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I wanted him to be angry because it was me. Because I was special to him.
He reached out, brushed the back of his hand down my cheek. “I’d never leave you alone like that.” He took a step back. “No decent man would leave someone stranded like that.”
I ran my hand through my curls and tried to get my thoughts back on solid ground. “Seeing you take the time and money to get two strangers home safely just confirmed what I already knew.”
“And what was that?” His voice was soft, but I couldn’t exactly call it gentle.
I didn’t trust myself to do anything more than glance at him as I answered, “That I could trust you to keep me safe.”
* * *
My hands wereabove my head, wrapped from elbows to wrists and attached to the chains hanging from the ceiling. The ribbons were purple, the exact same shade as the bra and panty set Alix had given me to change into. I hadn’t asked how he’d known my measurements. He was a photographer. And he’d had his hands on my body. I couldn’t forget that.
Not even if I tried.
He was kneeling behind me now, his hands on my ankles as he positioned my feet. At first, I’d been surprised that he hadn’t put me in heels, but then his fingers had trailed over my calf as he explained why he wanted me in my bare feet.
I couldn’t remember what he said, but it’d been something artistic.
“A little farther.” He nudged them apart. “Arch your back a bit more. One more set and we’ll call it a day.”
I nodded, trying not to shift my weight as he stood and moved back. I closed my eyes and ran through everything I needed to do tomorrow morning in an attempt to distract myself from the fact that he was looking at my ass.
“Keep still.”
I felt him set something on the small of my back. It didn’t weigh much, but it wasn’t until the soft leather strips brushed against the tops of my thighs that I realized he’d carefully balanced a flogger on my back.
I let myself fall back into the quiet place where I waited for him to take the pictures he needed. It was a place where the discomfort in my body faded to the back of my mind, hidden under the heat of Alix’s gaze, under the sounds of him breathing, walking, under the clicks of his camera.
“Did you play sports back home?”
The personal question startled me, somehow more intimate than his prior touches. If it was all about the modeling, then it was easy to tell myself that he saw me only as a prop, an object in his photographs. Not in a bad way, but in a different way.
I heard his footsteps coming toward me, then the weight of the flogger vanished. His palm was hot as it slid over my ass and up my spine.
“You’re strong,” he continued. “I’ve photographed men and women both, all different body types and sizes. I haven’t only studied photography. I’ve taken several anatomy and biology courses, learning muscles and bones. Learning all about the body.”
“I was involved in gymnastics,” I said as he walked around in front of me, trying to ignore the way his hands felt on me. “And karate. I was always small, but I got into fights anyway. Da convinced Mam that if I was going to fight, I might as well know how to do it right.”
He reached up and touched something that released the chain. My arms fell, but he caught them, his fingers starting to work on the simple knots he’d used to bind me.
“I played football too.” I smiled as I straightened. “Soccer, I mean.”
His hands moved over my arms as the ribbons fell to the ground. The pins and needles feeling that rushed through my veins as my circulation returned to normal was hazy under the electricity of his touch.
“Did your brothers play too?”
“Most of them,” I said. “Callum preferred cricket.”
He’d reached my fingers but wasn’t letting them go. I raised my head until I was looking directly at him. Without taking his eyes from mine, he lifted my hand and kissed my fingertips.
“That–” I swallowed hard. “We talked about – we’re not supposed to – Alix...”
“You said that I reminded you of your brothers.” He slid a hand around my waist and pulled me to him until there was no room left between us. “I don’t want to remind you of them.” He lowered his head until his mouth hovered above mine. “Because what I want to do to you is most definitely notbrotherly.”
“Fuck me,” I whispered as arousal shot through me.
“That’s the idea.”
