Nick stared at the ceiling, the wall, the velvet-draped windows, anything to avoid the sight of her hands at his crotch. 'I...want to be in control,' he said hoarsely. 'I imagine tying a woman to a bed. She can't move or touch me...she can't stop me from doing anything I want.'
'Many men have that fantasy.' The backs of Gemma's fingers brushed the stiff underside of his cock as she attended to the last buttons. Suddenly Nick forgot to breathe. The madam leaned closer, her breath whisking through the curls on his chest. 'And what do you do to the woman, after she is tied?' she murmured.
His face darkened with a flush of mingled arousal and embarrassment. 'I touch her everywhere. I use my mouth and fingers...I make her beg me to take her. I make her scream.' He set his jaw and groaned in his throat as her long, cool fingers encircled his shaft and freed it from the trousers. 'God-'
'Well,' she purred, her clever fingers tracing him down to the hilt and back up to the tightly swollen head. 'You are a most generously endowed young man.'
Nick closed his eyes, reeling from a powerful onslaught of sensation. 'Does that please a woman?' he asked unsteadily.
Gemma continued to stroke him as she replied. 'Not all women. Some cannot comfortably accommodate a man your size. But that can be managed.' She released him gently and went to a large mahogany box on the bedside table, lifting the lid and searching through its contents. 'Remove the rest of your clothes,' she said without looking at him.
Fear and lust clashed violently inside him. Eventually the lust won out. He shed his clothes, feeling vulnerable and painfully impassioned. Gemma located what she was looking for, turned, and tossed something lightly to him.
Reflexively Nick caught the object in his fist. It was a rope made of claret-colored velvet.
Perplexed, he watched as Gemma untied her dressing gown and let it fall to her feet. Every inch of her strong, supple body was exposed, including the wealth of vibrant hair at her groin. With a provocative smile, she climbed onto the bed, revealing her generously rounded backside in the process. Leaning back on her elbows, she nodded toward the length of velvet clenched in his fist. 'I believe you know what to do next,' she said.
Nick was amazed and bewildered that she would make herself so completely defenseless to a stranger. 'You trust me enough to let me do that?'
Her voice was very soft. 'This will require trust on both our parts, won't it?'
Nick joined her on the bed, his hands trembling as he tied her wrists together and anchored them to the headboard. Her sleek body was completely at his mercy. Climbing over her, he bent his head and kissed her mouth. 'How can I please you?' he whispered.
'Please yourself this time.' Her tongue touched his lower lip in a light, silken stroke. 'You can attend to my needs later.'
Nick explored her slowly, his apprehensions dissolving in a flood of heat. Lust roared through him as he found places that made her writhe...the hollow of her throat, the insides of her elbows, the tender undersides of her breasts. He stroked, tasted, nibbled at her skin, becoming drunk on her smoothness, her female fragrance. Finally, when his passion built to an unbearable height, he lowered himself between her thighs and pushed into the wet, warm depths he craved so badly. To his eternal humiliation, he climaxed with only one thrust, before he had satisfied her. His body shook with unbearable pleasure, and he buried his face in the mass of her flaming hair as he groaned harshly.
Gasping in the aftermath, he fumbled at Gemma's tethered wrists. When she was freed, he rolled to his side, away from her, and stared blindly at the shadows on the wall. He was dizzy with relief. For some unfathomable reason, the corners of his eyes stung, and he closed his eyes tightly against the hideous threat of tears.
Gemma moved behind him, her hand settling lightly on his naked hip. Nick flinched at her touch but did not move away. Her mouth pressed against the top of his spine, a sensation that shot down to his groin. 'You have promise,' she murmured. 'It would be a shame for your abilities to go undeveloped. I am going to extend a rare invitation to you, Nick. Come visit me from time to time, and I will share my knowledge with you. I have a great deal to teach. No payment will be necessary...only bring me a gift now and then.' When he did not move, she bit gently at his nape. 'After I'm through with you, no woman in the world will be able to resist you. What do you say to that?'
Nick rolled over and pinned her to the mattress, staring down at her smiling face. 'I'm ready for the first lesson,' he said, and covered her mouth with his own.
CHAPTER 1
Three Years Later As was his long-standing habit, Nick entered Gemma's private suite without knocking. It was Sunday afternoon, the time they met almost every week. By now the familiar scent of the place-leather, liquor, the hint of fresh flowers-was all it took to begin the low hum of arousal in his body. His desire was unusually strong today, as his work had kept him away from Gemma for a fortnight.
Since the first night they had met, Nick had followed Gemma's rules without question. There had been no other choice, if he wanted to continue seeing her. They were friends, of a sort, but their interactions were strictly physical. Gemma had evinced no interest in what was in his heart, or even whether he had one. She was a kind woman, and yet on the rare occasions when Nick had tentatively spoken of matters other than the superficial, he'd been gently dismissed. It was just as well, he had realized. He had no wish to expose her to the ugliness of his past or the complex tangle of emotions he kept locked inside.
And so once a week they joined each other in bed with their secrets safely intact...the instructor and her ardent student. In the luxurious cocoon of Gemma's gold-papered bedroom Nick had learned more about lovemaking than he had ever thought possible. He'd gained an appreciation of female sexuality that few men acquired...the intricacy of a woman's pleasure, the ways to excite her mind as well as her body. He learned to employ his fingers, his tongue, teeth, lips, and cock with both delicacy and strength. Most of all he learned about discipline, and how patience and creativity could make even the experienced Mrs. Bradshaw cry out until she was hoarse. He knew ways to keep a woman balanced on the edge of ecstasy for hours at a time. He also knew how to make a woman climax with nothing more than his mouth on her nipple, or with the lightest brush of his fingertip.
The last time they had met, Gemma had challenged him to bring her to orgasm without touching her at all. He had whispered in her ear for ten minutes, painting sexual images that became ever more exquisitely lurid until she had flushed and shivered beside him.
Thinking of her lush body, Nick turned warm with anticipation, and he strode into her parlor. He stopped short as he saw a young blond man seated on the velvet-upholstered chaise, dressed only in a wine silk robe. It was, Nick noted dazedly, the same robe that he made use of whenever he came to visit Gemma.
She had made no promises of fidelity to him, and he had no illusion that he had been her only lover for the past three years. Still, Nick was startled by the sight of another man in her receiving room and the unmistakable tang of sex in the air.
Seeing him, the stranger flushed and sat up from his relaxed position. He was a stocky, fair-skinned youth, with enough innocence remaining to be embarrassed by the situation.
Gemma walked out of her bedroom, wearing a transparent green negligee that barely covered the crests of her rose-brown nipples. She smiled as she saw Nick, seeming not at all perturbed by his unexpected arrival. 'Oh, hello, dear,' she murmured, as relaxed and friendly as always. Perhaps she had not planned for him to discover her newcher ami in precisely this manner, but neither was she distressed about it.
Turning toward the blond man, she spoke to him softly. 'Wait for me in the bedroom.'
He threw her a glance of heated adulation as he obeyed.
As Nick watched the man disappear into the next room, he was reminded of himself as he had been three years earlier, callow and burning and dazzled by Gemma's sensual arts.
Gemma lifted a graceful hand to stroke Nick's dark hair. 'I didn't expect you to return from your investigation so quickly,' she said without a trace of chagrin. 'As you can see, I am entertaining my new protege.'
'And my replacement,' Nick said rather than asked, while a cold feeling of abandonment crept over him.
'Yes,' Gemma said softly. 'You have no more need of my instruction. Now that you have learned all I can teach you, it is only a matter of time before our friendship becomes stale. I would prefer to end it while it is still enjoyable.'
It was surprisingly difficult for him to speak. 'I still want you.'
