It was a brisk, precise pop of his cupped hand against skin. This time, she kept her mouth closed over the cry that jumped out of her throat, muting the sound to a whimper. It didn’t hurt terribly. It did burn. The prickle of nerves amplified the simmer of her clit. He kept his hand on her, massaging the stinging skin and muscle. That made her moan and her pelvis strain forward slightly. She wished like hell she could press her pussy against something solid.

“Speak to me,” he said gruffly. “Do you want me to stop?”

Keeping her mouth shut tight, she shook her head.

“Emma?” he grated out.

“No, I don’t want you to stop,” she said emphatically, irritated that he’d made her put it into words and just . . . turned on. Her nipples ached. Her cheeks were on fire.

“That’s all I wanted to hear. Three more.”

His hand rose. Her heart stopped and then leapt against her breastbone when he landed another spank on the cheek he’d smacked first. It wasn’t any harder than the first or second swats, but it stung more for having been previously punished. She bit her lip to stifle a sound. He caressed the prickling cheek, soothing the madly firing nerves. It aroused her, his big hand palming almost her entire ass cheek, massaging the warmed flesh.

“You have a very spankable ass,” he said, and she took heart from the heat in his tone. “Tight and round and ripe,” he added distractedly as he continued to massage her. Then he was palming her other cheek, now using both hands, his actions unapologetically greedy and lewd. Emma bit harder on her lip to prevent crying out.

“Bend over again,” he directed, and she realized she’d straightened slightly as she tried to get friction on her sex.

He palmed one cheek from below, squeezing it, and applied two firm, succinct spanks on the captive flesh. Emma started and couldn’t stop herself from crying out softly. He rubbed both of her cheeks at once.

“There. It’s all done. Your first spanking. How was it?”

“Okay,” she managed.

“Okay? Or better than okay?” he asked, continuing to squeeze and massage her ass.

Shyness suddenly fell on her, a strange, unwanted feeling that mixed oddly with her intense arousal.

“Better than okay. Much,” she whispered the last.

His massaging hands stilled. “You’re so sweet.”

She just stood there, speechless at something she heard in his voice.

“I told myself I could wait for dessert, but I’ve never had to wait for something like you,” he said, his warm breath ghosting her breast. Then his hands were on her upper arms and he was pulling her closer.

His warm mouth closed around an aching nipple.

“Vanni,” she said shakily, her hands pulling on the restraint at her wrists. It wasn’t that she wanted to escape. It was just that his warm, wet mouth and laving tongue on her nipple were unbearably pleasurable. She panted, her body strained tight, feeling deliciously trapped as he resumed massaging her ass as he sucked on her nipple, and all the while, the damn vibrator continued on its merry way. Oh God, she couldn’t take it anymore—

His finger was suddenly on the end of the vibrator on her clit, pressing lightly, tapping out an electrical code in her flesh. An electrical command. Her eyes sprung wide beneath the blindfold. Her muscles jerked tight.

She ignited. She cried out as orgasm shuddered through her. As soon as she began to quake, he slipped his finger beneath the vibrating tip and rubbed her manually.

He was better than the vibrator.

Much better.

Her cry escalated to a scream that she tried her best to contain. After a pleasure-hazed moment, she realized that he’d stopped sucking on her nipple and was holding her sandwiched between both hands, one spread on her ass, palming a buttock, the other open along her belly, his reaching thumb still stroking her burning clit between her lubricated labia while she gasped and shivered.

“You’re beautiful when you come,” she heard him say.

He’d been watching her while she lost control. His thumb strummed her clit, and another shiver went through her. “Amazing,” he rasped, stroking her again ever so lightly. She rippled with pleasure and whimpered.

She felt his lips press to her belly, and his thumb moved again. It struck her that he was feeling her body tremble with his mouth. The caress felt deeply intimate, poignant . . . sacred, even.

But suddenly, his mouth and deft finger were gone and he was pushing her back gently. The vibrator was back in place, but he must have adjusted the controls. The instrument still buzzed her overly sensitive clit warmly, but with a weaker pulse.

She just stood there, breathing heavily, nerves she hadn’t even known existed throbbing and aching and tingling all over her body.

“It’s back to the game then?” she asked raggedly, striving for some levity in the midst of almost strangling sexual excitement and intimacy. She hadn’t been prepared for the latter. The patch of skin where he’d kissed her belly still burned.

She heard his rough laugh, then a slight scraping on the bed, and she knew he’d picked up the desserts again. “Yes. Back to playing. Let’s see if your little punishment increases or decreases your sense of taste.”

“What do you mean?” she asked through pants, puzzling out his words in her head. “Do you think I’ll miss because of anxiety over being . . . spanked?” she said, hesitating over that last volatile word.

“No. After watching the way you just lit up, I think you might miss because you want to be spanked again,” he growled softly. “Now open your mouth, Emma.”

She opened her mouth to protest what he’d said—she’d never been the type of person to lose at a game on purpose—but then the fork was slipping between her lips. She closed around it instinctively and moaned. The taste of a light, sweet cream filled her mouth.

It was delicious.

“This one is more complicated,” he said. “There are two fruit flavors you have to name, one obvious, one more subtle.” She had a sudden, vivid picture of him sitting on the bed, watching her with a narrow-eyed stare. Did he hope she would miss so that he could spank her again? Had he enjoyed it?

As much as she had?

She forced her attention off her graphic imagination and the mind-hazing buzz on her supersensitive clit. She focused on her mouth. Her tongue felt the round berries, her crushing teeth bursting the fresh, vibrant flavor onto her tongue.

“Blueberries,” she said before she continued to experiment with the flavors on her tongue.

“There’s another fruit. In the cream,” he prodded.

She nodded, straining to taste. The need to swallow overcame her.

“Can I have another taste?” she asked.

“No.”

She frowned at his calm, steadfast reply.

“Well then, it’s either lemon or orange.”

“Which one?”

“Lemon,” she said more confidently than she felt.

Her skin tingled as she waited. She realized her skin was damp in several places: at her inner thighs, between her breasts, and the nipple he’d sucked on so abruptly, setting her body alight. She was going to end up a pile of ashes if he kept playing with her.

“Well? Was I right?” she asked desperately. “Why are you so quiet?”

“Because you were right,” he said after a short pause. “And I was considering telling you that you weren’t.”

She laughed softly. “You’re not as selfish as you make yourself out to be.”

“Oh yes I am,” he growled softly. “And just to prove it, if you miss on this last one, I’m going to spank you over my lap. And then I’m going to bend you over this bed, and no more playing. Understood?”

“And if I don’t miss?” she couldn’t resist asking.

“You’ll just have to wait until another time to discover what you really missed out on, won’t you? Now . . . open your mouth again, Emma.”

He saw her pulse leap faster at her throat when he said that, could almost hear her mind churning over his response. She looked sublimely beautiful in that instant, the striking paradox of innocence and flagrant sexuality. A light sheen of perspiration had appeared between her thrusting breasts, and all he could think about was sweeping his tongue along that sweet valley. Watching her mouth move so sensually while she tasted the desserts, staring at her flushed, pink, bow-shaped lips, inhaling the perfume of her arousal; all of it had sharpened his hunger until it cut at him. He craved her sweat on his tongue.

The fantasy of tasting her pussy plagued him.

She parted her lips, waiting. Doing his best to ignore the stab of arousal at his cock, he lifted the apricot fromage blanc to her mouth. When she closed around it, he pictured those pink lips clamping around his cock. She chewed slowly—agonizingly, as far as he was concerned—and then swallowed. He waited on a bed of nails.

“Peaches,” she whispered.

He leaned forward and whisked the blindfold off her head. She blinked several times, dazed by the light. He held up the carton.

“Apricot. I’m sorry,” he said, setting aside the desserts.

“No, you’re not.”

“No,” he admitted honestly. “I’m not. Did you guess wrong on purpose?”

Her back stiffened, making her breasts thrust forward. “No!”

“Okay. I was just asking. You’re going to get spanked, one way or another.” Her dark eyes widened at his frank response. He leaned closer to her. “Close your legs a little.” She followed his instructions quickly enough, despite her show of pique. He pushed her panties down past her knees where they fell to her ankles. He reached between her thighs.

“Fuck,” he rasped under his breath. He’d just meant to quickly remove the vibrator, but her juices were everywhere, and she was so blessed warm and soft. He closed his eyes briefly, steeling his will. She whimpered when he slid the vibrator out of her. He tossed it onto the bedside table, gritting his teeth all the while because his fingertips and knuckles were now coated in her sweetness.

He put his hands on the taut curve of her hips. “Lie down on the bed, across my lap. I’ll help you,” he added, knowing her wrists were restrained. He guided her as she knelt on the bed next to him, holding her body weight until she came down over him and her elbows hit the mattress. “Settle down,” he told her, his voice patient even if his cock was roaring in protest at being kept waiting. It grew even testier at the sensation of her weight pressing down against it experimentally. Emma tensed, and he knew she’d felt his cock lurch at the contact.

“Let your ass curve across my thigh. Put your breasts on the outside of the other one,” he instructed, closing his legs slightly to fit her measurements. He swept a hand along her smooth thigh and palmed a buttock, subtly guiding her precisely where he wanted her. “Let your weight go, Emma,” he said sternly when he realized she was holding herself slightly off him with her elbows and knees, like she thought his cock was a red-hot poker or something. “Extend your arms above your head.”

She followed his instructions with a muffled whimper. Without her elbows to support her, she sagged onto his lap. He grunted at the impact. He grasped her shoulder with one hand and then swept the other over her naked length, relishing the feeling of her silky skin, glorying in having her naked in his lap, helpless to resist his touch. She flowed beneath him as he whisked his hand along her thighs and over her ass and along her elegant back. Still, he could feel her rising anxiety.

“Why are you so tense?” he murmured. “It didn’t hurt that bad before, did it?”

“No,” he heard her muffled reply. Her forehead was pressed against the bedding.

“Why then?”

He saw her shake her head as he palmed a round ass cheek.

“I just wish you’d get it over with,” she mumbled.

“All right. Open your legs some.”

Her thighs parted. He let go of the smooth, firm globe. She was a little pink from her previous spanking and his forceful massaging of her ass. Nowhere near as pink as he’d like to see her. He landed a brisk slap against the tempting curve at the bottom of a buttock. His cock lurched at the feeling of firm, taut flesh stinging his palm. She jumped slightly in his lap, making him grimace at the stimulation.

“Stay still,” he ordered, landing another spank on the lower curve of the other buttock. Her whimper transfixed him. His hand lingered, caressing warmed, smooth skin. His fingers stretched as if of their own volition. He couldn’t resist. He thrust his forefinger into her slit.

God, she was drenched. He saw red for an instant as he plunged in and out of her snug sex. He blinked when she wriggled in his lap and moaned.

“I said to stay still,” he reminded her thickly, firming his hold on her shoulder and removing his finger in order to grip her ass.

She stilled, her muscles straining tight. She made a soughing, choked sound, as if it’d taken effort to force herself to stop writhing. Her attempt at restraint pleased him, but strangely displeased him, too. He found himself wishing she’d lose all sense of control, lying there in his lap.

“That’s so good, baby,” he soothed, aware that clawing lust had made him sound sharp before. “Just a few more.” He lifted his hand and cracked off two in quick succession. She muffled a cry. His cock swelled dangerously. He rubbed his stinging hand against her hot flesh, trying to soothe her as well as restrain his mounting lust. It didn’t really work. He found himself releasing his hold on her shoulder and pressing down on her back, pushing her against his cock. She gave a frantic, muffled moan as he lifted his hips slightly, grinding their flesh together. It felt so good, his awareness hazed. “I’m going to fuck your juicy little pussy so hard in a few seconds, Emma, and I want to hear you scream to the high heavens. I’m tired of you holding it in. Do you hear me?”

“Yes,” he heard her say in a cracking voice. She sounded every bit as dazed and rabid as he felt.

“One more now,” he said, straining to keep his voice even as he rubbed her bottom. “You’re doing well. Your ass is getting nice and hot. For the last one, I want you to raise it a little for my hand.” He heard her breath soughing in the tense silence that followed. He waited, triumph slashing through him when she tensed, sliding her knees up the bed, raising her ass off his thigh. He’d like to drown in her sweetness. Still, he was selfish.

As always.

“Now ask for your spanking,” he said roughly. When she hesitated, he was ruthless. He plunged his forefinger into her slit. She gasped loudly. He finger-fucked for a moment, grinding his teeth together at the wet, sucking sound it made. “Ask for it, Emma.”

“Spank me. Please . . . give me the last one.”