Page 130 of Inflict

“Prick,” she mumbled.

Well, it was new.

He’d give her that.

“Doesn’t feel as good as the arsehole one,” Connor admitted.

“Like I said, it fits.”

Connor gave Evelyn one last smack on her arse before he flipped her off his shoulder, turned her around, and bent her over the backside of the island. It wasn’t exactly where they had started, but it was feckin’ close enough for him. Her ringing laughter taunted him when she refused to give him her hands to tie at her back. She spun over to her back so she could face him, gave him a sly smile, and kissed him hard on the mouth.

“Hard it is, then,” Connor uttered between clenched teeth.

Evelyn grinned. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

“Good to know.”

As fast as lightening, Connor had her flipped back over. He didn’t bother tying her hands at her back, since she was going to be difficult on that anyway, and instead, used the long length of satin cord to tie her wrists high above her head. Evelyn didn’t seem to understand what he was doing, or how to react, before he had tied the loose ends of the rope to the cabinet handle on the other side of the island.

Evelyn tugged once, then twice on her ties, getting nowhere. Her entire top half was laid out across the island, while her legs were firmly planted on the floor, spread wide.

“You!”

Connor laughed. “This is a damned classy sight for you, lass.”

Evelyn blew out a breath, her hair flying out of her face as she tried to look back at him. “Have fun getting my dress off now.”

“Was that a challenge?”

She didn’t respond.

Connor only took that as a confirmation.

“Don’t move too much, love,” he murmured in her ear. “And the very second you say stop, this ends.”

It was his new rule, given everything. She was the only one who could tell him when it was too much. He couldn’t always know. She had to speak up.

Connor yanked open the junk drawer, and pulled a pocketknife from within. He had them hidden all over the damn house. He swore he felt a shiver roll through Evelyn’s spine when the blade of his pocketknife came in contact with the neckline of her dress. Her gasp echoed into the kitchen as he cut the fabric straight down the middle of her back, starting at the very top, and working his way to the skirt. He made sure to pull hard on the dress, so it would bite into her skin as he cut it the feck off. He only stepped back to admire his handiwork when the dress was split wide open, ruined and hanging on either side of Evelyn, and she was bare to him. All but her knickers, that was.

“Now,” he said, letting the flat end of his blade run down Evelyn’s spine, “now we’re at a beautiful sight, lass.”

Evelyn released a shaky breath. “You cut it off me.”

“Did you like that one?”

“A little.”

“Next time, just take it off before we get to this point—simple.”

She was probably rolling her pretty green eyes at him, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care. He was much too preoccupied with the way his knife looked traveling over her peach-and-cream skin, and how easily the curved edge caught on the elastic waistband of her knickers.

“Should I cut these off, too?” he asked, letting the knickers snap back against her skin. “Or do you want to make it easy on me?”

Evelyn tossed him a sneer. “Fuck you.”

Hard it was.

She squirmed, her stinging insults broken up between bouts of breathless laughter as he cut the black knickers off her, too. Unlike the dress, which he had left hanging on her form, he pulled the ruined bottoms off, not wanting them in his way.