“Does it itch, baby?”

“Yes.” She squirmed, seeking his touch. The itch was arousing, maddening. “Make it stop.”

“Hold still,” he commanded.

She bit her lip, her body shaking as she strained to obey him instead of her own desperate needs. “Please, please, please,” she chanted, her breath coming in shallow pants. “Jack, I need you.”

“I’m here,” he assured her, and she heard leather snap as pain exploded across her buttocks.

“Oh, thank God,” she breathed, her face damp with sweat and tears. The pain was like fire, sharp and bright and burning, but it eased that horrible itch. “Again.”

Leather snapped again, sending flames licking over her skin, bringing relief and agony in equal measure. “It hurts,” she groaned, and tried to pant through it.

“I know, baby,” he crooned.

His voice was a song, his arm a steel band across her belly as he came up behind her, and fresh pain bloomed. It wasn’t soothing now, the press of his skin against hers, but a buffet of torment. His silk pants felt like burlap against her tenderized butt, his chest hair a boar bristle brush against her raw back. It overwhelmed her, scattered her senses, and for a moment it was so jagged, so searing, it was all she could feel.

Then his hand slid down her belly to delve between her thighs, and it flipped like a coin.

She felt like a sauna, wet and hot, her pussy pulsing against his fingers. He knew she was hurting—it was in her voice, in the way her breath stuttered in her lungs. Her hands were clenched on the headboard, her knuckles nearly white. Her back and butt were red, the tiny welts from the thinner, nastier falls on the deer hide flogger standing out like crimson flags. She was near the limit of what she could take, though she likely hadn’t realized it yet, her brain too fuzzy from the endorphins, thoughts too scattered by the pain.

One hand cupping her pussy—God, it was like a furnace—he slipped the other up between her breasts to close around her throat. He wanted that connection with her heartbeat, with her breath. With her soul.

“You’re wet, Sadie,” he said and sank his teeth, slowly and with careful restraint, into her shoulder. She jerked against him, her pulse leaping under his hand, a thin whine vibrating in her throat. He was sweating, but her back and butt were radiating heat, and no doubt highly sensitive from the beating.

Testing, he rubbed his chest against her back, and was rewarded when she gave a full-body shudder and flooded his palm.

“So fucking wet,” he whispered. “My bratty little pain slut.”

She let out a breathy laugh, a giddy, needy sound that went straight to his dick. “I know,” she gurgled and swallowed, her throat bobbing against his palm, and rasped, “Who knew?”

“I didn’t,” he admitted. “But I’m very happy to make the discovery.”

She laughed again, but this time the sound cut off on a sob. “Jack.”

“What, baby?” He cuddled her close, knowing it hurt, knowing she loved it. “What do you need?”

“You,” she choked off, her hands clenching into fists. “I need you.”

He licked the teeth marks he’d left on her shoulder, fighting to bring himself under control, and pushed her forward. “Lean against the cushion.”

She obeyed, turning her face to the side and pressing her body into the memory foam. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes heavy and glassy. Her lower lip had multiple teeth marks, and the remains of her eye makeup was smeared like bruises under her eyes. With her back and ass all but glowing, she was the sexiest, most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

He reached behind him for a condom, quickly rolled it on, then picked up the lube.

Sadie shivered when he slipped a lubed finger between her butt cheeks but didn’t move away. Hell, if her hands had been free, she’d have reached back and spread her cheeks to make it easier.

She couldn’t remember ever feeling like this before. Her entire body felt like one big exposed nerve, throbbing and twitching at the slightest touch, the faintest breeze. Her back and her ass were a symphony of pain, her head swimming with endorphins. And her pussy…

She’d been so preoccupied with the pain that it simply hadn’t registered at first, but when he’d slipped his hand between her thighs, all the hurt had faded to the background, and staggering arousal came rushing in.

Her body felt heavy with it, her blood thick. The stinging, throbbing pain was feeding a roaring, boiling need that left room for nothing else. And when his slick finger breached her asshole, it ramped up a notch.

Primed and eager, she pushed her hips back and concentrated on forcing that tight ring of muscle to relax.

“Eager little butt slut,” he murmured, and though it hadn’t been a question, she nodded.

He worked a second finger in alongside the first, adding more lube until they were gliding back and forth with ease.