Page 13 of Bound

She chokes on a laugh. “You’re terrible at being emotionally available, but here we are.”

I bite her shoulder. She gasps, arching back against me. “There,” I murmur. “That is better.”

I turn her around again. She stands before me in nothing but black panties and defiance.

Her eyes are bright, her mouth swollen from mine. I take one step back and look at her. She shifts under the attention. Not away. Never away.

Just a little overwhelmed.

I like her overwhelmed. It means she’s listening.

It’s the look that gives me hope. Hope that one day, she’ll know how much she means to me.

“Do you like it?” I ask.

“The way you are looking at me? Like I’m something special? Yes.” She smiles. “Or are you asking about the room?”

“The room.”

“Yes. It’s exciting. Beautiful. Another world.” She looks around, then back at me. “And I love that you made it for me.”

“I’ll give you every world I can.”

“Then show me what happens in this one.” The command is soft.

My blood goes hot. I back her toward the bed. She goes willingly, but her chin lifts as if she is still pretending I am making her. I let her have the lie. She likes having something to fight even when she wants to be conquered.

Soon, that will be gone. That’s what this room is for.

Full surrender.

But tonight, it’s just a gift. A place to be close to one another inside this hectic homestead.

But I’ll leave her with a little taste.

At the edge of the bed, I stop, leaving her. “Hands behind your back.”

She pauses, then she obeys. Slowly. I retrieve the strip of fabric from the drawer beside us.

Not rope. Not leather. Not tonight.

Silk. Black. No marks on her. Not tonight.

Soft enough not to mark unless I want it to.

I drag it over her naked breasts, first. A sharp inhale, her nipples reacting to the brush of the cool fabric.

“Still green?”

She stares at me. “Yes.”

I bind her wrists loosely enough for comfort, tightly enough for meaning.

She flushes. She likes this more than she wants to admit. I know because I know her. Because her shame has a name now.

And that name is mine.

Her smallest tremor can reorder my body’s wiring.