Into the Fading Twilight (Starlight Grove, #2) (112)

Kol waited for a moment, checking to see if I would change my mind. When I didn’t, he gave me a single nod and turned, padding barefoot toward his closet.

There was something so damn sexy about him in low-slung jeans, a tee, and a flannel, the clothes he often opted for once we were home for the day. But I loved that the flannel still allowed me to see those broad shoulders bunch and strain as he reached for the cloth box.

I never would’ve thought that something as simple as that could make me shiver in anticipation. But it did.

Kol set the box on the bench at the foot of his bed with a soft thud. Logically, I knew the sound wasn’t loud, but to me, it resembled a cannon shot.

Calloused fingers lifted the lid and pulled out the rope. It was coiled perfectly, the end wrapped around the loop in several passes. It was then that I realized that Kol had carefully and methodically tucked the rope away after the night I’d tied him to the bed. Like there was a reverence to it.

Kol set the rope on the bench and crossed to me in two long strides. I wasn’t sure what I expected, but this wasn’t it. He gently lifted my hand, tapping the bracelets and hair tie on my wrist. “May I?”

Such a proper question from a man who was about to defile me in the best ways. “Yes.”

His gaze sparked and swirled as it tracked over me. Who would’ve thought such a simple word would be the thing that heated Kol’s blood?

He carefully removed the bracelets from one wrist and then the other. Crossing to the dresser, he set them down with the same reverence he’d treated the rope, but he kept one item in his hand.

Moving back to me, Kol’s hands lifted to my hair. He gathered up the now-shorter strands and coiled them like he had the rope. With the hair tie, he knotted it in place and stepped back.

“Still sure?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said, giving him that word again.

His thumb tracked across his lower lip. “Will you strip for me, Phoenix?”

My heart tripped and stuttered, but I didn’t give him words this time. I gave him actions. I kicked out of one slipper and then the other, my hands reaching for the hem of my sweatshirt and tee and beginning to pull them up.

“Slow.” There was a bite to the command, a deep need.

My hands answered the order, my fingers taking their time as my knuckles skimmed over my flesh. I could feel the raised skin of the two scars along my torso from wounds I didn’t remember getting, but I felt no hesitation in exposing them to Kol, no inhibition.

I lifted the clothes up and over, dropping them to the floor. And when my eyes found Kol again, his gaze was burning.

“No bra?” he rasped.

My nipples pebbled in response. “I was home for the night.”

His expression gentled on the word home. “I’ll have to remember that.”

My mouth curved as my fingers hooked in the waistband of my sweats and underwear.

“Eyes on me,” Kol commanded. “Don’t want to lose my silver.”

I bent, feeling the stretch, versions of which I’d practiced endlessly in my years of yoga. I didn’t lose Kol’s green-and-gold stare as my skin heated. As my sweats dropped, I kicked everything to the side.

Kol’s lips parted as he reached for the rope. “A goddamned vision in the moonlight.”

That glow from the crescent moon was stronger now that twilight was dipping into darkness. I could feel it on my skin, the darkness and the light.

Kol moved into my space, ghosting the end of the rope over my chest and down my stomach. “So beautiful. Looking at you makes it hard to breathe.”

My breath caught then, everything in me drawing tight.

“Will you kneel for me?”

Pure grit coated Kol’s question, but it also did something to me. The asking—not demanding. And it made giving myself over to him all the more powerful.

Wetness gathered between my thighs as I sank to the carpet, my breaths coming quicker. Not in panic but in anticipation. And the fact that he was fully dressed while I was completely naked only added to it all.

“Lean back on your heels. Arms behind you,” Kol instructed.

I did as he asked. My skin and muscles began to tingle because I so badly wanted whatever came next.

Kol moved in behind me, trailing the rope down my spine. “If anything is too tight, too painful, you say. Okay?”

“Yes,” I agreed instantly.

“This is art. Painting your beauty in different shades. In all the colors of release.”

My body instantly understood as Kol began wrapping the rope around my wrists, creating cuffs that he then tied together. With my hands bound, he ran the rope up, knotting it along my spine at different intervals. My brain soon followed. Release came from ceding control. And Kol and I gave that to each other—give and take in equal measure.

But now was my time to let go. To give Kol the reins. And in turn, he would let me know it was safe to do it.

The rope gliding against my skin made sparks dance beneath it. He moved with expert speed and grace, and soon, he was bringing the rope to the front of my body. He crisscrossed it into a figure eight knot that fastened just at my breastbone, a few inches below my throat.

Kol’s gaze locked with mine. “How do you feel?”

“Like I’m humming,” I whispered.

One corner of Kol’s mouth tugged up. “You’re fucking gorgeous.”