Carter's Cuffs (7 page)

Meanwhile, Erin was rushing into her shirt, stepping back into her pants—although it felt strange to put on clothes so masculine and plain at a time when she felt so wholly sensual and feminine. Like she was trying to cover it up.

But maybe she
needed
to cover it up right now, stop feeling it. Just like she needed to stop feeling so emotional about what she’d just done with him, and the fact that she wanted to do more. And that the “more” involved lots of touching and kissing and snuggling and even talking. No, no, no, this was dangerous—and bad. She couldn’t have it. No way.

“We have to go,” Melanie told him. Then she glanced to the clock on the bedside table. “We’re due on patrol.”

It was a lie, but a decent one, Erin thought. She’d told Melanie they couldn’t uncuff him before they departed because then he might not let her leave easily, and she had to. She just had to do this—fuck him…and go.

“But I’m putting the key here on the table,” Melanie said as she slid on her pants, then walked over to the bed, fishing a small key from her pocket. After which she bent to kiss him on the forehead. “Happy birthday.”

He didn’t answer for a moment, just looked at her. “You two are just leaving? Leaving me here like this?”

Erin could barely breathe. She’d grabbed up her hat and headed for the door. “Sorry, baby,” she tossed over her shoulder. “But this is how it’s gotta be. Just a little birthday fun for you—and for us. Now it’s over and like Mel said, we have to go.”

“Except…we
will
take care of this for you, hon.”

Erin peeked around the corner from the entryway to see Melanie politely removing Carter’s condom. Geesh! She hadn’t even thought of that and was glad Melanie had. She wanted to go and she didn’t want him uncuffed before she was gone—but she didn’t want to leave the guy with a mess. She was officially frazzled now, not thinking clearly.

Which meant it was definitely time to make her escape.

A quick moment later, she was opening the door and trying to ignore Carter’s voice behind them, saying, “I can’t fucking believe you’re leaving me like this!”

I’m so sorry, Carter. I have to. I just have to.

* * * * *

Half an hour later, Carter still couldn’t believe it. It almost felt surreal. When it had been happening, it had been an odd mixture of pleasure and frustration—getting to have Erin and her friend, but wanting so much more of her. Hell, just wanting to touch her without being able to had been brutal.

Now his pleasure had pretty much turned to pain. And his frustration had grown. He wouldn’t have believed they’d leave him handcuffed to the bed like this until they’d actually done it. Even as they’d been getting dressed and taking off, he’d
still
not really believed it. Not until the door had shut behind them, leaving the room quiet—and his predicament evident.

Jesus. Would he have to wait until a maid came to clean the room? Sometime tomorrow? And God, how humiliating would
that
be? How would he keep from going to the bathroom until then? And he’d probably be starving by then, too.

How could Erin do this to him? And she thought this was a birthday gift? Un-freaking-believable.

Just then, the door opened, making him flinch. What the hell? Had she seen the error of her ways and come back to let him loose?

That’s when Marc and Diana rounded the corner to find him trussed like a pig, his pants still wide open, his dick on clear display. “Oh God,” he muttered.

“Whoa,” Marc said, blinking, as Diana widened her eyes and laughed.

“This is funny?” Carter asked. “You think this is fucking funny?”

Diana lowered her chin speculatively. “We just kinda thought you’d be gone by now. Or at least, um, dressed by now.” Her gaze dropped briefly to his exposed cock. “But I guess it’s a good thing we came to check and make sure.”

Carter just shook his head. “I’d
love
to be gone by now. But as you can see, I’m chained to the damn bed.”

“Dude,” Marc said, glancing up above Carter’s head, chuckling softly. “All you had to do was stand up and unloop the cuffs.”

Trying to absorb his buddy’s words, Carter followed his gaze upward—to see he was right. He shut his eyes.
Shit.
He felt like an idiot. If he’d just gotten to his feet on the stupid bed, he indeed could have gotten loose. He was hooked to a tall bedpost, but it
did
come to a knobbed end about five feet above him. He’d just been too dumbfounded and distraught to realize Erin had left him an easy way out. “Christ,” he bit off.

“But don’t worry, baby, I’ll do the honors now that we’re here,” Diana said, circling the bed to reach for the key Melanie had left.

He watched as Diana slid it in the lock on one cuff and a second later his arms dropped free. Damn, they were sore, his hands numb. He stretched his fingers, trying to get the blood moving again as Diana relieved him of the other cuff, as well.

“So start talking,” he said, sitting up to look into Diana’s eyes. “Since you’re obviously in on this whole thing.” Then he narrowed his gaze accusingly. “Double agent.”

She shrugged. “I prefer the term matchmaker.”

He rolled his eyes and, finally regaining the use of his hands, pulled up his underwear and jeans.

Glancing downward, Diana grinned. “Guess it’s a good thing I’ve seen you naked before or this would be embarrassing.”

He let out a sigh. “Guess what. It’s still embarrassing. And I still don’t get what happened here.”

“Well,” Diana said, sitting down next to him on the bed as Marc settled into the loveseat by the window, “Erin let me know she was interested in…doing something a little wild with you. I mentioned we were all going out for your birthday, so she came up with this idea. She gave me a key to the room, just so we’d be able to check on you afterward, and like I said, I guess it’s a good thing we did. I thought you’d like it, but judging from the look on your face, maybe you…uh, didn’t.”

“I don’t get it, man,” Marc chimed in. “You got to have sex with two beautiful girls on your birthday. Why do you look so mad?”

Carter ran his hand back through his hair. “Hell,” he said, trying to think through it all. “I was pretty damn pissed about being left chained up like that—until just a minute ago. But that aside, I’m
still
pissed at her, because why did she have to leave at all? She went running out of here like a woman on fire, like she was scared of me. Which, uh,” he gave his head a quick shake, “doesn’t make any sense considering that she just chained me up and had her way with me.”

“I’ll admit,” Diana said, “her methods were a little unorthodox, but…I got the idea she’d never really done anything this extreme before, so maybe it made her nervous. Maybe she was embarrassed afterward. I just know she seemed totally hot for you when we talked.”

He looked Diana in the eye. “If she’s so hot for me, why not just accept my invitations for a date? Nothing extreme about
that
. Nothing to be embarrassed about. I mean, it’s not like she thought she had to chain me up to make me have sex with her—I’d already made it pretty clear I was interested.”

Again, Diana shrugged. She’d always been easygoing about sex; it was her nature. And he guessed
he’d
always been easygoing about it, too—up to this moment. “Maybe she just wanted to cut loose and do something really crazy, you know?” Diana suggested. “Maybe you should take it as a compliment that she chose you to do it with. If you’ll recall, once upon a time, Marc and I wanted to do something really wild and we picked you, too. Because I liked you, and because Marc trusted you.”

“This is a lot different than that.” He couldn’t put his finger on why, but something about Erin’s seduction galled him.

“Yep—two girls doing you. A guy’s perfect fantasy come true.” Marc shook his head, no longer seeming as drunk as he’d been down in the dance club. “I still don’t get the problem here.”

And that’s when it hit Carter. The problem. “I really like her,” he said. “I really like her, and I really wanted to go out with her and get to know her. And yeah, sure, I wanted to go to bed with her. And what happened tonight was pretty astounding when it was happening.” When she’d been kissing him. When she’d been riding him. When he’d been licking that sweet, luscious pussy. Every time she’d simply looked into his eyes had been freaking amazing. “But…it’s like she was just
using me
. She chained me up, fucked my brains out, then left with barely a word.”

“Yeah, that’s heartbreaking, dude, when a girl just uses you for sex,” Marc said, his voice thick with male sarcasm.

“Well, think back to when you fell for Diana. I know the sex was great, but I also know you wanted more. I wanted more from Erin, too. And since I asked her out and she turned me down, I guess it feels like…I’m good enough to fuck but not good enough to go out with.”

Diana cringed lightly, her eyes turning sad. “Okay. Maybe I’m starting to see your point. When a guy uses a girl that way, well—it can be pretty abominable.”

Carter nodded profusely. “Right. And I don’t do that to girls. I don’t expect that kind of no-strings, no-dating, no-
nothing
sex unless it’s clear that the feelings are mutual. So I don’t like having it done to me, either. Especially from someone I thought I really liked.”

“So then,” Diana said, “you don’t like her anymore.”

Carter sighed. “I don’t know.” There had been moments when she’d looked into his eyes and he could have sworn he saw something more in them than just lust—and yet didn’t her actions say it all? “I
want
to like her. I liked the girl I met at your dinner party. But the girl I met tonight…” He shook his head.

“So you think she’s sending mixed signals,” Diana clarified.

“Damn straight.”

“Well, that leaves you two choices. Forget about her and move on. Or confront her.”

But already an idea had begun to form in Carter’s head, and it had nothing to do with moving on, and everything to do with getting an explanation from Erin.

Yeah, he’d confront her, all right. Two could play her racy little game.

And Carter was going to confront her in a way she’d never forget.

Chapter Four

Erin slammed her car door, hit the button on her keychain to lock it, then started up the path that led past the condo pool. It was late Saturday night, an hour when she knew she’d never get a spot directly in front of her building, so the next best choice was to park here and take the winding walk through the garden-like pool area that led to her condo on the other side. Like the past week or so, the night was hotter than normal for Vegas in the spring, but a breeze lifted her hair from her neck and caused her nipples to perk to life beneath her cocktail dress.

But on second thought, maybe she couldn’t blame her hardening nipples on the wind. Because—as usual these last few days—she was thinking of Carter; she was remembering fucking him. The mere thought made her cunt tingle.

This was getting ridiculous. Fucking him was supposed to have gotten him off her mind, out of her system—but clearly that hadn’t worked. She just kept reliving each and every moment of what had happened. But mostly the parts when she’d looked in his eyes, when she’d been so drawn in by him, unable not to feel that human connection. So as a result of her actions, she was doing exactly what she’d been trying to avoid—thinking about Carter all the time.

And she’d felt positively awful about the way things had ended, that he’d literally been yelling at her in shock and anger. In hindsight, she hadn’t thought through all the angles of her seduction very well. Generally, she was a good planner, but something about the guy totally knocked her off-kilter.

She hadn’t bumped into him in the seventy-two hours since their handcuff encounter, but she’d seen Diana, so she knew Carter had stayed upset. “He likes you,” Diana had said. “
Really
likes you. He was hurt that you wanted sex and nothing more.”

Erin hadn’t gone into detail with Diana, had simply told her, “I
hate
that I hurt him. But…I’m just not into the relationship thing.” She didn’t talk a lot about her past, her dad or her fears in life. That made it easier to just move on and be a good, focused cop. Danny was the only person who really knew the whole story about why she avoided relationships like the plague.

Just then, a large shadow—a man—stepped in front of her on the dimly lit path.

Oh Lord. She’d carried only a tiny purse tonight, to go with her slinky dress, and didn’t have her gun! She pulled up short, her heart racing, and prayed her martial arts training would be enough. “Stop right there,” she told him.

“It’s me.”

Who? Then she realized, making out his face.
Carter
.

Her body should have flooded with relief, but given that he didn’t sound particularly friendly, she stayed somewhat stressed—even as she creamed her panties at the mere sight of him. “Um, hi.”

Stepping farther into the light of a nearby streetlamp, he gave her a once-over. “Playing a high-priced call girl now? Frankly, I would have preferred that to the whole ‘you’re under arrest’ thing. Man, you do a lot of pretending, don’t you?”

Something inside her ran cold.
If you only knew.

But she’d already let this man see far too much real emotion from her, so it stopped here. “I just came from a fundraising gala for the police department, if you must know. And I’m sorry about the other night. I thought it would be fun. For all of us. I never thought you’d get mad about it.”