“Yes.”
“Good.” He nipped my earlobe with his teeth. “Now forget it, because you won’t need one.”
“I don’t think that’s how it works,” I countered, my insides a lethal mixture of nerves and anticipation.
“It’s how I work.” His hand moved up my middle and cupped my breast, the sensation causing me to sway as my legs weakened. “How will you know what your body is fully capable of if you have a way out?” He pinched my nipple hard, and I yelped with the sudden pain that eased into pleasure as it moved down my spine. “Your mind is a powerful thing, Tatum. It will convince you that you’ve reached your limit when, in fact, your body is far from it. A safe-word will only give your mind more power to stop you from pushing every boundary it has ever set.”
He stepped back, removing his lips and hand from my body. I inhaled deeply, trying to tame the burning desire threatening to bring me to my knees.
Shaking, shuddering, and craving more, I watched with eager anticipation as he pulled a pair of scissors from his back pocket, the silver blades winking with cruel intentions.
My body went completely stiff when he reached for the hem of my nightgown.
His gaze shot up to mine. “Let go, Tatum. Please me and let go.”
For a few seconds, we stared at each other, something unspoken passing between us as if an invisible line of trust was being drawn.
With a slight nod, I forced my body to relax. The sound of the sharp scissors cutting through the fabric resonated around us, every slice, every crunch causing my insides to coil tighter and tighter. His eyes never left mine, and I found comfort in the darkness of his gaze. We might be enemies, but somehow whenever we were this close, it felt like we were the same—the same creatures craving the forbidden.
And then the scissors nicked my skin just as it reached the end of the fabric between my breasts. I gasped as the slash burned my flesh, but the way his eyes grew darker, the intensity stronger, I knew he had done it on purpose—and I loved it.
I glanced down, a tiny drop of blood pooling between my breasts, and the most sordid part of my being loved the sight, loved the pain…loved how twisted all of this was.
Without saying a word, he reached up and wiped the drop of crimson away with his thumb. It burned, but not as strongly as the fire in my core. After the ecstasy I experienced with him earlier, my body already craved it again, wanting, needing, demanding to be taken back to that edge of decadent wickedness.
The black nightgown fell in tatters around my feet, leaving me completely naked in front of him. A wild, untamed look crossed his face as his gaze swept over my nakedness, and it fed the hunger inside me. It was like he was capable of touching me with his gaze, caressing me with his stare that screamed uncontrollable desire.
“This is so fucked up,” I whispered.
“Isn’t it?” He leaned down and sucked a nipple between his lips, his tongue swirling against the tip.
I gasped, my eyes rolling back in my head before my nipple popped out of his mouth as he straightened. “That’s what makes all of this so goddamn good.”
“What? The fact that you want to kill me one minute, then fuck me the next?”
“That’s what’s turning you on, isn’t it? The fact that you feel unsafe with me, that you don’t know what to expect? You think you fear the unknown, Tatum, when in fact you relish it.”
“That’s what you—”
He drowned my words with his mouth, kissing me hard as his tongue pushed past my lips. With every sweep of his tongue, he assaulted my mouth like he craved the taste of me. God knew I longed for his, unable to get enough of the flavor that was so uniquely twisted and forbidden…so him.
Every second his mouth remained on mine, I drifted deeper and deeper into his corrupted world of dissolute seduction and sinful temptation. Funny how my mind no longer even bothered fighting it but rather chose to accept it since it had lost each and every battle with my body so far. It was liberating, really, not having the urge to fight it anymore—just allowing my body to bask in the power this man seemed to yield over me. Whether I died next year, next week, or tomorrow—right now, I didn’t care because my mind, my soul, my body was all about him, all about him owning me in this moment.
A soft groan rumbled in the back of his throat as he peeled his lips from mine. My subtle moan followed suit.
Taking my chin in his hand, he pinned his gaze on mine. “Now shut that pretty little mouth of yours and let me have you the way I want you.”
He crouched and reached for some of the chains he had dropped on the floor.
“Put your hands behind your back.”
I obeyed, slipping back into the role of his pet and him my master. Amazing how it came so easily now, so naturally for me to obey. Was one fuck all it took for him to tame me?
The steel chains were cold against my heated skin, and my breathing became more labored the tighter he wrapped the chains around my wrists.
“Does it hurt?”
I tugged a little, moving my wrists. “No.”