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Oh yeah, this doesn’t make you look like a jackass at all

“Sorry about this, darling,” Ingrid said as she used the scissors to snip the left shoulder strap of Ruby’s dress, which etting ready to go to sleep tonight so much easier”

Ruby gulped audibly but didn’t make a noise of complaint

Ingrid lifted the filigreed chain out of the box “This is a hand-binding chain,” she said as she encircled first Ruby’s left wrist and then his right wrist so the chain forht around their wrists Then she clipped the lock closed and added a layer of ax around it that cooled almost instantly “It’s an old but honored tradition on the island to test a young couple’s devotion to each other If you can’t spend twenty-four hours together before the wedding, then you may want to rethink your co clothing in the et dressed even when you’re bound to each other I’ll reht If you feel the need to have the binding undone before then, or if you break it yourself, then that will be a very bad oe”

Lucas stared down at the deceptively sturdy chain tying hiht about whether it was the best or worst thing to have happened today

Chapter Six

Ruby had thought going to the bathroom while Lucas had faced away from her and stood as far away as the chain wrapped around their wrists alloas as bad as it was going to get that night She rong Lying under the duvet in the darkened roo to be asleep next to him orse

Hours after they’d turned in, there was no relief fro to Lucas’s nearness The accidental brush of his le dancing up her arainst her knuckles The low ruht as his deep inhales dragged the thin sheet across her pebbled nipples She’d never been le part of her body than she was at thatshe could do about it

“Please stopthat noise,” Lucas said, his voice as smooth as warm honey

>Everything but her heart froze That particular organ went into overdrive as if someone had just jabbed her with a needle full of adrenaline “What noise?”

Lucas rolled so he faced her, their chained wrists lying on the bed between theh the bedroos about hi The sheet had slipped down to his waist, giving her a clear view of the dusting of hair over his hard pecs and the happy trail that narrowed before disappearing under the covers Her aze back up to his face For once, not every dark hair on his head fell into perfect alignment Instead, it was tousled and a shadow of scruff covered his noreh intensity to make her bite down hard on her bottom lip

His body tensed “That one, the one that sounds halfway between a sigh and a moan”

“You’re hearing things” She hadn’t made a noise She would have realized Okay, maybe she made a little huff sound, but only that last time And it had been quiet, barely a whisper really “I didn’t make any noises”

He raised an inky eyebrow and s his head up in his hand The new position let hiave her set a ave of desire rushing across her already primed body

“Liar”