper angle. Finally, he relinquished the fight and gave in to the orgasmic waves that pummeled him.

  He released a loud groan that twisted his face into a grimace. His lean muscles tightened, and his magnificent body shuddered. Throat arched, another loud groan escaped his lips, followed by a stream of curse words that he muttered to the ceiling as his pumping hips accelerated the spill of his essence into her mouth.

  The hand at the back of her head gripped hard for several seconds before he let go—his body deflated, drained of strength in the aftermath. Audra swallowed every drop of her husband’s cum before releasing his limp penis and watching him take ragged breaths to regain control.

  “Come here,” Damon rasped.

  She took her time crawling up the bed and straddled his torso. “You called?” she whispered.

  His answer was to pull her down and pluck a dusky nipple in his mouth. She gasped as fiery need lanced through her. She was already hot and aroused from giving him head, so it didn’t take much to crank up the heat.

  Braced above him, she trembled as he licked her sensitive nipples and bathed her breasts with the precise strokes of his tongue. The peaks contracted to the point of aching, and additional moisture flooded her core.

  Damon opened his mouth wide and took in more of her soft flesh, as if eating ripe fruit straight from the branch of a tree. While he sucked one breast, the thumb of his right hand rubbed the nipple of the other. The relentless drag of his rough finger caused her to tremble and plead with him for reprieve.

  He muttered something unintelligible and slid his hand higher until his fingers circled her throat. Gently, he eased her onto her back and ground his hips into her aching sex.

  “I think we need to open the toy box.”

  With his hand around her neck, she could barely control her excitement.

  “Yes,” she hissed.

  “I’ll pick.”

  Audra waited against the pillows while he went to the armoire and unlocked the toy box. He returned to the bed dangling the fur-lined handcuffs and nipple clamps with a beaded silver chain in his hands.

  She immediately stretched her arms above her head in anticipation.

  “Why’re you so anxious?” Damon teased. He sank onto the bed.

  “I’m not,” Audra denied, but she didn’t drop her arms.

  Damon opened a section of their specially made headboard and revealed a hidden compartment. He released a chained hook, affixed the handcuffs, and then clamped them around her wrists.

  With a satisfied smile, he lowered his head. One by one he kissed her breasts, rolling his tongue around her engorged nipples, which prompted her back to curl off the bed. When he was done torturing them, he secured the padded end of a nipple clamp around her left breast. Sliding the binding ring higher, he tightened the toy to the exact pressure she enjoyed. After almost nine years of marriage, he was very familiar with her pain threshold, and the intense pinching made her gasp and her toes curl.

  “Ready for the next one?” he asked softly.

  “Yes,” she replied in a trembling whisper.

  “Say please.”

  “Please,” Audra begged.

  She swiped her tongue between her lips and waited with bated breath for him to apply the other. He didn’t right away, of course, because he loved to torment her. He squeezed her breast, massaging and caressing until she twisted in agony with soft whimpering cries.

  Finally, he latched the second clamp to her nipple, and her eyes rolled back in her head. She suffered from sensory overload—at his mercy with her hands cuffed above her head, the cold beads of the chain, and the stimulating pressure of the clamps on her breasts.

  And now Damon was working his way down her body. “Been so long, I forgot how you taste.”

  Audra spread her legs in a wanton display of need, and his soft laughter whispered against the flesh right below her navel. He kissed lower and then his tongue—oh goodness—his tongue swept against her clit. It wouldn’t be long now. Whenever he went down on her, she quickly exploded.

  His beard gently scraped the inside of her thighs. Opening his mouth over her tender flesh, he teased between her legs with slow, deliberate licks, whispering words of praise and promises of carnal deeds to come.

  When he pulled the bundle of nerves between his lips and sucked, the climax hit like a speeding locomotive. Fast, hard, unstoppable. She could barely stand to look at his dark head between her thighs. Her body convulsed, and her head tossed back as passion devoured her whole. Husky cries filled the room as he continued to eat her with bestial fervor—lapping at her damp skin, refusing to allow one drop of honey to escape his mouth. He was relentless. Taking obvious delight in her complete loss of control.

  The mattress shifted when Damon settled on his knees between her legs. Leaning over her, he tugged the chain connecting the clamps. Audra grimaced at the intensified pinch on her nipples.

  “Slow or fast, baby?” His dark eyes glittered above her.

  Audra could barely think after such an intense orgasm. “Slow,” she answered breathlessly.

  She wanted to savor every stroke and every touch because it had been so long.

  Damon plucked one, then the other clamp off her nipples. Blood rushed to the tips of her breasts, making the skin extra sensitive to touch. He stroked his tongue over the peaks and grazed them with his teeth. Barely able to stand much more of his demanding mouth, her head thrashing from side to side, and her whimpering mewls filled the room. But the sounds of protest fell on deaf ears. He took his time and didn’t stop until he was satisfied, almost giving her another orgasm from such provocative torture alone.

  Cradling her bottom, Damon guided her hips into his. Her breaths came in short, fast spurts. She needed him so much.

  With a swift, smooth thrust, he took possession of her, and her aroused body absorbed him with ease. Hard nestled into soft and wet. They fit together perfectly. Always had.

  Their bodies moved in a sensual rhythm—slow and steady, just as she’d asked for.

  Sinking her teeth into her bottom lip, she dug her heels into the bed and pushed off the mattress each time. She shared her desires in hoarse whispers, begging Damon not to stop and pleading to the heavens for aid against the onslaught of pleasure.

  “I love seeing you like this,” he breathed. Eyes darkened and nostrils flaring, he pinned his gaze on her jiggling breasts. “You feel so good, baby, I’m not gonna last long.”

  He lowered his lips to her neck and with a gentle suck the fine tremors of an orgasm coursed through her body and intensified with each measured pump of his hips.

  Helpless against his thrusts, she let out a loud whimper. “Damon…”

  “Right here. I got you.”

  Once again, she lost control. Legs shaking, fingers bunched into fists as she tugged against her restraints. She loved the sensation of powerlessness the cuffs provided but hated that she couldn’t touch or hold him.

  Damon groaned, his big body driving into hers with unrelenting persistence. As she spasmed around him, he rammed into her with deep grunts. His hands gripped her thighs and pried them wider for his manic thrusting.

  She bathed him in feminine juices. Their pace became frenzied and her cries incrementally louder. Months of craving had brought them to this point of a throbbing, wildly powerful climax that seemed never-ending.

  Until the chorus of their voices slowly died, and they lay exhausted on top of the sheets.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Loud thumping woke up Audra.

  “Mommy, open the door!” Tracy yelled.

  “Mommy, I’m hungry!” Junior joined in the knocking and yelling.

  “What the hell?” Damon grumbled behind Audra. The arm around her waist shifted, and his hand slid lower to cup her hip.

  “Those are your children,” Audra said, her words muffled by the pillow.

  “They’re always my kids when they act up, huh?”

  “Mhmm.”

  “What time is it?”

  She blindly stretched for her phone and knocked over a bottle of lubricant in the process, bringing back memories that made her ass throb. Last night, Damon had reclaimed every part of her with no-holds-barred intensity.

  “You’re doing great, baby,” he had whispered, his voice hoarse and rough. “Your ass was made to take my dick.”

  Audra peered through the tangled hair that covered half her face. “After eight,” she mumbled. She returned the phone to the table with a sigh.

  The doorknob wiggled aggressively.

  “When did you lock the door?” she asked, twisting onto her back with a low moan.

  The delicious soreness of good sex dominated the nooks and curves of her body. Her inner thighs ached, and her nipples were sore from his persistent sucking. She felt desired and sexy, languorous and more than satisfied. Sated.

  Damon sat up and yawned. Running a hand down his face, he blinked into the sunlight. “Last night, after you fell asleep. I figured one or both of them would barge in here since it’s the weekend.”

  Ever since they stopped sleeping in the same bed, sometimes Junior and Tracy came in and joined her. A few times, they’d slept in the bed with her, something Damon didn’t allow after they passed the toddler stage.

  “The door is locked. We don’t lock doors in this house,” Tracy shouted in an annoyed voice.

  “I wonder where she got that from?” Damon pondered with an amused expression.

  “You know where she got that from. Me. Go get your daughter before I choke her out on this fine Sunday morning.”

  Damon chuckled as he slid off the bed, and her chest tightened at the beautiful sound—a sound which had been sorely missed.

  “I don’t want to be a party to murder,” he said.

  Her eyes locked on the fineness of his physique framed by the light coming in the window as he bent and lifted his clothes off the floor. His firm glutes and muscular back were a sight to behold, and a tingle of arousal fluttered in her breasts and between her legs from simply looking at him.

  More knocking, this time not accompanied with yelling. Her children were certainly persistent.

  Damon glanced at her as he trudged toward the door, his smile lazy, his gaze slumberous.

  Gosh, he was sexy.

  Audra pulled the covers up to her neck. “I’m going to get a little more sleep.”

  “You don’t want breakfast?” he asked, hand on the doorknob.

  “No, just make sure they eat.”

  He swung open the door, and the pounding came to an abrupt stop. She couldn’t see Junior and Tracy but imagined them staring up in shock at the sight of their father instead of her.

  “Do the two of you pay bills up in here?” he asked.

  No response.

  “Do you, Tracy?” he asked.

  “No,” her daughter replied in a soft voice.

  “Do you?”

  “No,” Junior responded, equally meek.

  “Then you have no business making all that noise so early in the morning,” Damon continued in the same stern voice.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21