Page 113 of Paladin's Faith

When she turned back, Shane was lying on his back on the bed and no matter how awkward this second time was turning out to be, there was nothing awkward about the picture he made. It was all long bones and hard muscle and those extraordinary blue eyes, which were watching her, puzzled.

“Now, then,” she said. “Grab hold of the headboard. However’s comfortable.”

It was, of course, more wrought iron. Shane clasped it obediently. “All right,” he said, “but what are you—mmf!"

Marguerite straddled his chest and leaned forward. In that position, her breasts would have muffled better men than Shane. She carefully looped the thread around each wrist, leaving plenty of slack, tied them neatly, and then sat back.

Shane, breathing heavily, looked bright-eyed and slightly worse for wear after the time spent in her cleavage. “Um,” he said. “Thread?”

“Thread,” she agreed, looking down at him.

He pursed his lips. “This is a trifle more sophisticated than I’m used to.”

“No, it’s really very simple. If the thread breaks, we stop.”

“Err…” He tested the slack. “Don’t people usually use whips and chains and so forth?”

“Whips are a different thing. I haven’t got any chains.”

“Lord Nallan probably does.” His lips twitched. “I suppose I could go ask.”

“Not without breaking the thread you can’t.” She leaned back on her hands and watched his face carefully.

He swallowed and tested the slack again, then gripped the metal bars harder. “Are you sure? I wanted to please you.”

Marguerite grinned, feeling like the cat who had caught the canary and was about to fuck its brains out. “Oh, you’re going to. Believe me.”

“I…ah…expected I’d be using my hands.”

“My dear paladin, there are a remarkable number of things you can do without using your hands. I’ll show you.” Her grin widened. “Don’t think you’re just going to lay back and think of Archenhold. Just don’t break the thread.”

She actually saw the moment he relaxed. A tension in his arms and the line of his jaw eased, and then, slowly, was replaced by a different tension entirely. “Whatever my lady commands,” he said hoarsely.

“Good.”

In the end, they didn’t actually do anything terribly sophisticated. If nothing else, they had an early start tomorrow. But once he was bound, even just by a pair of threads, it was suddenly easy. She positioned herself exactly as she liked, looking down at him, and he pressed his mouth against her flesh. She didn’t let him stop until she was gasping and clutching the bedframe herself.

Not that he showed any signs of wanting to stop either.

“Very good,” she said, when she could breathe again. “Very, very good. Now, I suppose I could untie you”—a tremor went through him at the words, and she wondered if it was eagerness or disappointment—“but I think I’ll leave you just as you are for now.”

This time, when she curled her fingers around his cock, he damn near levitated.

That’s more like it…

It didn’t take long at all. To Shane, it probably felt like an eternity, but that was all to the good. She only teased him for a moment, then rode him until he was panting, his eyes thin rings of blue around the pupils. She would have kept going longer, but her thigh muscles weren’t going to last, so she leaned down and whispered in his ear, “Break the threads. Now.”

He hesitated for a gratifying heartbeat, then snapped them. An instant later, he rolled her over and took her, hard and fierce, frantic this time with his own need. She wrapped her legs around his waist and listened to the small sound, almost a whimper, at the base of each breath, and then he shouted her name loud enough to wake anyone in the next room and collapsed on top of her as if he’d been killed.

Marguerite stroked the back of his neck and felt ungodly smug about everything.

Several minutes after having come so hard that he wasn’t sure he still had bones left, Shane said, “Dear god,” into Marguerite’s hair.

“Mmmm,” she said.

He propped himself up on his elbows, suddenly worried. “Was I too rough?”

“Not in the least.” She stretched against him, which would have turned his mind to paste if it hadn’t been already. “You were magnificent. Was I too…ah…sophisticated?”