at the sight.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine this.” I shake my head in wonder as I head over to his closet. I open the door and turn on the light, exposing what seems to be a never-ending room. “What is this? A portal to another realm? One look at this place and I think every girl at Briggs would have a closet-gasm. Me included.”
“Try to save the gasms for later.” He finishes lighting the room up with an incandescent glow and joins me. “What’s up? You want to sniff my underwear? I’ll give you a hint. That’s not how this works.”
“Very funny,” I say, heading to his neatly organized ties. Everything in Shep’s closet is immaculately coordinated, suits on one side, everyday clothes on the other. I carefully pull a smooth red tie from its home before stealing its gold neighbor as well.
Shep wraps his arms around me from behind and buries a kiss in my neck. “Italian silk. You have very expensive taste.”
“You must be rubbing off on me, seeing that I’ve never had two dimes to rub together.”
He runs kisses all along my temple, my cheek. “You’ve always been a quick learner.”
“Oh, I still am.”
“Good.” He pulls back with those sleepy eyes thick with lust for me. “Because I plan on rubbing off on you all night long.”
I spin in his arms and move us back to the bedroom by way of a heated kiss. I help evict his T-shirt, and he’s quick to remove my little black dress. Much to his delight, I’ve donned nothing underneath. Confession: I did a quick removal of the non-matching, very much non-sexy panty and bra duo that paid homage to dingy days gone by. I figured this way we could cut to the candle-lit chase.
He turns off the lights in the room, and only the flicker of the aforementioned flames cast their luminescence over the vicinity.
“I think one of us is a little ahead of the game.” I spin him around and bind his arms behind his back with that svelte gold tie. I googled the hell out of sailing knots and then watched a million YouTube tutorials on how to do it myself until my eyes and fingers bled. “There’s no way you’ll be able to free yourself from these silk chains. I’m practically a skilled S and M mistress by now.”
“Things I like to hear.”
I graze his ear with my lips, and he gives a slight shiver. “And, apparently, things you like to feel.” I slip the red tie around his neck and lead him back toward the bed. Carefully, I get on my knees and unbuckle his pants, striping them off along with his boxers with my teeth.
And, my God, obviously, I did not think this through because Shep is giving me a foot-long salute with the likes of nothing I have ever seen before. I just sit there staring at it like a deer in the obscene headlights.
Shep gently nudges me with his knee until I’m standing next to him once again, wild-eyed and shaking.
He nods at the bed. “Hop on board. I promise it’ll be less traumatic.”
I do as I’m told, and no sooner do I climb onto the mattress than the petals rise in the air, light as feathers, surreal as a sugar-dipped dream. I spot that tie still dangling from his bedpost from the other night, still firmly secured as if it were waiting patiently for my return.
“Ha!” I enliven at the sight. “Guess what else I learned this week?” I quickly thread my hands through the loop of the tie and do a little fancy wrist work until I’m bound and determined to be immobilized myself.
“Whoa.” He warms my bare back with his chest, and I can feel his most prominent feature grazing against my thigh.
Wow, things just got real, and my heart is doing its best to eject itself. My skin heats twenty degrees, and suddenly I’m rethinking this unflattering angle he’s free to inspect me at from behind.
“Okay, color me impressed.” He lands a gentle kiss to my temple before moving down in a glorious heated track and nibbling on my ear.
“Oh yes, that’s nice.” I groan as my head rolls into him. I give my wrists a quick yank, but the restraint I’ve landed myself in only seems to tighten. I give another few yanks, and it feels as if the blood flow to my hands is all but cut off. My fingers begin to thicken with