by Lili Valente
“I’m not afraid,” she says. Defiance sparks in her eyes, making my blood pump even faster, hotter.
“Famous last words, baby.” I lean down, capturing her swollen tip in my mouth, sucking her hard and deep. Her sigh turns to a groan as she arches closer, whimpering as I tease her sensitive flesh between my teeth. I wait until her hips are lifting off the bed, seeking relief, before I bring the first clamp to her slick flesh and trap her nipple between the textured rubber pads. “Hips down and lie still,” I order, tightening the clamp as I rock my thigh between hers, grinding against her clit.
A sound of relief bursts from deep in her chest, only to become a growl of frustration as I put an end to the friction. My lips curve as I shift onto the mattress on her left side and press a gentle kiss to her unadorned nipple. I can’t wait to introduce her to the sweet torture of delayed gratification, to teach her how swiftly relief can become pain and pain can become unimaginable pleasure.
I agreed to teach Hailey because I couldn’t stomach the idea of another man’s hands on her. I never imagined it would be this insanely satisfying to guide her first steps into the dark garden. But she’s a natural, taking to submission like she was born to blossom under a Dominant’s care.
I’m simultaneously thrilled and enraged that I never dared to take her in hand like this before.
How could I have missed the signs? How could I have so vastly underestimated her strength, passion, and imagination? How in God’s name did I get here—teaching the woman I love how to submit for another man?
The thought sends a wave of regret through me so strong I can’t keep the words filling my head from my lips. “I wish it was me, Curious. I wish I was the man you’re so eager to please.” I lift my head, catching her gaze in the dim light, surprised to see tears shining in her eyes.
“Of course it’s you,” she whispers, making my heart skip a beat. “I heard you on the roof,” she continues, her breath hitching as she adds, “Last September, when you were talking to that man. Sterling. I heard you telling him about our vanilla sex life and all the rest of it, and I just…fell apart. I felt like I would never be enough for you.”
My eyebrows shoot up, but after a moment of consideration, it all clicks into place. This is the missing piece, the part of the story I couldn’t make sense of before. This is why Hailey pushed me away.
And this is why she went looking for a teacher—because she wants to try to make this work, make us work.
Because she wants me back as much as I want her.
The knowledge melts the walls around my heart so fast it’s all I can do not to kiss her senseless. To surge over her, spread her legs, and glide inside her right this fucking second. I need to be with her again, to show her how much I love her, to prove to her with every thrust into her sweetness that she has always been and will always be everything I want and everything I need.
But in this moment, I’m still Will the teacher, and I have a responsibility to my student to hold the safe space she was promised when I first tied her to this bed.
“Thank you for telling me.” I press a soft kiss to the curve of her beautiful breast. “I can’t wait to talk more about this, but first we’re going to finish the lesson. Unless you need to use your safe word?”
She blinks faster, clearly confused, but after a moment she shakes her head. “No, sir, I don’t need to use my safe word.”
“Good.” I roll her nipple between my fingers, making her gasp as I slip the second clamp into place. “And what about these lessons?” I ask as I attach the chain in my other pocket to first one clamp and then the other, watching Hailey watch me with hooded eyes. “Are you still curious, Curious?”
This time she doesn’t hesitate before nodding. “Yes, sir. I’m still curious. I’m especially curious about what that chain is for.”
“It’s for this, sweetheart.” I give the chain a gentle pull, tugging on her bound nipples the barest bit, but the effect is everything I hoped for and more.
Hailey gasps, her body bowing off the bed. When I release the pressure, she sags back onto the mattress with a moan that’s music to my ears.
“You like that?” I whisper in her ear, cock swelling even harder, thicker as she whispers, “Yes, sir. So much, sir.”
“Then I think you’ll like what comes next.” I reach down, popping the button at the top of her jeans, loving the way she shivers beneath me as I drag her jeans down her legs. Her panties come next, and then I’m between her legs, spreading her strong, silky soft thighs and settling in to worship the sweet pussy I’ve missed so fucking much.
To worship, and also to torture, because that’s what I’m here for. To teach her about pleasure and pain and the way they can bleed into each other to make her come so hard she’ll never forget this lesson, this moment, or who was between her legs when she learned the things a Dominant man can make her feel. I don’t know where Hailey and I go from here, but I know that I want to rock her world.
I start slowly, pressing a kiss to one thigh and then the other before guiding her legs wider, wider, until she’s completely exposed to me and every slick fold of her wet pussy is mine to admire, to devour.
“Beautiful,” I murmur before teasing my tongue up one side of her swollen sex and down the other, carefully avoiding her clit as I get her hotter, wetter. I wait until her hips are urgently lifting toward my mouth, seeking a more intimate connection before I bring one hand to her entrance and capture the chain with the other.
Then, at the moment I tug the chain, I push two fingers into her heat, penetrating her to my first knuckle. The sound she makes—part gasp, part groan, and all feverishly aroused woman—is enough to make my dick throb painfully between my legs, but I don’t rush. I tug again and thrust deeper, tug and thrust, tug and thrust, introducing my gorgeous girl to the world of pleasure-pain while she continues to make sexy, turned-on sounds that assure me she’s loving every minute of what I’m doing to her body.
Her pussy tells me, too.
She’s so wet, so hot. It isn’t long before my fingers are dripping with her juices and the salty-sweet smell of her arousal is swirling through my head and I’m fighting a losing battle with my own self-control.
I want to be inside her so desperately I’m about to shatter a molar, but I need her to come first. I drive my fingers deeper, adding a third when Hailey bucks into my hand, silently begging me to move faster. So I do, fucking her hard and fast with my hand as I hold the chain tight, applying constant pressure to her bound nipples.
She cries out in pain, but only a second later, the sound becomes a shout of triumph as she tumbles over, coming so hard I can feel her inner walls convulsing around my fingers. And it is as hot as any fantasy I’ve ever had of Hailey under my control—hotter, because she’s hotter, wilder, abandoning herself to the experience with a bravery that brings me to my knees.
“Oh God, Will. Oh God, please, inside me,” she begs as the waves begin to abate. “Oh please, inside me, please.”
“Please, sir,” I remind her in a rough voice, but I’m already tugging at my belt and ripping open my pants. A second later I’m over her, my lips fused to hers as I gently detach the clamps. I catch her cries of pleasure-pain in my mouth, swallowing them as I swirl my tongue against hers.
The moment I come up for air, she gasps, “Please, sir. Please.”
And because I can deny her nothing, not when she’s like this, I shove my jeans and boxers down around my thighs and position myself at her entrance. And even though I’m so desperate to be inside her that my hand is shaking and my heart is thundering in my ears, I pause for a beat.
Another.
And then just one more.
Because I want to remember. I want to tattoo the way it feels to glide inside her on my memory, to bottle up this moment I wasn’t sure would ever come again so I can drink deep from it on nights when she’s far away from me and all I want is her. All I want is this. All I want is her taste in my mouth and her body hot and eager aga
inst mine and her sweet voice calling out my name as I push oh so deep, so fucking deep.
“Yes, oh, yes,” she cries out, arching beneath me, taking me even deeper.
And then there is nothing but her heat and her fire and the way she takes me to all the places I want to be, to something sweeter than paradise because it belongs only to Hailey and me. To us together. It is a place we created with love and five years of devotion to bringing each other pleasure.
But this time is special. Sharper, edgier, but still overflowing with emotion, and by the time she comes a second time, I can’t stop myself from following her over. I come hard, my balls clutching between my legs as I empty myself into her pulsing heat.
After, once I’ve finally caught my breath, I push myself up on my forearms, loosening the scarf binding her wrists.
“Thank you, sir,” Hailey says, rolling her hands in circles.
“Of course, Curious,” I say, gazing down into her flushed face as I add, “Ninja,” in a softer voice.
Her lashes flutter, and her lips curve in a lazy smile. “I thought that was my safe word.”
“It is, but I need to borrow it. I need to talk to Hailey my ex, not Hailey my student,” I say, pushing on when she nods. “I’m sorry. I hate that you overheard something that made you feel like you weren’t enough for me. You’re more than enough, and you always have been. I always felt honored and privileged to be the man in your bed, baby, no matter what we did or didn’t do together.”
Hailey swallows, and her tongue slips out to dampen her lips, but she doesn’t say a word, not a word, for so long I feel compelled to add, “But you were perfect tonight. A natural. And I’m happy to keep teaching you if that’s what you want.”
“I want,” she says with a surety that goes straight to my cock. “The fact that you were the one who answered my ad, it just seems…meant to be. And I really want to know, Will. If I can be what you want me to be. And if I can’t…” She glances away, severing the intimate eye contact. “Well, I want to know that, too.”
I want to tell her that all I want is her—fuck the lessons, fuck everything but her and me and how perfect it is to be back in bed with her—but I can tell that she’s serious. She truly wants to test her boundaries, to open her mind, to see if we can work this way as well as we did in all the other ways.
So I press a kiss to her forehead and promise, “Then I will be the very best teacher I can be.”
And I mean it, even though it’s going to be hard as hell not to fall back into loving her so fiercely that I can’t tell where she ends and I begin, so deeply that it will feel like a vital organ is being ripped out of me if she decides submission isn’t for her, after all.
But if that happens, I’ll just have to convince her that we don’t need the game. That all we need is each other.
It’s true. Right now, with her gaze locked on mine and her fingers skimming up and down my back as my cock thickens inside her, I lack for nothing.
Though, I can’t deny I enjoyed our first lesson. Enjoyed it a hell of a lot.
“Ready for a chance to earn some bonus points for lesson one?” I ask, arching a teasing brow.
She smiles that beautiful, fearless grin that won my heart on our very first date, when she swore to try any sushi roll I had the guts to order, even the one that was served still squirming on the plate.
“Then let me teach you what these clamps can do to your pussy, Miss Marks,” I murmur, laughing as her eyes go wide. “Don’t worry,” I assure her. “I’ll be gentle. At least at first…”
“Well, that’s reassuring, sir,” she says, slipping back into the game with an ease that makes me hope this is only the first night of many.
And that these aren’t just lessons, but a new beginning for me and this woman I love beyond all measure.
Chapter 11
Hailey
For the first time in so long, I don’t dream.
Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve had action movie dreams, filled with so much drama and suspense that I often wake up exhausted, feeling like I’ve hardly slept at all. A hard workout during the day usually helps to quiet my night brain, but even that doesn’t always get the job done, and sex almost always has the opposite effect. Instead of calming me down, it shifts my dreams into overdrive.
After an especially steamy evening, I can usually count on waking up at least twice, soaked in sweat after barely escaping motorcycle-riding velociraptors or fire-breathing flying monkeys or whatever else my overstimulated brain has brewed up with the influx of pleasure hormones.
But this morning when I slit my eyes, taking in the pale light prickling through my yellow curtains, for a moment I can’t believe it’s morning. Without dreams to mark the passage of time, or even a midnight trip to the bathroom, I feel disoriented.
What happened between the moment I passed out on Will’s chest and this moment? Where was I if not in dreamland?
I have no clue, but after a moment I decide this is the kind of weirdness I could get used to.
Who cares where I was or what my brain was up to? If I could wake up feeling this relaxed and refreshed every morning, I would consider myself a lucky girl.
You should arrange for Will to tie you up and make you scream every night.
The thought makes me blush then grin so wide my cheeks start to cramp. I roll over, burying my burning face in my pillow as memories of all the wicked things Will did to me last night come rushing back.
In the light of day, it’s a little embarrassing, but I wouldn’t take back a second of what we shared. At least, not the experimenting part…
I do wish I’d been able to keep the truth from Will a little longer—for his own protection—but by the time I started making those confessions, I wasn’t thinking with my rational mind. Letting Will take the lead wasn’t just sexy as hell, it also did a number on my self-defense system. All those walls I’ve worked so hard to keep in place since we separated came tumbling down so fast it made my head spin.
And I’m sure the nipple clamps didn’t help things any.
Nipple clamps. I let my lover put clamps on my nipples and other, even more intimate places last night. Who is this wild, experimental person, and where has level-headed Hailey gone?
“Good morning, Curious,” Will says from the door to my bedroom. “You ready for breakfast?”
I roll over, the goofy grin rushing back to my face as I meet his dancing eyes. He looks as giddy as I feel, which for some reason makes me giggle.
“What’s so funny?” he asks with a smile.
“Nothing. Everything.” I lift my hand to cover my mouth and add in a stage whisper, “We did naughty things in this bed last night, William Major Saunders.”
He chuckles. “We did, Hailey Rae Marks. So how are you feeling about that now that morning has broken?”
I prop up against the pillows as I thread my fingers together in my lap. “I’m feeling good,” I say, my toes squirming beneath the covers as I meet Will’s searching gaze and start blushing all over again. “Great, actually. I slept like a rock. Best sleep I’ve had in forever.”
“Glad to hear it.” He steps into the room, carrying a tray mounded with a plate of pastries, a bowl of fresh fruit and yogurt, and a French press filled with coffee. “Hopefully you woke up hungry, too.”
I press my lips together, shaking my head as Will settles the tray across my lap. “You didn’t have to do this. We could have eaten together at the table.”
“I know I didn’t have to.” He leans down, bringing his face level with mine. “I wanted to. I wanted to do something to show you how grateful I am for last night. And for you. And for your honesty.”
I bring a hand to his face, cupping his stubbly cheek. “You don’t have to thank me. It was wonderful. And it probably could have been wonderful a lot sooner if I’d been honest with you instead of running away.”
“I understand why you ran,” he says, leaning into my touch. “It’s a big thing to keep secret, and I ne
ver should have discussed the intimate details of our relationship with someone else. I should have told Sterling that I appreciated his concern, but that our sex life was between you and me and no one else.”
“We both could have handled things better,” I agree, anxiety spiking again as I brush his hair from his forehead. “But I want you to promise me that you’ll be honest with me from now on, even if it’s hard. And I’ll do the same.”
He turns his head, pressing a kiss to my palm. “Done. Honesty, even if it hurts.”
“And no holding back,” I add in a softer voice. “I need to know if this will really work, and that can’t happen if you’re giving me the PG-13 version of what you want. You get what I’m saying?”
His lips curve. “I get it, but we’re only three days in, woman. It’s okay to take things slow. You need to learn how to walk before I ask you to run.” He presses a kiss to my forehead that makes me warm all over. “No one ever made it from the couch to a 5k by sprinting the entire distance the first day of training, right?”
“I see your point.” I scoot over, moving the tray with me, and pat the mattress. “Sit down and stay a while? There’s more than enough to share.”
He straightens, taking a step away from the bed. “I would love to, but I was doing some thinking this morning while I was out getting pastries.”
“That sounds ominous…”
Will smiles. “Not ominous at all. I just don’t think it’s a good idea for us to fall back into old habits. At least, not some of them.”
My brow furrows. “What do you mean?”
“I mean sex and intimacy outside the game,” he says, sending heat rushing to my cheeks again. “Right now, all I want to do is crawl into bed with you, feed you breakfast, lick honey off your nipples, and make love to you slow and sweet until lunch time.”
My lashes flutter. “Sounds like a solid plan to me. I’ve missed that part of us.”
“I have, too,” he says softly. “But if we start down that road, I’m going to lose all objectivity and the distance I need to be a good teacher. And I’d probably lose what’s left of my self-preservation instinct, too.” He runs a hand through his hair with a sad smile. “Until we know for sure that this second chance is a go, I can’t get too attached to the idea of you and me together again, Hailey. Losing you was…so hard. Crazy fucking hard, and I don’t want to go through that kind of grief again unless I absolutely have to.”