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The amusement drains out of me. “What about it?”

His fingers curl loosely around the back of a chair. “What it would feel like if you did it to me.”

My stomach tightens immediately. I don’t want that.

Kell waits, and the rest of my thinking follows just as clearly. He lives in my house. I’ve been paying for his clothes, his food, and his paint. Half the practical pieces of his life still run through me. The idea of adding you can’t move until I let you to that list feels wrong right now. That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with him wanting it. I just don’t want to be the one doing it.

“I don’t think I want to tie you up.”

Kell is quiet for a moment. “Okay.”

Some of the tension leaves me. No disappointment. No argument. He asked. I answered, and the decision can simply exist between us.

“You’re okay with that, Kell?”

“Yes.”

I believe him.

I reach for the refrigerator again, but another thought stops me before my hand gets there.

Not Kell restrained.

Me.

My wrists secured above me. Kell deciding when and where to touch me while my hands have no say in it.

Heat sweeps through me so quickly I have to shift my weight.

Kell notices. “What?”

I press my palms against my thighs, suddenly very aware of everything I just pictured. Saying nothing would be easy. The wanting itself isn’t.

“Would you want to tie me?” I blurt before I can shut myself down.

Kell goes completely still.

“You want me to restrain you?”

The way he says it sends another rush through me. Well. That makes things abundantly clear.

“I think so.”

“Why?”

I rub my palms over my thighs once. “Because being the one restraining you doesn’t sit right with me. Not now. You still depend on me for too many things, and I don’t want to add your body to that list. But when I pictured the opposite…”

“Me restraining you.”

“Yes.”

His internal resonance starts so quietly I almost miss it. My body doesn’t. The faint vibration arcs through me.

“You want that?”

The question should make me hesitate. Instead, hearing him ask it makes the wanting sharper. “Yes.”

Kell is quiet. “Okay.”