Hers To Cherish (Verdantia Book 3) by Patricia A. Knight Page B

held familiar warmth. His pants sported a recognizable bulge. Steffania melted under his visible desire. Already, the constriction of the ropes around her body blew the ashes off the banked coals of her arousal. The swollen flesh between her legs slickened and the dull ache of desire dragged at her genitals with heavy weight.
    “Thank you.”
    Ram studied her thoughtfully. “I have bound you twice. Different experiences. Tell me about them – and Steffania – don’t imagine for a moment you can lie to me.”
    Steffania took a deep breath. Baring her carefully hidden needs to this man shook her to her core. “The first night, when you bound me so tightly I could not move my upper body.” Steffania dropped her gaze and looked away. “That just does it for me. I don’t have a choice. The control is out of my hands. I can surrender to the restraints and let go.”
    “ And two nights ago?”
    “Was pure hell,” she answered promptly and looked down at his feet. “I was certain it was merely a matter of time before I disobeyed you and then...and then . . .”
    “And then?” he prompted.
    “You would send me home.” She closed her eyes. “I would have disappointed myself and you.”
    “But you didn’t disappoint either of us, did you?”
    She glanced at him. A slight smile quirked one side of his face. She cocked her head as a startling thought occurred to her. Ram had not allowed it to come to that. “No.”
    “Is it important to you to please me?”
    Steffania shrugged one shoulder. “I suppose.”
    “No lies, Steffania.”
    Her shoulders drooped. The bastard would make her say it. Her voice came out a whisper. “It is important to me to succeed.”
    Ram pursed his lips in thought and then walked to the bed and picked up a tiny vial of indigo blue fluid and a small brush. He walked behind her and a cold touch of liquid formed a triangle on her tailbone. A diamond followed, filling the gap in the rope at her waist. He walked to her front and painted a more elongated diamond where the rope split around her navel. “I’ve tried this on myself, but I’m told everyone reacts differently. I’ll stop here until we see how it affects you.”
    As Ram spoke, the triangles flushed with warmth and a gradually intensifying tickle traced random patterns underneath her skin. The titillation was endurable, but Steffania blessed the fact Ram had not picked more intimate spots.
    “Tell me what you feel.”
    “Strong tickles that move randomly.”
    “Good,” Ram said. “They are nano-bots. The suspension they are in confines them to the area painted by the brush stroke.”
    “What do they do?”
    Ram laughed. “Other than tickle like hell? Nothing. They are one of the many exotic toys I bought at the ship’s store.”
    “Do they ever run down?” Steffania couldn’t prevent a shimmy of alarm.
    “No. The bots run on the body’s electrical energy. You produce minute pulses of synaptic energy to move your muscles, to think, to breathe. These little bots sip from that energy. I have a neutralization fluid that interferes with their absorption of it – the amber vial on the table. That is the only way to stop them.”
    Steffania could only pray Ram was not going to paint other portions of her with the bots.
    She should have prayed harder. “Spread your feet wider. Now that we know how you react, let’s make this a little more of a challenge for you.”
    Ram painted more indigo fluid on the inside and outside of her swollen labia, beginning at her pubic bone and ending at her tailbone. She thanked all the gods she could name that he had carefully avoided her clit. The tickling around her anus alone was almost more than she could endure.
    “There.” Ram walked to a low table and set the small vial next to its companion. “You will be silent. You will keep your hands on your thighs. You will keep your feet a minimum of three feet apart. I require you to hold that position until I release you.” He picked up a