But then his hands wander, his fingers trailing over my skin the second he pulls my blouse free from my slacks. It takes less than a handful of breaths before he's palming my right breast, praising me, and telling me how fucking perfect I am to him.
I get so lost in it, so lust-drunk and desperate to please him, that I ignore the alarm bells in my head. There will be plenty of time afterward to discuss how things need to look going forward for this to work out between the two of us.
"I hate that I was ever with him," I confess, leaning my head to the side to give him better access to the delicate skin on my throat.
I hiss when he nips at my shoulder, pain radiating from the bite.
"Robert," I snap, ready to push him away, but his hand slides down the front of my slacks, fingers deftly moving my panties away.
Need and arousal take over, and within a minute or two, I'm naked, my clothes discarded at our feet.
"On the bed," he growls in my ear, sending a rush of cold chills up my spine.
I slide past him and get on the bed, smiling at him when he stands at the end admiring my body. I want to preen under his attention, my mouth watering when he grips the front of his jeans, squeezing his erection as if he's having trouble not stripping naked and entering me for the first time.
Instead of working open the button and zipper on his jeans, he reaches into a bag already in the room and pulls out a strap.
"No," I say when he runs it through his hands. "I'm not into pain."
"This isn't going to hurt," he assures me as he reaches for my ankle. "I promise."
Believing him, I shove down the sense of wrongness threatening to bubble up and allow him to wrap the strap around my ankle.
He secures each ankle to some sort of mechanism at the foot of the bed, leaving me splayed open, fully on display. I cross my arms over my chest, unease building in my body to the point I shiver.
"What's that for?" I ask when he bends down and pulls out yet another strap.
"For your hands, of course," he says as he crawls up the bed, straddling my body.
"This isn't how I imagined our first time happening," I manage, hating how weak and scared my voice sounds.
"Really?" he asks, his tone laced with humor. "All IT guys are freaks. Didn't you know that? Hands."
I blow out a breath, but in the end, I still give him what he's requesting, holding out my right arm first before giving him my left as well.
He ties them together before lifting them over my head and securing them. I test the hold, hating the idea that he has fully strapped me down to the bed, preventing me from touching him. It makes me wonder if he’s still holding some sort of grudge or if he still believes that I was planted in his life to ruin him.
"Robert," I whisper, wanting to make sure he knows that he's the only man for me. Angry or not, he's the only one I can see building a life with.
"Hmm?" he says, planting his fists beside my body so he can lean in closer.
His shirt billows out, and the flash of dark ink on his chest draws every single ounce of my attention, making my blood run cold.
I freeze under him, my chin immediately trembling with fear as I try to subtly test my restraints, hoping they give a little more this time than they did at first.
"I was wondering how long it was going to take before you realized," he says, and I can immediately hear the difference in his voice.
"Henry," I manage as tears flow from the corners of my eyes.
"Miss me, baby?" he asks, leaning down to kiss me.
I turn my head, his lips brushing over my tear-covered temple. Bile threatens to rush up my throat as sickness clings to every cell in my body.
"Please don't," I beg, but I don't know him enough to know if he'll even listen.
"I can do whatever I want to you, and there's nothing you can do about it," he says, but instead of touching me, he keeps his hands pressed to the mattress on either side of my body.
I'm a hundred percent vulnerable under him, and he's right. He could do anything. The most fucked-up thing in the world is that now that I know who he is, I hate myself for not realizing it was Henry.