Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down (Vikings Underground #2)(8)
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

She walked to the other side of the bed and buckled his other hand.

Ace tried for a quick grope, only to have Rhea give him a menacing frown before she had him all buckled in and unable to get up.

That was something that made him extremely nervous. “I have a question.”

“Slaves don’t have questions,” Beullah snapped.

“Well, this one does. In case some catastrophic event occurs and you two drop dead, is there any way for me to get out of this on my own?”

Rhea laughed. “No, babe, so you better pray nothing happens to us.”

“I can see the tabloid headlines now,” he muttered.

Beullah clucked her tongue. “Maybe we should gag him.”

Before Rhea could say no, Beullah pulled out this strange contraption with a bright orange ball in the center.

Rhea shook her head at it. “Oh, that just looks cruel.”

Beullah swung it back and forth by a leather chord as she studied Ace. “You sure you don’t want to try it?”

Ace snorted. “No way that’s going into my mouth until I see something legal saying it’s been thoroughly sterilized and detoxed.”

Rhea agreed with that, not to mention she couldn’t get Bender to talk if he was wearing a gag. “I think we’ll pass on that.”

Her face disappointed, Beullah put it back in her bag. Then over the next two hours, she went about explaining the psychology and toys of dominance to Rhea, whose head felt as if it were going to explode from information overload.

Just before lunch, Beullah decided to call it a day.

“I’ll just head on back home,” she said to Rhea. “And let the two of you practice in private for a while. It’ll take you a little time to get really comfortable. Just remember, baby steps. Tomorrow I’ll bring some of the more interesting toys.”

“Oh, goody,” Ace said sarcastically from the bed. “I can’t wait.”

Rhea grimaced at him. “Ace, be nice or I will use the gag.”

They left him tied to the bed while they went to the living room, where Beullah quick pulled on her sweat suit again. She packed up her “toys,” then handed Rhea a business card. “Call me if you have any questions or need anything.”

“Thanks.”

She left Beullah out, then returned to Ace, who looked less than pleased that she had abandoned him.

“Yo, Rhea. Nice of you to go make chitchat at the door with Eva Braun, but you know I’m kind of tired of being locked to this bed while you’ve given me the hard-on from hell and nothing else, so either let me up or make Mr. Happy happy.”

Rhea licked her lips as she let her gaze wander all over every single inch of that divinely male form. She would never get another shot like this one in her life. All morning she had been staring at his body, examining every inch of it, and now she didn’t want to beat him. She wanted to touch him.

And it was time to take exactly what she wanted.

“That’s not a very nice way to talk to your mistress, slave,” she said, cracking her whip against her boots. “What’s the magic word for release?”

“Pinocchio.”

“That’s right, Pinocchio,” she said with a coy smile, “and now it’s time to see if you’re a real boy.”

Chapter Three

Ace definitely liked the sound of that. But it seemed way too good to be true.

“Don’t be a tease, Rhea. It’s just cruel.”

She sauntered toward him with a walk what stirred every male hormone in his body. She was truly the one hunger he’d had these last couple of years that he’d never been able to sate.

She dragged the whip across her halter that cupped her br**sts to perfection. The ends of it fell into the deep valley, where it caressed her bared flesh and made him wonder what the PVC obscured. His c**k jerked with need.

“Who said I was teasing?” she asked.

He watched as she approached his feet. Ace held his breath in sweet expectation of her actions.

C’mon, baby, touch me where it counts…

Now that they were alone, he let his mind go wild with what he would love to have her to do him.

She licked her lips suggestively as she raked a hot, hungry look over his body. “Hmm…” She crawled onto the bed, between his legs. “Where should I begin?”

“A little due north of your current position,” he said, his voice thick and hoarse from her torture.

She arched a brow at him. “A little north, huh?” She inched her hand toward his swollen groin.

It was all Ace could do not to squirm at the thought of her cupping him. He’d never felt so alive, so on edge. So damn needful of a woman’s touch.

Her hand came closer. Closer. He held his breath as she hovered directly over his cock.

Just as he was sure she would caress him, she veered her hand off and started tickling him.

Ace cursed in frustration as his body spasmed to get away from her questing hands. He wanted her blood for disappointing him like this.

“Pinocchio!” he shouted, knowing she wouldn’t listen to him.

She took no mercy on him whatsoever.

Ace tried to grab her or throw her off, but being spread-eagled on her bed didn’t lend itself to doing anything more than bouncing her gently. He was completely at her mercy.

“You’re going to pay for this when I get loose.”

She paused in her torture. “Am I?”

Her touch turned gentle then as she brushed her hand over his painfully erect nipple. To his amazement, she gently massaged the sensitive tip with her fingernail.

Ace growled as chills spread all over him. He tried to kiss her, but she veered her face away while she continued to stroke his chest.

Rhea knew she had no business touching Ace like this and yet she couldn’t stop herself. She’d wanted him at her mercy ever since he’d kissed her.

Now she had him right where she wanted him.

And he didn’t seem to be objecting. It was still surprising to her just how much she had enjoyed their exercises with Beullah. She’d discovered a whole new facet of her personality that she hadn’t known existed.

“You know, you’ve been remarkably good through all this.” He’d only complained a few times whenever she’d hit him too hard, but overall, he’d been a really good slave as she learned to wield her whip.

Ace felt his heart hammering as she continued to massage his nipple. He was so hard for her that it was painful. “You in those clothes helped,” he said, his voice thick and deep.

“Did it?”

He sucked his breath in sharply as she ran her hand across his chest, to his other nipple.

“Rhea, this really is cruel. You’ve got me way too excited to just cold-shower it.”

“No,” she said, her breath falling across his bare skin. “Cruel is having to watch you lying here looking all sexy and choice while knowing I could do anything to you I wanted to and you are powerless to stop me. There really is something very sexy about this.”

“And what do you want to do with me?”

She moved her hand lower, toward his swollen cock.

Rhea knew she should let him up. She should stop this madness immediately.

If only it were that easy. But the truth was she’d been way too attracted to him for too long to just let him leave now. Especially after the morning the two of them had shared.

“Would you let me do what I want to you?” she asked him.

“I’m in no position to stop you.”

She smiled at him.

Ace held his breath as she moved toward the small leather briefs. He grabbed the leather straps as every nerve ending in his body fired and danced.

Then she did the most shocking thing of all. She bent her head down and tongued the small zipper that bisected the briefs. The sight of her between his legs made his c**k jerk. He was so aroused he was almost afraid of embarrassing himself.

Tensing his body in expectation, he watched as she slowly pulled the zipper down with her teeth. It was the most arousing thing he’d ever experienced.

The most erotic thing he’d ever seen. And it was all he could do not to pull his arms out of their sockets in an effort to free himself long enough to grab her and take her the way he wanted to.

Rhea held her breath as Ace’s c**k sprang free. She pulled back and used her hand to unzip the briefs all the way around to the back until Ace was completely bare to her.

He was gorgeous there.

She watched him carefully. “Beullah said you needed to learn to trust me.”

“I don’t trust anyone.”

“No?” Rhea didn’t know where she got her confidence; maybe it was because they had both been so close to nak*d all morning that she had gotten a lot more comfortable with him.

Or maybe it was that all she had to do was hear Ace’s voice and she was immediately wet for him. Aching.

Whatever caused it, she reached around her and undid her halter top.

Ace hissed at the sight of her bared br**sts. Her ni**les were hard, just begging for a caress and taste.

Then to his dismay, she leaned over him and wrapped the halter around his eyes.

“What are you doing?”

“Blindfolding you. Now you really are at my mercy.”

Ace shook his head, wanting to see her. It didn’t do a damn bit of good.

Rhea sat back to survey her nak*d, blind captive. “It must be nerve-racking for you.”

“You have no idea.”

She laughed. It was really heady to be able to study him without his intense stare distracting her.

His tawny skin was stretched tight over a well-muscled body. He was a large man, all over. Lying beside him, she touched the tip of his c**k with her finger. He was already leaking.

Ace growled as she rubbed the tip of her finger back and forth over him.

“Touch me, Rhea.”

She traced the outline of veins all the way down to the base. She’d always been fascinated by the mat of hair on a man’s body. Licking her lips, she ran her fingers through the coarse hair until she cupped him. He arched his back.

“Like that, do you?”

“You have to ask?”

She smiled even wider.

Ace ground his teeth as she explored him with a slow, methodical hand that left him breathless and weak. He still couldn’t believe she was doing this. Rhea wasn’t the kind of woman to just jump into a man’s bed.

She was the kind of woman that a man took home and kept.

“If I’m asleep, don’t wake me.” He hadn’t realized he’d spoken aloud until he heard her response.

“Pardon?”

Her hand stopped its sweet torture.

What the hell? He’d come this far. He might as well be honest with her. “You have no idea how many times I have closed my eyes and tried to imagine what your hands would feel like on my body, Rhea. Your lips on mine.”

Rhea gently slid her hand up his cock. “Really?”

“Yes.” The word was ragged and it excited her even more than his confession.

She pulled her hand back, then laid her body over his, reveling in the sensation of all that steely masculine flesh under her. He felt good.

Too good.

Her heart hammering, she slowly explored the chiseled outline of his jaw with her tongue. She’d always wanted to taste his jawline. He was one of those men who tended to go a couple of days between shaves. Though she didn’t like the look of a beard, she loved the sight of his unkempt whiskers.

He lifted his h*ps so that the tip of his swollen shaft was pressing against the center of her body. She hissed at the sensation. It was making her even wetter. Hotter.

But she wasn’t ready to take him in yet.

Sitting up, she leaned over him and kissed that delectable, taunting mouth of his.

Ace couldn’t breathe as her tongue swept against his. Her kiss was fierce, demanding, and it whet his appetites for more.

He could just imagine what she must look like sitting on his stomach as he lay completely nak*d, tied spread-eagled to the posts of her bed.

“Will you take the blindfold off?”

“If I do that, I might come to my senses and chicken out.”

“Forget that then.”

She laughed low and seductively. “Tell me what you’ve dreamed of me doing to you, Ace.”

“I’m not sure where to start.” He couldn’t even begin to catalog all of his fantasies about her.

He felt her sliding off him.

Before he could speak, he felt something soft tickling his hip bone. “What is that?”

“The feather,” she said a minute before she swept it over his cock.

Ace groaned in ecstasy.

“Have you ever thought of this?”

“Yes,” he confessed. “I’ve seen you drizzle honey on those biscuits you get whenever Tee brings you lunch from the Cracker Barrel. And I’ve dreamed of coating your entire body in it and licking it off.”

Rhea squirmed at the image in her mind that conjured. “What else?”

“I’ve dreamed of tasting your…” Ace caught himself before he said tits. Women didn’t like that word. “Breasts. Of you sliding them up and down my chest until you go down on me.”