The Words to Bind (The Playgrounds Book 1)

by P. Stormcrow

  “Good. Really good.” She was shy. He noticed it in the way she rubbed her hands up and down her jeans, but it only drew his attention to her legs. Damn, she was distracting, even when she didn’t mean to be, but, nonetheless, he knew how to deal with shyness.

  “Hmm-m… They must have had a good weekend. Maybe even as good as ours.” He gave her a cheeky grin and a wink that left her gaping at him.

  “How?”

  “I was talking to Lani today. She was trying to hide it, but I’ve known her too long to not spot that spaced-out dreamy look of hers.” He chuckled as he guided them both toward the couch, taking advantage of her being stunned.

  “Well, I don’t think I’ve ever seen August grin quite that hard.” Luna was giggling herself.

  “And you?” He kept an easy smile on his lips, his tone almost teasing, and was rewarded by the blush he found so adorable.

  “Okay, so I was grinning like an idiot the whole day too.”

  His smile shifted to more of a smirk and he leaned in closer now, draping an arm on the back of the couch behind her. “Oh? And just what precisely had you grinning so hard?”

  She was squirming and sinking into the couch. It delighted him to draw out such reactions with words alone.

  Leaning in farther, he nuzzled, running the ridge of his nose along the outline of her ear. “Tell me, little one.”

  “You.” With a soft sigh, she closed her eyes. “The things you say. The things you do to me.” She trailed off, her voice growing quieter.

  He warmed and perhaps he may have even puffed up with pride. To know he brought such pleasure to her was heady stuff. “Good girl,” he whispered in her ear and pressed a kiss on her temple as a reward. “Do you want me to stay tonight?”

  Jacob felt more than heard her intake of breath, thrilled by the shiver that coursed through her body, and he tried not to grin again as he noticed her press her legs a little closer together and wondered if she was even conscious of the movement herself.

  “I’d like that.”

  It was the sign he was looking for. Tilting her head toward him, he leaned in to nip her lower lip. When her lips parted for him, he deepened the kiss, slipping his tongue in to taste her. She was every bit as sweet as he remembered.

  “Come on. Let’s head to bed.” His lips brushed by hers as he spoke then tugged her off the couch at her eager nod.

  By the time they’d made it to the bedroom, they had already left behind a trail of clothing—both of their tops and her shorts. As he pressed her against one wall, he busied himself, splaying his hands across the lace, exploring the interplay of the red against her pale skin while he kissed and nibbled along her bared flesh. Her moans were music to his ears.

  He ran his lips downward, even as he tugged the straps of her bra off her shoulders then undid the clasp. Rather than making them both wait, he moved to one nipple, sucking it hard before drawing back, leaving it shiny as it hardened in the cool air. He trailed a hand downward, cupping between her legs, and he grinned in satisfaction at feeling how wet she was. Her sensitivity was becoming one of his favorite things about her.

  She whimpered and shivered as he played, tugging at her panties before pushing the material aside to rub along the length of her slit. As he sank lower to the floor to kiss along her stomach, she moved her hand in an attempt to take his and press it tighter against her.

  “No, sweetheart.” He stopped. The key to training was to start early before bad habits could develop. Every moment was a tug of reward and punishment in the bedroom. He leaned back to catch her eyes. “Just because I’m on my knees in front of you doesn’t mean you’re in control.”

  He studied her as the words sank in and a great tremor passed through her body. With visible effort, she dropped her hands to her sides, even as her breathing grew heavier.

  “Good girl.” She learned fast. “Now, your job tonight is to hold still and count.”

  With hooded eyes, he watched as her breath quickened, but it took a few seconds for her to find her voice. “Count?”

  “Yes.” He took his time to peel those panties away, enjoying the slow reveal. The last time, he didn’t quite have a chance to study her, but he fully intended to rectify that missed opportunity. She was already glistening with wetness. “Out loud.” He parted her with a finger, and she widened her stance to spread her legs farther. “Every.” He inhaled, his face so close to her slit. “Time.” He dipped into her, teasing her entrance. “You.” With his other hand, he held her open as he sought what he was looking for. “Come.” At the last word, he thrust one finger in and gave one long lick up to her clit.

  To her credit, she kept her arms to her sides, balling her hands into fists. But almost losing balance, she fell back hard against the wall as her knees buckled. “God.”

  He heard her breath rush out and had to refrain from making a comment about calling him God. Instead, he continued his onslaught, encircling her clit with the tip of his tongue as he moved his finger in and out, having almost a hard time with how much she was clenching around it.

  The sounds she made drove him on, and with care, he worked another finger in as he alternated between licking along the length of her and focusing on her clit, until her body began tensing.

  “Please. Please let me come,” she mewled. The plea from her held an edge of desperation.

  Good girl. She remembered. He made a small noise of approval and switched tactics, wrapping his lips around her clit, scraping his teeth against the sensitive nub. It was all the stimulation she needed as she came hard. “One,” she screamed out.

  He held his fingers inside and kept up with his tongue and mouth as best he could, moving his hand to grip her hips with a firm hold in an attempt to control the thrashing. As her first orgasm of the night tapered off, he eased back to let her catch her breath.

  A whimper spilled from her lips as she tried to push away from the wall, but he pushed her back, keeping her pinned with both hands on her hips. His little pet must have thought he was done with her. Far from it. Without warning, he pressed back in. There was no buildup this time. He lashed his tongue against her sensitive clit with an almost sadistic cruelty.

  “Two,” she cried out again as another climax tore through her body. He didn’t relent, drawing out her orgasm for as long as he could.

  Her knees gave out, seeming unable to take any more. He pulled away, just in time to catch her and help her to the bed as she tried to draw in ragged breaths.

  “That’s good, sweetheart. That’s it…deep breaths,” he murmured in her ear as he stripped, moved onto the bed with her and positioned himself to sit with his back against the headboard before pulling her to him. He kept one hand on her chest, gauging her recovery by the speed of her heartbeat, waiting for it to slow. He throbbed with desire for her but he had no appetite to push her toward pain, given how sensitive she was.

  She looked at him, her eyes still a little unfocused but with enough presence of a kind to give him a shy smile. He studied her as she paced through the grounding exercise he had given her and felt an absurd shot of pride.

  He kissed her forehead with heartfelt tenderness and smiled. “Ready for round two?”

  “Round…two?” A pause punctuated the two words, as if she was trying to process what he meant.

  With a small chuckle, he eased her away from him and tore open the packet he’d taken out of his pocket earlier. It sent a thrill of excitement down his spine to see her more focused gaze on him as he rolled the condom on to his hard cock.

  “Come here.” He patted his lap.

  To his delight, she responded right away to his command. His cock twitched as she crawled toward him. Once she was within reachable distance, he pulled her in once more and positioned her to straddle his lap, facing him.

  “That’s it.” He murmured soft words of encouragement as she rubbed then began lowering herself onto him. It took all his control not to pull her hips toward him and sheathe himself in her with one hard thrust. Th
ere would be time for that later.

  When he was buried in her to the hilt at last, he drew her hands back to crisscross her wrists at the small of her back. “Remember… Don’t move. Keep those there.”

  She whimpered and started squirming. It drew a hard groan from him but he paused, remembering what he’d told her. Damn me and my instructions. Still, he would not have this end so quickly.

  Instead, the position, his favorite, afforded him more opportunities to explore. With her shoulders drawn back, her breasts pushed themselves toward him and he took his time playing with them, holding the weight of them in his palms, kneading them. When he began rubbing her nipples back and forth with his thumbs, she spasmed around him.

  “Beautiful.”

  “I need…” She trailed off into a moan as he rolled her nipples between his fingers

  “What’s that, little one?” He feigned innocence. It was not an easy task, considering how he was embedded deep inside her.

  “Please, stop teasing me.” The begging tone in her voice hardened him further, if such a thing were even possible.

  “Hmm-m, but it’s so much fun.” He gave her nipples a tweak. “I love how you squirm.” He trailed a hand along her stomach. “How responsive you are.” Then he went lower still, seeking then finding what he was looking for. “All the little sounds you make.” Ah-ha. He reached then pressed on her clit. “And how sexy you look when you lose control.”

  He circled and rubbed. Unable to help herself any longer, she began rocking back and forth.

  “Yes, that’s it, sweetheart. Ride me.”

  Her movement grew more frenzied as she pumped up and down, her body once more tensing at the telltale signs he had begun to recognize. He abandoned her clit and gripped her hips with both hands instead, then began pushing his hips back up and pulling her hard against him with each downward stroke, grinding her clit against his pelvis. It didn’t take long before she threw her head back. “Three,” she gasped out before she let out a long wail, tossing her head back as she came hard, her pussy convulsing around his cock.

  Shoving hard with a last stroke and burying himself deep within her, he roared as he came, his own ass almost lifting off the bed as his seed poured into the condom.

  They slumped back onto the bed together. He was grateful for the headboard that supported his back as she lay in his arms, sliding in and out of consciousness. Her arms hung at her sides but, given the circumstances, he figured that he could forgive her for that. He was still waiting for the world to stop spinning himself.

  By and by, he recovered enough to nuzzle the top of her head. “Sweetheart, we can’t stay like this forever.”

  “Can too,” she muttered, not bothering to lift her face from his chest just yet.

  He chuckled and placed a light kiss on top of her head. “Let me go get cleaned up then sleep and cuddles, okay?”

  With a faint nod, she rolled off him and lay on the bed, splaying her limbs and her eyes already closing. Watching her tempted him to take her again but they both had work the next day and someone had to be the responsible one.

  Jacob made his way to the washroom, cleaned himself and returned with a warm washcloth and a glass of water, only to find Luna already fast asleep. With a soft chuckle, unable to help but beam with pride, he cleaned her before crawling into bed and scooping her into his arms. With her warm body pressed against his, he too fell asleep.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Luna was not looking forward to tonight’s meetup with Dylan. She was pretty sure he saw it as a date but she refused to call it such in her mind. In truth, the dread she had for the night was the only reason she hadn’t been glowing all day.

  When she opened the door to the coffee shop, a Starbucks rather than the cafe or bakery she liked to frequent, she glimpsed Dylan sitting in the corner. Under her breath, she cursed, wondering why he had to be such a gentleman. If only he had some flaw, something she could nitpick on so her guilt would stop eating away at her.

  It wasn’t that she was committing to Jacob. Not yet. She wasn’t even sure if Jacob would be interested. But after the last few days with the Dom, she realized that the chemistry with Dylan was not there, and it wouldn’t be fair to string him along. It would have ended like her other relationships, with her trying to make her partner into something he was not. Calling it off now was the right thing to do.

  Still, that fact didn’t make it any easier.

  “Hi,” she greeted and cursed again in her head, this time at her own breathlessness. It made her sound excited to see him rather than displaying the nerves she felt. The last thing she wanted was to lead him on.

  “Hi.” Dylan grinned, and they stared at each other for a second before he shook his head. “Want a drink? I can grab it for you.”

  When Luna shook her head and sat instead, Dylan’s face fell, as if, for the first time, realizing that all was not well. She had to get it over with quick, rip the proverbial bandage off.

  “Dylan—”

  “It’s not working out, is it?”

  Luna winced, both at the bluntness of his words and at the disappointment in his voice. She shook her head and sighed, casting her gaze downward, so she didn’t have to meet his eyes. It was getting to be more and more like she was kicking a puppy.

  “I guess on some level I already knew, and that’s why I didn’t want to meet earlier.”

  Stabbity-stab guilt.

  “I’m sorry,” Luna murmured beneath her breath.

  “Is there someone else? I mean, we were just starting out, and we weren’t exclusive—but I need to know.”

  Luna’s gaze snapped back upward, alarmed. Dylan was looking off to one side, slumped in his chair. His shoulders were sagged in defeat.

  “Dylan, please, don’t torture yourself like that. It’s.… It’s not like that.”

  “Like what?” When he turned once more toward her, his expression twisted his features with a mix of sadness and something else she didn’t quite recognize. “Are you going to feed me some crap about the problem being you and not me?” He gave a small, bitter laugh. “Because I find that to be the most dishonest lie.”

  His words struck a nerve and Luna sat up a little straighter. He had no right to accuse her of lying. Fine, if he needed an honest reason for closure, she’d give him one. “There’s someone—but that’s not the reason. There are some things I need to figure out for myself.” Torn for a moment between needing to keep her kinks a secret and hoping he would understand, Luna inhaled once and took the plunge. “I’m finding out that I need someone more dominant as a partner.”

  The last thing she expected was the laughter that shook Dylan. “Oh, so you’re one of those girls,” he commented once he’d calmed. “You’ve read too much Fifty Shades of Grey? Come on, Luna. I thought you were smarter than that. Guys like that are basically abusive.”

  She should have known by their previous conversation how he would have reacted and kicked herself for not putting two and two together. Something in her curled into a ball, as if trying to shield herself from the obvious derision he held, but another part of her recognized the situation was getting out of hand and she needed to leave. At least, somehow, his reaction made it easier.

  She straightened, her body stiff as a rod as she tilted her chin up with a challenge in her eyes. “Whatever you may think, I respected you enough to give you what you asked for—a real reason. It doesn’t mean that you get to judge or ridicule me for my life choices. I’m sorry it didn’t work out. Good luck finding someone out there.” She rose from her chair, her fists clenched. He was lucky she didn’t punch him right there. And it would hurt. She didn’t do slapping.

  Now it was his turn to turn red, but he tried to lean back as if to play it off with casual indifference. With an amused grin, Dylan waved at her. “Sure… Good luck finding your Christian Grey.”

  Rather than stay and argue more, Luna walked out with all the dignity she was able to muster, while inside, she railed at the judgmen
t she felt hanging over her. Even taken as comments from a jilted lover, it still stung. She was never telling anyone outside the scene about her involvement in the lifestyle ever again. From that moment on, she resolved to keep the two worlds as separate as possible. She only hoped he didn’t go blabbing back to Brandon or Ted. At least, for better or worse, she’d done it.

  When she got home, the anger evaporated, and she slumped onto the couch, her head reeling from all that had happened in the last few days. A small voice nagged at her. Was she really looking for abuse? Was control inherently abusive? Luna checked herself. No, none of it felt that way. Jacob treated her with respect. He was a man who would value her submission. She would know if it was abusive, right? She had done enough reading on D/s to last a lifetime. Half of it, Jacob had sent to her. Not a sign of an abusive partner.

  With a groan, she grabbed a pillow and buried her face against it. Bed…and perhaps tomorrow, she would consider all this with a clearer head.

  * * * *

  Things in the morning didn’t clarify themselves any more than the previous night, but Luna did her best to classify that piece of judgment as precisely that—judgment from someone that didn’t understand the lifestyle. She still hated, though, how much she cared about what others like Dylan thought.

  It wasn’t until noon that her mood improved with a text from Jacob.

  How’s it going, sweetheart?

  She liked him calling her that.

  Okay. Work’s been a slog.

  Poor Luna. Wish I could help.

  You already have.

  Well, good. You free tonight?