She let out a soft laugh, hoping he didn’t take it the wrong way. “Hell yes, Master.”

“What’s your safe word, S?”

She laughed louder, unable to help it. “Cauliflower, Master.”

“Is something funny, S?”

Her nervousness spiraled into a moment of punchy stupidity. “I don’t know, Master. Is something funny?”

Hell. She was going to regret that. He confirmed that the next second, grabbing her hair and twisting it hard. She whimpered as he yanked her head back, positioning her for his plunging, devouring, tongue-tangling kiss. When he finally let her go, he kept her jaw captive for a moment longer, letting her fast gasps twine with his heavy breaths. Sage pushed toward him again, yearning for another kiss, but he yanked his hand away in order to grab one of her wrists, pulling it directly over her head.

Trepidation did a fast trample on her desire as he secured a leather cuff around her wrist and then hooked the restraint in place with a distinct clink of a carabiner hook. He climbed onto the bed behind her before doing the same thing to her other wrist.

She was strung up for him now. Literally. With her arms locked over her head and her legs curled at the knee and pressed against him, she wouldn’t be scrambling out of this anytime soon.

Her heart pounded against her ribs in time to the fuck-friendly music.

But as she listened to Garrett readying numerous toys behind her, she had a feeling that a little of her Dom’s fun was coming before the fucking.

She closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath. Another.

He stole the calming effect of both gulps when he fitted his mouth against her ear and his hands circled around to tug hard at her nipples once more. “So, S’s tits are begging for a little attention tonight, yeah?”

She licked her lips and replied, “Yes, Master.”

“That’s damn fortunate, because I was thinking that S’s nipples need to share Sage’s punishment tonight. After all, they were naughty during that escapade in Medina, too.”

“Uh…yes, Master.”

She was happy she got that out, because her voice said a scared-shitless sayonara again in the next second. Garrett had dropped his finger teases on her nipples for a moment, only to bring his hands back bearing new toys for them. Okay, the clover clamps weren’t exactly new. He’d brought them home a few nights ago, excited about the possibilities of controlling how much tension he could deliver to her nipples with a tug of the string attached to each clamp. Sage had barely made it through one tiny pull on each string before pleading with Garrett to take the clamps off. The bastard’s smooth humming made it clear that he remembered every moment of that too—and planned on taking full, erotic advantage of the information.

Keeping up with his quiet control, Garrett stretched out her left nipple. The pleasure of his fingers on her skin almost outweighed the dread of knowing what was about to come.

“Ready?” he asked.

Oh, shit.

“Yes, Mas—owwww!”

He didn’t let her prepare for the right clamp. It didn’t matter anyway. Her breasts were turned into a pair of squeezed, stinging pinpoints, dominating every breath she took as Garrett turned and readied other playthings in the space she couldn’t see directly behind her. Sage winced. Oh, yay. More toys.

“Breathe through it, sugar,” he finally said. “They’re going to be on for a while.”

“Crap!” she snapped. “Why?”

His reply was a hard pair of spanks, one on each ass cheek. She let out a high yelp as her ass flared with fire. At the same time, the clamps swung on her nipples, pulling the flesh in tormenting new ways.

“What part of ‘punishment’ didn’t you comprehend, S?”

She hissed but managed to bite back the creative oath that came to mind. “All right. I know. I’m sorry.”

“Really?”

His question was sincere. She wanted to answer it that way too, but this was overwhelming to process. Being helpless had been a lot more glamorous to think about, maybe because it never came in the combo package with having to be responsible for an apology at the same time. “Yes! Fine. I’m really sorry. Damn it, Garrett!”

She knew what was coming before he delivered it, and she squeezed her buttocks to ready herself for the spanks. The preparation still didn’t save her skin. He’d gone for an upgrade. Instead of his bare palm, he wielded a hard paddle on her ass. Sage screamed from the shock as much as the pain, especially when he didn’t stop with just one blow. Five whacks later, he threw the paddle away. He had the gall to press his body against her instead, caressing her ass cheeks with long steady sweeps, grazing her neck with hot nips of his teeth and tongue.

“You have some nerve!” She was seething, despite how good those rough kisses felt. “You know that, you fucker? You have—”

He sucked out the air she needed for the rest of that by pushing himself even tighter against her. Hell. He was damn near wrapped around her, gripping her hard to ram her hips into the cradle of his. Gone was the Dom who’d been patiently explaining his moves to her. Returned was her prince of blatant carnality. His muscles pulsed against her limbs. His lungs heaved against her back. His breath was a wild firestorm in her ear.

He lowered his grip, hooking his hands into the valleys that joined her thighs to her torso. “Who are you in here?” he snarled.

His voice was so low, so vehement, so primal, Sage hesitated to answer.

“Answer me.”

Ohhhh, God. His demand was bestial now, stirring the darkest caves of her sexual instincts. She shivered and gasped. Her muscles dissolved. Her sex blossomed. Her heartbeat thudded like the downed prey of a ravenous lion. Yes. Consume me. Take it all. Please.

“Who. Are. You?”

A long breath escaped her. Sage listened to every second of it departing her body, flowing past her lips…knowing that she’d just let go of a lot more than a sigh.

“I am…S.”

He didn’t let up an inch of his proximity. “And who am I?”

“You are Master.”

“And who do you belong to…when you’re here with me?”

“You.”

“Completely?”

“Yes, Master. Completely.”

The words did something bewildering to her. And magical. This was even better than the fog that had infiltrated her mind earlier. She was released, floating, carried away from…well, everything. From King, from captivity, from the media wanting her to relive it for them—even from her own memory, which would never fully let it go. It was all gone, and now that she was light and free, even the feel of the claws on her breasts changed, radiating heat into her skin instead of pain. And her Master gave her wings to soar even further.

With gentle precision, his fingers slipped inward to find the center of her sex. He glided and kneaded, tugged and spread, and then finally pressed at the sensitive button that waited, trembling and tight, for his direct contact…

“Ohhh! Master! Yes!”

“You’re a good girl, S.” The words themselves praised, but his tone, rough and determined, turned them into a dictate. Sage reveled in it, giving him a little nod in response.

“I…I want to be, Master.”

“I know, sugar.”

With his fingers still fondling her clit, he slid his other hand to the aperture at her backside. Sage moaned in greater delight. He’d been experimenting on her asshole all week with different toys and had even gotten a sizable dildo inside her last night. Each experience had been filled with everything she wanted most from the evolving stages of their Dominant/submissive journey—pain mixed with pleasure, surrender mixed with sin, her body stretched to take Garrett into heights of fulfillment he’d never had before. But he hadn’t breached her ass with his own body. She knew he craved to. Maybe, she mused, he’d been saving it for a special occasion.

Maybe tonight that time had come.

Her heartbeat kicked in both anticipation and trepidation. The feeling intensified when she heard the flip of a plastic lid and a distinct liquid spurt. Her pulse raced into triple time when one of his fingers, now slicked with cool lube, slid into her tight entrance.

More wet squirts. Another finger in her ass. He gently pumped the digits, earning him deeper access. He released his hand from her pussy to help spread her back cheeks. Sage didn’t mind. He was opening her in a new, dirty, decadent way, and it coaxed out an answering animal in her, loving the coarse rumbles from his chest, the growing tension in his muscles, the lust that radiated from him like fireballs off the sun. Her breath started spilling from her in high, pleading sighs.

“Oh, fuck me, S.” Garrett practically grunted it as he twisted a third finger and a hell of a lot more lube inside her. “This rosette of yours is so damn tight and perfect.”