Free Worth The Wait: A Nature Of Desire Series Novel by Joey W. Hill Page A

moved in front of another display, this one of lavender orchids grouped around a stone pool with a trickling fountain. He shifted behind her. "Pull all your hair over your right shoulder."
    He could say things in a manner that wasn’t saying them at all, as much as commanding them. What made it so intoxicating was that he pulled it off in such an unexpected moment. As Madison had said, Des didn't appear the commanding sort…at first glance. Yet he could compel a woman’s attention with his unwavering gaze, the set of his jaw and an energy that emitted from him even when he was saying nothing at all. Some people were a fulcrum around which people unconsciously kept their radar attuned. When he was in this mode, he was one of those fulcrums.
    "The other right shoulder." His voice held heat with humor, acknowledging the reason for her distraction. When he shifted closer, his breath stirred the fine hairs on her exposed neck. His body didn't touch hers, but a dense aura stroked her, a cushion of magnetism between two closely aligned bodies, the strength of his interest in her, his desire.
    Curving his hand over her hip, he put his lips over the pounding pulse in her throat. A small breath escaped her, a shudder swaying her into a light brush against him. He moved in, and his lips parted, tongue teasing her.
    "See how the top part of the orchid is slightly twisted?"
    She nodded, her eyes fixed on it. His grip left her hip and cupped her hand, her knuckles nested in his palm. His thumb came over them to press into the flesh at the base of her fingers while his other fingers constricted, capturing her hand fully. Slowly, as his mouth stimulated a thousand nerve endings in her throat, he began to turn her wrist. Not a lot, but his hold and the angle made her gradually aware of pressure and his strength, discomfort edging toward pain. Just when she thought she was going to have to ask him to stop, he did, holding her hand at that unnerving stress point.
    His lips created a lot of mad swirling between her chest and the folds of her sex. His inflexible restraint on her hand sent a bolt straight to her core just as powerful. The mix of sexual stimuli had her reaching for his hand on her other hip to steady her, even as things became far less steady.
    "Imagine I can tie you in the shape of that flower,” he said, lifting his mouth a fraction from her skin. “I can. You’ll struggle between pain and ecstasy, and I’ll use both to break you into a world of your mind you can't imagine, where every reaction you have belongs to me. I have full command of your senses, your body. You're not even sure if your soul belongs to you anymore. You’re stretched to your physical limits, but you’re aroused, too, not wanting the tension to end."
    He turned her around to face him, though his hands remained on her hips, holding her. “You asked what kind of Dom I am. Spanking's not my thing, or putting a woman in a collar."
    "Oh."
    He rubbed his jaw against her cheek, his eyes close to her face. "You’re sounding disappointed,” he teased her in a husky voice.
    She pushed half-heartedly at him and he drew back, taking her hand once more, continuing their stroll. Julie wondered if she was as flushed on the outside as she felt on the inside. “Running a theater, bringing a production together, that's your thing, right?” he asked.
    “Yeah. Yes.”
    He stopped, showing her a tiny cluster of orange orchids, none bigger than her thumb. “The mice of the orchid world,” he observed before continuing. “You understand theater in and out. It's your passion, your heart. It’s become your bible, in the sense that you can use it to center yourself, to interpret all sorts of things in your life. Rope is my passion for the same reasons."
    He touched her neck, brown eyes turning rust and gold from the sunlight coming through the glass ceiling. "I can tie you up in ways that will leave marks on your skin for days. I can put you in a harness that keeps