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  “Tell me what you’re thinking,” Georgina murmured as she

  slowly walked around him.

  “I can’t,” he said, his voice low and strained. “Not now.”

  Georgina nodded. Fair enough. Let him keep his secrets, all she wanted was his body.

  “Please lie down,” she said, gesturing towards the bed.

  He obeyed, inclining his head as he went, infusing the respectful action with a narrowed-eyed look that said he was going to do this but that there would be consequences.

  Georgina shivered at the thought of what Simon would consider turn about for this. He had to know she’d let him tie her in a heartbeat, that she would let him do pretty much whatever he wanted without much resistance on her part.

  Not that it mattered. When she was done with him, he would be too tired to come after her tonight and tomorrow…

  Never mind tomorrow, Georgina thought, propping her foot on the bed once Simon was settled. This was all about the present.

  “You’re going to love this,” she purred, slowly pushing her robe off her knee and across her thigh, watching as Simon shifted down so he could peek at her panties. He inhaled sharply.

  “You said you only wore white cotton,” he said, his gaze fixed on the thin strip of black lace between her legs.

  Georgina shrugged and rolled down her thigh-high black stocking, watching him, waiting for him to figure out that she intended to tie him with them.

  Comprehension dawned, followed by a hard flush that streaked across his cheekbones.

  “Oh, shit,” he murmured, watching as she tossed one stocking on the bed then went to work on the other.

  Georgina pulled the second stocking from her foot then, picking up the first, she ran both of them through her fingers. Simon struggled into a sitting position, tension radiating off him.

  “Georgina…” he said, rubbing one of his wrists. Georgina wondered if he knew how clearly that gesture communicated his fear.

  She was willing to bet that if he did, he would stop it immediately.

  “Simon.”

  He swallowed, his throat working, his eyes moving between her face and the stockings dangling from her hand. He went down, one vertebra at a time, still watching her, still unsure.

  “Lift your arms over your head and…” she didn’t have to finish.

  He did as he was told, wrapping both hands around the curling brass that formed the headboard.

  He was so tense his body had picked up a slight, under-the-skin vibration. With his arms stretched above his head, the black lines of his tattoo looked amazing. She thought about tying him face down so she could see the entire tattoo but it would have been too much. She didn’t want him to fall out of the sensual haze she was trying to blanket over him.

  Georgina sat down next to him and, pulling one chopstick out of her hair she used the tip to tilt his chin up until he met her eyes.

  “If, for one second, you don’t like what I’m doing, you tell me to stop and I will. No safe words, no games. Stop means stop and no means no and…”

  “Suck my dick means suck my dick,” he finished, his tone

  loaded with false bravado as he jerked his chin off the point of the stick. She poked the chopstick back into her hair and made a soft tsking noise.

  “Poor Simon,” she whispered. Using one of her silk stockings, still warm from her body, she tied one of his wrists to the bed. His wrist flexed under her hands but he remained silent as she worked.

  When she was done with that one, she crawled onto the bed and then straddled him. He inhaled sharply as she settled over him, turning his head towards the wall.

  She quickly tied his other wrist before she lost her nerve. The longer this went on, the more she craved having him like this, contained and at her mercy. But it was an enormous risk. What if she couldn’t satisfy him? What if everything she did he’d had done to him many times before, by women who knew what they were doing.

  Well, no woman had ever tied him up. She had that in her favor at least.

  “Kiss me, Georgina,” he whispered. He turned and looked up at her, his black eyes intense.

  She shivered at his plea, uncertain whether to give in to his request.

  “I’m not going anywhere so kiss me, touch me, do something because I don’t know how long I can stay this way.”

  Georgina leaned down, sliding her body along his until she was nose to nose with him. Then she licked the side of his neck. The muscles under his skin jumped, from his neck all the way down to his abdomen and she grinned and did it again. And again, until he was arching under her, his erection hard and urgent against her stomach.

  She slowly moved down his body, kissing and licking, rubbing, touching, stopping here and there when the mood took her, forgetting for a few minutes her fear of not being able to satisfy him. She had never explored a man’s body before and it was a revelation. Simon was strong and firm in so many places that it made the tender, almost delicate spots all the more fascinating. The concave depres-sion where his arms met his torso, the hollow at the base of his throat, his lips, the backs of his knees, the insides of his elbows…

  but nothing came close to the seemingly fragile fall of his scrotum.

  She’d done nothing more than exhale over that part of him when he groaned.

  “You are going to be the death of me,” he muttered, twisting one of his wrists against the ties.

  “Stop doing that, you’ll hurt yourself,” she said, meeting his gaze. Hoping to distract him from trying to get loose, she said, “I have read that some men like it when a woman licks and nuzzles their balls.”

  Simon’s hips twitched, his cock swelled just a bit more as he literally choked out his response. “Holy Christ.”

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” Georgina murmured, once again studying the soft fall of his scrotum. Reaching out to cup him in her palm, Georgina was amazed. It was as if God had made this part of a man vulnerable on purpose, to remind him that, no matter what he told himself, he wasn’t invincible.

  “I’m going to come if you don’t stop…” Simon lost the last of those words on a guttural moan as Georgina licked him with long, flat strokes of her tongue, like a big cat giving comfort.

  “Where did you learn to do this?” Simon gasped, his thighs tensing as she inhaled his scent. He smelled rich and musky, overheated and intensely male.

  Her body reacted to the scent of his arousal, softening in anticipation of having him. She reached down between her legs but Simon stopped her by growling and bucking his hips, throwing her off him. She reached up and gently raked her nails down the insides of his thighs for thwarting her.

  Simon howled at that, his back arching off the bed. “Heartless, torturous bitch,” he ground out, lifting his head to glare at her.

  “That’s it,” Georgina muttered, crawling up his body. “Talk dirty to me.”

  Simon snorted but his gaze was between her legs, zeroed in on the thin strip of black silk she had yet to remove. “Please tell me you’re going to punish my bad behavior by forcing me to lick between your legs.”

  “You wish,” Georgina said, adding in a little sneer to keep the excitement out of her voice. The idea of having him service her while tied helplessly to the bed was tempting but this was about him, not her.

  Simon speared her with a contemptuous look. “Scared?” he

  asked, his lips twisting into a smirk.

  Terrified.

  “Of you? Hardly,” Georgina sniffed. “And stop trying to get what you want. You’ll get what you get and be grateful.”

  Simon gave a heartfelt sigh. “Damn. Well, can’t blame a guy for trying.”

  Georgina laughed, she couldn’t help it. The man was a menace, pure and simple.

  Leaning down so that their foreheads touched, Georgina

  wrapped her hands around his upper arms and said, “What am I going to do with you?”

  “Anything, everything…” Simon whispered, rolling his hips between her spread th
ighs, letting go with a wicked laugh when she hitched in her breath and ground down on his cock. “Whatever you want, whatever you need…” he went on, his breath coming hard and fast as she countered his movements, welcoming the pressure between her legs.

  “You,” Georgina admitted, knowing she was admitting to needs he’d never agreed to fill. But he didn’t know that she was speaking of needs beyond the physical and she said it again. “I need you.”

  “Then take me.”

  Pulling back, Georgina found a condom in the bedside drawer.

  She carefully rolled the latex over his erection, thoughtlessly mimicking his habit of running his fist down his cock to smooth the latex then squeezing once.

  Simon jerked and swore. “How did you know…”

  “That you like a little squeeze before the main event?” Georgina asked, meeting his gaze from under lowered brows.

  “Yes,” he breathed. Georgina felt a surge of power the likes of which she had never known.

  He was thoroughly hers, to do with as she wished. She swiped her tongue down his shaft before taking him in her mouth, as deep as she could, pulling on him as hard as she dared, using her hands and mouth and tongue, feeling his shocked pleasure in how he swelled and pulsed in her mouth. He moaned, a helpless sound at odds with the way he thrust his cock farther down her throat, an aggressive, instinctive demand that she take everything he had to offer.

  And take him she did. She was now almost desperate to make him come, to have him know what it felt like to be at the mercy of another, to be unable to even ask them to stop, let alone mean it.

  Just this once she wanted him to know how it felt when he touched her.

  “Georgina,” he panted, trying to hold back even though they both knew he was seconds away from orgasm. “Please… not without you… ah, God… please…”

  If he managed to choke out the word stop, Georgina knew she was honor-bound to respect that but he was too far gone. She felt the first surge and focused the efforts of her tongue on the sensitive ridge just under the head of his penis. Seconds later he came, swearing and shaking apart under her. She quickly looked up at his face, pulled tight with the glorious tension of release, teeth bared, eyes squeezed shut, his mouth open on a prolonged, silent wail of surrender.

  Gorgeous.

  Georgina knelt beside him, carefully removing the condom

  before untying his wrists, waiting for him to open his eyes and look at her. When he did, Georgina drew back. The intensity of his gaze was unnerving.

  “My turn,” he said, his voice a hoarse rasp.

  “Don’t even think about it,” Georgina said.

  “Oh, you wouldn’t believe the things I’ve been thinking on this weekend,” Simon drawled.

  “Now, Simon…” Georgina said.

  “Oh come on,” he said, his tone coaxing. “You’ll love it.”

  “Just as long as I don’t end up loving you,” Georgina muttered then froze when her mind retorted, Too late…but nice try.

  Simon Says: Chapter 7

  Despite having zero experience with either, I imagine love and quicksand have one thing in common; once you realized you’ve stepped in it, it’s too late to kick free. — Simon Says

  “What did you just say?” Simon whispered.

  Georgina slapped her hand over her mouth as every thought

  she’d ever had about Simon (that hadn’t fit in with her theory that her attraction to him was based solely on the physical) came rushing out of the shed-key corner of her brain.

  “I said I have to use the facilities,” Georgina mumbled as she scrambled off the bed and made a beeline to the bathroom. After making sure that the door was locked, she sat down on the cool wide edge of the tub and burst into tears.

  She loved him. Despite all of her efforts to remain detached, she had somehow managed to fall head over heels (or, as her Uncle Lenny liked to say, ass over elbows) in love with Mr. Right-Now.

  And, just to add insult to injury, she had agreed to an expiration date for their affair!

  “What am I going to do?” Georgina whispered, getting up to look at her reflection in the mirror. “I can’t go out there and act like nothing’s changed. Anyway, since I have no ability to keep my mouth shut around him, I give myself about three seconds before I’m blurting out that I love him and just think about how much fun that conversation is going to be. I bet he has a set speech he gives women that end up falling in love with him.”

  If he even suggests the idea of being friends, hit him.

  “Oh, I plan on it,” Georgina muttered, crossing her arms over her chest. “In fact, I plan on putting a lot of the blame for this right on his shoulders. ‘What you read is what you get.’ Ha! He should come with a warning sticker ‘Caution: This man is more than he appears.’ The nerve, suckering me into agreeing to a happy little fling and then turning into this fascinating, funny… nice man!”

  Georgina turned on the cold water and splashed her face. Her righteous indignation grew so strong it propelled her out of the bathroom before she had really thought through what she was going to say to the man that was waiting for her.

  She got halfway across the attic before she noticed that Simon wasn’t where she’d left him. In fact, he wasn’t anywhere in the attic.

  “Oh, that’s just great!” Georgina railed, snatching her black robe off the floor. “I come out here to lambaste him for his part in my emotional debacle and he doesn’t even have the grace to…”

  Georgina stopped raging when she noticed that one of the French doors was ajar.

  Walking over, she pulled the door open and there was Simon, fully dressed and leaning against the railing, the breeze off the ocean rifling his hair as he stared out at the expanse of sea and sky spread out before him. At the sight of him, her righteous indignation sputtered once and then died, leaving her feeling shy, defenseless and hopelessly in love.

  Not a good combination.

  “Damn,” Georgina muttered.

  Hearing her, Simon turned and straightened up, crossing his arms over his chest. “What, were you hoping I had conveniently disappeared?”

  “Huh?” Georgina asked, surprised by his cool tone.

  “I thought about doing the polite fade, most nice women prefer that route but since you’re a special case I’ve decided to stick it out.”

  Georgina shook her head, confused not only by his words but also by his almost combative stance, shoulders back, spine erect, chin up… uh-oh, he looked as if he’d been taking ‘disapproving librarian’ posture lessons from her.

  Simon blew out a breath and then said, “I love you. I should have told you earlier but I was afraid that you’d run screaming at the idea of a guy like me being in love with you, so I bargained for some more time together, hoping that you would get to know me and… shit, I don’t know… realize that I’m not a total loss situation but, since you bolted for the bathroom looking as if the hounds of hell were after you I’m guessing—”

  “That I love you, too?” Georgina asked, shivering from more than the cold.

  “What?” Simon whispered, losing both his mocking tone and

  the ‘up-yours’ stance.

  Instead of replying, Georgina walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him, holding him close, savoring the solid feel of him next to her body. After he put his arms around her and squeezed so hard she yelped, he took one step back and looked down at her, as serious as she had never seen him.

  “You love me?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Georgina whispered, almost afraid to say it too loudly, as if any sharp noise would destroy the moment.

  “Even though I’m Simon Says.”

  Georgina reached up and gently smoothed the wrinkle of worry from between his eyebrows. “Simon, you are so much more than Simon Says, but you know what, I love him, too. One of the reasons I love you is that you’ve made me feel like it’s okay to be myself, all of myself, even the parts of me that I’ve kept hidden for fear of what other people woul
d think. How could I expect you to accept all of me without being willing to do the same?” Georgina bit her lip and sighed. “Of course, I don’t know how I’m going to handle the party-girls but I think we can work something out.”

  “What, are you going to be my chaperone when I go out?”

  Simon teased.

  “I was thinking more along the lines of a bodyguard,” Georgina replied. “I could carry a tire-iron and whack them on the head if they got too close.”

  Simon laughed, pulling her tight against him. “What would you say if I told you I’m retired?”

  “Retired? When?”

  “Today. I called my editor and she helped me deep-six the column.”

  “When?”

  “This morning.”

  “And you didn’t say anything?” Georgina asked, a little of her former righteous indignation sparking to life.

  “As I said, I wasn’t sure how you would react to my loving you so I thought I could get you some proof of my intentions and killing off Simon Says seemed a good place to… Hey! Your nails are sharp, stop digging them into my arm!”

  “This morning! You knew you loved me this morning and you

  didn’t say anything? I’ve been a mess all day and you… you… get back here, where do you think you’re going?”

  Simon ignored her as he slipped back into the attic, calling out as he went, “Actually, I’ve known that I loved you since Friday night!”

  “What? Oh, that’s it!” Georgina yelled, dashing back into the attic. “Get undressed, you are so getting tied to the bed again.”

  “Wait,” Simon laughed, capturing her hands in his after she’d managed to get his t-shirt off without his help. “There’s a lot more we have to discuss”

  Ignoring him, Georgina leaned forward and swiped her tongue across his chest, teasingly catching just the edge of his nipple.

  Simon sucked in a delightfully unsteady breath, even as he tried to keep the conversation going. “There are going to be a lot of people that are going to say that you’re crazy for getting involved with me and… Hey! Stop trying to distract me, this is important.”