be able to go through with it, but I couldn't. Not tonight. Not here."
Not in someone else's territory, when everything else was far from under his control. Lex hummed softly and rocked up against his hand. "You have me."
She watched his reflection as he retrieved one swath of silk and smoothed it between his fingers. "Crawl up on the bed. Kneeling, legs together."
She wiggled her hands in their bindings. "I can't. It's too high without my hands."
Dallas dipped into his back pocket and pulled out a familiar knife. The blade caught the light, twinkling dangerously, as he flipped it open. "Be still," he warned her, then slipped the steel beneath the silk. The flat of the blade brushed her arm, cool against heated flesh, but the sharp edge sliced through the fabric before she even thought of moving.
Her hands slipped free, and Lex rubbed her wrists. "Kneeling, legs together?"
Laughing, he eased the knife shut. "For now, love."
She climbed on the bed, knees together, but instead of leaning forward on all fours, she sat back on her heels. It wasn't what he'd meant--he wanted her bent over, so he could touch her pussy even after he tied her up--but he wasn't the only one with demands tonight.
He'd get exactly what he commanded. No more, no less.
In the mirror, his reflection watched her with an impassive expression and unreadable eyes. Anything could have been going on behind that blank mask as he put his knife away and reached for the silk again. He lifted it...
And settled it across her eyes.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as he tied it, his knuckles brushing her hair. The world drew in on itself, condensed until the only thing that existed was waiting. Anticipating the next touch.
It came in the form of roughened fingertips tracing along the front of her throat. "You see everything, don't you?"
"I--" Her voice broke, and she had to clear her throat. "I try to."
"You've had to."
"Yes."
His hand closed around her throat, over her collar. Not tightly enough to restrict her breathing, but his grip was firm. Possessive. "Not anymore. Not with me."
A lifetime's habit didn't stop like that, with words. "You'll have to show me how."
He laughed right next to her ear before his touch disappeared. Steps circled, soft and muffled. The next time he spoke, he was somewhere to her left, and she turned her face toward the sound of his voice. "I'm going to show you a lot of things, Lexie."
She bit her lip to hide a smile. "Like what?"
No answer. Leather whispered over leather--his belt pulling free of his pants--followed by silence. Then he said, "Hands and knees, Lex. Crawl toward my voice."
Right in front of her.
They'd flirted with this game before, and Lex knew how it went. Soon, her body would respond effortlessly, without thought. For now, she'd have to make the conscious decision to obey.
She reached out, creeping forward until her hands hit the bed. Then she began to crawl.
He stopped her with a hand in her hair. He wrapped the length around his palm this time and used the grip to haul her head up until only her fingertips brushed the mattress.
His mouth on hers was a shock, as much a shock as the gentleness of his kiss while he held her neck craned back at such a severe angle. She barely remembered to leave her hands on the bed as she parted her lips and traced her tongue over his lips. He caught the tip of it between his teeth in a warning bite, and his groan vibrated through her as he chased her tongue back into her mouth with his own.
Harder now, almost punishing. Lex whimpered as thought vanished, and she reached up to thread her fingers through the hair at the back of his neck.
Dallas bit her lower lip as he eased back, but only far enough to whisper a rough directive. "Fuck yourself with your hand. Not slow, either. I want to hear that slick, delicious sound. Fingers shoving deep into a hungry pussy."
Not being able to see magnified everything--the sound of his breaths, slow and measured, and the smell of him, leather and spice. Even her own touch, cool fingers on warmer skin. She started at her throat, slipped over the collar that marked her as his and down, pausing to brush one nipple as she eased her knees apart.
Stomach, hip. She tracked her progress with a shiver and then a startled moan when she reached her