Page 113 of Windlass

“Who have you done this with?” Angie didn’t mean to ask, but too late—the words were out, and the (hypocritical) jealousy with it. Stevie had been far too quick with that tie for someone whose hands were shaking.

“Your mom.”

“Stevie.”

“You,” Stevie said, holding the cuffs out for Angie to slide her hands through, “in my head, far too often.”

Her heart wrapped around the words like a gold-sated dragon. She didn’t care if it was an evasion or not, and she rather thought not. Stevie hadn’t lied to her about her past so far, at least as far as she knew, and she trusted Stevie. She trusted her completely.

The rope was soft and cool against her skin. When she tried to lean back again, Stevie tightened the slack. The jerk sent a jolt right through her, and she nudged her hips closer to Stevie’s, seeking relief.

Stevie kissed Angie’s wrists. “Now don’t move.”

Angie was only too happy to obey. Stevie circled the twin bed until she came to the headboard, which was a simple affair of wooden bars. Simple, but surprisingly sturdy. Stevie didn’t bother with a tie. She looped the rope around once and wrapped the slack around her own wrist, which would put her in control of the tension on Angie’s hands. The surety of the motion temporarily liquefied her spine.

Back at the foot of the bed, Stevie pulled until Angie’s arms rose over her head.

“And my feet?” she asked because she was perhaps a bit of a slut. She liked the way the rope looked tethering them together. She liked it too much.

“You’re going to need those free.”

The black of the rope around Stevie’s forearm contrasted with her golden skin. She could feel Stevie shaking through the cord. Angie shook too, arching her back to signal to Stevie that while she was more than welcome to stare at Angie all day long, she could do so with her hand on Angie’s clit, thank you very much.

Stevie slid her unbound hand along Angie’s thigh and hooked it over her shoulder. The soft unfocused look in her eyes as she glanced down suggested Angie was visibly wet now. Stevie scratched Angie’s skin from ankle to hip as her hand retraced its steps, then slipped between Angie’s legs to stroke her once.

Angie flung her head to the side and muffled her moan with her shoulder. Stevie repeated the caress, painting Angie with her own desire. Lips skimmed the inside of Angie’s knee. Then a tongue. She shuddered. She’d been shuddering. She would shudder apart soon with or without Stevie inside her.

She tugged at the rope for something to grab onto. Stevie jerked it, grinning again as with a languorous stroke the tip of the shaft teased Angie open.

“Angie.” Those blue eyes were suddenly serious, though still dilated. Stevie’s hips continued their slow, hypnotic rock.

“What?” she managed to gasp.

“What are you afraid of?”

“I’m not—”

“An inch with each answer, a withdrawal with a lie.”

This woman knew her better than she’d known to fear. She stared at Stevie, heart thundering, pulse pounding painfully in all the places Stevie had aroused, and understood precisely how thoroughly she’d been outmaneuvered.

Angie fled serious discussions, and when she couldn’t flee, she shut down. Emotional release was equally difficult, the one exception being sex. Getting fucked lifted some of that oppressive weight, and Stevie had seen that, offering her the opportunity for honesty under one of the few circumstances she could handle it.

“Myself,” she gasped. “I can’t trust myself.”

Stevie slid in an inch. A miser’s inch. It wasn’t remotely enough, especially with the way Stevie apparently knew how to use her hips.

“What else?”

“That’s it.”

Stevie retracted that inch, which had been significantly more satisfying than she’d given it credit for now that it had been taken away. Angie’s cry of protest was met by Stevie’s raised brow.

“Hurting you,” Angie said, panting. “I’m so afraid I’ll hurt you.”

She got that inch back, but no more.

“Running. I’m afraid of running. I get scared, and I run, and—” She moaned as Stevie slid deeper, struggling to remain coherent. “You deserve so much better.”

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