"There are some things women don't want to know about themselves," he told her then. "You're strong, resilient. But do you really want to touch the places I could take you? The places I will take you if you continue to dare me."

Her chin lifted. "And a dare's all it takes? Are you certain you can do it without help?"

She was crazy. She had accused him of being insane, but as she watched the dark lust flash through his eyes again, she wondered if she wasn't the one who had lost her mind.

"Oh how brave," he whispered, part playful, part dark eroticism.

"Baby, anything you've known while taking both Khalid and me is nothing compared to what you'll know now."

"Holding back on me then?" She arched as his fingers grazed the silken crotch of her panties. "Shame on you, Chase."

Her voice was rough, her confidence not really everything it should have been as she felt her excitement growing.

He clicked his tongue at her. "Shame on you, sweetheart, because you just bought yourself the edge."

Chapter 18

Kia had no idea what the edge was, but she had a feeling it was going to go way beyond mere pleasure. Touching Chase, being touched by him, was an adventure each time. The adventure she had craved all her life, the challenge and the daring wild ride into sensations she had only fantasized about.

She tugged at the bonds that held her wrists. She was helpless; she felt helpless, sensually and erotically helpless.

She should have been frightened, she was sure. She should have been hesitant about allowing him to control her sensuality in this way. But her sensuality reveled in it. She reveled in it.

"You can pull back at any time, sugar." His smile was pure, erotic demand. "If you pull back, you lose your bet."

The challenge was clear.

Kia let her own laughter whisper past her lips, though it was strained, filled with nervous anticipation.

"You can't come before I do, Chase," she informed him and watched his expression crease with a grimace of both pleasured anticipation and wariness. "If you get off, then you lose."

She wasn't about to give him any edge. If he wanted to make his own rules, then she could make hers as well.

"That wasn't in the deal." He chuckled, but there was an edge of rueful acceptance in his expression.

"It is now. I'm tied, literally. You're not. You get off, and I win."

Excitement pounded through her, rushed through her brain, her veins, each nerve ending. She could feel a wild eroticism growing inside her, matching the dark hunger that flickered in Chase's expression now.

This was what she had always sensed inside him. Something wild and untamed, something to match and counter the fierce, reckless hunger she had always fought within herself.

There was no surrender. She could feel it burning between both of them. He was the more experienced. This sensual world was his erotic playground, and rather than stepping in slowly, she was jumping into it with both feet.

And loving it.

She was certain she would win. She could tell he was certain he would win. She might come so many times she was exhausted, but she had never passed out in her life. She wasn't going to start now.

Chase restrained his next grin. Instead he cupped her pussy, stroked it, and felt the damp heat beneath the crotch of her panties.

She was already fiery wet, aroused and ready for him. And daring him with every look from those mysterious, brilliant eyes.

He knew exactly how to get what he wanted. He knew she wasn't experienced enough, wasn't jaded enough, to control the strength of the orgasm he would give her. When he finally gave it to her.

It took patience. It would take pushing her into an arousal that would leave her wet with sweat, begging, pleading. And he would hear her pleas far longer than he was certain she wanted to scream them out to him.

And there was nothing he loved better than pushing a woman to that point. Nothing more torturous, more pleasurable than taking a woman to that particular high and watching her fall over.

"Poor Kia," he whispered as he ripped the shreds of her camisole from her body. "Don't bother begging, baby. It won't help."

She smiled. A seductive, feminine smile that had his cock twitching.

"I'll remember that line," she responded, her voice husky, sensual. "I'll repeat it to you when my turn comes."

He tossed the fabric to the floor before gripping the band to her panties and tearing them from her hips. She jerked involuntarily, hips lifting, a little gasp leaving her throat, assuring him that she was already well on her way to the point he needed her to reach.

She was responsive, eager for the pleasure, and she trusted. That trust, the thought of it, the knowledge that in such a short time she had handed him that much of herself, caused his chest to clench with unexpected emotion.

Hell, he knew married couples who hadn't reached this point yet.

Moving back, he enclosed her legs between his thighs, pressing them tight together and holding them in place as he bent to her.

His cock pressed into the soft flesh of her belly and her lips parted beneath his as she undulated beneath him. Her clit would be aching, he knew. The pressure of her thighs wouldn't be enough to do more than tease and tempt at this point. She would be close, certain her orgasm was only a breath away. And it was much farther away than she could ever imagine.

He played with her lips. Kissed her slow and deep and tasted the passion already raging inside her. He nipped at her lower lip, felt her breath coming hard and deep, then sank into the kiss with all the need raging inside him.

He'd wanted her, just like this, for so many years. Helpless beneath him, arching to him, desperate for every touch, every stroke he could give her.

Chase could feel the pleasure pouring through him as well. Each gasp from her lips, each stroke of her tongue against his, each helpless little moan that came from her throat was like a physical caress against his flesh.

This was what it was all about. All the patience, each stroke, each plea from her lips, each sweet drop of syrup from her heated pussy was his pleasure.

When his kiss had pushed her to the lowest point of the journey he intended to take her on, he pulled back. He stroked the backs of his fingers down her cheek as her lashes lifted.

Her eyes were dilated, the color darker now. Her face was flushed, her lips swollen with passion.

"I've dreamed of doing this to you," he admitted, his head lowering, his lips brushing against her jaw, his teeth raking it as a whimpering little sigh left her lips.

"You didn't have to wait." Her voice was thick, heavy with arousal now.

"I should never have waited." He had never been certain that the gentle, quiet young woman he glimpsed on the outside could handle the darkness that filled Chase on the inside.

Had he been wrong? Was the woman who had begun to fill so many parts of his heart stronger than he ever believed possible?

Kia had to watch as he touched her. She couldn't touch him back; she could only strain against him and wonder if she had somehow managed to lose all possession of her common sense when she dared him.

She knew what the Trojans were. The nickname given to the men who were a part of the exclusive club Chase helped to protect.

They were extremely dominant. They were powerful, and they were whispered to be the ultimate lovers. She wasn't the only one who had dared to tell the truth about them; she had just been the only one who had dared to whisper it outside the confines of a particular group.

There had always been vague little stories. Hints of warnings. And there had always been Chase, watching her, promising her all those stories were indeed the truth.

She arched as his lips moved along her collarbone, his tongue licking a trail of fire to a hard, distended nipple. She was already so sensitized she could barely stand it. But when his lips surrounded the hard peak and he sucked her deep, she wished she had never made that insane dare.

She could be touching him now, fighting for the pleasure. Instead, she was restrained, her hands bound, helpless beneath his touch. Helpless beneath the pleasure.

"Do you feel it yet, Kia?" His head lifted, his face flushed with arousal, his eyes bright with it. "Do you feel it moving through you yet?"

She shook her head. She bit back the moan of assent as she felt that darkness she knew he was asking about. It hovered, right at the edge of her mind, the hungers she had always refused herself, until Chase. Until he held his hand out to her and pulled her into his world.

His tongue curled around the opposite nipple. He sucked it and fire shot to her womb as she bit her lip to hold back her cry. The first plea.

He was slow and easy, sucking her deep and firm. His tongue licked and stroked, and each flick of it sent pleasure cascading across nerve endings that should have never responded to that caress.

Her fingers curled. She gripped the leather straps restraining her and tried to push her nipple deeper into his mouth.

He pulled back, a little sucking sound echoing around her as her nipple slid from his lips. His teeth caught the tender bud a second later.

Kia gasped. The fiery little pleasure pain had her nearly begging for more.

And he knew it. Damn him. He knew exactly what he was doing, knew he was torturing the hell out of her. She should have known, should have thought—

"Chase," she moaned his name as he pulled her nipple back into his mouth, sucked and licked and had her whimpering now, arching closer to him.

"So pretty." He eased up, stared down at her nipples. "Look how pretty, Kia. Flushed and tight."

Her nipples were a dark pink, so hard now they felt bruised, tingling and burning for the touch of his mouth again.

"I'll need another taste later," he growled, releasing his grip on her legs as he moved to her side, then knelt by her head. "But now, it's your turn to taste. Can you make me give in?"

Kia watched as his fingers gripped the stalk of his cock, pumping it slowly as the wide, dark head throbbed and dampened with a pearl of liquid.

She licked her lip, then licked that pearl. She watched his face, watched his thick lashes drift over those brilliant eyes as she curled her tongue over the head and filled her mouth with the taste and the heat of him.

She tempted him, and she knew she did. She licked the underside, let her teeth rake against it oh so gently and whimpered as her name tore from his throat.

"That's good." The fingers of one hand latched in her hair as he restrained the sucking rhythm of her mouth. He pulled her head back, pushed it forward, used her own hair to control her. The little bites of pressure against her scalp were like fingers of erotic pleasure. It would loosen, tighten, and she sucked him deeper, fought to hold on to the heavy flesh as he retreated, then pushed back.

"Ah yeah, Kia. Sweet baby," he groaned. "Suck my dick, sweetheart. Show me you want it. How bad do you want it, darling?"

She tried to move her mouth faster, to force him to fuck past her lips with harder strokes. His fingers in her hair restrained her again, forcing her to use her lips and tongue and the sucking motions of her mouth only.

The taste of him, the heat of his flesh, the desperate hardness, were like an aphrodisiac. She could feel his need for her there, and she could see it in the heavy, brooding expression on his face.

He wanted her. He ached for her. It wasn't just lust. One could walk away from lust. It was simple. So easy. But neither of them could walk away from this. This pleasure that raced over her flesh, dug its talons into her nipples, her clit, and the raging need of her pussy. This couldn't be escaped nearly so easily.

"Fuck." He pulled back, his cock sliding from her lips despite her attempts to hold it to her.

"That's cheating." She licked her lips, hungry for more. "I can't escape you."

"I didn't make the dare." His breathing was harsh, perspiration dampened the tensed muscles of his chest, thighs, and arms as his expression tightened in need.