She looked at it fully for the first time as he carried it toward where she stood. She saw that the seat wasn’t really a traditional seat, but instead two wide pieces of supple leather with about a two-and-a-half-inch-wide empty space between them. The leather strips were suspended about nine inches off the floor by a frame. The frame was on both sides, but the center portion of the stool was open. Dylan set the stool on the rug before her, and the front of it bounced ever so lightly, indicating there was a spring to the structure. Alice had thought the frame was made of wood before, but now she realized it was metal painted to match the brown of the leather.
She stared up at Dylan bemusedly.
“It’s designed to be used for sex,” he stated bluntly. “I’m going to have you sit on it and restrain you.”
Alice blinked. “And then what?”
He shrugged, his sexy smile lingering. “What else? I’m going to make love to you.”
“You mean you’re going to torture me, don’t you?” she asked suspiciously, even though her breath had grown choppy with excitement.
“I’m going to have you at my mercy,” he corrected quietly as he reached around her back and began to lower her zipper. The dipping of his hand coincided with the delicious sinking sensation of arousal in her belly and sex. “I’m going to punish you a little. I’m going to ask you to trust me enough to give me control, and I’m going to make you feel very good. Does that sound like torture to you?”
He swept the thin straps of her dress over her shoulders and the fabric fell to her waist. Dylan moved his hands along the side of her rib cage, making her skin roughen and her nipples tighten. He cradled her breasts and whisked his thumbs over her nipples, watching his actions the whole time.
“God, you’re beautiful. I’ve been waiting to do that all night,” he said, a slight snarl shaping his mouth as he stared at her breasts in his hands. He pinched her nipples lightly. She tightened her thighs to ease the sudden sharp ache that flared at her sex. “Answer me, Alice,” he insisted, because her lungs had frozen at his touch. “Does my plan sound like torture?”
“Maybe a little,” she admitted. He continued to play with her breasts, and she shivered in pleasure. She trusted being in his hands. She loved it. “But for the most part, it sounds really dirty. And potentially extremely nice,” she added very quietly.
His gaze zoomed to meet hers. She gave a dubious shrug, and he smiled, the flash of white teeth against his face breathtaking and a little dangerous. Her heart leapt beneath his stroking, knowing fingers, but then he was dropping his hands.
“Take off your dress and panties then,” he directed. He waited for her to follow his instruction, his gaze unwavering.
She swept the dress down and off in an instant. It’d been exciting to be nearly naked beneath the sensual, soft fabric all night, but it was exponentially more thrilling to take it off while
Dylan watched her like a hawk. She laid the dress on the upholstered bench at the foot of his bed and turned back to him. He glanced down pointedly at her silk briefs, and she obligingly drew the panties down and stepped out of them, tossing them on top of her dress. When she turned back to Dylan, he hadn’t moved. Alice felt her heart expanding until it felt like it was pressing against her rib cage, his stare on her was so hot.
So possessive.
Surely he was about to throw her down on the bed and ravish her.
Instead, he blinked once and turned away.
From inside a bedside chest of drawers, he withdrew several cuffs. As he walked toward Alice, she saw that they were different than the ones he’d put on her the other night to restrain her arms to the bed. First of all, there were four of them. They each contained a padded leather wristlet or anklet portion attached to an adjustable strap. Alice eyed them with mounting anxious excitement as Dylan placed the restraints on the bed and swiftly removed his suit jacket, tossing it aside. He glanced over at her as he began to remove his cuff links from his shirt.
“Come here,” he said.
He seemed very stern all of a sudden, and Alice experienced a flash of shyness walking toward him naked. It escalated her arousal. Everything felt very exposed and vulnerable, her thighs and belly and breasts. Her mind. Her nipples tightened in a rush, resulting in a slight pinching sensation. She paused a foot away from him, watching warily as he loosened his tie. She wished he’d look at her with that amused, warm gleam in his eyes that she often saw mixing with his raw lust. But he was different tonight, his authority and seriousness somehow just as natural and exciting as his fondness and undisguised lust as he’d sexually guided her in the past.
He dragged his gaze off her and turned away. He withdrew something else from that forbidden treasure chest next to the bed and slammed the drawer shut.
Alice’s eyes widened when he placed her new crop on the bed next to the restraints. Arousal shot through her like a jolt of adrenaline mainlined into her blood. It had embarrassed her, how wild she’d become when he spanked her the other night, how she’d transformed into a hedonistic wild thing she barely recognized.
Just the vision of the crop brought it all back in a rush. This was more serious, though. It looked like it’d sting. She resisted an urge to touch her ass. The nerves already seemed to prickle, as if in anticipation of what was to come.
“So that you know what’s going to happen before you agree to let me restrain you,” Dylan said, nodding pointedly at the crop. He unfastened his shirt and whipped it off his shoulders with a distracting flex of bulging muscle and gleam of smooth skin. The truth struck her full force. He was strong—much more powerful than her. He could subdue her anytime he chose. Instead, Dylan was asking her to give him the reins of her own free will, to trust him enough to submit, to understand he would keep her safe while she did.
The idea made her anxious, but aroused her almost unbearably as well.
She ate up the vision of his naked torso while her pulse began to throb at her throat. He reached for one of the restraints and held it up expectantly, his dark, sleek brows arched in a silent question.
Alice licked her lower lip nervously, eyeing the crop, and held out her wrist.
SEVENTEEN
The cuffs were made of padded leather, supple and strong. There were silver loops and hook fasteners on them. Dylan stood after attaching the last two to her ankles, his hooded gaze moving slowly over her as she stood there wearing only the four cuffs. She almost said something joking to lighten the intensity of the moment, but then saw his jaw clench with tension. Her ability for sarcastic flippancy evaporated. He took her hand and led her over to the stool.
He’d said it was designed for sex, but she only understood dimly what that entailed. “Sit down on the front part,” he said, and Alice realized she was about to find out.