Callie was on fire.

His rhythm unpredictable, Brundar moved from drawing lazy circles around her areolas to plucking at her nipples, then pinching, then gently stroking again. She never knew what would come next, a zing of pain or a soft caress.

Everything about tonight felt different.

Brundar was different, and yet the same. Not as careful or gentle as before, his touch rougher and more demanding, he was nevertheless in full control of his emotions. It was still about her pleasure, Callie didn’t doubt that for a moment, but he was upping the ante and testing her limits.

Apparently, he’d been right. Painting the experience a shade darker was pushing all of her buttons.

Bound and blindfolded with Brundar’s hard length rubbing against her bottom, her whole body singing to the tune of his torment, she was on the brink of orgasm before he even touched between her legs.

“Please,” she groaned.

As his grip on her stiff nipples tightened, she pushed forward to escape the rough treatment, but the restraints allowed her no more than an inch of wiggle room.

The realization that she was at Brundar’s mercy finally hit home.

Until tonight, he’d been holding back, his treatment of her more gentle than what she would’ve liked. Even the spanking had been more playful than painful. This was different. He was pushing her boundaries, testing her willingness to submit.

It should have scared her, but it didn’t.

With a throaty moan, she relaxed into the pain, trusting that Brundar’s cruel touch was a means to an end. It wasn’t about inflicting pain for pain’s sake, it was about helping her unlock a place inside herself for which this was the only key.

Pulling a shocked gasp out of her throat, his grip tightened.

The buildup was more of a leap than a gradual climb. Before she was done processing the confusing messages her body and her mind were sending, Callie snapped, lights exploding behind her closed eyes and her mouth opening on a scream.

If not for Brundar’s body pressing against her back and the bonds that were holding her up, the force of the climax would’ve brought her down to her knees.

As bliss slowly receded, she registered Brundar’s warm palms cupping her breasts, soothing, and his muscular chest glued to her sweaty back. He was unbuckling the restraint on her left wrist, then moved to the right.

Disappointed, Callie whispered, “Are we done?”

A few moments to recuperate were desperately needed, but she didn’t want their play to be over yet. As tired as she was, Callie had another climax or two in her.

“Not by a long shot.” His warm chest abandoned her back as he bent to tackle the restraints holding her thighs spread wide. When he was done with those, he moved to the ones strapping her calves to the lower supports.

“That’s good to know.” Despite the incredible release, she was still craving a spanking, and the tiny sting from the two smacks he’d delivered before was long gone.

The blindfold remained as Brundar lifted her into his arms, cradling her to his chest and carrying her to the bed. It felt amazing to be held like that. Like she was precious, and he didn’t want to let go.

She refused to dwell on the fact that Brundar didn’t have feelings like that. He was holding her tight only because her body was so limp that he was afraid she would fall. The rest was the product of wishful thinking and her imagination.

Laying her on the bed, Brundar’s palm tenderly cradled the entire back of her head. His lips were soft and warm as he kissed her, his tongue parting hers and gaining access without waiting for her permission.

It seemed that he was done asking.

Callie had thought it was his style, but apparently, he’d only been testing her and learning her responses until he had her figured out.

She liked that he was letting the dominant in him take over. It added a level of excitement to their play. As long as he dropped the autocratic attitude outside the bedroom, she was perfectly fine with being his willing subject in here.

Guiding her arms over her head, he once again restrained her hands with the soft Velcro ties. This time, though, he didn’t tie each one individually to an opposite corner of the headboard. He bound her hands together and tethered them to a central post.

Her legs were left unbound.

Was he going to flip her around on her tummy? Maybe she would still get the spanking she’d been craving?

Just imagining that wrested a moan from her throat, and new moisture seeped from her still untouched core.

“Brundar?”

She heard him kick off his boots and unbuckle his jeans.

“What is it, sweetling?”

“I need you.”

“I’m right here.” He climbed on the bed. Lying on his side, his hand slowly caressed her from collarbone to hip as if there was no urgency, but his ragged breathing told a different story. It was amazing how much could be discerned from sound, smell, and touch when sight was not available.

Even if the evidence of his arousal weren’t pulsing against her thigh, Brundar’s labored breathing told her everything she needed to know. The guy was in such incredible shape that he could run a marathon and his breaths would come out as calm and as even as if he were taking a casual stroll.

He was turned on. Big time.

Callie smiled. Brundar could huff, and he could puff, but the real big bad wolf in this bed was her. Well, not really, but they could take turns.

“What’s that smile about, beautiful?”

With his palm circling from her hip to her stomach and traveling south, so close to where she needed him, it was hard to formulate words.

“Touch me,” she commanded.

His hand halted. “Who is in charge in here, sweetling?”

His stern tone had woken a flurry of butterflies in her stomach.

Damn it. She didn’t like these kinds of games.

Or did she?

Hadn’t he told her that this was all about her? And that ultimately she was the one in charge?

One word from her could stop everything. She could use a safe word, while Brundar couldn’t.

She needed to remember, though, that her pleasure depended on keeping her head in the game and not in the real world. Out there, Callie would have never tolerated him talking to her like that. But this was not the real world. It was a fantasy. The rules were whatever they wanted them to be for this particular game. Other games would have different ones.

“You are.” Should she have added ‘sir’?

Maybe next time she would. After all, there was no sense in playing the game if she wasn’t going to use all its pieces.

“That’s right, sweetling.” Mercifully, his hand returned to her stomach. “In here, I decide when to touch you and how.”

Callie held her breath as his palm finally made it to her aching center, but he only cupped her, holding her there as if her feminine center belonged to him.

She almost issued another command before catching her lower lip between her teeth to keep herself quiet.

Brundar leaned and licked at the lip she was chewing until she released it, then sucked it into his mouth, at the same time parting her folds with his finger and pushing it in.

Her hips arching off the bed, Callie groaned.

“Please…” He’d said it was okay to plead, just not to command.

His finger left her sheath, and she was about to cry out her protest and complain when he seized her by her hips and flipped her around onto her stomach. A moment later he tucked a pillow under her belly, then another one, until he was satisfied with the angle.

Oh, God, was he going to spank her?

Could she at least hint that she wanted him to?

Would he stop their play if she did?”

Brundar had discovered that the most effective punishment for her disobedience wasn’t his hand on her ass, but the lack of it, there and everywhere else.

Experimentally, she wiggled her butt a little and arched further up.

Crap, she must’ve looked like a cat in heat. How embarrassing. Her behind was high enough propped up as it had been. Immediately, she lowered herself back down until her pelvis rested on the pillows.

When she heard a drawer open, Callie wondered what Brundar was looking for; a condom, or an implement of punishment?

A condom was fine. But a paddle or a strap was not. She specifically marked those as hard limits. Listening intently for a clue, she heard him remove the wrapping from something that sounded a lot bigger than a condom.

Her butt cheeks clenched a moment before something that felt like soft strips of suede touched her back.

“It’s a flogger,” he said, dragging the strips down her to her bottom. “It’s very soft, and is meant for pleasure, not pain.” He waited for her to okay it or not.

Apparently, when introducing something new, Brundar was still going to ask.

She was willing to try an implement of pleasure. And if it proved unpleasant, she could always tell him to stop. But what if she didn’t want their play to stop, just the use of the flogger?”

“I want to add another color to red yellow and green.”

Brundar chuckled and kept caressing her with the flogger, not an unpleasant sensation. “That should be interesting. Why would you need another color?”

“In case I don’t like the flogger or some other implement you want to try on me, and I want you to go back to using only your hands, which you know is my preference, I will say purple.”

“Does that mean you’re giving me the green light to try other things?”

“Yes.” Even if Brundar decided to use one of those horrid paddles, or a strap, or even his belt, one smack wasn’t going to kill her or her mood, but it could satisfy her curiosity.

He chuckled again. “Purple is officially added to the list of safe words.”

The tails dragged in a slithery caress up across her shoulders, then down again to wrap around her inner thighs. Brundar’s palm followed, with two fingers seeking her moist entrance from behind and pushing in, retreating and then pushing back.

She clenched around his fingers, trying to hold them in, but he withdrew. A moment later she tensed at the sound of the tails swinging, but the flogger struck gently, slapping her bottom with barely any force.

It didn’t even sting.

Callie relaxed, relieved, but also a little disappointed. The flogger retreated again. Its caress was gentle as it landed on her left shoulder blade, then the other, then going back to her bottom, a little more forceful this time, but still just a little more than a caress.

She knew where it was going and welcomed it.

Finding his rhythm, Brundar landed soft strokes on her shoulders and thighs, heavier ones on her bottom, playing her like a musical instrument.

Her soft moans sang the perfect tune to accompany the steady beat.

She was writhing now, her lower body moving to the rhythm of the flogger, her skin tingling, her bottom stinging but not hurting. Awash in sensation, Callie decided she liked the flogger and the man who wielded it so expertly.

Through the haze of arousal, Callie was dimly aware of a drawer opening. A moment later, she heard the unmistakable sound of a condom wrapper tearing.

Brundar’s rhythm never faltered. The flogger landed several times in quick succession on her upturned behind before delivering one last hard sting, then getting tossed to the floor. A split second later, Brundar surged inside her, filling her in one powerful thrust and detonating the orgasm that he’d been steadily building.

She cried out, the exquisite pleasure like an electrical current pulsing through every part of her body.

Without pause, Brundar pounded into her, his groin smacking against her warmed up behind, each thrust into her soaking sex making a lewd wet sound and bring her closer to another climax while his own rushed to the front.

Hanging on for dear life, Callie was barely aware of Brundar’s mouth latching onto her neck. A split second later, his teeth pierced her skin. There was a distant sensation of burning pain, and then she climaxed again.