Page 32 of Bound

“Say it.” His thumb strokes once beneath my ear.

I stare up at him.

His face is hard, but his eyes are burning. “Safe word, Erin.”

The room shifts.

My throat works. “Red.”

“And slow?”

The familiar word eases out of me. “Yellow.”

He grips the back of my neck. “If you say either?”

“You stop,” I whisper.

“Immediately,” he says.

My body shivers. This dangerous, furious, grief-haunted man is asking permission to take me apart.

“Color?” he asks.

I swallow. “Green.”

His eyes close for one brief second. When they open, something in him has changed. He’s focused.

“Good girl.”

The praise slides over me like silk. He takes my hand in his, dragging me to a corner of the room where there’s a rug and a black velvet cushion resting on it. I step onto the deep, soft cushion of the rug and it envelops my bare feet.

He steps back. “Undress.”

The command hits hard. My breath catches.

Usually, I would argue. Tease. Make him work for my obedience because defiance is my favorite form of foreplay and possibly my worst personality trait.

Tonight, I freeze.

Lucian’s eyes narrow. “Erin.”

“Hmm?”

“You heard me.”

“Yes.”

“Then obey.”

The word punches heat through me. Obey. Dangerous word.

Beautiful word.

It splits me open because some part of me wants to obey him so badly it scares me.

Another part hears it and sees the files, knowing now it was Carlos who sent me.

His voice lowers. “Do it for me.”