Oh, he was trying to be sneaky.
She moved in the opposite direction, further from the bed, careful to note where the furniture was in the bedroom and the best way to use it to her advantage.
“Did you expect her to give in easily, Ian?” Khalid was obviously still amused at both of them.
“I’m going to spank you, Courtney,” he promised her, his voice lowering to a dark, rich pitch. “I’m going to rip that skirt from your body and paddle you until you come from the spanking alone. ”
“Oh, Ian,” she shivered in exaggerated fear. “Surely you wouldn’t. ”
Ian narrowed his eyes on her, though he felt an unwilling smile quirk his lips.
She thought she was playing them. She thought she could maneuver, scheme and plot until all things went her way.
He loved that about her. Loved how she pitted herself against him at every opportunity, challenged his dominance and his determination to make her surrender.
She was strong. It had taken him a while to see that, taken him a while to separate the past and the present, the innocence and the hunger.
Not that he wasn’t terrified of hurting her. He was, more than he wanted to admit. The thought of losing her, of losing the unique, unconditional acceptance she gave him now terrified him more than the thought of her being unable to handle his hungers. If anyone could handle him, it was Courtney.
If any woman could have a hope of matching his lusts and of keeping up with him, then it was this woman, staring back at him with a challenge in her eyes and a smirk on her lips.
His Courtney.
She had always been his in one way or the other.
He shook the thoughts away. The emotion. Why worry himself with it now, when she was standing before him nearly naked, promise and determination glittering in her eyes as her gaze flickered to his erection.
There would be time later. Besides, she knew he cared for her. There was no denying that. He had always cared for her.
Courtney watched warily as Khalid moved, though he merely walked to the high chest and opened the top drawer. The drawer contained many adult toys, selected, Ian had assured her, just for her.
She hadn’t yet had a chance to check out its contents.
“Suggestions, Ian?” Khalid drawled.
“The restraints are already on the bedposts. ” He smiled slowly as Courtney glanced at the slender chains on one post. “Get whatever you think you might use. ” His smile widened. “And the large tube of lubrication. She’s going to be busy tonight. ”
Her buttocks tightened.
“Hope you hadn’t intended to go shopping for a while, Courtney,” Khalid commented as though it was the weather they were discussing as he began to pull items from the drawer. “Walking might be difficult. ”
She caught Ian moving from the corner of her eye and shifted again, drawing closer to the large chair several feet from where she stood.
“Perhaps I’ve changed my mind about all this sharing stuff,” she announced as Ian paused.
She shot him a deliberately wide-eyed look.
“Really?” He arched his brow mockingly.
“Oh yes. ” She nodded emphatically. “Alyssa was sooo good, Ian. Perhaps I’d like to trade you in?”
His eyes glinted with mirth. It was amazing, seeing that laughter, this playful, dominant side that she was only now experiencing.
“We’ll have to see about that. ” His hand lifted from his erection as he moved in on her then.
Laughing, she dodged to the side, intending to put the chair between them, to hold him off for just a few seconds longer. She wasn’t nearly quick enough. Before she could do more than gasp he had her, pulling her arms behind her back and pushing her upper body over the back of the chair.
Interesting.