She took a few steps and the scent of cranberry drifted to her, mingled with a kiss of raspberry. Nothing said home and love to her like her favorite homemade potpourri. She used to make it with her mother, she thought as silent tears began to fall.
“Damn it!” She wrapped her arms around herself as a chill set in. “Sorry, Mom. I should have been here.”
She started to shake as she sobbed. Her knees gave out, and she stumbled, but instead of falling to the floor, a warm pair of arms came around her. She was pulled back against a soft body and held tight.
“I—she died alone!” She sobbed. “I should have been here, Sienna.”
“It’s okay,” Sienna murmured. “We fuck up and our family forgives us when no one else does. They prove it by letting us come home again when we leave.”
“But I came home too late.” She twisted in Sienna’s arms until she faced her. She put her head on her breast and snuggled against her as she continued to cry.
Sienna held her tight, smoothing her hair, the center island at her back. “You have to forgive yourself because she already had. This kitchen, the colors were for you. The B&B was going to be for you. She wanted you to come home.”
Kallie didn’t answer her. She just clutched at her hips as she cried silently now.
Each tear tore at Sienna’s heart, and she would give anything to stop them falling and to be able to soothe the pain gnawing a path through Kallie’s heart. Grimacing at the sob wrenched from her mate, she vowed to do whatever it took to take down the men who’d destroyed Kallie’s chance to reconcile with her mother.
“Hungry, Kallie darling?” she asked when Kallie finally stopped crying.
Kallie nodded, refusing to look at her. She knew what a mess she looked. Her skin was red and her eyes were puffy.
“Okay, I’ll put dinner on some plates.”
Kallie gave her a watery smile. “I won’t take long.”
Kallie stepped back into the kitchen a few minutes later to find Sienna diligently slicing something on the cutting board. It was almost like old times when Sienna helped her prepare snacks for the coven meeting. Except her life was in danger, and her mother might have inadvertently been the cause of it.
“What are we having?”
“Shrimp salad. We can go to the grocery store tomorrow,” Sienna told her.
“I’m going to keep the house.” Sienna didn’t seem surprised. “I think home is the best place for me. I haven’t been able to find what I was looking for anywhere else.”
“Have you been looking or just hiding from everything you really need and want?”
“What are you talking about?” she asked, putting a hand on her stomach, but she knew exactly what Sienna was talking about.
“You know what I’m talking about,” Sienna answered evenly.
“If I did, do you think I’d ask?” she snapped.
“Don’t raise your voice to me, Kallie darling.”
That dominance in her tone—she hated it. Loved it so much it made her wet. “I’m not a child!” she exclaimed in utter rebellion of the need to give in to the discipline Sienna would exert over her.
“Let’s not fight,” she said. “Pour us some wine.”
“I’m not one of your whores, so don’t give me orders!”
Sienna wiped her hands on a dishcloth, keeping her eyes locked on Kallie’s as she did so. She set it aside and rounded the counter. That predatory gleam that slowly replaced the calm told Kallie she’d gotten herself in the crosshairs of a predator.
“I think you should leave.” With one hand on her hip, Kallie pointed toward the door.
“Leave?” She snorted. “Why in the world would I do that?”
Kallie quickly backed up. Panting, she gasped as Sienna’s hand shot out and grabbed her arm. Her eyes were like black coffee and the red flecks were even darker.
Sienna wound her fingers around Kallie’s braid and tugged her head back forcefully. “Those women were my subs. Some of them I trained for men, some for other women, but none of them were whores. A woman has as much right to have as much sex as a man, and I am a sensual creature who loves to fuck.”
She whimpered as she tried to get free. The spider’s grip was unbreakable. “You’re hurting me,” she whispered.
“I know.” She tipped her head back a little more and then licked the column of her throat. Her canines extended mere inches and scraped over tender flesh before piercing it lightly. Sienna withdrew them and shuddered. Not yet. She wouldn’t bite. The poison in her fangs was deadly, but in the heat of desire it was a sensual serum, a chemical stimulant that enhanced arousal.
“I can be very patient, Kallie, but my patience is running out,” Sienna murmured.
“What?”
She thrust one long leg between her slightly parted ones and pressed hard against her clit. Kallie gasped as her body betrayed her. Her clit pulsed to life and her juices heated between her labia. “I’ve wanted you since you were seventeen. So sweet and ripe. Every time I came around you got wet, and that sweet scent made my spider claw to get out to take you.” She inhaled her scent. It was tinged with honeysuckle and a hint of lavender. “I wanted to lay you down and lick up that sweet dew between your legs. I had planned to do just that the night you ran from me.”
“The party?” she asked as the memory of watching Sienna paddle another woman invaded her memory. She’d been intrigued, aroused, and angry.
“It was going to be your introduction into my world,” she said. “I wanted you to watch and to learn what I was going to do to you.” She slide her free hand down Kallie’s shoulder to her hip and around to her tightly rounded ass where she slapped hard.
Kallie jumped, eyes widening.
“You made me wait, and it has been sweet torture.” She squeezed her ass. “I can respect that.” She moved her thigh, creating a friction against Kallie’s aching clit that set her pussy weeping.
“Ohh.” The sound was a ragged, breathless gasp as waves of pleasure poured through each nerve of her pussy and sent pulses through her entire body.
“I dreamed of making you my sub and taking you to the club and showing you off.”
Kallie hissed as Sienna gripped her ass and ground her thigh between her legs. In spite of the grip on her hair, the sensations rolled through her like turbulent waters, fueling the sensual heat that had her in its grip, and she found herself grinding against that thigh.
“Sienna.” Her name was a plea.
“You have an idea of what I want, now it’s time to make up your mind,” Sienna said. She brought her hand down on her ass again and Kallie groaned.
The sensations shooting through her created a hot spring of heat inside her, stealing her thoughts as her body responded to the threads of dark passion.
“Will you keep denying that you want to experience the paddling? Will you tell me you don’t want me to fuck you, to eat your pussy and lick all the sweet cream from your body? Will you deny you want to be my sub?”
Kallie winced as Sienna pulled tighter on her hair and then pressed harder against her clit. The pain coupled with the pleasure had her body going into overdrive. She ground harder against Sienna in a desperate need for release. Her body was growing tighter, her need more out of control.
“I will discipline you in whatever manner I choose when you break the rules, but I will always be good to you,” Sienna told her. “I won’t tell you what to wear, but the makeup is out. I want to see you in sexy lingerie all the time. I like pretty things on my women.” She caressed her cheek and her hold on Kallie’s hair eased. “I won’t tell you who to see unless I feel he or she is a threat. You can have one girls’ night out a week, but the other nights you must be home by nine unless you’re with me.”
Sienna dropped her hand on Kallie’s ass one last time and ground her thigh against her, sending Kallie over the edge. Her body erupted into mini quakes that left her breathing hard.
“Oh, Goddess.” She purred and let the waves wash over her a
nd settle before she said, “If I say yes to you, you’re going to try to control me.”
“I will control some aspects of your life.”
“Only to dump me once you’re done using me,” she accused, her voice rising with anger. The woman had made her body respond, forced her to experience that gritty edge of pain and pleasure. And she’d liked it, wanted more of it. “Let go of me.”
“I give the orders, Kallie darling,” she said softly. “Always remember that.” She eased her hold completely.
She pushed Sienna away. “Bitch.” She rubbed her head. The woman was angry, but the butterfly was alive and willing to submit to its mate.
“A requirement for an alpha female, baby, and you’ll do well to remember that I am nothing less,” Sienna replied, nonplused.
She stared at her, shocked by the cool dominance. “I don’t need pain to get aroused.”
“Can you tell me you don’t want it?” she asked and walked away. “Think about it, Kallie. I won’t let you keep running much longer after the way you purred from my touch.”
She sighed as she watched Sienna wash her hands. “I want to be a mate. Not a sex slave,” she said so softly she didn’t think Sienna could hear. She wanted to own Sienna’s heart just as Sienna owned hers.
Sienna dried her hands and faced Kallie. “Kallie darling, come here, please.”
Kallie regarded her carefully, remembering what she’d done to her moments ago, but the butterfly refused to disobey its mate—its dominant mate. “What?” She was in front of Sienna before she realized her feet had moved.
Sienna stroked her fingers along Kallie’s jaw. “That is why I’ve been waiting for you to come home.”
Chapter Six
Sienna walked the perimeter of the house after Kallie retired to her room. A dog barked in the distance and the sound of a night bird calling to its mate brought a slow smile to her face as she thought of her own. She had felt Kallie’s hunger and desire for more of what she’d given her.
She’d also picked up the disharmony of stress and fear, telling her Kallie was worried those who had attempted to get to her earlier would try again. It was too soon for another attack, but she was worried, too. For them to come back, she could only assume Maggie’s killer thought what they wanted was in the house or in Kallie’s care.
Kallie and the house were the only leads, but she had no idea what to look for, she mused as she made another pass around the house in human form with her palms facing down. Silk issued from her hands forming the intricate lines of a web that fanned out like ripples of water before sinking beneath the grass into the dirt. The white web formed a net that would trap anyone who attempted to cross it in the night. It would hold them and wind around them like vines. Her only regret was she couldn’t extend the barrier to the driveway and inside the house because of the on-going construction.
The spell would require her to take into account too many variables. She came to a stop at the southern side of the house and closed her eyes. Her magic, like all spiders, was generally strongest when performed in the direction of the earth—north. She channeled the energy of earth through her, allowing it to infuse the web she’d cast to protect them. Beneath the ground, fire flared as the web set and knitted more fully with the earth. It was a complicated spell called a silk snare.
“Hestia, mother of earth, Goddess of the hearth, I summon thee.” She drew in a slow breath. “Infuse this web I’ve woven with the strength of your heart, the fire of life.” Fire flared and burned without harming the grass. “Set the traps”—she envisioned the intricate design she’d drawn in the dirt before casting her web over it—“and activate them only when danger attempts to access this home. Let the walks I’ve drawn serve as paths to be easily crossed by me, my kin, my crew, and my mate and all that mean us no harm.”
She heard the spell click and checked the webs. Satisfied with her work, she went inside. Sienna checked the locks and wove a web trap over the connecting door before she headed upstairs.
* * * *
Kallie went downstairs the next morning to silence and the scent of coffee. For a moment, it was just like being in her apartment except for the lack of traffic and the threads of warmth that made her feel welcome and safe in spite of the threat lurking somewhere out there waiting to attack her. The energy of her ancestors, the men and women who’d lived on this land before, had left an indelible mark that she’d felt as a child, but there was something new, something darkly sensual and dangerous mingling with it.
When she stepped into the spacious kitchen, Sienna was leaning against the breakfast bar, a mug and a plate of something next to her. Her gaze slid down the lean form, taking in the snug fit of her jeans, the work boots, and the fawn-colored blouse. Her short hair shone beneath the light and the sun kissed the back of her neck before falling over her shoulders and coming to rest next to her hand.
Sienna flipped the paper she was reading over and reached for her mug. Her nails were short and neatly rounded with no polish. Her expression was serene. This strong, dominant force could be her world, and she would be everything Sienna wanted. She knew she could make her happy if only Sienna would allow her to be the only woman in her life.
Kallie shuffled to the coffee pot, barefooted but fully dressed in burgundy pants and a pink blouse. “Where’d you get the coffee and food?”
“Good morning, Kallie.” Sienna took a sip of her coffee. “Sleep well?”
“Not really,” she admitted. She’d tossed and turned, drifting in and out of sleep. Some of her dreams had been sensual escapades and others had been more disturbing, making her wonder if the house was secure enough to keep the danger stalking her out.
Sienna folded the paper. “I brought them with me last night. I didn’t want you to miss breakfast,” she murmured. “When you’re ready we can go to the grocery store. I’ll need to stop by my place to pick up some more clothes.”
“Okay.” She added cream but no sugar to her coffee and stirred it in before heading to the breakfast bar. She took a sip and sighed. “That’s good.”
“Hmm-hmm.”
Kallie set her mug down, and her eyes went to Sienna’s hair, wanting to run her fingers it. “You have nice hair.”
“Thank you.” She captured Kallie’s gaze. “I see you’ve put yours up this morning.”
She shrugged, deciding to ignore that light of dominance that leaped into the caramel eyes.
Sienna reached across the counter and captured the single thick braided ponytail. “The situation is a tense one, but you were safe last night. I will always keep you safe in your home.”
“I’ll remember that tonight.” She tugged her braid from Sienna’s fingers and their eyes met. She watched as the other woman pushed away from the island and rounded it with deliberate steps. Her heart beat faster as Sienna stopped in front of her.
“Open.” Sienna brought a strawberry to her lips and Kallie obeyed. “Have you given any thought to what we discussed last night?”
Kallie chewed the berry and swallowed. “Why would I?” She had thought of nothing but as she lay awake last night wishing for sleep to come.
“Still running?” Sienna mocked softly. “You ran to me more often back then. I think your butterfly recognized the connection and wanted to be as close to my spider as possible, as often as possible.”
Kallie averted her gaze even as she silently admitted that her butterfly knew its place was by Sienna’s side.
“It’s unacceptable, Kallie darling.” She lowered her head to kiss the corner of her mouth.
“You’ve always had a girlfriend.”
“I’ve gone for months without a lover as well, Kallie,” she answered patiently. “I admit during those times I played with subs, but there was no sex.”
“None? Not even kissing?”
She sighed. “What are you trying to ascertain about my sex life? I already told you I enjoy sex, and I plan to enjoy it a great deal more now that you’re here.”
A thrill
of excitement coursed through her but before she allowed herself to go down the road she knew she had been bound to travel since she was seventeen, she had to know something first. “I just wonder—did you train subs when you had girlfriends?”
“Yes.” She reached for another piece of fruit and traced Kallie’s bottom lip with it. She took a bite and then fed Kallie the rest. “But I never fucked them.”
“Why did you go to Darla that night?” she demanded around the mouthful of berry. “You said you wanted me, and I believed you.”
She had wanted an answer to that question for eight months, but she’d run. That was her M.O. when things got painful, but it was time to stop running.
Chapter Seven
Silence settled around them for a moment and Kallie wondered if she’d get her answer and then Sienna spoke. What she said was going to be crucial in allaying her fears or increasing them.
“I did a scene with her,” Sienna began evenly. She didn’t look away and not one iota of guilt crossed her face. “You saw me paddle her and then bring her off with a finger fuck.”
“Why?” she demanded. “Why couldn’t you keep your hands off of her after fucking me? What was so special about her you had to touch her?”
“I enjoy doing scenes—”
“Is that what I am? Just a toy you haven’t been able to have?” she demanded, her voice rising as hurt stoked the fires of anger inside her. “Once you’ve been able to paddle me, then what?” Fear danced a staccato beat through her soul, making her breath stall for a second as she waited for Sienna’s answer. “I called you, but you chose to ignore those calls.”
“I didn’t want to hear you tell me you didn’t want me!” She screamed and clamped a hand over her mouth. She had been so afraid that one time was all Sienna wanted with her. So afraid she hadn’t been enough.
“That’s why you’re holding back? That’s why you’re running from me?”
She bit back a sob. “Yes.”
Training an Unruly Submissive Page 4