Free Nowhere Ranch by Heidi Cullinan Page B

this with me when I go cruising, no.”
    “This for when you and Tory feel like playing, is it?” I was aware that now I was the chatty one, but I really wanted to figure this mystery out.
    He stopped arranging and glanced over at me. “When I first came here, I came with a lover. It had been our plan to run Nowhere together, but he discovered he didn't have as much taste for it as I did. And I discovered I wanted to live on an isolated Nebraska ranch more than I wanted to be with him.”
    The careful way he said all that promised there was a lot more to the story, but I had enough to follow along. I also noted that in a way he was saying I was special, if he was trotting out these toys and fucking me here at the house. I wasn't sure how I felt about that, but this was not the time for worrying. I settled back against the side of the tub as much as I could and tried to let the warm water and the bubbles relax me.
    Eventually he stopped arranging and stripped down too. I lay back with my arms over the edges of the tub and watched the show, feeling the hum deepening in me as he exposed more and more of his body. But before he climbed in, he grabbed two lengths of rope.
    “Stand up and turn around.”
    I did as he told me.
    “Bend over and grab hold of the rail.”
    There were metal rails around the edges of the tub to help people get in and out. I held on to one of them, and no sooner were my hands there but he was threading the rope around my wrist and onto the rail. He tied me tight and fast with a skill that made my stomach dance.
    He glanced at my face as he finished the first hand. “I still remember what ‘no’ means for you.”
    “You just surprise me is all,” I said. “You acted in Rapid City like you hadn't done much of this kind of thing.”
    “I have, but only with one person, and we pretty much made our own rules. I don't know quite what you expect. It feels like starting over to me.”
    He moved around to the other side of me and began to bind the other hand. “Well, I have only played around with this stuff. There were a few tense moments a couple times, so yeah, I don't court it.” He glanced at me again, and I glared. “I didn't say stop. And anyway, you're different.”
    That, I realized too late, had been a stupid thing to say, but he fussed over that confession less than I would have figured. “Because I'm your boss?”
    “Thought you said that was Tory,” I shot back, but I had to work to make it come out grumpy.
    I wasn't ready for him to grab the back of my head, pull it back and come down on my mouth like he was going to take it over. It was so strong and so unexpected that I just sort of melted and let him dive into me. When he finally lifted his head, I was really hard.
    He nipped at my bottom lip. “I'm your boss today, boy.”
    That made me buzz. “Yes, Mr. Loving.”
    He nipped me again, then ducked under my arms and sat down on the bench between them. He grabbed my hips, and I came forward to straddle him, hands still lashed to the sides of the tub. After plunking me on his lap, he let his eyes wander over me, and his fingers wandered all over my chest.
    “You have questions all over your face,” he said at last. “I want to hear them.”
    Fucking hell. Him and his talking.
    “Not so much questions as things I don't get,” I said. “Like how sometimes you seem so nice-guy, and now here you are a real kinky bastard who has a bag full of toys and dreams of sticking his arm up my ass.”
    He looked almost disappointed. “Really? You have a hard time believing I could be both?” His tone said that he would have expected better of me.
    “I don't mean it like that,” I said hurriedly. “I meant that you seem like you're innocent. And then you're so nasty.” I realized I really hadn't altered my statement much. “Forget it.”
    He kept stroking my skin, his fingers grazing my nipples more than they didn't. “That was one of the reasons I didn't want to get another teaching