“Yes, Daddy.”

“That’s right. Daddy decides.”

My cock grew rock hard with his words, and I squirmed. Luke grabbed one wrist, tugging it toward the bed’s poster and tied it with a soft, black rope. He took hold of my opposite ankle and pulled my body taut. I let out a soft squeak; the healing bruise on my torso ached when pulled like that.

“Your safe word is poodle,” Luke said. He moved to tie my other wrist to the bed post, and then crossed to my opposite ankle to tie me there too. I was immobile.

Luke sat on the mattress near my chest, and pushed my hair off my face, trailed his hot fingers over my cheek, and then brought out a blindfold from his box of tricks.

I licked my lips as he secured it so I couldn’t shake it free.

“Nice,” he praised. “You look so pretty.”

I frowned again. That wasn’t what I wanted to hear during a scene. I wanted rough treatment and name-calling.

“You hate that, don’t you?” Luke said gleefully.

Oh, God. I suddenly knew exactly what he meant by torture and what he planned to do.

“No, don’t.” I tensed all over. “I won’t like it. Please.”

“Your safe word is always there for you.”

Fuck him. I’d wanted to go to the basement and get hurt. I didn’t want this, but I mashed my lips together to keep from saying the word. Part of me wanted to peace-out of this right now, but another part wanted to see it through. Could IletLuke love me?

I turned my head away from him in protest, but otherwise stayed silent. If I weren’t blindfolded, I knew I’d be staring at a blank wall by the window.

“Good boy.”

I huffed.

“Mitchell, prepare to be tortured.” He laughed at my sharp inhale. “Now.”

As the minutes raced by, I was praised more than I’d ever been praised in my entire life, and I hated it. Each word out of Daddy’s mouth felt like a lie, like a papercut on my heart. I wanted him to slap me, to choke me, to bite the skin of my scrotum, tohurtme, goddammit. Ineededit.

But he didn’t do any of that.

He kissed every inch of my skin; he told me I was beautiful, smart, strong, powerful, sexy, and so many other compliments I thought I might barf. He took my dick into his throat and lovingly brought me so close to orgasm I had tears running down my face. When he’d moved away at the last moment, shutting down the ecstasy that would wash away all this agony, I screamed in rage.

He licked my nipples and pinched them gently with warm fingers, and then nursed them with a thoroughness that felt like worship. He sucked my toes and my balls, he kissed the shell of my ear and sucked the lobe until I was hyperventilating, angry that it felt so good, scared that I liked it, hating it, loving it,hatingthat I loved it.

Right now,Iwas Kyle.

I wanted to punch Luke, kick him, spit in his face, but I was tied. When I tried to spit, Daddy just dodged it or wiped it from where it landed—sometimes on me, sometimes on him—and then noisily licked it from his fingers. All the while telling me my saliva was delicious and sweet, his favorite spit in the world, and praising me for my brattiness, my “beautiful” struggles, and whatever else he could say that would hurt me. He knew just where to aim those love arrows.

Eventually, my tight anger turned hot. I tried to bite him when he kissed me, but he managed to get away with only a small nip. I cursed him out, I told him I hated him, I spit out anything cruel that came to mind.

But never poodle.

He couldn’t rim me in my current position, but he lubed his fingers and slipped two into me, moving so gently and delicately that I screamed—long and loud—raging as he fingered my prostate like it was something fragile.

“I swear to God, I’ll make you sorry,” I muttered. “You’ll pay for this.”

He chuckled. “Mm, sure I will.”

I thought of what I might do. I thought of what I could say that would make him stop—not poodle, but something that would make him want to quit on his own. Makehimsafe word.

The answer came to me. I opened my mouth to say the words, but he’d gone back to sucking me off, and I wondered if this time he might let me come. I breathed in and out as me ramped me up again, my hips lifting as I struggled to reach the bliss that would make this torture pay off.