“Cooper?” I manage. “What’s going on?”

“Do you trust me?” he asks, securing the blindfold to my head, taking my hands in his, leading me somewhere ... out of the apartment?

“Uhh. Um.”

“Gracie ... this isn’t going to work if you don’t trust me.”

“The thing is, though, Coop, I have literally no idea what I’m walking into here. You kinda disappeared for over two weeks and then you show up and just assume––”

He cuts me off by pressing a finger to my lips. “Gracie. I’m here now.”

I can’t speak because his finger on my lips feels so completely intimate. So utterly sexual.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Across the hall,” he tells me.

“To your apartment?”

“Yes, Gracie, my apartment.”

It’s probably good I can’t see his face ... I’m already a complete ball of nervous energy, have been all week. With my eyes covered, it’s easier to pretend this is a dream.

“And what are we doing in your apartment?” I ask, knowing I’m already here. Cooper’s place smells different, cedar and coffee to my rosemary and vanilla. His place is a lower temperature, and the floors are all hardwood here, whereas my apartment is covered in area rugs.

“We are going to start your list, Gracie.” His hands are on my face, cupping my cheeks, his mouth so close to mine. I feel his words as they brush against my lips and I inhale sharply realizing this is it.

Cooper is going to kiss me.

The list is real. NYE wasn’t a dream. And he is in control.

“Do you still want to do this?” he asks. His hands move from my cheeks to the base of my neck, and he somehow manages to lift my chin as I sink into his hold.

“What do you think?” I say breathless and hot. Realizing I want this so badly. In ways I have never expressed to anyone because how exactly do you tell someone you are horny as hell without looking a little bit crazy?

But I am.

“I think you’ve been waiting for me to show up for two weeks straight. I think you’ve been staring at the little list of yours, fantasizing about what we would do first.”

“And did you decide?” I ask, swallowing, my chest pounding and my heart whole.

“Yes. I thought long and hard, Gracie.”

“How hard?” I tease, the corners of my mouth upturned and I squeeze my eyes shut tight, even though they are covered because it is insane to think that I am here making sexual innuendos with the Cooper Bentley.

“So very hard.” He presses his body against mine and I feel exactly how hard he is.

Very.

“But I don’t want to scare you,” he whispers in my ear. “Things are going to get hot tonight ... and we’re going from zero to one-hundred very fast. But I figure going all-in is the best way to handle your virginity. Can you handle that, Gracie?”

“Yes, Cooper. I can handle you,” I say with false bravado. Though willing, I am terrified.

He growls, ready. He presses his arms around my waist, lifts me up ever so slightly, and then I am against a wall. A door? All I know is my back is against something and his lips are on mine.

And Cooper is kissing me.

Hard, our mouths part and his tongue finds mine.

My legs wrap around him as he lifts me up, my ass in his hands and my pussy ... the sometimes wet–but never dripping–lady part that is freshly waxed. Well, let’s just say it’s on fire. Or has become a fire hydrant.

I don’t know.

All I know is Cooper’s mouth tastes like apple pie a la mode. Warm and melting and familiar. His mouth tastes like home.

“Gracie,” he says, planting kisses on my neck. “Do you want to see what we are doing tonight?”

For a second I forget that this isn’t just a hardcore make out session. I forget this is the intro to an act that is going to rock my world.

To be honest, I’d be okay with just kissing this man’s face all night ... but this KINKY list wasn’t about making out. It was about getting down. And dirty. Filthy.

“I wanna see,” I tell him.

“Then let me strip you down first.”

He sets me to the ground, stepping out of my reach. “Strip me down?”

“I don’t think we can do any of that list fully clothed.” I hear his buckle slide from his jeans, clank against his hardwood floor. There’s a whoosh, things dropping, but then his hands are on me again. This time with more urgency. I want to graze my hands over his body, but I can’t. He takes them in his and leads me somewhere in his apartment.

Then cold metal cuffs are put on my wrists, and he pulls me to the center of a bed. My arms are raised as he locks me to a headboard.

That just happened. He fifty shaded me when I literally wasn’t looking.

“Cooper,” I start ... knowing he’s taken off his clothes and knowing that he’s about to take off mine has me feeling vulnerable.

He’s crawled up on the bed, I know because I feel him close to me. Oh, Lordy, this is real.

“It’s okay. We’re going to take this slow, Gracie.”

He lifts the hem of my shirt, and I inhale sharply, his hands are now on my skin. He pushes up the tee shirt I’m wearing and his mouth presses to my breasts. His arms wrap around me, his palms on my back, he pulls me to him.

All of him. I feel his hard cock against me, and my pussy tightens as he touches me. His hands cup my breasts. They are size C and Cooper’s big hands hold them while pulling down the cups of my bra, his tongue on my hard nipple.

“Oh, my god, Cooper,” I moan, as he slides my leggings down past my ass.

“Shit.” Cooper’s hands are under the waistband of my panties, and I feel my body move to be closer to him.

“What?”

“I can’t—” Cooper laughs. “Fuck.”

“What?” I ask again, feeling self-conscious. “Am I?”

“You are perfect, Grace. I’m just an idiot. You’re sitting on your knees and with your hands cuffed over your head. I don’t think I can get you out of these clothes. I should have stripped you first.”

“Why did you want to cuff and blindfold me right out of the gate?”

“I thought you would be more comfortable if we weren’t looking into one another’s eyes.”

My stomach flutters with something warm and sweet and good. Cooper thought this through. And with my eyes closed this totally submissive situation has felt less … intimidating.

“I fucked it up,” he says, his hands on my head, untying the blindfold.

He pulls it off, and my eyes lock on his. He’s kneeling right in front of me, and his golden eyes are different than they’ve ever been before. Cooper looks nervous.

I smile, relaxing under his gaze. Cooper doesn’t scare me, in fact, he seems to calm me. “Is this your first BDSM-light experience, Cooper?”

“Who said this night was going to be light?”

I laugh. “I don’t know. I just. I mean, were you really going to pull out the ball gag during my first sexual encounter.”

His eyes dart over to his dresser.

Yup.

A ball gag, the leather strap with the rubber ball in the middle is right there waiting for me.

“Nipple clamps too?” I ask, eyeing the other items on his dresser. I’ve never been in Cooper’s bedroom before and I’m taking it in. Soft wood, framed photos, and I’m kneeling on flannel sheets. I look down to confirm that ... only to see something else entirely.

My mouth opens.

Cooper is naked. Totally naked. Like. Completely.

“Ohh.” My mouth falls into an O.

“See, I knew this was going to be too much at once, Gracie.”

I shake my head, my body turned on in inexplicable ways. Cooper is mine, ready and willing. I’m tied up to his freaking bed, and he has plans to spank me.

I’m not missing out on this night, and my body is practically begging for him to make good on our deal.

I may be a virgin, but turns out, I’m a kinky one.

His kinky virgin.

“Not too much. I want this.” I bite my bottom lip, blinking as I make out what I want to say. Really want to say. I want to say exactly what I mean. “I want you to somehow get me out of these pants and take off my panties. Then I want you to ... I want you to see how much I want you.”

Cooper’s eyes are on me, taking in my words. “That would only be fair,” he says, a smile on his perfectly kissable lips. “Considering you can already see how badly I want you.”

Our eyes lower, and I see his hard-on. It’s raging like that orange-pleather-guy from NYE, but his presentation is so much better. His chest is chiseled, a ladder of muscles leading to a deep V that aims straight at his cock. His shoulders are broad, his arms covered in geometric tattoos that I want to trace with my fingers.

And I would if I weren’t tied to this headboard.

His cock, though, that’s the thing I really want to touch, hold. Lick.

I blink, feeling my pussy–the one that never drips – dripping.

He must know the mood has changed because his hands move to my leggings, easing them over my knees, taking off my panties in the same way. Slowly, carefully, as if touching me is touching something breakable.

Yes, we are comfortable with one another and we can joke even when we are in this vulnerable state ... but the space between us is charged with electricity. Desire.

He runs his hands over my breasts, over my belly, until his fingers find my pussy. His eyes are on mine as his fingers press against my wet folds, as they run over my slit, teasingly.

“You’re so wet, Gracie.”

I close my eyes, unable to speak. Being tied up leaves me to his devices.

He pushes a finger inside me, and I gasp.

“God, you’re so fucking tight.”

I sigh, my body starting to tremble. His touch is familiar like it knows me even though he’s never touched me.

“You like that, Gracie, don’t you?”

“Mmhhmm. I want to touch you too.” I look down again, his cock so hard, so ready.

“No, Gracie. Tonight, there is one goal. Getting you off.”

I feel my face redden, but Cooper isn’t joking. Instead, he lies down on the bed, and he moves up so his head is directly under my pussy.

Oh, my god.

“Relax,” he tells me, running a hand up and down my thigh.

“Your face is up in my ass, Cooper. How can I calm down?”

“Your ass is perfect,” he says, tugging me lower, so I am literally sitting on his face.

“Cooper,” I whimper, trying to resist, my hands still cuffed. I bury my face in my raised arm. “I want this … but I’m nervous as all get out.”

“Shh,” he says, and it works. I stop protesting because then his tongue is inside me, licking. Tasting all of me. Rolling over my clit in tight little circles. He grabs my ass with his hands, squeezing my cheeks, and I exhale.

Well, moan really. I mean, if we’re getting technical.

I moan. Loudly. Because my pussy is on fire. His mouth is all over me, licking me, faster, and faster. My body covered with shivers of excitement. Pleasure. Pure bliss.

He sucks my clit the way only a man who has done this a hundred times can do. Perfectly.

Orgasmically.

Which is what happens next. Cooper’s hands are on my ass and his mouth is buried in my pussy and my body seizes as an orgasm rolls through me. Crashes, really. My moaning has turned to groaning, my ass completely pressed against Cooper’s face, his stubble tickling every lady part that isn’t sopping wet.

I’m coming, hard, and the whole time Cooper is not letting up.

“Oh my, oh, oh, oh yes,” I cry, my breath ragged and my pulse quickened. If I was nervous before, those thoughts are long gone -- right now I am blissed out. “Oh, my god.”

My pussy walls stop shuddering, and my body stills and Cooper slides out from under me, looking up at me.

“Gracie, congratulations.” He sits up, slapping my ass playfully. “That is a proper orgasm.”

He uncuffs me as I search for words. Thank you? Anytime. Nice tongue? None of them seem right.

“Are you speechless?” he asks, taking my wrists, and kissing them softly. They are red, but not raw.

I nod, utterly at a loss for words. Free, I pull off my shirt, unclasp my bra.

“Whoa, ready for round two so soon?”

I nod my head, not through, not even a little.

“If you’re still at a loss for words we can also try the ball gag,” Cooper says joking.

But I’m not.

I’m type-A. I don’t do anything halfway.

I get off the bed, ignoring the part of my brain that says slow down, honey. Instead I walk to the dresser, grab it, and hand it to him.

“Gag me, and then lick me like that again.”