A Slave to Love, Broken Hearts, and Everything In Between

Chapter 18: Tough Love

Kiana POV

"Blade?" I asked, trailing my eyes over his profile, his sculpted chest, the firmness of his grip on his book. The way his long fingers spread across the hardcover to hold it with one hand, thumb pressed to the center fold of his book to keep it spread open.

I'd woken up to find him reading next to me, already awake but not disturbing me to let me sleep. It had been a long week of midterms and I was burnt out, having crawled into Blade's bed at like nine o'clock last night to pass out before he even made it back from the bathroom.

While he read, I'd taken advantage of the blissful opportunity to lie here quietly in his cozy bed and not have to rush to start my day or bury my head in a book, which meant my mind had wandered away to the other things I'd been neglecting in favor of studying this week.

In particular, Blade himself.

"Hmm?" His eyes didn't stray from his book where he was slouched in bed next to me, too immersed to fully return to reality.

"What's the kinkiest thing you've ever done?"

Silence, then a sputtered laugh as he lowered his book to his lap. "Why in the goddamn world do you want to know?"

"I'm just curious," I said defensively, pulling the blanket up to my chin.

"Uh-huh."

"I'm just wondering. I mean, if there are things you'd like to do that I don't know about seeing as there's kind of a gap in our experience and knowledge levels and all--"

"What an overly complicated roundabout way of telling me you want to try something new," he said, tossing his book down the bed and sliding closer to me. "Just tell me, sweetheart. I'm not about to judge you and if you ask there's a very good chance I'll say yes."

I squinted at him. "How good?"

"I'd say about 99.9%."

"And you don't even know what I'm thinking."

"Sweetheart, I think we can both agree it would take a lot to shock me. Odds are, I've already done it and I'm pretty fucking happy to do whatever you want."

Hmm. Was there a tactful way to say 'would you tie me up'?

"Hey," he said, softening as he tucked my hair behind my ear. "You can tell me anything."

"I know. It just sounds silly to say out loud," I admitted, burying a bit deeper into the blankets and pillows.

"You say dirty things to me all the time. No reason why this would be any different."

"Would you...is it weird if I wanted..." yeah, there was no graceful way to say it, might as well cut to the chase. "Handcuffs?"

His eyebrows rose, but he looked pleasantly surprised and not at all amused or weirded out.

"No, it's not weird," he said, brushing his thumb over my cheek. "Do you want to be the one cuffed or is this a nice way of telling me you want to tie me up when I'm being fucking annoying?"

"Depends the day," I said, half joking as the flutter of nerves in my chest softened. "I do like it when you pin me down, so I figured that maybe this might be something worth trying? I don't know. We don't have to."

"We can do that. We can do whatever you like. Either scenario you like even."

"You're okay with that?"

He nodded. "I'd have to track down something stronger to hold me though, it probably wouldn't be very fair if I broke the human cuffs on accident after all."

"You think you'd break them?"

That was an interesting little scenario I hadn't thought of before, so clearly I hadn't given the topic nearly enough attention. Guaranteed, my imagination was gonna take that tidbit of information and run with it later.

Why had I taken so long to bring this up again?