“I’ll be right back.”
She broke her silence then. A strangled peep. “What? Where
are you going?” He was leaving her here? Like this?
He patted her cheek. “Just to unload the truck. I’ll be
right back.”
When he left, he shut the door, shutting her in with those hardware-store
items . They mocked her there on the bed. She glared at them. Her
imagination seethed.
She could hear him coming and going from the garage, the
occasional clank and thud as he brought items in and moved things around. She
had no idea what he was doing but she was pretty sure most of the activity was
taking place in the basement.
In his man cave.
She tried not to roll her eyes at the thought. If that was
what this was all about—the opportunity to add yet another sophomoric feature
to his playpen—she’d kill him. As time passed, her anger, her impatience rose.
She must have been sitting there, in the chair, naked except
for her socks and her duct-tape pasties, for an hour at least. Surely that was
enough time to unload a stupid tr—
The door opened.
Her heart lurched.
Tae stood there, lean and hard, framed in the opening. Bella
bit her lip to keep in a moan at the shot of lust the sight of him engendered.
He stepped into the room and tossed the two-by-four on the
bed. She noticed he’d drilled two holes in it, not far from each end.
What was that for? She couldn’t bear to imagine.
“How are you doing?” His voice floated toward her, warm and
deep.
She put out a lip. “Terrible.”
“Really?” He stepped closer. Concern flitted across his
brow. “Are you okay?”
“Of course I’m okay. I’m just bored out of my mind.”
“Bored?” His lips quirked. “Well. We don’t want that, do
we?”
She wriggled against her bonds, but not very much because
each movement, each breath made her nipples burn. “Get me out of this chair.”
“Okay.” To her surprise, he stepped behind her and ripped
off the duct tape holding her to the chair, as well as the tape holding her
elbows together.
But before she could leap up, he caught her wrists and held
them in front of her. She watched in horror as he looped fresh tape around
them.
Okay. Maybe it wasn’t horror , exactly.
“Stand up.”
She did and instinctively glanced back at the chair. A
telltale damp spot stained the cushion.
He saw it and chuckled. “Poor baby. And it’s only just
begun.”
“What?” What had only just begun?
Tae didn’t elaborate. He led her to the bed and helped her
recline then lifted her arms. He looped a length of tape around her wrists and
through the wood slats of the headboard, securing her there with only a little
wiggle room.
And oh, she wiggled.
“Hold still.” A sharp smack to her ass accompanied the
command.
She stopped flailing on the bed to glare at him, then yanked
at her bonds. Damn it. It was super-strength duct tape. It didn’t budge.
Tae didn’t even notice her glare. He was busy at the foot of
the bed, riffling through his supplies. He pulled out the coil of thin-gauge
rope.
Her heart leapt into her throat as he threaded one end of
the rope through the hole in the two-by-four and wrapped it around her knee. He
did the same with the other and before she knew it, she was lying on her back
on the bed with her hands bound to the headboard and her knees forced apart on
either side of a fat piece of wood. Her pussy was completely exposed.
“There. Test that.” Tae’s wide grin dared her to break free.
She tried. Oh, how she tried. But she couldn’t.
His grin broadened. When he turned his attention to that
pile of tools, tools she’d been obsessing about for an hour, she tracked his
every move. Her eyes widened when he picked up the paintbrush.
Not her first thought. But given the choices, probably the
most palatable option.
Then again, that was before he started painting her with it.
It was a stiff-bristle brush, made for industrial work, not
gentle in the least. He drew it over her exposed flesh in
Reshonda Tate Billingsley
Megan McDowell Alejandro Zambra