He moved behind her and tied her wrists together, then worked up her arms until she was immobilized to the elbow. Stepping back, he admired his work. So pretty. The curve of her cheek, the slope of her neck to her shoulder, the flawless skin, the look of rope on a helpless woman—all of it made him want her even more.
“Kneel straighter.” As he walked to stand in front of her, she straightened, her breasts pushing out at him impudently, the nipples hard and seeking his attention.
What he wouldn’t do for a camera. To him, this was far sexier than any porn, and she still had her pants on.
“Stay.” He walked back to the cabinet and sorted through the contents, then returned with an armload of sensation playthings.
“What’s all that? Is that a paintbrush?”
“It is.”
“Do I look like I need retouching? Is my paint flaking off?”
“Shut your sexy mouth before I shove something in it.”
She blinked at him. “Sorry.”
The paintbrush would be his starter, then, since it had her attention. With a gentle stroke, he flicked the tip of the brush over Kate’s skin, along her collarbone. Her breath caught, and she wriggled in place, then settled.
“People think of pain as the only sensation in kink, but there are so many others. Do you like being tickled?”
“I don’t know, Sir.”
He used the brush again, dragging it along the curve of her breasts, down to her navel, then back up to her nipples. They puckered harder when he traced them with the brush, and Kate moaned, arching toward him. He went around her and painted along her back then, the brush drawing out shudders and goose bumps, as well as squeaks and sighs of appreciation. When he reached her waistband he traced along it, then pushed it down a couple of inches to play with the band of skin he’d bared.
Kate sank further into her kneel, her knees widening. Taking that as a cue, he reversed the brush in his grip and ran the smooth, wooden handle over her clit.
“What’s working for you, little girl? Being tied, being tickled, or both?”
“Both, Sir,” she said through gritted teeth. She whimpered.
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing,” she said, her voice tight. Her hips were angled as far toward him as they could get, and she’d even shuffled a few inches toward him.
He pressed hard on her clit, then eased off, tickling again.
Kate mumbled something profane under her breath. “Why are you so mean?”
“Mean? You don’t like this?”
“Ugh! It’s . . . frustrating. My pants are annoying me.”
He raised his brows. “You told me you wanted them to stay on, remember?”
They stared at each other. She couldn’t have it both ways.
He ran one of his short fingernails over the bump of her clit, and she moaned. He’d never claimed he played fair.
“Temporary insanity!” she blurted. “Could you take them off?”
Don’t gloat. Just give the woman what she wants. “Certainly. Up.”
She stood, and he slid the yoga pants down her long, perfect legs, then steadied her as she stepped out of them.
Damn. Her bare pussy was so close to his face that he could smell her arousal. So her ex hadn’t been big on giving oral? Poor girl. He leaned in and blew a breath along her sex. Automatically, her hips tipped toward him again.
Not so fast, greedy.
“Kneel in the position I showed you last time. Facedown, ass up.”
She groaned, but complied. He held her elbow so she didn’t topple over.
“Tell me if your neck starts to get sore.” He checked her hands, which were warm and still a good color.
“Yes, Sir.”
He ran the brush over her bound arms, tickled between her fingers, drew invisible designs on her back.
“Look at those pretty stripes.” Her ass had several red belt marks still visible. He went over them with the brush and she whimpered, and then held her breath every time he went near the cleft of her ass.
“How have you stayed a virgin here with an ass like this?” He swept his brush down the valley, fascinated at the way Kate cringed and her ass tightened when he drew close. As he used the brush to lick a tickling path over the puckered hole, her high-pitched whine made him chuckle. Maybe she’d marked “curious” on the questionnaire, but her response now told a different story. She was nervous which meant he’d have to go slow.
“I don’t know.” Her voice was high, plaintive. “No one was ever interested in . . . that part of me before, I guess.”
He tossed the brush aside and slipped a finger between her legs, finding she was even more soaked than before. Playing with her clit made her squirm, her breath coming hard.
“Well, if you have a Dom, chances are he’ll use you there too. Some guys aren’t into it, though, so you might be safe.” If she went to Konstantin or Ambrose, however, she wouldn’t be.
“You’ve taken all your slaves there?” She gasped, trying to edge backward and capture his hand between her thighs.
“Yes. A few were anal virgins, but I fixed that. My slaves don’t get to tell me no without a damn good reason.”
“Like?”
“If it was an abuse trigger, or if there was a health reason why they couldn’t.”
Kate didn’t answer, but her moans were eloquent. Apparently, her clit liked him just fine, even if she didn’t want sex.
She squirmed and whined exactly the way he wanted, her body far more obedient to him than her mind. As she was about to come, he stopped and untied her arms.
“I think that’s enough for today.”
“What?” She got to her feet and looked at him incredulously. “But . . . you put that big pile of things there. I thought we’d be experimenting for a while.”
“Actually, Kate, I’m getting pretty uncomfortable.” He was careful to keep his expression neutral. “I know you’re curious about things and want to know whether you’ll like them, but I’m having trouble staying scientific about this. You don’t want sex, and I respect that, but I’m not a machine. I have needs to deal with too.”
“So you want me to leave so you can . . . ?”
“Exactly.”
“But I could help you with that.” She grasped his hard-on through his dress pants.
Banner thought about the accounts receivable paperwork he had to deal with the next morning. He thought about it long and hard, until he regained control. There was no D/s agreement between them. There had been such intimate contact between them, yet he didn’t have consent to throw her on her back and fuck her. This vanilla shit was fucking irritating.
“You said you didn’t want sex.”
“I changed my mind.” The control she had over the situation was making her arrogant. Enough was enough.
“You changed your mind?” He frowned at her, not bothering to hide his annoyance, and she let go of his dick and backed up a step. “I know you see this whole thing with me as an experiment or a game, Kate, but I can’t keep doing this. If I’m just a pretend Dom with you, it keeps me completely off balance, and then what are you learning? That Dominants are weak and you can manipulate them? We have no real agreement between us, so I’m putting up with shit I’d never take from a girl of mine. I’m not sure how I got myself into the position where you’re calling the shots, but that’s over. If you stay, I’ll treat you like you’re mine while you’re here. If you set foot in this house I’m fucking you whether you like it or not.” A spark of apprehension showed in her eyes. “I will honor your safeword, of course, but the rest of this cock-tease bullshit will be dealt with as I see fit.”
Silence spread between them, and Kate chewed on her thumb, the edges of her teeth leaving indentations on its pad. How could she make even that sexy?
So, was she walking out or submitting? He’d never been big on ultimatums, but this thing between them was seriously fucked up. There was something about her that he found completely irresistible, but there were certain things that didn’t work for him—like handing over his power to someone else.