Safe Word: Oasis 5: Mina's Heart

by Michele Zurlo

  “I’m not going to blindfold you yet. I want you to see what’s going on. It’s important for you to know exactly how I’ve bound you. I won’t always allow you this consideration.”

  His expression was on the somber side of grave. Mina was puzzled by how seriously he was taking this ritual. Then he slid a finger between the stiff leather cuff and her skin. The other times, he’d used ones made from a soft, bendy material.

  “Wiggle your fingers.”

  She did, and he seemed satisfied with what he saw. He moved to the other side of the bed and secured her other wrist.

  “These are a bit stiffer, less forgiving if you tug on them. Let me know if your circulation gets cut off so I can adjust you.”

  She had no problem informing him of any discomfort she might feel. “I will.”

  Then he moved to the end of the bed and bound her ankles to the posts there. She hadn’t counted on that. Sure, he’d said that was what he was going to do, but he’d never done it before. When he finished, she was spread wide open, and she felt completely helpless.

  He crawled on the bed, knelt between her legs, and came down on his hands to hover over her. “Tell me how you feel.”

  Though she’d blurted the words before, she meant them. Her heart softened, and she gave him a brilliant smile. “I love you.”

  He returned her smile and brushed a kiss over her lips. “I love you too, but that’s not what I meant. I’ve bound you so that you can barely move. You’re naked and at my mercy.”

  When he said it like that, it didn’t sound half-bad. It felt different but still wonderful. Lifting her head, she smacked a kiss on his mouth. “I like being naked and at your mercy.”

  A deep satisfaction lit his eyes to a sparkling green. “Good, because I like having you this way.”

  From the back pocket of his shorts, he produced the sleeping mask he used as a blindfold. Mina tugged on her restraints, forgetting for a second that they weren’t going to allow her to move. “No. I want to see you.”

  “You will. I promise. This is for foreplay only. Now, that climax I gave you was your only freebie tonight. If you want to climax again, you must ask for permission.”

  She blinked, not certain if she liked his audacity. He’d warned her that he was controlling, but she didn’t think he was that extreme. “Are you kidding?”

  “Not even a little.” He regarded her with an expression she couldn’t read. “You belong to me, Mina. Your heart, your body, and your orgasms. You’ll have them only with my permission, or there will be consequences.”

  At least he hadn’t threatened to spank her. After those first few times, he hadn’t mentioned it again.

  He shifted, moving to sit next to her. “Now is the time to stop this, Mina. If it’s not what you want, tell me. I’d never do anything you didn’t want.”

  She marveled at his assertion. How could he possibly know what she wanted? “You didn’t ask me if I wanted to be tied up.”

  Tracing a fingertip from her wrist to her hip, he pressed his lips together. “I gave you a safe word.”

  “So if I don’t use it, you take that as permission?”

  “Generally. I told you what I was going to do, you said, ‘All right,’ and then I did exactly what I said I was going to do.”

  He had her there. It was a convoluted logic that took permission to bind her as handing over control of her orgasms to him, but she really didn’t want to argue. She could play this his way tonight and see where it got them.

  She nodded. “All right. But when we make love for the first time, I want to hold you in my arms and see you with my eyes.”

  He grinned and kissed her cheek. “Don’t forget to ask permission to climax. I’m not open for negotiation on that point.”

  She didn’t feel that she’d negotiated anything. He slipped the mask over her eyes and stole her vision. Exhaling the breath she hadn’t known she was holding, she coached her shoulders to relax. She was going to be sore tomorrow if she kept pulling on her restraints.

  He kissed her foot. She felt the sure pressure of his strong lips along her instep. The sensation moved up her leg. It felt like he was using his hands and his lips. Any apprehension left over from their conversation drained from her. Uncertainty fled. She could handle being bound like this if he wanted to pamper her body with his hotly sensual caress.

  By the time he made it to her arms, she had changed her mind. The relaxation that had spread through her body turned to a tension that wrung soft moans from deep in her throat. She wanted to writhe, but he’d drugged her body with the methodical way he’d marked every inch of it as his.

  The only part of her he’d skipped was her pussy. It wept. The scent of her arousal diffused through the room, a desperate perfume she wished was more effective in motivating him to touch her tender pink folds.

  “Please touch me. I ache.”

  He grazed his lips across hers, lingering there. She felt the insistent heat of his tongue demanding entrance, and she opened for him. He hovered over her, his shirt barely brushing her nipples as they strained upward. She arched her back the best she could and was rewarded with momentary physical contact.

  Breaking away, he made his way down her body with wild, wet kisses. The ardent journey of exploration had ended, replaced with a voracious hunger. He stopped between her legs to feast, licking and sucking, massaging with his lips and scraping erotically with his teeth. Primed and ready, she quickly climbed the slope toward climax.

  “I want to come.” She congratulated herself for remembering.

  He paused for a brief second. “No. Breathe through it.” Then he dived back into his task, which now seemed to be torturing her instead of pleasuring her.

  “Ever!” Energy coalesced in her core. She writhed, seeking to get away from his mouth and closer at the same time. His order to hold off conflicted with her body’s driving need. “Please don’t be cruel.”

  He mumbled something against her clit. The vibrations nearly did her in. She panted, quick little breaths that did nothing but highlight her need.

  “Please, Ever. Please let me come. I need to come.”

  “Yes.” He lifted away long enough to hiss permission.

  Her orgasm flooded from deep within, a tide of endorphins releasing to riot through her bloodstream. She didn’t cry out, because it stole her ability to vocalize.

  The cuffs around her legs disappeared, and the cuffs binding her wrists followed. He slipped the mask from her eyes. She blinked in the soft light streaming from the lamps on either side of the bed, and she was able to focus in time to watch Ever undress.

  He climbed on the bed and settled his body on top of hers, holding most of his weight on his elbows. She lifted a hand to caress his cheek. Her hand trembled, though she wasn’t nervous.

  He leaned into her caress, turning to kiss her palm after several seconds. “Last chance, honey.”

  Mina shook her head, refusing to change her mind. She’d waited too long for this. For him. “Make love to me, Everett Burke. Make me completely yours.”

  He went to roll away, but she grabbed at him desperately, holding on despite the tremors in her arms and hands. With a patient smile, he kissed her again. “I’m just getting a condom.”

  “No.” She was on birth control, a fact he couldn’t have missed. She knew he was clean, and he knew she was as well. “No condom. I want to feel you.”

  He hesitated briefly. “I’ve never had sex without a condom.”

  She lifted her knee, rubbing her inner thigh against his hip to invite him closer. “There’s a first time for everything.”

  Chuckling softly, he kissed her again. It returned the serious tone to the situation. He deepened it, letting her know without words how precious she was to him. Then he lifted his hips and reached between them to position his cockhead at her entrance.

  “I’m going to start slow. Let me know if it hurts or if you need me to go even slower.”

  She nodded. Though this was his firs
t time with a virgin, she trusted him to know what he was doing.

  He pushed forward. The sensation was different from when he used his fingers. She felt her tissues stretching to accommodate his size. Though his cock was long and thick, she didn’t think it was too long or too thick.

  Rocking his hips back and forth, he thrust shallowly, deepening each time. She kept expecting it to hurt, but the pinch and sting she’d read about never came. His rhythmic motions sent waves of pleasure through her body. “Yes,” she whispered, encouraging him.

  Then he stopped, and she recognized that he was fully seated and giving her time to adjust to the feel of having him inside her body.

  She planted her feet on the mattress and lifted her hips. “Don’t stop. Please don’t stop. You feel so unbelievably good.”

  “So do you.” He gasped, and she remembered that he hadn’t climaxed yet today. “Put your hands on my shoulders, honey. Keep them there or on the bed.”

  She’d wanted to touch him, but she knew the fragile thread of his control might break. He wanted to make this good for her. She couldn’t sabotage his intentions.

  His skin burned beneath her palms, and his muscles rippled as he shifted slightly. Lifting his hips, he withdrew a little. He rocked into her body, watching her face. She didn’t have time to analyze what he might be thinking, because the sated feeling of her last orgasm had fled. Having his cock inside her renewed her body’s demand for another climax.

  She wanted him to go faster, but he took his time. He varied his rhythm until he found the one that made her gasp. Mina felt her eyes roll back into her skull as her vision went gray. She arched closer and moved her hips to meet his thrusts, and she gripped his shoulders so hard it hurt her hands.

  All control fled. She was a wild thing, a newly minted sexual being. A climax washed over her, bringing welcome relief. She cried out, but he didn’t even slow down. His only acknowledgment was a grunt of warning. She’d come without permission.

  The orgasm pulsed harder and harder. Unable to make her limbs respond, she slackened her grip, and her hands fell to rest on the pillow under her head. Ever nodded, a gleam of satisfaction competing with the predatory glint in his eyes. She felt the beginning flutters of her next orgasm, which promised to put the last one to shame.

  “Oh no you don’t.” He reached down and closed his hand around her thigh and lifted it high on his hip. He altered his rhythm, opting for a circular motion that teased her sweet spot.

  It kept her where she was, on the verge of something earth-shattering. The feelings of pleasure neither increased nor decreased, which drove her to a desperate place. She wanted to move, to meet his thrusts, but he’d pinned her with his hips and the position of her leg, and she didn’t have enough energy to fight him.

  “Ever, please. Oh please.”

  He dipped his head and took her lips in a soft kiss, communicating that he was in control of his body and her pleasure. “I could make love to you for hours. You’re so sweet and sexy, utterly irresistible. You deserve to be thoroughly loved, worshipped, used.”

  With that, he increased the pace of his thrusts. She cried out at the sudden change and the way her greedy pussy seemed to beg for more. Being used didn’t fit with her idea of being loved or worshipped, but she wasn’t going to argue. She didn’t necessarily want to be worshipped, and she loved the way he was using her.

  In moments, they climbed the sheer face of that rock. Delicious heat pooled like lava everywhere he touched her. “Ever, please let me come.”

  “Yes.” He thrust in short, fast, hard motions, knocking her into flight.

  The orgasm pounded her body, thumping between her legs in time to the sound of her heartbeat that echoed in her ears. She shouted half syllables, each word meaningless as soon as she abandoned it.

  Several thrusts later, he followed. His entire body convulsed as his cry melded with hers. She felt the hot jets of his semen bathing her cervix. He thrust once more and collapsed on top of her, the whole idea of supporting his weight on his arms forgotten.

  When she could, Mina wrapped her arms around his neck and held him close. She’d never felt so much a part of another person before. Ever had been right to hold off, to celebrate the sanctity of their first time together. Her first time having sex involved a level of love and care that left her exposed and vulnerable. In the safety of his arms, she could accept and embrace laying herself bare like this.

  Limbs and bodies entwined, they trembled together.

  * * * *

  Ever woke suddenly in the middle of the night. Cocooned safely in his arms, Mina didn’t stir. His heart thundered as the weight of what he’d done settled over him. After months of waiting, he’d finally claimed Mina, body and soul. He didn’t regret waiting. That had been necessary. He never wanted her to look back at their first time together with remorse.

  But that wasn’t the weight that crushed him now. He finally understood what his father had been trying to tell him: he’d lied to Mina. He’d made love to her without letting her know exactly what love meant to him. She’d consented to the act under a false notion that he’d nurtured by not correcting it.

  At the moment when it had mattered the most, he’d betrayed her by not being honest. Perhaps she wouldn’t regret their first time together, but he would never be able to treasure it. He had to make it up to her.

  He had to be the man she thought he was.

  The next day, after she’d returned home, he purchased a steamer trunk. He placed it in his bedroom, on the floor under the window. It was out of the way but still present in the room, a physical reminder of what needed to be done.

  He still didn’t think she was ready to hear the truth, and perhaps part of him was afraid he would lose her if he came clean too quickly. Until he could be utterly honest, he vowed not to dominate her again. No more bondage. No blindfolds. No insisting she ask before climaxing. He would do none of those things again without her permission.

  He lined the bottom of the trunk with a blanket. The first layer consisted of canes and crops, implements he’d kept hidden in closets and drawers. Another blanket went in next, separating the floggers and ropes. Next he packed various dildos and vibrators into clean plastic bags. Lastly he added the restraints and blindfolds he’d been using on her.

  At last he closed the lid, promising himself that it wasn’t a final act. One day, he and Mina would open that trunk, and together, they’d explore the contents.

  Chapter Six

  Pale timber rose from the ground, stretching upward in a dizzying design that seemed both larger and smaller than it had on the plans. The rough frame for Everett’s house was nearly complete. With a loan from his parents, he was making his dream come true ahead of schedule. Mina could make out the bones of the massive great room, and she could appreciate how it flowed into the dining area and kitchen.

  It was vacant today, a barren structure that seemed to have been abandoned before it could reach its full potential. Much like her career aspirations.

  In the distance, she could hear the sounds of men working on Wilder’s house. It was a few days further along, courtesy of Ever’s generous heart. They were using the same workers, and Ever had agreed to let them finish framing Wild’s house first.

  It amazed her how different the two houses would be. Wild had chosen an A-frame model that would feature a lot of wood and stone. Ever, with her blessing, had gone a more contemporary route. The house would be spacious but modern. No elk heads would ever grace the walls, not that they would at Wild’s place either. Well, unless they were photographs. Wilder had an amazing skill with a camera.

  Arms slipped around her waist. “It’ll be finished next summer. Will that be enough time?” Ever strung a line of kisses along her neck.

  She leaned into his embrace and closed her eyes to enjoy the tingles that shot down her spine. “Mmmm. Time for what?”

  “Time for you to move in with me.”

  Those tingles turned a little cold. She couldn�
�t afford even half of a place like this. She had no job and no fucking prospects for one.

  Ever didn’t seem to notice. He continued explaining. “I figure that would be enough time for your mother to be comfortable with us moving forward in our relationship. I want you to meet with the designer and start choosing the paint colors and furniture.”

  Mina wanted nothing more than to stay where they were in their relationship. It was a good place. They loved each other. They spent a lot of time together, even traveling for weekend getaways. They made love frequently. But they didn’t talk about settling down or anything serious like that.

  At times, though, it seemed like Ever was hiding something. After the first night he’d made love to her, things had altered. He no longer tied her up or blindfolded her when they played.

  She couldn’t complain about the quality of his lovemaking. He was sweet and generous, always making sure she had an orgasm. Sometimes when she was about to climax, she would catch him with a certain look on his face, as if he was fighting an internal battle. But the expression would disappear quickly. He’d do something incredible with his lips or his fingers or his dick, and she would forget everything but the way he made her feel.

  Other times he seemed to want to say something to her, but he didn’t. She didn’t know why he was guarding his feelings, but since she was also hiding stuff from him, she didn’t pry. If she did, then she might find herself explaining about things she’d rather not discuss. Like the concept of moving in with him.

  “Okay.” It was easier to agree than to explain why she didn’t want to meet with a designer. Ever always demanded answers. He wanted to know how her job search was going, if she was looking at all, if she had decided against engineering, and why she refused to talk about her father.

  He didn’t interrogate her or push for responses. Instead, he peppered casual questions into other conversations. You look lovely in that dress you made. You could be a fashion designer. Behind every comment, she heard the underlying questions he never voiced, but that he must surely be thinking. You graduated five months ago. Why aren’t you employed?