Page 12 of Bound

“And you are impatient.” I turn her carefully, pressing her front to the cabinet, my hand between her shoulder blades, my mouth at the back of her neck.

I drag down the zipper of her dress. I don’t let my fingertips graze her skin no matter how much I might want to.

She wore black tonight. Simple. Soft. Something chosen in a hurry after dinner with Cass and Ryan, before I brought her downstairs. Couture because she can.

A dress because—Isobel. Handing me a black-striped button-down to match her dress.

Because Isobel.

The dress opens for me, parting to reveal warm skin and the black lace I’d hoped for. The dress falls to the ground. I kneel on one knee behind her, circling one ankle at a time, lifting the dress away.

Removing her shoes for her.

Her bare feet press into the floor. “It’s heated.”

“Of course.”

Still, chill bumps rise on her skin.

Taking my time, I leave her, trembling against the cabinet, her hands pressed against its top. I fold the dress and put it over the corner of the bed. Then I return and just look.

“Taking your sweet time,” she half-laughs.

“Taking in what’s mine,” I correct her. “You’re too fucking gorgeous.”

“So, you tell me,” she whispers to the cabinet.

She’ll never know how pretty she is. Just another towering difference between her and the woman in the East Wing. Isobel knows how to use her looks to her advantage.

But she’s not in this room.

This room was built for the chosen one.

My chosen one.

Erin.

My fingers pause at the clasp of her bra.

“Color?”

“Green,” she says quickly.

I smile against her shoulder. “Eager.”

She smiles. “And you aren’t?”

I unclasp the bra and let it fall. She braces her hands on the cabinet, head lowering as I drag my palms down her sides, cupping her waist. Black silk hugs her hips. Every curve I know and still need to touch as badly as I did that first night.

“You’re quiet,” I say.

She says, “I’m trying to be the kind of woman a man builds a room like this for.”

“You already are.”

“Well,” she says, “Then I’m trying to be quiet.”

“You are terrible at it.”