The idea intrigued her. More than that, she felt her body react, go damp. She’d looked up nipple clamps on an adult site several times and read about them and then been ashamed of herself for even thinking about such things. The idea that Savage had thought of it for her, even had his friend make jewelry for her, sent hot blood pooling wickedly low.
He slid his hand under her tank, first cupping her breast and then finding her nipple to pinch, at first gently, but then biting down with steady pressure as his other hand slid up her thigh, his fingers dancing close to her slick heat. She gasped, her nipple stinging, but before she could protest, his mouth was on her other breast, right through the material of her tank, and his fingers brushed her clit. She cried out, nearly exploding with a mini orgasm.
Her breathing turned ragged as he lifted his head and looked at her, his eyes turbulent, hot-burning flames of blue. His hands were once more back on her leg, but his expression was pure possession.
“I dreamt of your nipples, baby, and the things I could do with them to bring you pleasure. To bring us both pleasure. Things that would scare you at first, but I knew I could make you love in the end. Still, I didn’t want this life for you. I went to Absinthe hoping he would tell me I could learn to be someone else for you. I already knew that answer, because there’s no going back for me, Seychelle. If you’re with me, if you’re my woman, my partner, you have to live my lifestyle. That’s the bottom line. You’re with me, you live this lifestyle with me, because I can’t get out of it.”
She swallowed hard, because there was caution in his tone and caution in his mind, even if his eyes were alive with those bright, hot flames and his hand on her leg felt like pure possession. Her breasts ached for him. Her nipples were so hard now, pulsing with a dark desire she had no understanding of but he’d given her a sudden taste for.
Secretly, that forbidden need for a mixture of pain with pleasure had been there all along. She didn’t know why, and it scared her, embarrassed her, humiliated her. She didn’t understand why the nice men she had tried to date hadn’t aroused her at all. Only Savage. When he had turned her around in the alley, lifted the hem of her dress and swatted the cheeks of her bottom, he’d done it hard. That heat and pain had spread, morphing into something altogether different and setting up a craving for more.
“I didn’t think I had anything to give you back when I would be asking so much from you. But you need me just as much as I need you. You can’t control your gift of healing. It’s eating you alive. If you don’t stop, Seychelle, you’re not going to live long, and you know it. I can help you with that. While you were driving me insane deciding whether or not you could let me back into your life, I found a woman with a gift similar to yours and asked her how she manages it. She gave me a lot of tips.”
Seychelle was shocked. Savage was not the kind of man to go outside his circle for advice.
“You won’t always like me saying enough, but once we figure it out and we have our signals, you’ll be able to sing with the band and go where you want as long as you look to me when you know you’re in over your head. I’ll trust you to give me the heads-up when you need me to step in, and you trust me to do it. When I say you’re done, you are. That means, baby, I’m willing to carry your sweet little ass out of the bar, or away from one of your friends’ houses, right at that moment. That’s going to be the number one rule we have between us. Always, always when I say you’re done, you have to agree that you are. That is what’s going to keep you alive, and more than anything, Seychelle, you have to be alive and in this world.”
He was being serious. Very serious. She did her best to suppress a smile, but one slipped out before she could stop it. “Rules? Savage, I haven’t lived with rules ever. You do get that my parents were ill, and I ran the household? At eight, no one was telling me what to do. I took over paying the bills around the time I turned twelve. I got part-time jobs to help out with money until my father hit it big with his software program. I was thirteen when I started contributing. I don’t do rules very well.”
“Then you’re going to have a fuckin’ hard few months until you do, baby.” He was implacable. “I have to live with rules in order to keep sane. That means my woman does as well. You do have a choice whether or not you want to make that commitment to me, and it’s a big decision. This right here, the first rule, that’s to save your life. This is the easy one. It isn’t about controlling you, Seychelle, this is the one that gives you freedom.”