Lucia traced her fingers over Martha’s bound flesh, making her groan. Lucia passed the cord from the breast bondage around her waist and tipped her forward on the bed so Martha’s ass was in the air. She threaded the thin smooth rope from the waist tie between Martha’s legs, centering a knot over her clit. She moved her back to sitting and finished the tie by fastening the cord to the back of the halter, defining her breasts. “There. I wish you could see how beautiful you look.”
Martha shifted on the bed and the knot rubbed gently against her clit. She shuddered with pleasure. “Oh. Miss.”
Lucia dug her nails into Martha’s shoulder. “Did I tell you to move?”
“No, Miss. I—”
The slap Martha had been waiting for cracked against her cheek. She clenched and unclenched her fingers around her ankles. She wanted to touch her cheek, feel how hot her skin was from Lucia’s touch. The heat spread across her body, and she moaned softly, craving more from her hand.
“Don’t move unless I tell you. Don’t think. Obey.”
Lucia moved off the bed, and she clasped the rope harness and tugged. The knot rubbed against Martha’s clit again, a whisper of sensation, making Martha groan for more.
“I know what you want, my greedy pet, but first some food.” She brought the cart close to the bed. She picked up the wine and studied the label. “What a wonderful cellar. We’ll have the wine after. Don’t want to dull your senses.” She picked up a slice of apple and held it to Martha’s mouth. “Eat.”
Martha held her gaze as she took the food from Lucia’s hand, relaxing into her bonds. She chewed slowly, watching Lucia’s face for signs of approval. When she was finished, Lucia ate her own bit of apple. They continued their meal, and with each bite Lucia fed her Martha opened to her, relaxed into her care, and knew she’d made the right decision. Breathe. Focus. Obey. Serve. The mantra was the only thought in her head along with her desire to please Lucia and earn the release her body craved.
They worked their way through the plate until only the two chocolate tarts remained. Lucia took the napkin and wiped Martha’s mouth. She held her gaze as she folded the other napkin into a wide band and laid it on the bed. She stood and pushed the serving cart to the side. “We’ll have those with the wine later.” Lucia picked up the napkin she had folded. “Close your eyes.”
Martha obeyed, and the folded napkin covered her eyes and was knotted at the back of her head. She waited. Her pulse was loud in her ears, her senses heightened, her vision blocked by the makeshift blindfold. Breathe. Focus. Obey. Serve. She heard water splashing in the bathroom, the whisper of fabric and the shift of the bed, and she shivered when Lucia touched her, tracing a line with her fingers over her breasts to Martha’s engorged nipples.
“I like this. I wish you could see how beautiful you are, bound for me, total submission on your face. The way your mouth is slightly open as you try to control your breathing.” Lucia’s tongue licked over her nipple, before her teeth grazed the tip. Martha whimpered, the sensation overwhelming, as Lucia repeated her actions with her other breast. She tightened her fingers around Martha’s nipples, and she squeezed and tugged.
Martha fought to keep her balance, and the knotted cord between her legs pulled against her clit. “Oh. Miss. I don’t. I can’t.”
“Shh. Feel.” Lucia tugged her nipples again, and the movement set Martha on fire. The sweet sensation as Lucia tortured her made her squirm, and the more she squirmed, the more the knot on her clit drove her closer to coming. Martha’s world was reduced to Lucia’s hands on her tits and the knot between her legs. In a rhythm now, Lucia’s movements edged Martha closer to coming.
“Please, Miss. Please let me. I need to come. Please.”
Lucia didn’t answer, and her silence was agony as Martha tried to hold on, tried to stop herself, tried to obey the woman who had become her world. “Oh. I can’t. Please, Miss.”
Lucia stopped and withdrew her hands, and Martha cried out with the loss of her touch. A hand on her shoulder and she was rolled to her back. Her legs wide, still bound, open to her Miss’s will. The sensation of Lucia’s warm breath on her leg, a kiss on the inside of her thigh, and the soft brush of her fingers as she pushed inside.
“So wet. So sweet. Your clit is so thick.” Lucia drew her fingers over her clit and squeezed softly as she pushed another finger in and widened the stretch. She stroked slowly, drawing deep groans from Martha.
She arched her back, trying to get more of her Miss’s touch. The movement caused the knot at her clit to rub against her again, and she gasped. “Miss. Oh please, Miss. I don’t know if I can stop.” She shook with the effort not to come.
Lucia pushed another finger in, the sting and burn driving Martha closer as she fucked her slowly. “What is it you need, my greedy one?”
“Please, Miss, more. Please, all of you.” Martha’s voice cracked as she spoke.
Lucia pulled back, and when she pushed forward, Martha’s body shook as she entered her fully. The sensation of completeness with all her Miss’s hand inside her overwhelmed her. With deep thrusts Lucia rocked her. The movement of Martha’s body moved the knot over her clit, a sweet torture. She rode the high until the pain and pleasure overtook her. Her body shook and trembled. “Please. Let me come. Miss. I… For you. I can’t.”
Lucia’s silence was loud in the room, as she kept up her rhythm, expert in her motions. Martha grew desperate, needing to come, overwhelmed, burning with desire. Yes, this. For her. Now. Give her what she wants. What you want. Surrender. Now. Now. Say it.
“Please let me come. Miss. I… Let me. Please.” Martha groaned, biting her lip to keep from screaming.
“Come for me now. Give me what’s mine.” Lucia increased her speed, and Martha’s belly tightened and she clenched around Lucia’s hand, bucking up to meet her thrusts and rocking the knot on her clit, the orgasm crashing over her. She shuddered and came, with no thoughts but the sensations filling her and the woman who fucked her into another bone-shaking orgasm, and another until she had no more to give, as Lucia wrung every bit of passion from her. She stilled her motions, letting Martha come down from the high, before she withdrew her hand and eased Martha to her side.
Delirious and boneless from her orgasms, Martha relaxed as Lucia unknotted and unwound her bonds, moving her and rolling her body as she needed to gain access. The removal of the bindings made Martha shiver and regret the loss of Lucia’s control. Warm hands rubbed her skin, as Lucia massaged her joints. The blindfold was removed, but she kept her eyes closed, remembering her Miss’s directions.
Lucia kissed her in slow and deliberate fashion, her lips soft on Martha’s mouth. “Open your eyes, pet.”
Martha opened her eyes, blinking them a few times to adjust to the light in the room. A flush filled her face. She gazed into Lucia’s eyes a moment before she lowered her chin to her chest, afraid for Lucia to see how much she had loved submitting to her.
Strong fingers clasped her chin, and Lucia raised her head and kissed her again. “Lie down. I’ll get you some water.”
Martha curled onto her side, trying to process her reaction to Lucia’s attentions. Trying to reconcile the way she responded to her, fighting the overwhelming emotions raging in her soul. Guilt filled her as she thought of the way she had betrayed her Madame by her submission to Lucia. She shivered and closed her eyes. Tears squeezed from her eyes, and she pressed the heels of her palms to her eyes to stop them.
Lucia’s hand was gentle on her cheek. “Sit up and drink this.” Martha pushed herself into a sitting position. She swiped at her cheek, desperate to hide the evidence of her distress. She took the water Lucia offered and drank. Her throat was raw, and the cool water soothed her.
Lucia wiped her thumb over Martha’s cheek. She pulled her chin up and gazed in her eyes. Martha handed her back the glass. Lucia placed it on the bedside table and climbed into the bed. She gathered Martha into her arms, and they lay back on the bed. Martha rested her head on Lucia�
��s shoulder.
Lucia carded her fingers through Martha’s hair. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know.”
“An honest answer.” Lucia pressed a kiss to Martha’s forehead. “Too much?”
“Just right.” Martha moved closer to Lucia, resting in the space of her control. “I haven’t…”
“No one but Madame?” Lucia rubbed her hand in slow circles over Martha’s back.
“Yes. I feel like I’ve betrayed her.” She held tight to Lucia, feeding on her strength.
“Do you think she’d see it as such?” Lucia tipped Martha’s chin up to look in her eyes.
“No. But I don’t know how to process this. You.”
“Because you didn’t like giving over to me?” Lucia drew back, her expression wary.
“Because I did.” Martha leaned in and kissed Lucia. “Miss.”
Lucia smiled. “Rest, pet. Time for thinking later.” She wrapped her arms around Martha and held her tight to her. She draped her leg over Martha’s legs, pinning her, keeping her safe in the circle of her body.
THEY SAT ON the bed facing each other. The tray with their plates, holding the remaining bits of the chocolate tartlets, was between them. Lucia poured the wine and passed Martha her glass before taking up her own.
“I love red wine paired with chocolate.” Lucia pressed her finger to the remaining crumbs and lifted it to her mouth. Martha was mesmerized, watching her as she licked the chocolate off her finger.
“I like the way you eat. So many women worry over every calorie.”
Lucia raised her eyebrow. “There was a time in my life when I never knew when I would eat again. I’ve been making up for it ever since.”
Martha tilted her head and met her gaze. “After your mother?”
“Yes. I was sent to live with my father’s family in Northern California. They were farmers. My father had remarried, so I lived with my grandparents who hated me because I looked like my mother. I left as soon as I could. Ran away to LA. Did whatever I could to pay my rent.” Lucia’s tone was flat as if she were telling someone else’s story instead of her own.
“And then you met Madame?”
“I met a man who convinced me I could make large sums of money and be treated like a princess if I traveled with him to Dubai. Only when I got there, I was one of about fifty other girls he had said the same thing to.” Her eyes had a faraway look. She drained the last of her wine and poured herself another glass.
Martha picked up her hand and held it. “You don’t have to go on if you don’t want to. It doesn’t matter to me how you met her.”
“You should know.” She took another sip of her wine. “I was working in a private club. Madame arrived one afternoon. I don’t know how or why, but she picked me out of all the others.”
Martha frowned. “It wasn’t your choice to go with her?”
“She gave me a choice, offered to give me money so I could go back to the States or go with her. But where would I have gone? Back to the farm? Back to a father who wanted to pretend I didn’t exist? Back to a family who treated me like shit because my mom wasn’t white?”
Martha sipped her wine before she brought her gaze back to Lucia’s eyes. “But you wear Madame’s mark. Did you ask for it?” She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer.
“I did. Madame sent me to college. Treated me like I was the most precious thing in the world. She trained me. Never denied me anything I asked for. She never made me participate in any of her occasions. I was hers and hers alone. I love her. But I’ve never known what it is like to be truly free, to be the one who chooses, the one who decides. I owe her my life, and my loyalty until…” Lucia’s eyes filled with unshed tears. She looked up and blinked them back. “Until she’s gone.”
Martha’s heart ached for Lucia. Ached for the pain she had experienced and the prejudice she had suffered. She understood so much more about her now. Understood why she would never be owned again. And understood why Martha would never have the most amazing woman she had met in years as hers.
She placed her wineglass on the nightstand before she scooted off the bed. Martha picked up the tray and carried it over to the serving cart.
She turned to study Lucia’s profile as she sat with her head lowered, her chin resting on her chest. So beautiful. So much pain in her life. So much I want to have with her. So much I can’t ask of her. Martha turned Lucia’s story over in her head. She would make sure whatever she needed or wanted she had, not because Madame wished it, but because Martha wanted to give her the one thing Madame had not. Her freedom.
“Lucia?”
Lucia startled, spilling a bit of her wine on her robe. Martha crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed. She avoided Lucia’s eyes, knowing if she looked in them she would beg Lucia for something she couldn’t give. “I meant what I said. I don’t expect anything of you. You’re free. I’m so grateful for what we had today, but I don’t expect this will be more than what it was.”
“Is.” Lucia’s voice was warm.
“Is?”
“What it is, pet. I’m not giving you up so easy.” She patted the bed next to her hips. “Come sit with me. We have to discuss how this will be. I’m not an autocrat other than in the bedroom, most of the time. Outside I want to be equal. What goes on behind closed doors is between us. I expect you’re not anxious to have your staff know you are a switch.”
Martha slid across the bed next to Lucia. “It would make it difficult. I don’t see myself as a submissive. I’m not. I haven’t been…” She looked down at her hands. “With anyone except Madame. And now you.”
With a shrug of her shoulders Lucia shed her robe. She shifted on the bed so she was centered in front of Martha. “Put those big hands of yours to work.”
Martha started at the top of her back, working her fingers into the tight muscles across Lucia’s shoulders.
“Marvelous. I like it hard. Mmm, just so.”
Martha rubbed her back, pushing her thumbs into the knots of muscles on either side of Lucia’s spine.
Lucia groaned under her hands. “When we go back to Rowan House, I want us to be as we were before. Two Mistresses. Equal. No one but ourselves needs to know about how we are with each other.”
Martha paused in her massage. “Elaine will know we were together here. She’ll ask me. I can’t lie to her.”
“I’m not asking you to lie. I’m asking you to not share details.”
“All right. And there is Millie. She will know we spent the night together, but she won’t say anything to the others. Most of them are on holiday right now.” Myfanwy. Myfanwy will know. Martha chewed her lip. “Have you met Myfanwy?”
“No. Why?”
“She and I… We’ve been… She’s not committed to me, but she knows me. She knows about Madame. She’ll sense how it is with us.”
“Do you love her?” Lucia moved to sit facing Martha. She held her gaze. “Do you want her to commit to you?”
Martha held Lucia’s hand. “I love her. She doesn’t want my collar. She’s said as much.”
“A collar and commitment are two different things.”
“She says she’d have to quit Rowan House if she committed to me, she’d feel she was cheating if she was with anyone else. That she’d want me to be only with her.”
Lucia frowned at her. “And you think she means she doesn’t want to commit to you? What the hell is wrong with you?”
Martha huffed out a breath. “I’ve asked her. Why would she lie to me?”
“I’m not saying she’s lying. Maybe she wants to be more, have more than to work and serve you? Did that occur to you?”
Martha met Lucia’s hard expression with one of her own. “She said she knew she’d not be able to be all I needed. What I had with Madame. And she didn’t want me to be unhappy.”
Lucia cocked an eyebrow. “She loves you, doesn’t she?”
“More than I deserve.”
Firm fingers gripped her chin,
and Lucia pulled her head up. She pinned Martha in place with a demanding expression. “No. Don’t say that about yourself, Martha MacLeod, ever. You deserve to be loved.” She kissed her then, her lips soft and gentle, a contrast to the harsh tone of her voice. “And by someone who is woman enough to give you what you need.”
THEY HAD SPENT the night finding more ways to explore each other’s bodies. Martha had slept better than she had in the months since Octavia had left. Even the breakfast with each other had been magical. She wished they had a few more days, just the two of them. Even the stares of the other diners at breakfast as they took in their rumpled, out-of-place outfits couldn’t dampen Martha’s joy. Lucia’s spell over Martha was complete, and she had to sit on her hands to keep from touching her. How she was going to manage when they got back to Rowan House, she didn’t know.
“This is divine. Thank you.” Lucia tucked into her breakfast.
“The company would make soggy toast divine.” Martha stared at her over the rim of her coffee cup. “And I seem to have an amazing appetite this morning.”
Lucia smiled at her. “We’ll need to do this again.”
Martha smiled at her. “I’ll check my calendar to see if I’m free in six months.”
Lucia wiped her mouth and smiled. “I will as well.”
They lingered over the breakfast. “Well, with no luggage it sure makes it easy. If you had better shoes I’d suggest a walk to see the Minch. Millie won’t be here until noon.”
“I should split this with you.” Lucia sipped her tea.
Martha touched her arm. “No. Please. Let me. It was only supposed to be lunch.”
Lucia held Martha’s gaze. “I will pay half. And you are going to let me. Or we can’t do this.”
Martha back stiffened. “I thought we cleared this up. I didn’t plan for this, but it is my responsibility.”
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