by Nadia Aidan
He thought it would be so easy to charm his way back into her good graces, her life even, but Joshua still did not comprehend that in the intervening weeks since their breakup, many things had changed.
She had changed.
Chapter Six
Warm water pelted Josh’s skin as he stood beneath the spray of the shower. His dark hair clung to his broad shoulders, and he ran his hand through the wet locks, shoving a few stray strands off his face.
Sonya had changed.
He was ashamed to say it, but he’d always taken great pleasure in knowing he exuded a sexual power over her that would make her so easily bend to his will and surrender to him. That was part of the allure of being a Dominant—the need to master, to wield and maintain control.
Outside of bed, Sonya was known to hold her own and stand her ground—for the most part. When it came to him, he would simply turn on the charm and eventually she would submit to him.
He’d grown so accustomed to getting his way with the ballsy beauty that he’d begun to take her for granted.
And look where that got you.
He’d been arrogant, and his arrogance had cost him Sonya. Tonight he’d done the same thing, he’d bulldozed over her, and for a moment he’d had her—but Sonya was different.
She’d changed.
A tremor raced through him at the memory of the look she’d given him before leaving their room. He’d thought Erik was bluffing, that Sonya was simply playing a role, and that he would play along, but her fleeting expression had convinced him of a truth he hadn’t wanted to accept.
Sonya was a true switch—a sub who could also top a Dominant. And her eyes had been honest and resolute before she’d stormed out. She would top him.
Another shudder trembled through him, part trepidation, part anticipation. He knew whatever Sonya planned for him tomorrow he was not going to like. He also accepted that this was beyond her seeking revenge or proving herself.
He had disobeyed her, then provoked her. The dominant elements of her nature would not let such a challenge go unanswered.
Just the thought roused his sleeping cock. Remembering how she’d flogged him tonight and denied him release made it weep with pre-cum.
She’d been exquisite, all black leather with the scent of authority radiating from her pores. It had turned him on then, it turned him on now.
Josh was certain he wasn’t a switch, he’d never submitted to a woman, but he wanted to submit to Sonya. He’d been game at first because he’d imagined she was acting out and he would eagerly play along if that was what she needed to get back at him, but this was no act, and they were past the point of playing games. He wanted to give up his power, his control, to discover just how far she was prepared to go to humble him.
He liked this new Sonya. The thrill of pushing against her walls, only for her to deflect him, heightened his need to master her. They were now locked in a battle of wills, and for the first time since he’d understood his nature as a Dominant, Joshua didn’t care if he won—to Sonya, he would gladly lose.
The thought of Sonya taking control of his body, his desires, sent a hot pulse of desire skyrocketing through him. His cock was so hard it ached and he stroked it lightly, fisting his flesh with his wet palm. Water beat furiously against his body as he jacked his cock, pumping and stroking it to the image of Sonya clad in black leather, her eyes glittering with passion, with desire as she’d struck him with that flogger.
Heat throbbed between his legs, swelling his dick. He squeezed his shaft tighter, milking himself hard. He could smell the scent of leather mixed with the sweet fragrance of her aroused cunt. Joshua inhaled deeply, trapping the pleasant aroma within his lungs before he slowly exhaled. He could even feel the sting of the flogger against his skin, and he imagined the water from the shower pelting his flesh, striking him as she had earlier.
Resting his forehead against the slippery tiles, he closed his eyes, a ragged groan filtering past his lips. He worked his hand faster, pumping his cock with a hypnotic rhythm that sent a jolt of pleasure and need rocketing through his body. Sonya’s face, her passionate eyes, the curves of her body—he imagined losing himself within her, inside her.
The fantasy was one that had sustained him over the weeks of her absence, but this time it was different. She restrained him to the bed, his arms suspended over his head. Lashes from a whip crisscrossed his chest, evidence of her need to discipline him. A knot of desire tightened in his gut at the image of her still clad in all leather, mounting his body, riding his cock, her breasts spilling over her corset and bouncing with every undulation of her body.
Sonya’s hair danced around her bare shoulders, her lips parting as moans of pleasure spilled from them. Joshua fisted his cock harder, faster, tighter. He could feel her drenching him with her arousal that was heightened by her domination of him, her pussy tightening around his flesh as she came on a soft cry.
His orgasm took him by surprise and Joshua gasped, his body shuddering as he spurted his semen in thick ropes against the tiles. He continued to stroke his flesh, a long, low groan rumbling out of him until the quakes shaking his body began to dull.
When he was able to breathe normally, he opened his eyes and ran his hand down his face, wiping away some of the droplets there. Even though the water had begun to turn cold, Joshua remained there under the cool spray, hoping the chill would ease the need pumping through his body. Yet once again his skin was feverish, his cock beginning to harden as thoughts and images of Sonya crowded his brain.
She was his obsession, she had always been, he just hadn’t realized how much he needed her, depended on her, until she’d left him.
He looked forward to their session tomorrow, already preparing himself for whatever she had planned for him, because he knew she would do her best to make him back out and renege on the rest of their sessions, but he had no intention of doing that.
Sonya would try, but she would not break him, he would accept whatever punishment she meted out until she finally realized there was nothing she could say, nothing she could do that would make him walk away from her. He’d made that mistake once and it had cost him—he wasn’t about to make that mistake with her ever again.
* * * * *
Many things had changed for Sonya lately, and not just how she now spent her nights. This morning she was up late, so late it was almost noon. Before her breakup with Josh, she would be up at dawn and into work before rush hour to take care of business at The Red Velvet Rope. It surprised her that she missed her busy mornings as much as she did. She wasn’t used to having what she could only describe as lazy days, but with her new position at The Sanctuary, work didn’t start for her until the sun went down.
This morning she was prepared to simply enjoy her free day, starting with a hot cup of coffee before she sat down to read the day’s paper. That was why it came as a surprise when just past noon the doorbell rang.
Leaving her kitchen table, Sonya went to answer the door, a small smile curving her lips when she saw her guest through the peephole.
“I tried calling,” Katherine said as soon as Sonya opened the door. “But your cell was turned off and the home phone just kept going to voicemail.”
Sonya stepped aside to let Katherine in. “It’s fine. You know you’re always welcome here, which is why you’re on my visitor’s list.”
“I wasn’t sure.” A teasing glint sparkled in Katherine’s eyes. “Josh’s name is conspicuously absent from that list these days.”
She smiled at Katherine. “He told you about that, huh?”
“Seth did. Can’t say I blame you.”
Sonya followed behind Katherine who headed straight for the kitchen. That was when she noticed the brown bag in her friend’s hand.
“I brought lunch.” Katherine’s perceptive gaze swept across her kitchen table, where a half-eaten bagel sat next to an empty carton of yogurt. “But I take it you’re not hungry.”
Sonya shook her head. “Late breakfast, b
ut thanks.”
Katherine responded with a slight arch to her brow, but she easily understood what Katherine left unsaid. Sonya, always up at the crack of dawn, never took a late breakfast.
“Well, I’m starved,” Katherine remarked and began to unpack the subs she’d brought before taking a seat at Sonya’s kitchen table. Sonya joined her, reoccupying the seat she’d vacated just moments ago.
Silence stretched between the two women while Katherine ate, and Sonya patiently waited. She knew Katherine well, having become very close to her when Katherine had begun dating Seth. She’d immediately hit it off with the other woman, coming to genuinely admire and respect her the more she got to know Katherine. Eventually they’d become inseparable, forging such a strong bond of friendship that they met up at least once a week and rarely a day passed without them talking on the phone. That was why Sonya was not surprised that Katherine had shown up—two days had passed since their last conversation, and she already suspected Joshua had told Seth about his encounter with her at The Sanctuary, which meant Katherine knew as well.
“I know why you’re here,” Sonya said finally after several minutes ticked by as Katherine ate her lunch, pretending as if nothing was amiss, but Sonya knew her far too well.
Katherine immediately set her sandwich down. “Good, because I didn’t know how to broach the subject, and it was killing me waiting for you to just spill it.”
Sonya chuckled. “And what is it that you want me to spill? If Joshua talked to Seth, then I’m sure you already know the whole story.”
“I seriously doubt that.” Katherine frowned then. “Is it true? That you’re now a Domme at The Sanctuary?”
Katherine’s eyes rounded at her small nod. “But how? I thought you were a sub, not a switch, and certainly not a Dominatrix. What are you doing, Sonya?”
“I’m trying to figure that out,” she replied on a small sigh. “I didn’t think I was a switch, but now I’m not so sure. I can’t tell you how it felt that first time being in control, and when I’m with Joshua, the feeling is even more intense.”
Katherine’s eyes softened. “Do you think it’s that way with Joshua because of your feelings for him, or because you think this is a way to punish him?”
Katherine’s whispered words forced Sonya to stare deeply into her friend’s eyes, which in that moment were a mirror to her soul. “Both.”
“I can’t explain it in words,” she continued after a lengthy silence hovered between them. “But I can tell from the look in your eyes that you don’t quite understand what is going on with me. This isn’t some game, or some passing amusement just to get back at Joshua. What I feel inside when I am in control, i-it’s just indescribable. I thought I enjoyed surrendering, and I know I do, but I cannot deny the pleasure that comes over me when I am dominating Joshua either. It’s real, and I can only suggest that you visit one evening and watch me with Joshua, and hopefully it will make sense to you.”
“Visit The Sanctuary? And watch you with Joshua?”
Sonya nodded.
“Are you serious?”
“Completely.”
Katherine stared at her with a mixture of shock and disbelief. “I don’t know. Even if I could convince Seth, I doubt Joshua would appreciate the voyeurism. From strangers, perhaps, but I doubt he would wish for us to be a witness to you dominating him.”
It would only be what he deserved, she thought, remembering the humiliation at discovering Joshua on a date with another woman—a pointed indicator that she was not even in contention for his serious affections. Sonya did not voice that she wished for Joshua to experience the humiliation she’d once felt. Instead she replied, “Before you feel pity for him, just remember, this was Joshua’s idea and his decision, not mine. I wanted nothing to do with him, at The Sanctuary or elsewhere. He was the one to force the issue. If you decide to visit, speak with Erik, the owner. There are two-way mirrors in most of the rooms and if all parties agree, you and Seth would be allowed to view me and Joshua at any point in the evening. It’s your call.”
Chapter Seven
It’s your call.
Seth had said the same thing later that day when Katherine had posed the question of visiting The Sanctuary that evening.
Katherine could not deny she was intrigued. The Sonya she knew was a true submissive—an assertive woman in power at work and in her daily life, who enjoyed the pleasure of surrendering sexually to a dominant man—just like Katherine.
Yet, to watch Sonya talk about taking on this new role, her eyes had flared with passion, radiating with such a powerful need that Katherine had been compelled to seriously consider Sonya’s invitation.
And that was why she was there now, sitting beside Seth on a red velvet couch in the small room that gave her a clear view into the bedroom where Sonya would soon enter to play out a scene with Joshua as Mistress Anya.
Mistress Anya—and the very idea that Sonya was capable of mastering Joshua should have been laughable, but it wasn’t.
Just a glimpse of Joshua, naked and bound facedown on the bed, suddenly made all of this real. There was nothing laughable about what would soon transpire in this room between two people who were more in love with one another than either of them knew, but still so lost that they seemed incapable of moving past their misunderstandings.
She feared mostly for Joshua, who’d put himself at Sonya’s mercy, because she knew Sonya’s pain ran so deep that Katherine wasn’t certain Sonya wouldn’t hurt him before this night was done.
“It was Josh’s choice,” Seth whispered from beside her, easily reading her anxious expression. He linked their hands together, holding their entwined fingers in his lap. “Because he understands Sonya must purge herself of her pain if he is ever going to have a chance at winning her back again.”
“And that’s what concerns me the most. I don’t think Sonya wants to be won back.”
“Maybe not, but the last thing she would ever do is inflict true pain upon Josh. Trust me—that I know the mind of a dominant, and trust her—that somewhere past the pain, she still loves Josh.”
Katherine had no choice but to trust in Seth’s words, that was all any of them could do at this point, because in the next moment, the door swung open, revealing a leather-clad Sonya, whose determined eyes were seemingly shadowed by nothing but revenge.
* * * * *
Joshua knew they watched him, could feel their burning gazes through the window along the wall that masqueraded as a mirror, revealing all that transpired in the room.
Sonya had requested an audience, and Joshua had agreed. It was not an odd request, to have others watch. Besides, he understood her desire to humiliate him in front of their friends and he would not refuse her. It was only what he deserved—he’d told Erik that when he informed him of Seth’s and Katherine’s presence in the other room.
Erik’s stony expression had revealed nothing, for he knew little of the turbulent waters that ran deep between Joshua and Sonya. He’d simply nodded to the two security guards who escorted Joshua into the secluded room and chained him naked and facedown on the bed.
It was only what he deserved.
He’d said the words to Erik, but they’d been as much for himself as they had been for the older man. Sonya had been humiliated by him, treated as nothing more than his sexual submissive. That had not been his intention—to disregard her as a woman. It was simply that in his mind she hadn’t been the right woman.
Sonya was all things sexual, provocative, unknowingly drawing men to her with the blatant allure of her sexuality. She’d too easily reminded him of another woman who’d been equally beautiful and magnetic. Her many infidelities had destroyed his life. He’d never forgiven her, he’d never forgotten her. He’d grown up wanting nothing to do with her, and avoiding any woman like her—until he’d met Sonya.
She was everything he’d never wanted. She was all the things he shouldn’t have. Yet one look in her eyes and he’d taken her, made her his submissive, and he�
��d bound her to him, in every way, except the one that mattered.
She’d wanted his love, his devotion, a lasting commitment. He’d given her none of those things. Instead Joshua had hurt her until he’d lost her, and now he wanted her back, at any cost. Whatever she was determined to do to him this night, or any other, he accepted. It was only what he deserved, and if she needed to hurt and humiliate him as he’d done to her, he would take it if it meant she found her way back to him.
The door opened then as if his thoughts had conjured her. The scent of her arousal mixed with her perfume greeted him long before she filled his vision. She appeared the same as she’d been the night before, with one exception. Her eyes were hard, cold, unfeeling. He’d pushed her too far last night and now she was determined to exact her revenge.
“If you think you shall use that on me then you are mistaken,” he ground out when she came to a stop next to the bed and he glimpsed the object in her hand.
Her features tightened. “You do not issue the orders here, I do. That is unless you have decided to end this.”
“You would like that, wouldn’t you? Watch me throw in the towel and walk away from you.” His voice dipped to a chilly whisper. “I won’t abandon you, Sonya, not ever again.” He paused, his eyes narrowing with the anger that pulsed through him. “But if you think you’re going to fuck me with that thing you are mistaken because when I am free and this is over, I will fuck you so hard and deep, you will not walk for days.”
Sonya started at the vehemence in Joshua’s eyes, her hand curling tighter around the strap-on harness. She did not miss how he’d neglected to call her Mistress, how he neglected to defer to her this evening. He was emboldened tonight. She could change that if she wished, but she did not doubt Joshua for a moment. When he was free, no matter where she ran or hid, he would find her, and he would fuck her until she couldn’t walk for a week—if she was lucky.
“You are defiant this evening,” she said softly, switching tactics. She knew he wasn’t fooled, but she continued nonetheless. “Yet you assured me I could do anything I wanted within these walls, that you would accept whatever punishment I decided upon.” As she spoke she deliberately rubbed the leather harness across his bare ass, letting him feel every ridge of the large rubber cock. He didn’t react, but she knew what would elicit a response. “But now you have changed you mind, which would make you either a liar or a coward. Which one are you, slave?”