Chapter Eight #3
Daniel wrapped his fingers in her hair and tugged, a gentle pull to remind her not to mouth off. “A lot of people, if it’s done correctly. And a little discomfort isn’t necessarily bad, but we want to make sure nothing is too tight, that your left shoulder doesn’t hurt at this angle.”
She froze, as if he’d said something entirely unexpected.
Daniel lifted his gaze to Kyle. Did we misread her history? She said it was her left shoulder.
Kyle shrugged.
Alison’s gulp—a tell-tale giveaway that she was nervous—came before a surprisingly direct answer. “It doesn’t hurt.”
Sometimes dealing with her felt like wandering a minefield, like he was traipsing around and had no idea when the next step would blow him up.
But they were pushing her enough this afternoon. There was no need to make it more uncomfortable, so he let it go.
“Good. If that changes, let us know. Right now, you can just tell us. If it’s when we need to be entirely in character, use your safe word, and I’ll try to figure out the issue. Do you remember your safe word?”
“Master.” The word was whispered like a vile curse, and Daniel had to admit, he didn’t care for it, either.
He’d never been in for the twenty-four-seven thing. He loved a willing submissive, and yeah, he’d slip into that mode quite often, but he didn’t want a slave.
“Good girl,” Kyle said, seated on the couch in front of her.
He reached out and dragged his fingers over her cheek.
“Now, when they’re here, we’ll have you bound just like this.
Blindfolded, headphones on. It’ll help reduce you having to play along too much.
Don’t worry, we’ll turn the noise canceling off on the headphones so you can still hear us. ”
Tension left her shoulders, as though that was what she’d needed to hear. “So how long do I have to be like this?”
Daniel huffed a chuckle at her annoyance. If it was only annoyance, it would have been easier to ignore. However, the moment she’d gone to her knees, when Kyle had pushed her shoulders to guide her down, that delectable scent had blossomed in the room.
She didn’t want to like this, but she did. It made Daniel want to press his lips to her exposed skin, to taste her.
She hasn’t asked for that, though.
“You’ve got to look like someone who has been bound and played with enough that it isn’t surprising anymore,” Trent said.
He’d stood back, still seemingly unnerved by the entire bite thing.
“Played with?” Alison furrowed her eyebrows and took that plump bottom lip between her teeth.
How could she be as dangerous as she was, as tough as she was, and still somehow look so innocent?
Daniel took his seat behind her, in a chair he’d pulled in from the kitchen. It meant she was kneeling surrounded by all three of them. “I’m sure you know exactly what we mean by that. You aren’t a virgin.”
“No, I’m not, but I’m also not someone stupid enough to let people tie me up.”
Of course not. Bondage required some real trust, and Alison didn’t trust herself, let alone anyone else. No way would the girl let someone tie her up and have fun, no matter how much her reaction showed she would love it.
She was close enough that Kyle cupped her cheek and rested her head against his thigh. It put her very close to him, but that was why they were doing this.
Alison had to look as if she’d done this, that they’d spent the last few weeks in such close contact. There was no way to fake that level of comfort, especially with a girl as guarded as Alison.
Tension ran through her muscles, and she seemed a moment from bolting—or at least trying to, since her bindings would hold her.
“Yes, playing,” Kyle said as he toyed with her hair.
“Even though we aren’t planning on actually fucking you, you need to seem like we have been.
If we’d spent the last few weeks actually training you, you sure as hell would be comfortable kneeling for us, or accepting our touch. So, that’s what we’re doing now.”
“Or you’re just trying to justify why you can touch me,” she pointed out. “What’s next, you’re going to say that to really sell the story, you need to actually have sex with me?”
“Well, if you’re offering…” Kyle had a full grin on his face.
She offered him a hell of a glare.
“Sex doesn’t need to happen,” Trent broke in, leaning back in his chair. “But you can’t act like a prude, either.”
“I am not a prude.”
Daniel snorted at that. She was a prude. It was impossible not to be one when she wouldn’t let her guard down, ever. How exactly was someone supposed to get into sex, to really enjoy it, if they were constantly on guard?
She moved off Kyle’s thigh and twisted to glare at Daniel. The look was so much less intimidating when she was bound like that. “I’m not. You act like I’m some naive, virginal teenager.”
“Never said that, but having sex doesn’t mean you’ve got much experience.”
“You don’t know anything.”
“Oh yeah?” Daniel fed off her attitude, desperate to see her ruffled. “Because I remember our little getting-to-know-one-another game. You answered those red cards, but you sure as hell didn’t have much in the way of wild stories to tell. You ever have sex outside of a bed?”
“Of course I have.” The red on her cheeks was all frustration at that moment, but damn, it was pretty. “Quickies in bar bathrooms are a thing, you know?”
And why didn’t that surprise him? Because her level of prudishness wasn’t about not having sex, it was about not actually giving herself in to it.
“Not a shocker,” Kyle said, picking up the conversation.
“Hell, I bet it’s been all backrooms and motel rooms with you.
You ever have a guy back to your place?”
Silence.
Kyle kept going. “You ever let one hold you down?”
“Maybe I like holding them down.”
That got a bark of laughter from Daniel. He loved that she kept him on his toes. “Well, you did leave some marks on poor Trent. Man won’t be able to go to a pool for at least a couple weeks without people asking what wild animal got a hold of him.”
She shifted, and he knew it was because she’d grown wet from their conversation. “Just because I’m not into kinky sex doesn’t make me a prude.”
“Not into and never tried are two different things. You know, sweet, your problem is that you want shit you’re afraid to ask for. You’d rather pretend you don’t want it, that you aren’t interested, instead of risking anything. I bet you if we tied you up, for real, you’d enjoy it.”
“This feels pretty real to me.” She tugged at the cuffs to make her point, the metal jingling as she did.
Daniel slid his fingers over the edge of her shirt, then traced her spine up to her collar. “This isn’t real. Real would have you naked, and we’d be allowed to touch.”
“You are touching.”
“Not really, not the places we’d both like a lot better.”
The conversation had gone so far off the rails, but Daniel didn’t care to yank it back on track. The job, the case, all stopped being an issue.
Suddenly they were three interested, dominant alphas with a beautiful, drenched omega on her knees.
“Like where?” She asked the question in a whisper, the sort that said she probably hadn’t even meant to ask.
“Everywhere, pet.” Trent answered. “You’re already carrying some of my scent, but you’d have theirs by the end of the night.”
“So why haven’t you done that? Why keep trying to act like this is all professional?”
Daniel wrapped his fingers in her hair again, drawing his hand into a fist and forcing her to look up and back at him. Her pupils grew, telling him she damn well liked that sting in her scalp.
“Because this is professional. What we’re doing, it’s what the case needs. The rest? Those things aren’t needed, so we don’t act on them.”
“And if I wanted to?”
Daniel smiled and traced his finger over her lip. “You’d have to ask very nicely.”
When she darted her tongue out and the warm wetness of it touched his thumb, he groaned.
Please, let her ask…