Closing her eyes again, she thought back to the evening before and her frown turned into a smile.
Rawhide Ranch.
Master Fletcher.
Shibari.
She studied the ropes around her hands and remembered that Master Fletcher had called it a prayer tie. He’d used silk rope and once he’d tied her hands, they’d settled down to watch a movie. She wondered if Master Fletcher had meant for her to sleep in them. Wiggling her fingers and rotating her wrists, shefound the ropes weren’t anywhere near as tight as they’d been when he’d first bound her. With another wiggle, she realized the pattern looked a little different as well. Bringing her hands closer to her face, she saw where there had originally been a knot, there was now a bow. Smiling, she understood that he’d most likely considered this very scenario. It took just a moment to take one rope end between her teeth and with a little pull, the bow came free and she easily worked the remainder from between her fingers. Now unencumbered, she pushed the covers off, but when she tried to roll from the bed, she found a thick, warm bar wrapped around her middle.
“Mallory, are you okay?” A deep gravel-filled voice rumbled in her ear.
Fletcher. Just behind her in the king-size bed they’d agreed to share. But what had happened to the pillows they’d laid down the middle of the mattress as a makeshift bundling board?
“Gotta pee,” she said. Considering his responding mumble as well as the lifting of his arm his agreement, she rolled off the bed and raced to the bathroom.
She shoved the door closed, thankful for the nightlight plugged into the wall near the sink. Pushing her shorts and panties down, she settled on the toilet just in time to not pee all over the floor.
Once finished, Mallory cleaned herself and then took a moment to wash her hands before returning to the bedroom. A glance at the clock on the nightstand informed her it was still several hours before daybreak, though back home she would be rising for the day. Even after living in Montana for almost four months, her body still thought she was living on the East Coast.
“Time zones suck,” she murmured as she looked around the room.
She thought about crawling into bed, but if she did, she would surely wake Fletcher with her tossing and turning as shewaited for an appropriate time to rise for the day. She looked at the table by the sliding-glass doors, her fingers itching to pull out pad and pencils to sketch the handsome man who lay in the middle of the big bed.
“Come back to bed, bunny,” Fletcher rumbled as he shifted back to his side of the bed. “It’s too early to be awake.”
“I thought I’d do some sketching on the patio,” she whispered.
Fletcher leaned up on one elbow and pulled back the covers. “Come back to bed now, bunny.”
His tone was pure Dominant and pulled her toward the bed without her realizing it. Reminding herself that she was trying to prove that she could be a good submissive and rope bunny, she crossed to lie down on the bed, positioning herself as close to the edge as she could without falling off.
She squeaked in surprise when a thick, warm arm wrapped around her middle and pulled her back across the mattress. Mallory froze when her back pressed against his front, not sure what to do with herself.
“What happened to the pillows?” she asked softly.
“You threw them out of bed about midnight. Something about them keeping you cold,” Fletcher answered softly.
A moment later, his breathing slowed and deepened and she knew he’d fallen back asleep. His body warmth rolled over her and with the sound of his soft breathing filling the silence, Mallory found herself growing drowsy.
She yawned widely and her eyes drifted closed as sleep rolled over her once again.
“While you’re drawing this morning, I need to take care of some business,” Fletcher said as they finished eating the breakfast room service had delivered.
“Business?”
He nodded. “Unfortunately, when you own the company you can never really get away completely. I need to deal with a few phone messages and emails, but then the rest of the day will be for us. Do you want to work here or go outside somewhere?”
Mallory looked out of the sliding-glass doors for a moment before turning her head to meet his gaze. “I thought I’d walk up to the barns and sketch some of the animals for a project I’m working on. That way you can have privacy. If that’s okay with you?”
“That sounds like a fine plan. But I don’t want you to wander off anywhere else. And stay there until I come for you,” Fletcher said, needing to flex his Dominant muscle even though they weren’t scening.
The last thing he wanted was for her to think she was in charge.
“Yes, Sir,” she agreed immediately as she finished the last bite of her cheese and bacon omelet.
Once they finished eating, he put the tray of empty dishes back out in the hallway while she got ready to go. They’d both gotten dressed while waiting for breakfast to be delivered, so it was a matter of slipping on his shoes so he could walk with her to the barns.
“You don’t have to come with me,” Mallory said as they started down the hall. “I don’t think I could get lost between here and there.”
