Dark Notes(100)

A flush spreads from her neck to her chest, and I bet it travels further down and licks her sweet * like a hot, wet kiss. She wants what I offer more than she dreads it.

She stomps out of the kitchen. I pour another cup of coffee.

Her needs, desires, and fears run deep. So deep she could easily lose her way in the darkness. She needs a rope, not one that tethers her to her horrific past, but a strong, unbreakable line to guide her forward. The bindings might hold her down, but I’m pulling the other end.

I’ll never let go.

With Schubert at my feet, I make him a plate of leftover chicken, grinning at the memory of Ivory’s stern tone when she moved in. No table scraps, Emeric!

Sitting the cat in my lap, I let him lap at the dish of chicken on the island. It’s a harmless secret between Schubert and me.

I scratch his neck while he eats and enjoy my coffee. When he’s finished, I take a shower and throw on a pair of jeans. Then I grab my favorite belt, a length of rope, and find her waiting for me in the music room.

Naked and bent over the keyboard of the piano, she rests her palms on the lid beside the cuffs. Exactly as I instructed. Her feistiness might be my fuel, but her obedience is my f*cking fire.

Without speaking, I lock her wrists in the shackles and use the rope to tie a simple breast harness around her chest, making sure the vertical sections press against her nipples. She watches me with huge brown eyes, her curiosity momentarily outweighing her anger.

Once her full tits are trussed up, I tighten the straps, cinching her against the piano until her chest brushes the keyboard.

When I take my position behind her, the erotic view poises my arousal on the cusp of detonation.

In teasing strokes, I trace the belt across the perfect rise of her ass. “What are the first rules I taught you?”

With her cheek pressed to the surface of the piano, her lips push out in a heavy sigh. “No lies. Don’t question your methods. Never look away.” She cranes her neck to glare at me. “And always call you out for being a dick.”

I swing the belt, my cock throbbing painfully at the sound of her yelp. “Apologize.”

“Fuck off. That’s my rule, and it stays. Whatever you’re doing with that woman…” Her chin quivers, her voice a pissed-off snarl. “You’re a dick.”

I stifle my grin and give her another hard whack. “You just doubled your strikes. Tell me what was going through your stubborn f*cking head when you answered the door.”

“I checked through the window first. I’ve never seen her before. Not at school or—”

“Are you sure about that? Can you identify every parent of every student?”

She squeezes her eyes shut and groans. “No.”

“You f*cked up.”

“Yeah.”

“No unnecessary risks, Ivory.”

“Okay.” She rocks her hips.

I let the belt fly, tapping, whipping, and pounding her ass like a drum, every strike filling the room with her musical moans.

When her backside glows hot and red, I bend over the curve of her spine, tightly embrace her slender torso, and let her feel me breathing with her. My lips touch her shoulder, and her inhale stutters. I cup her breast, pinching the rope around her nipple, and she grinds her fevered ass against my trapped cock.

I hold her there, caressing and kissing, until her breaths fall into rhythm with mine. “When I met Deb over the summer, she had some financial problems. I paid off her debt, and she did a few favors for me. Our relationship was physical, practical, and convenient.” I lick the soft skin on her neck, stroking her ear with a murmuring tone. “We haven’t been intimate since school began.”

She nods, her entire body lifting toward my voice, shivering beneath my lips, and purring for my touch. “Imagining you with her makes me feel really twisted up.”

Welcome to my world. With the belt in my grip, I tease her with it, dragging the leather up and down the V of her inner thighs. “You’ll never see her again.”

“Thank God.”

I release her abruptly and step back. “I, on the other hand, have to spend hours every day with Prescott, Sebastian, and all the other pricks who have touched you.”

“Shit.” She closes her eyes. “I never thought of that.”

I swing the belt again, over and over without pause. She tenses, whimpers, and jerks in the restraints. My cock throbs with the sound of every hard blow, my focus locked on the wriggle of her beautiful ass as I alternate between her cheeks, thighs, and the sides of her legs.

Within minutes, she sinks into the pain, her muscles relaxing, all that smooth golden skin a canvas of pink stripes.

Each snap of welting heat is a reminder she’s not the only one who feels jealous, possessive, and twisted up. But there’s a deeper purpose for the pain. It gives her the power to open her mind. To mend emotional injuries inflicted by men who used her. To put all her fears in my hands, trusting me to protect her.

“Please, Emeric.” She bends her neck to see me, her eyes half-mast and clouded in a fog of agony and pleasure.

Her pleading look and the hungry rush of her breaths jolts a primal current through me. I love f*cking her, but nothing compares to this moment as she begs with a hooded expression, her fingers curling against the shackles, and her arousal leaking down her thighs.

I grip the rope at her back and tighten the harness over her nipples, stimulating her until she releases a husky moan. Then I flog her again, harder, faster, relishing the bond in our eye contact.