Hope glanced at London to find her flushed and fidgeting. Hope shifted her gaze back to Pierce to find him rocking on his feet. He waved a hand through the air. “That’s an exaggeration.”
London shrugged. “Not in my eyes.”
The door to the main room opened, and Colin stepped halfway into the now-crowded reception area. “The men are done in here for the day. It’s relatively safe if you guys want to come inside, but watch where you’re stepping and don’t lean on anything. The paint is wet.” He turned his attention specifically to Hope next. “Good to see you.”
“You too,” she responded as she passed him to join Aaron in the larger room. It was a mess, but the drywall appeared complete, and one side of the room was painted black.
Aaron took her elbow and led her away from the others, pointing around the room. “We had to knock out a few non-weight-bearing walls and move them around a bit. The object is to have a large community space where most of our patrons will spend time.” He aimed his pointer toward one side of the room next. “That hallway has four private rooms guests can use.”
She lifted both brows. Private rooms? Were people permitted to have sex here?
Aaron leaned closer so that his lips were nearly touching her ear before he whispered, “I can practically see your brain churning. It’s a fetish club, baby. People will have sex in here.”
She nodded slightly. “Of course.” Really, she knew that. Sort of. She just hadn’t thought much about it.
“Even in this main room, lots of patrons will be nude or close to it.” He grabbed her shoulders, spun her to face one wall, and nodded toward it. “There will be stations all along the walls with St. Andrew’s crosses, spanking benches, fire-play stations, pulley systems. You name it. But sometimes people prefer to do a scene in private. Thus the rooms along the hallway.”
“I see.”
“I know it’s hard to visualize, but you’ll have to use your imagination.”
“Or,” she suggested, twisting her gaze to meet his, “I could stay in town and see it firsthand.”
He rolled his eyes. “Nice try.” He slid a hand down to clasp hers, tugging her toward the entrance. “Let’s go before we get roped into spending the evening with the rest of these yahoos.” He winked. “Unless you’re tired of being dominated by me and would prefer dinner with my friends.”
“Not a chance.” She waved at everyone on their way by, but Aaron didn’t slow down long enough for them to get caught up in anything that might dig into their last night together.
Their last night… She cringed when she thought those words as they returned to the car. How was she going to convince him to let go of this obsession with her returning to Miami? It seemed imperative that she change his mind. The thought of getting on a plane tomorrow made her heart race and her hands sweat.
Chapter 14
Something was tickling Hope’s shoulder. She shrugged and then swatted at her arm, trying to dislodge whatever was there. A fly? It happened again, dragging her from a hazy dreamlike state to wide awake. She lifted her face off the pillow.
It was dark. Too dark. Aaron’s room hadn’t been this dark last night.
“There she is…” His deep voice was teasing and so close to her ear. “I thought you might sleep all day.”
Whatever had awoken her in the first place touched her shoulder again. Instinctively she swatted at it again too. “Aaron?”
“I think you mean Sir.” He circled her wrists and hauled them over her head.
She swallowed, blinking in the darkness as she realized something was covering her eyes. Blindfold…
A quick assessment of her situation told her she was naked, on her belly, arms now spread wide above her head.
The sheets weren’t even covering her.
Something wrapped around her wrist and made her flinch. Moments later her arm was tugged closer to the headboard. When she gave a slight pull, she realized he had attached her. Wetness flooded her pussy.
Aaron was incredibly fond of securing her. It was also extremely effective. She grew instantly aroused every time. Even coming from a deep sleep. As he moved to her other wrist, she squirmed.
“You like being restrained,” he pointed out.
“Yes, Sir.” She gave another tug, only to prove she was truly fastened to the headboard.
Something tickled her skin again. That something was now traveling down her spine and across her butt cheeks to her thighs. Slowly, it made its way back up to her shoulders.
She inhaled the scent of leather. She wanted to ask what he was teasing her with but decided it might be better to keep her mouth shut. Obviously, they were playing. He’d already set the scene by requesting the respectful use of Sir.
“Safeword?”
“Red, Sir.”
“Good girl. You comfortable?”
She thought about that question for a moment and decided her only discomfort was mental from the unknown. “Yes, Sir.”
Aaron grabbed both her hips and lifted her torso. Before she had any idea what his intentions were, he slid two pillows under her belly. Lengthwise. So that they extended down her thighs.
Next, Aaron pushed her legs wide until her knees rested on both sides of the pillows. The position should have been embarrassing and obscene, but he’d arranged her similarly a few times. He’d even explained that the combination of restraint and exposure made many submissives very horny.
He’d also explained that it was painfully obvious Hope was exactly that type of submissive.
It wasn’t as though she could deny his observation since it only took a quick swipe of his finger between her folds to know she was soaking wet. Even having been dragged abruptly from sleep, she was already aroused.
The presumed leather danced up and down her body again, making her shudder. When he brought it closer to her face and dangled it over her cheek, she realized it was soft strips of leather.
A flogger.
In a slight panic, she forced herself to keep breathing while digging around in her mind for whatever he’d told her about floggers. Finally, she remembered. He’d insinuated striking her with this leather would be even more erotic than when he’d spanked her until she came.
She rocked her hips back and forth to escape the strands of leather that tickled on her back. One thing was for sure, spanking and flogging her was not punishment. She’d mistakenly believed striking her would be a form of discipline. So far from the truth.
“Your skin is so damn smooth. It makes my cock stiff waiting to see what it will look like all pink and warm.”
From striking me with that flogger…
She wasn’t at all sure she was game for this sort of play, and she licked her lips, considering using her safeword.
“I know you’re nervous, baby. But I’m asking you to trust me. I’ve told you I would never harm you. Believe me when I say this flogging is going to make you want to trade in your monthly massages for a Dom with a flogger.”
He might have been joking, but he wasn’t wrong about one thing. She had gotten monthly massages for many years. Everyone did. At least everyone in her mother’s world. Among the growing list of things she now knew she could do without, she added massages. She’d gladly give them up to stay here in Denver and get flogged by Aaron.
“Don’t pull on your wrists, Hope. I don’t want marks on them.”
She flattened her palms on the mattress to ground herself. She hadn’t even been aware she’d been pulling.
“Good girl.” He set a hand on her bottom, fingers pointed toward her sex, and eased his palm down until he could slowly glide his fingers through her folds.
She moaned around the contact, silently pleading him for more. More of anything as long as he made her come. She was growing to understand this was Aaron’s MO. He loved bringing her to the edge of sanity and then letting her stew for a while.
“This is a well-crafted flogger, baby. That means the strands are very supple. I’m going to start slow and easy until
you relax into the contact. You’re going to love it.”
She didn’t respond. Her body was stiff with stress and anticipation. He’d done a lot of things to her in the last several days. They’d experimented with toys she’d only read about. They’d also inched farther and farther away from vanilla with each passing day.
This was decidedly not vanilla.
And she already loved it.
She forced her shoulders to relax and took a deep breath, exhaling it slowly. She trusted him. He’d never given her a single reason not to.
Could he not see how good they were together?
The leather strands lifted off her skin, and Aaron smoothed a palm over her shoulder blade. A moment later the leather whooshed through the air and struck her skin.
The air in her lungs rushed out at the initial contact, and it took a few moments to realize he hadn’t struck her anywhere near hard enough for it to hurt.
Before she could fully wrap her mind around the strange sensation, he landed another strike to the opposite shoulder blade. “That’s it. Deep breaths. Feel the leather. Relax your body, baby.”
It actually tickled. She blew out a breath and tried to relax her muscles.
The flogger struck her again several times, gently. Too gently.
Aaron smoothed his hand over her skin. “I’m going to gradually increase the pressure so that you hardly notice the change. I promise I won’t do anything to suddenly shock you. You okay?”
“Yes, Sir.” In a crazy twist, she actually craved the contact now. She even closed her eyes behind the blindfold and let her cheek sink fully into the pillow.
Aaron set one knee between her legs and leaned his thigh against her bottom. She wished she could watch him above her. She had no doubt the demonstration would be mesmerizing with his bare chest, tight muscles, and tattoos.
The strands of leather hit her again, and then he set up a pattern, alternating back and forth from left to right. Both the rhythm and the soft blows lulled her into a calm state.
If she were honest, he didn’t increase the pressure fast enough. He was right. It felt like a massage. The best sort of massage imaginable. He even inched slowly backward and aimed each strike lower down her back until he reached her bottom.
Now she understood the awkward position better. Her ass was in the air, legs spread open, pussy clenching at nothing.
The flogger landed on her butt now, first the right and then the left cheek. He alternated with the backs of her thighs.
She bit her lip as her arousal rose. Her body was at war with itself—a combination of relaxation created by the massaging thud of the leather and arousal at the proximity to her sex and the bondage.
He set his free hand on her lower back and aimed for her bottom with incredible precision. Every few strokes, a couple of the strands reached between her legs to tease her where she most needed contact.
Suddenly, the flogger came up between her thighs and made direct contact with her pussy.
She cried out, lifting her face as she nearly came on contact.
“That’s a girl. So sexy…” His voice was hoarse. Seductive. He landed several more blows to her butt and then another one against her sex.
She whimpered, her knees shaking. They threatened to give out, but what difference did it make? The pillows were holding her up.
“That’s it,” he soothed with his hand on her back and his voice. “Let it go.”
What did he mean? Did he think she could come from the flogger alone?
Heat suffused her cheeks as she realized she totally could, and if he didn’t stop teasing her, she would.
Stopping was not in his plan, however. In fact, he picked up the pace and the pressure again. Her ass felt warm and sensitive. She had no doubt it was red. Not with pain, though. More like a light sunburn.
Every few strikes landed against her pussy. He was skilled. He never struck her as hard against her sex as he did her butt or thighs.
Suddenly, he changed his tactic and concentrated on a series of strikes directly against her pussy, specifically seeming to target her needy swollen clit, as if that were possible.
She rocked forward, needing to come so badly. Needing him to touch her, thrust into her, ease the mounting pressure.
Instead, he gripped her hip to hold her steady and kept up the assault.
She gritted her teeth as the desire to come built, rising higher and higher until she couldn’t take it anymore.
She shattered, her empty channel pulsing as her orgasm swept through her body.
While she was still shaking, absorbing the waves of pleasure, the flogger disappeared. She heard the distinct sound of a condom wrapper, and then he was between her legs, hands on her hips, cock thrusting into her.
She cried out as her orgasm turned instantly into a second, more powerful release. Fisting the sheet above her head, she braced herself so that she could enjoy every thrust into her.
Aaron held her tight, sliding in and out of her as if he were desperate to get deeper.
She craved the contact. She wanted him to penetrate her, consume her, own her.
The culmination of the last few days had led her to the top of a cliff. Everything about Aaron was right. His gentle concern for her, his warm personality, and his intense dominance. She had become totally his in every way. Did he know that?
He held himself steady finally, groaning through his release. When he was spent but still breathing heavily, he slid his hands up her body, grazing her breasts on the way. First he removed the blindfold, and then he reached for her wrists. She heard the distinct sound of Velcro unfastening.
She smiled. Velcro. Who would have thought?
As soon as he had her free, he tugged the pillows out from under her, wrapped his arms around her body, and collapsed onto his side, taking her with him so that they were perfectly spooned.
His lips landed on her neck. “You okay? Was I too rough?”
“God no.” Her voice cracked. “I loved it.” Would he ever do it again?
He smoothed the hair from her face and nuzzled her closer, wrapping himself around her tightly. Cocooning her in his arms as if he too was already freaking out about her leaving him.
Could she talk him out of it?
She had no choice but to try. “I could stay, you know,” she murmured.
He sighed. “No. You can’t.”
“Why not?” She swallowed back the tears that threatened to erupt at his rejection. Her chest hurt. Perhaps this had all been a game to him. Maybe he was this affectionate with every woman he slept with. She had no way of knowing.
For her, their time together had been life-affirming. She had her eyes open for the first time. She was a new person with no desire to go back to the old.
Aaron released her and rolled away from her. He stood and turned around as he removed the condom.
She turned his direction to see his face as he tugged on a pair of boxers. His expression was serious. “We had a deal.”
Her heart sank.
“You promised me you would get on that plane today if I introduced you to sex for four nights.”
She shoved to sitting, not caring that she was naked. “Four nights of sex?” Her voice rose. “Is that what we just had?”
He nodded. “What else would you call it?” He leaned forward, set his hands on the bed, and met her gaze dead on. “Now, you have to live up to your end of the bargain. You need to go home, Hope.”
“Fuck you,” she blurted as she scrambled to the other side of the bed and off. “Why do you get to decide what’s best for me?” she ranted as she grabbed her clothes from the day before off the floor and stuffed them in the corner of her suitcase.
“Because right now you’re acting like a spoiled brat.” His voice was firm as he approached to stand near her with his hands on his hips.
How the hell had they gone from the best sex of her life one minute to a monster fight the next? Her mind was spinning. Her legs were still shaking from the orgasm.
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She righted herself and met his gaze, seething. “You’re being a condescending asshole.” It was the only thing she could think to say, and she knew it infuriated him.
He didn’t touch her, but he did narrow his gaze. “If you were mine, the next few days would be very uncomfortable for you.”
She laughed maniacally, losing the ability to see any semblance of reason. “Well, thank God I’m not yours. You’ve made that perfectly clear. I’m just some immature bride who jumped into your car and used you for sex.” She bent down again to grab panties and a bra. “Thanks, by the way, for the pity fucks. I hope you enjoyed yourself at least enough to make it worth your while.” She spun around, intent on making it to the bathroom to get in the shower before the tears fell.
Aaron reached out and grabbed her wrist, hauling her into his chest. His arm snaked around her belly. “Stop, before you say something you can’t take back.”
She couldn’t catch her breath. He was sending her away. He didn’t want her. Why had she permitted herself to believe the last four days had been anything more than a series of good fucks for him?
Why had she let herself fall for him?
She struggled to get away.
He held her tighter. “I know you’re pissed, but I need you to listen to me.”
She said nothing.
“Don’t make this about me. It’s not. This is about you. You have baggage, and you need to go clean up your mess. You can’t just walk away from your family and friends and go on with your life without making amends. It’s a cop-out.”
She squirmed in his embrace, so very close to losing her mind. “Let me go, Aaron. Now.”
He sighed and then released her.
She rushed across the room and shut herself in the bathroom, locking the door. Two seconds later, she had the water running and was standing in the shower waiting for it to warm up. At least she was alone.
At least she could stop holding back the tears.
At least he couldn’t see how hurt she was.
Chapter 15
Aaron stared at the bathroom door, running a hand through his hair. “Fuck,” he muttered. “Stubborn woman.”
Trusting Aaron Page 14