by Flora Dain
He seems in no hurry to begin. He selects a comfortable armchair, turns it round to face me and then sits casually, one ankle over his knee.
With a casual flick of his wrist he aims the remote and presses the switch.
The toy has a battery.
The buzzing rockets right through me as he speeds up through the levels. I jerk and twitch around it, helpless as my orgasm instantly starts to build and jolts ever closer. Each time I writhe the cruel rope chafes and rubs. If I hold still my orgasm builds unbearably close … as I start to cry out he switches it off. For a split second I poise on the edge and then it slowly fades, leaving me gasping in hyperspace.
‘Close, were you?’
‘You …’ I bite back my rage. ‘Yes, very. I was seconds away. Switch it back on – please.’ Sweat trickles down my back.
He’s smiling now and deeply interested. ‘So eager. We’ll cool you off a while first. I want to talk to you. A little more? OK, just for a second.’ He switches it back on and I jerk in my bonds and push my hips forward, desperate to clamp my folds around it. Infuriatingly he keeps the speed low and, once more, just as I part my lips in a sigh, he switches it off at my peak.
Frantic, I flex around the lifeless plastic to reach my pinnacle but now it’s rigid and unyielding. And at each jerk the rope bites harder.
He looks on, amused. ‘Feeling skittish? Let’s try it on low for a while.’
It goes on for a long time, the low setting whirring me into a frenzy but never quite fierce enough to take me to the edge. I start to lose my grip on reality. All I can think of is release. Every time I think I’ll make it the hum ceases and I collapse panting and swaying against my cruel ropes.
I clench my teeth as he asks me how I’m doing. ‘Punishment? This is torture.’
His slow smile is maddening. It makes me want to shout, to swear, to kick him. It also makes me mindlessly horny. I kneel before him, trussed, displayed for his inspection. Sweat runs off me as arousal heats through me. I can’t reach anything. My wrists are firmly – I might say painfully – bound. And the worst of it is I’m making my own pain. Every time I pull, it hurts, every shift I make chafes. My only relief comes from him, the brief moments of pleasure he grants me making me twitch with frenzy.
At last he pauses and tilts a water bottle to my lips. As I swallow a few precious drops he splashes some on his hands and slaps it on my breasts, then tweaks my stiff, swollen nipples into aching, lustful numbness. He flicks them a few times with his fingers, kisses me on the cheek and sits down again. He is startlingly erect now, his tool beating its own drumbeat, the little stud glittering and cynical – so near and yet so far. However much I yearn for it there’s no way in. I’m already full.
Please, please make me come.
My silent plea has no effect. I’ve given up saying it. He just smiles. I want him so badly I’m grinding my teeth in frustration, horny with rage.
‘Do you often do this?’
‘I trained for a while as a Dominant.’ He pauses a second, eyebrow raised in case I freak.
Now nothing surprises me. ‘That explains a lot. This is some of it?’
‘Yes. How are you doing?’
Sweat trickles again. I wriggle to shake it off and wince as one of the ropes instantly rasps at my ankles. I glare at him. ‘Fine. Never better. You were saying?’
‘I enjoyed it.’ His mouth twists apologetically. ‘I thought it might help me with my – particular interests.’
I hold very still, forgetting my discomfort. I’m curious now. ‘And did it?’
He eyes me thoughtfully. ‘Some. I lack the patience to commit to it fully. Plus I never found the right woman for my – particular needs.’
I’m all attention now. My climax still teeters on the edge but my aches and pains have suddenly vanished. All I feel is hot, burning arousal. ‘And now?’
His eyes narrow. ‘You’re the first woman I ever wanted to tame.’
Air deserts my lungs. ‘You want to tame me?’
He’s smiling now, his thumb on the remote, moving gently. ‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
He shrugs. ‘No idea. You’re beautiful, intelligent, unusual. Plus it might be safer for you this way.’
I stare. ‘Safer? Are you kidding?’
He leans forward, his face serious. ‘There are rules, permissions, limits. We’d have to set boundaries. It may stop me … going too far.’ He leans back in his chair and I see real pain in his face. ‘I’m a killer, remember?’
My heart melts. ‘You need help, Darnley. There must be a way.’
His eyes gleam. ‘There is. You.’
I feel a surge of pure joy. He wants me …
‘So? What do you think?’
I snap back to attention. ‘About you being a killer?’
His mouth gives a faint, sardonic twitch. ‘About becoming my submissive? And if you keep up that tone of voice we’ll start over.’
I lower my eyelashes, suppressing a grin. ‘I think … that if I don’t come soon I’ll go crazy. And after that I’ll scream the place down. And after that …’
He springs to his feet, laughing now. ‘OK, OK. So I take that as a yes.’ His eyes gleam. ‘You have hidden depths, Petronella.’
He tosses the remote onto the chair and kneels on the bed facing me, winding his arms around me and wiping the sweat away from my streaked face. He makes no move to unfasten my hands. ‘You can come but not just yet. And you have to come around me. So we’ll ditch the plastic.’
He eases the hideous thing out of me and reaches for a condom, making an exhibition of it to tease me some more. It becomes a whole ritual as he leans up in front of me and holds my head to lick him. I’m so aroused now that just the sight of it makes me ache, flames leaping anew. He senses my desperation and makes the most of it, smoothing the rubber slowly down his shaft with a movie-star smile and a satisfied glint from his perfect teeth. He leans over me, signalling me to shuffle forward and surges up inside me before I even get the chance to savour my new freedom. As he pounds into me his eyes lock on mine. ‘You’re not to come until I say.’
‘Please, please. I must.’ I start to panic now. I’m only seconds away, it’s been building for hours … Part of me, the normal part, tells me I could come any second. Another part of me that Miss Normal knows nothing about reacts instantly to his tone of command and makes me clench my teeth to fight it off.
Sweat trickles again.
‘Good girl.’ His voice drops an octave, his tone so gentle it almost sends me over the edge. I groan as I fight off the waves of pleasure that threaten to engulf me.
‘Can you feel it?’ His lazy smile still burns into me, making me ache even more.
‘The stud?’ I grin shakily, desperate not to convulse. ‘Can I heck? He’s gorgeous. With or without the metalwork.’
He laughs softly as he eases out of me, leaving me dripping and bereft. I whimper as he kneels at my back. Now my release seems even further away. ‘I can’t take much more of this.’
He leans forward, tweaking my nipples with cruel pincer-like movements of his fingers and thumbs. ‘You take what I choose to give. That’s the way it works. Now I want to feel your breasts.’
My legs are still prised wide apart, my ankles pulled tight, my thighs straining wide. He leans into the ropes tethering my ankles and jerks me even wider. Pain flashes through me as the rough hemp rasps on my skin. His sheathed column juts into me, hot and slippery with my juices as it prods at my front and my rear openings.
He’s deciding which one to take. Instantly I tense and break out into a sweat.
I whimper in frustration as he reaches round me, his arms muscular and hard as he seizes my breasts in both hands, nuzzling deep into my neck as he takes my nipples in his fingers and thumbs.
‘This is a fantastic position to get hold of these.’ He fastens his mouth on the side of my neck and starts to drop hot, wet kisses all across my shoulder blades, making me shiver as he pulls and knead
s at my breasts. He seizes my nipples and pinches hard and then holds still. I gasp at a shaft of sudden pain and he laughs softly against my ear.
‘That hurts? It’s meant to. Relax into it. I won’t do you any harm.’ After a minute my nipples are numb and I’m panting, scared now. And just as I want to cry out he nudges at one of my openings – the regular one, thank goodness – and plunges up inside me once more. He’s pushing me forward and now I’m pulling at my ropes, stretched wide as he pounds
His rhythm alone is almost – but never quite – enough to send me over the edge. Now he releases my breasts and slides his hand down to my throbbing mound where his fingers ease into my crevice, pulling me wide open, denying my throbbing centre even the solace of my folds.
‘Now you can come. But I’ll tell you when.’ At the same moment he eases the pressure on my numbed nipple and, as feeling slices back, his fingers snap together around my bud – once, twice – and at the same moment I feel a surge of heat inside me as he comes, his powerful chest swelling at my back and his rippling abdomen jerking hard against my backside. It jolts his scissoring fingers into my folds and now the pressure hurls me over the cliff he’s been building. I scream aloud at the deluge of sensations – pain, pleasure and all points in between.
He laughs in my ear and claps a hand over my mouth and for a while we lock together while I pant in his arms, overcome. At last he unfastens the rope and I flex my aching ankles, relishing cool air on my scratched skin. The handcuffs stay firmly in place while he dabs my sweat-streaked face with a cool sponge. When he’s patted me dry and I’ve sucked a little more water out of the bottle, tilted at a lewd angle over my face, he finds a hairdryer and a comb and starts to dry my hair.
‘So beautiful,’ he murmurs. Soft, fluttering locks slide through his fingers. His touch is so tender I burst into tears and instantly he takes me in his arms. ‘So, what’s the verdict on bondage? You like?’
I nuzzle into his neck, spent and glowing. Who am I to argue with an expert? ‘I like.’
* * *
I’m still weak with orgasm as we join the others for cocktails. Darnley stays close to my side. Billy finally brings me down to earth by reminding me my poetry reading’s only a couple of days away.
When I mention this to Lydia her face falls. ‘You’re leaving tomorrow? That’s a shame. We could have given you a big send-off. I know – we’ll all fly down with you. It’ll be fun. I’ve never seen a poetry reading. Aaron? Darnley? How about it?’
Darnley frowns and looks at me. ‘That depends on Ella. Do you want everybody there?’
I gaze round the others, so glossy, so sophisticated. Somehow I don’t see them amongst a coven of academics. Darnley’s expression is as ever unreadable. In the heart of his family his mask is immovable. I wonder fleetingly if this is why they’re all so scared of him.
‘I don’t want to sound ungrateful, Lydia, but if it’s all the same to you I’d sooner do this on my own. I’ll be scared to death as it is …’
Lydia looks mildly surprised but accepts with good grace and now Aaron steps in. ‘Maybe Ella will accept the use of my jet to fly down there.’ He holds out his hand and shakes mine warmly. ‘We’ve enjoyed having you here. It’s been a treat to meet one of Darnley’s friends.’
But to everyone’s surprise Billy’s still fussing. She scowls round the table as she mutters at me. ‘You’d better go first thing. It’s hurricane season. They say Hurricane Alyna’s a category two and it’s headed this way. It might make trouble when it hits the coast.’
Aaron beams at Billy. ‘Hurricane, schmurricane, young lady. Category two’s nothing. Why, I remember once I was holed up in Atlanta for three whole days …’
As the others launch into travel tales Darnley arches an eyebrow at me and we slip away.
But now I’m uneasy. Soon I must face my ultimate challenge – reading my poem out loud. Plus I’ll be alone in a strange city with a tropical storm approaching and, worst of all – Darnley and I have to part.
We’ve been together less than two weeks. It feels like a lifetime yet hardly any time at all. And now it’s coming to an end.
Take me somewhere. He sure has. He’s taken me so far I’ll never find my way back.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
‘You don’t have to fly. There are other ways. Take the train.’ Darnley is stretched out beside me, still panting from our long, intimately close encounter. We’ve been making love a while. Now it’s late into the night.
His naked chest heaves and ripples invitingly. He flinches as I tease his hard little nipple with tiny nips of my teeth on my journey down to his navel, dropping moist kisses along his happy trail.
‘I’d much sooner fly. It’s far quicker. And your parents have been charming. I’d rather not offend them by refusing. I was supposed to be there at the start of the week. It’s a bonding thing.’
‘I’d sooner you bonded with me than a bunch of bearded poets.’
I grin up at him and run my finger lightly over his rippling chest. ‘How do you know what they’re like? How many bearded poets do you know personally?’
He leans up and removes my hand from his chest to lace his fingers through mine. ‘Just the one,’ he says softly. His eyes dance as he reaches down to my pulsing mound and fondles my lady-hair, newly trimmed to his precise requirements. The heat in his eyes whenever he touches it more than makes up for the embarrassment I endured in Lydia’s favourite salon.
‘The bearded poet I know is more than enough for me. Come here.’
We’ve spent most of the night making love – at least, that’s what it felt like, not our usual tug of war between lust and anger.
I’m still sore from our session earlier. When we joined the others I tried to act normally but by now they must know why I’m here and what we do. Thankfully Eldon pretended not to notice my fresh marks but once or twice I saw him scowl at the vivid stripes on my wrists and my ankles. I wanted to take him aside, tell him I’m fine – more than fine – but it’s simply not his business.
Anyway he’s busy with Billy. I’m glad she’s been here – it’s taken some of the heat out of Eldon’s blistering disapproval. He and Darnley at least keep their distance.
Now Darnley leaves off the handcuffs and just covers me with his body, letting the slow motions of his hips grind into mine and fill me with climax after climax, kissing me hard when I need it, soft when he wants me to slow down, hungrily when he wants me to speed up.
‘We did this once before,’ I say, still panting after a long, searching encounter with his eager, questing shaft that tests and probes constantly after he signals me to lick and suck him to full erection and then keep him there while he explores me with it. ‘It was like this the night we met. You needed no handcuffs then.’
He grins briefly as I take him in my mouth once more and suck gently. He strokes my face and takes my fingers in his mouth, directing my eager tongue with tiny flexing movements of his own. ‘Terrible oversight. Nowadays I keep them by at all times, just in case.’
I ease off him, one eyebrow arched. ‘In case of what?’
He runs the back of his finger down my face. ‘In case I run into any sex-crazed poets. You never know when one will turn up. And don’t stop, by the way. That was just getting interesting.’
It’s a long, glorious night.
* * *
In the morning I make a tearful round of goodbyes. Even little Emily gives me a wave from the safety of Dodie’s arms. ‘It was lovely meeting you, Ella,’ says Lydia. ‘I do hope we’ll see you here again.’
She is regal, Aaron fondly patronising. Eldon looks relieved I’m going but as I know he only frets for my safety I give him a reassuring smile and kiss him on the cheek to show him I’ve no hard feelings.
Billy frowns, still fussing over my safety. She hates flying. ‘Be sure and let me know the minute you get there. That wind’s picking up already.’
She’s right. The weather changed dramatically overnight. At th
e fringes of the airfield trees are already lashing. The sky’s murky with scudding clouds. I hug her and grin at Eldon over her shoulder. ‘I’ll be fine. I only wish I could stay longer.’
Darnley stands solemnly apart from the crowd, giving me a brief wave to see me off. Our goodbyes were far more elaborate in the privacy of our room and left me tingling. I sense he’d sooner play it cool in front of his family.
Back at the house I see Ryan and Freda looking on. Ryan’s pleased I’m going. He gives me a smirk and a kind of half wave. Freda looks cold.
I clamber into the luxury of Aaron’s gleaming Cessna, smile at the crew and settle back to enjoy a ride in style.
* * *
On the flight down I lean back and try to fend off my terror of tomorrow’s reading by calling Mom and Dad, back from their trip and hoping I’ll make my annual visit home.
‘And I’m really sorry we can’t get down there to watch.’ Dad sounds relieved. I suspect Mom’s been nagging him to take her to Charlotte for my big day but I’d sooner they stayed home. The fewer people who see me do this the better.
‘You’re just back from a cruise,’ I tease. ‘I know my place.’
On the other end Dad sounds serious. ‘It’s not that.’ He lowers his voice. ‘It’s your mom. She picked up some virus on the boat. She’s not fit to travel. Especially with high winds coming our way.’
Ah, the hurricane again. Kind of everyone to remind me of it.
My last call is to Billy.
‘Make sure you tell me the minute you get there,’ she snaps. ‘I worry about you. The weather here’s really bad.’
‘Surely it’s me who should worry.’ I grin out of the window at the stormy landscape far below. ‘It’s me who’s up here. There’s some turbulence but the pilot’s checked the weather map. He says we’re fine.’
When I’ve calmed her down I end the call and think back to the one uncomfortable meeting I had with Freda just before I left. I’d darted back to our room to check I’d got everything when she startled me by coming out of the en-suite.