Oh shit. Nipple clamps.

Tight and vicious, they sank their teeth into her tender flesh, and she cried out. Dizzying pain—at first. It blurred quickly into searing, fiery pleasure.

Her nipples soon felt swollen to twice their normal size. Her skin tingled, electric and alive, unlike anything she’d ever felt. More moisture seeped from her pussy. She fisted her hands. “Hunter!” She gulped. “Sir.”

“Better,” he praised as his fingers surrounded the clamps and gave them a light twist. “You like it?”

Yes, yes, yes. Kata couldn’t withhold the truth. “I do.”

“Excellent. Do you want me to fuck you?” He gave the clamps another pinch and twist.

She hadn’t imagined that her nipples could throb as badly as her clit, but now they felt connected by an invisible wire, each jumping anytime the others were touched. His every move brought her to the edge of pleasure and pain, and knowing that she couldn’t do a damn thing about it was one of the biggest turn-ons of her life. That had to make her twenty kinds of sick in the head. She’d never thought that she’d get off on being bent to any guy’s will. But somehow, Hunter made that work for her.

“What do you think?” she cried out. “Of course I want you to fuck me!”

All softness left his face. The arctic was downright balmy compared to this stare. “I would have preferred a polite ‘Yes, Sir.’”

No doubt. And as lousy a job as she was doing curbing her tongue, it could be another decade before he allowed her to get off.

“Yes, Sir.” She swallowed down her impatience . . . at least as much as she could.

Hunter laughed. “Even when you say the right words, the tone is still so much closer to ‘fuck off.’ Curbing your sass is going to be a long-term project.”

And likely one doomed to failure. “Damn it, I’m trying.”

“Silence.” A moment later, he raised his hand and slapped his fingers down on the pad of her pussy.

Oh. My. God. Her head told her that she should feel degraded. Infuriated, at least. But no. Fire spread through her. Tingles danced behind her clit. She gasped. Desire grew to a seething, throbbing ache, magnified until every beat of her heart was echoed between her legs.

“W-what are you doing to me?” she wailed.

He swiped a finger through her sopping flesh, then lifted a glistening finger. “Are you going to try to tell me that you didn’t like it?”

Now he was taunting her. She bit her lip, holding her response inside.

Hunter sat at the edge of the bed. “We’re not going to make any progress until you start being honest with me—and yourself. Right now, I have all the patience in the world. How about you?”

Kata had reached the end of her rope—and he knew it. Hunter wasn’t like Ben or any other guy she’d dated. She couldn’t manipulate him with a pout or a sexy look. Damn it, he’d dug into her psyche and learned all her fears, her darkest secrets and wants. He was arousing her more than any man ever had. Still, she had no doubt he’d hold out on her until she lost the attitude and submitted with honesty.

Her need only grew worse when he dropped his jeans.

Oh dear God. Tall, broad, those shoulders nearly as wide as the doorframe behind him. And his cock stood thick, tall, ready. She couldn’t tear her eyes away, wanted him so badly she didn’t know how she’d stand even another ten seconds without him working his way inside her. When he took her, he did it with a single-minded determination that made her feel so desirable and special—something she’d never had before. Something she needed now.

“Please, Sir. I can’t take much more.”

“Hmm,” he mused aloud. “We’re getting closer. But there’s still a lot of starch in your spine.”

Already, he’d trashed through so much of the electrified barbed wire and GET THE FUCK OUT signs around her defenses. But Hunter had made it perfectly clear that he wasn’t resting until she gave every part of her submission, her soul. She must put her tongue on lockdown in order to relieve this seething, burning desire eating her alive.

She swallowed her anger. “No . . . Sir. No starch.”

“I’ve been reading submissives for a dozen years. I know your signals. In your head, you’re trying to figure out how you can placate me to get what you want, not how to please me so I give you what you need.”

Kata felt more exposed than she’d ever been . . . but he was right. One look at his implacable face told her that he wasn’t going to let this go.

His challenging stare scraped her raw. She closed her eyes. “I’m doing my best to open up. Sir.”

Hunter sat at the edge of the bed and rubbed the back of his knuckles over her breasts. “I realize that I’ve breached your comfort zone, and that, given your family dynamic, this isn’t easy for you. You haven’t come close to giving me everything, but you’ve given a lot. Wars aren’t fought in a day.” He smiled. “At least you’re being honest and polite now. I’ll reward that.”

Hunter slid his body over hers, everything about him heart-stoppingly male. He kissed her with a desperate edge, under control . . . but just barely. Somehow, that made her feel better. Slightly mollified, she blanked her mind and allowed herself to drown in his kiss.

It went on forever. He angled his head to deepen the penetration of his mouth, his tongue stealing inside and raiding every bit of her breath and resistance. His hands gripped the sides of her face, keeping her exactly where he wanted her as he took—and gave. His kiss tasted of sweet comfort, even as it overwhelmed her with the spice of desire. His devotion flooded her next, a tangy aphrodisiac that lured her deeper.

From the first, Hunter had affected her like no other man. Now, he proved over and over that, for her, he was different. Special.

If they ended this crazy, spontaneous marriage, would any other man ever do again? They’d shared a bed only a few times, and already she felt wrapped up in him, desperate to soak in his determination and the ecstasy he gave her. Aching to give herself utterly to him. She shut out the voice inside her that was still trying to scream in protest and sank into his embrace.

Hunter lifted his head, looked down at her through the shadows. “Better.” Firm with demand, his lips took hers again with a dark, lingering insistence. When she responded in kind, without closing anything off from him, he moaned. “Incredible.”

His praise suffused a glow all through her. Just by being totally in the moment with him, she’d pleased him. After spending so long not giving a shit what anyone but her mother thought, that felt good. Scary still, but sublime.

He made his way down her body, pausing to lap at her nipples around the clamps. The dizzying pleasure/pain scattered the gentle glow of the last few moments, slamming her with a craving so strong, it seized her breath. Intense. Gripping. Impossible to ignore.

“Hunter . . .”

“I know, honey. These will come off soon. And you’ll scream like you never have. So fucking sexy. I can’t wait.”

His words were an erotic riptide, sucking her under even deeper. Drowning was inevitable, and the anticipation made her shudder.

Then he eased down her body, his mouth drifting so, so softly over her stomach. A lap here, a nip there, awakening her even more. Kata’s entire body clenched. Her yearning to put her fingers in the short strands of his hair, feel him alive and warm under her hands, assailed her like an addict craving his drug of choice.

“Free my hands. Please.”

Hunter shook his head, his thumbs brushing her erect nipples so softly, a breathless madness closed in on her. “The control is mine. This is you trusting me to give you what you need, to push you farther than you think you can stand and still make you love it.”

Kata arched, head tossed back, as she tried to endure his torment. But her body had become one giant ache that knew only the need for his possession.

His hand drifted down her stomach, into the wet curls between her legs. “Hmm, so wet and swollen. You might struggle to understand what’s happening between us, but when I touch you, I know your body is on board.”

He dragged his thumb over her clit again. A second later, he followed with a wicked slide of his tongue over the little bundle. She moaned, and he repeated the motion until her hips thrashed, until she cried out with a constant mewl of need.

“No coming until I say so,” he reminded.

She snapped her head from side to side in a silent scream of denial. After all the kissing, the touching, the repeated ramp-ups and cooldowns, her body was beyond primed. “I . . . can’t stop it.”

“You’re strong. You can. I’ll release you at the right time. Just trust me.”

He pressed two fingers inside her, then dragged fresh moisture over her sensitive little nub, rubbing in an unceasing, endless circle that completely unraveled her. His tongue followed once more, a hot lash that damn near destroyed her. Kata stopped breathing, stopped thinking. Every muscle in her body tensed with effort to stave off the inevitable. But oh . . . holding this orgasm at bay felt like trying to stop an avalanche with a paper plate.

“What will you give me tonight, honey?”

“Everything.” The ache for release screeched under her skin, and she whimpered with need.

“How badly do you want to come for me?”

God, he wanted her to beg. “I’ve never felt so . . . on fire. It’s like”—she panted—“an exquisite pain. Please, Hunter. Sir. Please.”

“You’re fucking gorgeous, honey. Are you on birth control?”

“Yes.” Please let that mean he intended to fuck her now.

He paused, his fingers unmoving, and her entire body seized up. No!

“Because of Ben?”

The question slammed across her brain. Was he jealous? Would he punish her again by leaving her to ache and burn even more?

“The truth,” he demanded as he shimmied up her body, his hot body pressed against her side, flaying her with heat. “Now.”

“No. Irregular cycle. Since I was fourteen.”

“You’re clean?”

She gave him a jerky nod. In truth, she’d never had sex without a condom, but with the broiling heat of his cock hovering like a promise and a threat above her throbbing clit, she found it too hard to speak.

“Answer me.”

“Yes . . . Sir,” she choked out.

“Excellent. You’re doing really well, your gorgeous skin all warm and damp and flushed.” His hot breath caressed her ear. A shiver scratched down her spine. “Do you trust me?”

A dozen smart-ass replies died a fiery death before she whimpered, “Yes, Sir.”

He smiled as he removed both clamps on her nipples at once. Blood rushed back in, the flood painful and yet . . . She screamed with the cacophony of sensation assailing her.

“That’s it.” He eased aside and settled his fingers back on her clit and circled the responsive flesh mercilessly.

The sting in her nipples converged with the fireball between her legs. Oh God, she couldn’t stop it. The orgasm was headed her way like a freight train with no brakes, a steamroller with no off button, a supernova about to burst across space.

“Come!” he demanded.

With that one word, ecstasy climbed even more, a pleasure beyond her every fantasy, exploding across her senses, absorbing her in the earthy musk of cotton and sex, the deep timbre of his command ricocheting inside her, the salty tang of his sweat rolling down his neck, the sight of his demanding gaze electric with approval.

As the Mount Everest-sized peak broke over her and she struggled for breath, the blistering heat of Hunter’s skin seared the insides of her thighs. Shaking, keening, trying desperately to grab the headboard in her hands, Kata could only watch in helpless thrall as Hunter fit the head of his bare cock to her opening and shoved into her spasming sex.

She screamed, her back bowing at his entrance—a conquest without mercy, he compelled her surrender. It should have hurt, she thought vaguely. Instead, she welcomed his invasion as his hard flesh scraped along every brilliantly alive nerve ending inside her.

The climax grew, swelled. Hunter gritted his teeth and planted his elbows on either side of her head, gripping the headboard for leverage as he slammed into her. Then he did it again and again in a rapid rhythm. Every stroke sent her up higher, and she shouted in pleasure—for him.

“Yes, honey. Fuck yes!” He grunted out between gritted teeth. “That’s it.”

Every time Kata thought she’d catch her breath, Hunter was there to steal it, his body keeping her rolling between one incredible peak and the next, his mouth slamming down on hers as his tongue took possession and demanded all she had to give.

She lifted to him, everything inside her reaching for him, meeting him, feeling like . . . one with him. Whatever this was, it in no way resembled mere sex. This transcended pleasure, became pure energy and connection and . . . God, she could barely put words to the dazzling, overwhelming sensations.