The guilt is still there, though.

“Sometimes I wonder what would have happened to all of us if I’d just left Midnight.”

He puts his hands on either side of my face and forces me to look at him.

“Say that again and I will bind and gag you until you learn your lesson.”

Blood rushes to my cheeks at the thought of being bound and gagged by him.

He clucks his tongue at me. “I have to come up with better punishments, apparently.”

With everything that’s going on, I want a distraction.

My sister is getting one. Go sissy.

“Do it now,” I say, my voice going reedy. “Teach me a lesson.”

He presses closer, his hands dipping to my waist. “You should rest.”

“I will. After.”

His tongue runs over the sharp tip of his incisor as amber fire comes to his irises. “Don’t tempt me.”

I don’t just want a distraction. I need one. There’s no chance I’ll sleep now.

“Sometimes I wonder,” I say and then lick my lips, drawing out the temptation.

“Mouse.” His voice rumbles in the base of his throat.

“—what would have happened to all of us—”

The brightness in his eyes grows.

“—if I’d just left Midnight.”

The air goes still.

I have approached the center of the storm and the hair rises along the nape of my neck.

My heart is thudding loudly in my head and heat is settling between my legs.

Without warning, Bran hooks his fingers into my panties, yanks them off, then shoves them into my mouth.

“You asked for it,” he says, and spins me around.

Episode 48

Watch How You Glow

I can smell my desire with my damp panties stuffed in my mouth.

I breathe hard through my nose.

Bran’s belt buckle clatters as he undoes it. The leather snaps when he yanks it from the loops.

In two seconds, he has it twisted into a figure 8, then yanks my arms behind my back and slips the restraints over my wrists. When he pulls the tail, it tightens, binding me.

The leather is biting.