“Yes, Sir.”
Such is his commanding presence that people’s heads turn to look at him as he makes his way across the dance floor, and I feel my heart swelling with pride. He’s my man, I think incredulously. Undoubtedly, many women desire him, and yet he’s here with me. It’s almost enough to distract me from what’s about to happen.
Almost.
I force myself to sip my drink even though I’m tempted to guzzle it. Despite my nerves, I’m also incredibly turned on, not just because of the orgasm restriction I’m on, but also because of the unexpected little detour on the drive here. Sucking his cock with my bare ass and pussy on display for anyone who might happen to wander by—even though we were in a deserted area and that was very unlikely—made me feel wanton and sexy. I still don’t understand what it is about Maximus that makes me so willing to obey him completely when it comes to sexual acts, he just has that effect on me. When he turns those blue eyes on me and uses his growly, commanding voice, it’s like he puts me under some kind of spell so I’m a helpless, dripping slave, desperate to please him however he desires.
By the time he returns, I’ve finished my gin and tonic. He’s taken off his suit jacket and unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt. Just the glimpse of his muscular chest is enough to make me want to run my tongue along his skin.
“If you want to visit the ladies’, now’s the time,” he tells me, pulling me to him and dropping a kiss on the side of my neck, where the tiny puncture wounds his fangs have made are still healing.
“I think I’d better,” I say.
“Hurry.”
Part of me is tempted to dawdle, to put off what’s about to happen for as long as possible. But the other part of me just wants to get it over with.
Once I’ve peed, I wash my hands and reapply some lip gloss. My cheeks are stained pink and my eyes are glittering, highlighted by the bronze eyeliner I used to bring out the blue. Surprisingly, I don’t look nearly as terrified as I feel, and I’m thankful for that.
Picking up my purse, I head out of the bathroom and back towards the bar.
To Maximus…
To my fate.
26
Sabina
“Disrobe.”
Maximus has a very distinct tone of voice when we play, and he’s using it now. It’s cold with just a hint of arrogance, and it twists my tummy into knots. It also makes me wet. Swallowing hard, I fumble to pull off my halter top, then unzip and slide my skirt down over my legs. As instructed, I’m not wearing any underwear, so simply removing those two items of clothing leaves me completely undressed. I can feel people’s eyes on me as surely as if they were actually touching my skin but I force myself to ignore them. This is for Maximus. Any discomfort I experience now is for him. I need to keep reminding myself of that. Once I’m standing naked in front of him, he gestures to my shoes. “Those too.”
I toe them off gratefully and push them aside, setting my clothes in a neat pile on top of them, out of the way.
“Kneel.”
The floor is cold and hard against my shins, and I look up at him with my heart pounding, my mouth dry. I should have asked for some water. He’s gazing down at me with a stern look on his face, but there’s love in his eyes.
“Do you know why I’m about to punish you?”
I’m not sure whether he’s talking so loudly just so I can hear him over the relentless pounding of the music, or so the people watching us can understand him too, but I don’t care. I can feel my face heating up as the shame and guilt wash over me.
“Because I put myself in danger, Sir, disobeying you and worrying you.”
“And you agree to this punishment?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Do you want it? Need it?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Ask for it.”
Crap. This is the part I hate the most, I don’t know why. “I’m so sorry I went behind your back and caused you so much worry,” I manage. There’s a sudden lump in my throat and I swallow past it, willing the tears pricking my eyes not to fall. I will not cry in front of all these people. Taking a deep breath, I continue. “I promise never to put you through anything like that again. Please punish me so that I can earn your forgiveness.”
He looks down at me for a long moment, his expression unreadable. I resist the urge to wipe my sweaty palms on my thighs.
“Very well. You may stand.”
He reaches down to help me to my feet, and I look beyond him to the play area he’s set up.
It’s the one on the far left along the wall, and it currently holds an adjustable table like the ones people might use for massages. Different parts of it can be raised, but right now they’re all level. I don’t see any restraints or implements; just his toybag on the adjacent table, and my roses lying beside it. More people have appeared to watch my public humiliation; more people I studiously ignore.
“Spread your legs a little. Hands behind your back.”
Even though it’s warm down here in the club, my nipples are already taut and I’m turned on despite—or because of—the situation I’m in. I do as I’m told.
“Close your eyes.”
I obey, and a moment later, there’s the snap of a rubber glove, and the familiar smell of Tiger Balm reaches my nostrils. I know where it’s going before he applies it: a generous dollop right on my already throbbing clit. It feels good as he slathers it over my swollen little nubbin, and I moan.
“Turn around and bend over.”
I’m only just able to stop myself from protesting. Holding my tongue, I do so, and when he instructs me to spread my ass cheeks, I obey, my face as hot as the fire which is about to engulf my most sensitive areas.
The balm on my clit is already beginning to tingle as he spreads some more onto my most private hole, and I bite my lip hard as he slides his fingertip inside, making sure I’ll be feeling the heat both inside and out. I’m unable to stop another moan from escaping my lips.
There’s the snap of him removing his glove. “Good girl. Now, straighten up, and go and get your roses.”
I walk gingerly to the table, wondering what on earth he has planned. Tiger Balm is a cunning trick; it has a hot sting to it which never fails to make my pussy wet, which in turn increases the burn. Even though I pick the flowers up carefully, a thorn pricks my finger.
“Lay them on the table right there. Horizontally.” He points to a spot on the bench at about hip height, and I realize with horror what he has planned.
It’s devious, sadistic and evil. It’s also impressively creative. And if I wasn’t being punished right now, I would tell him so.
Once the roses are in place, he orders me to get up and lie face-down on the table. I clamber up, and hesitate once I’m on my hands and knees. If I lie down flat, the thorny stems will be pressed directly against my hips—and my mons.
“You don’t have to put your weight on your lovely flowers if you don’t want to,” he says, and I can hear the smugness in his voice. “If you can manage to hold your hips off them for the duration of your punishment, you’re welcome to do so.”
I hear a chuckle from someone in the crowd, and close my eyes. The burn of the Tiger Balm is still increasing, surely it must reach its peak soon? The very air on my pussy lips as I move serves to remind me how wet I already am.
With extreme caution, I lower myself to my elbows and wiggle my knees back until I’m as close to lying flat as possible while still keeping my pelvis above the thorny stems of the roses. It’s a strenuous position to maintain, and I wonder how long I’ll have to hold it for.
“Feel free to drop down if you like,” Maximus says, “that’s up to you. You’re getting fifty with the birch.”
Closing my eyes, I let out a moan of horror. I loathe and detest any implement which stings, and the birch is one of my pet hates—a fact Maximus is all too aware of.
“Seeing as you’re not in the most comfortable of positions, I’ll make it as quick as I can,” he goes on, and I can’t decide
whether that’s a good thing or not. “But you’ve earned this punishment, Sabina, and I want to make sure you really learn your lesson.”
Truth be told, I’ve already learned it. Every moment of this scenario from the minute we reached the scene area was designed to cause me maximum humiliation and discomfort, but I will see this through if it kills me.
When I feel the water spray hitting my butt and thighs, I begin to think that maybe it actually will kill me. This guy takes sadism to a whole other level. Under any other circumstances, I’d be so impressed. Right now, however, I’m just trying to decide whether to focus on the burning between my legs and asscheeks, the strain of holding my hips high enough so I don’t get huge thorns plunged into my mound, or the fact that this is all happening in full view of a bunch of strangers.
Once Maximus has thoroughly drenched his target area, and water is trickling between my legs and running down over my hips, he leans down and murmurs in my ear. “You’re being so brave, pet, I’m so proud of you. Be a good girl and take this for me.”
His intoxicating scent reaches my nostrils and I inhale deeply, my heart fluttering at his proximity and praise. I would do anything for this man, I realize in that moment. “Yes, Sir.”
“Are you ready to begin? You don’t need to count them.”
“Yes, Sir.” My thighs are already shaking with the strain of holding myself up. I’m kicking myself for not doing my Pilates as diligently as I should have lately.
The birch is a deceptively quiet implement, and I don’t hear the impact over the ambient noise, but my god, do I feel it. The bunch of whippy twigs thwacking my soaked, bare skin feels like a million bees stinging me, and Maximus wields it relentlessly in a punishing rhythm.
Over and over, he strikes my bare butt and the tops of my thighs, until my entire world has narrowed down to nothing but the sensations in my body between my belly button and my knees.
My entire body is trembling now, and I’ve forgotten to breathe. All I can do is grit my teeth as he delivers fifty brutal, stinging strokes at a lightning fast pace. The last three are full force, right on the crease where my buttocks meet my thighs, and I realize I’m howling at the top of my lungs.
“Hush, pet, it’s all right, it’s over.” Maximus’s voice sounds like it’s coming from very far away, but it immediately soothes me. “I’m just taking away the roses now… there, you can drop your hips.”
I don’t even check to see whether the flowers are gone—the moment he says that, my pelvis hits the table. My ass and upper thighs are stinging so badly, I no longer feel the Tiger Balm.
“Just breathe, sweetheart. I need to wipe you down; you’re bleeding.”
I’m glad my face is buried in my forearms so nobody can see me grimace as he cleans my butt and the tops of my thighs with alcohol. It feels like he’s pouring lemon juice into a million paper cuts, and I bite my lip to keep from screaming.
“There, baby, all done. You were so brave, I’m so proud of you.”
“I’m so sorry, Sir,” I whimper. Now that the pain is subsiding slightly, the emotional impact of the punishment is hitting me like a tsunami.
“Hush, it’s over with now. I forgive you.”
Those three little words are my undoing. I never cry from pain, but now my eyes are welling up with tears and I squeeze them shut, still hiding my face from the crowd.
“Spread your thighs for me.”
My abused backside protests as I obey, sliding my legs as far apart as I can while still keeping my knees on the table.
“Good girl.”
His fingertip on my ultra-sensitive clit makes me almost levitate off the bench, so sudden is the pleasure, so stark the contrast between agony and ecstasy.
“Do you want to come for me?” Without waiting for a reply, he slides two fingers deep inside my pussy. Pinning me down with his other arm across the small of my back, he finds my G-spot and rubs it so hard and fast that I climax almost instantly, squirting uncontrollably as he draws out my orgasm in that delicious, relentless way he has.
The fact that people are watching me lose control somehow only heightens my arousal and by the time he removes his fingers, I’m lying in a puddle of water and my own juice.
“Clean them.”
My cheeks flaming, I realize he’s holding his drenched digits in front of my mouth and I suck them obediently, tasting myself, keeping my eyes closed, and trying to pretend we’re alone.
“Good girl. I’ll give you a moment to recover while I get you cleaned up.”
Moments later, I can feel him wiping me down with a washcloth and my heart melts at such a tender gesture from someone who also has such a sadistic and evil side. I lift my hips so he can slide a towel beneath me, and allow the endorphins to flood my body as I settle back down and close my eyes once more.
Despite the frankly still agonizing sting in my butt and thighs, I feel strangely content and comforted, as though a heavy weight has been lifted. At first, I think it’s sheer relief that I survived the thing I had been dreading ever since Maximus first mentioned it yesterday, but then I realize it’s more than that.
My heart feels lighter. Maximus has forgiven me for what I put him through but, perhaps more importantly, I’ve forgiven myself. I still feel regret, of course, and would behave differently if I could go back in time, but I no longer feel guilt. Nor do I feel sorry for Zeke. He was so ugly to me while we were alone in that clubhouse, I dread to think what might have happened had Maximus not come to my rescue. Maybe it’s cold-hearted of me not to feel sad that he’s dead, but at this point, I just feel relief that he’s no longer a threat. He knew what Maximus is, and he knew what he was doing when he had his two friends tie me up and manhandle me into his car, essentially kidnapping me.
There are always consequences.
“Sabina?” Maximus’s soft voice breaks into my thoughts. “Are you cold?”
It’s then that I realize I’m shaking. “No. Endorphins,” I tell him.
“Still, let’s get you warm. Can you sit up?”
He helps me, and I wince as my well-striped butt takes my weight. Next moment, a thick, fluffy purple blanket is wrapped around my shoulders and I snuggle into it, gratefully accepting the bottle of water Maximus slides into my hand.
He really is wonderful at aftercare.
“How are you feeling?” Sitting down beside me, he wraps an arm around me and pulls me close, pressing a soft kiss to the top of my head.
“Strangely cleansed,” I tell him. “Sore, of course, but good. You?”
“Incredibly, unbelievably proud,” he says. “And impatient to get to the good part.”
“The collaring?” I ask, suddenly realizing that I’d forgotten all about it. I’d been so focused on dreading the public punishment.
“And the thing that comes after that,” he says, and I can hear the smile in his voice.
“Sex?”
“Feeding.”
We both chuckle. It’s the perfect opening to ask the question which has been weighing on me for a long time now. “You say Lucius turned you,” I begin, already feeling him tense up against me. “Is it possible to turn me, too? I don’t think I want to grow old and wrinkly while you stay this young and gorgeous.”
“It is possible. It’s dangerous and complicated, and it’s a process rather than a one-time event, but it can be done,” he says slowly. “But it’s absolutely not a decision that should be entered into lightly, and I won’t even entertain the thought of turning you until we’ve been together for at least a year.”
“A year? That long?”
“Oh pet, a year is nothing when you’re considering eternal life.”
Suddenly I feel foolish. “Of course. Although I don’t suppose you spent a year thinking about it.”
He lets out a bark of laughter, but there’s not much mirth behind it. “I wasn’t really given a choice. I was almost dead when Lucius found me. If he hadn’t begun the process right then and there…”
“You wouldn’t be here with me today,” I finish the sentence for him, surprised by the strength of the sorrow that thought brings me. “Remind me to thank Lucius someday.”
“You can thank him in a minute,” Maximus says. “He’ll be down for the collaring.”
“I’m nervous,” I admit. “I was nervous before, and now it’s even worse somehow.”
His arm tightens around me and he presses another kiss to my hair. “The hard part is over with now, sweetheart. This is the part where I get to show everyone here just how much you mean to me. So, are you ready?”
“I assume I won’t be allowed to get dressed again first?”
He chuckles, and this time there’s genuine humor in it. “Nice try, pet. And you’ll be losing the blanket, too.”
“I figured as much. Oh well, I guess everyone here tonight has seen pretty much every square inch of me by now.”
“Every beautiful, perfect square inch,” Maximus corrects me. “Now, come on. Let’s make this official.”
27
Maximus
I couldn’t be more proud of Sabina, my stunning blonde girl with the Roman name, as she makes her way through the crowd, her hand tucked into my arm. Even though she’s completely naked aside from her heels, which I allowed her to put back on, she’s walking tall, showing no signs of discomfort or embarrassment.
She took her punishment with more courage than even I had anticipated. Fifty strokes of the birch on soaking wet skin left the entire area of her ass from the top of the crease, right down the backs of her thighs, crisscrossed with deep, scarlet cuts, some of which had already begun to bleed at around the halfway mark. She’ll be feeling the effects of that whipping for quite some time, and even so, she’s walking beside me as if she doesn’t have a care in the world.
I feel as if my heart could explode with love. The rose gold titanium chain bracelet is safely tucked in a box in my pants pocket, and I can’t wait to lock it around her left wrist. I decided against a typical collar as I like her neck bare. Necklaces and collars only get in the way of choking, feeding, and other fun activities.
Her Vampire Addiction (Midnight Doms Book 9) Page 19