I stopped what I was doing to stare at him.

“I’d like to stay a few days, if you don’t mind,” he said as he approached and saw that my gaze was transfixed on the bag.

“Not at all,” I said, voice faux casual and went inside.

“There’s not much extra room in my closet,” I told him.  Which was a huge understatement.  Due to my lifelong love of shopping, the thing was stuffed.  “But there are other closets, and feel free to put whatever in my bathroom.  Just make yourself at home.”

I cringed inside.  Did I sound too needy?  I didn’t know.  I’d never done anything like this.  Sleepovers were out of my realm, one of the many quirks of marrying young and staying married for too damn long.

This relationship, for lack of a better word, was unprecedented for me.

He didn’t seem interested in unpacking.  The second we got into my bedroom, he tossed the duffle in the middle of the floor and started rummaging through it.

I saw why a few seconds later as he straightened, grinning at me, a pair of padded handcuffs hooked on one of his fingers.

Oh yeah.  That.

I’d almost forgotten about our little agreement.

“Undress,” he told me gruffly.

I did it leisurely, slipping the shoulders off my dress and dragging it sensuously down my body.

I stood straight when I was left in just my bra, panties, and stilettos.

“All of it.  Except the shoes.  Keep the shoes on.”

I smiled at him as I shimmied out of my lacy underthings.

“Get on the bed,” he enunciated slowly.

I took a deep breath and obeyed, climbing onto the bed in my platforms, doing it seductively, gazing at him over my shoulder to give him a sultry smile and take in his reaction, which made me feel as beautiful as I knew it would.

“On your back.  Arms above your head.”

I lay down on my back, throwing my arms up above my head, a willing lamb to the slaughter.  An eager one.

I’d never done kink, though I knew a lot about it, thanks to having made some very kinky friends in recent years.

I’d never done it, but I wasn’t against it.  I thought it was hot, in a vague, probably not my thing sort of way.

But right then, I was thinking, maybe it’s just my kind of thing.  Or at least, the part that Heath seemed interested in.

“Just handcuffs, right?” I asked to be sure.

Handcuffs I was pretty comfortable with.  The idea of him having me helpless the first few times we were together had been too much for me, but I felt like I knew him well enough now.  I mean, if he wanted to hurt me, if he was even capable of it, I’d have gotten some sense of it by now.

And I trusted him, in a way.  In a few important ways, actually.

“Yes.  Just handcuffs.  Now spread your legs,” he ordered.

I spread them wide, flexing and angling my body to its best advantage.

It seemed to do the trick.

He fell on me, shoving his tongue down my throat as he cuffed me to the bed.  He did it so fast, like he’d trained for it, and hell, maybe he had.

His big hands grasped at me, fondling my breasts, then twisting and pinching roughly at my nipples.

He reared back abruptly, grabbing my ass in both hands and pounding into me with a guttural moan.

He didn’t take me slow or gentle.

He took me like he had a point to prove, a point that could only be found by hammering so hard into me that he reached the other side.

It was heaven.

I screamed.  And came.  The most explosive orgasm of my life.

“Are you okay?” he asked a few beats later.

I couldn’t really blame him for asking.  I’d let out a racket for a good minute back there.

“Yes,” I panted back.

“Good,” he grunted and seemed to take it as permission for the next round.

He freed my hands, turning me onto my stomach while I was still catching my breath.  He forced me up onto my knees, and I felt him at my entrance again, his stiff, thick length pushing at me already, while I still twitched from the last invasion.

He fucked me again, jolting into me roughly from behind, both of us on all fours.

It was a long time later, when we were capable of getting out full sentences again, that he spoke.  “I do like spending time with you out of bed.  But for the record, if it’d been up to me, we’d never have left your bed today.”

“Oh.”  I paused.  The day had been nice, very nice, but . . . “I wouldn’t have minded that one bit.”  Vast understatement.

“I didn’t want to be an asshole, so I thought it was safest for you to decide how we spent the day.”

“Well, you were a good sport, so how about you pick what we do tomorrow?”

“Okay.  I have one errand I have to run sometime in the morning, but after that, you’re all mine.”

I swear I fell asleep still smiling.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The next morning did not turn out quite how I had expected.

Not even close, actually.  It was both better and worse.

I awoke to hearing noises in my house that I couldn’t figure out.  They just didn’t compute in my sleep-dazed mind.

I walked out of my bedroom, wearing nothing but a thin silk robe that hit at mid-thigh, to find Heath, shirtless and just in his boxers, in the kitchen, a cup of coffee in his hand, chatting with my oldest son, Raf.

I might have had a small heart attack.