‘Pretty, pretty,’ he echoes, his thumb stroking my wetness.
I exhale raggedly, intense sparks of pleasure shocking me into movement against the wood. He stills, resting his thumb against the sensitive nub, the pressing weight a delicious torture. I jerk instinctively, pointlessly, open as I am, breathing deeply, audibly, trying to force the tension to subside as I recognise the signs: The waiting game we’re playing, the weaving anticipation and anxiety. Part torture, part tease.
He meets my recognition by the rapid stroke of the whip against my thigh.
I call out, stunned by the sudden contact. My skin prickles, blood rushing to the surface like meeting a much-missed friend.
‘Oh, Kate, you undo me,’ he whispers, his voice as soft as a suede caress. Reverence. That’s the word I’m looking for; that’s how he sounds. The strands draw across my stomach again and I shiver at their touch. ‘Have you learned yet? Realised?’ He bends to my ear. ‘Bondage, Kate. Bondage is freedom when you want, when youneedto be tied.’
His thumb moves, replaced by fingers that twist and curl deeply as the leather tendrils tease my skin.
‘Give in.’ A purr, words low and deep as he runs the soft wisps over my trembling skin, his fingers anchoring me.
The strands move across my breast, caressing the sensitive flesh, nipples standing high in invitation before leather meets skin again in a swipe. It hurts more this time, a stinging smart and I cry out in reply. Breath leaves my mouth in panting bursts as I deal with the throbbing, echoing the same inside. My head is exploding, the synergy of sweetness and violence blowing the fuses of my mind.
‘Pleasure in pain,’ Kai whispers.
Both sensations lick my skin with each swipe, the whip making a matching pair of my breasts, my nerve endings singing with delight.
How can this be?
Down my body and across my slit, slick and wet, the leather draws. I sense Kai leaning over me; feel his breath soft against my thigh as his fingers pry the sensitive tissues further apart.
‘Violent delights,’ he murmurs, his voice thick and throaty.
‘No, Kai. Don’t, please.’Do I beg or do I moan?He can’t mean to hit me there?
The soft leather teases my insides, my whimpers increasing, my body quivering as a sudden, cold sweat beads against my skin.I can stop this. I just need to say one word.Reasonable thoughts rush through my head, at odds with the insidious ache building between my thighs. I try to hang on, the word at the very tip of my tongue.
Beg him to stop, beg him not to stop?
The strands drag higher against my wetness, torturously slow. The sensations are consuming, my mind spinning as I try to centre myself, torn as confusion bounds off the walls of my brain.
‘Punish you for your pleasure,’ he whispers.
‘No!’ I call out as the tendrils stroke still. I rattle small, helpless movements against the limits of the restraints as the pulsing builds. I need pressure, some kind of release,somethingas my head thrashes from side to side. ‘Please,’ I pant. It’s all too much—a sensation overload, the wiring of my brain short fusing.
He strikes the oversensitive flesh with one deft stroke and everything stops. Just for a moment.A moment of sweet violence.I’m a balloon cut free from its weight, floating free and high. Just for a second, the sounds drop out of the room, the darkness of the mask so welcoming. I come loudly, fighting pleasure and anguish, pulling against the restraints, thrashing and snarling through my captivity as my mind whispersmore.
In my slow return, Kai removes his fingers, my insides clenching a lament. The mask moves and I blink into his sweetly smiling face. Kissing my forehead, he moves to loosen the bindings at my wrists, placing chaste kisses at the insides before attending to my ankles without speaking. He doesn’t speak and I can’t. My mind is vacuous, the shroud of orgasm robbing me of thought.
‘Sit,’ he murmurs almost solicitously, gathering me to his chest at the edge of the table. I’m weak and trembling as he coaxes me into his arms. Sliding the hair from my face, he croons unfamiliar sentiments as he carries me to the bedroom, laying me down against the cool sheets.
Hands hover over the button of his pants as he pauses for a moment, just looking at me. Then, sliding them off, he lowers himself to the bed, stroking and murmuring his praise. Music registers in the background; melody and a harp before words. Soft words of obsession, a lover coaxing through the song. Seducing, the words wrap around me and seep into my soul.
‘Thank you,’ he whispers, pulling me to him.
He kisses me with a fierce gentleness, his power and strength restrained. My eyelids quiver as he covers me in soft, fluttering butterfly wing kisses, kissing me from one high, transporting me to the next. Skin slides against skin, tongue against tongue. I lie beneath him, my hands against his chest, his heart in my hands.
‘Take me inside, Kate,’ he whispers, words like fingertips against my skin. I open gladly for him, inhaling sharply as he thrusts inside, igniting pleasure once more.
‘I love you.’ Eyes closed above me, he stills, savouring the moment. ‘I need you.’
His body is a graceful arc as he begins to move. Hip to hip, we rock and clutch, unable to get close enough to the other and as though we would possess the other’s skin. Pushing my knees wider, he buries himself in my heat, tempo increasing as he thrusts deeper, writhing above me almost as though in pain. Beautiful, dark and resplendent, his hips drive and propel his pleasure inside. Thrusting once, twice more, his rhythm falters, his mouth whispering words I don’t understand.
My heart is full, my mind a vacuum as my body responds. An exquisite pressure builds, wave upon wave of pleasure wracking my body as I cry out my love.
My hands lay at his ribs, unwilling to release him. We’re a tangle of limbs and sweat shone skin, speaking the unspoken with our fingers. Kai encourages me onto my side, fitting himself behind me. My back against his chest, his head rests above my own.We fit together seamlessly. He wraps his hand around my waist, grounding me, holding me tight as though he knows I feel so light, I could surely float away.
