“Ronin, I don’t think I can do this.”

He smooched her lips. “Yes, you can.” He tugged, and the knot came free. Then he unwound the rope. “It doesn’t have to be perfect or tight. I’ll put out the rope scissors so if you do have a tying issue you can cut me free. Okay?”

“Okay.” She ran her fingers over the rope. “You trust me with this?”

“Yes.”

“I have to ask you something else.”

“What?”

“Will you let me take pictures of you if I feel the shots are right?”

That’d come out of nowhere. But it played into his need to document the art she let him create on her body with his ropes.

“I mean, it’ll be just like the shots you took of me. No one will see them unless you give me your permission.”

He tipped her chin up because she wouldn’t look at him. “Why are the pictures important to you? As proof that I surrendered myself to you?”

“No!” She placed her hand over his heart. “You are such a stunning man. Your face is a work of art. So is this sculpted body. I’d like to capture your strength and raw masculinity. Because, like you told me, the submissive has all the power. Call it whatever name you like, but when you’re bound and blindfolded, you will be submissive to me. I’d like to see if that dichotomy of strength and surrender is visible in photographs.” Amery gestured to the photo of herself. “Kind of like you wanted to show the innocence and passion in me.”

“You make a compelling argument. And I’ll agree. With one stipulation.”

“You and your damn stipulations,” she grumbled.

“That you allow me to photograph you bound again.”

Amery bit her lip, clearly torn. Finally she said, “All right.”

He smiled. “Now that we’re through negotiations, where do you want me?”

“Sit on the bench. Arms behind you.”

Ronin was oddly nervous.

“Close your eyes,” she said behind him. She tipped his head back and ran her fingers through his hair. “I love your hair. It’s perfect. Thick and dark and so soft to the touch.” She pulled it all back and gathered it at his nape. “I love that you wear it long. It’s your rogue samurai warrior side showing. And I really”—she breathed in his ear—“really love how your hair feels brushing across my skin. Sexy and naughty and hot.

“When you made me come last night? And you turned your head to rub your damp lips on the top of my thigh? The ends of these silky strands teased across my leg and I almost came again.”

Jesus. He might not survive her sweet dirty talk. Tingles shot down his spine whenever her breath flowed over his skin.

“Every time you go down on me and you do that soft kiss and nuzzle thing on my inner thighs? Like you can’t get enough of the taste of me or the scent of me . . . I melt.” She kissed the top of his ear. “You own me in that moment, Ronin.”

His cock was fully erect by the time she finished securing his hair in a ponytail.

“Now for the blindfold.”

Cool silk covered his eyes.

She knotted it below his ponytail. “Is that too tight?”

“It’s fine.”

“Good. Now your hands.”

And like when he bound her, Amery’s fingers caressed his arms from shoulders to wrists. He jumped when her sassy little tongue snaked out and followed the cut of his triceps on the back of his arm. He heard her drop to her knees on the mat and he remained still as she worked the rope.

Ronin couldn’t tell when she started to wrap his wrists whether she was doing it right or not. He didn’t feel anything until the rope ends trailed over his fingers and she pulled them up and jerked them into a knot.

“Try that.”

He attempted to leverage his wrists by bowing his elbows, but he couldn’t make them budge. “It’s a good wrap. Not too tight either. But could you do me a favor? Take a picture of the binding, so I can see what you did.”

“No way, rope master. Just keep the image in your pretty little head that I achieved perfection on my first attempt.”

His grin turned into a groan when she cupped his face in her hands and kissed him stupid.

She whispered, “Your tap-out word is . . . ?”

Clever girl, using a martial arts term as a safe-out. “Red.”

Amery kissed his jawline, his throat, his collarbone while her fingers mapped his pectorals and gingerly swept down his ribs to his abdomen. Then her hot mouth engulfed his nipple, and he hissed. He automatically tried to bring his hands to her face, but he couldn’t move. A feeling of panic arose, and he jerked hard.

She stilled. After a few seconds, a soft, lingering kiss landed on his sternum. “Don’t forget to breathe, baby.”

Unaware he’d been holding his breath, he inhaled deeply, and that eased some of his anxiety.

The woman destroyed him with more sweet kisses and tender caresses.

Then she kicked it up a notch. Licking, biting, and sucking random spots on his chest and neck. Nails scraping down his back and fingers teasing the ridges of his stomach between brutal kisses.

Ronin was utterly lost in her. Deprived of sight and touch, his other senses made up for it. The scent of her hair and his own musk. The sound of her mouth on his skin and his soft groans reverberating in his ears. The taste of her lips—sweet and salty. And those hands of hers. Constantly touching him. His dick was so fucking hard he figured three pumps and he’d be spilling in her hand.

Although her fingers veered close to his groin, she hadn’t touched his cock.

With the sensory overload, he’d forgotten about the candle wax until the first hot drop splatted on his left pectoral. “Christ!”

“Hold still.” The next time she dribbled wax on him, she slammed her lips down on his in a bruising kiss.

And Amery was an absolute master in the art of anticipation. Ronin teetered on the edge of saying his tap-out word when she coated his nipple in wax, arching closer when her warm lips and heated breath grazed his sweat-dampened skin.

“Ronin.”

Her voice in his ear caused gooseflesh to erupt.

“You look incredible. Your muscles are gleaming and trembling, your chest dotted with black wax. The arch of your neck and spine is stunning.” She trailed a fingertip from behind his earlobe up over his shoulder and down his spine. “Hold this pose, lover, and think dirty thoughts because I’m going to snap a few pictures.”

Ronin held the pose as she walked away. He counted twenty long breaths before he heard the first whirring click of the camera. The blindfold blocked light so completely he didn’t get a glimpse of the flash.

“Lift your chin. More. God, you are gorgeous.”

He smiled.

“No, no, no. As much as I love that panty-dropping grin, I need you to look fierce. Like you’re in the throes of ecstasy.”

Jesus. Now he felt like an idiot.

Then Amery was right there, soothing and enticing him, her lips teasing his, her tongue dipping in and running across the bottom edge of his teeth. Kissing him, tasting him, swallowing his breath until he felt dizzy. “There’s the look. Like you’re waiting for more. Like you don’t know when your lover will add more wax. Or suck on your nipples. Or slowly slide her hand between your legs.”

The woman made him so damn hot.

Between more camera clicks, she kept him on edge. Fleeting caresses and little love bites. Whispering praise and naughty nothings.

Ronin was so anxious and scrambled that he almost didn’t register when Amery’s hand cupped his cock.

Almost.

Her fingers enclosed his shaft, and she stroked. The nylon material of his athletic shorts added an additional layer of friction.

“Baby, where do you want my mouth as I’m getting you off?” she murmured in his ear.

“Anywhere you want to put it. Please don’t stop. I need . . .”

“I’ll give you what you need.” Her tongue zigzagged down his neck to the spot in his throat where his pulse pounded. She sucked, licked, and scattered kisses around that area as she jacked his shaft.

Ronin pumped his pelvis, and her hand sped up.

Yes. Yes. Fuck. Almost . . . He ignored any embarrassment about being a two-pump chump when his balls drew up. He couldn’t make a sound when come pulsed out of his cock in hot waves. Each firm pull . . . Fuck. His eyes rolled back in his head as he came for what felt like a solid minute.

As soon as his head and his balls stopped buzzing, he sighed.

He heard several shutter clicks.

When had she let go of his junk and grabbed her camera? “Amery—”

“That shot was strictly for me.” She swept soft kisses across his lips as she spoke. When he attempted to deepen the kiss, she retreated. “Have I mentioned how dangerously sexy you look even all tied up, Master Black?”

“Several times. Now it’s time to untie me.”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe I like having you at my mercy.”

A rumbling noise started in his chest, and he realized it was a growl. “You trying to get me to tap out?”

“No. But there is a second part to my plan.”

Ronin wiggled impatiently. A length of rope brushed his thumbs. He maneuvered the rope between his index finger and thumb and tugged. He felt the knot give and the bindings loosen.

Oh, sweetheart, rookie rope mistake.

Somehow he managed not to grin.

Amery stepped between his legs and placed his chin between her breasts. Then she slipped the blindfold off.

He blinked at her. He angled his face and put his lips on the upper curve of her breast. “Take your shirt off. Bra too. I want my mouth on you now.”

“I believe I’m calling the shots.”

Not for long. He’d undone the first rope wrap.