Page 57 of The Alpha Experiment
“Fair enough,” she said. “Ropes aren’t great for alphas, anyway. They just break them, unless you really know what you’re doing. How about cuffs? These are made out of specially treated leather, so they’re extra sturdy. And we also have these underbed strap systems, made for beds that don’t have a real frame. But!” She set down the package she’d been holding, and waved at the section across the aisle, a row of glass cabinets full of shimmering chains and gleaming leather…things. “I’m not sure what your price range is, but we do have a line of magic-enhanced toys designed for supernaturals. And those would be your best bet, if you’d like to do it right.”
I’d have expected a saleswoman to take me straight to the best—and most expensive—stuff, trying to get me interested right away.
But she clearly knew a lot more about sales than I did, because in contrast to the cheaper, human-oriented products she’d just shown me…yeah, these were better.Waybetter.
One particular item caught my eye, and I gravitated to the cabinets, unable to stay away. It looked a lot like the cuffs she’d shown me, except that it had mirror-polished dark-brown leather straps instead of chains, and the cuffs had been hand-tooled with—yep, some kind of sigils.
“These,” I breathed. “What about these?”
“Ahh,” she said, sounding extremely satisfied. I hid a wince. Her satisfaction was almost certainly proportional to the price tag. “Those. Yeah, those are amazing. Shaman-crafted, totally unique. Everything he makes is a one-off.” My mental estimate of what they cost ratcheted up another decimal place, but I still couldn’t stop looking at them. I could picture those cuffs around Colin’s muscular arms way too easily, all that power restrained for me to savor, and my cock gave a little stir.
Wait. Wait, oh hell no. No no no. The clerk kept talking, saying something about how the straps would attach to anything with a verbal command, making them perfect for my bed frame problem, and how they had a built-in magical safety feature that would cause them to automatically detach if the wearer pulled on them in a specific, preset rhythm, so they couldn’t be used to restrain someone against their will, even if the wearer couldn’t speak.
It washed over me.
Because I’d set out for the adult store with a simple plan: pick up something I could use to tie Colin up, putting us on a more even physical footing, and then set up an experiment where I took a more dominant role, hoping to stimulate latent alpha genes.
Very scientific.
Very logical.
My body’s reaction to imagining Colin wearing these was perhaps scientific, if you were a reproductive biologist, but far from logical.
“Do you want to try them on?”
I jumped and refocused on the clerk, who’d opened the cabinet and taken the cuffs down, holding them out in front of me.
“What?” I probably looked insane, all wild-eyed and flushed. Then again, that likely didn’t set me apart much from the average customer in this place.
Her reassuring smile and total lack of fazed-ness confirmed it. “Do you want to try them?” she repeated. “To make sure they’ll be comfortable for him.” She winked at me. “And you never know, you might end up wearing them at some point.”
My cock went from interested to so hard it freakinghurt, and all the blood not currently in use turning my face crimson rushed south, making me lightheaded.
Colin didn’t need magical straps to hold me down, and he could pin my wrists just as easily without those snug, elegant cuffs keeping me spread out and at his mercy…my mouth went dry, and I blinked down at the straps like the clerk held a venomous snake.
One I wanted to bite me, even though it’d kill me.
Metaphors weren’t my strong suit, but I knew trouble with a capital T when I saw it. And felt it getting erect in my jeans.
My mouth moved without my conscious input. “I’ll try them on.”
I put out my arm, and she wrapped one of the cuffs around my wrist, where it slithered itself into the perfect tightness, snug but not painful, the leather lined with something so soft it almost felt frictionless. I nearly came on the spot.
Colin, pounding into me as I lay there helpless with my arms spread wide, like a sacrificial offering. Colin, with his hands stretched over his head as I knelt between his legs and sucked his cock, his eyes glowing and his fangs extending as he watched me…
“Take it off,” I pleaded, because if she didn’t, I was going to have a breakdown right there. “Please, take it off, thank you, it’s super comfortable but—”
“You got it,” she said, and she had the cuff off in half a second. I rubbed at my wrist, trying to get my breath. “You okay?” she asked, her brows drawn together in worry. “If this isn’t something you want to do, any decent partner won’t push it. You know that, right?”
“It’s not that, seriously, nothing like that.” I couldn’t let her think anything like that about Colin, even if she didn’t know him. “It’s just—it’s complicated. He’s my best friend.”
I didn’t think I’d given anything approaching an explanation, but her expression cleared instantly. “Ohhh,” she said. “I gotcha.” She patted me on the arm. “It’ll work out.”
I was starting to wonder about that, but she seemed to know something I didn’t, so maybe she was right. Whatdidshe know that I didn’t? Whatever. I didn’t have the bandwidth to have a therapy session with the adult store sales lady—and I didn’t hate her enough to try, anyway.
“I’ll take them,” I said. “Unless they’re more expensive than my car, anyway.”
“Definitely less than your car. And I’ll give you the tying-up-your-best-friend discount. Sunday-night special.” She winked again, and I followed her to the cash register, mentally tallying how many meals I’d need to miss to cover the credit card bill.
