Free Awakening by Gillian Colbert, Elene Sallinger Page B

dangled over her breasts. It was short, maybe two feet in length. He took the ends of the rope and began to stroke her nipples with them. The rope was made of some kind of white silk, but felt rough and coarse where the ends had been sealed to prevent fraying. Her nipples, already hard, stiffened even further and jutted out from her body. He pinched them, still keeping the rope in play. She moaned as white heat lanced through her. Sensation flooded her, sending every inch of her body into high alert.
    ‘What do you want me to do with this rope?’ He repeated the question as he rolled her nipples, never letting the rope drop.
    Claire bit her lip as the words he wanted to hear leapt to her tongue. She couldn’t. She wasn’t ready.
    ‘Answer me.’ He pinched harder, bringing her to the edge of pain and causing her to jerk sharply.
    A tear slowly slipped down Claire’s cheek as she gave him the words he’d known were inside her. She knew he’d hurt her, knew he’d use his power over her to humiliate her, but she couldn’t deny the truth inside her.
    ‘I want you to tie me up.’
    ‘Good girl.’ He tipped her chin up and around and gently kissed her. She inhaled his scent of clean soap and warm male deeply into her lungs before he murmured against her mouth, ‘Hold out your wrists, so I can bind them.’
    Icy fear shot through Claire. She understood what he was doing. It wasn’t enough to wring the admission from her; she had to offer herself up for binding as well. Her eyes shot to his face, desperate to see him, to gain some reassurance from him before doing so, but the candlelight still danced over him, moving the shadows and giving her no ability to focus clearly.
    ‘Claire,’ he admonished her.
    Summoning every ounce of inner strength she had, Claire held her arms out with her wrists stacked on top of each other, closed her eyes, and waited. She felt him move around to stand in front of her and flinched as the rope wrapped around her wrists. Felt the soft push and pull as he placed the knots that would bind her. Felt a hard tug as something cold and hard whispered over her skin, and then shot her arms over her head.
    Claire’s eyes popped open, and she cried out as realisation hit her. He’d attached her to a hook that dangled over her head. He well and truly had her at his mercy now. Panic flooded her, racing through her veins and clenching her muscles. She yanked and pulled, fighting to flee. Sweat blossomed over her skin from her futile attempts to release her hands.
    ‘Claire! Look at me!’ he demanded, but she refused. There would be no reassurance there. Two sharp smacks on her ass broke through her terror and snapped her gaze to his. Warm brown eyes broke through the flow of light and seared through her. As she relaxed, the sting in both cheeks diffused across her skin into a pleasant heat as he stroked her with a work-roughened palm.
    ‘Trust me.’
    Tears ran down Claire’s face as she struggled to calm her racing heart. She closed her eyes tightly and focused on the touch of his hand. He continued to stroke her ass in gentle circles that dipped lower with each orbit until finally coming to rest between her legs, where he stroked into her wetness and penetrated her with his fingers. The rough push and pull created a pulsing heat that radiated out from the centre of her body.
    ‘I can do anything I want to you now. Anything at all. Can’t I?’
    The tears flowed harder, but she nodded nonetheless. With his other hand he began to knead and shape her breasts, paying both equal attention. The pleasure he was causing her shocked her, given the circumstances. Her body wasn’t shocked, though, and was rapidly building toward a peak of sensation.
    ‘That’s what you’re really afraid of. Isn’t it? What I might do to you. How I might use you?’
    Claire nodded.
    He leant in and licked up her neck as he continued to plunder her folds. The warm, wet slide of his tongue followed by a quick nip