After a minute or so when he hadn't returned, she followed him.
He stood beside the bed, bare-chested, wearing white gi pants. Even if she hadn't seen the black rope in his hand, she recognized he'd slipped into rope master demeanor when he'd slipped on his uniform.
"Beauty given from the heart should be rewarded."
Her entire body quivered.
"Come here."
She took two steps, stopping next to the bed.
"Stand still."
His body brushed against hers.
Amery trembled harder.
His hair tickled her cheek and her neck as he kissed her temple and nuzzled her jawline to the tip of her chin. Warm, soft lips followed the cords straining in her neck, down the hollow of her throat, over her breastbone, and between her breasts.
"Sit on the bed."
She perched on the edge, knees open, never taking her eyes off the man before her. Ronin's wicked mouth landed on her sternum and zigzagged down her belly, pausing to lightly skim the sensitive area between her hip bones. After gracefully dropping into a squat, he pressed kisses over her bare mound, softly suckling her clit. Then he dragged his tongue down the seam of her sex and plunged deep into her cunt. He made the growling noise that sent additional shivers through her.
Her skin beaded, electrified by every touch of his lips, or his fingers, and even the soft lash of his hair.
His hands were on the inside of her thighs pushing her wider open yet and pulling her forward until her lower back pressed against the edge of the mattress. Ronin's liquid gold eyes were on hers. "Every part of you is sacred to me. Every. Part." He swirled his tongue around her anus.
Amery gasped even as she blushed. She never imagined that something so . . . dirty and forbidden could feel so good.
"I will have you here. Every part of you is mine to worship." He lapped at the rosebud several more times and pushed his thumb against the tight pink muscle. His teeth grazed the fleshy outer edge of her pussy and he soothed the sting with soft kisses.
After more long drugging kisses from her clit to her anus, he set her feet back on the floor.
"Stand up, spread your legs wide, and grab your ankles." He toyed with the black rope as she got into position.
Then he very calmly started binding her right wrist to her right ankle.
With her hair hanging down, obscuring much of her vision, she couldn't tell if it was an artistic wrap or merely a functional one. She basked in Ronin's sexual energy. By the time he finished his handiwork, she was dripping wet.
He took another length of rope and let it dangle through his fingers as he caressed her chest, preparing her for the next section of her body he intended to bind. When he finished the chest harness, she'd transitioned into shallow breaths, the white bliss of subspace teasing the edge of her awareness.
Every time he bound her, he checked every strand of rope to ensure that it was properly placed and any pinching sensation was intentional.
Ronin cupped her face in his hands, pushing her hair back to peer into her eyes, and straight into her soul. "Gorgeous. I would like a picture of you like this, black rope against your pearly skin. Showing your eyes as you struggle to understand why your being bound for me appeals to you."
She remained quiet, hoping to find that dreamy space where she could hear Ronin's broken breaths in the same tempo as her own. Where their blood pumped thick and hot and slow in perfect synchronicity. Where they were two entities bound together by one rope.
Ronin stroked the inside of her thigh with his entire palm. "See how when I use my fingers here"-he lightly pinched the section of skin where her thigh curved into her butt-"how beautifully your skin quivers? It's a drug, Amery, how perfectly you react to my touch. I want to feel that quiver against my lips. I want to feel it on the outside of my thighs as I'm fucking you."
His words settled in her like a seed and she knew he'd coax her to bloom beneath his hands.
He turned her and lifted her onto the bed as if she weighed nothing. As if she were an object to be moved at his whim.
She twisted her shoulders, trying to find a better balance point.
"Stop." Ronin was right there calming her, petting her. "The harder you struggle against the bonds, the higher the chance of marks."
"Don't you want to mark me? Isn't that part of the appeal for you tonight?"
"I wanted a mark from you. I demanded one. And I'll ask you before I leave marks where others can see."
The warmth filling her had nothing to do with his mastery with ropes, but how he'd mastered reading her.
"Let your thoughts go. Give yourself over to me."