The Fall (House of Sin Book 2) Read online

  That word—us—made my whole body tremble.

  I was falling for this man. Falling hard. He’d captivated me these last few days, and I didn’t want to walk away from him. I did want more. I wanted it so much I was light-headed and ready to abandon every one of my principles.

  The words left my lips before I could stop them. “I think so.”

  “You think?”

  The disappointment in his voice hit me hard. Before I could stop myself, I said, “Y-yes.”

  “Good.” Relief trickled through his stormy gaze. But just as quickly it was replaced by heat. Heat and a raging desire I felt deep in my bones. “Then you need a consequence for wearing that dress. I’ll let you choose. You can lay your sweet body over my lap and lift your skirt for five swats, or you can wear these until we get to the hotel.”

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out two tweezers-like objects with rubber tips, connected by a long chain.

  My eyes widened. “What are those?”

  “Nipple clamps.”

  The air caught in my lungs, and my mind spun, trying to make sense of what he was offering.

  He wanted to spank me or squeeze my nipples with those things that looked like torture devices. My instincts screamed to jerk back and get as far from this man as possible, but my muscles wouldn’t move, and my hammering heart told me I was both horrified and even more excited than before.

  “Which will it be? You have to choose.”

  My fingers shook as I stared down at the nipple clamps, then looked at the size of his hand.

  Heat enflamed my face as I imagined bending over his lap and that hand slapping against my bare ass. I couldn’t do that. The thought of it was just…too shameful to even consider.

  “Natalie?”

  “I’ll take the nipple clamps,” I blurted out.

  Mortification immediately swept through me when the words echoed back to my ears. I couldn’t believe I was doing this. Did I really want this man that much? Why couldn’t I say no to him?

  A victorious grin spread across his lips. He let go of my wrist and slid his arm around my lower spine, pulling me toward him. Heat and his intoxicating scent—jasmine and musk and rum—overwhelmed my senses, making me even more light-headed than before. “Tug the straps of your dress down and let me see those gorgeous breasts.”

  I wanted to say no, but my shaking hands were already moving to my shoulders, sliding the straps of my dress down my arms until the bodice fell at my waist as if his very words controlled my body.

  He focused on the sheer cups covering my breasts. “Now the bra.”

  My whole body trembled, but I pushed the cups beneath my breasts, baring my nipples to his hungry gaze. Between my legs, I felt myself growing wetter.

  “Bellissima.” He leaned forward and licked my right nipple, tracing his tongue around the tip until it tightened and pebbled.

  My back arched reflexively, and sparks of heat shot straight into my sex.

  Oh…his tongue. My head drifted back, and my eyes slid closed. This didn’t feel like a consequence. It felt soooo good. I rested my hands on his shoulders and pressed my hips against his chest to keep from falling over.

  “Mm.” He growled. “You are absolutely delicious, gattina.”

  I rubbed my pelvis against him, desperate to feel his touch between my legs, eager for release. He’d had me on the edge since I’d awoken this morning and seen him staring at me from across the room with those gorgeous, hungry one-of-a-kind eyes.

  A hard sharp pain ripped through my nipple and echoed through my breast. My eyes jerked open, and I lurched back. “Holy fuck.”

  Luc caught me by the waist and shot to his feet, holding me tight against him. “Breathe through it, Natalie.”

  I gripped his shirt at the shoulders and tried to, but holy crap, it hurt.

  “That’s it,” he whispered, fiddling with the clamp squeezing my nipple. “I loosened it a little. Is that better?”

  I breathed hard and glanced down at the device squeezing my nipple a deep shade of red. It still hurt, but not as intensely as before. As I stared at my breast, the pain shifted to a dull throb. “I…it’s okay.”

  Holy hell, had I just said squeezing my nipple to the point of pain was okay? I was fucking losing it for this man.

  “Let’s do the other one.”

  I closed my eyes and bit my lip as he repeated the process on my other nipple, licking it into a stiff peak, then applying the second clamp. This one hurt, but not nearly as bad, and I wasn’t sure if that was because I’d braced myself to expect the pain, or if he’d set the pressure lighter, or if I was turning into a masochist.

  The last worried me. Really worried me. But before the thought could sink in, Luc’s mouth was on mine, kissing me hard, devouring me with his lips and teeth and tongue until the only thing I could think about was him.

  When he finally drew back so I could breathe, I realized I was pushed up against the wall, trapped between it and his hard, hot, very aroused body.

  “Dio, Natalie. I need to know if you’re wet.” His hand streaked under my skirt and swept between my swollen flesh, stroking my core until I gasped. “Cazzo. You’re absolutely drenched.” He lowered his head and sank his teeth into my neck, then sucked the spot until I shivered. “If we weren’t about to land, I’d fuck you right here until you scream.”

  “Oh yes…” I wanted that. I wanted it so bad, I couldn’t think. I lifted my hips, rubbing against the rod of steel in his pants. “Yes…”

  Luc groaned and rocked against me as his wicked lips pressed a line of kisses up and down my throat.

  A voice came over the intercom, speaking in that frustrating Italian again.

  Luc stilled against me and slowly lifted his head. “We have to take our seats.”

  Frustration balled inside me. I wanted to scream. I wanted Luc inside me. I wanted to come.

  His face was flushed as he leaned back and tapped the end of the clamp against my right breast. An electrical arc shot straight into my sex, and I groaned.

  Smiling, he leaned down and licked the tip of my tormented nipple. “You are so fucking sexy.”

  My body was on fire, my sex wetter than it had ever been. As Luc gently tugged the cups of my bra up, covering the clamps, more arcs of energy ricocheted between my legs, leaving me light-headed. I bit my lip against a groan. Squeezed my thighs together to assuage the ache. Nothing worked. The only thing that would work, I knew, was Luc’s thick cock, sliding deep inside me.

  Dazed, I stood where I was as he fixed the bodice of my dress and drew the straps back up my shoulders. When he stepped away and pulled me with him, I followed, unable to think. Every movement caused my dress to brush the clamps, sending another wave of electricity straight into my sex. By the time we reached our seats, I was a trembling wet mess of need, and he knew it.

  He buckled my seat belt for me and pulled it tight. Then I felt his lips at my ear, his hot breath washing over my neck, his tongue teasing my lobe.

  “I can smell your arousal from here,” he whispered against me. “Hot and sweet. Can you smell it? Do you know what that is? It’s you submitting to me. And, Dio, it’s fucking sexy as hell. I’m going to make you come so hard when we get to the hotel, you won’t remember your own name.”

  I closed my eyes and whimpered. Not because I didn’t believe him. Not because I didn’t want exactly that. But because I knew he was right.

  I was submitting. I was giving in to every one of his wicked desires because they turned me on.

  And I was suddenly terrified that was going to ruin me forever.

  4

  Luc

  Natalie was a quivering mass of hunger beside me in the car. I couldn’t claim to be much better. I’d been hard as stone ever since I’d seen how turned on she was by the sight of that clamp pinching her tender nipple.

  Just the thought of it brought my head around in the car, and I glanced down at her dress, aching to pull the bodice aside and devour those
breasts with my mouth.

  Since we weren’t alone, I shifted against the seat instead and tightened my fingers around hers where our hands rested on the seat between us. The movement did nothing to alleviate the ache in my stiff cock, and feeling Natalie tense beneath my palm only reminded me just how hot and aroused she still was.

  The car pulled to a stop. I immediately popped my door open and pulled Natalie with me, desperate to get to the hotel. Her top teeth sank into her bottom lip as she stood and faced me. I took in her flushed cheeks and glazed eyes and knew she was suffering. Not from pain but from an intense arousal she needed released.

  Fuck, I needed it too. I was more turned on than I’d ever been, and if I didn’t get inside her soon, I was afraid I might just lose it.

  Taking her hand, I pulled her with me. “Come on. Just a few minutes more.”

  I led her out of the parking lot and onto the dock while the driver got our bags. Ten feet from the water taxi, Natalie jerked back hard on my arm, and said, “No.”

  Annoyance pulsed through me that she was fighting me now when we were minutes from complete and utter bliss. I turned toward her, intent on reminding her of that, but froze when I saw her eyes.

  They weren’t glazed and lust-filled as they’d been in the car. These eyes were wide and brimmed with fear. Panic drained the color from her face as she yanked her hand from mine and scrambled backward on the dock, gripping the railing at her side until her fingers turned white. “No, no, no,” she muttered.

  One glance over my shoulder told me her eyes were locked on the boat waiting to take us to our hotel.

  “Hey.” I approached her slowly, confused by what was going on. “Everything’s okay.”

  She let me wrap my arms around her, but I could feel her racing heart against me, and the way her fingertips dug into my pecs and she shook her head quickly from side to side told me this wasn’t just fear. It was terror.

  “You don’t understand,” she whispered against me. “I can’t get on that thing. I can’t swim. Please don’t make me get on that.”

  She trembled and clung to me like I was her last lifeline. My pulse shot up as I held her tight and rubbed a hand along her back, trying to soothe her. “Nothing bad is going to happen. These water taxis go back and forth all the time.”

  “No.” Panic hitched her voice higher. “I can do almost anything you ask me to do, but not this.”

  “I know you’re scared, but—”

  “You don’t understand.” Her voice spiked. “My father threw me out of our boat and into the lake when I was five. He was trying to force me to learn to swim because he thought I was a sissy for being afraid. I sucked in too much water, and I almost drowned. The paramedics had to come. I haven’t been able to go near a boat since. I haven’t—”

  “Okay.” My own heart pounded hard at the scene she painted in my mind. “Okay,” I said again, in part to reassure myself that she was okay but also to calm my suddenly raging temper at what had been done to her. “We won’t get on the boat. I’ll have the taxi take our luggage to the hotel, and you and I will walk.”

  She buried her face in my chest and shook. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “When you said we were going to Venice, I was so excited. I thought I would be okay, but then I saw the boat, and I just—”

  “Shh.” I held her tighter. “It’s okay. I’m not upset.”

  She relaxed into me. Her hands slid around my back, and she turned her cheek until it rested just above my heart in a way that was so tender, everything inside me ached to console her.

  “I don’t understand you,” she whispered long minutes later.

  “What don’t you understand?” I asked, tracing my hand up and down her spine.

  “How you can be so caring when a few minutes ago you wanted to…”

  My chest contracted. “When I wanted to hurt you?”

  She swallowed against me and whispered, “Yes.”

  Her vulnerability absolutely shattered me, and the way she clung to me filled my soul with so much sweetness, my heart felt as if it might burst.

  Framing her face, I drew back and looked down into her damp eyes. “Did the clamps really hurt you? For more than a few seconds?”

  “No.”

  “Do your nipples hurt now?”

  She blushed. “No. They’re… tingly.”

  “And are you wet?”

  Her eyelids dropped. “Yes,” she whispered.

  “Natalie.” I tipped her chin higher, forcing her to meet my eyes. Forcing her to see the truth.

  I was already demolishing my plan, not even twelve hours after I’d made it, but I didn’t care. I knew in the long run what I was about to admit might make things worse, but I needed her to understand. She’d just laid herself bare before me, and I wanted to give her the same. Yes, I needed her to listen to me so I could keep her safe, but not at the expense of damaging what was so precious inside her. I wasn’t my father. I wasn’t my brother. I’d hate myself forever if I truly broke her.

  I brushed my thumb across her jaw. “I’m not a sadist. What I do, I don’t do for pain. It’s for pleasure. To train your mind and body to surrender to someone who only wants to please you.”

  Her gaze searched mine. Aroused yet wary at the same time. “I’m not like those models back in New York. I can’t call you sir like they did with Gio.”

  The corner of my mouth tipped up. “Why would you do that? Sir is an admission someone else has power. I know your mind too well, Ms. James. You’d never admit I’m in control.”

  A shy smile pulled at her lips as she looked down at my shirt, and it was so sweet, so pure, it revved my heart and made me realize this woman had absolutely no idea what she could do to me.

  I shouldn’t say anything else. I’d already revealed way more than was safe, but I couldn’t seem to stop. “I won’t lie and say I don’t want to dominate you, because I do. But I wouldn’t even try if you didn’t enjoy it just as much. Last night, when I saw the way you reacted to me, it made me crazed to give you more. You think I have the power here, but I don’t. You do. You can shatter me with a single look. You can make me melt with just a smile. And when you trust me, like you did on the plane, it makes me absolutely fucking weak. I don’t want to hurt you. I want to open your eyes and take you places you never knew were possible. I want you so desperate for my touch you can’t think, only feel, only give in to the desires I know you hide. And then I want to touch you and hold you and kiss you until you feel safe and know you’re mine. Because you are. You were mine the moment you let that dress fall to the floor last night. You were mine the second you let me touch you.”

  Her eyes darkened. And her mouth was on mine before I could take a breath, her tongue sliding between my lips and over mine to drive me completely wild.

  Desire raced through my veins like an electrical shock as I gripped her jaw harder and took control of the kiss, tasting her deeper, letting all the lust and hunger inside me free.

  Her arms slid up my back. Her hands tightened in my shirt. Against my lips, she whispered, “I need you. I need you right now.”

  I groaned because I needed her too. So fucking bad. My dick was a rod of steel.

  Sucking in air, I lifted my head and glanced over the dock and the buildings around us, looking for anywhere even semiprivate I could drag her and satisfy this burning hunger inside us both. “Our hotel’s on the other side of the city. It’ll take us at least a half hour to get there on foot.” Probably longer because I’d be in pain the whole way. “Cazzo.”

  She lowered her face to my throat and fisted my shirt tighter at my back. “H-how long by boat?”

  I stilled and looked down at her. “Ten minutes.”

  “I can’t walk like this for a half hour.” She turned her face into my throat and trembled. “If we take the boat, will you—”

  “I’ll protect you.” My pulse raced. “Nothing will happen to yo—”

  “No, I meant will you keep me distracted so I can’t see?” s
he asked in a small voice. “If I don’t see the water, maybe I won’t…freak out.”

  My heart cracked open wide, and I completely fell for this woman, right there on the dock.

  She might struggle with the thought of submission, but she was giving herself to me in the midst of her greatest fear, and she didn’t even realize it.

  “I can do that.” I lifted her into my arms, my heart racing as I turned toward the boat. “Hold on to me. And keep your face pressed to my neck.”

  Her arms wound tightly around my shoulders, and she buried her face in the space between my throat and collarbone. She tensed as I headed down the dock and stepped into the boat. Holding her closer, I moved beneath the canopy where the wind and spray wouldn’t reach us, then sat and cradled her on my lap, stroking one hand up and down her spine and the other across her thigh to reassure her.

  The water taxi’s engine hummed as we pushed away from the dock, and her whole body went rigid against me. Afraid she might stop breathing, I leaned close to her ear and whispered all the naughty things I planned to do to her when we reached the hotel. And to distract her, I bumped the nipple clamp still attached to her breast with my elbow.

  She groaned and breathed hot against my neck. My dick swelled even more, making it painful to sit.

  The short trip through the Grand Canal was the longest of my life. I’d always found this city breathtaking, but tonight I didn’t see the early evening lights flickering off the water. I didn’t see the gondolas or the Old World architecture or even the arched bridges. All I saw was her—this gorgeous, vulnerable, powerful woman who had ensnared me with her sweetness.

  I was sweating by the time we reached the dock to the Gritti Palace. Pushing to my feet, I tightened my arms around her and climbed out of the boat. She gasped against me but held on tighter. I knew I could put her down now that we were on land, but I didn’t want to add any kind of delay.