“Yes, but…” I shifted his balls back and forth in my hands, while I stroked his cock as he’d showed me. It was such a beautiful thing, and so unexpected. Such soft, tender skin on something so rock-solid and powerful. “What if I don’t obey you?”
A minuscule narrowing of his eyes made my breath catch in my throat. He yanked me closer to him with his hand at the small of my back, forcing me to release my grip on his cock. Then he marched me backward and pressed me up against the long, luxurious curtains by the window.
“I promise you this: It’ll be a lot worse than a spanked ass. A fig root can be used for pain as well as pleasure.”
His tone was teasing, but only just this side of threatening. His intensity and focus made me shiver. There were sides to him that I had never even imagined but that were now mine to understand and navigate without making him angry. I was back on my tightrope again. Only now, the stakes were so much higher.
“You terrify me,” I said softly.
He liked that. A lot. “You should not be terrified of me. But you will respect me. You will know, as much as I will bring you pain, I will bring pleasure. I will punish for your benefit, not mine.”
Slipping his hand down my ass, he gave my bottom a squeeze and then guided me over a few inches. The knotted tassel of one of the huge curtain cords pressed into my back. Crowding me up against the velvet drapes, he took my wrists in his hands and drew them up above me, then bound them together over my head. The bindings were tight. Very tight.
“I’ll never hurt you beyond what you can endure,” he said, as he tied the knots and double-tied them. “Trust me to fucking know what’s good for you and I promise that I’ll always give you more pleasure than pain.”
“Pleasure,” I gasped, as he traced a line down from my jaw to my cleavage and back again. “Like what you did to me in the cave?”
Maksim nodded slowly. “That was just the start. You’ve got no fucking idea the places I’m going to take you, Anika.”
And then he stepped back from me, looking me up and down, before seizing his dagger from the table next to him. He placed the point of the knife to my breastbone and looked me in the eye, while the candles danced around behind him.
I was dizzy with fear and desire, lost in a web of confusion and excitement. Having a knife against my flesh should not make me this excited, I knew that. But I couldn’t help it. A rush of wetness spilled out from me and dampened my inner thighs.
“Maksim,” I gasped, as the tip of the dagger pressed coldly into my flesh. I was so terrified and excited that my lips trembled. “Please.”
Now he shifted the blade slightly, so that the flat edge pressed against my flesh. Looking down, holding as still as possible, I was mesmerized by the polished steel against my skin.
“What are you doing?”
Maksim’s jaw hardened and the pressure of the knife against me intensified.
“I’m going to warn you for the last fucking time about questions, Anika.” He ground his molars together, making the muscles at his temples flex. “You either trust me to take care of you or you don’t.”
“I do,” I gasped. And somehow I managed to suppress the But…that was so very close to sneaking out of my lips. But I’m so scared. But… but… but…
In one powerful movement, Maksim plunged the dagger down toward my cleavage, drawing it toward himself at the same time, cutting my shirt free from my upper body with a slicing rip. As my breasts came free, I let out a big breath of relief.
He laughed a little, reveling in my discomfort and pleasure.
“Told you I won’t fucking hurt you.”
Hurt me. Please, I thought to myself, as I tried to get my breath.
Using the flat edge of the blade, he teased my nipples with the cold steel of his dagger. And then he moved down to my britches, slicing those free from me as well, leaving them in tatters and leaving me completely naked before him.
He tossed his dagger aside and knelt before me, slipping two fingers between my folds as he watched me respond to his touch. It felt so good that my knees went weak and I found myself very grateful for the bindings keeping me upright. My skin felt tender from all he had done to me earlier, but its sensitivity only intensified the pleasure of his fingers on my clit again.
“Looks like playing with my knife makes you soaking wet. Such a perfect girl you are for me.”
I was powerless to answer with actual words, but somehow managed a long,