She fell back against her seat and sighed. “Wow, that almost has me wanting to ask Daniel to use a belt on me.”

We looked at each other, both with big grins on our faces, and before long we were giggling. When I left a few minutes later, it was with a light heart and quick feet.

I hurried back to the hotel. Nathaniel wasn’t due for another couple of hours, but I needed to work on getting my notes on Julie’s interview typed up. And I really wanted to take extra time to prepare for when he did return to the room.

The afternoon with Jeff yesterday had been more of a turn-on than I would have ever thought possible. I wanted to write down some thoughts about it as well. Being blindfolded and knowing Jeff was watching, but couldn’t touch me intimately had heightened the intensity of the session.

I wanted to show Nathaniel how much I appreciated him inviting Jeff over. And part of that would be taking extra special care to prepare for his return this afternoon.

I stepped inside and frowned. The shades had been pulled and the entire suite was pitch-black. That didn’t seem right; whenever we’d pulled the shades before, some light was always visible. It was almost as if housekeeping had replaced the draperies with heavy-duty ones.

I reached out to find the light switch when someone grabbed me around the waist and pushed me against the wall. I tried to scream, but a strong hand covered my mouth before I could get a sound out. Any move I made to escape was anticipated and rendered useless.

My heart pounded frantically as I struggled against the unyielding mass of muscle behind me. Oh, God. No.

His voice was rough. “Your safe word is red. Say it at any time and this ends immediately. Otherwise”—he bit my ear—“I do whatever I damn well want to with you.”

My mind recognized it was Nathaniel, but my body was poised to fight. He paused for a second, obviously giving me a moment to safeword. I didn’t want to safe out; I wanted to see how far he’d go. His hold loosened slightly and I took the opportunity to wiggle my arm free and swing at him.

It was a blind swing, but his grunt confirmed I’d connected with some body part. He cursed and pushed me harder against the wall. He pulled my arms behind my back, even as I struggled to resist. “You’re going to pay for that.”

So quickly I didn’t immediately realize what he was doing, my arms were tied behind my back. I twisted one way and then the other, but his bonds were sound and I got nowhere.

“Go ahead. Fight. It just turns me on more.”

“Bastard.” I kicked a leg back toward him and hit nothing but air.

His chuckle sent shivers down my spine. “Call me all the names you want—we both know this will only end up one way.” He grabbed a fistful of hair and pulled my head back. “And that’s with me fucking the shit out of you.”

“Sounds messy.”

He pushed my head against the wall. “Enough. If you say anything other than red, you’ll regret it. Understand? Nod if you do.”

I nodded. For some reason his cool reminder of my safe word seemed even scarier than if he’d said nothing about it.

He pushed a knee into my lower back and tied a blindfold over my eyes. I told myself it was okay, it was only Nathaniel, but for some reason my body still trembled.

“We’re going to walk into the living room nice and quietly. And if you know what’s good for you, you won’t fight me.”

We walked the short distance to the living room. He led me while keeping hold on my tied hands. I decided to act like I was playing along and when we came to a stop, I’d make a break for it. Just to see what he’d do.

I hid a smile. Nathaniel thought he had the upper hand and while I appreciated his willingness to act out my capture fantasy, I was beginning to relax with the thought that this was only a well-planned role play.

We stopped in what I guessed to be the middle of the room, near the couch. I tried to anticipate his next move, tried to decide the best time to make my break—when I heard a sound from the far side of the room that made my blood run cold and turned my feet into stone.

A cough.

Chapter Ten

“Gentlemen,” Nathaniel said in a frightfully calm voice. “Our entertainment for the afternoon has arrived.”

Faint applause came from the same direction as the cough. More than one person. Two maybe, but no more than three. Unfortunately, my surprise cost me. During my hesitation, he untied my arms and rebound them, spread above my head.

I pulled on the restraints and tried to guess what I was tied to. I couldn’t remember anything in the room that could bind me in my current position. My heart started racing again. We’d played in front of people before, but nothing even close to this. Even yesterday with Jeff hadn’t been like this.