“Anything in the closet?”
Mystery shook her head. “I think she uses it to store her off-season clothes. Why?”
Axel didn’t answer, just prowled to the closet—and found exactly what he needed. He grabbed everything that might prove useful, then curled them in his fist and wrapped them around his hand.
He turned back to Mystery. “Rise and kneel on the bed, facing the window, away from me.”
She turned to stare at the items curled around his fingers, then met his stare. That one glance of her hazel eyes sizzled down his spine and settled in his cock. Weirdly enough, something a lot like happiness took up residence in his chest, too. Then she brushed the residual rice from her knees and gave in to his demands. Axel gobbled up the sight of her lush breasts and thighs before she spun around to give him the visual of her lean spine, graceful hips, and rosy ass.
For years, he’d been stationary, living in Dallas, taking care of Sweet Pea, working for Thorpe. He enjoyed his life and liked knowing he did right by his friends, but he’d never been too close to anyone, never allowed himself to really latch on, much less fall in love. He didn’t want to be that sad sack hugging his bottle of gin on Christmas day, trying to forget that he had four hungry mouths to feed and no helpmate to cook, love, or keep him warm at night.
In a flash of clarity, the truth hit him like a two-by-four in the face. He’d drifted into Dominance not only because he enjoyed giving women what they needed but to control his interactions with them. After all, if he kept a tight leash on everything, he couldn’t lose his heart, his hope, or his future, right?
This one woman had shown him that was just an illusion. She’d knocked his world on end with one pickup line. She’d made him crave her like an addict after a single afternoon fix. She’d dug her way into his heart in one late-night rave. Or maybe what he felt had been years in the making. Whatever.
Mystery Mullins was in his heart for the rest of his fucking life, and he couldn’t control a damn thing about it.
“You want to know what I’m going to do to you?” he murmured against her neck as he stepped up, blanketing her back, and set all the items in his hand on the mattress beside her.
“Yes, Axel.”
“Steal your control.” He shouldn’t be alone in that. “Put your hands behind your back.” Instantly, she complied, clasping her fingers together just above the sweet curve of her ass. He set her hands side by side, then wrapped an ugly green and tan scarf he’d found in the closet around her wrists, knotting it off. “Can you get out of that?”
She wiggled her hands and tried to work her way free. “No.”
“Comfortable?”
“It doesn’t hurt.”
“Move your fingers,” he demanded.
She did as he bid. “I’m fine.”
“I’ll be watching. If they turn numb, you stop me immediately. Is that clear?”
“Yes, Axel,” she breathed.
Almost as if she felt the submissive urge, she released the tension from her shoulders and bowed her head. Did she have any idea what the fuck that did to him? After everything they’d been through since she’d picked him up in that bar, to see her trust in him made his cock ache and his heart flip. A spanking wouldn’t stop her from being the one woman he couldn’t forget, and he didn’t want to change her.
He wanted to devour her.
“If this hurts or pushes the limits of your ability to endure, say ‘yellow.’ You got it?”
“I understand.”
He uncoiled one of the belts he found in the closet, a thin shiny yellow number that would provide just enough give but still be plenty secure. He buckled it around her forearms, pulling it a bit tighter. Her shoulders lifted, and Axel had no doubt that if he stood in front of her, he’d have seen those beautiful breasts thrust out for his greedy stare.
“Too tight? Am I straining your shoulders?”
“No.” Her voice sounded even more soft and thready than before.
He adjusted himself in his jeans, aching to take them off. And he would. It better be really damn soon or he’d combust.
“Good.”
And because he couldn’t help himself, he moved the long fall of her dark curls over one shoulder and pressed his lips to the curve of her neck. She smelled like wanton woman. The musk of her pussy combined with the sweetness of her skin to waft into something so intoxicating, Axel had no idea how the hell he was going to keep himself from pouncing on her in the next two minutes. The urge to not only take her, fill her and give her pleasure, but claim her rode him hard.
He nipped her gently with his teeth, scraping over her skin so she couldn’t possibly forget that he touched her. He listened to her moan and smiled in masculine satisfaction.
“Not a sound,” he warned, then took the wide tail of the next belt and gave her hip a little warning snap—just enough to get her attention.
Mystery wriggled and pressed her thighs together, sending him a frantic nod.
“None of that, either,” he growled in her ear, reaching around her to tuck a hand between her thighs. “Spread your legs apart.”
She hesitated, writhed a bit more, then finally complied.
“A bit faster next time, princess.” He slid another scarf, this one a pink paisley, over her eyes, doubling the long strip around her head to ensure she couldn’t see through the delicate silk. He flashed a hand in front of her face. She didn’t flinch. “Anything?”
“No. What are you doing to me?”
“Making you give yourself completely. Want out?”
She took a moment to answer. “I probably should because I have no idea how you and I are going to work this out from different countries, with different lives, but . . . no.”
Yeah, he didn’t have the answers she sought, but right now, he didn’t give a shit about logistics. According to her, she loved him. His feelings were damn strong, too. As far as he was concerned, this woman settled him, intrigued him, made him want to take a chance with his heart for the very first time.
“Good.”
The quiet of the house wrapped around them, solemn, almost reverent. He circled her body, heard her swallow down nerves, listened to her deep breathing.
He cupped her cheek, grazing his fingers down the soft skin there. She tilted her face, nestling into his touch. Mystery giving herself to him nearly fucking undid his restraint.
Axel grabbed the next belt in the stack, a thick black number that belonged with a stylish coat. Soft leather covered the hard boning underneath, absolutely ideal for his purposes.
As she sat back on her heels, he shoved the belt under her knee and jostled it down to her shin, almost to her ankle. Then he buckled it high on her thigh, securing her bent leg together.
“Is that uncomfortable? Your feet numb or your knee hurt?”
“Why are you tying my leg bent?”
“Answer the question.”
“No, I’m fine. I just don’t understand—”
“This is where trust comes into play, princess.” Since she didn’t have any physical difficulty with the right leg, he moved onto the left, securing it with a similar belt in red.
As soon as Axel finished, he stepped back and admired his handiwork. Bound for him, trembling, hair hanging over one shoulder and flirting with her nipple, legs spread to show her bare pussy, Mystery looked like his kink fantasy come true. But he suspected she was much more—the dream his heart had been too afraid to wish for.
The fact she couldn’t touch him in return right now completely turned him on. Yes, he liked it when she put her soft fingers on him, stroked his body, and wrapped them around his cock. But in this moment, he was totally in control. He owned her.
Axel swallowed down a lump of lust. But the damn blood rushed south anyway, jetting into his cock, leaving him light-headed.
Just one thing missing . . . He crossed the room, toward the pile of pervertables.