Chapter 44
Forty-Four
Scarlett
23 Years Old
Colin’s steady hands draped even sides of the rope over Scarlett’s neck, and she felt like she might catch fire and burn his apartment to the ground. His fingers were so sure as he moved to her backside and did something she couldn’t quite see, but when he was finished, she could feel part of the rope hanging between her shoulder blades as he moved back to the front.
“The first knot goes right here,” Colin pressed his thumb just under the hollow of her collarbone, and it was torture to not have his hands all over her body.
“Okay,” Scarlett squeaked out, gripping the rope cutter tighter. She wouldn’t use it. She could already tell that this was what she liked. Whatever he was doing was exactly what she wanted. The wait as he tied the first knot was delicious, and she squirmed against him, her body searching for his hands.
“Stop moving,” he chastised. “Stand still.”
Hoping to relieve the ache and pressure between her legs, she squeezed her thighs together, grateful that she was wearing underwear, because it provided the smallest bit of friction she needed. “I’m trying.”
“Try harder,” Colin demanded, adjusting the rope with precision and leaning out to check behind her. “The second knot goes here.” Instead of his thumb, his face pressed hard between her breasts, and he kissed her sternum. She was sure her breathing sounded erratic and noisy, but she couldn’t bring herself to care as she clenched her thighs tighter. When he had tied that knot and inspected his work in the meticulous way he did everything, she wanted to scream out that he needed to keep going. That he needed to go faster before she lost her mind. Pulling the rope through the hole was the worst part, the way his veined forearms flexed as they dragged it through the loop he had created was painfully erotic. “And the third knot,” he said, his voice barely restrained as he pressed his mouth between her breasts again. His wet tongue dragged down her body and the rope he pinned to her torso until he got to the center of her ribcage, where he stopped again.
“Colin,” Scarlett groaned.
“Is that a good ‘Colin’ or a bad ‘Colin’?” he asked.
A pang of guilt lodged in her chest for ever making him wonder if his name meant something bad. “Don’t stop, Colin,” she whispered. “I’ll only say your name if I’m enjoying it, I promise.”
“Thank you.” He swallowed and started to tie again. She wanted to look down to see if he was just as aroused as she was, but when she started to tip her head, it shifted the rope. “Don’t do that,” Colin chastised.
“Sorry.” Her voice came out high and squeaky, which would have been embarrassing if she was with anyone else, but Colin clearly couldn’t care less if it sounded like she was going through puberty, because he was pulling the rope through the loop again, and she was back to wanting to lick his forearms.
“Next, your belly button.” He held the rope down against her body and pressed a sweet kiss on her stomach before tying the knot with care.
“This is taking so long .” Scarlett could hear how whiny she sounded, but this level of foreplay was going to put her in an early grave if he didn’t get to the point sooner rather than later. Her thighs were burning from squeezing so much, and her core was molten lava, hot and achingly empty.
“Patience is a virtue,” he said, pulling through the knot at her navel.
“I’m not a virtuous woman,” she retorted with a small laugh. “I’m currently being tied up by my ex-boyfriend before I hook up with him.”
“Good point.” Colin chuckled. “Fuck your virtue.”
“Would love it if you’d fuck my virtue way faster,” Scarlett complained.
“This one’s going to help you.” He moved his hands down from the last knot, and she let out a small moan of relief when he pressed three fingers between her legs against her clit. “It’s called a happy knot, because it goes right here.” He pulled his fingers away. “Will that make you happy?”
There weren’t any words left, Scarlett was so keyed up. She gave Colin a small, jerky nod of her head. The anticipation of this one was all-consuming, and watching him pull the rope through was so agonizing that she thought about throwing the entire thing out the window and demanding that he lay her down right this second. But she persisted, begging her body to calm down enough for him to finish. None of her need died down after he pressed the knot into her clit.
“God,” she moaned, eyes closing. “I’m begging you to hurry up.”
“Spread your legs, Red,” Colin directed. She unclenched and did as told, whimpering at the loss of pressure. He bent and dragged the rope between her legs, moving around her backside to do something with the original knot he had tied at her shoulder blades. “We’re almost done,” he said. “Kind of.”
Scarlett threw up her hands. “What do you mean, kind of?”
He separated the two strands of rope and pulled them around each side of her, under her armpits and to the front. “I mean I have to pull these through each loop on the front and wrap them around your back now.” She huffed and puffed perpetually as Colin worked the loop, pulling each strand through under her collarbone and wrapping the rope tight over the top of her breasts. “Is this too tight?”
“No.” It felt good, almost like his hands were fused to her body. If the rest of the rope felt the same, she was going to love this. He again did something at her back and pulled the strands to the front, yanking them through the second loop under her breasts and asking again if it was too tight. Every time until he reached the final loop at her belly button, she confirmed that nothing was too tight. He tucked the leftover bit of rope at her backside through the horizontal lines and met her around the front. The whole process couldn’t have been longer than ten minutes at most, but by the end, she wanted to come so badly she was sure it wouldn’t take any effort at all.
“Come look.” Colin guided her to the mirror with a hand on the small of her back. Tiny diamond shapes formed down the center of her torso, and the lines of rope pressing into her body accentuated every curve of her breasts and hips. “What do you think?”
“I look hot,” she admitted. “What do you think?” He grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand over to cup him between his legs. The hard jut of his erection traveled across his thigh, and she slid her hand across it all the way to the tip, liking the strangled sound it elicited from Colin and the wet spot on his boxer briefs where he had leaked precum.
“I want you so badly it’s painful, Red.” His voice was so hoarse she could do nothing but believe him. Moving around behind her, he pressed himself into her backside, gripping her with both hands, one braced across her collarbone to pull her in tighter and the other on her hip, his fingers indenting her skin like all the knots he had tied. Her head fell back against his chest, and as she looked in the mirror, she couldn’t help but think they looked good together, like the rope adorning her body was tied around them both, linking them together. Her eyes fluttered closed in pleasure when he reached up to cup one of her breasts and brought his mouth down to her ear. “I want to taste you.”
Without warning, she took the rope cutter and gripped the band to one side of her underwear, frantically cutting away the fabric.
“I could have pulled those off without ruining them,” Colin said.
“I don’t care. Ruin me ,” she pleaded. She was nothing but a desperate ache needing to be filled, and she didn’t care if she had to destroy every single pair of underwear she owned if it meant his face was buried between her legs soon. Colin, who now seemed impatient compared to the methodical way he had tied her up, was already unclasping her bra. She reached behind her for the band at the top of his briefs and dragged them down over his ass as his erection popped free.
When Scarlett turned around, she was greeted with the sight of his strong, naked body. Colin was no longer the scrawny boy she once knew. Strong thighs, a sprinkling of chest hair, and a rigid hip bone cutting down to his cock felt both familiar and new, like déjà vu or an alternate universe’s timeline. The part of his body that hadn’t changed at all was as big as she remembered. She had had other men now, so she knew for certain this time that all her nervous spouting about whales in the past hadn’t been in vain. Colin’s cock, with its swelled tip and the thick vein running down its shaft, looked like it might hurt her when he finally pushed into her again, and God did she want it to hurt, just a little bit. Enough to make her sore. Enough to remember that he had wanted her so badly that they were both raw from it afterward.
“Give me your wrists,” Colin directed. Eyes wide and excited, Scarlett held her forearms together and lifted them up as an offering to him, her bare breasts pressing together and lifting a bit behind the rope. It didn’t take him long to tie this knot, and he was much less precise about it than the rope dress he had made her, wrapping the rope around her wrists quickly and only checking in once to make sure it wasn’t too tight. His lips were on hers immediately after he finished, plundering her mouth. Her breasts felt full and heavy in his capable hands as they moved back to the bed. “Get on your knees and forearms,” he ordered. Scarlett scrambled to heed his request, falling onto her elbows with her wrists pinned together and the rope pressing into her skin all over her body. Colin got in bed behind her and took no time at all to yank the rope between her legs to the side, his face buried in her heat and licking her.
She shouted his name, arching her back and pressing back into him. The knot on her clit rubbed her with each rocking swipe of his tongue, and the first orgasm felt like she was splitting herself in pieces between the sections of roped lines dividing her body. Arms stretched out in front of her, her shoulder blades pinched together and her face pressed forcefully into the pillow to muffle the choking cry of pleasure as she released the first wave. Each wave followed another stroke of his tongue until she could barely breathe.
“Red, how are you doing?” Colin rasped from behind her.
“Holy fuck.” She heaved air into her lungs. The head of his cock knocked against her entrance, and she gasped.
“Scarlett, answer the question.”
“Yes. Good. Perfect. Fuck if I know. Please, just don’t stop,” she begged.
“You said you wouldn’t get annoyed when I asked too much,” he reminded her.
“I’m not annoyed. I’m dying. ” Scarlett groaned dramatically. “I need you to push right now.”
“Breathe, Red.” The memory that slammed into her at the same time his cock did was almost too much. She had forgotten all the words he used to whisper in the heat of the moment, and hearing them now made the well of emotion in her chest hurt more than it should. The pleasure and the pain of it all made her eyes begin to water at the edges, leaking and wetting the pillow. “Tell me I’m better than everyone else,” Colin demanded. “Tell me no one makes you come the way I do.”
“No one,” Scarlett croaked, her knees and thighs rocking with him and returning each of his thrusts, needing every push and pull of his cock and at the same time wishing she had never let him touch her again because it was too satisfying.
“I can’t make this last. I’ve wanted this for too long. It feels so good, I—” he panted, his cocking snapping in and out of her in a rhythm she knew all too well. “I need to come. I’m sorry.”
It didn’t matter to her because the sorrow and the satisfaction she was feeling were already boiling over, the knot at her clit burning with friction and heightened sensitivity. As one last thrust had him twitching inside her, her spine crumpled and her body tensed, relieving her of every last drop of feeling and agony lodged in her heart. She came hard, blinded by her watering eyes, and when she was done, the comedown left her feeling empty and lifeless on his bed.
Colin did all the cleanup, untying her knots and tossing the rope into the washing machine. He wiped off his release from between her legs with a warm washcloth and discarded her torn underwear. She took a shower and found the answer to why he always smelled vaguely sweet, but not overly fragrant. The soap he used looked expensive and handmade, a honeycomb design on the top and oats embedded in the bar. Smelling his musk on her skin and scrubbing it away with the soft scent he used felt predictable—she could never seem to get rid of him fully.
When Scarlett finished showering and finally got her emotions somewhat under control, Colin lent her one of his shirts, and they curled under his soft, white sheets. There was a glass of water on the nightstand near her side of the bed that he must have poured for her when she was in the shower. The two pain reliever pills sitting beside it said he had anticipated the headache she had now from dehydration, and a well of emotion churned in her stomach again.
Colin asked her a few questions, and she responded to each one but fell silent afterward. She could tell he wanted her to elaborate and spiderweb her thoughts, but she couldn’t pull herself out of the sadness that weighed her down. It wasn’t that the sex was bad, it was that it was the opposite of bad. He was right, no one was as good as him. She would venture that nothing was as good as them together , and because of that, she felt cut open and flayed to the core. This was supposed to be just sex, and yet it felt like they had claimed each other again, a thought she was too terrified to speak aloud because she already knew how easy it was for him to leave.
Scarlett almost asked him. Almost begged for him to tell her why he had ended everything if not for all the reasons he had said back then, but when she had gathered the courage, Colin was passed out on the pillow beside her, gently snoring with a limp arm over her stomach.
She followed the first part of Colin’s request and stayed until early morning, but she didn’t wait for him to rise before leaving before breakfast.