by Shae Mathews
“What would you like?” he asked, watching her as she watched the sea.
“I don’t know,” Copper admitted. Her small fingers were stroking the tablecloth absently but with an underlying sensuality that made Emmett long to be in the furniture’s place.
“They serve some of the tastiest fish dishes you can imagine,” he said.
“Do they?” Turning to him, she met his eyes, and he nearly forgot what he’d been about to say.
He cleared his throat. “Erm, yes. You’d regret not trying it, in fact.”
The waitress appeared, a dark-skinned beauty with a sunny smile and an equally sunny personality.
“Hey there, what can I get you?” she asked, quirking her eyebrows as she turned to Emmett.
“We’ll take the fish,” he answered, and hoping that Copper couldn’t see, he replied to the unspoken question with a wink. Marcia was kindhearted, clever, and a great cook. She was also one of his best friends and one of the few people who knew all about his lifestyle choices.
Across the table, Copper sucked in a breath. When he looked at her, she glared back, but she remained silent.
“And a bottle of Chardonnay,” Emmett added.
“Coming,” Marcia replied and left them alone.
“I would have been able to order for myself, you know,” Copper said after a moment.
He nodded. “I know.”
“So why did you do it for me?”
“Because you like it that way.”
“Oh, do I?”
“Yes, you do,” he replied, secretly amused when Copper’s eyes narrowed.
“Do you really believe I need you to tell me what I like?”
“Why not? Have you ever tried it?” He was beginning to figure her out. She’d learned to be a strong and independent woman, but at heart she longed for a man to treat her like the lady she was. And she needed the right guy to bring the naughty girl inside her out to play.
Her eyelids fluttered, and she dropped her gaze to the table. Her shoulders heaved as she took a sudden, deep breath. “No.”
“I thought so. Would you like to try it?”
She looked up again, searching his face for the answer to a question she had yet to ask, but she didn’t meet his eyes, and Emmett nearly whooped in joy. He had figured her out correctly. She was far more of a submissive at heart than her tough demeanour led one to believe, and already, she was beginning to slip into the role.
“What exactly are we talking about here?” she enquired, and it struck him as odd that she didn’t add the mandatory “Sir.” It said a lot about how good she was—and how much he wanted her.
“I’m talking about filling that craving you have,” he said calmly, taking joy when she flinched and cast a worried glance over her shoulder. Though not full, the bistro hosted other guests, and some of them were close enough to overhear their conversation, especially if he didn’t bother to drop his voice.
Marcia arrived with a bottle of chilled Chardonnay, two glasses, and a knowing smile on her face. A well-trained sub herself, she must have detected the signs as soon as Emmett had led his beautiful lady inside. She put a glass in front of Emmett, poured some wine, and waited for him to sample it.
“Thank you.” Emmett took a sip and nodded his appreciation. Filling the second glass, Marcia indicated a bow before she left.
He picked up his glass and raised it in a silent toast. As expected, Copper was still staring at him. When she didn’t take her glass, he clinked his against it in wordless summons.
The sound seemed to startle her out of her daze. “My…fill…How can you say something like that?” she huffed. Her cheeks were glowing bright pink now, and she looked more desirable than ever.
“It’s true, though, isn’t it?” Emmett remained calm in the face of her storm. “You have cravings that no one has been able to satisfy yet, haven’t you? A deeper yearning that no man has ever been able to fulfil, no matter what they have tried. Don’t you ever wonder why that is?”
“How dare you!” She spat out the words and jumped up, only to freeze when he held up a hand in warning.
“Sit down,” he told her quietly, and much to his delight, she sank onto her chair again after another quick glance around the room. Some heads had turned, but Emmett couldn’t have cared less what anybody thought. He hadn’t been this close to a perfect female partner in years, and he was damned if he didn’t make the most of it.
“Good girl,” he praised. “Now listen. What I’m talking about is this—I’m a Dom. No,” he said sharply when she tried to get up again. “Hear me out. You can still say no when I’ve told you what I want or, more precisely, when I’ve told you what you want.”
“You have no idea what I want,” she grumbled.
He smiled at her pleasantly. “Why don’t we give it a try?”
She raised her eyes to him again, and he could see anxiety and mistrust, but also curiosity and, above all, arousal in them.
“You’ve worked hard to get where you are,” Emmett said in a soft drawl. “You’re good at what you do, and you’ve come far. I’m guessing that you’re the only woman in your position in the firm you work for.”
A silent nod confirmed his assumption.
“The men around you respect you for what you’ve accomplished, but you know that you can never let your guard down. Not for a moment, or they’ll think you’re weak. You can’t risk that, so you deny yourself to let that side of you out.”
She lifted her chin defiantly. “What side?”
“The side of you that likes it when men are in charge. Your submissive side.”
“I’m not—”
“Aren’t you? Then why do you feel the need to snap at me before you even know who I am? Why do you feel the need to be defiant even though no one is about to hurt you?”
“Maybe because I just don’t like being ordered about by a guy who doesn’t even possess the manners to introduce himself,” she shot back. “And besides, why would that make me…submissive? Quite the opposite, if anything, I’d say.”
“You’re not listening, precious,” he said patiently and reached out to take her hand in his. “With that behaviour you cover up your vulnerable side because you have never learned to deal with it. Because no one has ever taught you how to embrace and appreciate that part of yourself and how to fully enjoy it.”
She gasped an incredulous laugh. “And you want to show me that?”
“Yes.”
“What on earth makes you think I would agree to that?”
“The fact that you’re curious. You want to know if what I’m telling you is true because deep inside you’ve already realised that what I’m saying makes sense. And apart from that”—he grinned—“you’ve got the hots for me. So badly that you had to bring yourself off in the shower before you could stand to meet me for dinner. And you’re still horny. I bet your seat will be drenched in your juices by the time we get up.”
Her cheeks had turned crimson. She sucked in a breath, and her lips moved, but she didn’t talk.
He took his time watching her. Assessing her. She was beautiful, and now that her face was flushed and the pulse leapt in her throat, she was more desirable than ever. Emmett was so hard he thought he might well break the table if he got up now and bumped into it. He wanted her, needed to bury his aching cock in her slick, juicy pussy and pound her so hard she’d forget everything but his name.
When Marcia arrived with their food a few minutes later, they had yet to speak to each other again but the air around their table was charged with a sexual tension so strong it made Marcia dump their plates and disappear at lightning speed.
“How…how do you know?” she whispered, clenching nervous fingers around her napkin.
“Intuition.” Grinning, he picked up his fork. “And now eat, precious.”
“But—”
“Eat,” he repeated, just a little more sternly, but it was enough to make her jolt into obedience.
“How do you like it?”
he asked after they had eaten in silence for several minutes.
“It’s delicious.” Her reply came promptly, but quietly, just the way he liked it.
“See? The decision I made for you was a good one, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“So why don’t you let me show you that I am capable of making more decisions for you that will be equally to your liking?”
She raised troubled eyes to him. “But what does that mean? What kind of decisions?”
“How and when you’re allowed to orgasm, for instance.” He paused, giving her time to cough and clear her throat of the bite that had just gone down the wrong pipe. “And how many times.” He chased his food down with a sip of chilled wine. It was delicious but not the juice he wanted to taste. Right that moment, if given the choice, he would have preferred to sample the flavours of the woman across from him to the best champagne.
She stared at him, wide-eyed and openmouthed.
“Don’t get this wrong, Copper,” he said in that low tone he knew would make her tingle in all the right places. “I’m not looking for a slave. I have no interest in controlling your life or what you eat and things like that. My domination is above all sexual, and if you’re willing to submit to me, I can take you to levels of pleasure you never even knew existed.”
“But…you don’t even know me,” she protested feebly. She’d stopped eating and put her fork down neatly next to her plate.
“Maybe I know you far better than you think.”
A soft, choked sound escaped her lips, and he knew she was his.
“I’m only here for a while,” she reminded him in a last, weak attempt at resistance.
“Well, I believe we had better leave and make the most of it, then.”
Chapter 4
All the time she spent in Emmett’s car on the way to his home, Copper was mulling over one question in her mind. Why? Why did she let him do this? Or rather, why did she let herself be taken on such a route? She didn’t know the man, didn’t know if he was trustworthy or planning to do the most outrageously cruel things to her. No one knew where she was, and if he intended to harm her, there was likely no chance for her to escape.
“No worries, precious,” Emmett said in that husky drawl that sent a shiver down her spine. “I would never hurt you beyond what you enjoy. In fact, we’re going to set some rules. I planned to do that when we’re at my home, but I can see that you’re worried.” He cast her a quick sideways glance, and the softness, or rather affection, in his eyes calmed her even more than his words. He wasn’t going to hurt her. Not in a bad way, at least.
“First, and most importantly of all, you’re going to choose two safe words.”
“Two?”
“Yes. The first is a warning. Use it if whatever I’m doing to you at the time is too intense for you or if you’re uncomfortable. Do not use it when you’re aching from obeying my order. That’s something different. If you use this warning, I will ease off and allow you to catch your breath, so to speak. I will check on you, and we will continue when you’re ready.”
She nodded and nervously folded her hands in her lap, over and over again. A safe word? How was she supposed to deal with all this?
“The second safe word is far more important. If you use it, I will not only stop what I’m doing at that moment, but everything stops and I shall not touch you again or demand for you to obey any of my orders until we have discussed your concern.” He paused for a moment, focussing on the traffic, before he added, “What do you think?”
It was hard to tell him what she thought. Even for herself, it was hard to understand what she thought.
“That’s not what I expected,” she whispered.
“What did you expect? That I’d just take you away, tie you up, and have my way with you?” He sneered. “Precious, one of the most important aspects of BDSM is for it to be consensual. I, the Dom, merely lead the way, but it’s the sub—you—who decides how far we go. So, my dear, let’s dance.”
Emmett continued to explain some rules, and Copper picked her safe words, orange as a warning and red to stop. They were the classic safe words, used by the majority of players, and easy to remember, as Emmett had told her.
When Emmett stopped the car in front of a large beach house, Copper wasn’t worried. Talking about rules had seemed strange at first, but now she realised that it went a long way to calming her, and what Emmett had told her about the lifestyle had made her curious rather than scare her off.
Despite the scruffy first impression he’d made, he was clearly an intelligent and conscientious man, so maybe he hadn’t lied when he’d said he was also a lawyer. He was also a gentleman, holding the door open for her and taking her by the hand as he led her inside.
The house was one of the big, breezy homes she’d only ever seen in films. She liked it and would have loved to see more, but Emmett took her to a room at the back. That room didn’t have any windows, and the thick walls led her to assume that it was soundproofed.
As soon as they had entered, he closed the door behind them. A shudder ran down Copper’s spine as she realised that she was trapped. As if sensing her fear, Emmett gave the hand he was still holding a gentle squeeze. “No worries, precious. Anytime you want to stop, just say your words. I’m a man of honour. I like to dominate my partners, but I never ask for more than they can give. Now go to the middle of the room where I can see you.”
His soft-spoken words had chased away most of her doubts, and Copper slowly walked in the direction he’d said, looking around as she moved. A huge bed with welded headboard dominated one side of the room, but there was also a sturdy chair and a low bench that had rings and leather cuffs attached to it.
“Stop.”
He’d said the singular syllable as softly as a summer breeze, but it made her shudder as if she was rocked by a thunderstorm.
She stood. Quiet. Waiting. Hoping that only she could hear her heart beating so frantically.
She could feel him move behind her, felt the stirring of the air as he walked past. From the corners of her eyes, she watched him walk to the big chair and stand behind it. He undid the buttons on his shirt cuffs, then he carefully rolled up his sleeves. Watching her, he remained still for several endless moments.
“Come here,” he instructed, and the words were like an absolution. She let her shoulders sag and took a deep breath.
“Now,” he added, only marginally sharper, but this time it was definitely an order.
She put one foot out, moved the next, and then approached him slowly.
“Sit.”
“Huh?”
“Sit.”
She glanced at the chair uncertainly then she sat down.
“Good girl. Now, before we take this any further I’d like you to meet someone.”
Her heart started thudding. “Meet someone?”
“Yes.”
“But—” She fell silent when Emmett brushed her shoulder.
“Remember that so far you liked all the decisions I made for you? Trust me. You’ll like what I have in store for you.”
Biting her lip, she made herself wait and watched as he went to open the door and left. She didn’t like to be alone in the strange house, but he was back before she had time to become uncomfortable. And Emmett wasn’t alone.
He was followed by a tall, handsome man who was completely naked. The only decorations on his body were a collar and leash, both made of fine, black leather, and a large dragon tattoo that went from his shoulder across his chest and belly and down his thigh.
Copper cringed. The man’s cock was half hard and quite impressive in size. The sight of it made her juices start to flow as she imagined how big he would be if fully erect and what it would feel like if he penetrated her with this glorious, fat cock. She bit back a moan.
“Copper, meet Shawn. Shawn is my other sub. He’s well trained, and he’s going to play with us for a bit.”
“P–Play with us?” She nearly choked on the words
.
A lascivious smile spread across Emmett’s face. “Yes.”
“What are we going to play?”
“Oh, we’re going to get acquainted with each other, above all. I’m going to make him watch while I spank you and warm you up.”
Copper swallowed. “And…then?”
“Then I would like to watch him fuck you for a bit. Shawn has been a good boy today, and I’m in the mood to give him a treat, but if he gets it depends on you.”
“On me?”
“Yes.”
“You want to let him fuck me to reward him?” Copper heard the shrill note in her own voice. But there was more in it, a tightness that was equal to the burn between her legs. The prospect of being fucked by this beautiful stud was alluring, yet at the same time she was afraid. Emmett was going to watch, he’d said.
“Yes,” Emmett confirmed calmly. “But it will be as much a treat for you as it will be for him and it allows me to find out what you like without getting too…absorbed myself. Besides, I’m your Master and I am in the mood to watch the two most gorgeous creatures on the island doing the dirty together. The choice is yours, but if you bend to my will, then Shawn is going to fuck you until you come for the first time. And then I will join him. Together we’re going to show you what it means to be desired by two men.”
Copper was light-headed with lust. “T–Two?” she gasped.
“Yes. Two. Shawn will fuck your cunt while I will fill that beautiful arse of yours.”
She squirmed. “My…But I have never—”
“I know,” Emmett cut across her. “That’s why I’m going to do it. There’s nothing like being the first to fill a hole, and I’m going to fill you so nicely.” He smiled and trailed a finger down Shawn’s chest. “We’re both going to fill you until you think you’ll burst with pleasure. Together we will show you what true sexual delight is.”
He looked at her serenely. “Unless you choose not to let me decide for you. In that case, Shawn will stay here and I will either spend the evening with you in the bedroom or I will take you back to your hotel. The choice is yours. Do you want to stop now?”