“Maybe I can help,” he offered, dipping his fingers lower to skim her breasts. Her skin was soft and flushed from the bath, her nipples delightfully puffy. If he had anything to say about it, they wouldn’t stay that way long. “I’m a pretty good planner.”

“You can’t plan your own surprise,” she said, her breath catching as he gently pinched a nipple. “Besides, I don’t know if you’ll like it.”

“I’ll love it,” he promised. “As long as we don’t have to go anywhere tonight.”

“No, it’s a home surprise.”

“Good.” He shifted to leaned down and put his lips on her shoulder. “Because I missed you, and I’m planning to make up for lost time.”

“You can’t,” she told him, and to his amusement, nudged him back.

“I’m sorry, I must have misheard you,” he said, hiding his enjoyment under a layer of chilly politeness. “It sounded like you said, ‘you can’t’.”

Panic made her eyes widen. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Good, because that would be against the rules, wouldn’t it? Unless I’m hearing a safeword?”

He waited a moment, and she bit her lip, her eyes wide and her pulse pounding in her neck. When she didn’t say anything, he nodded. “That’s what I thought. Stand up.”

Slowly she rose to her feet, water sluicing down her body, little patches of bubbles clinging to her skin. He took his time looking her over, from head to toe and back, and smiled when she trembled.

He rose from his perch and grabbed the bath towel waiting on the counter. “Come here.”

She stepped out of the tub and stood quietly as he dried her off. He rubbed briskly, and when he tossed the towel aside, her skin was glowing a rosy pink. He grabbed the back of her neck in a hard grip and dragged her out of the bathroom. She stumbled beside him but he didn’t slow down, and when they reached the bed, he shoved her onto it. “Get on your back.”

She scrambled to obey, her hair falling out of its loose topknot to spill into her eyes, and she shoved it aside to watch him warily. He started to strip, his movements deliberate and violent, his gaze locked on her face. “Hold on to the headboard and spread your legs.”

He dropped his shirt to the floor as she obeyed, holding the headboard so hard her knuckles went white. But her legs didn’t part fast enough for his liking, and he brought his palm down without mercy on the tender skin of her thigh.

“I said spread your fucking legs,” he said, and smacked her again.

Breathing hard now, she obeyed, pushing her feet out to the corners of the bed. She could spread them wider, but that would do for now.