I walked to the bed.
I was going to do this.
I stood at the side and pulled the ropes out.
I didn’t know what I was doing. I was too focused on other things to pay attention when he did it to me, but I climbed into bed.
He instantly offered his arm to me.
My insides started expanding.
I took his wrist and tied it to the bed as best I could, tugging at it hard when I got him fixed. The knot didn’t budge.
With no caressing, no kisses, my eyes never even hitting his face, I did the same to his other wrist and his ankles until he was leashed, spread out before me.
Taking him in, his power and beauty tied there for me, I experienced the quiver to end all quivers, but I fought that too.
I moved to my knees at his side and sucked in a breath before I grabbed his cock perfunctorily, heard his grunt, and finally looked to his face.
I bent over him, my hair curtaining us.
“You hurt me,” I whispered.
“I know, Cassie,” he whispered back.
“I can hurt you now,” I told him, tightening my fist on his cock.
He gritted his teeth at my hold but kept my eyes and relaxed his jaw to reply, “You won’t.”
“You’re sure?”
“Love is trust, Cassie, you taught me that.”
My insides expanded more just as my heart started bleeding.
“She didn’t?” I asked quietly.
“She taught me the other way around.”
I stared at him, right in the eyes, and read that as truth.
And the pain of that knowledge was so immense, I shifted and my head dropped down, planting itself in his chest because I couldn’t hold it up.
He loved her.
She broke him.
And then he found me.
He fought it.
He left me because she wouldn’t let him go.
So he found a way to let her go and came back.
I made my decision.
I released him and moved off the bed. I took off my clothes while he watched.