Electric Engagement (2 page)

Ryan had her completely at his mercy, and she tumbled into his command. It was always like this with him. Sure, she talked big, but they both knew Ryan was more of a bad-ass than she’d ever be. Yet he accepted her just as she was.

The flow of energy arced to her nipple once more and she flinched away, whimpering. It was as though the charge to her breast went straight to her clit. The little bundle of nerves throbbed in time to her heartbeat, pulsing a mile a minute.

Ryan placed a hand to her chest, pushing her against the ropes, limiting her movement. He held her gaze as he waved the wand slowly over her other breast. He groaned and his gaze narrowed as if he felt it as well.

She sucked in a breath and writhed against her bonds, vaguely aware she was babbling curses at him. The wand hurt so good. It knocked the sensible part of her brain on its ass, freeing her to feel and react. Her mind sailed into the blissful expanse of subspace, where feeling was living, the world was light, sound and color, and Ryan her anchor to reality.

“Shhh.” Ryan stroked her face with both hands, feathering kisses over her brow, cheeks and lips. He could be such a hard-ass sometimes, and then there were these moments, when he was so tender she didn’t know how to react or what to do.

Carla whimpered and leaned in to him, wanting his warmth. He wrapped his arms around her, giving comfort amidst the sensual torture. She rested her head against his shoulder and inhaled the cologne she’d bought for him a few weeks ago. She hadn’t been able to wait for Christmas to give it to him, because she’d known it was one of those small luxuries he wouldn’t buy for himself. He nuzzled the side of her face and dropped a kiss on her temple.

He tapped her chin with his knuckle, a silent order to straighten. She inhaled, gathering what she could of her wits, and obeyed despite her muscles protesting.

When did he put the wand down?

She didn’t know, but the silence of the house was almost eerie. Or might have been had the Christmas carols not been starting up once more from next door.

“Hmm.” Ryan ducked through the ropes again. Something dragged across the floor, heading away from her.

What is he doing?

Carla peered over her shoulder, but the lights over the mantel weren’t enough for her to make out what he was doing. She could see his general shape, the broadness of his shoulders. Damn, but she wanted to bite him. If he came close enough, she just might.

Ryan turned toward her. Something glinted in his right hand.

Oh dear...

She remembered that knife. The blade alone was a foot long. He’d used it to cut away her clothes once, so she was well aware of just how sharp it was.

A tremor of lust-ridden fear shot down her spine and a fresh wave of arousal flooded her pussy. Her breath came faster and she shifted on her feet.

“You like my knives?” he asked.

“Yes, Sir.” The memories of the last knife he’d used on her sent a shiver down her spine. The things this man did to her body were delicious and evil.

Ryan stood behind her, so close she could feel his warmth. He placed the flat of the blade at her wrist, just below the rope, and scraped it down her arm. Not hard enough to leave marks—a pity—but enough for her to feel the danger.

Carla held still as the blade traveled over her shoulders and up her other arm. His gaze never left her. The pressure never shifted, though she wanted him to press harder. She craved the marks. Wanted to admire them, lie in bed at night and trace them with her fingers, know he’d given them to her because she’d asked him to.

The blade lifted from her skin. She let her head drop forward and waited for whatever wonderful torments Ryan had in store for her next. He’d made sure to sensitize her skin. The wand, the knife—they were both to heighten her awareness. Even the bite of chill in the air seemed to have more teeth, but she still craved his knife.

Once the idea of knives had terrified her. The thought of allowing someone to put the business end of a blade against her skin should still scare her. But that had been before Ryan. Before her wonderful, pain-in-the-ass Dom. Now she waited for the edge of steel as she’d await the kiss of her lover.

A hard
thwack
landed across her shoulders, knocking her forward. She grunted and gripped the ropes holding her arms up tighter. Ryan slapped her upper back with the flat of the blade, not too hard. She’d discovered the allure of knives was their potential danger. In the right hands, they weren’t a threat. Ryan wouldn’t mark her unless he intended to, and then it was only where she allowed him to.

He popped her ass with his hand, pulling her concentration off her upper body. She rocked forward, moaning a little as heat spread across her backside. She barely resisted asking for seconds.

“You have to be very still,” he whispered into her ear.

Carla nodded and relaxed, leaning against him, or as much as the rope would allow it. She could feel his breathing, the bunch and relax of his muscles as he placed the large knife down on something just outside her peripheral vision. She heard the scrape of the metal on wood and wondered what new toy he was picking up. He had a few wickedly sharp knives that—

Her breath stuttered to a stop in her throat as he drew a stainless steel tip across her collarbone. The edge was so sharp even the whisper of a touch was enough to part skin cells. He didn’t cut her, but she felt a slight burn that had her toes curling in anticipation.

Don’t move. Don’t move. Don’t move.

Carla held her breath until he finished drawing the line across her chest. She was so dizzy with want she was practically hanging from the ropes now.

“That’s my girl,” he muttered. Something about those words made her want to preen.

She was
his
girl.

His.

No one else’s.

She glanced down, barely able to make out the angry red trail in the dim light. Her heart clenched and she knew that the marking would stay with her for at least a week, if not longer. She’d be wearing a sweater to teach in for a while, but the classrooms were cold. No one would notice.

“Thank you, Sir.” Adrenaline had her panting, endorphins flooding her system.

Ryan stepped through the ropes and cupped her face with his hand. The roughness of his skin grounded her. He studied her for several moments. She pushed her cheek into his palm and closed her eyes, loving this mix of tender attention and unforgiving demands. The complexity that was Ryan. Her Sir.

It used to unnerve her how he’d study her. Months ago, she’d have pushed him to hurry up, to get on with his bad self, but as they’d stripped away the barriers between them, she’d grown to cherish these quiet moments when he really saw her for who and what she was.

A woman once broken, on the mend and pushing forward with her life.

“Tell me why you like this.” He traced the mark he’d left with a finger.

Carla hissed at his touch. Yup, he’d definitely left a mark.

“Why?” she asked. She blinked at him. Didn’t he know?

“Answer me.” His hold turned hard. He held her jaw in his big hand and glared at her.

Words slipped through her mind like water over stones. She couldn’t capture the ones she needed to save her life. What she wouldn’t give for the chance to open her heart and just show him.

Carla spoke in a rush, trying to put emotions into words that didn’t quite fit. “B-because when you aren’t here it gives me something to remember you by. Something no one else can ever have, because it’s on my body. Sir.”

Ryan released her and stepped back. The shadows disguised his features so she couldn’t discern his thoughts. He’d accepted her occasional jealous streak, so long as she owned up to it, and he’d never begrudged her perceived neediness, even laughing it off as normal. Had her answer displeased him this time?

She wiggled her shoulders and focused on the feel of rope holding her, the burn and sting of his marks. Her tactile memories of tonight would have to last her through the holiday visits with family that started tomorrow now that school was out.

Ryan folded the straight razor and shoved it in his back pocket. He cupped her face with both hands and laid his lips against hers. She sighed, craving his touch, and kissed him back. Her toes curled as he suckled her bottom lip and gently bit down. He slid one hand into her hair and dug his fingers between the strands until he had a good grip. Carla’s body was nearly limp. She was his plaything. Completely at his mercy.

He pulled her hair, tipping her head back, and kissed down her throat to the mark he’d left.

Oh, God, she wanted his hands on her. Everywhere. Early on, when they’d begun to play, he’d started with his hands and they’d quickly tumbled into bed. Now he used toys, keeping his hands and control firmly in check.

Her pussy clenched in anticipation. He might push and challenge her, but deep down she knew he loved her.

Why aren’t we fucking already?

She couldn’t remember.

Ryan leaned through the ropes and grabbed something from behind her again, but hid it with his body before she could see whatever toy he’d selected. He studied her face again, his brows drawn slightly down, a little wrinkle marring his forehead.

“I was going to use the butterfly knife, but I think you prefer the straight razor. Is that correct?” he asked, his gaze intent on her.

“Yes, Sir.” She nodded.

The butterfly was as dull as a butter knife. It had freaked her out, at least until she knew it just a pretty piece.

Carla craved the bite of the blade.

He kissed her, a gentle touch of his lips to hers.

“That pleases me,” he said.

Remember, you asked for this. Oh, fuck. What was I thinking?

Carla shuffled her feet and watched as Ryan brought the violet wand out from behind his back. She gasped and threw her bodyweight against the ropes, drawing on the last reserves of her strength, because holy hell—

“What the hell are you going to do with that?” she asked.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Ryan chuckled and turned the dial on the wand until the dildo-shaped electrode glowed a brilliant purple.

Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit.

Right.

She’d asked him to play her with electricity and knives, somehow thinking that her newfound love of steel would help her to get over the zap. This was not what she’d had in mind.

While she was busy staring at the purple glowing dildo, Ryan flicked the straight razor open and ran it up her arm toward her shoulder. She flinched and hissed, glancing between the two implements, unsure of which she should be more apprehensive of.

He continued the line down her other arm and stood back to study his work. The hum of the wand was a constant reminder that he had something else in store for her. The knives weren’t the only thing they had going for them. Ryan crisscrossed her body with the razor, sometimes using the dull side, sometimes the sharp, until she flinched and sucked in a breath at either. She couldn’t see any redness, any indication that he was actually marking her, but she felt it.

Carla let her eyes close and her head sag forward. Her heart raced, nearly exploding in her chest.  She’d be sore for days and have marks for weeks.

Silence.

Did she want to know what he intended to do with the wand?

“Don’t forget you asked for it.”

“Huh?” It was a struggle to pick up her head. She gulped, afraid to move.

Ryan slowly brought the tip of the violet wand to kiss the peak of her left nipple. The hum turned into a small zap and the purple light intensified. Carla squirmed as much as she could, but there was no getting away from it, no matter how much she tried.

She froze, feeling rooted to the spot.

Stop. No, keep going.

Carla didn’t know what she wanted him to do.

Ryan lifted the blade until it almost touched her other nipple. Electricity arced from the wand to the sensitive bundle of nerves on one breast, through her chest and out through the other nipple, jumping to the blade. It felt as though he’d touched her spirit, branded her heart and marked her all at once.

Carla tossed her head back and screamed. Her nerves were practically vibrating, almost as if she were being sliced open, yet he was inside her on a spiritual level, conducting her pleasure, pushing her outside her comfort zone.

“Fuck you,” she sobbed between breaths.

She’d never felt anything so intense, so toe-curling. And yet Ryan wasn’t leaving a single mark behind as the wand and knife played havoc on her nerve endings.

He knelt, bringing the wand down one leg and the knife down the other.

Carla wiggled in place, the delicate tendons and ligaments in her ankles and feet twitching as electricity surged through her left foot.

Ryan pulled back, relieving her of the electricity as he switched hands. “Fuck, you’re beautiful under my knife.”

“Fuck you,” she spat.

He merely chuckled and turned the wand up a notch higher.

Carla trembled and bit her lip as he brought the wand back into contact with her skin while drawing little patterns on her with the blade.

“Tell me how this feels.” Ryan reached between her legs and zapped the back of her knees, making her legs go weak and rubbery.

“It hurts so good. Fuck you.” Her voice sounded like a whimper to her ears and her head swam in the haze of her arousal.

“Oh, that can be arranged. You’re awfully wet right now.”

One thick finger passed through her folds and she swallowed her desire to beg him to stop and just fuck her. Begging got her nowhere with this man.

“Perfect,” he muttered. “You can tell me to stop whenever you’d like.”

Not yet.

Carla pried one eye open. The sight of Ryan on his knees in front of her was too rare to miss. He spread her folds with one hand and her heart stopped.

Her mouth screamed
No
, while inside she shouted
Yes
. Her muscles were liquid, the ropes unforgiving, and her strength to fight had vanished.

Ryan touched the head of the dildo electrode to her pussy and her spine went rigid as the charge raced up her core into her body. She sucked in a breath and clenched against the penetration, but she was too wet, too aroused.