Page 51 of Under Locke & Key

Bryce's eyes dart around the room and land on the chaise we had bookmarked for our Pride & Prejudice/regency themed room. There's no way it'll hold up to both of us, and it's far too short for Bryce to be able to stretch out on.

“I don't know,” I say, my skepticism sounding breathless given my current state.

“Trust me?” Bryce asks and the gleam in his molten eyes has me nervous to say yes. But curiosity wins out and I nod.

“Stand beside the chaise and keep your eyes forward.” Bryce’s voice is darker, an edge there that’s excited me since the first time he took charge, and I follow his instruction.

He disappears behind me and there’s rustling—fabric and metal clinking. One of the boxes of items we either didn't need or haven't unpacked yet, no doubt.

“If you want to stop at any point, let me know. But I’d like to try something.” He’s behind me and as soon as I nod his hand is on my arm, snaking down to my wrist.

Bryce pulls one of my arms behind my back, my fingertips ghosting along the skin there. Something cold snaps around my wrist and then clicks. The motions are repeated with my other arm until my wrists are bound behind my back by some kind of cuffs.

“You doing okay?” Bryce asks, moving around me to look me in the eye.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little apprehensive but I trust him. And I’d like to see where he’s going with this. “Yeah. I’m good.”

“Lean your weight against the back, facing me.”

It’s a little awkward, but I’m able to steady myself. Only for my stomach to do a little flip when Bryce lowers to his knees in front of me. His large hands skate along the outsides of my legs, feather-light on the journey up and then squeezing when he gets to my thighs.

“Spread your legs a little.”

I stare down at him, at the hunger on his face as he takes in my naked body in front and above him and although I’m at the disadvantage of not being able to touch back I feel like the one in power here. Shuffling my feet further, Bryce kisses up the inside of my knee and up along my inner thigh.

One of his hands grips my hips, keeping me steady, while he lifts the other onto his shoulder.

Before I can worry about being unbalanced, his strong hold and the chaise behind me keeps me grounded.

Bryce’s delectable mouth moves closer and closer to where I’m aching for him and just before he gets there he looks up at me and grins.

Pulling back, he removes the last holdout between him and total nudity.

“Almost forgot to take off my glasses, even though they’re a mess from all the kissing.” His words make me bark out a laugh at how silly it is. The juxtaposition of this man will keep me on my toes for years to come. Dominating in one moment, innocent and silly in the next.

Placing his glasses somewhere near one of the piles of clothing, he finally presses his mouth over my core and I can’t stop the moan that falls from my lips even if I wanted to.

He devours. Bryce takes. This man steals the breath from the room and the heat from my skin until I’m little more than a shivering, panting mess. His hands. Fuck , those hands. I’ve drooled over them since day one and feeling them span, grab and claim pushes me even closer to the edge.

Whether it’s my increasing moaning or the quiver in my leg that gives me away, Bryce leans back and releases the leg that he had draped over one of his broad shoulders.

His mouth glistens and his eyes are glassy.

His cock juts out, straining and hard, and seeing myself on him .

. . seeing him want me makes me bite my bottom lip to hold in my whimper.

“Bend over the arm if you can.” It’s little more than a growl.

I’m helpless but to obey if I want to reach that peak with him, and at this point I’m near begging for it. It takes a moment of maneuvering so I don’t fall on my face since I don’t have my arms to assist, but I manage.

My attempts are rewarded by the feel of him spreading my knees from behind and stepping between them.

“So beautiful.” It’s a benediction followed by his hard heat jutting against my clit as he moves his cock along me to ease his entry.

Inch by delicious inch sinks inside and we both groan at the feel of him settling deep.

“God, you feel so good,” I breathe and I’m rewarded with him retreating almost all the way out just to ease his way back.

It’s slow and torturous, every drag of him against me hitting just the right spot from this position.

I lose count of his thrusts in my delirium, all I can focus on is the exquisite agony that has me so close but just unable to reach.

If my hands were free I’d slide one between my legs and help myself along but Bryce is the one in charge here.

It doesn’t stop my little unhappy noise and he pauses.

“Are you okay? Are you hurting?” He sounds as wound tight as I feel.

“Yes. And yes.”

His whole body stiffens. “I’m hurting you?” It’s a little panicked and before he can pull out and end this I squeeze around him, trying to keep him buried within.

“ Fuck . . . Rachel ,” Bryce hisses.

“So close. Can’t finish. Need to touch.” No finesse or sex appeal injected into the words, just a breathless plea.

“No touching.”

I should be embarrassed by what feels like tears slowly building out of my frustration, and the little huff I give in response to his order, but I’m too far gone to care. I try to wiggle side-to-side to get him moving again, to get some kind of friction.

“Do you need help?” He sounds smug and it makes me want to elbow him.

“Bryce, I swear to god if you don’t do something about this right now,” I growl.

His chuckle is half humor and half sin. The hands he’s had on my waist and thighs move up to new territory.

Sliding his arm under me, his left between my breasts, his hand cupping the base of my throat, Bryce lifts my torso off of the arm of the chaise so that my weight now rests on that strong arm.

His right arm trails down my stomach, down to where I’m desperate for him. Swirling the pad of his finger against my clit, he whispers right into my ear, “Is this what you need?”

“Yes,” I choke out as he starts to move again.

It’s lewd. It’s borderline wicked the way he makes me melt and give into the pleasure.

It’s so quiet that all I can hear is his flesh slapping against mine and his harsh breaths in my ear as he speeds up, chasing his own high.

Those gorgeous hands drive me to delirium.

The fingers of his right thrum against me until I want to writhe with the pleasure of it, his left hand tightens just slightly against my throat—as if to feel the vibration of each of my moans.

Tipping my head back as far as it can go, Bryce captures my mouth and kisses toward my ear.

“Are you close for me?”

I barely recognize his voice, it’s so low and dark. He sounds almost as desperate as me.

“So close. Please.”

He nips at my earlobe and sets a punishing pace that I can do nothing but acquiesce to. Bryce whispers praise against the shell of my ear in a voice that’s like dripping spiced honey. Sweet and biting. “Can’t wait to worship you. Every day you’ll let me. Want you to be mine.”

“Yes, yours,” I say, catching my breath for a moment before I claim him right back. “And you’re mine.”

“For as long as you’ll have me.” We make the promises we’ve been too scared to say out loud while joined in the most intimate sense and I feel it coming.

“Bryce . . .” I warn and he knows.

“Come for me, love. I want to feel you.” He thrusts hard and deep and I wonder for a second if I’ll have bruises tomorrow, from his hands or the frame beneath the padding of the chaise, before pleasure swallows me whole.

It’s blinding in its intensity and if he wasn’t basically holding me upright I would have melted to the floor from the force of it.

I’m dimly aware of my moans and Bryce’s rough grunts as he chases me over that same edge.

A few moments after my bliss, as I’m settling into a body that has to be boneless—there’s no other way—Bryce stiffens and grips me tight as his own pleasure finds him.

“You’ll be the death of me.” Bryce’s heart races against my back, his chest heaving with breath.

“Ah, but what a sweet way to go.” I chuckle tiredly and he echoes it.

“Are you okay?” Bryce asks, withdrawing and leaving me strangely bereft as he searches for something on the ground near my feet.

“I’m more than okay. I don’t even feel like I have a body anymore.” More silly laughter and I wonder if I’m a little punch drunk in my post-orgasm haze.

Bryce frees my wrists, lifting each to his mouth to give it a little kiss. “That was phenomenal. Thank you for trusting me.”

I smile, no words available while my brain is mush. “Want to go home?”

“For tonight?” He asks and I can hear the question behind the words. Bryce wants to know my choice. Dressing, Bryce busies himself as if the act is enough to make the question seem nonchalant.

“For as long as you’d like to stay. I have a strongly-worded email to send to my asshole ex-boss to tell him that I’m far too happy with my current boss to ever consider going back.

And then my current boss and I need to discuss what the future of my employment looks like now that our big project is up and running. ”

He ceases clothing himself, pants on but undone and his shirt the same. “Oh yeah? What else is on the agenda?” That boyish smile that I love is back and I can’t stop my answering grin.

“Well, we’ll need to get dinner at some point. And move his stuff over into my place. We still need to finish the season of Grey’s Anatomy that we’re on. Sleep has to fit in there somewhere as well.” I lift a finger for each new item, listing them off.

“Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out but you seem to be forgetting one vital step there.”

“Hmm, I don’t know. I think I was pretty thorough.”

Bryce stalks toward me, the heat back in his gaze and although I’m bone weary I feel the flicker of want within me respond.

Dropping to his knees again, he kisses the softness of my stomach before looking down at my thighs, and the evidence of both of us trailing down the inside.

“We’ll need to get cleaned up and I’d love an encore of the thing we just did together. ”

My hands thread through his hair, clutching. “I think that can be arranged.”

He stares up at me with such wonder. Love and longing are plain to see and I can’t believe I almost gave this up. Because of fear and self doubt. I have an incredible man, literally at my feet, and I won’t take that for granted.

I give him a hand up and we dress in silence, locking the theater up behind us and Bryce drives us the few blocks to the apartment.

My key slides home in that robin’s egg blue door I fell in love with on day one and as he follows me up the stairs, the thump of each of our footsteps sounds like a heartbeat.

We walk the well-worn wood from the doorway to the bathroom and worship each other in the shower until we’re both spent. Naked and drying off on the bed, my head on Bryce’s chest and his arm slung along my waist, I feel at peace.

Six months sounds like nothing in the scheme of things but every day has shown me who I am, who I want to be, and who I’d like beside me for the rest of figuring life out.

All the photographs of strangers, all the promotions I chased, fade away.

There’s nothing to prove. No question of whether or not I’m worthy or wanted.

In Bryce’s embrace I feel safe and adored.

We have friends that love and support us and a fledgling dream that’s about to be very real.

And I’m so happy that I don’t have to force the smile that teases the corners of my lips.

Whatever may come, we’re in it together.