Hands steady, he stabbed the back end of the barbell into one side of the nipple. The front of the bar pierced the other side.
The pain was probably so intense she felt it in the pit of her stomach. But she didn’t scream or fight in the restraints. Her hands balled in the sheets. Her teeth dug into her bottom lip, and the sinews in her neck stretched taut.
Goddamn, she was devastating.
As he repeated the steps on the other nipple, heat simmered beneath his skin. Just imagining the sharp puncture of her sensitive tissues made his cock swell.
It wasn’t a fast pain. He’d never done this before, and each nipple took about a minute to pierce the ruthless rod all the way through.
He thought her stoic composure would snap by the end, but she persevered without crying. Anyone else would’ve screamed bloody murder beneath his inexperienced hands.
When he finished, he put the antiseptic away and pulled off the blindfold.
Her watery eyes went straight to her chest and widened. “Gemstones? Are they garnets?”
“They’re called painites.”
The double-prong barbells held a one-carat precious stone on each end. Four stones in total. He had the pieces custom-made so that her nipples would fit snugly between each pair of deep red gems.
“Fucking beautiful.” He circled a finger around her breast, eliciting a shiver.
She twisted her neck away and stared across the room at nothing.
“If you don’t like the piercings, too damn bad.” He roughly cupped her tender breast, making her gasp. “You will not remove them. Understand?”
“Yes.” Her jaw set.
He turned his attention to the knots and spent the next few minutes untying her. When the rope fell away, so did some of her indignation. She really didn’t like to be restrained.
Scooting to the headboard, she sat with her back against it. Her nipples would be sore for a few days, and though the jewelry wasn’t heavy, it would feel like a constant bite, an ever-present reminder of him.
“Will there be more?” She pulled the sheet over her lap but didn’t try to cover her chest. Instead, she stared down at the piercings with bitter curiosity. “Will you cover my body with jewelry until I look like a pincushion?”
“No more piercings, but there will be needle play in your future.”
She closed her eyes and choked. “Sorry I asked.”
“The second gift is some news I want to share.” He shrugged out of his shirt, grimacing at the tightness in his shoulder.
His shoes and jeans hit the floor next. Then he joined her on the bed.
“I finalized some negotiations today with three of the largest gangs in Caracas.” He leaned his head back against the headboard, watching her sidelong. “I traded some of my smuggling routes for their kidnapping operations.”
She whirled on him, her blue eyes burning. “You promised you wouldn’t kidnap anymore.”
“I keep my promises, Kate.”
“So you gave them your smuggling routes in exchange for…?” Her gaze flicked over his face, her expression etched in confusion. “For their kidnapping operations? What does that even mean?”
“Their territories are now mine. It’s a lot more complicated than that, but the gist is I control the bulk of Kidnap Ally and the surrounding areas. With the exception of a few rogue gangs, I’m the only one who can kidnap in Caracas.”
“Except you don’t do that…” Realization penetrated her voice, soaking the words with stunned tears. “You found a way to stop everyone from kidnapping.”
“Not everyone. But I’m working on it.”
There was the smile he’d hoped to see. It stretched her honeyed mouth, lifted her cheeks, and glistened in her eyes.
“That’s a great fucking surprise, Tiago.” She slid onto his lap, enticingly nude as she straddled his thighs. Her fingers braided through his hair. She touched their foreheads together, and her mouth closed over his gently, briefly. “You did good.”
“Sometimes I do the right thing, but it’s usually by accident.”
“How does it feel?” She ghosted her lips along his jaw and softly sucked behind his ear.
“Keep doing that, and I’ll skip the third gift and show you exactly how it feels.”
“I’m not afraid of you.” She leaned back and coasted a hand along the scar on his head. “The cutting and piercing and all the other pain you put me through really pisses me off. But then you do things that surprise me, like abolishing kidnapping in Caracas. Tell me that good deed doesn’t feel amazing.”
“It feels good to make you happy, Kate.” He stroked a thumb along her bottom lip. “That’s all that matters.”
She made a humming noise and ran her fingers through the messy strands on his head. “You have great hair. Who’s your stylist?”
“She’s a foxy little thing. Likes to put her tits in my face when she’s giving me a trim.”
“She also now knows how to stitch up your next knife wound.”
“Boones taught you that today?”
“He showed me. I haven’t actually held a needle.”