I was looking at scenes, I knew. Sexual play that ran the gamut from simple to hard core. And I had no idea where Tyler intended us to fall on the scale. I wasn’t certain if I was terrified or excited, but I did know that Tyler wouldn’t push too far. On that point at least, I trusted him completely.

I started to ask Tyler what he had in mind for me, but decided to keep my mouth shut. He’d be expecting the question, after all.

A giant metal circle mounted on a dais stood against one of the walls. It was lit from above by a soft glowing light. There was a table near the circle that had a variety of thin leather strips. Otherwise, there was nothing.

“I liked watching you dance tonight.” Tyler spoke softly as he took my hand and led me up the dais to the circle. “I liked watching you enjoy it.” He took my hand and put it on the circle’s rim.

“Tyler.” His name was a protest. Yes, I’d walked naked to this room. But now, to be standing so boldly …

“It’s okay,” he said, then brushed a kiss over my lips. “Do this, Sloane,” he said, and I knew that my choice was simple—stay with him or break our arrangement and go.

I stayed. I wanted our deal—wanted him. And I would do a lot more than stand naked in a circle of light if that’s what it took to stay in Tyler’s bed.

”Good girl,” he said. He took my opposite hand and put it on the circle as well, so that my body formed a Y within the circle. “I even liked the other men watching you, wanting you. Do you know why I liked that?”

I shook my head.

“Because I like owning what other people covet. And those men tonight, they coveted you.” He tapped my legs, indicating that he wanted me to spread them.

I licked my lips and sucked in a breath for courage, but I complied.

“But what I didn’t like was that those men at the club didn’t know you were mine. Here, anyone who walks by knows.”

The circle was bathed in light, and beyond it, I could see only shadows. But there were people in those shadows, I knew, and I imagined them coming over, looking at me, wanting me. I turned my head away, not because I was ashamed to be up there, but because I was aroused. Despite his words, despite being on display, all I wanted right then was to lose myself in Tyler’s touch.

Despite? I scoffed at myself. You’re turned on because of it. Because of Tyler. Because of who he is and where he takes you.

And it was true. So help me, it was true. I’d been aroused from the moment I met him.

“Here, I can touch you.” Tyler moved behind me, his voice smooth and seductive. “I can stroke you. I can fuck you. I can claim you completely. Do you want me to?”

“Yes,” I whispered.

“So do I. But not now. Not here.”

I twisted my head, trying futilely to see him.

“I’m going to make you come, Sloane,” he said. “I’m going to get hard watching you. Watching your nipples tighten. Watching your cunt grow slick and wet. I’m going to watch you lose yourself to pleasure, sweetheart, and I’m going to know that I’m the one who pushed you over the edge.”

“Yes,” I pleaded, as I closed my eyes. “Touch me. Please touch me.”

“I am,” he said, though it was only his voice that caressed me. “Can you feel my lips on your ear, trailing down your neck? Can you imagine my mouth closing over your breast? Can you feel me teasing your nipple with my teeth?”

My nipples tightened as I imagined him touching me, sucking me.

“You can,” he said, still behind me, his breath the only thing that was actually touching me. “I can see how much it’s turning you on.”

“I’m caressing your belly now, my hands sliding down your abdomen, my lips and tongue tasting you as your skin quivers with each touch.”

I shuddered, tightening my hands on the metal circle out of fear that I would take them off and touch myself in desperation. I felt everything he described, as if his words were a caress sending trails of fire down my body.

“I’m moving lower now, using my hands and lips to brush ever so softly over your hip, your thigh. I can see how wet you are. How open. I press my mouth to your sex and blow, just slightly, so that my breath teases your sex, cools your heat. Do you feel it?”

I nodded.

“I know you do—I can see it. The way your lips are parted. The way your pulse is beating more quickly. There’s a flush on your skin—you’re aroused, your body tight, your cunt aching with desire, your skin begging for my touch.”

“Yes, god, yes.”

“I’m touching you now,” he said. “My fingers sliding over you, feeling how slick you are. I’m teasing your clit—stroking and teasing you, then sliding my fingers deep inside you. Can you feel me, baby? Can you feel me inside you, your body tight around me as if you don’t want to let me go?”

I made a sound. That was the best that I could do.

“You’re so close now. It’s building, growing in you. Pleasure, need, like steam under pressure you’re so close to exploding, and I’m right there, touching you, relentless, taking you closer and closer.”

“Yes,” I said, my body on fire, like a mirror of his words, I was there, I was closer, I could feel every word, every syllable, every whisper of sound as sweetly as if his hands were on me.

“I can see it, Sloane. I can see how close you are. I’m hard, baby, so damn hard, and it’s all because of you. They’re here, too. Watching you. Watching us. Wanting you, but you’re mine, Sloane. You’re all mine.”

“Yours,” I whispered. I tried not to think about the eyes in the dark, afraid that if I did the embarrassment would push aside this feeling, this rising, spiraling pleasure. But I couldn’t keep them out—couldn’t block the thought that I was his, and that they knew it and watched and wanted.

And thinking that, another tremor ran through me. An undulating wave, like a new layer of pleasure.

“That’s right, baby,” he said, knowing me as intimately as I knew myself. “They’re out there, Sloane, in the shadows. They see the way your body flushes, the way your nipples go dark and tight. They can see how wet you are, how much you want this, how close you are. They look at you and see beauty, Sloane. And you like that they are looking. Like that they want you, but can’t have you. Like that you’re safe here with me, teasing them even while you know that I’m the only one who can have you.”

“Yes. Yes,” I said, because it was true. I’d never known it before, but it was so damn true.

“You’re already wet, you’re already trembling. You’re so close now, baby. Imagine me kneeling in front of you. Can you feel my tongue on your clit? My finger teasing your ass. Your body is clenching, desperate for me, wanting me, and I’m sucking and licking, lapping up the sweet taste of you as it builds inside you. As you go up and up, tighter and tighter.”

I moaned in time with his words, because I did imagine it, and he was bringing me closer. I was lost, battered, and as I opened my eyes—as I saw him looking at me, his face bathed in light and longing—I lost my hold on reality, and went spiraling out, over the shadows in the distance, out of the warehouse, and out into the night until finally, sweetly, drifting back to earth and into the arms of this man who’d touched me so deeply without even touching me.

“You’re amazing,” he said as he held me on the dais, stroking my skin, pressing light kisses to my temple, my hair.

The others were gone; there were no more shadows past the light, and I curled into him, feeling almost as if the whole thing was a dream. But it wasn’t. It was real. Tyler was real. And what I felt was very, very real.

“How did you know? How did you know I would like it that much?”

“I look at you,” he said. “Somehow, I can’t seem to look away. And I see you.”

He helped me to my feet. “Time to go,” he said, and led me back toward the entrance and then out the door to the world.

“Look at you,” he said, once we were back in the car. “Fire and beauty, and mine to control.”