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“I can’t believe you came to London,” he said, his voice vibrating with anger.

“I’d have gone farther to find you.”

He paused, his expression stiffening when he heard the quiver in her voice.

“Are you crying?” he asked sharply, studying the back of her head.

“No.”

“Are you in undue pain?”

“No.”

He tightened his hold on the paddle and swatted her ass twice. “This is the first time I’ve punished you without the clitoral stimulant. Perhaps the discomfort is trumping the pleasure,” he said, swinging the paddle back and landing it, snarling at the erotic sight of the blow reverberating through her firm, plump flesh. He grabbed his aching cock through his pants, wincing.

“No, it’s not that,” he heard her say in a muffled voice. She jumped slightly in her kneeling position when he paddled her again.

Curious as to what she meant, he pushed his fingers into the tight crevice of her thighs just above the binding restraint. Warm wetness coated his forefinger. Without making a remark, he withdrew his hand and whacked her ass several more times.

He would never truly control her, because she slayed him every time he tried.

Her ass was red and hot to the touch by the time he’d finished with her. She panted softly, and her cheeks were stained pink when he lifted her from the chest and placed her on her feet. He knelt before her, peeling the black elastic binder off her thighs and then down over her feet.

He unfastened the cuffs. She made a sound of surprise when he looped the elastic binder around her neck and began to work the wide strap down over her breasts. It wasn’t easy, but by the time he’d finished, her beautiful flushed breasts were plumped and displayed just as erotically over the top of the thick binder as her ass had been. He grunted in approval and cuffed her wrists again at her back.

“What are you going to do?” she asked him uncertainly when he picked up a black leather flogger. It was a supple one, meant more to enliven and sting the flesh than to whip and cause pain. He understood the flicker of fear in her tone. He’d never used a flogger on her before.

“Your punishment isn’t finished yet. This is a flogger.” He held it up for her to examine the thin, foot-long, supple straps attached to a leather-bound handle. “Don’t look so fearful . . . it looks more ominous than it is. It’s safe enough, in my hand. It will cause a nice sting and awaken your nerves.”

Her eyes went huge when he lifted it, but she didn’t protest when he brought the leather straps down on the side of a pale breast. “There. Is that too much?” he asked gruffly, pausing to caress and gently squeeze the firm globe. When she didn’t answer, he looked into her face. Her expression was a little helpless, but her eyes glowed with arousal. She shook her head, apparently speechless.

He hid his grim smile and brought down the flogger on her other breast, then back to the other, watching in fascination as the pale globes deepened in color to a pale pink and the nipples grew tight and hard, making his mouth water.

“Do they sting?” he asked her a moment later after he set down the flogger and massaged her breasts in his hands.

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Good. You deserve it,” he murmured. He pinched gently at both of her nipples and she shuddered in pleasure. “If I weren’t so careful of you, I’d be giving you much worse right now for what you dared.”

“For falling in love with you?”

He paused in his lewd squeezing of her breasts and met her stare. She was panting heavier now, causing her flesh to rise and fall subtly in his molding palms.

“No. For nosing into my business and prying into my life.”

For seeing my mother at her most vulnerable . . . for seeing my pain.

“I told you I was sorry, Ian,” she said through flushed pink lips.

“I don’t think you are,” he said, suddenly furious again. He leaned over and seized her lush mouth in a ravaging kiss. All he could think about was burying his cock in her tight, wet pussy and losing himself to the forgetfulness of pure, slamming pleasure. Her breath was warm and sweet as she panted against his lips a moment later.

“You aren’t going to change my mind,” she whispered.

He closed his eyes as if to prevent the rush of feeling that went through him. His desperation mounted.

“We’ll see,” he said, turning her so that he could unfasten her cuffs, his gaze lingering on her still-red ass. He’d paddled her harder than he ever had before, he realized with a stab of regret, but she hadn’t complained, even when he’d given her the chance. And the abundant moisture he’d felt between her thighs had told him loud and clear her arousal was greater than her discomfort.

“Turn around and bend over at the end of the bed. Put your hands on the footboard to brace yourself.”

She followed his instructions without hesitation, leaning over the bed, bent over while standing. She didn’t look around when he approached her from behind, although he sensed her focused curiosity and anxiety.

Sweet, trusting Francesca.

“Don’t be afraid,” he murmured. “This time I will see you submit to pleasure, not pain.”

He turned on the Rabbit vibrator to a low setting and peeled back her buttocks, exposing the entrance to her pussy. His cock jumped, throbbing furiously when he saw how slick the tiny hole was, how glistening her sex lips and entire perineum were from her arousal.

He pushed the vibrator into her vagina all the way. She gasped, and then jumped when he turned on the rabbit ears and they wiggled energetically over her clitoris.