“You’re curling up your feet. Do they burn?” he asked.

“Yes,” she gasped. How had he known how sympathetic the nerves on her feet were to her sex? He tapped very lightly with the tip of her paddle on her heel. She didn’t know why, but arousal shot through her. Her toes curled inward. She couldn’t stop grinding her hips down on the bench in order to get more friction on her sex. He cursed softly, and suddenly the power on the vibrator diminished. He’d put it on a lower setting.

“You have to have the most sensitive little body in existence,” he said, and she suddenly pictured the slant of his handsome mouth and the sharp glitter of arousal in his eyes as he took position behind her again and swung back the paddle.

“Ooh,” she breathed as he gave her two more brisk swats, the exciting sound of polished wood against skin reverberating around the room and echoing in her head when he’d paused.

“Are you going to remember this tonight?” he asked her, reaching between her thighs. Moving aside the vibrator, he stimulated her again with his finger. She cried out, unable to stop herself. He was so much more precise than the vibrator, applying an eye-crossing pressure and succinct glide against her lubricated flesh.

“Yes.” Always, she added in her lust-heavy brain.

“Would you like to come now, or would you prefer to wait until my cock is inside you?” he grated out. She clamped her eyes shut and scrunched her face tight, her body so tight and hungry for release.

“Emma?” he prodded, still rubbing her clit in a bull’s-eye fashion.

He removed his hand suddenly and used it to part her thighs several inches. She sensed his gaze on her like a touch. Had he lowered behind her? she wondered, her heart racing madly. Her inner thighs were damp, more than likely glistening from her juices. She gave an agonized moan, knowing he was a close witness to her blatant arousal. A thrill went through her at the low, growling sound that emitted from his throat.

She shrieked when his mouth was suddenly on her, licking and sucking away the juices from her pussy.

“Oh God, Vanni . . . no . . . yes,” she moaned, not even sure what she was saying. Then his mouth was gone, and her whole body was straining tight for him.

“God you’re sweet. Answer me,” he grated out. “Do you want to come now, or would you prefer to wait until my cock is inside you?”

“Wait for your cock,” she whispered, the effort of restraint ripping at her. “Or try to?” she added on a high-pitched note.

“Good girl,” he snarled, and suddenly his hand was gone and the paddle was landing on her ass. He rubbed a buttock, squeezing the burning flesh lewdly into his palm. “Nice and hot and pink,” he muttered. “Keep trying, baby. This is killing me, too,” he said almost desperately.

He smacked her once lightly with his palm. She moaned, undone by the tense eroticism of the moment and his stark declaration of need. She had a wild urge to touch her ass, to feel what he was feeling. He peeled back her prickling cheeks suddenly. Emma whimpered in suspense in the tense seconds that followed. She felt completely exposed to him, her asshole and sex tingling beneath his stare. He made that low, growling noise deep in his throat, menacing and thrilling at once. Then he released her. Her panting breath paused when she heard the unmistakable sound of a belt buckle jingling, then a zipper lowering.

“Can . . . Can I please see what you’re doing?” she asked him shakily.

“Not yet,” he said. He paddled her again. She cried out, trying to stop herself from grinding her pussy against the vibrator and the bench, but only partially succeeding.

“Three more,” he said. “Keep still.”

She gritted her teeth to stop herself from writhing. It was very difficult. He’d known what he was doing by inserting the vibrator. The combination of burning pleasure on her sex and the sting of her bottom was unbearably exciting. The paddle landed with a crack. She whimpered. He hadn’t paddled her harder, but her ass was growing more tender and sensitive with each stroke.

“Does it hurt?” he asked, and she could tell that he’d knelt behind her.

“A little,” she admitted, even though the pain was already fading to a hot burn as he rubbed her ass with his hand. Again, he peeled back her cheeks. Again, Emma held her breath in the weighty silence that followed. He cursed quietly, and then the vibrator was sliding out of her. She gasped at the deprivation of the stimulation. “Oh,” she cried out when he inserted a thick finger into her pussy and plunged it back and forth.

“I couldn’t resist, even though you’ve got two more coming,” he said. “You’re so juicy . . . so warm. God, it’s going to be so good to explode inside you.”

She almost begged him to just take her then. The suspense was killing her, and she wanted him so much. He withdrew his finger and rubbed her clit. Her eyes sprung and she gripped the bench tighter, every muscle in her body bunching tight. “You’re on the edge, aren’t you? Yet you remain so quiet. Why?”

“Why what?” she gasped.

“Why do you always stop yourself from screaming?” he asked, sounding almost angry.

“Because I thought that’s what you wanted.”

His circling finger slowed on her clit.

“Why would you think that?” he asked tautly.

She ground her hips against his hand. She couldn’t stop herself. “That’s what you told Astrid that night. You said you didn’t like her hysterics,” she said, too aroused to be anything but completely honest at that moment.

“Emma,” he said, his tone almost angry even though she didn’t really think he was. He began rubbing her clit again. She moaned in agonized pleasure. “I wish I could erase that memory from your brain. It has nothing to do with you and me. Do you understand me?”

She blinked her eyes open at his hard tone.

“Yes,” she managed, biting her lip because his circling fingertip was keeping her skating right on the edge.

“Tell me what you want me to do now, Emma,” he rasped, and she heard his rabid arousal as easily as she heard his voice. She clenched her eyes tight. What she wanted to do was come.

But she also wanted to please him.

“I want two more,” she said, her entire body trembling with the effort it took for her not to come against his hand.

His rubbing finger stilled, and then fell away. She bit her lip to stop from moaning in agony. The bench under her still provided a source of pressure, however, and she found herself squirming against it.

“You’re so incredible,” he said thickly, and Emma could tell from the sound of his voice he’d stood. “And after I give you your punishment and sink my cock inside you, what are you going to do for me?”

“Scream?” she replied shakily.

“That’s right,” he said darkly. “Don’t ever think I won’t want to hear you scream in pleasure for me.” He placed the end of the paddle on her ass and circled it slightly, getting her attention. “Raise your bottom off the bench for the last two,” he said. “It will help you to keep still. And I do want you to stay completely still.”

She pushed off slightly with her hands and knees, raising her ass several inches off the end of the bench.

“That’s right. Such a good girl,” he murmured. The paddle fell, biting at her ass. She choked off a cry. He gave a rough moan. The urge to look at him overwhelmed her. She turned her head and opened her eyes. He held the paddle in his right hand and fisted his enormous erection in the other. His fiery stare met hers. He was the very image of primal sex in that moment, a leashed storm straining to break. Her lips parted in awed arousal.

Her gaze lowered to his cock and pumping fist. His pants and underwear were bunched below his jutting erection and balls. He was furiously erect; the fat, tapered crown of his cock was flushed dark pink . . . so delicious looking. “I’m not that good, Vanni,” she whispered heatedly, the tip of her tongue brushing the inside of her lower lip. He groaned and pumped his cock harder.