Page 296 of Ashes of Sin and Stardust

“I know.”

“And I’mso bad. And I’m abad girl.”

“You’resucha bad girl,” I whispered against her neck. “Such a bad, naughty little fox.” My hand moved from the top of her head to the side of her cheek.

She turned her head and bit my hand, but not hard. Just enough to catch my hand between her teeth. Her cheeks were pink and her nipples were hard and pointy under the warm water.

“You little...” I withdrew my hand and looked at it. There was the faintest impression of her teeth on the fleshy part of my hand between my index finger and thumb. “That’s it. That’s the second time today you’ve bit me.”

She bit her lip in playful anticipation.

“Don’t know why you’re excited,” I grunted, and grabbed her waist, lifting her up out of the water. I set her on the floor outside of the sunken tub, pushing her onto her back so her legs were still dangling into the water.

She kicked against me. “No, I’m cold!”

“Two bites... two ruins.”

“No!” She tried to get away.

I held her down with one hand across her chest, and the other across her legs. Unfortunately that left me with no way to edge her other than my mouth, and as much as I desperately wanted my tongue between her legs, it would be a lot harder to keep hers off mine if I crossed that line first.

“Stay still or I’m upping it to three, and I’ll have to tie you down to the bed.”

“No!” She squirmed harder. Pretty sure that was brat code for“Yes! I want you to edge and ruin me until I cry!”

I sighed and let her go, standing up and pulling the plug on the tub. “Okay... three it is. You wear me out, monster.”

I climbed out of the tub and tied my terrycloth robe around me. I’d expected her to run once I let go of her, but she sat naked and stunned on the tile floor, staring at me with wide eyes.

“What?”

She swallowed. “Nothing.”

Oh... right. Every time we’d taken a bath together up until now, she’d been in subspace, blissed out, or half asleep. She probably hadn’t gotten a good look.

Her expression was a nice ego boost. I smirked and leaned over to scoop her up. That was when she scrambled back and tried to run.

“No! You’re going to slip, Alice... ugh. Gotcha. Come here.”

“No! I hate ruins!”

“Good. It’ll make it easier for you to hate me, remember?”

Because hating me was so much easier to admit than loving me. But I knew something Alice didn’t realize. For her, love and hate were pretty much the same thing. They were two sides of the same coin, and it meant she cared.

I smiled and tossed her onto my bed. My robe had soaked up most of the water left on her that hadn’t dripped on the floor, but she was still damp.I didn’t care.

The beautiful part of having a bondage bed was it took very little preparation to restrain a naughty little sub, because everything was already set up. In no time she was spread-eagle with a pillow under her hips, giving me perfect access to everything.

“Now, I’m going to go downstairs and get some toys, and you are going to stay right here and wait for me, okay trouble?”

She pulled on the restraints, glaring at me, but her eyes were pleading. What was she asking for? A distraction? Some pleasure? Some relief from the realization that she loved me?

It didn’t matter. I knew what was going on in that clever little head of hers, and I couldn’t wait to exploit it.

Lovingly, of course... but as wickedly as possible.

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