“You have a great place here,” I say when he reappears with the box of condoms in one hand.

“Back in position.”

A thrill of excitement floods my veins as I bend over the table. This is clearly Jake’s show.

Minutes pass and then his warm hand caresses my ass, smoothing over my cheeks. “Fuck,” he murmurs. “You’ve got the sweetest ass. I could look at it all day.”

“I love it when you whisper sweet nothings in my ear.”

“Only thing I’m putting in your ear, baby, is my tongue, and that’s after I’ve licked every part of your body, including your pu**y.”

My gasp goes unheard as his feet thud across the marble floor to a credenza beneath the flat-screen TV. My heart pounds against the table, and I push myself partway up.

“I’ve…never allowed anyone to spank me before, Jake.” My voice drops to a low whisper. “I don’t know if I’ll like it.”

He holds up a coil of soft rope and a pair of nylon cuffs. “You’ve never been spanked? With that smart mouth?”

Affronted, I frown. “This mouth is usually busy doing things that warrant the opposite of a spanking, and I’ve never had any complaints.”

Jake freezes midstep. “Baby. Do NOT, and I repeat do NOT put images into my head of you and other men. There is no past. There is only now and soon, and you’re going to get spanked in both of them. And knowing what I know about you and seein’ the way you’re nibbling on your lip and watching your cheeks burn, I know it’s gonna make you f**king hot.”

He squats in front of the table and tilts my head up with a gentle finger under my chin. I push myself up on my elbows to meet his gaze.

“You okay if I restrain your arms? It will give you something to brace against and knowing you can’t interfere…it heightens the sensation.”

I look from Jake to the cuffs and back to Jake. “In the past, which I know exists only in the hypothetical universe, and aside from the tie episode at my house, which was escapable, I only ever allowed restraints I could release myself.”

“Then you weren’t really restrained,” he murmurs. “You won’t be able to let go if you’re in control. Trust me, baby. You don’t like anything we’re doing, you say the word and I’ll stop.”

“I trust you.”

Jake wraps the padded Velcro straps around my wrists and then threads the rope through the attached rings to the legs of the table, spreading my arms wide.

“These cuffs are handy,” I mumble through my trepidation. “I guess you never know when you might need padded Velcro cuffs with rings attached. Maybe when you need to hang from your arms or if you have a lot of shopping to carry home. I should get a pair.”

Jake chuckles and looks away. “If you don’t stop talking and making me laugh, I’m gonna gag you too, or maybe I’ll fill that lush mouth with my c**k and give it something else to do.” He makes me pull against the restraints until he is certain they won’t hurt me and I am certain I won’t be able to get free. My first taste of real restraint is a heady experience. By the time Jake walks behind me, I am struggling through both intense fear and intense arousal.

“I can’t do this,” I rasp. “Let me up.”

Jake smoothes his hand down my back and then over my ass. “Give it a minute, baby. Let your mind and body adjust.”

He kicks my legs apart and strokes a rough finger through my folds, then trails my wetness along my inner thigh. “I’m thinking you’re already there.”

Oh yes. Hot, wet, and desperate to be touched. Arching my back, I look over my shoulder, just as Jake leans over me, pressing his bare, slick chest against my back, covering me with his body. His erection presses against the cleft of my ass and I moan.

Jake brushes a kiss over my cheek, trailing his lips down my neck to the sensitive spot between my neck and my shoulder. “Need to mark you.” The deep rumble of his voice vibrates through my body. “Let everyone know you’re mine.”

“Okay.”

He bites gently at first and then sucks hard until my eyes slit closed at the pleasure pain and my breath comes in short, hard pants. He licks over the wound and then kisses the bruised skin.

“Mine.”

“Yours,” I agree. “In the most primal sense of the word.”

He licks again over the wound. “Wish I could make it permanent.”

“Like a tattoo on my forehead that says ‘Renegade’s girl. Don’t f**king touch or I’ll break your arms’?”

Chuckling, he brushes my hair to the side and then nuzzles my neck. “That would be a good start.”

A shiver of pleasure runs down my spine as his five o’clock shadow rasps over my sensitive skin. I gasp and arch under him, pushing back against his hardened length. His obvious arousal sends a wave of need through my body, and I whimper and wiggle my ass, hoping he might forget the spanking and skip to the good stuff.

“Naughty girl,” he warns. “Punishment first, then pleasure.” He pulls away, leaving me cold and bereft, then his hand smacks my ass with a loud, terrifying crack.

My breath leaves me in a rush, as does my brain’s ability to register the sensation. Stunned, I don’t move until suddenly fire streaks across my left cheek. I suck in air and release it with a gasp as he murmurs in a calm, perversely soothing voice.

“Next time you feel scared or overwhelmed, you talk to me. I’ll listen. I’ll be there for you. You don’t guess what I’m thinking and you don’t push me away.”