Finn held her gaze. For a long moment he said nothing, only studied her as though he were seeing her for the first time. ‘You’re sure?’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Positive.’ And she was, though until now, she wouldn’t have known it.
Still holding her gaze, he fished his iPhone from his pocket.
‘Meinrad, close up the shop and bring the ropes. My place.’ He disconnected and turned his attention back to her. ‘Meinrad has a lot more finesse with tying people up than I do.’ Suddenly he didn’t seem to care if the people next to them heard. ‘If it were me, I’d just tie you to the bed with your knickers and shag you senseless.’
She was pretty sure that would have worked just fine for her. In fact the picture it created in her head sent a new flood of lust to her panties.
Kinky Boots was just up the street, and Meinrad was closing up shop when Finn force-marched Jill past the door and around the back.
Inside the flat, Finn locked the door behind them and guided her through the kitchen and the lounge down a narrow hall past the bathroom. ‘My bedroom,’ he said, opening a door into a room that was unusually big for an apartment tucked behind a shop in Shoreditch. The room was an eclectic hodgepodge that was probably the perfect psychological study of Finn Masters. Any other time, Jill would have loved to take it all in, but right now she couldn’t take her eyes off a very large brass bed that looked like it came straight from an American western movie. Both the headboard and the footboard were ornately twisted, finely worked brass.
He moved behind her and kissed her neck. ‘The basement is rigged for suspension, but since you’ve never been tied before, we’ll start with a nice comfy bed. Now –’ he shifted his hips against her until she could feel his hard-on ‘– take off your clothes. All of them.’
She balked. ‘And Meinrad is –’
‘Is going to see you naked, yes, Jill. By the time he’s done, he’ll be very familiar with your body.’ He nodded to her clothes. ‘Now get undressed. This is what you want, isn’t it?’
For a second, she had the strange urge to cry or to run. She did neither. She squared her shoulders and slipped the vest off over her head. As she unzipped the skirt and stepped out of it, he nodded to her boots. ‘Leave those on.’
While she slipped out of her bra and knickers, Finn stood unmoving, watching her, his eyes unreadable, the erection in his jeans unmissable. When she was naked except for the boots, he gathered her clothing and laid it across the back of a black leather settee.
There was a soft knock on the door and Meinrad entered the room with several hanks of what looked like ordinary rope. He nodded his greeting to Finn, then his gaze came to rest on Jill, and she felt her entire body blush at his inspection. ‘Turn around,’ he said.
She obeyed.
He made some sound low in his throat that could have passed as either approval or not. Then he placed a large hand on her shoulder and turned her back to face him. She noticed he wore the Kinky Boots uniform T-shirt stretched tight across his very broad chest. The shop name was punctuated by the hard pressure of nipples on muscular pecs. The black jeans he wore rode low on his hips. The wave of lust that rushed over her was staggering. How had she not noticed how sexy he was?
Then Finn moved to stand beside him, and she understood. Even though Meinrad was by far the larger man, Finn dominated the room. Finn dominated the space. Finn dominated every second of the last twenty-four hours of her life, as though he had shoved his way in and pushed everything else out. It did things to her, that thought, things that were way beyond lust, things that were a lot more frightening than being possessed by a demon. He stood gazing down at her from some neutral distance that made her feel very much alone, as though the world and everyone in it had receded, leaving her to await her fate. Eleanor was keeping a low profile.
Finn spoke without preamble. ‘Unless something’s hurting you, while Meinrad’s binding you, you’re not to speak. You’re only to move when he moves you. You’re to do exactly as he says. You’re to accept what he does to you in total passivity. Is that clear?’
‘Is he going to fuck me?’ She was embarrassed the minute she said it but it was too late to take it back.
‘If I want him to, yes,’ Finn said.
If Finn wanted him to. Dear God, what was she doing? Suddenly she felt unsteady on her feet. She didn’t know Meinrad. Not like she knew Finn. And yet the thought of the big man hammering her with his enormous cock while she was all trussed up was at least as exciting as it was uncomfortable. The thought that he would do so only at Finn’s bidding excited her even more.