The ropes are a rough, chafing sweetness twined around Norrel’s biceps, locking his arms behind his back. The ropes pinch at his skin as Luz pulls them tight. 

“Are you ready, love?” Luz’s breath is warm on his ear, her short nails digging into his arm in anticipation. She presses the bell into his palm, curling his fingers around it and sealing them with a kiss. 

Norrel rolls his shoulders, trying to work sensation back into his tingling fingers The bell is a cool, reassuring weight. He gives a short nod.

Creak.

Luz loops the rope through the magnetic clip she’d pressed to the ceiling. The ropes give a low groan as she leans her weight into it. Norrel rises up on his toes as he’s jerked upwards, feet sliding on the floor. The rope pulls his arms up, his breath huffs out in surprised pain. 

“Shhh...” Luz whispers, stroking her thumb along his cheek. 

“Look at you. All strung up for me.” Her hand drifts down his throat, the bare expanse of his chest. She wraps her fingers delicately around the velvety length of his cock, soft against his thigh. 

“My beautiful boy.” 

She kneels on the cool tile, her clever pink tongue swiping a line along his length. Norrel’s toes scrape for purchase along the floor, trying to press up into her hot, lovely mouth. His breath hitches as she allows him to slide into her mouth, her tongue moving sweetly against him. Her hands fall to his hips, anchoring him as his hips move in slipping little jerks. 

Luz moans against his cock, feeling it twitch with building arousal against her tongue. The soft wet heat of her mouth is perfect, and Norrel fucks up into the slick, wonderful space, his toes slipping on the floor as he’s pulled back by the knot of cords at his back. 

The pull of the ropes is punishingly tight, a low, constant pain pulling his attention from the woman’s mouth on his dick. His fingers itch with tiny pinpricks of sensation, the circulation cut off from the knots. He shakes his head, forcing himself to focus, focus.

Luz pulls back, her eyes hooded as she gazes up at him Her hand slips down the front of her panties, the pine-colored cotton dark and damp between her legs. 

“Just let me look at you. Like a work of goddamn art.” She rubs fast and firm over the stiff jut of her clit, panting open-mouthed in pleasure. 

Her words send a flush of heat through him, the praise warm in his belly. He smiles down at her, face flushed with exertion. His hands are completely numb, his mind foggy with distraction. Sweat rolls down his neck, cold prickles that he dimly recognizes as the beginning of panic. His smile tightens, teeth clenched hard on his lip. 

Focus.

He watches the sweet arch of Luz’s neck as she masturbates at his feet, the soft sheen of sweat on her brow. Her brown eyes are huge and needy as she looks up at him, hanging like a cut of meat at the butcher, like something dead, dead, dead. 

Panic crushes against his lungs, his heart seizing up against the desire, fear passing from pleasurable into fight-or-flight and he can’t move, can’t even stand. 

He squeezes his eyes shut, head shaking desperately as he drops the bell to the floor. It crashes with a decisive clang, rolling along the tile in a clattering haze. 

Luz is on her feet before it stops rolling, slashing at the anchor-point of the ropes with her utility knife. The rope hisses as it slides through the mag-clamp, tension gone as Norrel lands heavily on his feet. 

Luz’s arms wrap around his chest, her small, strong hands keeping him steady as he slides to his knees. 

“I’ve got you, cariño. You’re alright.”

She makes gentle humming sounds in the back of her throat as she cuts through the ropes around his arms, mindful of the raw, chafed spots on his skin. The cords fall in a shredded pile on the floor, 

“Easy...” she murmurs, gently guiding his arms to lie slack against his sides. Norrel winces at the movement, muscles burning from the strain. She gives him a moment to catch his breath, chest heaving as he forces himself to breath slowly, deeply. Luz’s palm rubs small, soft circles on his back. “That’s it. Nice and slow.” 

He slumps against her, exhausted from the adrenaline crash. Luz slides her hands beneath his arms, hoisting him to his feet. He rises dizzily, following her lead as though pulled on a string. She leads him to the bed, he sits down heavily, Luz perching behind him. She sings quietly, breathy little snatches of a Spanish folk song. 

Her hands fall lightly to his arms, working gently to rub the tingling points of pain from his trembling muscles. His breath sighs out in an exhausted huff, his head dipping forward to his chest. Luz kisses along the nape of his neck as she massages his arms, snuggling close against his back. His skin feels warm to the touch, still flushed from anxiety. 

Luz takes up one of the washcloths she’d set aside earlier, dampening it with her canteen. She folds it twice, placing the cool cloth over the back of Norrel’s neck. 

“Is that alright?” she asks.

He nods, his eyes still glazed and foggy. She kisses his shoulder, taking a bottle of lotion from her neat arrangement of supplies. It smells faintly of eucalyptus and peppermint, menthol cool on her palm. “Little cold,” she warns him as she rubs the cooling lotion into the angry red lines across his arms. He sighs again, this time in relief as the lotion slicks along his skin. 

She continues to rub his arms long after the lotion has soaked in, humming gentle, tuneless things. “Do you want to talk about it?” she finally asks.

He yawns, nuzzling against her. He’s too tired to sign. 

“Do you want your tablet?” 

Norrel signs a weary affirmative, and Luz rustles for a moment in his backpack, withdrawing the sleek black communicator. 

Norrel frowns down at the screen, fingertips hovering over the keys. 

“Why don’t you start with what you liked?” Luz prompts. 

“Blowjob was great,” he types. Luz laughs, snuggling against his chest. “Ropes were fine. I liked you doing ‘em up.” 

“I liked that too. You sat so beautifully for me.” 

Norrel slings his arm over her shoulder so she can lean up against him, one leg thrown over his. She cranes her neck up to kiss him, slow and sweet. Luz pulls up the blankets and they cuddle together, pressed close in the chill of their adrenaline crash. 

“Can you tell me what you didn’t like?” she asks finally. 

Norrel hesitates, brow furrowed. “It’s stupid.”

“I’m sure it’s not.” She presses another kiss to the underside of his jaw, her arm curled snugly around his waist. 

“Losing feeling in my arms sucked. Felt like...passing out, bleeding out.”

Luz nods solemnly. “I didn’t think of that. We won’t do any more suspension.” 

“I feel bad. You looked like you were enjoying yourself.”

Luz snorts. “I always enjoy looking at you, guapo.” Norrel grins, kissing her temple. She squeezes him tight in a one-armed embrace. 

“Back at you, beautiful.” Norrel closes out of his word-processor, opening up the video library. He taps an old sci-fi movie, one they’ve both seen a hundred times. They stretch out together, Luz curled protectively around the big shepherd as he drifts off into peaceful slumber.