By Private Invitation (6 page)

Belle was an unknown. What would she say if he told her everything he wanted? Would
she give him what he wanted?

He never made false promises. He would make it good for her. He knew enough about
sex and women to make this very good for her.

When she smiled and slipped her hands under the waistband of his underwear, he almost
sighed in relief. Until she wrapped a hand around his cock and started a wicked pump.
Then he could barely breathe.

Her smooth hand created just enough friction to set his nerve endings on fire. Letting
his eyes close, he leaned his head back against the bench and absorbed the sensations.

The feel of her naked thighs under his hands, the slight flex of her muscles as she
worked him. When she shifted, he felt her breath along his cheek as she bent to lick
at his jaw, nipping at the skin, then moving to his mouth. She kissed him this time,
and it was a reversal he enjoyed.

Typically he kissed a woman and she let him. This…almost blew his mind.

She wasn’t as demanding as he would have been. Her lips were softer, gentler, but
still managed to make his heart pound. He didn’t realize his hips had started to thrust
in time with her caress until the tip of his cock brushed against her still-covered
mound.

He leaned back just enough to be able to speak. “How attached are you to these panties?”

“Not very.”

“Good.”

In a split second, he’d snapped both sides of her thong and drew the now-worthless
scrap from between her legs, leaving her naked to his fingers.

While she continued to stroke him, he petted the small triangle of hair just above
her clit.

She rewarded him by tightening her hand around his cock and shivering. “You’re not
as civilized as you pretend to be, are you?”

If she only knew.
“There’s a time and place for everything. It’s time for you to fuck me.”

She shuddered in his arms, the sound of her labored breathing telling him she was
just as close as he was. His cock felt like iron and throbbed like a son of a bitch.

“Then I guess you’d better make use of that condom.”

He reached for the packet, making sure he tweaked her nipples before he drew it from
between her breasts. She moaned again as the sound of foil tearing ripped through
the silent garden.

He had a momentary hesitation for their location but, tucked in the topiary garden,
they were pretty well concealed by the trees. And his coat hung down her back, covering
his knees as well. No one would see anything that would embarrass Belle.

He barely had the condom rolled on before she positioned herself over the tip and
started a slow, sensuous slide down his shaft.

The heat of her pussy seared him through the thin casing of the condom, her tight
sheath pulsing around him, easing only enough to let him in. He wanted to thrust and
he felt her take a deep breath, as if waiting for him to move. But he knew anticipation
was a powerful aphrodisiac.

“Jared.” He heard the plea in her tone, felt the contained desire in her body, and
his thighs tightened. But he forced his muscles to relax, his fingers to release their
tight grip on her hips.

“Ride me, Belle. Slow and easy. Make me beg for it.”

Usually, it was his pleasure to make the woman beg. But Belle wasn’t anywhere near
usual. She was unique, unknown but completely open, and so damn sensual.

She took him at his word and began to lift her body off his cock without fully seating
him. She pulled up until only the tip was still lodged in her sex. Then she shifted
again and he pulled free. Rubbing her lips over the head, she teased herself with
him, moving to stroke her clit against him.

She started to pant after the first minute or so, matching him breath for breath,
but she didn’t take him in again. Sweat began to seep down his back and bead on his
forehead, his balls pulled up as tight as rocks.

He bent his head to pull a nipple into his mouth and suckled hard. Her cry echoed
around the garden, and she shuddered just before she reached down to pull his cock
away from his body. Then she sat on him and took him deep and fast.

She froze and he released the tight tip to look into her eyes. Hers were glazed with
passion and he figured he probably had the same look in his. He thought she was going
to say something so he waited, watching her, his body screaming for release until
finally he broke.

“I’m begging. Please, Belle. Fuck me.”

Her smile combined with the almost brutal pace she set made his eyes roll back in
his head and for the first time in his life, he gave his pleasure over completely
to another person.

And she didn’t let him down. She rode him hard, kept up the pressure, her thighs working
her body up and down. He tried to hold out, to hold on, but his body wouldn’t listen.

He came with a deep groan, lifting his hips into her downward thrust to seat himself
high and tight inside her.

He pulsed his release into the condom, listening to her breathless moan as she jerked
against him, her sex milking him as she came.

The vague regret that he wasn’t naked inside her passed through his head.

Next time.

He really hoped there was a next time.

He’d make damn sure there was.

“Belle, would you like to accompany me to an after-party?”

Annabelle read through the waiver a second time, though she knew she was going to
sign it.

Her pussy still rippled with aftershocks from that amazing orgasm. And she wanted
more.

She looked up into Jared’s bright blue eyes. “What type of party requires a legal
waiver?”

Sprawled in a matching art deco leather club chair in a small but decadently furnished
room on the fourth floor, Jared watched her with an intensity that should have worried
her.

Her bodily response was far from it, as it made her wet and hot to have him again.
In any and all ways possible.

He smiled. “The waiver’s not only for your protection but for the other members’.
This party isn’t like any other you’ve ever been to, Belle. Its only reason for being
is pleasure. There are no rules except those against physical violence. If you want
to leave
at any time, you only have to say the word. But the waiver requires you not to reveal
who else is in the room.

“You have my word no one will hurt you or do anything you don’t ask for. Or beg for.”
He paused and she could barely swallow as her heart began to pound in anticipation
and her sex clenched. “This is only about pleasure. As much as you can stand. In any
way you want.”

Oh, hell. Where had all the air in the room gone?
She certainly needed more.

From the moment Jared had whisked her into the private elevator at the rear of the
garden and up to this fourth-floor room, she’d known exactly what type of party he’d
asked her to attend.

“How many people will be there?”

His steady gaze never faltered. “Ten were invited but I’m not sure all of them will
show. Eleven if you decide to join us.”

“And no one will know my identity?”

“Everyone wears a mask the entire time.”

Kinky
, she thought.
And arousing.
Maybe she had inherited some of her mom’s sensuality. “This isn’t the first time
you’ve done this, is it?”

His lips curved in a wicked grin. “No.”

Oh, my, when he looked at her like that she wanted to jump him where he sat. Unzip
his pants and ride him until she passed out. He made her feel sexy, beautiful. Wanted.

And so freaking horny. She could very easily get addicted to his touch.

She picked up the pen from the side table and signed her name on the bottom line,
illegible but still legal. Beneath the paragraph that stated she was free of any sexually
transmitted diseases.

Jared didn’t even look at the paper as he took it.

Leaning back into the chair, she stared at him. “I’m surprised you don’t require a
clean bill of health from a doctor.”

“We do. All members of the Salon have legal waivers from their doctors, which are
updated every six months. I’m trusting you were honest about your medical history
when you signed that form.”

She nearly blushed, embarrassed to reveal how long it’d been since she’d had sex.
Or the reason for knowing she was disease-free. “I’m clean. When my last…relationship
ended, I had an exam and all the requisite tests.”

“Sounds like the relationship didn’t end well.”

Her mouth twisted in a grimace. “You could say that. Fortunately, I was more pissed
off than hurt.” Which she couldn’t say about Gary. He’d had to see a doctor for his
shoulder.

Jared shifted in his chair and her gaze was drawn to the bulge in his slacks. He made
no effort to hide his erection. Her blood heated like lava.

She couldn’t relax, his blatant lust made it impossible. She wished he would move,
pace, take her to wherever they were going. But he made no effort to get up. Spontaneous
combustion became a distinct possibility.

She took a deep breath as something occurred to her. “Will Tyler be there?”

How weird would it be to do anything sexual with his brother? Even unknowingly, though
she was pretty sure she’d recognize his voice.

Jared shook his head. “He doesn’t attend the Salon games.”

Something clicked in her sex-addled brain, some piece of information that focused
her away from sex. “Salon as in Victorian salon?”

He nodded. “That’s right.”

Her smile made his gaze burn a little brighter.

“What’s that smile for, Belle?”

“I never told you about my specialty in antiques, did I?”

If he was surprised by her change of subject, he didn’t show it. “I don’t think it
came up.”

“The shop’s main focus is early American and European furniture. That was my grandfather’s
passion and where most of my income comes from. My focus is erotic artwork.”

He blinked once, but his smile never faltered, and he raised his eyebrows just enough
to let her know he wanted her to continue.

“Most of my collection is eighteenth-century European, Japanese, and Chinese.” And
some very special modern American works. “I’m well versed in European because of my
degree in art history, but I also have a few other pieces, like Greek redware and
Roman marble.”

Now he moved, shifting in his chair, leaning forward. “How did you get into the field?”

He looked so relaxed, so at ease, with his shirt sleeves rolled up and his collar
open. She had no idea where his tie was. Was it so wrong to be so turned on by the
hint of T-shirt she could see under his shirt? To be panting after the naked skin
of his forearms?

The man was made to be touched. And she planned to.

But first, she’d make him beg again. She’d never made anyone beg and it felt so damn
good.

She burned for him. Not just between her legs, but her breasts ached for his lips
to suck at her nipples and her skin tingled with the remembered touch of his hands.
She wanted him to burn for her, to crave the taste and feel of her.

“My granddad accepted a set of Paul Avril engravings for
Fanny Hill
as payment for a nineteenth-century Lancaster County
chest. I happened to open the box when they came. I was…fascinated.”

Jared’s smile widened. “I know the ones you’re talking about. I have an entire set.
How old were you?”

Her smile turned into a full-out grin. “Seventeen. My granddad lined the paintings
up against the wall, completely ignored the content, and discussed the techniques
used by the artist. I’ve been fascinated with erotic art for years. How the turn of
a head or the curve of a lip can convey so much passion in the hands of a master.”

“And you’re a collector?

She nodded. “As well as a dealer. I have several clients who love art as much as I
do. They enable me to expand my own collection. And I work with a few museums around
the world. It doesn’t pay all the bills but it’s my passion.”

She’d chosen the word deliberately and was rewarded by heat flaring in Jared’s eyes.

“I’ve always believed passion is the only thing that makes life worth living.” Jared
stood and her gaze flicked, for one brief moment, to his crotch and the impressive
bulge there. When she looked up his smile was gone, but lust showed in the tight line
of his jaw. “Let me show you my passion before the others arrive.”

She really didn’t want him to think she was a nympho, but she really hoped he meant
they were going to have sex again. It’d been months since she’d broken up with Gary
and frankly, she’d never had sex as good as she’d had with Jared.

A little voice in the back of her head wanted to intrude, wanted her to question what
she was doing. But she shut it down before it could become a nag. Tonight was all
about pleasure.

If there was one thing she’d learned from her parents, it’s that pleasure was sacred.

And damn it, she deserved some.

She took his outstretched hand and let him draw her to her feet.