He came closer. “Have you ever considered that you’re being irrationally fearful of your other half?”
I gave him a pointed look. “You’ve seen my father. Tell me there’s anything irrational about fearing that.”
“Valid point,” he said, giving me a quick grin. Then, surprisingly, he reached out and began to undo the remaining buttons on my jacket. Talk about a change of topic.
I caught his hand. “I, ah, don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Not bored of me already, are you?” His accompanying chuckle said he knew the answer was no.
I gave a meaningful glance around. “All this stuff is very breakable unless I hold back, and you don’t prefer that.”
“I don’t,” he said at once.
“And it wouldn’t be right for us to trash this couple’s house,” I added, in case that hadn’t occurred to him. We’d already left quite a trail of destruction in our wake.
He traced a finger over the belt in my slacks before unbuckling it and slowly drawing it free from the loops. “There are other ways we can both be satisfied.” He pulled the belt free and circled it around my wrists. “Repeatedly.”
I laughed despite my instant surge of desire. “You know a belt won’t be enough to restrain me.”
He leaned down, his mouth brushing mine as he tightened it on my wrists. “An ordinary one? No. One infused with magic? Yes.”
A tingle went through me before it was muted by echoes that still managed to reach me even through four and a half millenniums. “I’m not sure about trying that.”
He leaned back enough to look at me. “Don’t tell me you’ve never mixed sex with bondage before?”
“Not willingly,” I said with a note of grimness.
He took the belt off my wrists at once. “If I’d have known, I never would have held you down last night.”
I let out a soft sniff. “If I hadn’t wanted that, I would have stopped you. I can still freeze time, remember?”
“Yes.” His voice deepened. “But you don’t need a spell. Saying no will do, unless you’d prefer another safety word.”
“I don’t know any.” My tone turned wry. “I’ve never needed one before. The few times I lost control with people when I was young, I knew to stop when I heard screams followed by variations on ‘arrgh, my back, my back!’”
His chuckle rolled over me with the same effect as a potent intoxicant. “Good thing I heal almost instantly and I love it when you’re rough, so no fears of that with me.”
I looked down at the belt hanging loosely in his hand. Did I trust him enough to bind me? I had no doubt he’d use a strong-enough magic to make the ties unbreakable.
He saw where I was looking and tossed the belt aside. “Forget that. There’s an entire beach outside. Not even you can do irreversible damage to sand.”
I glanced out the window. Moonlight now touched upon the water, giving it a lovely, silvery glow. But there was also snow, an icy wind, and more importantly, the knowledge that I’d be letting ancient wounds restrain me more than magical ties ever could.
He started to propel me outside, but I stopped him. “Wait,” I said. “Pineapples.”
He shrugged. “Not the first fruit I’d pick to add into sex, but if that’s what you fancy—”
“Not that.” I shook my head at the thought, then retrieved the belt he’d thrown aside. “My safety word.” I held his gaze as I placed the belt in his hands. “I want it to be ‘pineapples.’”
He didn’t ask if I was sure, which I was glad about. I didn’t want to be questioned as if I didn’t know my own mind. All he said was, “How far do you want to go with this?”
I considered that. “No beatings, humiliation, or insults.” Some people might enjoy that, but I didn’t. “And since I’m not sure if I’ll like bondage, keep it vanilla, as they say.”
His eyes started to change, bright emerald replacing their island-shallows color. “Anything else?”
“We put Silver in another room.” I wrinkled my nose. “I don’t want him watching us again.”
His laugh was a low, anticipatory sound. “Is that it?”
“No.” This hadn’t come up before, but I wasn’t about to leave it to chance. “No one else except the two of us.”
Something flashed in his eyes, gone faster than the brief illumination from a lightning strike. “Vanilla or no, I intend to spend all my energy on you, so neither of us will have anything left for anyone else.”
With that, he yanked me close, his mouth covering mine while his hands did absolutely wonderful things to my body. Tomorrow, I’d worry about how much I felt when I was in his arms, but right now, I just wanted to feel more of it.
“Now,” he murmured against my lips. “Let’s get started.”
Chapter 33
I was in the bedroom, my hands tied behind my back with the belt that now felt stronger than the mythical vibranium. I was still wearing my clothes, which surprised me because whatever Ian had in mind, nakedness would be required at some point. I also wasn’t on the bed, but that was less of a surprise. Ian seemed to find beds too limiting during sex.
He’d left me here while he went downstairs to do . . . something. I was tempted to see what it was, but when I tried to move, I realized the belt wasn’t the only thing he’d spelled. I could move my legs to shift position and stretch them, but I couldn’t walk. I tried to hop next. It didn’t work. I could bounce in place, but I couldn’t move forward or backward.
He’d only been gone a couple minutes, but I began to feel uneasy. What if I’d made a colossal mistake letting him render me essentially helpless? As his friends had repeatedly pointed out, we hardly knew each other. I might feel like I could trust him, but I of all people knew the treacherousness of someone caught in a demon’s deal.
What if he’d maneuvered me into getting trussed up so he could deliver me to Dagon? Ian knew how much the demon hated me. He could probably negotiate better terms on his deal from Dagon or be released from it entirely if he presented me to the demon like a wrapped-up gift. And I’d deserve all of Dagon’s laughter for falling right into such a trap.
“Here we are,” Ian said, coming back into the room. In one hand, he held a mixing bowl containing different cooking utensils, of all things. He tutted when I craned to see what was in his other hand. “No peeking or you’ll spoil the surprise.”
“It better not be a summoning spell.”
My voice was low, but he heard it. His gaze narrowed as he set down everything he’d been holding and came over.
“I’d say I was insulted,” he bit out, “but since I have set other people up in similar ways, that would be hypocritical.”
I felt even more uneasy now. The word pineapples hovered on my lips, not that it would do any good if my fears were founded. Ian let out a harsh sound as he stared at me.
“Don’t bother with the safety word. I’m well past being in the mood now.” Then his fingers executed a complicated set of swirls and the belt fell from my hands. “And for the record, if I had been intending to betray you to Dagon, I wouldn’t have chosen a private residence he couldn’t enter. I also wouldn’t have left you alone long enough to consider that this was a trap, and I wouldn’t have used a summoning spell. You’d only thwart me by freezing time when you saw it. But if I sliced off that warding spell while shagging you from behind, you wouldn’t notice what was happening until it was too late.”