Re/Bound (Doms of the FBI Book 1) (28 page)

Maybe her summation wasn’t fair, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. Part of her still didn’t want to tell him what she wanted because she wanted him to figure it out by himself.

Both of his brows shot up. “Is that all?” His tone dripped sarcasm. It oozed all over the floor. If she wasn’t careful, she would slip on it.

This time he got to see it when she rolled her eyes. “Don’t get snippy. You have a lot of great qualities that I really like. They definitely outweigh your faults. Actually, your faults don’t bother me all that much. I find your arrogance attractive, and I’m sure you’ll get over your sexual issues in time.”

His jaw worked. She watched him struggle with his inner Dom. She could almost hear the mini Theo on his shoulder telling him to throw her over his shoulder, tie her down, and spank her until her bottom glowed. That Theo would war with the sensible side of him questing for answers and solutions, the one that urged a slow breaking down of her soft limits.

Finally he rose to his feet. “What exactly are you trying to accomplish by insulting me? Are you upset I brought up Scott? He’s here with us, Darcy. He’s a question, a variable, an unknown that’s keeping you from submitting to me. You can’t expect me to never breathe his name. I don’t expect you to keep it all inside, either.”

Was it right to talk about this with Theo? How could she justify laying all of this at his feet? It was one thing to mention a few things in passing. She already felt bad about the things she’d revealed to him so far. Perhaps that also contributed to the frustration swirling through her chest. She’d kept the turmoil inside for so long she didn’t know how to let it out. Perhaps that was part of her problem. If she couldn’t let her feelings out, it was difficult to let new feelings in. Irritated, she rubbed her eyes.

“Scott isn’t keeping me from submitting to you. It’s all the crap that happened after he disappeared. My life was hell, Theo. I had days where I didn’t get out of bed. I had weeks where I didn’t get dressed. You happened to meet me when I decided it was time to get my life back together. I presented a pretty front to you. It’s false advertising, and I’m sorry you got caught up in it.”

She took three steps, closing the space between them. Tilting her head back, she stared up at him. “I’m glad you did, though. You can’t possibly know how much you’ve helped me heal. But I’ve reached a plateau. If you want more from me, you can’t ask for it. You have to take it.”

His impassive expression only served to make her bolder. She ran her hands over his flat stomach and untucked his shirt from his pants. He wrapped his hands around her wrists, halting her caress.

“For some reason, I can’t submit to you. You want to tie me up and fuck me, but you let me call the shots. I can’t be submissive if you let me call the shots, Theo. It doesn’t work that way. If you leave options, I’m manipulative enough to use them.”

The hands imprisoning her wrists became iron bands. “If I call the shots, I will run over your soft limits because I don’t like them. You noted I was demanding and exacting on our first date. Though I haven’t been yet, I am demanding and exacting in the bedroom. I take what I want, when I want, and how I want. You won’t get a say in anything. I’ll ask for more than you think you can give, and I won’t stop until you give it to me. I have a dark side, Darcy. It doesn’t have to come out.”

She didn’t quite know what to say because even though she was afraid, the pulsing in her pussy rejoiced that he seemed to finally understand what she wanted without her having to ask for it. And he had too been demanding and exacting in the bedroom. Though he had her wrists in his iron prison, he hadn’t moved them from his stomach. Her fingers twitched against his midsection.

“It doesn’t stop in the bedroom, sweetheart. When I told you bondage was important to me, I meant it. You’ve spent some time with your wrists tied while we’re relaxing because I wanted you to get used to the feel of it against your skin. If I get my way, there will almost never be a time when you’re not wearing ropes.”

Reflexively she jerked her wrists free. He didn’t stop her.

“It’s not too late to change your mind. I see your fear. A little fear is healthy, but I don’t want you living in fear of me. I would never actually hurt you, and I will always respect your safe word. You think my approach is half-assed. I’ve only shown you my tender side. I have one of those too. It’s not a fault, and no matter what you decide tonight, you have earned a punishment for saying that.”

Excited and hoping he’d follow, she backed away. “Now, see, from my perspective, calling you out on that opened up a whole area of communication we neglected. I should be rewarded for pointing that out.”

He took a menacing step forward, and the temperature in her pussy shot up five degrees. “You’re saying you want me to tie you up the way I want to tie you up. You’re asking me to forget your limits, ignore that panicked look you get when I bind both your hands, and do whatever I want to you?”

Wordlessly she nodded.

Those brown eyes blazed across the room and seared her. “I want your submission. You can’t give it to me, but you’re willing to let me take it.”

She inhaled sharply, recognizing that he couldn’t take her submission. Despite what they said and what it looked like, she would have to give it.

He leaned back against her counter and crossed his arms. This time the gesture was ominous. “You have ten seconds to change your mind.”

“Okay.” She held up a hand to buy a few more seconds. “But in the spirit of fair play, I should warn you that I fight back. I kick and punch. If you want my submission, you will have to fight for it. If my limits are on the table, so are yours.”

“Fine. In a scene, you are allowed to fight back however you want. But touch my ass and I’ll whip you with my belt.”

Her knees weakened, and the likelihood she would do exactly that the second he let down his guard shot to 100 percent. “That’s not a disincentive.”

A low, evil chuckle rasped from his throat. She’d never heard him make a sound like that before. It set every nerve ending in her body on edge. Pivoting, she ran. The open front door registered as a bad idea, so she veered left to grab the heavy wood and give it a hefty push.

As she spun to head up the stairs, Theo caught her around the waist. Darcy gave over to her first instinct and jabbed her elbow as close to his solar plexus as she could get it. He absorbed the hit as if it was nothing and thrust them both into the door.

He twisted the deadbolt. She took advantage of his occupied hand to wiggle down and jab his stomach, reasoning it was softer than the ribs she’d ended up getting with her last attempt. She was wrong.

Still, being smaller, she used his weight against him and continued the wiggling. She slid down and out under his arm, but he tackled her again, pinning her to the floor with his body. It was a good thing she had been bent over, otherwise the fall would have been jarring.

She stilled for a moment, planning her next move. Theo’s breath tickled against her neck. “Good call. I closed the kitchen window too. Having the cops show up because of all your screaming would ruin the moment, and then you’d have to make it up to me wearing a gag.”

His hands rested on her upper arms, and his erection pressed against her ass. A sigh of relief escaped at the blatant evidence he found this as arousing as she did.

He lifted one hand off her arm and let it travel down her body. He squeezed her ass so hard she yelped. He continued on, shifting his weight to pull her skirt out of the way. Since he had removed the rope panties, no barrier existed to keep him from his goal.

Darcy didn’t dwell on that. Bucking sharply, she threw him off and broke free. She scrambled for the stairs. The bathroom door had a lock, and she wasn’t above using it. Perhaps that wasn’t fair. He’d either have to pick the lock or break down the door. The image of wood splintering under the force of his kick and the subsequent menacing expression on his face fueled the fantasy.

Even as part of her wondered whether wanting to be overpowered by a man and forced to do whatever he wanted was sick and wrong, she thoroughly enjoyed this chase.

He caught her before she made it halfway up the steps. He had grabbed her by the hair, and the sharp tug brought tears to her eyes and tingles to her pussy. As he forced her to turn to face him, she realized he hadn’t advised her to stop one time. She kicked and found her ankle caught.

Standing precariously halfway up the staircase with her ankle and hair in his possession, she used all her strength to pull away from him. She didn’t move an inch until he yanked her ankle and knocked her on her ass. She bounced hard on a step.

He used her leg as leverage. Pushing it up, he forced her to lie back against the steps. The hand in her hair moved to the front of her neck. Darcy gasped. Never in her life had a lover put a hand on her neck. Under other circumstances, she would be petrified.

However she knew Theo wouldn’t really harm her. The bruises she would sustain from her falls were mostly her fault.

His grip slid up her leg to stop at the back of her knee. He pressed her knee to her chest. The hem of her skirt dug into her leg stubbornly before giving in and rolling up. She thought about bringing her free leg up to nail him in the balls. He must have read her expression because he shifted his knee to press against her inner thigh. The position rendered her immobile.

Reaching through the railing to the cherry table, he grabbed the smooth nylon rope that she’d spent the afternoon wearing as panties.

Moving quickly and with more grace than she would have thought possible given their awkward position, he straddled her stomach. The way he had positioned her on the stairs meant her legs were useless for fighting. Her upper body strength presented no real obstacle.

Relieved at his fighting skill, a sense of security at the way he engulfed her body flooded her senses. Though she felt drugged, she wasn’t willing to give up. She tugged at the hand on her neck.

He released her, but not because she had any effect on him. She took a swing at him, and he caught her fist in his palm. Wordlessly he looped one end of the rope around her wrist and through the banister railing. She did her best to use her free hand to stop him, but he merely tied that one to the spires on the other side that gave the living room a little bit of delineation from the stairs and hall.

Hopping up, he avoided her kicking legs and captured an ankle.

Uncoiling the rope farther, he wound it around her leg just above her knee and attached that leg to another spire. He’d left a lot of extra rope where he’d tied her first wrist. He used that now, threading it through the railing of the banister and securing her other leg. The man had tied her, spread-eagled, on the stairs. If she hadn’t been the one who couldn’t move, she might have appreciated the logic and beauty of his rope work.

He stood over her and surveyed the bindings. A few adjustments later, he gave her an even smile. “That’ll do for now.”

She sneered at him. “This does nothing for me.”

“Hush, sweetheart. This isn’t about you.” He tapped his lips with one finger. “However you’re right about one thing. This does nothing for me.”

He descended five steps to the foyer and disappeared into her office. She heard drawers open and close. A whistled tune preceded his return.

Amazingly he had used one piece of rope to restrain all four of her limbs. He used the scissors he had purloined from her office to snip a few inches off the end. He coiled it and set it on the stairs next to her head. The scissors joined the coil, but he put them one step above and out of her reach.

She studied him through the wooden bars. The pattern of evening shadows highlighted his high cheekbones and the scar crossing his left eyebrow. Funny how she no longer noticed the scar. She fought the urge to ask him how he got it because his hard features didn’t invite nervous chatter.

When he finished his preparation, he came up the stairs again. Leaning down, he rested his weight on his hands and took her mouth in a searing kiss. As committed as she was to resisting him, she couldn’t fight the way his kiss sent tremors coursing through her body. She fought the urge to put her arms around him, but then it dawned on her that this bound position didn’t allow her to move. She didn’t have to think about or temper her reactions.

The muscles in her arms tensed as she strained against the bonds. If she managed to pull free, she could touch him. She could tangle her fingers in his thick, dark brown hair. That would be her reward.

Nevertheless tugging got her nowhere, and he made no contact any place other than her lips. She arched her back, pressing her chest upward, but the ropes around her thighs didn’t allow for much movement in that direction, either.

He ended the kiss, breaking it off suddenly though it had gone on for several minutes. Darcy groaned at the loss. He stared into her eyes, and she wondered what he read in them. For the first time in a long time, she didn’t think about what she could and couldn’t do, what emotions she could show and which of those she had to suppress.

Reaching up, he snagged the scissors from the step above her head. She marveled that he could hold his weight on one hand without showing any kind of strain.

He drew the tip of the scissors over her shoulder and down the front of her blouse. Darcy had never been interested in edge play. Knives and other sharp objects were not on her list of erotic implements. However she knew he didn’t intend to hurt her with them, so she didn’t worry about physical injury, but she did wonder what he planned to do with them.