edge, but she knew better. This was her punishment, and she wasn’t about to add on to her sentence. Surely he was almost done?
She leaned back, sucking in air through her nose and blowing it out through her mouth. She could do this. She’d almost managed to convince herself when he slanted his mouth over her and plunged his tongue deep. A low scream built in her chest and she tensed, ready to tumble, but he tore his mouth away one moment too soon and she nearly wept.
“I’m sorry. I-I shouldn’t have said that to you. I shouldn’t have worn the panties.” Her overloading brain floundered wildly for more things to apologize for. Anything to make him finish it. To slip a finger inside and work her until she was over the edge, cover her swollen clit with his mouth and massage it with that skillful tongue until she went spiraling into oblivion.
It was so close, she could touch it. He thumbed her clit lightly, the touch so much but not nearly enough. What did he want to hear? What would free her from this sensual torture?
She stilled and held her breath, desperately trying to feel past the hands intent on killing her with pleasure so she could focus in on him. He was breathing at least as hard as she was. The hand that caressed her shook with need. This was as much of a torture for him as it was for her. So how to throw him over the edge?
“I need it.” The words tripped from her lips in a whisper. “I need it so bad. You want it too, don’t you? To push that thick cock into me?”
His responding grunt was punctuated by his finger parting her and sliding into her.
“Feel it? How hot and wet I am for you?”
His finger pressed forward, rewarding her with another shallow thrust. She bounced her hips lightly and moaned.
“Fuck it,” he snarled.
Elation soared through her as the bedsprings creaked. A zipper sounded, then the rustle of clothes before he returned to the bed, rough hands gripping her ankles. His strength was a constant, like one wrong move could break her, but she couldn’t muster even an ounce of regret over that fact.
He lifted her legs high into the air, folding her in half until her toes nearly touched her nose and her ass was off the mattress. Then, without so much as a warning, he thrust into her with a muttered curse, his huge cock battering its way deep into her tight channel, a brutal possession.
It should have hurt, but she was so far past ready, there was nothing but razor-sharp pleasure as her body stretched to accommodate him. He held himself still for a long moment, his cock twitching inside her, setting off tiny tremors. Then he started to move, working himself in and out at a torturous pace. The drag of his flesh against hers almost too exquisite to bear.
She was dangling by a thread, preparing for free fall.
“Do you want to come on my cock now, Ms. Mack?” His voice was so low, it could’ve belonged to a stranger. But it didn’t. It was Rafe and her body was aware of every inch of him as he took her. Her mind whirred, searching desperately for a part that was still capable of thought.
Finally, she choked, “Yes.”
“Don’t,” he commanded through gritted teeth.
Despair washed over her. Jesus, how could she possibly not? She bit her lip hard enough to taste blood, determined to obey him in spite of her doubts that she could. Determined to stave off the impending tsunami.
But damn did he make it hard. He worked her faster, resting her ankles on his shoulders so that his fingers could dig into her ass, grinding her hips forward to meet his controlled thrusts, pushing himself deeper with every plunge. In and out, the rhythmic slap of skin against skin filling the room.
His thumbs dug deeper into her hips and she could practically feel the bruises forming, but she didn’t care. The pleasure and pain were so connected, each intensifying the other, that it hardly mattered anymore. There was only one thing on her mind, and that was Rafe.
In the next moment, the blackness was gone, and cool air rushed over her face as she blinked, quickly adjusting to the dim light. She took in everything hungrily. Her ankles draped around Rafe’s neck, his big hand gripping her shoe, the way his biceps rippled with every plunge, and finally, his long, thick cock, gleaming with wetness, sliding in and out of her. His thrusts became wild, and her brief reunion with sight was gone as her vision went hazy.
Don’t come, she willed herself as the waves dragged her deeper and deeper. Do not come.
“Come,” he growled, his hips working like pistons now, fucking her so hard, her teeth clacked together. “Come for me now, love.”
And she did. It came on like a locomotive, tearing through her with an intensity that rocked her. “Oh my God,” she chanted over and over as the shock waves crashed over her again and again. Before her body had stopped convulsing, he followed behind, throwing his head back and letting out a groan.
His eyes were closed, his neck tense, tendons standing out in stark relief as his cock twitched and bucked inside her. The movement sent her flying again and she rode him restlessly to a second, soul-rocking climax.
It took a while before she could see again, and for the blood to stop rushing in her ears. When she managed to look up, she found him staring down at her.
“You’re so gorgeous, it hurts,” he said simply. He slid her ankles off his shoulders, pressing a kiss to one before settling them onto the bed. “I’m going to clean up. Give me two minutes.”
She watched him go, her satisfaction so complete, so all-encompassing, she almost forgot…
“Wait, I’m still tied up! Aren’t you going to let me go?”
He didn’t look back, his low, sexy laugh sending her senses humming. “Of course.”
She slouched back and resigned herself to waiting a couple more minutes to scratch the itch on her nose, when he stuck his head out of the bathroom.
“As soon as I’m done with you.”
She gaped at him incredulously. Surely, he was done…
He strode over to the safe against the far wall, supremely confident in his nakedness. Nudging the still-cracked door with a toe, he swung it open and then reached inside, retrieving a black briefcase.
He slung it onto the small dining table and flicked the catch with his thumb. “Surely you didn’t think you were going to get away that easily,” he murmured softly. Her jangling nerves started to get the better of her when she glanced down to see his cock already thickening and at the ready. He reached inside the case and pulled out what looked like a slim, leather-bound wand. A dozen long, thin strips of leather sprouted from the tip like a fountain.
Was that a—
“Flogger,” he said softly, padding toward the bed. “Time for your punishment, Ms. Mack.”
Chapter Nine
“Toy boat.”
The words were out before she could even think. Watching him prowl toward her looking lethal—sexy as hell, but lethal nonetheless—with the leather strips of the flogger slapping softly against his hand? The panic had taken over.
Rafe stopped mid-stride and nodded curtly. “Roger that.”
The shadow of regret passing over his face made Courtney’s stomach clench. She wasn’t afraid he would truly hurt her. Not really, it was just a knee-jerk reaction to being helpless and all the possibilities that had terrified her. She opened her mouth to take it back, tell him she’d changed her mind, but he was already in motion again, setting the flogger back into the case.
He tugged on his boxers and faced her again, a warm, patient smile on his face. “I’m going to come over there and untie you now, okay?” He waited for permission before approaching her, and her stomach went flippy again.
So strange how one second, he was in total control, dictating their every action, and now with the utterance of two silly words, he wouldn’t even touch her without her explicit agreement.
While the knowledge was incredibly empowering, she was coming to the stunning realization that she liked things better before. When he’d had the reins and she had trusted him enough to manage them properly. Now she felt unsure, wishing she could
“You okay?” His mouth was close to her ear as his fingers worked at the knots and his warm breath sent a shiver through her.
“Yes,” she said, trying to cover the quiver in her voice so he wouldn’t know she was on the brink of tears. This was it. He was going to untie her, and she was going to get dressed and then they would leave separately and this would all be nothing but a memory. When the tension binding her hands together released and the scrap of cloth fell away, she’d never felt less free. This time, there was no stopping the tears.
“What’s the matter?” Rafe asked, pulling the sheet up to cover her before taking her wrists gently in his hands. “Are you hurt?” The horror on his face only made her cry more.
“N-no.” She hiccuped and pulled her hands away so she could use them to cover her miserable face. “I just w-wish I didn’t say toy boat,” she admitted.
“Is that so?”
“Yeah.” She shrugged helplessly. “I don’t even know why I said it. Nerves, I guess. The fear of the unknown. I hate that because I like to think I’m tougher than that.”
“I think you’re pretty tough, but I do agree that it’s scary to try something you’ve never tried before, especially when you also feel helpless,” he said softly. “But do you think maybe another part of the reason was that you wanted to make sure it would work?” He motioned for her to move over and then sat down on the bed next to her.
She swiped the tears away and considered his words. Was that it? Had she subconsciously needed to test the system? To test him so she could be sure he was worthy of her trust?
If so, that was crappy of her, especially since he hadn’t done anything to make her distrust him so far. “I’m sorry. As you know, I had some…issues in the past with a guy.” She stopped short and let out a slow breath, debating how much she wanted to share.
Rafe laid a gentle hand on her hip and squeezed. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
Oddly enough, after a few seconds of soul searching, she realized that wasn’t the case at all. “I want to. It’s just hard because it’s embarrassing. I was so dumb and naive.”
“I’m not going to judge you, Courtney. We all make mistakes.”
“His name was Wes,” she began slowly. “He was an assistant professor in the anatomy department of the grad school I went to. I crushed on him almost immediately, but he had a girlfriend and I was too busy with school to get seriously involved with a guy in any case. We met again at an alumni dinner a year after I graduated, and we clicked.”
The memory was a weird one, because she could still see the Wes she thought she knew through those rose-colored glasses, but hot on its heels was the image of real Wes. Controlling Wes. Sternly disapproving Wes.
She wriggled until she was seated, using the headboard as a back support, before she continued. “Anyway, I won’t bore you with the details but he was everything I could have wanted. Everything I’d ever dreamed of in a guy, until we moved in together. It was like night and day—”
“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” he finished softly.
“Right. He started picking my friends and, after a while, I had none left. As archaic as it sounds, I had a curfew.” She blew a lock of hair from her face and shook her head, trying her damnedest to fight the waves of humiliation rolling over her. “A grown woman. With a curfew. It was never spoken out loud, so it didn’t seem so bad, but we both knew if I wasn’t home by nine p.m. there would be hell to pay.”
“Did he hit you?”
The cold, contained fury in Rafe’s voice almost made her feel sorry for the criminals he dealt with on a day-to-day basis. He could be terrifying. But not with her.
“No,” she assured him. The tension that had gripped his body relented some as he settled in closer to her, his hip a comforting weight against her bent knee. “I think that’s the part that makes me feel the stupidest. Maybe if he hit me, I’d have a better excuse for staying so long.”
“Sometimes emotional scars are worse than physical ones. I think you should focus on the strength it took to walk away. That’s not easy to do when you have a history with someone, and you’ve invested your life and time into a person. A lot of people never leave.”
She digested that and held it close, letting his kind words wrap around her like a blanket. “If things hadn’t escalated, who knows how long I would’ve stayed? But he crossed the line. I’d been working at a hospital for about a year and there was a doctor there who I became friendly with. He was a great guy, married with two sweet kids. He sent me a totally innocuous joke e-mail one day and Wes had taken to checking my accounts. He actually came into the hospital and created a huge scene, ranting at the guy in front of staff and patients.”
Her hands shook at the memory, but Rafe’s steady grip on her hip calmed her enough that she was able to continue.
“It was quite literally the last straw. I packed my stuff and was gone the next day but it obliterated my career at the hospital. Rumors started. It caused a rift between my doctor friend and his wife that I later found out took months to repair. Eventually, I had to quit. I decided I needed a fresh start, and you know the rest.”
He nodded and worked up a little smile. “You moved to Rhode Island and took our tiny state by storm.”
“I don’t know about that,” she said with a laugh. Maybe talking about her past hadn’t absolved her of her part in what had taken place, but she felt a hundred pounds lighter having shared it with Rafe.
“Well, for what it’s worth, I’m proud of you for getting out.”
“Thanks.”
The silence that followed was the most uncomfortable she’d ever experienced, but she couldn’t bring herself to break it. The elephant was still very much in the room and she didn’t know how to approach it. Rafe shifted, moving to stand, and her heart took a nosedive.
“Don’t go.”
She might not know exactly how this was all going to turn out, but the thought of letting him walk away was more than she could bear.
“I want a mulligan.”
…
Rafe pushed himself to his feet, trying to get a handle on his clamoring pulse and the raging need to climb back into bed with Courtney and forget those two words.
Toy boat.
So telling that she’d chosen them. Toy. Something to play with. A fun distraction. Boat. A getaway. A vehicle to transport a person out into the unknown. Toy boat. Her get-out-of-subbing-free card, and she’d played it. Now, as a dom, it was his job to accept it with grace and end the scene, which he had.
Only, fuck, now she wanted a mulligan. Would he be taking advantage if he allowed it? Technically, the scene had ended and beginning again would be a new experience for them both. Technically.
He blew out a sigh and stared down at her, regret bitter on his tongue. She looked so hopeful, so vulnerable, he hated the thought of crushing that. He’d been encouraging her to be open to him, and now that she’d taken his words to heart, he was about to throw them back at her.
Anyone who thought it was easy being on top was dead wrong. There was a lot of responsibility, and he was determined not to fuck it up.
“Please, Rafe. I…want this. I want you. And I want to try.”
Her wide eyes drifted over to the case that sat on the table across the room and his gut tightened. He fought the urge to relent instantly. To forget everything else and pick up right where they’d left off.
“I know you regret using your out, but I need to know that you won’t be afraid to use it again if this is too much for you. I was a little bummed for a second this time, but only because I was looking forward to being with you longer. Safe-ing out doesn’t mean that I will think less of you or be disappointed in you. All it means is that today, right now, you aren’t ready for whatever it was we were doing. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
It was important that she did. It was everything.
She nodded but he pushed harder, needing the words.
“I need you to trust me enough to tell me the truth. I need to trust you enough to know that you will. And you need to be sure right now.”
The fact that it took her almost a full minute should’ve made him nervous, but it had the exact opposite effect. It gave him the most profound sense of appreciation for Courtney and her nature. Her face was a mask of contemplation and when she finally nodded—one time—and spoke, her voice rang with total conviction.
“I’m sure.”
He closed his eyes for a long moment, trying to stay calm even as every nerve in his body went on high alert. More time with Courtney and it wouldn’t cost him a scene. He was jazzed as fuck about it, but shut those thoughts down fast. He was a guy fresh off a smoking-hot sexual encounter. It was natural to feel closer to her than he had before, at least temporarily. It had nothing to do with their impromptu date or their heart-to-heart and everything to do with chemistry. Once the dopamine had faded, and he was home in his own bed, everything would go back to the way it was before.
She leaned forward then and kissed his jaw, letting the sheet fall away until her breast nudged his biceps, and his thoughts disintegrated into dust.
“I’m ready to accept my punishment, Mr. Welter,” she murmured.
His cock stiffened at her words and he fought every instinct, demanding that he press her back against the bed, spread her legs wide, and fuck her senseless. It would be so good.
But not as good as it would be if he stuck to the scene. He could take them both to the edge of sanity if he maintained his cool here.
He stood and made his way across the room in purposeful strides. “Present to me on all fours, Ms. Mack.” He took the flogger from the case and turned to face her again. She stared at him, wide-eyed.
“Like”—she rolled onto her stomach and lifted herself onto her palms and knees, sending him a questioning glace over her shoulder—“this?”
He swallowed hard at the sight of her bare ass, plump, round, and ready. “No.” He kept his voice low. Deliberate, in spite of the riot going on inside him. “Lean forward onto your elbows, forehead against the mattress.”
She dropped the top half of her body low as he’d asked and just when he thought the picture couldn’t get prettier, it did. Her bowed back was elegant, the dip of her spine a dream. His hands ached to touch her, but he stayed where he was, sucking in long, steadying breaths.
“I want you to close your eyes now.”
“Okay, they’re closed.”
Her voice was trembling and he resisted the urge to make sure it was from excitement and not fear. He’d know soon enough, and like he’d told her. As much as she had to trust him to respect her boundaries, he had to trust her to utter her safe word if she needed to.
He crossed the room, committing the stunning sight to memory before rounding to the side of the bed, lining up next to her knees.
“Do you know what happens to thieves, Ms. Mack?” he asked softly.
She shook her head against the mattress but didn’t respond verbally. Apparently Ms. Mack wasn’t quite as ballsy as she’d been earlier.
“Normally they go to prison, don’t they? So this is pretty nice of me, wouldn’t you say?”
She nodded and made a little squeaking sound he took as a yes.
“In light of my kindness, after each lash, I’d like you to thank me. Is that understood?” A long pause this time, and he knew she was fighting her own ornery nature that demanded she argue. He almost cracked a smile, imagining the names she was probably calling him in her head, but then she nodded and suddenly shit wasn’t funny anymore.
He kept his tone clipped. “I need the words, Ms. Mack. Are we clear?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
The buzzing in his ears increased tenfold and he looked down to see that his hands were shaking with need.
Well, fuck.
…
It was so quiet, she wondered if he’d even heard her. Not willing to give him any excuse to call it off after her safe-word slipup, she swallowed hard and repeated herself, more loudly this time.
“Y-yes.” God, her legs were trembling, her pulse was pounding, and she was so wet, she was almost embarrassed by it.
Almost.
“Excellent. And when we’re done, if you’re very good, I’ll let you ride my cock.”
His bold words and the raw heat of his tone sent a thrill skittering through her before settling between her hips. She wondered briefly if anyone had ever died from need.
He moved in closer and laid a warm hand on her lower back. “Ready?”
She nodded, stiffening, bracing herself for the first blow, but it never came.
“I need you to take a deep breath and relax. Let your muscles go loose. Try to embrace the pain rather than fight it, all right?”
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