Love and Let Die (Masters and Mercenaries #5)(52)

God, she hoped she didn’t freak out and make an idiot of herself. Was it going to hurt? Would she burn before he could put the flames out? She had to make sure she didn’t scream.

“The truth of the matter is, fire play is a very effective mind f*ck. If you can’t tell, the sub is terrified. I would bet her mind is playing through a million scenarios of how this is going to go and some of them aren’t good. Is the adrenaline flowing, love?”

Oh, yes it was. It was thrumming through her system. That was supposed to be the high of extreme play, the rush a sub got off it. She’d read some about it, but she and Ian had spent most of their time together in bed. He’d introduced her to impact play and bondage, but mostly he’d made love to her and talked to her and held her.

It was only a couple of months of her life. When she really looked at it, it was an inconsequential amount of days compared to all that had come before and after it, but those weeks had changed the course of everything. Those weeks with Ian had taught her the difference between surviving and living.

It wasn’t just adrenaline flowing through her. It was hope. He was here and she was here and she would use this experience to bind them together. “Yes, Sir. I’m both scared and a little curious.”

“That’s exactly what I want to hear.”

She heard the crack of the violet wand being turned on. She looked up, though she didn’t raise her head. Moving was a definite no no. He had attached the mushroom-shaped glass head to the violet wand. Purple light sparked from the head where he ran it over his own skin. “I like to warm the sub up a little. I thought I would use the wand on her. This is one toy she has used before.”

One night in Paris. He’d introduced her to the violet wand. She’d been afraid at first and then she quickly grew to love the sensation. He had kissed her while she held the wand in her hand, sparks flaring from her tongue to his. Like they were a live wire waiting to go off.

She closed her eyes as the sound hit her first. The sound of electricity, of man-made lightning. Then the faintest whiff of ozone hit her nose. Then her skin was sparking in the most delicious way as Ian ran the wand over her torso. The sensation of bubbles playing along her flesh made her smile.

“This is on a low setting. Charlie enjoys a bite of pain, but she isn’t a pain slut. If I give her too much, I’m likely to get it returned to me,” Ian said with a self-deprecating laugh. “But don’t let it be said I’m too kind to my subs.”

She heard the change in the wand and then fought not to come off the table as he ran the damn thing over her labia. A little burn started and then the sensation intensified. He moved on to her thighs, but her * was definitely awake and alive now.

Charlie focused on the sensation. Ian seemed determined to not leave an inch of skin untouched. He turned the wand up so the lightest burn scraped across her. It brought her warmth where she’d been cold before.

He pulled the wand back and she missed its bite.

“The trick with flash cotton is that you have to make absolutely sure you’ve gotten rid of all the bunched-up pieces. You want flash cotton to be thin, spider web like. If you leave too much together, it could burn the sub. So the first thing the Dominant partner has to remember is to fully part the cotton.”

His big hands went to work on the mound of flash cotton. In no time at all he had pulled it apart so it resembled a filmy spider web. He separated a piece of the cotton about the size of his palm and held it up. “This should work for our first demonstration. I like to call it mound o’fire.”

Ian’s friends all groaned, but Charlie was trying to figure out if he was about to place that cotton on her *. She breathed a quick sigh of relief as he covered her right breast with the stuff. Her skin already sensitized by the wand, she could feel every tiny movement as he adjusted the thin, filmy material.

He was really going to do it. He was going to light that cotton on fire and it was going to burn her. Right? Surely it would burn. That was what fire did. Yet she knew this was a perfectly acceptable form of play in the BDSM world. She hadn’t seen a bunch of torched subs running around so it was only rational to come to the conclusion that she would be okay.

But her lizard brain was telling her to punch Ian, jump off the table and run away.

Ian looked down at her, those gorgeous lips of his curled up in a sexy smirk. “Scared?”

Asshole. “Yes.”

“Good, because I’m going to light you up, baby.” He held the violet wand up like it was a torch, the electric sound blotting out the murmurs around her.

Her heart was pounding, almost beating out of her chest. That was what she heard—the sound of the wand and her own loud heart.

Inside, she was shaking, but outside she kept completely still like that cotton on her breast was a spider and it would strike if she moved a single inch.

Then it started. Purple sparks flew from the wand to the cotton and she was on fire. It started at the outer edge, and red and orange flames marched a quick step across her breast, leaving a warm heat trail that fanned over her. She watched with a mix of horror and fascination as the fire flared, and then as quickly as it came, it was gone and she was left with nothing but a warm sensation and a crazy endorphin rush.

She laughed, a wild urge she couldn’t contain. She’d been so afraid, and now that fear morphed into joy.

Ian looked down at her, his previous smirk softening into a smile that showed those creases on his face. “That’s why they call it a mind f*ck, baby.” He turned back to his audience. “Now, let me show you how to form some fun patterns. You start with the flash cotton.”