Page 81 of Carnal Urges

DECLAN

I set her down next to the shower, tell her to stay where I’ve put her, then get a pair of scissors from one of the drawers under the sink. I use them to cut the remains of her shredded shirt from around her wrists and the handcuffs, put the scissors aside and pull off her panties, then turn on the shower.

I strip.

She watches me remove the rest of my clothing with a wild look in her eyes. The pulse in the side of her throat hammers. She looks like she might bolt any second.

But she remains still and silent. Beautiful and bound. My brave hellcat Venus in chains.

My dick is so hard for her.

She looks at it with wide, greedy eyes. “Thank god.”

“For what?”

“Never mind.”

I pull her against my chest and kiss her, wrapping a hand around her throat and fisting the other in her hair. The shiver of pleasure that runs through her body makes me feel ravenous.

I say, “Here are the rules.”

Her laugh is throaty and scornful. She stops laughing when I slap her bare arse.

“The rules,” I begin again, relishing the small, involuntary moan that slipped from her lips when I spanked her. “Number one: total obedience, or you’ll be punished. And not in the good way.”

Her eyes are machetes. Revving chain saws. Sharpened swords held aloft with a battle cry. I wouldn’t expect anything less.

“Number two: total honesty. If I ask you if you like something I’m doing, I expect an honest answer. If you don’t like it, if you’re uncomfortable or unsure, tell me. This isn’t about me. It’s about us. It has to work for both of us, or it isn’t a turn-on for me. I don’t want to do anything you don’t like.”

The fury in her eyes cools. It’s replaced with a sweet sort of hesitancy, like she hopes I’m telling the truth but can’t decide if I am or not.

My voice softer, I say, “Number three: total trust.”

She swallows. A panicked look replaces the hesitant one.

“I know that will be the hardest for you. Even more than you hate to be told what to do, you hate being vulnerable. Correct?”

After a moment, she nods.

She looks truly frightened now, the first time I’ve seen this from her. Kidnap her in a blaze of gunfire or tell her there’s a good chance she could die from a brain clot, no big deal. But ask her to open her heart, even for a night, and she reacts like a cornered wolf.

I wrap my arms around her and hold her tight. “It’s the same for me. The exact same. That’s why you have my word I’ll earn that trust and never break it.”

“You can’t promise that. You can’t say ‘never’ and mean it.”

Stroking her hair away from her face, I say, “I can. And I do. But if you can’t trust me, I understand. All this will end now if you want it to.”

I lower my head and kiss her gently. “You’re the one in control here, lass. We’d just be pretending otherwise for a while.”

She searches my face for any sign of dishonesty. “Trust, huh?”

“Aye.”

“And honesty?”

“Aye.”

“Okay. You go first. Do you really think I look like a camel?”