“If you have no intention of hurting me, why do I need a safe word?”

  “I said nothing about discomfort. There will be lots of that if you choose not to cooperate.”

  “So I must give in to you or suffer the consequences?”

  She was trying to make him feel bad; it wasn’t going to work. “Do you have any other questions?”

  “No.”

  “Stand,” he commanded.

  She got to her feet, then he rose behind her.

  “That’s a good start,” he praised. “I promised you a reward earlier. As a show of good faith, I’ll give you two.” He reached into the drawer of the desk behind him, withdrew a little foil square, and unwrapped it. “Open your mouth and stick out your tongue.”

  She didn’t right away. They would work on that. But when she glanced at the chocolate square between his fingers, she sent him an unconscious smile of delight and obeyed.

  He settled the square on her tongue. She drew it into her mouth with a moan, eyes closed in pleasure.

  As she sucked and swallowed it, he skimmed his thumb across her plump lips. “Did you like that?”

  She nodded, opening her eyes and looking somewhat puzzled. “I love chocolate. How did you know?”

  He gave her a wry smile. “I’ve met very few women who don’t.”

  “Valeria does not.”

  Trees was surprised she’d volunteered anything remotely personal. He took it as a good sign. “She’s missing out.”

  “I think so, too. But chocolate has always been a rare treat for me.”

  If she stopped trying to throw herself into danger at every turn, he would give her plenty more. “Want your next reward?”

  She nodded. When he raised a rebuking brow, she corrected herself. “Yes.”

  “Good.” He drew her closer and cupped her face, staring straight into her eyes.

  Laila’s breath caught. She blinked up at him. The pulse pounded at her neck.

  She might be afraid of his intentions, but he aroused her. Trees would bet money on that.

  Before he talked himself out of it, he lowered his head and slanted his lips over hers in a soft, lingering press, sinking into the moment. God, he’d been wanting to kiss Laila since he’d set eyes on her again.

  After a stiff moment, Laila rose on her tiptoes with a little whimper and clutched his shoulders. Her eyes fluttered shut. Then she kissed him in return.

  Clearly, she wasn’t immune to him. He could work with that. And with any luck, they would come out on the other end of this punishment with a new understanding, maybe even a new closeness.

  Before he lost himself in her sweetness, he straightened and took her hand. “Follow me.”

  She didn’t look convinced that whatever he had in mind was a good idea, but she offered no resistance.

  Until he laid her on a padded table with a dangling cuff at each corner.

  Her eyes went saucer wide. “What are you doing?”

  “Starting your punishment.” By the time he’d answered her, he’d secured one of her wrists in the attached cuff above her head. She tried to retract the other, but it was too late. Trees held firm, extending her arm until it stretched to the restraint above. He secured it with a quiet click.

  “Why are you tying me down? What are you doing to me?” A note of panic wound through her voice.

  “You’ve spent time in this room. I’ve told you I’m a Dominant. Nothing that’s happening now should be a huge surprise.”

  Her face told him she screwed up her courage. “You cannot break me. Many times, I have endured the worst at others’ hands.”

  Wouldn’t she be surprised to realize she’d never endured anything like this and she had no way to fight him?

  He caressed his way down her body slowly—shoulder, breast, abdomen, thigh—letting her feel every touch of his rough fingertips and broad palm. “Then you have nothing to fear, little one.”

  As she met his stare with defiance, he grabbed her ankle and fastened the cuff around it. Fresh shock spread across her face.

  When she bucked and kicked, he merely stepped back, crossed his arms over his chest, and waited until she gave him her full attention. “This isn’t how you earn more rewards.”

  “I will give up chocolate.”

  “That’s not the reward you’re going to want, Laila,” he promised in a dark, silky voice. “Give me your foot.”

  “No.”

  “Give. Me. Your. Foot. Now. Or there won’t be rewards of any kind, no matter how much you beg me. If you comply, you’ll find I can be very generous. If not…” He let her infer that the result would be deeply unpleasant. “But like I said, what happens is up to you.”

  She looked so heartbreakingly unsure. Not for the first time, he questioned this tactic, but he’d tried every other fucking way to get her to understand that he was on her side. If he had to be underhanded to make her stop risking herself, he would. It was better than her ending up dead.

  “Laila, when have I ever hurt you?” He gave her a moment to work that out in her head.

  “Never, but—”

  “No buts. Never.”

  “Then why restrain me?”

  “Because you have a nasty habit of running away. This way, I can be sure you’re here and focused on the conversation we need to have. I’m going to ask questions and you’re going to give me honest answers. Right after you give me your foot.” He held out his hand, palm up, inches from her toes. “If you don’t, we’ll move straight into punishment.”

  Slowly, Laila slid her last free limb in his direction, looking nervous as hell. He took hold of her ankle and secured her with the padded cuff.

  “Good,” he praised, brushing a gentle hand up her leg. “Anything feel too tight? Too uncomfortable?”

  “No.”

  He reached under the table to tilt it, angling her feet toward the ground. Then he grabbed the rolling stool behind him and plopped down, parking himself in front of her. Then he adjusted the height until he sat eye level with her pussy. With a smile, he swiped a soft thumb over her cleft.

  Her breath caught.

  “Your pussy is swollen.” He petted her again, trailing kisses up her thigh. “This is the very last time I’m going to ask you. Is your pussy sore from my spankings?”

  Her exhalation came out rough. And when he parted her labia with his thumbs, exposing her rosy clit, she squirmed. “What are you doing?”

  “Waiting for an answer. If you don’t give me one, I’ll assume you’re not sore at all and spank your pussy again.”

  “Yes,” she finally gasped out. “I am sore.”

  “See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” He thumbed her clit, pressing down and rubbing a slow circle, smiling at her indrawn breath. “When did you first become aware of it?”

  “When I woke up in your truck.”

  Perfect. “What about while you were visiting your sister?”

  “Yes. And when I crossed my legs, it burned.”

  Even better. “As we drove back here, too?”

  “It was stinging.”

  “And now?”

  “It feels as if all my blood has rushed there,” she whined. “It…throbs.”

  Fuck if that didn’t light his blood on fire and make him even harder.

  Trees swallowed back lust and pressed on. “I appreciate your honesty.”

  To reward her, he dipped his hand into the desk drawer again, whipped out another square of chocolate, and offered it to her. Laila opened immediately, wrapping her lips around the confection with another moan. He watched her chew it, savor it, swallow it. The second the sugar left her tongue, her resolve returned. “I have answered you. Release me.”

  He laughed. “Not even close. Let’s try the other question I asked you earlier. You know, to get you used to this new concept called honesty, make sure you get some practice with it before I ask you the questions I really need answers to.”

  She scowled. “I do not owe you all my truths.”

  “See, I’m going to disagree. As long as you’re in my house, under my protection, and in my bed, you do. So you’re going to learn to share every single thing. Now, are you wet?”

  Trees knew the answer. In the moments he’d been sitting in front of her pussy and petting her, she’d gone slick. He nestled his knuckles between her folds and brushed them directly across her clit. Her breath hitched. His fingers came away more than damp. He held them up under the overhead lights. There was no way she couldn’t see the sheen of her own juices.

  Laila closed her eyes. “Yes.”

  “Open your eyes and tell me why.”

  “I do not know.”

  “Yes, you do. Try harder.”

  She pressed her lips together. “My body responds to you. There, are you happy?”

  This wasn’t about him, but them. “No. Did you get wet when I asked you to strip? Or when you got naked for me?”

  “I-I do not know.”

  Maybe she hadn’t thought about it consciously, but she must have some idea. “Maybe it was when you sat on my lap and felt my dick hard for you? Or when I kissed you?”

  She shrugged. “I did not pay attention.”

  Sure, she hadn’t.

  “Or did it take a little more than a kiss? Maybe you gushed for me when I started staring at your pussy. Talking about it. Petting it. Salivating for it.”

  Laila tensed. Her indrawn breath shuddered. He was getting closer to the truth.

  Trees leaned in and gripped her thighs, gratified to see them trembling. “That’s it, isn’t it? You’re aroused by the fact I’m fixated on your pretty pussy.”

  “No,” she breathed.

  “Now you’re lying to me. Or are you lying to yourself?” Trees didn’t wait for a reply. He simply caressed the pad of her pussy, thumbing her clit again.

  She hissed. “Trees…”

  “Answer the question. And think carefully, because they’re going to get more difficult. Punishments will only get harder, too.”

  “All right. Yes, I like that,” she managed.

  “Me focusing on your pussy?”

  She cast her gaze down, fidgeting against the table self-consciously. “Yes. That is when I started feeling damp and achy.”

  Trees loved that answer. But something else had her revving, too. Oh, this line of questioning had just gotten fascinating. “Thank you. Something else must have taken you from wet to throbbing… I don’t think it was our back-and-forth banter. That’s just an everyday argument for you. I’m not convinced it was me telling you that we’re going to play this game, since you didn’t even know the rules. That leaves either my threats or my restraints.”

  “I do not understand.” She sounded near tears.

  It was possible she didn’t comprehend her response and the way her own body worked. Her responses inclined him to believe what she’d told him while they’d traveled back from Florida in the RV a few weeks ago over the words she’d spewed in the alley in La Pesca. Until him, she’d never been kissed, never had an orgasm, never known real pleasure. Given her past, maybe she genuinely couldn’t reconcile why either the notion of being punished or restrained aroused her.

  “It’s all right,” he reassured. “We’ll figure it out together.”

  She blinked like his answer surprised her. “You are not angry?”

  “Are you being honest with me? This isn’t bullshit embarrassment, right?”

  “I am telling the truth. I do not understand.”

  “Okay. I believe you. I’m assuming you’d like another reward?”

  She nodded. “But I do not think I could eat more chocolate.”

  Was she telling him she wanted something else from him?

  Trees stood and approached, settling his body against hers, then taking her face in hand. “Open your mouth to me, little one.”

  Her lips parted instantly, and he was toast. He leaned in, seizing her and sinking into her honeyed depths, stroking against the sweet confection of her tongue.

  Hesitantly, she kissed him back, growing progressively bolder with every sweep and each additional inch he claimed as his own. He groaned into her, laving the roof of her mouth before nibbling on her bottom lip, then filling her again with his tongue.

  Against the table, she strained to get closer, opening wider, writhing for him, pouring herself into their kiss. Trees spent a timeless moment losing himself in her before he eased back, brushed a kiss across her wet, swollen mouth, then stepped back.

  “Will you kiss me again?”

  Her request surprised him. He smiled as he sat on the stool. Her pussy was right in front of him, and he swiped a finger through her cleft. Still wet…but not any more than before.

  “If you keep being honest, I would love to. If not, expect punishment.”

  “What kind?”

  Trees sent her a wicked smile. “The kind that will make you beg and squirm.”

  Her hips gave a reflexive jerk, as if his words excited her. Trees settled his fingers between her folds again. She was wetter.

  The idea of his sensual punishment turned her on? Maybe she’d also enjoy more restraints. That possibility boggled his mind. The first time he’d done it simply to keep her from escaping him in the RV, she’d flipped her shit. Now?

  Time to find out.

  Trees strolled to the far wall, behind the table, and found a length of silk rope, then he approached the side of the table and attached it to a hook underneath. He watched her face as he draped the length over her abdomen, attached it underneath again, then crisscrossed it between her breasts and ended by laying the soft length over her throat just tight enough for her to feel.

  Her breath turned choppy.

  “Does that scare you?”

  It took her a long time to answer. “No.”

  And her tone said she was shocked by her own response. When he tested her pussy again, she was even juicier, the wetness spreading to her inner thighs.

  Wasn’t that intriguing? No surprise that Laila didn’t understand.

  But he did. She was wired for him, far more than he’d dared to hope.

  He scrubbed a hand down his face. His instincts had led him here, and he’d been questioning his judgment since he’d demanded she strip for him. But now…

  Hell yeah.

  And if he could finally get some honesty out of her while arousing her out of her damn mind, even better.

  “You’ve done really well so far, Laila.” He stroked her pussy again, sailing his lips up one hip before skimming his teeth back down the sensitized flesh. “Let’s try some more difficult questions.”

  “Before another reward?”

  Did she want more of his kisses, was she stalling, or simply afraid of her own responses?

  “If you answer these next questions well, the reward will definitely be worth the wait. First, why did you leave my house with Victor the morning he broke in? You told me in La Pesca that you’d always wanted to be with Victor because your struggles against him are the foreplay that arouses you before he fucks you rough.” When she winced, he pressed on. “Is that true? Do you get excited when he holds you down, pulls your hair, rips off your shirt, shoves your pants down, forces his way between your legs, and—”

  “Stop.” Laila closed her eyes, obviously fighting tears.

  “Are you going to cry?”

  “No.” She sniffled.

  “You want to.”

  “I don’t.”

  “You’re lying. I can see you’re upset. It’s all over your face. Why?”

  Trees half expected her to double down on what he suspected was a whopping lie and tell him that she missed Victor. Instead, she turned away and tried to hide her expression from him.

  “Please…”

  While begging was better than defiance, it wasn’t acceptable, either. Trees swallowed his disappointment. Why did he keep trying to save a woman who didn’t want to be saved? But he knew the answer. She had been through all nine circles of hell, and his heart insisted she was worth the effort. “I’m disappointed, Laila. I’m not asking hard questions. Punishment it is.”

  Trees bent his head, parted the dewy folds of her pussy with his thumbs, and licked her already stiff bud mercilessly, dragging his tongue across the tip, then sucking it into his mouth before adding more stimulation with a gentle scrape of his teeth. He moved closer, settling in for a lingering onslaught and working her up to the edge of pleasure.

  She gasped. Her whole body tensed. Her toes curled. She jerked and writhed to get closer to him. As her cheeks flushed and her need ramped up, she grabbed the restraints and cried his name. She was sexy as hell to watch.

  When he sucked her clit again, he was thrilled to find it harder.

  “Trees…”

  “You close?” He knew she was. When he fitted a pair of his big fingers inside her, her pussy tightened in little warning pulses.

  “Yes,” she gasped out.

  “Good. There’s some honesty.” He licked her again, reveling in her harsh breaths, her tension, her body stretching and straining for that one last touch that would put her over the edge.

  He backed away.

  “No!” Her voice was sharp, something between a demand and a whine.

  “Want that orgasm, honey? I’ll bet you do.” He licked his lips, moaning at the taste of her. He was gratified when her stare followed his tongue and her eyes darkened. He started petting her mound again, dragging his finger between her folds and over her labia, completely avoiding her needy clit. “I’ll bet you’re aching for me to put my mouth all over that pretty little pussy and suck you. While I do that, I’ll settle my fingers inside you, fill you up, and rub you just right…”

  She whimpered, her body quaking from head to toe. “Please…”

  “You beg so sweetly.” He kissed her inner thigh, teasing and nipping his way close to her clit. “But I can’t since you’d rather plead with me than be honest.”

  She whimpered in response. “Trees…”

  He cupped her mound as he stood slowly and kissed his way up her body. He stopped at her turgid nipples stabbing the air, latching on in strong drags. He strummed her clit with his thumb again. Just once. That was all it took before her body ratcheted up, vibrating with undeniable need once more.