Page 108 of The Restoration Program

His moans rumbled louder in response – on purpose. He was deliberately drowning her out. Her mouth twisted in disgust, and all at once, her terror amplified and mingled with rage.

“Fucking stop it! Stop, stop,stop!” She screamed at him over and over. Her panicky struggles made the yarn dig into her skin, and the pain only made her fight harder.

After taking a knee to his eyes, Ryan froze up. He gave a frustrated growl as he pulled away, teeth trailing along her thigh. She wasn’t sure what flew through his mind at that moment—an instinct to correct her, or punish her, or halt her squirms. Whatever his intention, he bithard.

Hard enough to make her voice cut off in a final wail.

Whimpering with each breath, she peered down. A line of blood leaked from her leg, as though another binding of red yarn was manifesting.

Ryan cursed and let her go. She managed to roll onto her side, fixated on the wound. It wasn’t gushing by any means, but it wasthere.

“Shit, I…” Ryan audibly swallowed. “I didn’t mean—”

He reached for her, and all she could think about was his teeth on her leg. She tried to scramble back, but only managed to flounder an inch, smearing blood on the pillowcase.

“Don’t touch me!” she cried, trembling hard enough to make the yarn dig in from the movement.

“Nicki…”

“Don’t!”

He snapped, “Fuck, you want me to untie, you or not?”

It took several seconds to get her wits back. There was no way she could escape her binds alone. She nodded without a word. She didn’twantto look at him, but wariness won out and she couldn’t help but watch his every move.

Whimpers escaped her as Ryan roughly pulled at the various knots, rocking her body with every hasty effort. He’d done his tying job too well. He cursed again, stalking off to grab scissors.

He used the small, angled ones from the first aid kit. Before Nicole could squeeze out a protest, she found herself pinned hard into the pillow while Ryan ensured the scissors slid smoothly under a few main strands. She didn’t wait for him to finish. The moment Nicole felt her legs and arms gain leeway, she wrestled his hand off and crab-walked to where the pillow met the headboard. Strands still hung off her. She shirked them like they were snakes.

“Don’t do that,” Ryan muttered, eyeing her cowering position. “I’m not gonna hurt you.”

“You already did!” Nicole shrieked, shaking the knee of her bitten leg.

He faltered, his face flushing at the reminder. “I’m sorry. Let me—let me patch you up.”

As he reached into the first aid kit, a snarl was already on her lips. “I don’t want your hands anywhere near me right now.”

Nicole scanned her limbs as she kicked off yarn from her right ankle. The friction had left her skin pink and raw. Other women might’ve worn them as badges of pleasure, but it was hard to feel anything other than the urge to curl into herself, to turn invisible at the feeling of beingnothing.

“Honey, you’re bleeding.”

“I fuckingmean it. Don’t. Touch. Me.”

He growled, shoving bandages back into the box. “Oh come on, Nicole. If you can’t tell the difference between a game and reality…”

She shot her head up. Scathing annoyance gleamed in answer to her wide-eyed stare. She studied his face, looking for any remnants of the part he’d chosen to play. She was gazing at someone familiar now, but she knew now the other was merely tucked away. Closed off, out of sight for her comfort.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Her voice was scarcely a murmur, but his eyes blazed like she had screamed it.

“Stop looking at me like that. You said…You saidyou wanted to give this a chance. Make up your mind.”

“I-I didn’t know…”

Ryan lifted his eyebrows coolly.Mockingly. “Didn’t know? You brought up the bondage yourself.”

The shock of his brutal tone was like a slap. Anger flooded in, making her heart race and fists ball up against the cool wood of the headboard.

“I didn’t know,” she growled, beat by beat, “that you got off on NüPrint rape fantasies these days.”