“Beyond that, just bondage and spanking tonight, right?”
“It doesn’t have to bejustthat,” I said, already feeling greedy for the older man.
“For our first time, Silas, I want the boundaries to be exceedingly clear.”
I swallowed hard. “Alright.”
“Can I mark you?” he asked next. “Your ass and the backs of your thighs.”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Do you have a safe word?” His fingers flexed around his leg, and I was helpless to look away from him.
“Red is fine,” I managed. “Do you?”
Marshall arched a brow, looking pleased, and I tried very hard to ignore the way my chest swelled in response. “Red is fine.”
A short silence drifted between us, and I was reminded of how much I hated that awkward phase between negotiationand action, reminded why I skipped it more often than I should. But after the previous weekend, it wasn’t something I would do again. Landon’s words sat like boulders in the back of my mind, and even though talking about the things I wanted to have done to me made me want to crawl out of my skin, it was necessary. The conversation was Marshall and me both building the space I expected him to hold for me through the rest of the night.
“Okay,” he said next, standing and tapping his palms against the tops of his thighs. “Ready?”
I nodded and stood, following him down a hallway and up a flight of stairs. There were three doors on the landing, one closed and two open. He led me to the farthest door, and I’d never seen a space moreMarshallin my whole life. The floors matched the ones downstairs, a sleek and pale, thick-planked wood. I walked ahead of him, surveying his space. His bed was exceedingly simple, a narrow platform with no discernible headboard or footboard, and I wondered what exactly he was going to tie me to when I noticed the extremely low-profile bolts on the corners.
His sheets were white.
The comforter smooth.
“Should I call you sir?” I asked, looking back at him over my shoulder. He was less than a foot away, and I could smell the rich cedar of his soap or his cologne, or whatever made him smell like a forest I was more than ready to get lost in.
He closed the gap between us, carefully sliding one hand around my waist and bringing our bodies flush. “Not until I’ve earned it.”
“Marshall then.”
His lips were against my ear, the pleased hum he loosed in reply deep enough to send a shiver down the entire length of my spine.
“Marshall then,” he repeated, letting his lips trail from myear to the back of my neck. “Take off your clothes, Silas. Show me what’s mine for the night.”
He didn’t move away from me, so I had to fumble out of my pants and my shirt with his chest pressed against my back. Even when I had to bend down to get out of my socks and my underwear, he didn’t relent. My ass knocked into his groin, and he made a low sound at the contact. His cock was hard as steel already against me, and when I stood straight again, he notched our bodies together in perfect alignment.
“I would love to take you over my knee, Silas,” he whispered against my ear, hands roaming over my hips in a slow and curious exploration. “Tuck your cock between my thighs and let you fuck my legs while I spank you until you’re black and blue.”
My eyes lost the battle, rolling back entirely with so much force my head hit the front of his shoulder.
“But that’s not bondage, is it?”
“Kind of,” I murmured.
He chuckled. “Not what we agreed on, though. And not what either of us meant. Now come over here and get on your knees.”
He walked me toward the foot of his bed and knocked his knee into the back of mine. I went down, first onto my right knee, then my left, and Marshall’s steady hand on my shoulders tipped me forward, just enough to make my back arch.
“Good boy,” he said. “Don’t move.”
There was no way I would dare to move from the spot, but that didn’t stop the way my arms and legs vibrated like leaves ready to fall. My palms were sweaty as fuck, and I was desperate to wipe them onto my thighs before he came back to me, but I was even more needy to follow instructions and have him call me a good boy again. Instead I swallowed hard, tried to breathe, and watched Marshall’s broad backside disappear into a walk-in closet. I would have paid good money to seewhat he had in there besides slacks and button-ups, but maybe that would be another night, another time.
I’d counted thirty of my own breaths by the time he returned with four matching leather cuffs in hand, a black spreader bar, and something shoved into his pocket that definitely hadn’t been there before. Marshall came around behind me, dropped everything on the floor, and went to his knees. He was still dressed, the cool glide of his clothes against my bare skin one of the sexiest things I’d ever felt. He took my right arm into his hand, dragging his fingers from my elbow down to my wrist.
I had to close my eyes.
