by Hannah Ford
“Charlotte,” Noah said, as if he could sense my hesitation, “if you’re not ready…”
“I’m ready,” I said. There was a pen attached to the book by a golden tassel, and I gabbed it and signed my name in big letters.
Noah took the pen and did the same.
It was official now.
I belonged to him.
Noah shut the book and stood up.
The vibe in the room had changed, his demeanor shifting from one of romance and concern to one filled with lust and the need to control.
I had been so focused on reading the contract that I hadn’t taken time to fully take in my surroundings, but now I was beginning to notice other things in the room – there was the gold wardrobe in the corner, the chest and the couch, but there was also what looked like a kneeling bench. It was wooden and worn, with dings and scratches all over it. This wasn’t like the other club we’d been to, with its posh exterior. That had looked like a fancy nightclub, the truth of what it really was hidden deep beneath the surface. Here, at Force, there was no question as to what people came for.
Noah shucked off the black sweater he was wearing, exposing his flat abs and chiseled shoulders. He looked at me sitting there on the couch, his eyes blazing.
“Kneel,” he commanded, his voice low and guttural.
I got down on my knees.
“No.” He shook his head and pointed to the bench.
I started to stand up, but he stopped me again.
“No,” he said. “Crawl.”
I crawled over to the bench. The bench was hardwood, with no plush covering, and my knees screamed in protest as I crawled on top of it, kneeling and bent over, my ass in the air.
Noah leaned down and pulled up the back of my dress, so that my backside was exposed to him. The tiny thong I was wearing would offer no protection.
He crossed in front of me to the gold wardrobe. He reached inside and pulled out what looked like a paddle. He stood behind me and ran the paddle over my bare ass.
The wood was smooth and hard against my skin and I felt my pussy start to get wet.
“Charlotte,” he said. “Do you understand how important trust is in the sub/dom relationship?”
“Yes,” I said.
He pulled the paddle back and slapped it against my ass. A burning sensation ripped through my skin, more painful than anything he’d done to me in the past.
I bit my lip to keep from crying out as my pussy got wetter.
“You like that, don’t you?” Noah demanded.
“Yes,” I moaned. His fingers reached down and slid into my pussy.
“You’re getting wet already, aren’t you, Charlotte?”
“Yes,” I moaned. “Yes, I am.”
“You were very argumentative today, Charlotte. You like when I punish you for that, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Yes, what?”
“Yes, I like when you punish me.”
The paddle slapped against my ass again, pain and pleasure vibrating through my body in waves.
Thwack.
Thwack.
Thwack.
Three more strokes of the paddle hit my ass, each one harder than the last. Noah slid another finger inside of me, spreading me around him.
“God, you are wet,” he said.
I forced myself to stay still, enjoying the feel of his fingers moving in and out of me, faster and faster. I tried to stay quiet, but I couldn’t. It felt too good, the paddle on my ass while he finger fucked me. A soft moan escaped my lips.
“I want to come,” I pleaded, hearing the desperation lacing through my voice. I couldn’t believe I was going to come already. I’d been turned on even before he’d made me kneel, even before he’d started spanking me. I’d been turned on by him owning me, by signing that contract, by knowing he had control over every part of me.
“No,” he said, and pulled completely away.
I looked over my shoulder, trying to see where he was, where he was going, but he grabbed the back of my head, turned it away from him so that I was facing back toward the wall.
I heard his footsteps moving across the concrete floor, followed by the flick of the light switch. The room plunged into darkness, and panic rose in my chest. For a moment, all I could hear was the sound of my own heavy breathing, my own blood pumping through my veins.
But now that the light was off, the sounds coming from the main room began to seem somehow amplified. The moans of the women. The whooshing sounds of whips cutting through the air. The clink of chins. The jeering of the men. And the music, soft, but with such a strong beat I could feel it reverberating in my chest.
After a moment, I felt Noah’s hands on my hips, pulling me roughly back toward him. And then, with no warning, I felt the head of his cock plunging into my pussy. I groaned as he began fucking me, hard and fast, without any warm up. I couldn’t see anything, could just feel the hard bench beneath my knees, the feel of Noah’s cock inside of me.
His hands held onto my ass as he fucked me, in and out, harder and faster.
After a moment, he reached down and pulled me off the bench, shoving me onto the floor. His hand found the back of my neck, pushed me down so that my cheek was pressed against the hard concrete floor. I could feel the grit of dirt against the side of my face. Noah’s hand was tight on my neck, his fingers wrapped around me, almost grabbing at my throat as he fucked me.
I could feel his balls slapping against my bare pussy. He hadn’t even taken his pants off, had just pulled his cock out, and I could feel the cool metal of his belt buckle pushing against me with every stroke.
One of his hands was still wrapped around my throat, and the other was on one of my ass cheeks, spreading me open with each thrust. He’d abandoned the paddle and now he was using his hand, spanking me hard every time he slid into me.
Finally, he stopped spanking me and leaned down so that his full weight was on my body. He used his hand to pull my hair, yanking my head back so that his mouth was right against mine.
“Do you know what happens when you don’t trust me, Charlotte?” he growled.
“I get punished,” I whimpered. His finger slipped into my mouth and I sucked it hungrily.
“Yes,” he said. “You get punished.” He reached down and pulled at the front of my dress, yanking it down so he could get at my tits. I heard the ripping of the fabric as he pulled on it, tearing it off of me. His fingers grabbed my nipple and squeezed so hard I yelped.
I was going to have bruises all over my body tomorrow, and the thought of it excited me. I pushed back against him, but he held me still.
“No,” he said. “Stop.”
He stayed completely still for a moment, his hand tightening around my throat until my breath came in short gasps. That, coupled with the darkness of the room, made me have a slight moment of panic, but just when it was about to be too much, he pulled his hand away and continued his assault.
He fucked me even harder and faster than before.
“I’m going to come inside you now,” he said. “Beg me.”
“Please,” I said. “Please, come inside me. I want to feel it.”
“Come on my dick, baby,” he said. “Come on me.”
The words sent spasms of pleasure through my pussy, and I came hard and fast. A second later, I felt him erupt, his seed shooting inside of me and warming my center.
He collapsed on top of me again, crushing his body into mine and breathing hard for a moment before he finally stood up.
I got back up onto my knees, trying to slow my own breathing.
The light flicked back on, and I blinked as my eyes adjusted.
Noah had already buttoned his pants, and he reached down and picked up his sweater and pulled it over his head.
“Get dressed,” he said. His voice was cold, his tone hard. I wanted to tell him I was dressed, that I’d never gotten undressed, that he’d just pushed me over a bench and then shoved me onto the floor and fucked me.
> But I had a feeling that wouldn’t go over well.
So I stood up and pulled my dress back down over my hips. Noah had torn the top of my dress, and the fabric over my nipples hung down, exposing half of my breasts. “My dress is ruined,” I said, laughing a little.
He glanced at me and then looked away.
A feeling of uncertainty rose up inside of me. Was he still in control mode? Was he going to fuck me again, order me around, tell me what to do? Usually, after we’d had sex, he’d been soft with me. Or at least, he’d never been this withdrawn.
Noah reached down and picked the paddle up off the floor, brought it over to the wardrobe in the corner and replaced it on its hook.
That was the other thing – he’d had all these toys in that closet, and he’d hardly used any of them. We’d come to Force to push the limits. And while he’d been rough with me, rougher than we’d ever been, he hadn’t taken his time with me or pushed the boundaries of our trust. It felt like he’d really been using me, but not in the way I wanted, not in a way that would bring us closer. For the first time ever, I began to feel a real shame about what we’d done.
“Did I…. did I do something wrong?” I asked softly.
Noah turned around, his eyes locking on mine. “Why would you ask me that?”
“I don’t know,” I said, twisting my hands together. “You seem like maybe you’re mad at me.”
“And why would I be mad at you?”
“Stop replying to my questions with questions.”
His jaw set in anger. “Then don’t ask me questions you already know the answer to.”
I shook my head, confused. “I’m confused,” I said. “I thought we came here to explore our relationship further, so you could push me, so we could get closer and explore.”
“Is that why you came here, Charlotte?” he asked. “Really, is it?” He spoke at a low volume. But his tone was hard, disconnected.
I didn’t like the way he was speaking to me, and that, coupled with the weirdness I’d felt after he’d finished fucking me, caused anxiety to bloom in my chest.
“Yes,” I said. “That is why I came here.”
“You’re lying.”
“What?” I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry.
He crossed the room, picked up our contract and began to page through it. “You’re lying,” he said simply.
I thought about refuting it. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the fact that you didn’t want to go to your stepfather’s party tonight, after you told me how much it meant to you.”
“I never said that party meant a lot to me. You said that.”
“Please, Charlotte,” he said. “Semantics.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m talking about the fact that you’re hiding something from me.” He refused to look at me, his eyes scanning the clauses of our contract as he flipped slowly through the pages.
“I don’t… if you think I’m hiding something from you, then why did you bring me here?” My voice was quivering, and a lump rose in my throat. So that was why he hadn’t pushed me, why he hadn’t done any of the thousands of things he could have done. He thought I didn’t trust him, thought I had some kind of ulterior motive for coming here.
You don’t trust him. And you do have an ulterior motive.
Still. He’d brought me to Force, he’d fucked me, he’d acted like everything was okay. When the truth was, the whole time he was getting upset with me for not trusting him, he also didn’t trust me.
“Why did you bring me here?” I repeated. I wasn’t going to cry in front of him. I wasn’t going to let him know how much he was hurting me.
“Because I wanted to give you a chance,” he said. “To prove to me that you were taking this seriously.”
“That I was taking this seriously?” I said, anger flaring in my body. “What about you?”
“Me?” he said, his voice cool and controlled.
“Yes. You keep talking about the whole trust thing, how it’s so important in a relationship.”
“It is.”
“Then why won’t you trust me?”
“Because you have proven to be untrustworthy.”
“No.” I shook my head, not wiling to let him win this one. “You haven’t trusted me this whole time.”
He stayed silent, his jaw set in a firm line. “Be careful, Charlotte,” he said finally. “You don’t want to push me.”
“Maybe I do,” I said, on a roll now. “Why is it you won’t trust me to help with your case, Noah? Why is it that you won’t answer my questions? You’re a hotshot lawyer, you know how important this is, how serious your situation is. You know you should be cooperating with your lawyers. And yet you refuse to talk to Professor Worthington, and you refuse to talk to me.”
“Trust must be earned, Charlotte.”
“You say that,” I said, shaking my head. “But you expect me to give mine freely, without question.”
“That’s how it works,” he said, shrugging his shoulders like it was a simple fact, not to be disputed.
“Yeah, well, maybe I’m not comfortable with that.”
Noah kept his eyes on me for a long moment. Then he crossed the room slowly to the binder that was sitting in the middle of the table. He reached down and picked it up, his eyes never leaving mine.
He flipped through the pages until he got to the last one, the one we’d both signed. He pulled the page out of the book and slowly, carefully, tore it in two, the halves fluttering to the floor.
Tears burned my eyes.
I couldn’t believe he was doing this to me, couldn’t believe he could be so cold, so callous.
I turned and ran out of the room.
I could hear Noah calling after me, but I ran straight into the crowd, getting enveloped by the throng of bodies. I felt someone grabbing at me, and I couldn’t tell if it was Noah or not, but I yanked my arm away and kept going, pushing through the people, not really knowing where I was going.
The slave auction was taking place now on a raised stage in the middle of the room, and the music pulsed as a girl in a loincloth was shown off, her body glistening under the lights. A man in leather pants was slapping her ass with a whip, making her dance as the crowd jeered.
I had no idea how I was going to find my way out of here. The room was dark now, except for strobe lights that flashed and burned, leaving spots in front of my eyes.
I thought I heard someone calling my name, but when I turned around, I didn’t see Noah anywhere. I turned back around and began heading toward the door we’d come in when we first got here. But I wasn’t sure I was going in the right direction.
I was so disoriented that it took me a second to realize my phone was vibrating in my tiny black clutch. I reached in and pulled it out, hoping with everything I had that it was Noah, that he was calling so he could come and find me, so he could get me out of here, so he could take me back to his apartment where I would tell him everything.
But the caller ID said Unknown.
My heart sped up and adrenaline coursed through my body, seemingly pulsing in time with the music.
“Hello?” I shoved my finger in my other ear so I could hear better as I fought my way through the crowd toward the entrance.
“Hello, Charlotte.” It was that same distorted voice that had called me earlier. Goosebumps broke out on my arms, even though the air in the club felt hot and humid against my skin. “Where are you going so fast?”
“What?” A chill slid up my spine.
“Giving up so soon?” the anonymous caller asked. He sounded amused, almost as if he were taunting me.
“How do you know what I’m doing?” I turned and scanned the crowd, trying to see if I could spot who I was talking to. But it was impossible. So many people were wearing costumes, their bodies moving and undulating under the flashing lights.
I thought I caught a flash of someone in a black leath
er mask on a cell phone, but then the crowd tightened around me, and the person was gone.
“Go to the front, Charlotte,” the voice said. “Ask for the Dark Room.”
“What?” I shook my head. “Who is this?”
“A friend, Charlotte. If you want to know the truth about who killed those girls, you need to ask Audi James. And you’ll find him in the Dark Room.”
I’d been weaving my way toward the front of the room, and a second later I came face to face with the tattooed bouncer who’d let Noah and I into the club.
“Go ahead,” the voice on the phone urged. “Ask him.”
I hesitated. Part of me wanted to just get the hell out of here, to go home and forget this whole night had ever happened. But the other part of me felt like that would be backing down. Why had I come here? My relationship with Noah hadn’t deepened -- in fact, it had gotten worse.
The bouncer looked me up and down as I moved closer, and I became aware that my dress was in tatters around my breasts. I tried to readjust the fabric, but it didn’t do much good.
I stood there for a long moment, my phone pressed tightly against my ear.
“Can I help you, Miss?” the bouncer asked.
“I’d like to go to the Dark Room, please,” I said.
“Good girl,” the voice on the phone said. And then the call went dead.
The bouncer raised his chin in the air, his eyes narrowing as he took me in.
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I wanted to take them back. I wanted to turn around and find Noah.
And so I did.
I turned around and tried to head back into the crowd.
But before I could, the bouncer’s meaty hand flew out and tightened around my arm. Another man appeared seemingly from out of nowhere and grabbed me around the waist, and then, suddenly, I was being dragged backward into the hallway.
I kicked and screamed.
But the men and everyone around me paid no attention.
Handcuffs were slapped onto my wrists, the cool metal pinching my skin. A gag was placed in my mouth, the fabric rough against my tongue.
The men picked me up and began carrying me down the maze of hallways, weaving this way and that, turning left and right until I had no idea where I was.