He smiled again, a wicked smile full of intent. “I find I like you in this bossy mode. However, I’m going to like this more.”

“Like what?” I started to say, but before I could finish the last word, he spun me around, positioning me so that I was directly in front of the rope contraption. With one hand on my back, he pressed me forward until I was bent down, my breasts on the bed, while my backside was right there exposed to anyone who cared to look.

“Constantine!” I shrieked into the sheet, and tried to twist around. He hitched the rope system up a few inches so that my hips and butt were propped upward, while my hands remained on the bed. “I do not like where this is headed! My butt is off limits. Safe word! SAFE WORD!”

He laughed, the bastard, and nudged my knees open wide. “Do not fear, my little honey bee. I will not make you do anything that does not give you the most immense pleasure. Like this, for instance.”

“Like whaaaaaaieeeeeeeee!” Without so much as warning me, he put his hands on my hips, pulled me back slightly, and thrust into me in a manner that not only made me scream with pleasure, but caused every single muscle I possessed in that region to suddenly come to life. “Grace of the goddess, Constantine! You’re so—and it feels—I think I’m going to—you’re going to move?”

Not being a monster (or, as he’d be the first one to mention, an inconsiderate lover), he hadn’t penetrated very far into me, just enough to delight the aforementioned muscles, and to warn me that he meant business.

“Movement is integral to this, yes.” He sounded as breathless as I felt, his hands gripping my hips hard. I grabbed at the sheet beneath me, my body moving gently as he worked up a rhythm that allowed him to slide in deeper, opening me up in a way that almost made my eyes cross with pleasure. “What do you think? Do you enjoy this? Unlike restraints, you are free to move, but the support elevates you in a way that is supposed to enhance the experience.”

“Oh, it enhances, it enhances,” I said, aware that I was babbling, but unable to keep from doing so. I wanted desperately to hold on to him, but at the same time, I didn’t want him to stop what he was doing. He was winding me closer, ever closer to the moment when I felt I’d explode into a million pieces, and even though the position was somewhat awkward, and I had thoughts that my butt did not offer a particularly scenic view of me, I let that all go to simply enjoy.

And when my muscles tightened around him as I slipped over the edge of rapture, I reveled in the moan of sheer ecstasy that he gave before collapsing down onto my back.

Unfortunately, the belt or swing or whatever the rope system was called was not built for two. It gave way underneath me, sending both Constantine and me tumbling onto the bed.

Which also gave way, crashing to the floor with a noise that was so loud, it made my ears ring.

Constantine’s jaw clipped the back of my head, making us both swear.

“Are you hurt?” he asked, scrambling off of me, and flipping me over to examine me. “Did I crush you? Tell me I didn’t crush you. I heard the air whooshing out of your lungs. Can you speak? Can you breathe? Christos, let me call for a healer.”

He was up and at the door, standing naked in it as he called down the hallway for a healer when I caught my breath back and managed to speak. “I’m fine. Not hurt, although yes, a little winded.” I looked up at the ceiling, shrieked, and rolled to the side just as a chunk of plaster bearing the swing hook came tumbling down onto the bed. I looked from the plaster on the bed over to Constantine, still naked at the door, and burst into laughter.

“What are you laughing at?” he demanded, stomping over to me, his hands on his naked hips. “You find the situation funny? You find me funny?”

Outrage gathered in his eyes just as dragon fire burst into a puddle at my feet. I tapped it out with a bare foot, still giggling. Outside the room, voices called, growing louder.

“I find you sexy as hell and an incredible lover,” I said, pulling a blanket up from the floor, wrapping it around me. “As a matter of fact, I was just thinking that although I’ve had boyfriends who’ve promised to move the heaven and the earth, you’re the only one who ever managed to do so.”

His smile, as the worried occupants of the brothel burst into our room, was one almost entirely filled with male pride.

Eleven

“Why do you have to leave? The bed is fixed. The debris from the ceiling is cleared. I thought to pleasure you again, and you wish to leave? This is unacceptable. I have many variations of the support system to show you, one of which includes grapes.” Constantine waggled his eyebrows meaningfully at Bee. “I’ll let you guess who will be the recipient of them.”

“Oddly enough, I want to know, but alas, duty calls.” Bee rolled off his chest and began collecting her clothing.

Constantine enjoyed the view of her backside and thought of mentioning that fact, but he had found that women of this time did not appreciate knowing that their bodies were viewed with approval. “I am wise in the way of Oprah, and thus won’t comment on how charming I find your ass, but I wish for you to know that you need not have negative body issues on my behalf.”

“You are wise in the way of…” Bee, in the act of slipping on her jeans, spun around to stare at him, her mouth twitching in a manner that could either mean intense anger or amusement. He wondered which it was, and decided that it must be the latter.

“Yes. Ysolde insisted that I have feminist training. She said too many dragons thought as they used to centuries before and that she wasn’t going to have me running around perpetuating outdated mores and values.” He rubbed his chin and wondered what it would take to get Bee naked and in his bed again. “It is for that reason I am so in touch with what women like and need.”

“Uh huh.” Bee finished dressing before giving him an unreadable look. “I’m surprised you let this Ysolde woman talk you into becoming a feminist. You don’t strike me as the sort of man who gives up his dearly held beliefs of masculine superiority.”

He donned a noble expression, absently scratching an itch on his groin. “Since Ysolde was once my beloved mate, I am forced by honor to acquiesce to any demands she makes, even if it means reading boring literature and attending with her a few meetings of like-minded women.” His mouth twisted for a few seconds, then he gave her a rueful smile. “Although I do admit that I enjoyed the Our Bodies, Ourselves seminar. That was quite eye-opening, and not just because some of the ladies had me help them with their ladyplant mirrors.”