Chapter 31

Ian and Emma almost didn’t make it out of the back room. They finished the rest of the workshop with as much professionalism as they could muster after being overheard by the entire class, but once everyone had gone, Emma pulled Ian against her and cleared a spot on her desk, and they almost consummated their relationship right there. It wasn’t until Emma was going for his fly that Ian remembered the bookstore didn’t carry condoms. After that, they took the smart route and headed upstairs, carrying Ian’s suitcases and their shoes and spending an embarrassingly long time kissing in the dark entryway before Emma fumbled the key into the lock and let them inside.

“You’re going to have to stop paying me a modeling fee for these workshops.” Emma dragged Ian down her hallway, still towing a suitcase.

“Oh yeah?”

She fell into bed, dragging him down on top of her, and the solid weight of him felt like heaven. “Yeah. You’re going to have to split the proceeds with me, fifty-fifty. It’s only fair.”

Ian pulled off his glasses and tossed them on the nightstand, chuckling. His breath was warm against her neck as he kissed his way up to her ear. “Is that so?”

“That’s so. You’re an accountant. You should know how these things work.” She tugged at his button-down, pushing it off his arms and onto the floor before going for the hem of his T-shirt and pulling it off.

“We’ll have to see about that.” Ian pulled Emma’s shirt over her head as well, throwing it aside, then began licking and sucking her neck right where it met her shoulder. She shivered, hands clutching at his back as he worked his way down to the top of her breasts. She wanted him to continue, wanted this hard and fast and now, but she wanted something else even more.

“Ian?” Bringing her hands to his chest, she pushed, and he lifted his head away from her. His eyes were dark, pupils wide with lust, lips kiss-swollen and pink and so fucking sexy.

“Yeah?”

Emma licked her lips, nervous again. “Will you . . . will you tie me up?”

Ian groaned, collapsing down onto her and biting her earlobe. “Oh, fuck, Emma, you have no idea what you do to me. Do you really want that?”

She tangled her hands in his hair. “Yes. God, yes.”

“Do you have something in mind?”

Emma considered everything they’d done, all the various positions in which she’d been bound, and nodded. “Crab tie?”

Ian grinned. “Yeah. Yeah, I can do that.” He leaned down and kissed her, then sat back and unzipped his suitcase, pulling out a few coils of rope. “Take off your clothes.”

Emma did so, squirming out of her pants and underwear, heart already pounding. Ian climbed between her legs, clad only in his dark jeans. She was already so turned on that she felt like she might spontaneously combust.

Emma kept her eyes closed, reveling in the sensation. After attaching ropes around each of her ankles and wrists, Ian folded her legs up, exposing her, and Emma felt vulnerable in the best possible way. He had her grab her ankles, then he began binding forearm to shin, wrapping the rope around her in swift, practiced strokes. He wasn’t instructing now, and the speed with which he tied her seemed impossible. “I’ve wanted this since the first night you tied me up,” she confessed, eyes still closed.

His hands stilled on her second ankle before starting back up and securing that forearm as well. “You did?”

“Yes. I kept thinking of how hot it would be to do this without any clothes on. You have no idea how many times I’ve touched myself, thinking of this.”

Ian gripped her thigh, steadying himself, and Emma opened her eyes to see him sitting there, taking slow, deep breaths with his eyes closed. “Shit, Emma, I haven’t touched myself in a week. If you keep talking like that, I’m not going to make it.”

“Well, whose fault is that?” Emma squirmed, but she was tightly bound. The sensation was better than she’d expected.

“Yours.” Leaning over her, Ian dropped a kiss onto her lips before sitting back. “Now, I think I said something else to you that first night.” He pulled out two additional coils of rope and held them up. “Do you remember?”

Emma thought back, confused, and shook her head.

“I said that this position was much better if I tied your legs out to the side.” From there, he proceeded to do so, tying off a length of rope to the edges of the bed frame—or so she assumed, since she couldn’t see and definitely couldn’t move to look.

Ian climbed up between her legs, looking down at her bound body. “I wish you could see yourself. You look fucking fantastic.”

Emma was wound too tightly to speak, limbs bound and immobile. Ian slipped his fingers up through her cleft, gathering the wetness, and she gasped. He found her clit and started rubbing it in tight circles. When she thought she might come apart just from this, he leaned down and dragged his tongue across her sex.

Emma felt like fireworks were exploding inside her, and she hadn’t even come yet. His mouth was heavenly, hot and wet and practiced, and he lapped at her as if he fucking loved it, making these noises that drove her absolutely crazy. Her breath was coming in pants and sobs and gasps, and she was going to come exactly like this, with him sucking at her clit, except then he stopped.

“No!” she moaned, wriggling ineffectively. “Don’t stop!”

Ian looked like he was falling apart, his hair a complete mess, his lips wet with her juices, and that was hotter than it had any right to be. “I want to fuck you. Can I fuck you?”

“Yes! God, Ian, yes.”

He fumbled for a condom in the nightstand, and every moment he wasn’t inside her was too long. His hands shook as he fought with the button fly of his jeans, then pulled them and his underwear down. She loved watching him slide the condom onto himself, loved the soft hitch in his breath at the sensation.

“You’re . . . okay? No numbness, no tingling?” He touched her hands and feet, but they all felt warm to Emma.

“I’m fine. Now, Ian. Stop making me wait.”

He laughed, breathless, and positioned himself between her legs. Emma tensed, waiting, her body striving for a climax that was right out of reach, and he pushed slowly inside.

Her breath caught in her throat as he sheathed himself fully inside her; her eyes fluttered closed. She could hear Ian taking slow breaths, calming himself like he had before, and she knew he was trying not to come too quickly. But she was already tensing around him, so close she could taste it.

After a moment’s pause, he drew back and thrust in again. The sensation was exquisite, the best kind of torture and glory in one, and Emma’s entire focus was concentrated on the feelings between her legs.

“Fuck, Emma, I’m not . . . I’m trying . . .” He reached between them, rubbing her clit, hips moving faster as he drove them both toward climax.

Emma wanted to tell him to let go, that she was almost there, but she had no words anymore. Her body seized up, limbs straining against the ropes, and then she was coming, clenching around him in great spasms that shook her down to her core, pleasure exploding outward as she sobbed herself hoarse. She felt Ian’s climax, felt him drive hard into her, heard his groan and sigh as he found his own release, and then she felt nothing but a blissful calm.

When they had both come back to themselves, Ian pulled out and took care of the condom, then started in on Emma’s ropes. “The only thing I don’t like about bondage sex,” he said, tugging her free, “is that I have all this work to do when all I want to do is roll over and sleep.”

Emma laughed, moving her limbs as they came untied, rubbing her wrists. The cord had left slight red marks where she’d pulled against it, and Ian kissed the tender skin.

“I like it.” She traced the lines. “Reminds me of tonight. Of you.”

Ian smiled. “So . . . you want a fifty-fifty split, huh?”

Emma nodded. “Fifty-fifty.”

He leaned over to kiss her. “Only if you tie me up half the time.”

Emma curled up with him, nestling into his embrace. “I think I can arrange that.” She rested her head on his chest, settling in, and it felt right. “You’ll stay?”

She wasn’t just asking about the night, not really, and he seemed to know. He brushed her hair from her face and wrapped his arms around her. “Yeah. I’ll stay.”