“Tess, are you ogling my junk? I know you want it, kitten, but you’re not getting it for at least another, let’s see here…” He made a show of checking the timer, then turning it so she could see the dial. “Another five minutes, twenty seconds.”
That can’t be right.
She almost said it out loud, caught herself at the last minute.
“The time is flying for me, but I bet it’s going pretty damn slow for you by now.”
If her hands hadn’t been secured she would have smacked the smugness right off his chiseled face. As it was, she could only yank against the cuffs in frustration as the second orgasm barreled toward her. It shocked her as it struck, like a bolt of electricity powerful enough to stop a heart. Nerves sizzled, blood boiled, and a nightmare version of pure bliss burned its way through her center for a screaming eternity.
On and on the vibrator hummed. When Tess could breathe again she tried to pull herself free, focusing her few functioning brain cells on twisting her wrists this way and that, despite the obvious sturdiness of the restraints. Her lower body still spasmed, out of her control. The dildo kept her from moving her hips, and when she tried anyway the tremors in her legs grew worse. She wept at the pleasure-pain and thought she would do anything to get even a few seconds away from the vibration, which seemed to go all the way to her brain now, short-circuiting every nerve ending it encountered. Her clitoris felt huge, swollen to impossible proportions. About to explode.
“Four minutes to go, beautiful.”
She wasn’t sure when Jake had moved closer, but he spoke from only a few inches away. Lifting her head, she peered at him through the curtain of hair and tears, and tried to get closer to him.
Sex. Comfort. Relief. He was a symbol now, an embodiment of things she wanted and couldn’t reach. But then she saw his expression, the heat in his gaze as he watched her suffer through his torture. He looked almost as worked up as she felt, and it was all because of what she was enduring.
A new concept worked its way into her scattered consciousness—the recognition of power. Not Jake’s over her, but hers over him. She might be bound, taking what he dished out, but she was still affecting him. He had turned her into a quivering mess in the space of a few minutes, but she was impressing him. Meeting his challenge. Even if she stopped right now, said the safeword, she’d still have accomplished that.
Feeling stronger, she clenched her teeth and growled at him, earning another smile.
“That’s my girl. I didn’t think you’d make it this long,” he confessed. “I shouldn’t have underestimated you. I do have other weapons at my disposal though. And I think I want you to break and talk to me, Tess. I want to see what gets you to that point, where you can’t take it anymore and you have to admit it. Maybe mixing up the brute force with something a bit more subtle?”
He bent and teased her breast, breathing gently over the stiffened nipple until she was ready to scream for him to touch her already. When he finally did it was only a kiss, tender and soft, barely there. It only made things worse, made her want to beg for his tongue. Every smallest motion of his mouth against her skin brought a shift in the balance between agony and arousal, pulling her up for a glorious moment before letting her plummet back down.
She knew she would come again, she’d figured that much out, even if she wasn’t usually capable of more than one or very rarely two orgasms in such a brief span of time. The vibrator made another one inevitable, which was awful. But Jake fondled and nibbled and confused her nerves in the best possible way. The contrast between the two sensations drove her up in a breathtaking sweep, and the climax was a slow, easing retreat from that high, so slow she never really came down. Caught in that over-stimulated half-state between coming and not coming, bliss and agony, she could only hover and feel. Time slurred and all her reason abandoned her.
“I’m calling it at six minutes, kitten. I should’ve stopped sooner. And you need to learn when to use your safeword.”
He’d turned the vibrator off, she realized, and she hadn’t even noticed when it happened. The residual buzzing in her clit and entire pelvis was so strong the machine might as well have still been on. Though it was also entirely possible she’d grayed out for a few seconds.
“This comes out next.” He knelt and unclamped the rod that held the dildo, and Tess cried out in protest as it slipped down and out. She wanted it back, wanted something to fill her while her body attempted to recover from its surfeit of pleasure.
Her legs wobbled as she struggled to support herself. Jake put the rod to one side and turned back, tracing a hand up her inner thigh through the slick of lube and Tess’ fluids. When he pressed his fingers to her swollen slit, her hips moved again of their own accord, despite her exhaustion.
“You want that? You want more than that, kitten?”
She nodded, or tried to at least. Want wasn’t a strong enough word. Even need seemed too weak to describe this feeling.
“Then ask for what you want.”
She had been reduced to this, to begging him. That had been his goal; he’d said so. To break her. Make her admit her own limits, her own needs. At the heart of all his dominance, all the bondage and other trappings, was this essential transaction. It was a greater challenge than the pain, to give in this way, but she mustered the strength to face it.
“Want you,” she managed, the words feeling awkward and strange in her mouth. As though it had been years, not hours, since she’d last spoken. “Please.”
There was something else, but it was complicated and the words escaped her. Jake had unfastened her feet and one wrist, was freeing the other one when she realized she could use the shorthand he’d given her.
“Wildcats,” she whispered. Because she wanted him…just him.
He laughed as he finished freeing her and scooped her into his arms. “Oh, now you safe out?”
She thumped his chest with the heel of one hand then let it fall limp over her belly. When had he taken his shirt off? He felt and smelled wonderful. “Not what I meant.”
“I know what you meant, sweetheart. Plain old sex. And that’s okay,” he added, swinging her carefully down to the couch before shucking his jeans and donning a condom in record time. “Because I’m so damn hot for you right now I doubt I’d have the control to fuck with your head and body at the same time anyway. You drive me fucking nuts.”
She could believe it. His cock was dark, the ruddy color apparent even through the latex. It felt huge and hard and right sliding into her, and Jake’s body felt perfect over hers. His weight kept her from floating away. Her heart soared anyway.
“Amazing.” She couldn’t have had another orgasm if her life depended on it, but that didn’t bother her. She’d already had them all, given them to Jake for safekeeping. It felt amazing anyway. Cosmic levels of good. Lizard-brain, wordless, primal good, which was about all she was up to in the thinking department anyway.
“God yes,” Jake agreed. He was already speeding up, his need overwhelming his obvious desire to go easy on her. His gaze looked dark, almost like midnight as it caught and held hers. “Jesus, Tess. You—”
Whatever he’d intended to say was cut off by a startled grunt. He came so hard his body went rigid for a moment, everything pausing before rushing to a final chaotic finish, all pistoning hips and heaving sides and slick heat. And then trembling, holding, kissing her as if he never wanted to do anything else.
Amazing. Perfect. And if there were any other descriptive terms, they tumbled out of Tess’ head as she drifted to sleep still wrapped in Jake’s embrace.
Chapter Nine
“Shit.”
Tess’ muttered curse intruded on Jake’s slowly recovering consciousness, accompanied by watery morning light that looked all wrong.
“Jake, do you know where my phone is? I heard it ring but I can’t find it. Wake up.”
Slender cold hands pushed his shoulder, rocking it back and forth.
“’M awake,” he objected, blin
king and trying to get his bearings.
Tess was sitting next to him on the bed—no, couch—and she was wearing his shirt from the day before. Dark-blue plaid. She looked great in it, and his morning-fueled response to her assured him she’d look even better out of it.
When he reached for her, she slapped his hand. Slapped his hand. Good thing the scene was over.
“Jake. Help me find my phone. Are you always like this in the mornings? I thought you were a morning person.”
“I am a morning person.” He sat up, yawning hugely and scratching his head. Where the fuck…?
Ah. The basement. The workout thing. Tess. Sex. Good stuff. It was all coming back to him now.
Tess. Sex.
“Will coffee help? I’m going to go make some coffee. You come up when you’re conscious, morning man.”
She flitted away, the Tess of his dreams, wearing his shirt, off to make him coffee. So he could wake up and help her find her phone.
“It’s in your purse,” he hollered, his brain finally shifting back into sync with reality. “Hanging on the back of one of the kitchen chairs.”
“Thank you,” she yelled back.
When he made it up to the kitchen she was filling the coffee maker and talking on her cell phone, propping it on her shoulder to free up both hands.
“That’s fine. I’ll be there. But no sooner than ten, right?”
He nudged her aside and took over, sneaking peeks at her legs while he finished up and turned the machine on. She talked with her hands when they weren’t busy making coffee, and every time she gestured the shirt rode up, revealing a scandalous amount of thigh and occasional shots of bare ass.
“Yeah. It’s not very well marked. If you get to McAdam you’ve gone too far. Right, right. Okay.”
She glanced at him and mouthed something, which he didn’t get. Tess covered the phone with her hand and said, “It’s the moving guys. They’ll be here sometime after ten.”
Jake nodded and smiled, but he let it fade as he turned around to watch the coffee drip. Today they were back in the real world, it seemed. He would go to work, Tess would go across the street and wait for her stuff, and then what? Their libidos had done all the talking since yesterday, but that conversation wasn’t nearly enough. Not to mention Jake’s guilt was bearing down on him, now that he had some blood flow to his brain again.
“Do you have anything to eat around here? I’m starving. Can’t think why.”
“Huh? Oh.” He hadn’t even noticed her phone call was over. Maybe the blood flow wasn’t entirely back to optimal yet. He blamed the shirt and everything Tess wasn’t wearing under it. “Yeah, I could make you some bacon and eggs. Toast?” He was already reaching into a cabinet for the skillet.
“Do you have time? I thought you had a paper to run.”
“If my dad ever actually retires, instead of just saying he’s going to. In the meantime it’s a joint effort.”
“Lucky you two get along.”
Jake shrugged. They did well enough. He knew his father trusted him with the position, when the time finally came. But for now it could be crowded at the top, and Dad couldn’t seem to let his baby go for good. His mother had threatened to pack herself off to Europe without him for the extended trip they’d been planning for years. Jake wasn’t complaining, but he wouldn’t mind having more to do to occupy his time.
“Coffee’s ready,” she prompted.
Jake let Tess fetch the cups and plates and do the toast while he finished cooking the bacon and eggs. It was another charming domestic scene, but he thought Tess was probably working hard to be on her best behavior. The whole thing had been so long in the making between them, neither really knew how to handle things now that they’d finally consummated their long-stifled lust. Tess seemed almost shy, distracted and even distant. Trying too hard to act casual. Jake was still eaten up by guilt.
That much, at least, he could address before he let her leave.
“After breakfast, we should talk.”
She eyed him over a forkful of eggs. “I think I did better not talking, don’t you? Maybe we should go back to that.”
“Even if you won’t talk, I need to,” he warned.
“Can you at least wait until after I’m done eating?”
He gave her that long, but once she’d finished and the plates were cleared he pulled her into the living room and sat on the couch, drawing her down to sit beside him.
“I owe you an apology, and I need to clear up some things.”
She shook her head instantly, vehemently, but Jake pressed on.
“I have to do this, Tess. You’ve never done this stuff before, but I have and there are dangers. Part of being a Dominant, for me at least, is supposed to be keeping my head. Not getting so distracted by the turn-on of it, or the emotions, that I make choices that could endanger a submissive. I asked you to trust me, and you did, and then I turned around and pushed you way too far—yes, I did, especially for your first time—and twice I didn’t quit when it was obvious you needed to and couldn’t stop yourself. Yes, you did need to, Tess.” She kept shaking her head, frowning at him, perhaps as a holdover from yesterday’s silence.
Finally he framed her cheeks with his palms to keep her gaze on his. “It happens, honey. Stuff like this can trigger really deep responses sometimes, responses we don’t even know the cause of. And for you…I already know you’re working through some things right now, so I should have been even more careful. But I got carried away, at your expense. And I’m sorry.”
She lifted her hands, gripping his wrists lightly, not trying to pull free.
“Are you—” she started in a hoarse whisper, then cleared her throat before trying again. “Are you saying you’re sorry for all of it?”
Jake huffed in disbelief that such a thought could even cross her mind. He wasn’t even as sorry as he ought to be for the parts he should feel bad about, much less the whole encounter. It was way too fantastic to regret entirely.
Words failed him. Instead, he kissed her, a thorough, lingering kiss. One that promised more. Within seconds she was straddling his lap, straining closer, and Jake’s hands found their way to her ass.
Her sharp hiss reminded him of the marks there, which in turn reminded him of creating those marks. He pulled back, struggling for restraint.
“Are you reassured?” His voice sounded strained. Not cool. Tess didn’t seem to mind, however. There might be benefits, he realized, to playing with somebody who knew almost nothing of the BDSM world. No expectations, no preconceived notions. He didn’t have to live up to some idealized Master in her head. Which was good, because Tess knew him way too well for him to maintain that kind of poise with her. Besides, he kind of liked how she made him lose his mind.
“Yeah, that’s pretty reassuring.” She ground her hips, bearing down on his stiffening cock, in case he had any doubt what she was referring to. “In its way.”
“I’ve always wanted you.” Simple, honest. The implications were profound, but they weren’t news to him or to Tess. “But—”
“That’s the worst possible word for you to say next.”
“But that’s no excuse for me to be thinking with my dick.”
Tess looked down at the visible outline of the organ in question, then shrugged. “Maybe we both needed that. In order for this to finally happen, there had to be less thinking and more succumbing to the inevitable.”
“Another thing we ought to discuss.”
She shook her head again. “We still have more succumbing to do.”
“Tess—”
“Master Jake.”
Jake snorted. “Yeah right. I’m not holding my breath to hear that from you again, unless it’s sarcasm.”
“My Lord then?”
“Tess, this happened, and we need to talk about it. Because here’s what I’m worried about—we avoided this for years. So after all this time, why now?”
* * * * *
For a second or two she considered d
emurring, pretending not to know what he was asking. Then she thought about turning the question back on him. He’d made the first move, after all. Hadn’t he? Or had she been the one to start flirting on purpose, drawing the conversation into escalating? When had that conversation truly started, anyway? Yesterday, a week ago…a decade ago?
Things had been so much simpler when she wasn’t talking.
“I don’t know,” she admitted at last. “I don’t know anything these days. I don’t know why I moved back. Or why I didn’t want to tell anyone. I’m just…doing stuff.” Saying it out loud made it somehow less frightening than it had been in her head, but it was still hard to acknowledge that, for the first time in years, she didn’t have a plan.
“I don’t want this to be something you’re doing and you don’t know why.” Jake flexed his fingers around her hips, very gently this time. Even that slight movement stirred her libido. She almost resented how easily he affected her, turning her on without even trying.
“Then you tell me, Jake. Why now? You’re the man in charge, right? So tell me what to think. I suspect you have at least a working theory after trying to figure me out all week.”
“I can’t tell you what to think, but I do have a theory, yes.”
“Let’s hear it.”
He pursed his lips, cocking his head. “You’re going to chew my head off afterward, aren’t you?”
Tess tightened her thighs around his hips, grimacing at the twinge in her overworked muscles, but smiling inside at the way she and Jake fit together. Her heart skipped a beat and a flutter started low in her stomach, but it felt off. Not arousal. More like trepidation. “Not making any guarantees.”
“Okay. So your book did better than you’d ever dreamed. Maybe better than you think it deserved. You quit the job you’d worked for years to get so you’d have more time to write, and now the writing’s not coming like it did so you’re questioning that decision.”
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