“Are you okay with this? I need your permission. Nod your head.”

So she nodded her head.

“Good girl.”

Rhett kissed her on the lips, the nylon tights between them. It was an odd sensation, one that made her yearn to feel his taste, his tongue inside her. She moaned a little, the sound muffled, her nostrils flaring. Then his thumb slipped under the satin of her panties and slid up and down in her slickness and she arched her head back, closing her hands into tight fists so she didn’t move them, reach for him. It felt so odd, to be a non-participant, but more involved and attuned than she had ever been. She wasn’t sure how that was possible, but as Rhett massaged up and down her swollen lips with his thumbs, his tongue teasing into her ear, she marveled at that reality. She was agonizingly turned on, and she could already feel an orgasm building, and from what? A few finger strokes? She usually required the launch-to-orbit setting on her vibrator or a man who knew how to use his tongue for extended periods of time.

She didn’t come from a single finger, nowhere near her clitoris.

Without realizing she was doing it, she started to squirm, wiggling her hips.

“No moving,” he told her, pinching her swollen labia, his stroking ceasing. “Or you won’t get my tongue.”

Oh, God. Shawn’s chest heaved, her breathing anxious and frantic sounding to her own ears as she desperately tried to quiet her body, the thought of his tongue motivating her to follow his directives. If his finger could do this, what could his tongue, his lips, his teeth do down there? The thought prompted a rush of liquid desire, soaking over his thumb, trapped by the barrier of her panties. She knew if she looked down, she would see the satin stained with her arousal, and he knew it, too. He was looking at it. He had bent over to study her, pausing to wait for her compliance.

It almost killed her, but she relaxed, letting her legs drop apart, keeping her head back on the bed.

Her reward was him removing his hand entirely. Aghast, she tried to cry out in protest, but the words were lost behind the tights.

But he shook his head in disapproval. “Trust me. Or I’ll leave you here like this, wet and aching.”

Shawn wasn’t sure she could do this. She didn’t know how.

But neither did she want to be left alone feeling like she was on the cusp of something, like she was about to be treated to intense satisfaction, only to have it denied to her because she couldn’t relinquish control.

It was an ironic paradox and she fought with her emotions, while Rhett startled her by pulling up her T-shirt and gently lifting each of her inert arms through the holes, then lifting it up and over her head, leaving her gloriously free and bare to his gaze.

“See?” he told her. “That’s what I was going to do. I wasn’t trying to torture you.”

Oops. Hey, how was she supposed to know? Shawn felt the cool air of her bedroom on her naked skin, her nipples pert, her breasts rising and falling rapidly with the urgency of her breathing. There was nothing between her and Rhett’s gaze, his touch, but the wet scrap of her thong that he had bought and she had worn to torment him. Funny how the tables had been turned.

He peeled the tights back long enough to surprise her with a hot kiss and a plunge of his tongue, before he was gone again, his mouth descending on her breast. She gasped, her eyes fluttering shut, her heels digging in to the bed, her hips squirming again before she realized she wasn’t allowed to do that. Knowing he would stop if she did, she immediately stilled her actions, sliding her hands under her ass so she wouldn’t be tempted to reach out and claw at his briefs to free his penis.

This time her reward was him reaching down and with both hands, snapping the strap on the side of the thong so that the satin front panel fell away, exposing her entirely to him. That was definitely worth sitting on her hands. The move was so hot she felt her mouth fill with saliva, excitement rushing through her like a shot of whiskey on a cold night.

It was just the beginning. When he bent down, he traced the inside of each of her thighs with his tongue, a teasing caress so close to the core of her desire.

“This is how this works,” he murmured against her skin. “You only come once I give you permission. If you’re getting too close, you can move your hand to tap my head to let me know you don’t have control over yourself and need a pause. But I will give permission, and you will come when I think you’re ready, so don’t worry about that . . . I don’t get off on leaving you unsatisfied. I want the opposite.”

Shawn wanted to protest that his rules weren’t particularly fair, but she didn’t want him to withdraw his touch, nor did she want to waste time worrying about particulars when he was essentially promising to bring her to orgasm.

“Nod your head.”

So she did, and the minute she did, she knew it was a delicious decision. His tongue shifted to her pussy, his fingers gently tugging her lips apart so he could lick her deeply and thoroughly.

Shawn almost came, but she remembered the rules and managed to tap him on the shoulder, frantic and disappointed all at once. She didn’t want to fail. She didn’t want to have to move. She wanted to play by his rules and win the game.

Rhett stopped, his eyebrows raised as he stared at her over her pubis. “So soon? Really? Damn, Shawn.”

Her cheeks flushed with the heat of her embarrassment. She didn’t like to disappoint. So she slowed her breathing, pulling her knees in closer so that the arousal wasn’t quite so intense, and relaxed her head back. When she had control, she returned her hand to behind her backside so he would know she could again accept his plunging tongue without careening into an unallowable orgasm.

It was then, as he first began to use two thumbs to massage her lips up and down that she wondered what the punishment would be if she did accidentally orgasm. And then she wondered at her sheer excitement at the thought of him taking his palm to her bottom and spanking her in retribution. Oh, God. Shawn fought to stay in control, fought to keep her body relaxed. Even if the punishment was sweet, she couldn’t unless it was purely an accident. She had to obey.

She had to obey.

It was the dirtiest, sexiest, hottest thought she’d ever had.

One that almost made her come.

But she wrangled herself back from the edge by biting her bottom lip behind the tights so hard that she felt the wet trickle of blood. The sting distracted her enough to prevent her from rushing over the edge too soon.

It was a wise choice, because in the next second, Rhett gripped her thighs and split her legs apart, his tongue flickering over her clitoris for the first time.

“Mmm,” he said. “So pretty. So swollen. You’re doing so well, Shawn. I’m very, very pleased.”

That shouldn’t sound nearly as exciting as it did.

But when he licked her clitoris again, before dipping his tongue inside her, she didn’t care about whether it made sense or not. She was too busy yanking her hand out to smack wildly at him so he would stop.

It was too late. His tongue was lazily lapping at her, and by the time he started to lift his head, she was screaming behind the nylon, and gripping his head with both hands so he wouldn’t stop. She came hard and fast, cramming his tongue into her with a ferocity that startled her. It was a tight, unsatisfying orgasm, a wild desperate constriction of her tight inner muscles, a single ice cube on a blistering summer day. It momentarily cooled her, but then simply left her wanting much, much more.

Plus, she had broken his rules and she knew it.

Instantly, as her body shuddered to its final completion, her pussy still aching and wet, she let go of his head and fell back, afraid. Not afraid of him hurting her, but that the punishment might be that he would deny her his erection plunging into her. Because she knew that she really, really needed that. That she would actually possibly beg if it was required.

This night could not end until he had filled her to capacity.

* * *

RHETT wasn’t surprised that Shawn had come. Exactly what he had wanted had happened—she had let go entirely. She had let go through allowing him to control the situation, and it was the hottest thing he’d ever seen. He had a steel grip on his own desire, but his cock was throbbing and the taste of her was on his tongue. He wanted her, but her wanting him was even better.

But if he wanted to continue the way they’d begun, which he definitely did, he couldn’t just sink inside her and stroke them both to satisfaction. He had to follow through.

Knowing she needed some fresh air, he pulled the tights down around her neck. She gulped in air and before he could say anything, she was speaking an achingly sweet apology, her eyes wide in the dimly light room.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to . . . it’s just I haven’t had sex in a while, and it just came over me and by the time I realized it, it was too late and I already was, and then I didn’t want to ruin it, so I grabbed—”

Rhett covered her mouth again. “Shh. I know.” He brushed her damp hair back off her forehead. She was flushed, eyes darkened still with her desire. “But you do need to be punished. Do you agree with me? Do you need to be punished?”

She knew what he was asking. If she said yes, he would continue the way he had started. If she said no, he wouldn’t. Even if she said no, he would still make love to her, but in a more traditional sense. He wasn’t a masochist, nor did he want to leave her unsatisfied. But he would prefer it if she said yes. He would prefer it deep down into the very depths of his soul, and as the seconds ticked by, the agony of the wait gripped him in the balls and his throbbing cock, still trapped behind the cotton of his briefs. He hadn’t realized how much he had wanted this, wanted Shawn, until it all rested on what happened next.