Читать книгу Screaming Yellow - Rachel Green - Страница 12

Chapter 7

Nicole yelped as the hemp rope bit into her thigh. “I’m sorry, Sir.” She spoke through the two strands running vertically across her lips. “I don’t think I’ll be able to take this for long.”

“As you wish.” Robert relaxed the cord, allowing her to lower her foot to the floor again. “Good girl for telling me before I went any further with this form of binding.” He felt her hands. “Are your fingers all right? They feel a little chilly.”

“Fine, Sir, thank you.” Nicole shifted her weight to the other foot.

“How about this?” Robert used a length of silk rope wrapped several times around her thigh as padding against the bite of the hemp.

Nicole danced on one foot as her leg was hoisted in the air again. “Much…better, Sir.”

Robert laughed. “Relax. You’re not going to fall. Most of your weight is supported by the karada I’ve worked around your torso. Lean back.”

“I can’t.”

“Trust me.” Robert forcibly bent her supporting leg until her weight was suspended by the network of hemp and jute attached to the hook in the ceiling. He plucked at each of the ropes, refining and adjusting the web until each one supported her equally.

“Ooh,” she said. “I don’t think I can take this for very long, Sir. The ones around my waist are too tight.”

“Relax.” Robert stroked her hair. “How long can you manage, do you think? Ten minutes? Five? Do you need to call yellow immediately or do I have time to tie off the other leg and take a few shots?”

“Five, perhaps.” Nicole grunted as a lark’s hitch was tossed over her free ankle and attached to the hook. Her angle tilted nearer to the horizontal as Robert tightened the ropes supporting her foot, wrapping several loops around her to keep her leg straight. “You’re fully suspended now.” He brushed his lips across her shoulder. “I want you to count to two hundred and it will all be over.”

“Yes, Sir.” Nicole began. “One, two, three…”

“I meant in your head.”

Nicole stifled a giggle. “Sorry.”

Robert set up his lights with an efficiency born of practice. Hemp glowed under the bright lamps, every fiber visible against the dark cloth he’d attached to the picture rail. “Lovely,” he said, his camera flashes firing as she spun in a lazy circle. “This may well become the cover of the book. Turn your palms upward and lose the grimace.”

“I’ll try.” Nicole’s face dropped into a more relaxed expression.

“Excellent.” Robert’s cameras clicked through their maximum shutter speed. He was glad he’d switched to digital cameras when the quality became comparable to film. Scenes like this would have cost a fortune to develop otherwise, never mind the expression of the lady in the chemist when he went in for his prints.

“Two hundred, Sir. Yellow.” Nicole’s voice cut through his thoughts.

“Coming.” Robert stepped forward and kissed her nearest shoulder. “Not literally, mind.” He untied knots with a quiet efficiency and within moments he’d released her legs and allowed her to support her own weight. His rope-work was designed to be easy to take off and Nicole was completely free, but for the chest harness, in under a minute.

He smiled and kissed her properly. “Well done.” He stepped back and took several more shots of the rope marls left on her skin. “Now coil the ropes while I download these photographs.”