These were works of art. Each photo capturing a vulnerable moment from a sub or an expression of power from a Domme or Dom. The photographs were snapshots into the soul of the person he was photographing.
“Why didn’t you tell me about all of this to begin with?” she said as she went through the book.
“I didn’t want to scare you,” he said and she looked up at him. “Like what happened when you discovered those pictures before I had a chance to slowly introduce you to my way of playing.” He shook his head. “You have a bad habit of jumping into things before I can share them with you. You asked me about the TV and the desk. I told you I would tell you later. I fully intended to do that.”
With a sigh she finished looking through the book and closed it. “I think you should have told me from the beginning.”
“You’re right,” he said. “All that can happen now is that you decide to trust me.” He put his hands to either side of him on the desk as he spoke. “And that you believe me.”
She met his gaze. “I believe you, Zach. I’m sorry that I didn’t listen to you and give you a chance to explain.” She gestured around the room. “At the same time, I’m not sure I can handle this. That you have people over and watch them play in this room and more than that, you did participate in casual play with women here for your pleasure.”
“Why does that bother you?” he said as he studied her.
She looked at him. “You’re kidding, right? You have to be able to understand that.”
“I quit doing the business when my restaurant and nightclub took off,” he said. “I sold the website and I’m out of that life.”
She waved toward the door. “Then what was this Mistress Donna and sub Vicky?”
“I told you. Donna was an old friend who did a few shoots for me in the past. Now I just do it now and then for certain people.” He gestured toward the drawer of DVDs. “If you look closely at the dates for the past four years, you’ll see the difference in how many shoots I did before selling my site and how many in the two years after. I’ve done maybe eight shoots in the past two years.”
“Even eight is too much.” She walked up to him and said, “I just need to think this through.”
Chapter 12
Depression was not something Christy was used to. She wasn’t really depressed she knew, but she was down.
She missed Zach.
This was far worse than the heartbreak she had gone through with Ted. Next to this, her experience with him was nothing.
Even though her initial relationship was brief, her heart belonged to Zach and it always would.
There was plenty to do around the store, so she kept herself busy, waiting for closing time as she worked through her mind what she should do.
Three days had passed since the episode in the dungeon with Zach and his side business. Three days since she’d told him she needed time to think things over. He had called the past two days but she had told him she wasn’t ready yet.
Was she ready today?
She paused to brush a bit of dust that had settled on one of the mirrors she had for sale in her shop. She moved her hand away and studied her reflection for a moment. She looked tired, sad.
“Suck it up, Christy,” she said to her reflection as she smoothed her hair away from her face. “You need to figure this out and make a decision. The right decision, whatever the hell that is.”
Could she handle strange people going to Zach’s and him watching them play? How could he help but get excited when watching what she had witnessed for herself yesterday? She didn’t want him to be excited by anyone but her.
Anyone.
Was it jealousy? Or was this a genuine concern? Should she be accepting of anything and everything he did? Or should she stand her ground because it was something that bothered her so much?
She pushed her hand through her hair, feeling frustrated and lonely, like there was an emptiness in her life that she needed to fill. She missed him more than she had the first time she left him. It was like they were two souls that belonged together and were finally joined again then ripped apart just as fast.
But this… Could she do it?
“Damn.” She rubbed her temples. Why did he have to put her in this position?
Zach was who he was. Did she have the right to ask him to change?
Three days and she was nowhere near being able to figure herself out. Since it had taken this long, it was a good sign that she couldn’t accept this other business he had established. With such an elaborate dungeon that included a private bath and shower room, and even had a desk in one corner, she should have guessed that something was different. But all that she’d been concerned with was him and how much she’d wanted him and wanted to do for him.
Enough. She needed to put up or shut up. She needed to make her decision and save them both some more agony.
She adjusted her flowing skirt and peasant blouse, tightened the scarf around her waist, and started to go to the back room when the bells jangled at the front door. A draft of fresh cool air from the windy day made its way into the store.
Even though she didn’t feel like smiling for customers, she fixed one on her face anyway and walked toward the front of the store. She paused and came up short.
Zach.
He was locking the front door and his back was to her as he flipped the OPEN sign to CLOSED.
She frowned. “What are you doing?”
When he faced her, she caught her breath. The wind had tousled his black hair and he combed it through with his fingers. He was so hard in all of the right places, and even his cream cable-knit sweater couldn’t hide the broadness of his chest nor could his jeans hide the power in his thighs.
His dark eyes held determination in them as he advanced toward her and she had the urge to take a step back. But she held her ground and raised her chin.
“I’m not sure I’m ready to see you.” Her voice sounded softer than she wanted it to.
“You might not be sure, but I am.” He reached her, but didn’t touch her. “I’m not going to lose you again. I told you that before and I meant it.”
Without intending to, she did take a step back as he advanced. “Zach—”
“I’m not taking no for an answer,” he said as he towered over her.
Heat welled up inside of her. She set her jaw. “You’ll take whatever answer I give to you.”
“It had better be the right answer.” He caught her off guard by jerking her to him then cupping the back of her head and bringing his mouth hard down on hers.
For a moment she was stunned, but then she tried to fight him, force him away from her. What right did he—?
His kiss became more intense, more passionate.
And then she was possessed by the kiss. It whirled her away and she couldn’t think past the way his lips moved over hers, the way he tasted, the way it felt being in his arms.
Before she knew it, she was kissing him with just as much passion as he was kissing her. She found herself wild for him, needing him, wanting him.
She felt a loosening around her waist and realized the scarf around her waist was falling. But then he pulled back from the kiss and the next thing she knew, he was wrapping the scarf through her parted lips and around her head, gagging her.
Her eyes widened and she struggled, but he was so powerful. He managed to pull her blouse over her head and then he trapped her wrists, using the blouse to secure them together. Then he jerked her bra below her breasts. He did it all so quickly that she didn’t have time to think.
She fought him as he moved her backward until her back hit a wall. Something fell and crashed to the floor with the sound of glass shattering.
He picked her up by her ass and forced himself between her thighs as he lifted her legs and he pushed her skirt up around her waist. She struggled, furious with him, but she could do nothing with her arms pinned between her backside and the wall.
And then she realized she was turned on. She was totally an
d completely turned on by his masterfulness, how he was taking control, staking his claim. She loved it. Loved being his to do with what he wanted.
Zach lowered his head and caught one of her nipples with his mouth. He sucked hard enough to make her gasp, then moved to her other nipple.
He reached between them and she heard the sound of his jeans unzipping and then she felt his erection pressing against the center of her panties. He pulled her panties aside and then thrust into her so hard that her eyes widened and she cried out behind her gag. He kept his eyes on hers as he fucked her hard and fast.
Zach felt so good inside of her. She’d missed him. Missed feeling him like this. Being a part of him like this.
Everything wound inside of her to a tight knot of pleasure that began to expand outward from her center. With every stroke she found herself growing closer and closer and closer to a climax that could tear her to pieces.
“You’re mine, Christy.” He growled the words, his features dark and intense. “Do you understand? You belong to me.”
The possessiveness in his tone, in all that he said, heightened her excitement, sending thrills throughout her body. Something about his dominance, the way he was taking her, made her oncoming climax rush closer and closer.
“Answer me.” He pumped hard, her head bouncing against the wall with every thrust. “Do you understand?”
All she could do was nod. She was his. He owned her heart and soul, and now he owned her body, too.
“Don’t ever forget it.” He reached between them and pinched her clit.
She screamed behind her gag as she came hard. Her scream would have been loud enough to rattle the windows if she hadn’t have been gagged.
Everything dissolved… All she could do was feel the power of what had taken her by storm, an amazing climax that went on and on. Her mind spun and her body felt washed with heat, her whole being tingling in a way it never had before.
Zach slammed into her once, twice, three times more before he let out a shout and she felt his cock throbbing inside of her. She watched his face as he climaxed, the passion in his expression and in his eyes causing her to catch her breath. She felt like she might never breathe again.
As he came he slowed his strokes, pumping a few more times before he stopped.
He rested his forehead against hers, his breathing even harder and harsher than her own. His forehead was damp with sweat and she could feel perspiration on her own skin. His chest rose and fell while she didn’t feel like her breathing would ever return back to normal.
“Come back to me, Christy.” His words came out like a man who was desperate for water and begging for just one drop. “Please come back.”
She didn’t answer even though she wanted to say, yes, yes, yes! There was still the issue that was holding back her ability to actually go back to him. How could she ask him to give up something that he had a passion for just because she couldn’t accept it? It wasn’t fair to either of them.
When they had both calmed so that their breathing wasn’t so hard, he let her down on the floor and he arranged her skirt. He freed her hands and adjusted her bra before pulling her blouse back over her head then untied her scarf from around her head then tied it around her waist. He smoothed her hair and smiled at her.
She looked up at him. He was so dark, so handsome. He was intelligent and caring, sincere, decisive, had a great sense of humor, so much that she wanted in a man and more. She loved how possessive he could be of her, making her feel wanted, needed.
And kinky. She loved his kinky side.
“I wouldn’t have taken you against your will,” he said. “I would have freed you if you hadn’t stopped struggling. You know that, don’t you?”
“Of course.” She rubbed her palms up and down his arms. “You might kidnap me, but you would never force yourself on me.”
“Do you really consider that kidnapping?” he said with an amused expression. “I thought of it more as detaining.”
The corner of her mouth quirked. “Holding me against my will qualifies.”
He smiled. “But it was for a good reason.”
“Okay, okay.” She picked at a thread on his sweater as she stood close to him. “I guess there was no other way but to show me.”
“So you’ll come back to me?” He sounded so hopeful, almost like a little boy asking his mother for something special.
She sighed. “I just don’t know if I can accept that you have people there, playing, while you take pictures of them. Record them even.”
“I’m not taking a ‘no’.” He set his jaw. “We belong together, Christy.”
“What about how I feel?” She moved away from him then turned and faced him. “This bothers me, Zach. I’m sorry, but it does.”
Whatever he might be feeling was difficult to read as he said, “What you are saying is that it’s my photography or you.”
She winced. “It sounds awful when you put it like that.”
He brought her to him in a rough movement that caught her off guard, and he gripped her upper arms. “I choose you, Christy.”
“Do you really?” she asked, her eyes wide as she stared at him. “You would do that for me?”
It was like his heart was in his expression as he said, “I would do anything for you. You need to understand that.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed herself close to him. “I don’t want to take something away from you that you love, just because it’s difficult for me to handle. That’s why I’ve struggled so hard over this. It’s not fair of me to ask that of you.”
“I will do it for you.” He drew back and met her gaze. “And I won’t regret it, ever. You are what is important to me.”
She looked up at him. “Are you sure?”
He smiled. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Chapter 13
One year. I can’t believe it’s been a whole year.
Christy smiled to herself as she waved to the last customer of the afternoon. Today was one year to the day that she and Zach were reunited at the auction.
He was an amazing man and everything was just as exciting with him as it was the first day they met. She had moved in with him within a month of the time they got back together. He did everything for her like he had said he wanted to and she loved to do what he loved. He did things in a way that caused her to want to do things for him.
His focus on her needs, his attentiveness was incredible. He would bring home dinner, do things for her.
He respected her decisions, her opinions. He was interested in her business and proud of her for all she had accomplished. He was an incredible businessman and found new and better ways to promote her business and grow it. He had a way of thinking about things that she found amazing. At the same time, she had made observations about his business that he had taken seriously. It wasn’t a one-way street with him. He simply took care of her.
Zach’s strength became something she relied on and looked to. He was tough when they played and he pushed her, he was controlling in her life, but it was in such a loving control that he had that it made submitting to him, pleasing him, something she wanted to do. It was so perfect.
As far as she was concerned, she was sold.
She locked up the front door and went to the back of the store and into her office to check her email before leaving. He liked her full attention when they were together so she took care of business during business hours, and he did the same.
Her skirt slid up her thighs as she scooted into her chair. Today he had picked out the chocolate brown A-line skirt that settled mid-thigh and a cream-colored silk blouse with a matching cashmere sweater.
When she opened up her email she smiled when she saw one from Zach.
There’s something special waiting for you on the bed. I want you to dress in it and wait for me… There’s not much of it, but you will like it. Be in the dungeon with a blindfold on at 7:00 sharp. Sit on the red bondage chair. I will join you at 7:01.
She shivered with excitement. Whenever she received emails from him, telling her what he wanted her to do, she couldn’t wait to get home and see what he had in store for her. What would he have on the bed for her to dress in? What did he have planned?
Zach had been right. There wasn’t much too the outfit, but she liked it.
Christy picked up the bra and panties made of chain mail and leather or at least that’s what it looked like it was made of.
After she took off her heels, she scooted out of her work clothes before slipping on the outfit. It had chain mail circling her breasts, a patch of leather on the crotch, and was trimmed in leather. When she looked in the mirror she had to admit she looked pretty darn sexy in it.
She glanced at the clock. Three minutes to seven. That gave her barely enough time to hurry to the dungeon and be ready for Zach just like he’d wanted. She practically bolted down the stairs, her bare feet pattering on the stairs as she ran.
When she reached the dungeon she went straight for the drawer of blindfolds before going to the red chair and sitting, then put the blindfold on.
With the blindfold on her sense of hearing was so attuned that she heard the faint sound of a footstep as he entered the dungeon. She shivered with excitement.
She heard the door open.
“Beautiful,” he murmured and she felt his presence a moment before he caressed her face with the back of his hand. “I want you on your hands and knees and I want you to crawl toward my voice.”
“Okay.” Her heart beat a little faster as she eased off of the chair and onto her knees. It was so dark behind the blindfold and she could not see anything at all to peek at to help her make her way. Her nipples felt achingly hard against the cool metal of her chain mail garments.
“Over here.” His voice came from her left and she started in that direction.
She moved her hips slowly and sensually as she went, drawing out both of their anticipation. She wanted him to want her so badly that he wouldn't be able to keep his hands off her.
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