by Gemma James
“Can I come, Master?”
“You may not.”
“Grrr!” Bumping my forehead on the tile, I gritted my teeth to keep from slinging hateful words at him.
“You’re still being punished. You don’t get to come during a punishment. You know that.”
Still being punished…
A flash of Katherine on her knees, her slutty mouth inches from his cock, sprang to mind, causing my body to go rigid. But recalling his words truly iced my heart.
If you ever touch another man again, I’ll not only fuck her, but I’ll do it in front of you.
I hadn’t betrayed him, but a hug could be construed as touching another man. “Are you going to…?” Suddenly, vomit burned my throat.
“Spit it out, Kayla. Whatever it is, don’t hold back. That’s what got you in trouble in the first place.”
“Are you going to use Katherine against me?” Closing my eyes, I failed to breathe as I waited for his answer. But he was quiet, leaving me close to panicking. “Please, Master. I need to know.”
“You don’t have to worry about Katherine. When I made the threat, I was so angry that I thought I could do it. But fuck, Kayla, I don’t think I could ever touch another woman. You’re it for me.”
The breath I’d been holding whooshed from me in a torrent of relief. “You’re it for me too. I need you to know that.”
His lack of response worried me. He stopped caressing between my legs, but still, he didn’t say anything.
“Gage, I mean it. Please know that.”
“You don’t have any feelings for him?”
“Not like I used to.” Gage had purged my love for Ian the instant he’d sentenced me to that cage. “Honestly, after I got over the shock of seeing him, I was more worried about how you’d react.”
He rose behind me, pressing his erection against my sore ass, and gripped my hair in an uncompromising fist. “Swear to me that he means nothing.”
“He means nothing.”
Gage pulled on my hair, angling my head so he could claim my mouth. The spray from the shower misted over our faces, wetting our lips as we came together in an open-mouthed kiss that sucked the will right out of my bones.
I whimpered against his lips, needing more…so much more.
He inched back with a groan. “I want in your ass so badly right now.”
My breath hitched, and I turned horrified eyes on him. I could not, for the fucking life of me, comprehend taking his cock right now. Not with the way my ass burned.
“Relax, baby,” he whispered, brushing his mouth over mine again. “I know you’re in pain, so I’ll settle for your mouth instead.” He let out a breath that shivered against my well-kissed lips. “On your knees.”
His command, spoken soft and low yet full of authority, shot straight to my pussy. I turned around and kneeled before him, then eagerly accepted his cock into my mouth. He pushed his hands into my hair, brushing the wet strands from my eyes.
“Baby, look at me.”
God, he was beautiful. Dark hair drenched, blue eyes more startling than usual—I was helpless against this man, especially when he gave in to the speck of tenderness hiding inside his sadistic soul. Instead of grabbing my hair and ramming his cock down my throat, like he normally would, he combed his fingers through my hair as he slipped in and out of my mouth.
Intense heat flared between my thighs, and I whimpered around his shaft, tongue massaging the softness of his head.
Propping an arm against the tile, he groaned deep in his throat as he gazed down at me in wonder. “Don’t stop doing that with your tongue. It feels unbelievable.” His mouth flattened into a determined line. “You’re being such a good girl. Fuck, I want to make you come into next year.”
But he wouldn’t. Gage had many sides to him, but he rarely wavered on punishment, and holding my orgasm at bay was part of it.
I sucked him to release, accepting every last drop, and despite the desire blazing between my thighs, I felt mostly…content. We finished washing up, then he towel-dried my skin, paying careful attention to his favorite areas before instructing me to bend over the counter.
“I love marking you like this.” He opened a tube of cream and squirted a dollop into his palm. “Your ass was made for me.” As he gently rubbed the soothing balm into my skin, I wondered how he’d managed to coach me through fear, then anger before molding me into a content pile of skin and bones, subservient to his wants and needs, and pliant in his hands.
I had no answers and no chance to mull over his sorcery-like mojo any longer. He scooped me up in his arms and carried me upstairs to our bedroom, winding a path through the darkness to our bed. He set me on my feet before turning down the covers.
“Grab your ankles.”
I did so without question. He probed my pussy, gliding his devious fingers through the evidence of just how fundamentally screwed my body was. And even in the darkness, his face cast in shadow from my bent over position, I knew he was pleased.
He’d punished my ass to his liking and had nearly brought me to orgasm enough times to leave me drenched around his fingers. Gage Channing’s work for the day was done. His self-satisfied sigh confirmed it as he pulled me into bed beside him, yanking my stinging ass snug against his thighs. And though he didn’t voice the words, his long sigh told me all I needed to know.
That night, I fell asleep wrapped in his forgiveness and love.
13. Tender Mercy
Gage was having my masquerade gown designed. He’d stuffed most of my closet with custom made clothing from some of the top designers in the world. Every button and bead had been added down to his specifications. If I were going to be his trophy wife, then he’d outfit me like one. Considering the charity ball was less than a week away, he’d put a rush on my dress, no doubt paying a ridiculously high premium.
“Not even a teensy little hint?” I needled him, lying on top of his body because I still couldn’t sit without pain after the punishment he’d issued the previous night.
“You’ll see it Friday night.” His warm hands drifted over my naked backside, his caresses downright hypnotic. The same hands that delivered excruciating pain were also the same hands that moved over my skin in a way that made me feel treasured and loved. I buried my nose in the crook of his neck, suddenly overcome.
“What’s wrong, baby?”
“I don’t know. Nothing.” Maybe I was having a woman moment. In fact, that particular curse was due any day.
“Are you worried you’ll lose your privileges?”
The issue had crossed my mind a few times, but I couldn’t say I’d thought about it tonight. Not with the way he’d…God…
He’d made love to me.
“You had honest intentions, Kayla, so I won’t punish you further by taking your car or phone away.”
“Thank you, Master.”
His chest went still as if he were holding his breath. “Are you still angry with me?”
“No, Master. I just wish…” I swallowed hard before forging ahead, knowing he’d want me to share what troubled me. “I wish we had more moments like these.”
Moments where we lost an endless amount of time, tangled as one in the darkness of our bedroom, bodies swallowed in the sheets. These kinds of nights were few and far between.
He grabbed my hips, pulled, and urged me to my knees. “I vow to you right now that we’ll have more of these moments, Kayla.” Nudging my opening with his cock, he shuddered a breath into my hair. “Ride me.”
“Again?”
“Did I stutter?”
With a slow downward thrust, I sheathed his cock.
“Look at me,” he said, fisting my hair with both hands. He pulled my head up by force, too impatient for me to unbury my face on my own. “Don’t forget that I’m calling the shots here. You being on top means nothing.”
I wouldn’t dare to be so foolish. He’d allowed me the sacred privilege of control twice since I’d known him—only because I’d tied him
to the bed in a role reversal he probably still regretted to this day. But truthfully, Gage had wielded power over me both times, because that’s who he was. Even gagged and tied, he’d owned me.
And he always would.
“I don’t want fast and hard,” he said, fingers loosening in my hair. “Fuck me slowly.”
Undulating my hips, I dropped my forehead against his, and our gazes locked together as surely as our bodies did. His breath became my own, and the adoration in his eyes hit me square in the chest, stealing my life-force.
“I have no fucking words for how good you feel right now,” he said, sliding his hands along my cheeks. Gage could do tender when he wanted to—when he wasn’t preoccupied with taking me by force or delivering a punishment.
Sometimes, he loved me like a normal man.
Fuck, I was going to cry and ruin this moment. I shuttered my eyes against the threat of tears, but it was too late. He swiped at the moisture creeping out from underneath my lashes.
“Baby, eyes on me.”
Exhaling the sob I’d been holding back, I opened my eyes, and confusion overshadowed his blue gaze.
“Why are you crying?”
“I don’t know.” And I truly didn’t. Maybe his tenderness on the tail of such brutality did me in. Or maybe I just needed him too much, and a tiny part of me wept over the hold he had on me.
Cradling my cheeks, he nipped at my lips before drawing me into a kiss that destroyed me. Our tongues came together in sync with our bodies. The salt of my tears infused our taste buds with a spectrum of emotions, cleansing us of past hurts. We kissed and fucked in perfect harmony, each note falling into place, every high and low executed with mastery.
He let go of my face with a groan, grabbed my hips, and yanked me down until I took his cock to the hilt. “I’ll never get enough. Your body enchants me—”
Another upward thrust hit my G-spot, and I cried out with a delicious shudder.
“Your smile lights my world, baby. And your stubbornness…hell, you can’t help but challenge the bastard in me.” As if to punctuate his words, he dug his fingers into my tender ass. “I know loving me isn’t easy, but you do it so damn well.”
The tears would never stop at this rate. I clutched his hair and fucked the fuck out of him, mindless of the way his hands gouged my red and welted flesh. His touch guided me, punished me, but above all else, he held me to him with fierce possession.
He’d never let me go, and the certainty of that knowledge swaddled my heart in absolution.
“No more doubts,” I cried, lips damp against his skin.
“No more doubts,” he agreed, then he sucked in a sharp breath. “You’re making me lose my shit. I’m gonna come, and if you don’t come with me, I’ll spank the fuck out of your ass.”
That was all I needed—the mental picture of his authoritative hand on my bottom. I fell apart within the confines of his embrace…no, we fell apart in each other’s arms, groaning and grunting and moaning incoherent nothings as we grasped for that wondrous high together.
14. O.M.G. Again
The week began with torrential rain. I found the downpour symbolic as if Mother Nature was urging us to wash away the darker aspects of our histories and focus on the future instead. And the future held a bright new beginning, in more ways than one.
For the first time since we’d married, Gage allowed me to find purpose in something other than motherhood or being a wife and slave. He’d hired me on as his personal assistant again, this time on a part-time basis. For the first two days, I worked at his side until noon, at which point he sent me home to perform my wifely duties. Housekeeping, shopping, and meal preparation were still my responsibilities, though if I started working more hours at Channing Enterprises, he’d allow me to hire help at home.
But for now, my new job was on a conditional basis until I proved that I could keep up with my duties. Everything was going smoothly until Wednesday when life slapped me in the face with a huge wake-up call.
I’d just walked into the foyer when the lunch I’d had with Gage turned in my gut. I barely made it to the bathroom before losing the contents of my stomach. As I held onto the gleaming porcelain, heaving for all I was worth, I could no longer deny it. Getting sick all the time wasn’t due to stress, and the stomach bug that had visited Eve was long gone.
This was something else. Something I couldn’t bring myself to hope for just yet…until I ran the calculations in my head and realized I was late.
I should have called Gage, but when I picked up my cell, Simone’s number was the one my fingers dialed. Late or not, I wasn’t about to get Gage’s hopes up for nothing. A piss stick would have to show me two lines first.
Then I’d tell him…if I had anything to tell at all.
Simone answered on the fifth ring. “What’s up?”
“Are you working today? I was hoping we could get together.”
A few seconds of quiet passed. “Ian told me he ran into you,” she finally said, hesitancy lacing her tone. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about us.”
Her words caught me off-guard. “That’s not why I’m calling.” The incident with Ian seemed like weeks ago instead of days, considering everything that was going through my mind now.
“Oh,” she said, sounding surprised. “You seem a little upset, so I thought…”
“I’m not upset about you and Ian.” Sure, I shared enough history with Ian that the idea of him moving on wasn’t the easiest thing to face, but the pain was but a phantom ping—an ache stamped on my heart like a fading tattoo. “I was actually hoping you’d want to help me shop for…Halloween costumes.”
Not pregnancy tests. No siree.
Besides, I did need to find a costume for Eve. I was fairly certain Gage would give me permission to leave the house if I told him I was shopping for Halloween costumes. “I need to find something for Eve.”
“Okay.” But doubt tinged her voice. “My shift ends in an hour.”
I told her where to meet me, then she hung up without a goodbye, which was a very Simone-like thing to do. Two hours later, we were sorting through the racks at a costume shop in comfortable silence.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Simone asked, breaking the quiet between us. Okay, so comfortable wasn’t the word I’d use, but I hadn’t realized my distress was that noticeable, and she obviously mistook it for unhappiness over her new relationship status.
“I’m fine,” I said, fingering the lace on an Elsa ensemble—which was so two years ago according to Eve. “Why?”
Simone gave a sarcastic quirk of her brow. “You’ve been touching that hideous costume for the last three minutes while staring into space.”
Expelling a sigh, I let Elsa’s cheap and scratchy blue skirt slip from my fingers. It was now or never. “I need to buy a pregnancy test.” My emotions were all over the fucking place. The threat of tears burned my eyes, but on the opposite end of the spectrum, my belly fluttered with the possibility of a positive sign.
A literal fucking positive sign.
Cool it, Kayla. It’s probably nothing.
“Hey, this is great news…isn’t it?” She frowned. “You’ve been trying to get knocked up with that devil’s spawn for…well, for what seems like forever.”
“Gage doesn’t know I’m buying a test.”
“Oooh,” she said, drawing out the word. “You’re worried he’s going to turn you over his knee for going mum’s-the-word?”
“Something like that.” A spanking over his knee was foreplay. More than anything, I hated the thought of him finding out about the test if it ended up being negative. I wasn’t sure I could handle the disappointment in his eyes. He tried to hide it, but after living most of his adult life believing he was unable to have children, only to find out the diagnosis had been incorrect, I knew how much he wanted this.
A baby of his own.
Katherine had robbed him of Conner’s early childhood years, and Eve had been three-years-old when he’d forc
ed his way into our lives. He wanted this badly…possibly more than I did.
“You know how I feel about that man,” Simone said, “but I think he’d want to go through this with you, no matter the results.”
“I know you’re right.”
“What’s the problem then?”
“I need to be sure before I tell him.”
She grabbed my arm and escorted me to a bench designated for shoppers to try on shoes. “And you’ll have an answer soon, but first you need to take a few deep breaths and calm down.” She settled beside me, and I buried my face in my hands, drawing shallow, hot breaths from between my palms.
“We’ll go to the pharmacy together, okay?”
“What if I’m not?”
“But what if you are?” she said. “Only one way to find out.”
And that’s when I realized that both outcomes equally terrified me—a reaction I hadn’t expected. I figured I’d be overjoyed at the possibility of being pregnant, but now that I had a real chance I considered things I hadn’t thought of until now.
Like the fact that I was prone to miscarriages and tubal pregnancies.
Or how my slave duties would make carrying a baby difficult. How would I handle Gage’s rituals and punishments on top of pregnancy? And then, after the baby arrived…would I be too exhausted to want sex, let alone kneel on command, ready to please?
Simone pulled me to my feet. “Okay, no more freaking out about this. Let’s buy a test and get an answer.” She ushered me through the mall and to the parking lot with a purposeful stride.
Simone was a life savor that afternoon. She ran into the pharmacy and came out fifteen minutes later with half a dozen tests, each one advertised at being the best, most accurate on the market. Somehow, she knew I wasn’t ready to go home yet, so she drove straight to her house.
Now I found myself pacing in front of her bathroom door, the bag of tests in my hands, terrified to hope. My heartbeat was a wild beast behind my breastbone. I should have called Gage. Deep down, I knew I was going about this the wrong way, but the idea of taking a test while he eagerly waited was too upsetting. Once again, vomit pushed its way into my throat, and I bolted into the bathroom and threw up for the second time that day. The situation felt too reminiscent of another day.