“I’m not sure you know what you’re asking for.”
She turns to me, standing so close that her heat warms me as she pins me with her mask-shadowed gaze. “Punish me,” she whispers.
I step away, putting much needed space between us as heat floods my chest. That request uses the same words I’ve heard from others before, yet they’re inherently different.
This is a challenge wrapped in quiet desperation, and the visceral need in those words seems to speak directly to the creature beneath my flesh.
Scarlet closes the distance between us once more.
“All of you...” In a hushed tone, she repeats the same words she texted to me earlier.
Cracking my neck from side to side, I straighten with the shiver that runs up my spine, then walk toward the wall that holds so many instruments to choose from. I don’t linger, knowing exactly what I want to go for—the spreader bar. At least for her ankles.
I can feel her eyes on me as I set up; she’s trying to figure out what I have planned for her.
“Come here.”
She moves quickly, following my cues as I strap her wrists to the chain fixed to the ceiling, her arms extended high above her head.
“You don’t want rules.” I don’t ask, just confirm as I fix the spreader bar to the floor, adjusting it to her, but I don’t strap her in yet.
“This is not BDSM, Carter. We both know it.”
“Why?” I step away to admire her there.
“Does it matter?” She shifts her weight from one leg to the other.
I suppose it doesn’t. But I want to know. She had very few hard limits, which makes me even more curious about those she does have.
Lifting the remote, I turn to her. “Have they watched you before?”
She shakes her head, that trace of shyness brightening her gaze.
“Use your words, kitten.”
“No.”
“Have youplayedhere before?” Something twists in my stomach as I ask the question.
“Never.”
Relief cools my insides; I won’t have to build a list of men to kill.
Cocking my head, I ask an even more important question. “Have you played...ever?”
She hesitates, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.
“Words, Scarlet.”
“No.”
Fuck me sideways. And she wants me to destroy her. No rules. No holding back.
What the fuck?
“Don’t you dare pussy out on me,” she warns, head tilting down as her menacing gaze bores into me.
“You’re in no position to order me around.” My blood boils as I close the distance, slap her thigh, and revel in her yelp. “Now keep your mouth shut, little slut, unless you want to scream, answer my questions, or speak your safe word.”
