I swallowed, pulse trembling, and sat up to shed the last barriers between us. I hooked my thumbs into the waistband of my bottoms and panties together and pushed them down my thighs in one motion until everything lay pooled at the foot of the bed.
I lay back in the center of the bed—bare, open, waiting—pulse thundering, body already humming for whatever he was about to bring back through that doorway.
Because I knew this much: This wasn’t going to be like anything I’d ever experienced before.
And god help me, I wanted it. All of it.
His footsteps returned—a hunter’s gait. My pulse stuttered as he reentered the room—bare now, nothing but skin and intent—a silken tie draped over one finger, his belt coiled in the other, a glass beading with cold balanced against his chest.
He stopped dead in his tracks. “Holy shit.”
His attention dragged over my body like a touch—like he could devour me by sight alone.
Anticipation curled low in my stomach under the weight of his stare.
“I’m waiting,” I teased, letting my hips circle in a slow, sensual roll across the sheets—an invitation.
His grin sharpened. “I can see that,” he murmured, voice dropping into something dark and edged with delight.
He prowled toward me—shoulders relaxed, movements controlled—but there was something different now. A current humming beneath his skin. A focus so intense it was almost physical. Something that would’ve scared me, if it hadn’t made my whole body tremble with anticipation.
Instead of settling between my legs, he came to my side.
He raised the tie between two fingers. “I’d like to blindfold you.” No demand, no expectation—just a quiet, dangerous promise. “It heightens everything. Every sound, every touch. It makes the experience… more intense.”
I swallowed.
He set the glass on the nightstand and lifted the belt, letting it uncoil from his grip. “And your hands,” he added, the belt dangling from his grip. “Above your head.”
My pulse stuttered. “Why?”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “Simply more fun.”
There it was—the choice. The thin line between what I’d known and what I was stepping into. My mind wasn’t sure yet. My heart wasn’t sure yet.
But my body?
My body trusted him already.
“Okay,” I whispered.
He started with my wrists, fingers circling one, then the other, guiding my arms up until my hands met the cool iron of the headboard. The leather wound around them—warm from his body, supple against my skin—holding without bite.
Then he reached for the blindfold.
I closed my eyes for him.
And the world tilted.
Silk slid over my skin, from thighs to stomach, over my breasts, along my neck, until it finally covered my eyes. Damienlifted my head, tying the fabric in place, plunging me into darkness.
The world fell away.
All that was left was him.
A rustle of movement. The sound of him near. And then—
A single drop of something cold landed at the base of my throat.
