Awareness of him hummed through me, pulsed like a living thing, throbbed with a combination of fear and desire. He was so off-limits it was unreal. I needed to interrogate him, not pleasure him. And yet all I wanted to do was test those limits. To push them. To push him.

I wanted to play. To explore. But that would require him wanting to do the same in return. For some reason, I didn’t want to give him that much control. Not now. Not over me.

Was there a way to keep him at arm’s length while I, for lack of a better phrase, had my way with him? Would he let me? Would he want me to? Or would he be repulsed by my advances? Judging from what I took to be his extreme interest, I thought not, but one never knew. Men were weird. Especially men made of tempered steel and fire and perpetual darkness. Or men with penises. Either way.

I let the ketchups practice cunnilingus virtually unsupervised as I devised a plan. He was simply too big, too powerful for me to overtake him. To tie him up. I doubted even sex would distract him that much. No, I needed to incorporate the restraints. Men loved that shit. Also, I just wanted to see him tied up.

I sat beside him and watched him work. He stiffened, paused his efforts to twist the round thing onto the other round thing.

“Can I ask you something?”

He slowly resumed his work. “I’d rather you ask me than Google.”

I snorted. “Please. You wouldn’t have told me half of what I learned on the Web, and you know it.”

He didn’t argue. “What did you want to ask?”

“First, you have to promise you’ll do it.”

He ducked under the cabinet doorframe and sat up, one hand resting on a knee. We were mere inches from each other. “I don’t trust you.”

His admission surprised me. I blinked up at him. Tried to figure out why he wouldn’t trust me, of all people. He was the powerful one, after all. “No offense, but what on earth could I ask of you that would be a great hardship?”

His gaze rested on my mouth before making its way to my eyes again. “You could ask for the world, and then where would civilization be when I conquered it and laid it at your feet?”

I stilled. He was dead serious, and I realized I’d greatly underestimated his power. He was a supernatural being, yes, but he was more than that. So very much more. I breathed in his emotion and realized he’d done it. He’d conquered a civilization. Possibly more than one. His confidence was not derived from conceit. He was not arrogant. Not in the least. He was… experienced.

That knowledge sent another shudder through me, but not of revulsion, as it should have. As it would have any normal person. It sent a shudder of awe rocketing through my veins, and my plan solidified right then and there.

I stared at him with a new determination, but I still needed a guarantee. “If I promise not to ask for the world, will you do as I ask then?”

It took him a moment, but he finally agreed with a curt nod of his head. Apparently he took his promises very seriously. I liked that.

Down to the wire. My nerves sprang to life, and I almost chickened out. Two things drove me forward. I was desperate for answers and, again, I really wanted to see him tied up.

I chewed on my lower lip a moment. He watched me.

Drawing in a deep breath for encouragement, I said, “I was wondering if, maybe, you know, if you weren’t doing anything at the moment and you liked me – as in liked me liked me – if you might consider letting me tie you up and have my way with you. For fifteen minutes.”

Gawd, I was good at this shit. I should’ve been a lawyer.

When he only stared, I looked away and tried to force the heat that crept up my neck and face back down. Humiliated was not my best look.

“But I understand if you don’t want to. It’s kind of sudden.”

I scrambled to my feet and was about one step from the threshold when an arm shot out to block my path. I didn’t even hear him move.

He stood at my back, his breath stirring the hair I’d stuffed behind my ear, which was probably as red as the rest of me.

“What happens after fifteen minutes?” he asked.

A surge of adrenaline laced up my spine. The soft fire that bathed his skin reached out to lick over mine. To caress. To punish just a little. I watched for a moment as it brushed over my exposed skin. The flames lapped like a thirsty animal, stretching as though to further its reach.

Reyes stood waiting for an answer. As always, I felt many things from him, but desire topped the list. It was like a white-hot pinpoint of blinding light in a sea of absolute blackness. And yet he didn’t make a move. He didn’t reach for me. He didn’t touch me.

Perhaps he didn’t want to scare me off. Whatever the reason, I was glad for it. I would only have refused his advances. Not that I didn’t want them. I wanted him as badly as he wanted me, butI didn’t quite trust him, any more than he trusted me. Not with all of me. Not with control over me. And I most definitely didn’t trust him with my heart.

But if we just played… Surely there was no harm in playing.

I turned to him but kept my head down, afraid that if I peered into the sparkling depths of his eyes, I’d be lost.

He had one hand braced on the doorframe. He braced the other on the counter at my side, locking me in. “What happens after fifteen minutes?” he asked again, his voice smooth and full of challenge. It tugged at something deep and primal. I fought my reaction to him. Tamped it down. Forced my bones to stay solid.

I craned my neck to look at him, but he didn’t accommodate me by moving back. He stood his ground, and I stood mine. “Nothing,” I said, both confident and drunk with anticipation. “You’ll be completely spent by then.”

The small, incredulous grin that lifted one corner of his full mouth sent every nerve in my body springing to life. He’d just presented me with a challenge I couldn’t refuse.

“I’m not pubescent, darlin’. I’m pretty sure I can last more than fifteen minutes.”

“And I’m not a giggling schoolgirl. I’m pretty sure you can’t.”

His features darkened with the challenge I threw back at him, anticipation like sparks of electricity in the air.

I nodded toward a chair in the corner past the prep counter. “That’ll work. But I have one more condition.”

Taking his time, he glanced at the chair over his shoulder, then turned back to me, one brow quirked in question.

“You can’t touch me.”

“For fifteen minutes.”

“Right. For fifteen minutes,” I said, praying the interrogation wouldn’t last more than five. After that, I could hightail it out of there. After a kiss, of course. I had to fuel the fantasy. It would probably only take him a few minutes to get free, and I had to be long gone by then. I could face his wrath tomorrow. While some might consider my plan cruel and unusual, he started it. He was holding back information as to my identity. I had a right to get that information by any means possible.

I grabbed the chair and pulled it to the center of the kitchen. If Dixie came in to check up on things, this could get really awkward. “Okay, sit down.”

He hesitated a few seconds before taking the seat I offered, his stiff movements evidence of his reluctance. “Is the clock ticking yet?”

“No. I’ll —” I glanced around and found a kitchen timer on the shelf over the grill. “I’ll set the timer.”