“Pretend they can’t see you, beautiful girl.” Ray reaches around and pinches my nipples. “We’ll practice for tomorrow.”

“I’ll be wearing clothes.”

Ray chuckles. “Not in my mind. When I think of you, I always think of you naked.”

“Nice. I’m glad this relationship is only about sex.”

He laughs again. “Nothing wrong with sex. And since I have yet to take you out on a real date, taste your cooking, listen to your music, watch your movies, or read your books, I’ll take what I can get.”

“Well, then I just may be persuaded to put out tonight.”

Ray slips one hand between my legs and strokes his finger along my wet folds. “I don’t think it will take much persuading. My girl likes to be watched.”

“Shhhh.” I look back over my shoulder and press a finger to his lips. “I’m pretending they can’t see.”

He kicks my legs apart and presses his lips to my ear, his breath hot and moist against my skin. “But they can see. They see my hand stroking your pussy. They see your breasts swollen and your nipples peaked with arousal. They see your skin flushed, and your lips pink and plump and waiting to be kissed.”

“What else do they see?”

“They see the present I’m going to give you.” He pulls away, leaving me bereft, but returns moments later with a small silver box.

“I got these for you, to replace what you gave up.” He opens the box and pulls out a pair of nipple clamps with tiny glass beads dangling from the fine filigree silverwork.

I let out a whimper of fear and Ray laughs. “Lookit those wide eyes going all green on me. Yeah, they’ll hurt, but they’ll feel good too.” He gently turns me to face the window and then pulls me into the safety of his chest. “Let them see you, Sia. Show them how much you like your present.”

Gritting my teeth, I look out over the city. Few lights shine through the windows at this late hour, and surely no one can see us. And even if they could, would anyone know me, naked, aroused, and in the arms of the man I love?

Ray rolls my right nipple between his thumb and forefinger, then reaches around me with both hands and carefully slides the clamp around the tip before tightening the rubber ring.

“Aaaaah.” I shriek and step back into his chest, but he drops his arm to my waist and holds me tight. “The more you move, the more it will pinch. Now be a good girl and stay still.” He repeats the process with my other nipple, rolling it first, then affixing the clamp carefully just below where the piercing was. I give a small murmur of appreciation that he has remembered it is still tender, and then I gasp as a zing of pleasure pain shoots straight to my clit.

“Look at yourself,” Ray whispers in my ear as he points to the window. “So beautiful, I want everyone to see you. So precious, I will never let you go.”

Trying to ignore the throb in my nipples, I change my focus and catch a glimpse of myself in the window, my soft, curvy body against the hard planes of Ray’s chest, my skin pale against his darkness—and the twinkle of silverwork dangling from my nipples, brighter than the stars.

“I’m gonna fuck you against this window.” His voice drops to a husky growl. “And you’re gonna think about everyone watching. And it’s gonna make you hot. And it’s gonna make you wet. And when you come, you’re gonna scream so loud, everyone will hear you.”

“Soon?” I wiggle my ass against him. “I need to come so badly, I ache.”

“I know.” He strokes his thumb over my cheek. “And I know it hurts. But you’ll have to wait. You aren’t ready yet.”

A whine escapes my lips. “I’m so wet, it’s dripping down my thighs.”

“And it’s a beautiful sight.” He twines his hand through my hair and pulls my head back, then leans down and takes possession of my mouth. Hard, demanding, his kiss melts my body and my knees tremble. He tightens his fist, and his tongue plunges deep as he tugs gently on the right clamp with his free hand. With every tug, a bolt of lightning shoots straight to my core and my vision blurs.

Ray releases my hair and slides one hand over my throat, resting a finger in the hollow of the base as he continues to play with the clamps with his other hand. My breath catches as he increases the pressure ever so slightly.

“Easy, beautiful girl. It’s a lot to take. I’ll go slow.”

His erotic words spark a slow burn between my legs that spreads through my body like wildfire. I rock my hips, but all he does is turn his attention downward, cupping his hand over my sex and stroking along my folds, avoiding the one place I so desperately want to be stroked.

“You are mine, Sia. Mine to play with. Mine to love.”

“Yours.” Arousal rushes through me. The feeling of his hand on my neck, possessive and controlling, and yet safe and protecting, sweeps away the last vestiges of my anxiety about our show in the window and my body softens against him.

“That’s right,” he says. “Give it all to me.”

“Make me come.”

Ray laughs. “As you command, but I’m gonna take the clamps off first, and I won’t lie, it will hurt more than when they went on.”

He takes one off.

He does not lie.

I gasp as blood rushes to my breast. Ray leans down and draws my burning nipple into his mouth, soothing it with gentle licks of his tongue until I’m panting with need. Reaching down, I cup the steel of his erection in my palm, stroking him through his pajama pants, hopefully into a painful, desperate need to come. Like me.