Sevastyan’s arms went around her and he lowered her right into his lap as he took her to the floor, loosening the ropes to allow her legs to straighten, rubbing the bloodflow back into them as he did. He quickly unknotted the chain of large knots from the diamond that looped from her front to her back, freeing that thong, and then the binding on her arms. He spent a great deal of time massaging her arms while she sat on his lap.
“I’ve got you, baby,” he murmured softly. “Just rest. You’re not hurt anywhere, are you? No place the rope was too tight?” He ran his hand expertly under the remaining halter to check that the bindings weren’t digging into her skin.
She shook her head and nuzzled her face into his chest. She was exhausted. She was in excellent physical condition and even though it seemed as if she had been in the ropes a long time, she actually hadn’t been. He had even lowered her to give her a break. She knew what he had been doing.
“Good. Even if you’re loving what we’re doing, Flambé, you have to tell me if something isn’t right. We’ll correct it and go on. We can’t take a chance on you getting hurt.” He slipped more rope off her body.
Strangely, the more the rope came off, the more she felt naked and vulnerable without it. She burrowed deeper into him. “I really like being in the ropes.”
“That’s a good thing since I like tying you. You look beautiful in rope. Some people don’t get it, and that’s all right. It’s not their thing. I needed an outlet for the artist in me as well as that darker side of me. It was also something that helped me stay at a distance and protected the women from my leopard.” He brushed a kiss against her neck as he continued to massage her arms and shoulders gently.
She opened her eyes enough to look up at him. “That was so incredibly erotic. A million times better than what I saw you do in that room.”
He rubbed his face against hers. “It wouldn’t be safe to take you into one of those rooms. There are cameras everywhere. I made certain before I came in here that Cain didn’t have any hidden ones. I also made it clear what would happen to him if he ever photographed you. He knows better than to cross me.”
She frowned. “I don’t understand. Photograph me? What does that mean?”
He scraped his teeth on her bare shoulder and a fission of desire slid down her spine. “You think you’re alone when you come here to plant, Flambé. Cain has tried to set you up more than once. He left you alone in his office to watch the screens so you could see what went on in the rooms. He asked if you wanted him to
show you the various apparatuses to see how they worked. He’s a leopard, a dominant. He recognizes a submissive. He compromises clients to protect his other clients. He never uses footage unless he has to, but he’s ruthless enough.”
She blinked up at him, trying to understand. She hadn’t done anything with Cain. She’d gone to his office that one time, but he hadn’t been there.
“Had you gotten yourself off while you were here watching and he caught you on camera, he would have held that over your head,” he said bluntly.
Shifters weren’t particularly shy about sex and she might not have been as a rule, but she had a very prosperous business and she needed it to help others survive. She wasn’t about to throw their lives away because she was so anxious to have sex she wasn’t thinking, which was why she was very worried about the emergence of her female leopard.
“I should have thought of that. Not that I was getting myself off in the club.”
“Good, although the idea does have its merits.”
She laughed softly. “I should have known you’d say that.”
“Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me the truth tonight, Flambé. We both know you didn’t have to. I was afraid you’d tell me to go to hell, and I wasn’t certain how else to get you to feel safe enough to tell me.”
“I wanted to tell you, I was just so hurt and I was afraid it was true. In a sense, because part of it was true, it was easy to believe the rest. You’re so extraordinary, and I feel so ordinary that it’s easy enough to believe.”
“Flambé.” There was warning in his voice.
“You would never have looked at me if I wasn’t a submissive and my leopard didn’t appeal to Shturm.”
His laughter made her toes want to curl. “You would never have looked at me if I wasn’t a dominant, a rigger, and Shturm didn’t appeal to your little female.”
He totally had her there.
“I’m getting a little worried that she isn’t making an appearance,” he added.
Flambé took a deep breath. Now they were getting into muddy waters. “She was very upset when those men said all those things about me—and about her.” She rubbed her palm up and down his thigh. The soft material of his trousers felt sexy over the muscle of his thigh. “Matherson really frightened her as well.”
Sevastyan rubbed his chin on top of her head. “She’ll probably feel more secure once she sees everything is all right at the house. You can work on the designs and bring your crew out. I really would like you to start an indoor garden like this one that we can build onto the house. I have the perfect spot in mind for it. I’ve already got the beams in place that would hold the necessary rigging for suspension. I was going to use the garages for something else and changed my mind. I have lofts and pulley systems in place and the high ceilings are there. We’d have to convert the outside walls to glass but that’s easy enough. The two garages connect and both are enormous. We could start with one.”
Flambé heard the enthusiasm in his voice, but she had to be so careful not to be entirely sucked in. Just the fact that he’d said those things to his cousin about finding a submissive, one on their first life cycle, was another strike against him. It didn’t matter how much she loved sex with him or how compatible they were when it came to sex. Eventually, she knew how things ended up with shifters.
She wanted the enthusiasm for the project to be as real later as it was right then. A garden for them was a project they could do together. She wanted something that was theirs. Something they could start their life going forward with. In a perfect world, he would support her business and her need to continue rescuing shifter species as their numbers in the world diminished. She would do her best to understand what he did and try to be supportive. Sadly, she’d seen too much of shifter life. The real world didn’t work that way.
“I’ve got the schedule worked out, Sevastyan.” She tried to suppress a yawn. All she really wanted to do was sleep. “My crew will be working on the property in three weeks. That will give me enough time to figure out all the trees, plants and design work, order them, the dirt we’ll need and . . .” She trailed off, waving her hand. “I’ll take care of the details.”
“You do that. I’ll take care of the other details.” He stood up easily, with her still in his arms.