Beautiful. His. His hindbrain staked the claim, ignoring his attempts to rationalize.
Her gaze flicked to his for a second, no more. Before he could think what to say, she crossed the four or five steps to stand in front of him—then knelt at his feet, hands on her thighs with the palms turned up. Graceful, despite the lingering pain she must feel. She was a natural at this, he observed again.
Jake told himself to raise her up, put some clothes on her, make her talk to him about what had happened. Objectively, he knew those were the right things to do. He’d fucked up, and she was fucked up, and no good would come of delaying the debriefing that had to happen.
But he’d wanted this for too long. Wanted this to be the thing she needed. Tess, his Tess, giving herself up to him. All he wanted to do was take care of her, nurse her back to health, groom her until her former luster was restored, love her into well-being.
People aren’t stray animals, he thought.
She reached out a hand, wrapping her fingers very lightly around the fabric of one hem of his pants legs, stroking the frayed denim as if eager to get even that fraction closer.
That undid him. He brought his hands to her hair, stroking the dark strands, allowing her to lean into him. Her sigh echoed his as they both unwound, relaxing into that touch.
Then the oven timer went off and they both jumped.
Chuckling, Jake gave a final caress to Tess’ head and headed for the oven. “You can set the table. Dishes up there, forks and stuff in the drawer over there.”
She did it all silently, finding napkins on her own, filling two glasses with ice water and adding them to the setting while Jake tossed a salad. He thought he’d find Tess’ silent treatment grating after a while, but it was somehow soothing to have her there, not arguing, working alongside him as though they’d done this a million times.
Still, it couldn’t continue indefinitely.
“You know, you’ve more than beaten the dare,” he pointed out when they had both passed the initial stages of absorbed appreciation of the lasagna. “You could talk now. Hell, you could even put clothes on. Not that I’m complaining.”
She glanced at him, a smile gracing the corners of her mouth but not reaching her tired eyes. After a moment she shook her head, seeming to draw in on herself. All her quiet poise of the last few minutes evaporated, to Jake’s dismay.
He was aware of the irony that he wasn’t sure of her meaning, when he’d been the one to claim she didn’t need to rely on words so much. Did she feel she hadn’t satisfied whatever terms were involved in the dare, and was her understanding of those terms so fundamentally different from his? Or was she simply happy with not talking awhile longer, conducting an experiment as he’d suggested? Without a game of twenty questions he wasn’t sure how to get at the answer. Tess didn’t look all that happy. She looked pensive and hesitant, but at the same time more herself than she had that morning. He could easily see her skipping stones, wishing on stars.
It was a distracting vision but the reality was even more distracting, and after a large helping of lasagna and a few bites of salad, Jake abandoned his dinner in favor of watching Tess finish hers. She was naked, after all, and too temptingly close to ignore. And she was finally eating with a gusto that belied her otherwise melancholy expression.
“That’s the secret, I guess. Make you work up an appetite.”
She offered him another brief smile, this one verging on puckish.
“So you want to watch a movie or something?” He rose to clear the table and she followed suit, more of that charming domestic accord he’d never thought to wish for. “Scary or funny?”
* * * * *
They wound up picking a comedy, after a round of mutually amusing nonverbal negotiations. Tess was being perverse now, seeing how long she could keep up the silence before Jake finally got tired enough of it to demand she speak. She thought maybe she should be irked that he hadn’t already reached that point. Was she only appealing when she kept her mouth shut?
Curled up on the squashy leather sectional in his basement den, snuggled under Jake’s arm and wrapped in a blanket that smelled of his house, she decided she didn’t care. However she had to behave to sustain this for even one night, she’d do it. Because she fit there, next to him, under him, and it all felt like she thought home might feel, if home hadn’t become so imbued with bad feelings after her mother died.
If she didn’t talk, she couldn’t put her foot in her mouth and screw everything up. Given time, she figured she’d find a way to do that even without words, but so far her speak-no-evil tactic was working.
They laughed in the same places, like they always had. So many times over the years they’d caught one another’s eye at a movie theater, seeking that connection even if it meant peering over a group of friends. Those had been isolated moments though, easily explained away by long friendship and shared history. Now it was only the two of them, and the shared glances turned to fondling, to kissing and eventually to missing the end of the movie in favor of making out on the couch like a pair of horny teenagers.
Jake’s voice was muffled, his lips brushing between her breasts. “I knew there was a reason I should be making you sit at my feet. Now I’ll never know how it turns out.”
Tess pulled away, sliding partially out from under him to reach for the remote that sat on the end table. She hit “reverse” and stuck her tongue out at Jake, who backed off with a mock ominous scowl.
“You did not just handle the remote without my express, lordly permission.”
She grinned. He was cute when he poked fun at himself.
“I’d say you were cruising for a bruising, but since I’ve already given you one of those…wait here, I’ll be a few minutes.”
He leapt off the couch and took the basement stairs a few at a time, hurtling out of sight before Tess knew what was what. She heard his footsteps thumping all the way upstairs, then indeterminate knockings and rustlings that went on for some time.
By the time Jake clomped back down the basement steps, Tess was sitting backward on the couch, chin propped on the back as she stared at the steps, waiting for him to re-appear. He was carrying a big plastic storage bin, and the cords in his neck and forearms strained at the weight. The thing clanked when he put it down on the tile floor by his home gym, an ungainly open cube of steel framework that occupied one corner of the rambling converted basement. It was right next to the guest room door, but she hadn’t paid much attention to it on her visit to borrow the shower, other than to wonder if Jake actually used the thing.
Now Tess eyed it with growing suspicion.
Time for a workout? It seemed an unlikely choice. She watched Jake shove the black vinyl-covered bench and the big weights out of the way and start removing equipment from the bin, stuff that seemed to be attachments for the gym. Extra supports, something that looked like a cross brace. Heavy rings on clip hooks that fit perfectly into the holes perforating the framework at regular intervals. An oddly shaped vertical strut, hip height or so, that Jake secured into place in a bracket halfway between the two front uprights of the cube.
When he returned to the bin, his body no longer obscured the view.
Tess took one look at the shiny red phallus on the end of the newly added upright and gasped, vaulting the back of the sectional and bolting for the stairs.
Not too fast though. She was registering concern, not making a bid for freedom. Jake caught her easily and swung her over his shoulder, carefully avoiding the tender marks on the backs of her legs as he brought her to the gym and shackled her wrists and ankles to one side of the frame with a set of well-padded leather cuffs.
“Now stay there. These things can’t be rushed.”
Fascinated, and unable to even pretend she wasn’t curious, she watched him rig the rest of the setup. There were two more rings on clips close to the floor—for the ankle cuffs, presumably—and some sort of crossbar arrangement at hip height or so, with a bracket. It looked like a horizon
tal microphone stand, with adjustability in several directions.
That is no microphone.
It was a vibrator, a big one, and Tess relaxed at the sight of it. Whatever this was, it would obviously involve her getting off, and Jake had said he wouldn’t be adding to her collection of bruises, so how bad could it be?
The egg timer should have been a clue.
Chapter Eight
He was trying hard not to smirk and give something away. Jake could tell Tess had no idea what to expect, and she’d even looked pleased when he’d pulled the big vibe out. Her pretend escape had been incredibly weak, and now he sensed no trepidation in her at all.
It was like shooting fish in a barrel, but he couldn’t bring himself to feel remorse for this particular piece of sexual torture. They almost always claimed to hate it, one or two had safeworded out of it, but he’d never had a submissive claim “forced orgasm” as a hard limit.
Innocent as Tess was, responsive as she was and as sensitive as she still must be after the afternoon they’d spent, this promised to be quite entertaining.
He lubed up the big red dildo and turned to Tess, taking an extra few seconds to savor the sight of her kneeling by the frame, vulnerable but eager. It hit him in a rush, the fact that he’d been right all along, that it hadn’t only been wishful thinking. She was his friend, practically family, yes. But he’d always wanted more from her, wanted this. He’d all but convinced himself it would never happen. Now he was already at a loss to picture his life without her. Here, chained in his basement like a love slave. Upstairs, puttering around in the kitchen.
Things that hadn’t even happened yet sprang to mind. Her car in his driveway, her clothes taking up too much of the closet. Strange cosmetics littering the bathroom counter. Walking in the door at night and hearing her call a welcome. Her fingers on the keyboard, quick and light when the words were flowing, vicious and stabbing when they weren’t.
She stared at him, one eyebrow raised.
Shaking his head, Jake pulled the elongated dildo from its bracket, set it aside then crouched down to unhook Tess’ restraints and pull her into the center of the framework. “I got this thing for a steal, along with my bed frame, when a friend of mine who ran a bondage club got transferred for his day job and couldn’t find anyone to take the place over before he had to move. He sold everything off for practically nothing. One of the playrooms had a gym and locker room theme, and he’d had this beauty custom-retrofitted from a top-of-the-line commercial unit. And you know why I wanted it?”
Tess shook her head, looking bemused.
Jake lifted her hands up to the sides, one at a time, securing her cuffs to the frame above shoulder level before moving on to her ankles. “I wanted it so I could work out without having to go to the gym. I’ve never used it for anything else. All these extras have been sitting in this box in my closet for over three years. Taking up space.”
When he clipped the cuff on her second ankle into place, Tess lost her balance, swinging back an inch or two against the sturdy chains that held her wrists. She couldn’t fall any farther than that, there wasn’t enough slack. She was cuffed into a wide “X”, so it was easy enough to right herself. But Jake was in that humanitarian mood again.
“Woops. You look like you could use some extra stability.”
She was already wet, visibly so, but Jake applied lube to her pussy anyway, working her hot sheath until she started to clench around his fingers. Then he slotted the dildo support back into its bracket between her feet and pulled Tess’ hips forward so the slick lips of her cunt eased over the bright red cock. With a few adjustments, Jake lengthened the telescoping rod until most of the dildo’s length was snugly hidden inside her. He watched Tess’ expression as he tightened the clamps, making sure nothing would slip out of place no matter how much Tess tried to move.
“There. Much better.”
He couldn’t hide how hard he was, how crazy it was making him to see that bright red intruder taking up the space he wanted to occupy, pushing apart lush pink folds that were full and sensitive from their earlier play and Tess’ building excitement. When she lifted on her toes then slowly lowered herself again, working as much of the toy as she was able and clearly enjoying it, Jake had to look away to keep from groaning.
After fitting the cross piece back onto the frame in front of Tess’s hips with a few more careful adjustments, Jake tilted the vibrator firmly against Tess’ clit, pulling her skin taut above it to ensure as much direct contact as possible. Once the bracket’s clamps were tightened the vibe was solid as a rock, and if Tess struggled to pull away she wouldn’t get very far. Only as far up as her toes would take her, and that would only work the dildo in her pussy, providing another kind of maddening stimulation.
“How long will you last, I wonder?” he speculated as he fiddled with the clamps then stood back to grab the timer. “Five minutes? Seven? Let’s go for seven. But you’ll be screaming Wildcats at five.”
She scowled at him, not looking submissive at all, but beautiful…all rosy cheeks and pouting lips whose natural color echoed the deeper rose of her tight nipples. She was still working the cock, maybe not even thinking about it, rolling her hips and flexing her toes every few seconds to shift her position. Some day he would keep her on the frame like that for an hour or so while he watched football. No vibrator, just Tess cuffed in a spread-eagle, impaled on a monster dildo, trying to get herself off and cursing his name. That would be a perfect day for the ball gag. Halftime would be one hell of a party.
But right now he wanted to see her stripped bare, a writhing mess of pure reaction. Not a victim of her own emotional turmoil, this time, but of her own pleasure taken to extremes. He wanted to show her part of herself she’d never seen, and in the process claim that part as its rightful lord and master.
“You still have no idea what’s coming, do you?” She shook her head, dark hair falling across her face. Jake leaned over the contraption and pressed a kiss to Tess’ lips. “Remember Mr. Weber had that sign up in the yearbook office, ‘May you live in interesting times’? And every year the freshmen had to write an essay about why that was a curse?”
Tess nodded, smiling. Of course she remembered. They had spent four years hanging around in that office. They had taken Mr. Weber’s social studies class together as freshmen.
Jake started the egg timer and put his hand on the vibe, thumb over the switch. “This will be interesting.”
* * * * *
She’d braced herself for a buzz, high and intense like the frequency of the adorable purple bullet vibe she had at home. This was different from her little vibe, in the sense that a full symphony orchestra is different from a dude playing harmonica in the subway. The vibration was deep, a thrumming that went straight down to her bones. And the vibe’s head was so broad she couldn’t ease the pressure on any part of her clit by rocking against it.
It wasn’t even sexy so much as clinical, the way the orgasm built itself up immediately. Tess felt like she’d been directly wired to a machine, something programmed to take control of her body and produce a climax whether she was in the mood or not. It felt good, but oddly coercive. Too good, too fast.
Standing on her toes helped at first, but the delicious slide of the dildo inside her ramped her arousal up even faster, and she realized her mistake when she started to lower herself to relieve the trembling strain in her calves. She had to bring her weight against the vibrator fully while that thing was sliding back into her. Assault on two fronts. Instinctively she reared up again then whimpered as she faced the same dilemma.
Blood rushed to her face and chest as the pleasure forced its way to completion. She looked for Jake and found him leaning on the arm of the sectional, arms folded over his chest, observing her with what looked like absolute calm and amusement.
Fuck you, she thought at him, as the realization dawned that he knew exactly what this would do to her, that he knew she’d gone into it blind, that—
It
hit slowly, the first wave of release that was no release at all. She thought she could manage it until it started to build, pushing her higher and higher under the inexorable vibration. When she finally hit the crest she cried out in relief, unable to stop her hips from bucking against the drawn-out pleasure that surged through her.
Legs shaking, belly tight, she fucked herself against the dildo until it seemed every shred of response must be exhausted. But the vibrator kept going, she couldn’t escape it, and her swollen clit shrieked in complaint when she finally relaxed enough to rest her lower legs. She couldn’t come down from the orgasm, not completely, but the pleasure the vibe enforced came at the cost of nerve-jangling discomfort. Almost pain.
She shook her head at Jake, who seemed content to stay over by the couch. How could he not realize she’d come already? It hadn’t taken anything like seven minutes either. Her body had cried uncle, why wasn’t he releasing her?
He held up the timer, waggling it at her.
“It’s only been a minute and…ten seconds. We’re going for seven. Remember?”
Her jaw dropped. He laughed. She shook her head, hair flying in her eyes, and he nodded emphatically in reply. Tossing the wild locks back, she gave Jake her best death-glare, which was hard to maintain as the relentless vibrator started working her back up again. Pleasure started to outweigh the pain and, after a few more seconds, Tess gave up her plan to stare a hole through Jake and began bobbing up and down on the dildo, panting shamelessly, wishing it could go a little deeper. Her wrists were bound too high to let her sink down as far as she’d like.
If he gets horny enough he’ll take me off this thing to fuck me. Licking her lips and moaning, she glued her gaze to the sizable bulge in Jake’s pants, wasting no time on subtlety. She wanted him, and she could remind him that he wanted her if she made him jealous enough of the dildo. And it felt good to move like that, maddeningly so. Up and down, like a ride on the Devil’s own pogo stick, and as a second climax started to build between Tess’ aching thighs, Jake smoothed a hand down his front to palm his erection.
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