“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.

“Axel?” Her voice shook.

He plucked up two clothespins with a wicked grin, then hustled back to her side. “Right here,” he assured. “I didn’t go far. I never will.”

When he cupped her breast, she gave a breathy little jump, then settled again with an embarrassed smile. He brushed his thumb over the dark berry of her nipple, fascinated with the way it engorged and tightened, the tip lengthening, the areola bunching. His mouth watered.

Axel bent to her and suckled one of her succulent nipples, taking a long pull on her sensitive flesh before he swiped his tongue over the nub. Her body twitched, her shoulders jerked, as if she wanted to reach out and touch him, cup him closer. But all trussed up, she couldn’t do anything more than allow him to do his worst.

With a stinging little nip of his teeth, he withdrew from that nipple to direct his attention to the other. As he took the neglected one onto his tongue, he groped around for the first of the clothespins. He licked gently at the hard nub in his mouth, moaning low at the feel of her hardening around his lips, even as he pressed the clothespin open and slowly closed it around the first nipple he’d prepared.

Instantly, she sucked in a hissing breath between clenched teeth. The sound eventually turned ragged and breathy, becoming a whimper.

“Quiet,” he reminded. “Breathe.”

“It hurts.”

“Give it a minute,” he crooned, then resumed toying with her unadorned nipple. When he was satisfied it, too, was ready, he grabbed the other clothespin and applied it. “Breathe through it. Wait for it . . .”

Soon, the makeshift clamps did their job, trapping the blood in her swollen nipples. Suddenly, her little whimpers turned to startled gasps, one after the other. She thrust her nipples at him.

Axel dragged his lips in the warm, musky valley between her breasts. “What do you feel?”

“It hurt at first.” She breathed out, as if trying to empty her lungs enough to suck in a whole breath. “Then it tapered to a sweet stinging. It was as if all the nerve endings in my body rushed to my nipples and . . .” She didn’t finish the sentence, just gave a plaintive sigh. “My entire body is on fire.”

Because she liked a little bite and loved being restrained. Because he’d fucked with her body and her head, making her wonder and feel and ache.

Damn it, he intended to punish her, leave her needing and begging for a while so she’d know what it felt like to wonder where he was and what he intended to do. But the sight of her turning rosy and arching closer, dragging in choppy breaths just couldn’t wait.

He ripped off his shirt and shucked everything below his waist in record time, then grabbed a condom and tossed it on the mattress before launching himself on the little bed, wincing when the box springs protested. The squeaking might wake up Aunt Gail but being this close to Mystery, he was beyond giving a fuck about that.

Once he settled himself in the middle of the bed, he reached for her, wrapping his hands around her middle. When he lifted her, Mystery yelped.

“What are you doing?” she whispered feverishly.

He held her suspended above his body. “I won’t drop you.”

“I know. But this feels so . . . weird.” She tried to flail but could only move her torso.

He held her, biceps and forearms bunching and working, as he stabilized her. “Stop. Be still. You’re in my hands. Give yourself over to me.”

“But if I fall—”

“Will I let you?” He zipped the question at her.

She stopped fidgeting, relaxed, sighed. “No.”

“No,” he assured as he lowered her to straddle his thighs. Then he took her cheeks in his hands, brushing stray tresses from her face and breasts. “I’m not going to do anything but make you come so hard, you’ll want to scream the walls down.”

Her breath caught, turned jagged. She nodded. “Okay.”

Smiling at her, Axel leaned in and captured her mouth. This. Right here. He belonged in whatever space she inhabited, with his mouth on hers, tasting her, being one with her. Every time he touched her just reinforced his belief.

He groaned as he nudged her lips apart and surged inside her mouth. He circled her tongue with his own, stroking, caressing, teasing, pulling back, then plunging deep again.

Exactly like he planned to do with his cock.

Axel brushed his fingertips over the clothespins dangling from her nipples, jostling them on her sensitive flesh. Instantly, she gasped with the shock of sensation.

“You’re so beautifully restrained and totally at my mercy, aren’t you?”

She nodded. “Yes, Axel.”

The thin syllables went straight to his cock. “Are you wet?”

“Yes,” she answered even more quickly.

“Do you ache for me?” He caressed her thighs, his thumbs rubbing so close to her cunt.

“Yes. Help me.”

Mystery sounded downright desperate, and that’s exactly the way Axel wanted her.

“Do you want me to touch you?” he taunted, dragging his knuckles up the pad of her pussy before trailing his fingertips down, nearly to her clit.