“Want me to kiss your boo-boo and make it better?”
With an exaggerated frown, Paige eyed Edward as he knelt in front of her to inspect her banged up knee. “I don’t know,” she pouted. “It hurts, and it’s all your fault.”
The corners of his eyes crinkled from the effort of suppressed laughter as he gave her a lopsided grin. “My fault, hmm?” he answered. “So … what? I’m a bad boy for making you fall?”
Paige squirmed. The gash hurt and his word games weren’t making it any better. Pushing his hands away, she whined petulantly. “Maybe.”
His eyes, gleaming with amusement, bored into hers. “Would it make you feel better to give me a good spanking? For being bad.”
A spanking. Well, come on! How could she resist the challenge of his taunt?
“Oh, right!” she hooted. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? On your hands and knees, bare-assed …” The minute she’d said it, Paige knew she’d played right into his hands. The knowing smirk on his face said it all.
“Is that how it works, then?” he mocked with a straight face. “Not exactly a ‘been there-done that’ scenario for me, but I sure am happy to learn you’ve already done the research.”
Done the research. Oooooh, that man! Coming back with a zinger was critical if she wanted to keep him on his toes. Snorting with amusement, Paige scrunched her face. “Hardly my idea of a good time. Now, if there were a tied to the bed and blindfolded option, we’d be on the same page.”
Edward’s head jerked slightly. Ha! She’d shocked him. Good. Sometimes he needed a reminder of who he was dealing with.
“Who’s tied? You or me?”
This time, it was her head snapping to attention. How the hell did he turn the table on her with such ease?
“Whaa-aat?” Her attempt at a dirty look failed when she saw his eyes narrow right before they went on an obvious balls-out inspection of her entire body. When his gaze finally returned to her face, an unmistakable glint in those spectacular blue eyes made her tummy do some impressive somersaults.
As if having the big man on his knees at her feet wasn’t disconcerting enough, he reached for her wrists and turned her hands over, so the palms faced up, lightly stroking his thumbs over her pulse. His gentleness was so electrifying that there was no way for her to stop the delicious shiver that his touch set off.
“You have such delicate wrists,” he murmured as he studied them.
What happened to all the oxygen in the room? Her mouth gaped open as she struggled to breathe, in short, little pants that did nothing to alleviate the swimming sensation overtaking her senses.
“Something soft, I think,” he murmured. “Japanese silk perhaps. Definitely red.”
Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. How did a bruised knee lead to silk rope? Paige swallowed with her eyes wide. She fell into his gaze and tried not to whimper.
“I know many types of knots,” he assured her with a deepening growl. “Army stuff mostly, but I did pick up a few bondage tips doing movie research.”
Yeah. She remembered. The movie he referred to was how she’d been blessed with the firsthand visual of a cock-socked Gideon Shaw in as near to all his naked glory as an R-rated film allowed.
“Um,” she croaked. “How does tying my wrists make up for my knee getting hurt?”
He leered at her and nodded. “Easy, babe.”
Keeping a firm grip on her wrists, he lifted her arms and pressed them into the back of the sofa in a silent demand to play along. With her mimicking being tied to an imaginary bed, her hands out of the way and completely at his mercy, she stared at his face while excitement built inside.
“Best way to take away pain is to replace it with pleasure.”
“Oh.” Was that her voice? Geez. It sounded so … small.