I pull out the bag that’s tucked under my clothes. Rummaging through it until I find what I’m looking for, I hold it up, and my cheeks crease into an evil grin. This is going to be fun, but fuck, if I don’t get these jeans off soon, I’ll have permanent zipper indentations on my dick.
Emma is exactly where I left her. I know I’m still smirking when her eyebrows rise, and she nibbles on her bottom lip, a sure sign she’s stressed. After closing the door with my shoulder blades, I hide my hands behind my back so I can keep her guessing for as long as possible.
Approaching the bed, I slip one of my surprises into a drawer in the bedside table, then hold up the tie. Emma draws in a deep breath. Emotion deepens the color of her beautiful eyes. They look greener than ever, as if I’m being swathed in the forest.
“Give me your wrists, baby.” I infuse my dominance into the words, curious to see how she’ll react. When she raises her hands without comment, my smirk grows. She’s perfect.
Her eyes widen as I cross her wrists and wrap them in my tie. I chose the red silk, knowing how gorgeous it will look against her pale skin. As I lift them over her head, she gasps.
“What are you doing, Asher?”
“Ensuring you stay where you’re put, Raindrop.” My gaze drops to hers briefly as I attach the ends of the makeshift restraint to the headboard. Her pulse races against my fingers.
“You have a tie?”
Chuckling, I pull the knotted ends so they won’t come loose. Then I make sure the silk isn’t too tight around her wrists. I’m pretty sure this is going to be her first experience with power exchange, and I don’t want to scare her away.
“Even big, grumpy bears have to get dressed up sometimes.”
“I guess that’s true,” she mumbles.
It looks like she wants to say more, but wisely decides not to poke me more than she has already. Emma pulls her arms—testing how well she’s attached to the headboard. She’s not going anywhere until I release her, which won’t be anytime soon.
I need to touch her skin, to taste her, to make her mine more than I need my next breath. With my hand on her stomach, I sit beside her on the bed.
“I peeked at your e-reader this morning, so I know you read romance. Dark romance, from what I saw in your library. But do you understand what power exchange is? How it works?”
“What?” Her fists clench, then she winces in pain as her fingernails dig into the skin of her scraped palms. Emma’s hips shift on the bed—she’s squirming. I’d bet money that my girl is soaked.
“You heard me, Raindrop. Do you know anything about power exchange? Dominance and submission…” Raising my eyebrows, I remain silent, waiting for her to process my words.
Emma’s struggling to answer. A rosy color rises from her neck to flood her cheeks. She’s never looked more beautiful. When she opens and closes her mouth a few times, I can’t help grinning. But when she pulls her lower lip between her teeth and bites down, I use my thumb to pull it out.
Taking pity on her, I slide my hand under her T-shirt, resting my palm directly on her skin. “Do you know what power exchange is, baby?”
This time she nods, but doesn’t answer.
“Have you ever given your submission to anyone?”
She whispers, “No,” barely loud enough for me to hear.
“I kind of figured, and I think you already know I’m a Dominant—a Daddy—I need to be in control, to have my rules obeyed.” I’m pleased when she doesn’t freak out, even though she’s vibrating under my hand. “You broke one of my rules earlier. So you’ll be punished. But since we haven’t discussed what your limits are, I’m not going to spank you—this time.”
Her relief is palpable as she relaxes into the bed, and her judders lessen. “But that doesn’t mean I’m still not going to punish you.
“What are you going to do?”
“Do you know what edging is, baby?” Her pupils widen, and she draws in a deep breath, and nods again.
“Good girl. But from this point forward, I’m going to need your words. Ultimately, you have the control here even if it won’t seem like it. First, I need you to pick a safe word.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m going to keep you on the edge of an orgasm until you’re begging me to let you come. Then I’m going make you come until you’re begging me to stop. Then I’ll give you more. But if you use your safe word everything ends and we talk about it. Understood?”
“I… Yes.”
“If you don’t want to think of a word, we can use the stoplight system. I’m sure you’ve seen it in books. Red means I stop immediately, and we talk about what you need. Yellow stops everything temporarily until you decide you’re okay to continue, or if you need to go to red. Green means you’re good to keep going. Do you have a word you want to use?”
