Page 70 of Border Control

“It is indeed.” Crouching lower, my heels grinding loose flakes of concrete, I lean against his right arm and chest a little. The pressure should remind him I’m here. Dangling the black silk over his upper arm and shoulder, I drag it across his whole scales, staying away from the healing ones.

His sharp intake of breath coupled with the way his scales ripple outward tells me he likes it, but I need to be sure. “How’s that?”

“Good,” he breathes.

“Wonderful. Now. This is what I want to do. I’d like to blindfold you with this, and wrap the chain around your hands behind your back. I’m not going to lock it there, and you’ll be able to get free and take off the blindfold any time you want.”

“Then… then what?”

“I’m going to tease you. Touch you in different ways until you tell me you’ve had enough. How does that sound?”

Dom’s eager face tips up. Breathless, he says, “It sounds perfect.”

“Glad you think so.” Standing up, I drag the short length of chain from the gate over. Each link feels alternatively slick andsharp from being out in the weather, cold and smooth with rust hiding in the joins between the links. “Do you want to put your arms behind your back for me?”

He obeys, and I wrap the metal around his wrists, the clink and clank ringing against the walls. I press the ends into his hands. “Hold on to these tight. Remember, you can let go anytime you need to.”

He nods once, heartbeats fluttering in his throat.

“But I’d like you to hold onto it for as long as you’re comfortable. See how much you can take before you have to release. You have to submit to me, fully.” I almost don’t recognize the words I’m saying, and yet I do. This is what I want to explore, and find the edges of, my own limits. How far can I take it? How much pleasure can I subject him to before he comes undone?

Taking the blindfold, I hover it over his forehead. I sink down again, leaning against his chest, feeling him counterbalance me to resist my weight pushing him over. His nostrils flare, his grassy scent warm as he breathes out low through his mouth. This is affecting him already. He’s getting to the core of what he needs, giving over control to me.

Now I have to make sure I’m worthy of it. I can do this. I won’t mess up.

I lift the blindfold in front of his face, so he can see it. He allows me to rest it against his eyes, and the silk whispers as I tie it behind his head, little tufts of his thick brown hair sliding out from underneath. He takes a low shuddering breath as I rob him of his sight, his hearts pounding against me. He’s getting heated already, and only from a little touch.

My touch. A flicker of heat builds inside me, matching each of Dom’s panted breaths.

Still leaning against him, I trail a finger down his neck and to the middle of his chest. A low moan escapes his throat, zinging straight to my core. I love that sound.

“Remember, Dom,” I whisper in his ear. “If you let me go past one of your boundaries, I'll be incredibly upset with you.”

“Yes, Law-rah.” I expected his voice to be choked, but each quiet word from his trembling mouth is measured. His skin heats, scales soft beneath me.

“Now. What shall I do with you?”

Anticipation itches under his scales.‘Arik would have whipped me senseless by now.’

I take his chin. “But I'm not Arik.”

He squirms. It's delicious. “I'm sorry, Law-rah?—”

I can’t help myself anymore. I capture his lips, stroking them with my own. He moans in my mouth and I move closer, wrapping my arms around his neck, arching into him. His muscles tense as he pushes back, keeping us upright.

Here, now, I can let go. I can be someone other than Laura Thomas, senior partner and lead in the Accu-care inquiry. Whoever she is, she kisses like a demon, seizing the alien’s soul in a single breath.

Dom’s moans turn urgent, and I pull back. We gulp each other’s air, beads of sweat trickling down from underneath the blindfold. Mm. Lickable.

So I do, tracing my tongue from the edge of his lips up his cheeks along the tiny bumps of his scales and up to his temples. Salt and mint floods into my mouth, and I let out a moan of my own. That sets Dom off, his legs widening, and I sink deeper into the safe harbor of his thighs. Inside, his mind pulses, surging in waves between us. Pink coils of longing, lust, and hot desire. They curl around me, wrapping tight, not suffocating but anchoring—like he’s holding me steady even as the tide of his need crashes higher.

Dom’s shoulders and arms quiver, but as soon as I notice them, they still as he tenses them behind himself.

“How are you doing?” I check in with him.

“I… I… Yes,” he says.

“Is this good? Lavender time?”