Page 22 of Mister St. James

I see it every time I close my eyes. “Would you like to feel it again?”

Her pupils dilate. She nods.

She gives me her right wrist. I start with the simplest cuff, a single column tie, doubled, with a quick-release at the edge. I narrate as I go, half for her, half to keep my hands steady. “There’s no trick to the first knot. The trick is in the tension. If you go too tight, you’ll cut circulation. Too loose, it may as well just be for show.” I finish the knot and trace my fingers down her arm. “You want it snug, not dangerous.”

She flexes her fingers, testing the bind. “That’s tight,” she says.

“It’s supposed to be,” I answer. “The point isn’t just restraint. It’s structure. Geometry. You build a system to hold what the world can’t.” I smile, then undo it in a blink, returning her hand to freedom.

“Show me more?”

I kneel and slide my hand up her thigh, just under the hem of her dress. “May I?”

She nods. I gather the fabric, exposing the high line of her hip. She’s wearing a black thong, almost invisible, and I make a mental note to take that off her with my teeth before I move to her ankles, and in one quick motion, loop the silk around them, binding her legs together at the knees.

She laughs, a rush of sound. “Already making me helpless?”

“Not helpless. Highlighted,” I say. “You can always say stop, or your safe word if you remember it. You have to give consent, every time. Otherwise, it doesn’t work.”

Cat nods, her dark curls falling into her face as she looks down at me. “Can I ask you something?”

“Anything.”

“Does this ever not end in sex?”

I laugh, unable to stop myself and when I glance up to meet her gaze, she’s frowning. “It depends on the person. For some, it’s enough just to feel the rope, to give up control and relax. Others its more about the physical sensation of the ropes themselves, the pain, the weight of them.” I continue the mermaid tie around her calves.

“And for you?”

I want to answer honestly, but the words are hard. I try anyway. “Because it’s predictable. I know what every knot will do. I find just the action relaxing and beautiful.” And of course there is the complete trust and control that you have over another person, but I’m sure she would have decoded that part already so I left it unsaid.

I stand and offer her both of my hands to help her stand so she can feel the strain of the knots. I pull her up slowly, she wobbles and I grab her waist to steady her. Or at least that’s my excuse. Truthfully I just want to touch her more.

It’s painfully silent for a moment. Our bodies pressed flush against one another. I’m already hard, and have been for a while, thankfully the jeans hide it better than the suits do but I’m almost positive she can feel it.

Leaning down, my mouth hovers over her lips as I ask, “How do you want this to end Catalina?”

“I want it to end in sex,” she whispers before closing the distance and kissing me. What little bit of control I was struggling to hold onto slips through my fingers. She is the siren and I am the sailor that’s ready to drown.

Chapter twelve

Make Me

Aiden

I undress her slowly, sliding the dress over her head, then stripping away the bra. Her skin is flawless. Her body, a fucking masterpiece, all dips and curves that I want to map with the tip of my tongue, ropes or no ropes.

“Show me more?”

I breathe in, steady, but my hands are shaking now. Unspooling a coil of rope as I move behind her. I brush her hair aside, before bending to trail a line of soft kisses down the collum of her neck. She shivers.

“There’s a harness I like,” I say, voice pitched low. “It’s called a dragonfly.” I grab her wrists in one hand and press my palm against the center of her back, pushing her to arch her chest forward. “I’m going to start with your arms.”

I make the first two loops and drape them over her shoulders before repeating the pattern down her arms. Every time I cinch the line, then anchor it at the small of her back. She gasps softly and I see the goosebumps forming on her skin.

“You good?” I ask, voice lower.

She nods. “Better than good.”