Ben lowered to his knees. “Relax your shoulders.” He twined the red scarves from her elbows to her wrists, immobilizing her arms.
The height of her heeled shoes only allowed him to tie her legs from mid-calf to ankle. He ran his palms up the inside of her thighs. “Your skin looks so pretty wrapped in red silk.”
She lifted her chest when he secured the first strap above her hips. “What are you doing?”
“Tyin’ you down so you can’t jerk away from me when I touch you.” He secured the next strap above her br**sts. “Stay still. If you move too much the strap will bite. I don’t want these beautiful br**sts bruised.”
“Will it pinch me more than it is now?”
He traced the edge of the strap from one armpit to the other. “If you arch too high. And the only thing allowed to pinch these sweet babies is me.” He tweaked both ni**les simultaneously.
She gasped. “Bennett, I don’t know about this.”
He studied her reaction to being bound. Rapid breathing. Slight trembles. But she wasn’t attempting to jerk against any of the restraints. “Are you afraid I’ll hurt you?”
“Umm. No.”
His index finger trailed from the dip in her chin, down her neck, between her br**sts, passing over her belly button, stopping at the swollen folds hiding her clit. “Are you afraid I’ll make you lose control?”
When she turned her head away, Ben gently grabbed her chin, forcing her attention on him. “Answer me.”
“Yes, okay? I’m scared you’ll make me lose control. You’ve already got me tied up so I can’t move. When you start to touch me I’ll probably beg you to make me come.”
“So?”
“So, that’s embarrassing.”
“Oh, little control freak, there’s no one here but us. There’s nothin’ embarrassing about you begging me. Every time you come by my hand or by my command, it’ll show you how in tune I am with your body.” Ben’s thumb stroked her bottom lip. “That’s not embarrassing. That’s how it’s supposed to be.”
“You won’t…build me to the point I’m begging you and then stop? Just because you can?”
Was this a brand-new fear? Or had some mean f**ker in her past gotten his kicks by denying her an orgasm? “Makin’ you come is a rush for me, so if I deny you that, I’m denying myself. But I ain’t gonna lie. Sometimes delaying that gratification intensifies it. For both of us.”
They measured each other for another minute.
“Say your safe word if you wanna stop.”
“I don’t want to stop.”
“Then we’re done talkin’.” Watching her eyes, he slid his finger down her slit. The wetness he found at her core didn’t surprise him, but she wore that look of embarrassment. He pushed his finger inside her. “Don’t be ashamed of how your body responds to me.”
Ben slipped another finger inside, using his thumb on her clit. The feminine heat and wetness made him want to sink his c**k into her now. But he painted a trail up her body with his wet fingers instead, lapping the sweet stickiness with his tongue. He smeared her juices on her ni**les, then sucked it off slowly. One side at a time. While his mouth was busy, so were his hands. A teasing brush of his fingertips across her belly. Caressing the deeply contoured sides of her body from hip to armpit. Skimming the outside of her legs. Grazing the inside of her thighs. But never touching her sex directly.
Much to her squirming displeasure.
He focused his attention upward and knew the instant she realized his intention.
“No. Stop. I can’t—”
“Relax your neck.” He firmed his lips and followed that swan-like curve from the sweet spot behind her ear to the hollow of her throat.
A full body shiver rolled through her. “Please. Don’t.”
“You’re really that riled up about me kissing you here?” Ben bestowed a warm, soft kiss to the side of her neck. Then he parted his lips and scraped his teeth across it.
She bucked up with a sexy whimper.
Breathing in the scent of her passion-warmed skin, he dragged openmouthed kisses from the sweep of her shoulder, up and down both sides of her neck, back and forth from her jawbone to her clavicle.
She tried to block him, raising her shoulders and angling her head into his face whenever he got too close. After her cheekbone smacked into his nose, he warned, “Hold still, goddammit.”
“No. Don’t. I can’t take any more.”
“Am I hurting you?”
Eyes closed, she nodded.
Liar. “Then say your safe word.”
A couple of heartbeats passed before she shook her head.
Which meant her mind protested but her body didn’t. That was his goal for tonight—to get her mind and her body on the same wavelength.
Ben cupped her sex. Wetness coated his fingers. Yeah. Her body wasn’t objecting at all. Keeping his hand covering her pu**y, he zeroed in on the hot spot on the left side of her neck.
She jerked on the restraints, arching and tossing her head, narrowly missing a collision between her sharp chin and his forehead.
Enough.
He pressed one hand to the top of her head; his other hand gripped the base of her throat.
Her eyes were panicked and if she hadn’t been restrained, Ben suspected he’d see skid marks on the carpet from her hasty departure.
“Breathe. Do you understand I’m not gonna hurt you?”
Took a second, but she nodded, purposely inhaling slowly and deeply.
But her neck was so rigid he worried it’d be sore. “Relax. Talk to me.”
“Take your hand off my neck, unless you plan to choke me out with auto-erotic-asphyxiation for your next trick.”
He laughed. “Trying to piss me off to see if I’ll give up on you and untie your binds?”
She seemed surprised he’d picked up on her intentions.
“Tough luck. I have half a mind to just let you squirm and thrash around like a bull in a buckin’ chute. Wouldn’t be long before this wig was laying on the floor. And wouldn’t that be interesting?”
That definitely got her attention.
“Why are you so damn squirmy whenever I touch you here?” He stroked the cord straining in her neck.
Her jaw clenched.
He brushed his lips over hers. “This would be a good time to practice that honesty thing, bein’s you ain’t goin’ nowhere unless I let you.”
“Fine. My whole neck is super sensitive. One touch on it, one whisper across it and I’m a mass of goose bumps. So when you kiss my neck like you were? I feel like I could come from just that.”