When he grasped her other leg, fear flared, and she tried to pull away. His powerful hand gripped her tighter, and he easily lashed that ankle down as well. He positioned her arms next to her sides, keeping her still with a deadly look from his black eyes. After tying one end of a silk scarf to the left headboard post, he tied the other end to her left wrist, then repeated the process on the right.

What kind of bondage was that? Her arms were almost completely loose.

Amusement glinted in his eyes as she lifted her arms. Slowly, deliberately, he wrapped silk around each thigh just above the knee, making thigh cuffs.

He bent her left leg, pulling it out toward the side of the bed, and then tied her wrist cuff to her thigh cuff. Her hand flattened over her knee. He did the same on the other leg.

She stared up into dark unreadable eyes, and his lips curled in a hard smile. His hand pressed between her breasts, making her nipples contract harder. “You like being bound, English. Thus I will do it so well that you cannot move from my attentions. From any pain I choose to give you.”

Her heart thudded hard against his palm, and his laugh was as dark as his gaze. At each of the four posts, he tightened the silks until nothing moved. Her legs, tied to her wrists, couldn’t pull down, and her arms couldn’t pull up, and her knees were bent and splayed out, leaving her open to anything he wanted to do.

He watched her struggle for a while, and the slight curve of his mouth and amusement in his eyes said he enjoyed seeing her helpless.

Her breathing was close to panting; she wasn’t so sure she liked it at all.

When he walked over to an armoire against the wall, she stiffened. That wasn’t her furniture. He took something out. It looked like a fat dildo at first. Then he turned it and lubricated a second, smaller shaft. A double dildo. Her jaw dropped as she realized it would go in both her pussy and anus.

He leaned forward and put the larger dildo against her pussy, sliding it in an inch. She squeaked as the other shaft pushed against her anus. “No, no, I don’t want that.”

“I didn’t ask.” With a few rocking movements, he pressed the shaft through the ring of muscles and slid both dildos all the way in with one hard penetration.

Her anus burned and throbbed. Her pussy felt stretched and full. When he flipped a switch, both shafts vibrated together, making her clench around them. As her excitement flared, she squirmed helplessly.

“This keeps you occupied until I make you silent.” His mouth turned down in disgust. “Mouthy English women.”

He picked something up that had been lying on the quilt. “You will remember these?” He held up the nipple clamps from her first day at Dark Haven. A fine chain dangled between them.

Her eyes widened. Oh no—her breasts were already swollen and aching.

Ignoring her attempts to move, he attached one. Tightened it until it bit into her. She waited for him to ask for a number, for how badly it hurt.

He didn’t ask. Her breath thickened in her throat as he moved to her other breast. Pinching, pinching. She was panting when he stopped.

Testing, he gave the chain a tug. She sucked in a breath at the painful pull on each nipple. “Very good.” His smile didn’t reassure her at all as he set a small lead weight on her chest. A woven rope had been tied to the ring on it.

Xavier glanced up.

Oh heavens. A chain crossed from the top of the left head post to the top of the right bottom post. “What is—”

He tossed the end of the rope over the high chain.

The vibrations in her pussy and anus never stopped. Her clit throbbed frantically as her need grew.

She stared as he pulled on the rope, lifting the metal ball until it swung in the air.

“This will teach you to keep your mouth closed”—his eyes glinted—“unless I have use for it.” He pressed a midsection of the rope between her teeth, letting the tail end lie on her chest. “Bite.”

When he let go, the weight on the other end pulled against her hold.

This wasn’t so bad. If she opened her mouth, the weight would drop onto her stomach. It weighed less than a kiwi.

But then he took the tail end lying on her chest and tied it to the thin chain between the nipple clamps. Holding on to the rope, he glanced at her. “Let go.”

No, I don’t think so. She shook her head, saw the ruthless look in his eyes, and opened her jaw.

He played the rope out slowly. As the weight descended, the chain between her breasts rose and tugged on the clamps until it felt as if fingernails were pulling her nipples upward. Her back arched as she tried to relieve the pressure. “Noooo.”

“Yes.” He pulled on the rope, lifting the weight until the chain between the clamps lay slack again. Then he offered her the section of the rope she’d been holding before—the one just above where it tied to the breast clamps.

As she closed her teeth on the rope, she felt the weight swinging on the other end, and she groaned as she understood what he’d done.

“Yes. Your teeth hold the weight now. If you open your mouth and release the rope, the nipple clamp chain will get the weight.” His smile was cruel. “It might hurt a bit.”

No. No no no. Her jaws locked on to the rope.

“Next time I will add a clit clamp.” He surveyed his work with satisfaction—and arousal. “But I intend something else for that pink English clit today.”

She inhaled through her nose as too many sensations swept over her: the biting of the clamps, the vibrations in her pussy and anus. Her swollen clit throbbed.

He put a knee on the bed, looking down at her. “Pretty pale woman, tied up and open for me to use.” He cupped one breast with a gentle touch that contrasted with the burning pinch of the clamp. Leaning forward, he teased the metal with his tongue, wetting the compressed peak, then blowing a stream of air to cool the burn…only the pain didn’t go away. His mouth worked the other one as he fondled her full breasts. Playing with her as the vibrations went on and on.

She couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, and the feeling of helplessness filled her. She couldn’t do anything. Her mind circled, drifting farther and farther away, as the overwhelming sensations shook her body.

Chuckling, he nipped her soft stomach.

She started to gasp, felt the rope move, and her teeth gritted down.

He stroked over her open thighs as he checked her leg and wrist restraints. “You’re quite helpless, English. How does it feel?”

With the rope in her mouth, she couldn’t answer.

XAVIER SMILED. SUCH big gray eyes. She watched him like a mouse facing a hungry owl. Lovely. He pulled out a small flogger. The three short strands were made of very soft leather. It could feel like a massage…or a harder flick of the wrist could impart a sting. Perfect for tender areas.

He dangled the flogger over her, giving her the scent of leather, trailing the ends down her neck, her shoulder, between her breasts and back up. When he moved lower, the muscles of her stomach quivered.

She shivered as he teased over the creases between her cunt and thighs. With her pussy stuffed full and her legs splayed, her clit was beautifully exposed—a fat, glistening pink pearl. They hadn’t done much pain play, and he looked forward to her reactions when the flogger hit her most sensitive bits.

As she fully realized her vulnerability, her breasts heaved and wobbled with her fast breathing. Half fear—and, judging from the slickness around the dildos, half anticipation.

He flicked the miniflogger over her legs very, very gently. Then faster. He set up a rhythm of whispering caresses, up one leg, down the other and back up, over her stomach to the undersides of her breasts, avoiding the clamps and rope. He played her sweetly until her breathing deepened. Her hips started making urgent gyrations as the sensations added to those of the vibrator, pushing past her barriers.

The flogger roved over her hips and thighs. This time he added a bite of pain as he followed the same map, up over her stomach to her breasts. Her skin took on a flush, reddening under the increased flogging.

Her eyes drooped to half-lidded as she started losing track of her surroundings under the storm of sensation.

Flogging in an even pattern, he moved back down her stomach. He struck her inner thighs lightly, the outer legs harder, harder, and heard her pulling in air through her nose. Down and back up.

Her clit appeared almost inflamed with need. Laying the flogger to one side, he set his knee on the bed between her spread legs and ran his tongue all around the tiny nub.

The sound she made sent a rush through him as every dominant instinct in him surged up, needing more. His cock hardened unbearably. He continued the slow circles until she was as close to panting as a person with a rope in her mouth could get. Her hips lifted the inch he’d permitted, over and over.

Was there anything more satisfying in the world than this? Smiling, he took her whole clit into his mouth, rubbing one side, the other, sucking and licking without pause—and sent her over.

Her hips bucked against the restraints as she screamed and climaxed. Another, higher scream sounded when the weight dropped two inches to yank her nipples upward.

Oh yes. He’d never tire of hearing the noises she made when she came. Chuckling, he reached up and took the weight off her nipples. “Foolish English female. Don’t damage my property.” He tucked the rope back in her mouth.

Her teeth bit down, although her eyes were almost glazed.

Rising, he picked up the tiny flogger and started on the same pattern, knowing her body was anxiously preparing for the sensations. That sense of anticipation in a submissive was exactly what every Dom hoped for.

Up her left leg, down, and up again, over to her right, down and up her stomach. Harder this time, so the undersides of her breasts had tiny red marks. Tears gleamed in her eyes even as her cheeks and lips pinkened with arousal.

Up and down, slowly he worked his way toward her clit. It had been soft after her climax but was now slick and straining out of its hood. Moving up her inner thighs, he lightened the strikes, stopping short of her groin.

Building and building her anticipation.

PAINFULLY NIBBLED TO death. Abby wanted to glare at him but didn’t dare. This time the flogger that had felt so wonderful was dealing out tiny, stinging bites everywhere it struck. He moved over her body quickly, keeping the blows light enough that the pain was right on the edge—and everything he did increased her need.

He flogged up her inner legs, stopping before he reached her crotch and moving back down her outer thighs. Her clit hurt as if each flogging journey pushed more blood into it. No longer a nub—it felt as if it had swollen to the size of a mushroom.

The pattern changed, and the flogger struck the inside calf of her left leg, the inside of her right. Left, right. Each blow sank into her clit in throbbing bursts as he moved upward in an inevitable path. Her hips rose, straining uncontrollably toward the torture.

Please, please, please.

He reached her lower thighs.

Upper thighs.

Oh no, oh no. She tensed.

Without pausing, the three strands flicked onto her clit. Right on top, over and over and over, in exquisite pain. Pleasure.

An orgasm blasted through her, a massive upheaval of pleasure, churning with noise and boiling into her veins. Her back arched, her neck arched, and she screamed.

The rope slipped. The weight dropped.

“Aaaaah.” Her nipples flared with pain, and her insides clenched, sending another blast of brutal pleasure exploding outward.

Over the roaring in her ears, she heard a pleased laugh. He tugged the double dildo out, leaving her clenching on emptiness.

Xavier pressed his cock to her pussy and thrust. One hard, shocking thrust. She groaned as he stretched her almost past bearing, painful and yet the most intense of pleasures.

He tightened his hands on her hips, and then he stopped.

She met his laughing gaze as he unclipped the weight and tossed it on the floor. The chain between the clamps dropped like a cool blessing on her breasts. He stretched forward. His chest rubbed over the clamps, over her so-tender nipples, and made her hiss.

She glared at him. “You’re despicable.”

The white of his grin appeared in his dark face, before his expression changed. “Are you speaking to me, foolish English woman?” The threat was thick in every word, and she tensed.