The Laughing Assassin [Assassin's Diary] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Jennifer Willows

  “So you want to test me already?” She remained mutinously silent, as if there was nothing to say.

  That was fine with him. She could keep her mouth shut for now, but in the end he would make sure she was the most vocal she had ever been in her life.

  “Jaden, place your hands above your head, palms up, please.”

  This time she complied, though there was a slight hesitation yet again to follow his directives. That was something they would have to work on heavily in the upcoming weeks.

  Yet Jonah knew that by the time this was over, he would have earned her trust and gained her willing submission so long as he was careful with her each step of the way.

  When her hands were appropriately positioned, Jonah used the soft attached wrist bonds to secure her to the cushion. She was strong enough to break them, if she truly desired, but he was betting on the fact that she would not want to escape his domination.

  She shook slightly, as if preparing for horrible torture. Jonah planned for her to feel tortured, but she wouldn’t have to carry a single mark from her punishment. He massaged her body at first, just allowing her to become acclimated to the senses of her own flesh. After she was loose and limber, he clasped her ankles and finally fastened the restraints at the base of the cushion around the trim joints. Perfect.

  If anything, the addition of the second set of fasteners seemed to make her even more nervous. She tugged at the bonds as if she were testing out the best way to escape them. But then she stilled, and he knew that she was finally resigned to her state of entrapment. Jonah trailed his lips up her flesh, starting from the tips of her tiny toes as he bathed her skin with his tongue.

  After he reached the apex of her thighs, he licked over the slickened seam of her slit and tasted her personal spice. She quivered, and he licked again as if she were a frozen treat that he was forced to quickly enjoy in the hot sun before the cream melted under the direct heat of the day. He tongue bathed her, laving her flesh with each probe of his seeking mouth. There was time given to every iota of her slick cunt flesh, but even with the excess of sexual pleasure, he only gave her enough to drive her mad.

  There was never enough to make her come. He wanted her to beg for the orgasm, wanted her to need his flesh. When she became too squirrelly to contain her gyrations under his lips, he stopped.

  Her very breaths seemed to complain to him, each inhale a labored huff and exhale a puff of unabated desire.

  “Is there something you want, Jaden?” he asked just to be an asshole. He knew exactly what she wanted. Her body spoke even louder than her groans did. “If so, you have the permission to ask for it.”

  But she remained silent, if he excluded the gasps she made long after he stopped touching her.

  After she backed away from the orgasmic plateau, he resumed his tongue lashing. Jonah refused to stop until she quivered uncontrollably and every fiber of her being clamored for the impending peak. He wanted to see her give in to the unending pleasure that racked her frame until she didn’t care where his will and her body ended or began.

  “A woman like Jaden needs to be pushed hard with pleasure. She is well acquainted with pain and can endure more than you would want to mete out.” Stein’s words during their first training came back to him in a rush, and everything made sense now, so much more than before.

  But he wasn’t going to let her come just yet. Jonah could see that she was so close to orgasm that even a careless breath could spark her fire. That was the perfect time to release her ankles and then hands from the cushion.

  “Jaden, come here.”

  “What?” she asked as if she were snapped from a deep sleep.

  “Don’t make me repeat myself.” The lost look in her eyes was that of passionate drunkenness, and if the circumstances were different, he would have replaced it with the gaze of satiated satisfaction.

  She scrambled upright then climbed off the firm cushion. He could see the denial of her orgasm hurt as she gasped when her knees touched the floor. That was what he was looking for, what Stein was training him to see and capitalize on. Her body would be his best ally, even when her brain begged to her rebel against his mind fuck.

  After another hour of giving her arbitrary commands, he could see the droop in her shoulders from sexual tension combined with physical fatigue, and he decided to end their session.

  “Jaden, when your training is complete for the day, I will tell you, as you were and you can go back to whatever you were doing before we began. We will take longer periods of time as we go along, until we are able to wear this façade for twenty-four hours straight.”

  She made a face, but didn’t speak on it. Jaden walked away and could see her tug the front zipper down no sooner than she cleared the bedroom door. He knew she would hate the outfit, but if she only understood how delectable she appeared in it then she might forgive him for extending their training for an hour longer than originally planned for day one.

  * * * *

  But when all was said and done, the week was at an end and Jonah was amazed at how well she took to his directives. She had become so good at it that he would have thought that this was her preferred lifestyle. Even Stein admitted his surprise at how well she took to commands at the end of the first seven days’ testing.

  That Saturday evening, Stein walked in the front door as if he owned everything he saw, and Jonah knew this was the master at work. Normally, he was such an easygoing person that the man he looked at now was a one-eighty. For someone of Stein’s size, being seen as demure or unassuming was difficult, but it was all in the demeanor.

  Stein hadn’t spoken as usual, but his carriage was different, the look in his eyes was different, and that was what Jonah was attempting to emulate. Jonah needed to learn how to be dominant without a word being spoken. He needed to learn how to be that man and adopt the persona that Stein wore with ease.

  Preferably, he thought, without the use of verbal cues to substantiate his claim of expertise as the top, and as a dominant. Although, Jonah noted in his research thus far that most tops were not 24/7 within the lifestyle and could enjoy vanilla sex just the same as the more kinky forms of sexuality.

  Stein took a seat on the couch. “Call Jaden and put her through her paces. The ones we learned about last week will be fine.”

  Jonah had her wait in the bedroom after she finished dressing. “Jaden, my pet, come here.”

  She walked out almost immediately. But she dropped to her hands and knees when she reached the living room to slowly and sinuously gap the remaining distance between them. When she reached his side, she stopped and sat up, placing her hands on her thighs. Her mien was perfect. She looked at the floor and made no movement, save her perfectly patient waiting for the next command.

  “Jaden, Master Stein is here and would like to see you put through your paces.” She kept silent, and he began to give her the most arbitrary of directives. But that didn’t matter as she was on point with each one. He didn’t question it, yet the fact that she had worked so hard, despite her personal misgivings, made him extremely proud.

  It wasn’t until he was done that Stein threw a monkey wrench into the works, and he was sure that Jaden was going to fail.

  “May I?” Stein pointed at Jaden. When Jonah nodded once, Stein smirked and looked at Jaden. “Slave, I wish to see how well you take to spanking. Since you have not been trained for this yet, I will show you several positions that are perfect for this form of punishment.” Stein took Jaden’s hand and helped her into position number one, a variant on the waiting pose, with her forearms to the floor and her ass high in the air. The second was her on her hands and knees, and the third pose was her standing, but bent at the waist with her hands on the floor.

  “The pose for your spanking today will be the last one I showed you.” Jaden adopted the position with no hesitance, and quickly to boot.

  Stein didn’t move a muscle, nor did Jaden. She didn’t even ask why she was to be punished, and Jonah was absolutely enthral
led with this version of her. He adored her strength, but loved her ability to yield as well. It was just another facet that he got the chance to appreciate.

  He had to take the time to touch her, although his hands shook slightly when he moved them and his palms were damp. Jonah swept his left hand over the proffered curves of her taut hip as he listened to her quickened breathing. To anchor her into the posture, Jonah grasped the bows along the back of her corset in one fist. The extra pressure made the bodice tighten, and he could hear her measured breathing as she inhaled in tiny gasps for oxygen.

  First he started out slowly, but by the fifth stroke he was unable to hold to the warm-up pace of the prior swats and let his hand fly. He smacked her from every angle, the left, the right, up, and down. Before he knew it, his own lusts heightened as he watched the way her backside jiggled from every caress smacked upon her skin.

  The only reason he stopped was Stein.

  Stein clasped Jonah’s shoulder and shook his head as if the gesture meant “no more.” He felt irritated at first, but when he looked down, his hand was beet red and stung. And at some point Jonah had lost count of how many times he’d smacked her. After he realized how heavy handed he had been, he felt guilty. Jaden hadn’t made a word of complaint, but he could see the corporal punishment had gotten to her. Her frame shook slightly, and Jonah was grateful that Stein stopped him when he had.

  Otherwise, he may have taken their game too far. When he released her, Jaden was barely able to stand any longer, and her knees knocked together. But she was too stubborn to fall down, and Jonah wouldn’t let her feel weak due to his own weaknesses. He picked her up and carried her back to the bedroom. He sat her on the sore buttocks on the cool edge of the bathtub and stripped her of her slave garments before he ran her hot water with vanilla scented bubbles.

  Jaden never even made a sound to condemn or vilify him, and her silence seemed make the albatross of guilt heavier.

  She was washed gently before he massaged her damp skin with oil and left her facedown in bed beneath the ceiling fan. Jonah squatted down beside the frame of the platform and kissed her forehead. With the way he had treated her, he deserved nothing less than a head butt for his selfishness. But she didn’t injure him, only lifted her head into the soft kiss above the eyebrow.

  But when he finished caring for her, he said the only thing he could.

  When head lowered again, Jonah peered into her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

  He knew the words weren’t enough. What kind of man was he to enjoy giving a child’s punishment on a grown woman? And not only enjoy the sight of it, but relish in giving it? Jonah never imagined once he would be a sadist, not in the three decades he’d been alive.

  But she looked at him and smiled. “It’s okay.”

  “It’s not. I’m not that kind of man.”

  “Yes, you are. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be having this discussion now.”

  Jaden was always quick on the trigger, and there was nothing that he could do but agree. “You’re right. But I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  “Did I sound like I was being hurt? Did I ever say I was hurt?”

  “No.” Actually, all he heard were moans.

  But, I was so into her that I could have been imagining things.

  “In fact, what really hurt is the idea that we went together a place that only we could go to, and you are embarrassed about it. I didn’t know that it could feel like that. That you could send me outside my own body and make me forget myself.” Jaden was normally a closed-off woman. If she could be honest, he could, too, and her truths forced him to take another look at the situation.

  “You’re not alone there. I forgot myself, too. But the last thing I want is to make you think that I want to abuse you.”

  “It was consensual. Believe me, if I wanted to stop you, I could have.” Jaden smiled and closed her eyes. “Go and talk to Stein. I’ll be here. In two and two.” She tossed up a peace sign and flipped her hand around once, then giggled, and the hand flopped lazily onto the mattress.

  Jonah couldn’t stop the laugh that burst out at the motion. He closed his eyes, and finally, the weight was lifted from his shoulders.

  Jaden’s reminder about Stein forced him to walk into the living room, even though he didn’t want to. Jonah couldn’t hide like a child in the bedroom until the man went away either. He almost didn’t want to speak on what had just happened. His shame was still raw, even with the absolution that she had just given him with her admissions.

  But Stein was the type of man that when he spoke, anyone with sense would listen, so Jonah sat down on the love seat and faced his friend.

  “You were a bit tough on her, not that she can’t take it, but she hasn’t learned how to process those sensations yet.” Stein was right, and that was the issue. Jonah had to be in control and not just of Jaden. He had to control himself as well, and that was the hardest part.

  “You’re right.”

  “That’s the problem, Jonah. I’m not.” Stein smiled, just a quick flash of teeth.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “That’s the other problem.”

  “Well how about you explain that to me then?”

  “First of all, Jaden is your slave. Not mine or anyone else’s. You alone are to determine what she can or cannot handle. Secondly, you determine what she can take solely by trial and error, and based on her reactions. You learn what makes her weakest and make it her strength. She loved what you did to her, but you were so lost in how good the control felt to you that you forgot to pay attention to her. Every slave has cues that tell you when they are truly in pain or if they are in need of more. In a situation like this one?” Stein shrugged. “No harm, no foul. But in another scenario? You could have hurt her by not fulfilling her emotional and physical needs. Jaden is a woman in class of her own. She is in the ninetieth percentile for cunningness, strength, and skill. A woman like that craves an outlet to be weak, at least every once in a while.” Stein’s voice was gruff and dry, as if autumn-withered leaves rustled in his throat.

  Jonah didn’t think about it that way, but he knew Stein was right. Then no sooner than he had that thought, his mind jumped back to the fact that Stein said that Jaden loved it. Although she had admitted as much earlier, he would have never imagined that she could enjoy a child’s punishment. Nor would he have imagined that he would love giving it. Maybe they were a match made in heaven.

  * * * *

  The first day of training Jaden was in stupefied shock. She was so certain that she would never, ever understand the lure of being possessed by a man. But somehow, the tables had been turned on her, and Jonah had not only done so, but he was so good at it that she had no idea when it happened. She just knew that it had. When had she given this man so much power over her? What was the crucial moment that her body began to betray her and follow his will and not hers?

  But no matter how she looked at it, somewhere along the line, the concept of control had become a warped, twisted thing not born of her imaginings. Why had she so stupidly assumed that she couldn’t be mind-fucked? And the worst part was that Jaden had prepared for a much different form of training than the one that she stumbled upon.

  She had steeled herself for beatings with a bastinado, a stripping with a cat-o’-nine-tails, or even smacks with a cane. Those things she could withstand easily, as that was all old hat. The Rōnin had no problems with beatings of all varieties. It was one of the critical parts of their methodology. Actually, most forms of kung fu were learned by trial and error, and being beaten with a weapon was the best way to ensure that the pupil could learn how best to avoid being crippled by it. So, she could have easily handled physically being fucked with for breakfast and lunch.

  But this mental game that he played with her was more than she was equipped to deal with. He had forced her submission to his hands and voice, not with fear of pain, but with the anticipation of pleasures beyond her prior imaginings. With that first training, her body for onc
e didn’t answer to Jaden as master, but looked to Jonah instead.

  How could he make her crawl to him with only lashes from his tongue on her clit and essentially naught else? But in the same vein, his tongue was more talented than any another tool others had used before in an attempt to break her.

  Damn him for making me enjoy my own debasement. That was the most humiliating part of the entire debacle.

  She came into the living room for her first meeting with her master and Stein, only to find she enjoyed their training session. She found that she could appreciate the idea of the men assessing her performance, and she felt more sensual than ever before. There was something more to be said about being his woman in this way. It was as if she had a window inside of his soul that whispered his needs before he gave any command to her. The orders were just verbalized confirmation.

  There was something horribly exhilarating about the stamp of ownership in their play. Like now, he gave her tiny orders, just putting her through a random batch of things to show her off. What he really needed was to show Stein his mastery of her and to publicly display that she was under his control.

  But later? She was unsure about how she would feel later on. There was no way to know. She wasn’t the kind of wanton woman who was up for bondage. Or was she?

  She certainly hadn’t made time to think about what she wanted. She went out of the way this week to keep herself busy and unable to ruminate over the concepts that she didn’t want to admit to herself yet. But she was forced to face her own weakness when he spanked her.

  The first ten strokes hurt, not unbearably, but nonetheless they stung. After that, the sting mellowed into a cunt-tightening, clit-hardening sensation that wouldn’t go away. It seemed to envelop her in a cocoon of her own senses. Her head drooped toward the floor, and the blood rushed to her brain, not to mention the constriction of the corset took her breath away.