“That’s convenient for me, because if you were, you wouldn’t be here.”

“I know.” He exhales and walks toward me, his face sober now. “What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?” He pushes his fingers through my short hair and cups my neck in his palm.

“What do you mean?”

“The Dom thing still makes you nervous, doesn’t it?”

“Sometimes,” I confirm. “I’m just still getting used to it.”

He frowns but nods, his eyes darkening in concern. “Just talk to me when you get nervous, Nic.”

“I do,” I assure him and push my hands up his chest, over the hard muscles of his pectorals. “You feel good.”

“Is that so?” His eyebrow quirks up, and his lips tip up into a half smile. “I have a plan.”

He leads me into the bedroom, and when we’re by the bed, he kisses my knuckles again and grins at me. “Trust me?”

“Of course,” I reply instantly, making him inhale sharply.

“I love that you answer without any hesitation,” he murmurs as he pulls my T-shirt over my head, unties the red ribbon from my hair and tosses it on the beside table, and unclasps my bra, exposing my breasts to him. “Trust is the most important thing in this relationship, Nic.”

“I know,” I whisper. I can’t look away from his face as he watches his own hands, exploring my torso. “I want to touch you.”

“I’m right here, baby.”

I unbutton his shirt and slide it off his shoulders, letting it fall to the ground as he opens my black capris, pushes his hands inside against my hips and guides them down my legs along with my panties.

He’s standing before me in just his faded blue jeans, the elastic of his blue boxer-briefs peaking out of the waistband. I slip my finger inside, beneath the elastic, and pull him toward me.

“I want you naked,” I murmur.

“Yes, that would be ideal,” he agrees.

“I love your body,” I continue, tracing his muscles with my fingertips, up his torso, down his arms and back again. “Your skin is smooth, but your muscles are hard. I especially love this,” I murmur as I trace the V at either side of his hips.

“What else do you like?” he asks and leans his forehead against mine. He’s panting now, and there is a hard ridge to the front left of his jeans.

“I like these.” I gather his hands in mine and bring them up to my lips to kiss both palms, then place them on the small of my back and push his jeans down his hips to gather at his feet.

I slip my hands beneath the elastic of his underwear again and this time lower them, cupping his ass firmly.

“I really love this,” I murmur and smile against his lips so close to mine.

He grins in return and glides his own hands down to cup my rear. “That feeling is completely reciprocated, baby.”

He sucks in a breath when I clench my fist around his hard cock and pull all the way to the tip, then down again, holding him at the base.

“This does amazing things to me,” I say.

“You’re amazing,” he replies. “God, Nic, I don’t even remember what my life was like before you.”

My heart stills for a moment and then picks up double time. I bite my lip and frown. I just don’t know what to say.

How do I respond to that, when I’ve never felt like this either and it scares the living shit out of me?

He kisses my forehead and lifts me in his arms, then lays me on the bed.

“Is this the restraining portion of the evening?” I ask with a grin.

He smirks and pulls his ropes down from the railing of my four-poster and begins twining them around my wrists.

“How did you guess?”

“I just had a feeling,” I reply and lift my head to kiss his arm as he works, threading and knotting his ropes around my hands.

When he’s finished, he rests my arms comfortably over my head and kisses my lips slowly.

“Comfortable?” he asks.

“Yes.”

He reaches over to the bag he brought with him and pulls out a bottle of lubricant and tosses it on the bed at my hip.

I cock an eyebrow in question.

“You’ll see. Be patient.”

“I don’t typically have a lube issue,” I remind him.

He kisses my shoulder, over the pink flowers there, and down to my chest.

“Just trust me. You’ll see. First, I want to kiss your beautiful body.” His lips trail down to nibble and pull on my left nipple, then beneath my breast to my bra line and over to the other.

Dear God, that’s sensitive.

“Is that more sensitive than your nipple?” he asks in surprise.

“I guess so,” I murmur and shimmy my hips in anticipation. “Who knew?”

“Well, now we do,” he replies and drags his nose around my breast in a wide circle, nibbling the underside of each mound, making me moan. “Oh, I’m going to enjoy this.”

He grins up at me and continues on his journey lower, to my piercing and lower still, but instead of burying his face in my pussy when he spreads my legs, his lips trail over my hip and down my thigh to my knee. His tongue circles the kneecap, and then he plants firm, wet kisses down the rest of my leg to my foot.

He’s kneeling between my legs and brings my foot up to his mouth, pressing a kiss to the arch.

“Oh my,” I breathe.

“Another spot, huh?”

“Oh yeah.”

“So noted.” He bites the arch gently, kisses it again and then moves to the other foot, paying it the same attention.

My hips are moving, and I’m squirming beneath him. White-hot heat has pooled in my belly, making me long for him to be inside me.

“Matt,” I groan.

“Yes, my love,” he replies, making me still and find his eyes with my wide ones. He tilts his head, watching my reaction, then kisses his way back up my leg, over my hip and up my side. When he’s covering me with his body, he’s careful to hold his hips away from mine, not touching me with his cock at all, and whispers against my lips, “What were you going to say?”

“I need you,” I breathe.

He grins and licks my bottom lip. “You’ll have me, little one. I’m going to flip you over. You’ll rest on your elbows.”

“But I want—”

“I didn’t ask, Nicole,” he interrupts, making my heart skip a beat. His eyes narrow in on my neck. “You like it when I dominate you like this, don’t you, baby?”