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No Holds Barred - Excerpt

Opening the door she closed her eyes as instructed to tell him she was ready. She felt body heat and smelled a woodsy soap that definitely wasn’t hers.

“Jake?” She trembled when he put his hands on her shoulders. He slipped behind her and tied something velvety and dark around her eyes, cutting off any light. His voice beside her ear was just as velvety and dark.

“People say you eat first with your eyes but you don’t. It’s the smell that triggers your taste buds, your memories.”

She remembered the sand-colored carpet, so soft beneath her feet as she shuffled along beside him until he stopped and pulled her down to sit on a pillow, her elbows coming to rest on a smooth, flat surface. She was in the living room—the pillows were turquoise and gold, the long, low coffee table, black.

He held something at mouth level and she could feel the slight chill of his fingers.

“What do you smell?”

She inhaled. “Salt—and water. I smell the sea. Oyster?”

“And the lady wins a taste. Open your lovely mouth, Ella.”

Ella opened, felt the edge of the shell on her lips and anticipated the musky saltiness on the back of her tongue, then swallowed the small orb, the liqueur. “Ummm,” she breathed when she felt his tongue at the corner of her mouth slip through the seam and spear into her.

“You taste like oysters,” she murmured when he drew away.

They shared half a dozen oysters, each one sampled from the other’s mouth before she felt the edge of the glass at her lips. Following the same instructions as before she sniffed, inhaled. “It smells like blackberries and some kind of wood, earthy like mushrooms, but clean. I smell alcohol,” she chuckled. “What time is it?”

“There’s no such thing as controlled decadence, Ella. This is a feast for lovers. We don’t have any rules but I’ll give you a concession. Always drink red wine with raw seafood, it lessens the chance of any toxicity. Feel better?”

She nodded and couldn’t keep the grin from her face. “No controlled decadence. Got it.”

They shared the glass of red wine carefully, a mouthful at a time. With each sip Jake dribbled a small drop or two somewhere besides the inside of her mouth. He seemed to especially like the corner of her lips, flicking away the drops with his nimble tongue.

Next was a buttery smooth avocado. They ate the entire thing a bite at a time. Raphaella didn’t think she’d ever tasted anything so wonderful. The flavor was as rich and velvety as the inside of Jake’s mouth. The image made her shudder, the sensation intensified behind her soft dark blindfold.

Bubbles tickled her nose as she inhaled. “More wine—something fruity, not citrus fruity, soft, earthy, sweet—peaches?”

“You’re very good at this.” He kissed her then, just a soft brush of lips.

She sighed. “What can I say? As you might have guessed, I enjoy good food.”

“I couldn’t trust a woman who didn’t enjoy food,” he said, kissed the corner of her mouth, “wine,” he whispered against her lips, “sex.”