Page 105 of The Restoration Program

“I did, but… You’re right. I trust you.” Nicole tugged her hair free of its ponytail, giving her head a shake to let the tousled locks settle around the middle of her back. She tossed the hair ribbon onto the keyboard of Ryan’s laptop and leaned back to look straight up at him. Made him feel big and strong and wanted. “And I’m wet as fuck, Ry. Do I have to email it to you?”

He frowned faintly, though his eyes traveled the shape of her body with hunger. “What’s gotten into you tonight?”

His free hand crept toward her. Nicole shivered with anticipation as he cupped her face between a few fingers. Contemplatively, not passionately. She turned her head and dragged her tongue along the pad of his thumb.

“Come on. You don’t scare me,” she all but whispered. Achallenge, if that was what he wanted.

A smile twitched on his lips. Ryan sucked in a soft breath and let it out sharply. And then, something popped in him like an overstrained tendon.

“Fuck it.” He flung his laptop to the side and seized her around the middle.

Nicole shrieked and giggled as he laid her on the bed and rolled over her. Surprisingly, he did not immediately run for the yarn, but nuzzled her with stubbly kisses that deliberately tickled her sensitive areas. Her laughter inspired some of his more boyish grins—the silly ones she’d been missing. He worshiped her toned stomach and she let her hands wander freely over whichever part of him she could reach.

She sat up and watched Ryan peel off his t-shirt, freeing that sculpted torso into lamplight.

“You are the best wife ever,” he murmured, back on top of her. “Thebest.”

“I know.”

He held still for a moment, and she reached up to tug off his glasses. They shared a laugh as she put forth effort to fold them up and gingerly set them aside.

“Should I open a bottle of wine or something?” he asked.

“Ry, if you make me wait another second, I swear…”

“Okay, okay. So bossy tonight.” Another kiss to her neck. He hovered close, his breath hot on the hollow of her neck. “For now.”

His lips danced down her side until he was close enough to nibble the waistband of her panties. She gave a high-pitched sigh as he took hold of the fabric between his teeth and effortlessly pulled it down her legs, stripping her bare.

His hands swept beneath her as he rolled onto his back. He set her on his chest and leaned into the pillows while she crawled up, placing a trail of kisses on her way to his neck. All the while, his fingertips followed, tracing the curves of her shoulders, her waist, her ass. Each squeeze elicited a different, delighted sound from her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his other hand creep to the nightstand drawer. He dug out the yarn and scissors like he knew their exact placement. She had to pause her kisses to swallow a spike of uneasiness.

Relax. Do it for him. For us.

His fingers stopped stroking, instead curling to lift her up. The room spun as he switched around, delicately placing her on the pillow. He unraveled a surprisingly long length of yarn.

“That seems like overkill,” she snorted as he snipped a second length. She batted her eyes at him. “You’re that worried I’ll get away?”

Ryan wound the yarn through his fingers contemplatively. Seeing it pulled taut made her breath catch. “I want to try something,” he said. “It’ll be a little… different. Than last time, I mean.”

Before she could question how different wasa little different, he reached for her. She stayed quiet, almost reverently so, as he wove the first piece of yarn around her body. It crisscrossed over her shoulders and her belly, back and forth in an unbroken symmetrical pattern.

“Sit forward a little,” he said softly.

He looped the yarn around each of her breasts, then nudged her hands behind her back. He finished the pattern by tying her wrists together.

“Is that too tight?” he asked.

“No,” she murmured, making no attempt to hide her puzzlement. “This is elaborate. Did you serve some years in the Navy I don’t know about?”

“If this was a part of their training, I don’t think they’d have any issue with enlistment. It’s calledshibari.” He gave her a soft, almost sheepish smile when she furrowed her eyebrows at him. She might have found his sudden shyness adorable if her arms weren’t already smarting. “There’s a range to shibari. It can be beautiful, like art in the bedroom. I mean, babe, you look…” His lips twitched, a bright look in his eyes as he beheld her.

“Jesus. Did you Google that after last time?”

“Does it matter?”

The yarn was both scratchy and soft against her skin. The pattern drew her shoulders back and made her boobs perk out further.