Taking Her Down

by Vonna Harper

  Glorying in his domination over the beautiful creature wearing his ropes, he stroked her buttocks and thighs. She sighed repeatedly and kept trying to lift her head off the bed. Doing so took strength she should’ve hoarded for other things and, after several attempts, she stood bent over with her arms caught behind her and her ass high, waiting for her Master.

  Yes, Master. In charge of every inch of that delicious flesh.

  He picked up a rubber flogger and repeatedly struck her buttocks with it. She sighed, the sounds full of surrender and pleasure. Every time he heard it, every time the flogger landed, his strength grew. This was what he’d been born for.

  Maybe not born, he admitted, as he continued to condition her for the next act, but somehow in the process of becoming a man, he’d recalled that being a Dominant was deeply ingrained in him. It might have started with teenage fantasies about keeping girlfriends under lock and key, but maybe the need to control, contain and rule hadn’t begun until later.

  Until the island and the frequent storms that battered it had pulled him under their spells.

  He put down the flogger and unceremoniously ran two fingers all the way into his slave’s opening. She was so damned wet, a sopping mass of need. He could take her now, wanted to bury himself in her, or he could take things another step.

  Change her even more.

  He reached for a crop, spun it around in his hand and eased the handle into his slave’s opening.

  She felt something artificial enter her. Too far gone to try to figure out what it was, she moaned. Not long ago she’d wanted to lift her head, but being beaten had taught her to let Master have his way.

  Now, she clenched her teeth and tried to breathe while whatever Master had chosen to plunder her with slipped in deeper. She stepped outside herself and mentally joined Master, watched as a handle attached to strips of leather disappeared inside her channel. The handle spread her, trapping her. She whimpered. Slipped deep into nerves and need.

  “Take it,” Master commanded. “Keep it in you.”

  She could do that, could please Master.

  The more the foreign object invaded, the more she embraced it. Because Master wanted this thing inside her, she’d do everything possible to obey. To please him.

  To give herself to him.

  “I offer my body to you,” she said. “You’ve taken me from the existence I thought I wanted, separated me from my past and made the future unimportant.” She hadn’t known she was going to reveal so much but now she’d started, she committed herself to continuing. “Only you and the present matter.”

  He didn’t respond with words, but she told herself that his hands, gentle on her spine, said he understood. Between the hard invasion in her pussy and Master’s finger gliding over her, she drifted in the moment. Her body had never been in this space, never known such contentment. Yes, she craved Master’s cock inside her, but his complete focus was on her, something she’d never experienced.

  “My body is all I have to give you,” she whispered. “Please take it as the ultimate gift it is.”

  “Your body isn’t enough.” He took hold of her hair and lifted and turned her head so they looked at each other. “Think about what you just said and ask yourself if there’s more.”

  As he released her hair, she couldn’t wrap her mind around what else he wanted from her—or maybe the truth was she needed more time to decide whether to make the ultimate sacrifice. Tears burned her eyes. She would have given a great deal to be able to wrap her arms around Master, but he wanted her bent over the bed with her arms roped.

  Under his domination.

  “My soul.” She waited out the echo of her admission. “My heart. Those things belong to you as well.”

  He raked his fingers over her shoulder blades. “You’re giving them to a stranger?”

  Mewling like a homeless cat, she arched her spine. Gravity soon had her collapsing on the bed again. “I’m certain, Master.”

  “You’re a fool.”

  Maybe. “I trust you.”

  “How can you, when I don’t trust myself?”

  That, in part, was what made being around him a magical experience. She’d always dated responsible and predictable men, men whose goals paralleled hers. Maybe that’s why she’d never fallen totally in love—she’d needed something more.

  Someone deeper.

  “I accept you as my Master. What more do you want?”

  His nails made a long, slow journey down her spine, prompting more animal sounds from her. When he reached her tailbone, he drew her ass cheeks apart, and she knew he was looking at her anus and what he’d plugged her pussy with. She took this as proof that he was acknowledging the gift of her body.

  Working slowly, he drew the whip handle out of her. “It’s a toy,” he said. “Not designed to inflict true pain.”

  “I know.”

  “But I can use something else. Is that what you want?”

  Sharp sensation. Jerking and whimpering. Helpless. “I want.” She waited a moment as the impact of her admission sank in. “But that isn’t all. I need—Master, I need you fucking me.”

  “Yeah,” he muttered. “Yeah.”

  * * * *

  He’d transferred the rope from her elbows to her wrists, keeping her arms behind her. After helping her stand upright, he’d removed the leash and reapplied the blindfold. Before robbing her of sight, he’d held up a slim but stiff, cane and another whip similar to the one he’d been teasing her with, only sturdier.

  “You need pain,” he said, “to increase the connection between us. But for that connection to become complete, you also need to experience helpless dependence. You think you’ve been there, but you’re just getting started. Time for me to demonstrate.”

  A line of fire flamed over her right thigh.

  “Master!” she gasped.

  “No games this time. This is your ultimate lesson. Proof of the meaning of submission. By the time we’re done you’ll know whether it’s what you want.”

  The cane struck her thigh a second time, then a third. Any thought that she could stand still while he punished the body he owned fled. She tried to back away. He whipped her left thigh.

  “Master! It hurts.”

  “Sink into the pain. Learn from it.”

  He began striking her everywhere, never the same place twice in a row. Head down and arms straining, she turned this way and that. The dark world held her in its grasp and she became disoriented. Several times she cried out, but when he remained silent, she made the insane decision to match him.

  She lurched forward in response to a slash on the backs of both thighs, struck a wall and turned half around. Too late she remembered she still couldn’t see. As she pressed her spine against the wall, he peppered her breasts. In a way it felt good, part of her total awareness of herself. Then her breasts became too sensitive, compelling her to push off the wall. She thought she might collide with him, but he obviously had no trouble staying out of her reach.

  “Is this what you want?” He switched her buttocks. “Lessons in surrender?”

  She could say no. He’d stop attacking if she did.

  But she would have failed both of them.

  “Lessons,” she said around her screaming body. “Master taking me.”

  He walked her around the room by repeatedly striking her ass. When she couldn’t take any more of the targeted attack and tried to run, he grabbed her arm and stopped her. She spun around, hoping to keep her back from him, but that left her breasts and belly open to punishment.

  Hurting. Alive. Responsive.

  His. Always his.

  “Ten minutes,” he said after what seemed forever. “That’s how long we’ve been at this. Say the word and it’ll end.”

  But if I do, will it be an admission of failure?

  “More,” she got out.

  “Damn you.”

  Before she could make sense of why he’d said that, he started switching her again. Her legs had a will of
their own, marching her here and there, taking her to a wall, the bed, bumping into the restraint chair, carrying her back out into the middle of nothing. Master followed her everywhere, flogging her inflamed body. She was growing tired and wanted to fall down. At the same time, she didn’t want to lose the most intense experience of her life. She’d survive, grow, make Master proud of her.

  Make him love her.

  The thought rocked her and she stood on trembling legs with her head tilted to the side. If only she could see his expression, look for the smallest sign of love in his eyes.

  “Enough?” he asked.

  “I…don’t know.”

  “Then I’m making the decision.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Something clattered to the floor, telling her he no longer held what he’d been using on her. The longer the silence lasted, the more aware she became of the distance between them—a distance she didn’t want.

  Trusting her senses to tell her where he stood, she started toward him. Her body was still on fire, alive. Real.

  When her shoulder brushed male flesh, she turned toward the contact and leaned into him. His arms went around her. Trembling, she pressed her lips against his chest. Every inch of her was electrified and so sensitive she wasn’t sure she could stand to be touched.

  “So brave,” he muttered. “A true submissive.”

  The compliment, coupled with the taste of him, broke her. Whimpering, she slumped onto her knees. He caressed the top of her head. Much as the gesture meant, it wasn’t enough. She wasn’t his pet. Not even being his submissive slave was enough. He’d beaten her. She’d let him.

  After taking a moment to gather her strength, she lifted her head and went in search of his cock. It didn’t take long.

  “Master,” she whispered. “Please let me show my gratitude.”

  He groaned. “Do it.”

  His response left her with no doubt of the risk he was taking. It was one thing for a dominant man to exercise his control over his submissive, quite another to trust his cock to her. Would his response have been different if she hadn’t told him he owned her heart and soul as well as her body?

  Putting off facing the ramifications of that admission, she opened her mouth. Her flesh still throbbed. She started by leaning toward but not closing her lips around the gift he’d given her. This powerful man had altered her existence. He’d taken her into his world. Turned her into a captive, hostage, slave.

  On the tail of another groan, he fisted her hair. Accepting that he could stop her at any time, she began sucking. Using her lips to clamp onto him, she leaned back. His hold on her hair remained steady—unlike his now-ragged breathing.

  Not being able see him fueled her imagination. She pictured the two of them deep in the jungle his clan called home. She’d spent the day tethered by the neck to his shelter but, at last, he’d returned. Other male clan members were with him, staring at but not touching what belonged to Master.

  The warriors had eaten and he’d fed her a few scraps. Only then had he untied her and hauled her to where he slept.

  “Present,” he ordered.

  Afraid and compliant, she positioned herself on her hands and knees with her buttocks close to his cock. Maybe he’d fuck her. Maybe he’d ream her in the ass. Whichever he chose, she’d accept.

  Only she wasn’t on her hands and knees, she reminded herself, as reality returned. They were in a bedroom. Her hands were still behind her, she wore his blindfold and her body still hurt, proof of her place in his world.

  Master took as his due that she’d administer to his cock, so that was what she did. Concentrating on giving him maximum pleasure and ignoring her needs was impossible, but she fought to make him her priority.

  She felt connected to him, part and parcel of the man. Eyes closed behind the blindfold, she worshiped him with tongue and lips. That coupled with his uneven breathing fueled a fire the beating she’d endured had started. She moved him about, took him deep, withdrew, turned her head to the side so his tip pushed against the inside of her cheek.

  This flesh, muscle and blood became her god.

  “Enough,” he said.

  He pulled her head back until she had no choice but to let him go. Despite his fingers in her hair, she tried to recapture his cock.

  “Not like that.” He pressed the flat of his hand against her lips. “There are limits to what I can…”

  What he hadn’t said but she suspected was that he’d nearly come in her mouth. A small measure of power rested beside the reality of her bondage. She continued her blind search for him.

  “What is this about?” He grabbed her chin, immobilizing her. “Didn’t you hear what I said?”

  “I heard, Master, but I need…”

  “Need what?”

  “You,” she whispered.

  “Do you?” he asked following a telling silence. “What about a shower and some salve?”

  His attempt to remind her of what her body had been through barely made an impact. She craved the feel of him in her mouth.

  “Don’t.” He forced her head up, grabbed a nipple and tightened his hold. “What the hell’s wrong with you?”

  “Nothing.” Didn’t he understand how right everything could be if he’d just let her wrap her body around his? She’d stretch out on the bed, open her legs and draw him into her. They’d go from being two to one.

  Unite.

  “Nothing?” he repeated. He let go of her chin, captured her other nipple and drew her onto her feet. “What’s going on with my horny little slave?”

  Slave. Captive. Hostage. All the same. “You left me alone too long, Master,” she told him. “You were gone all day. I was afraid maybe you’d been injured in battle, maybe even killed. If you didn’t return, I’d…”

  “What if I didn’t return?” he prompted, with his fingers still strong on her nipples. “Where were you?”

  “In the jungle.” Surely he knew that. “Tied to your shelter.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  She took a deep breath that smelled of a wet, wild world and him. “You’d captured me in a raid. For days you dragged me behind you as you and the rest of your clan went deep into the jungle. Then you chose a spot to stay while you hunted. You burned my clothes, roped me to a tree. Before you left, you told me to prepare myself because when you returned you were going to turn me into your sex slave.”

  “How did you feel about that?”

  The ache in her breasts had all but disappeared while she was spinning her tale. “Afraid. Excited. I knew—from the moment you knocked me to the ground, I knew what my fate was going to be.”

  “And that excited you?”

  “Yes,” she admitted with darkness all around. “Yes.”

  “Because?”

  “Because I wanted to belong to you.”

  When he untied her arms, she stood with them dangling at her sides. He wasn’t sure she realized she could remove her blindfold. The switch had left long, thin red marks all over her body but hadn’t broken any flesh. They’d fade in a few days. At least the surface proof of what she’d gone through would end. As for the deeper impact—

  Watching the slender, vulnerable woman wait for his next move, he recalled bits and pieces of what he’d done, said and thought since the storm struck. He’d experienced similar things here before, which was why he’d been hesitant to return to the island. He had because, as unnerving as imagining himself to be a primitive warrior had been, he’d never felt more alive. In the past, he’d managed to distance himself from the woman he’d been paired with before all hell had broken loose.

  This time, with this one, he hadn’t tried.

  Why me?

  When she sighed and cocked her head, he knew she still envisioned herself as a naked captive and future sex slave.

  The storm, island, or maybe both, had captured her as thoroughly as it had him.

  Not understanding how that had happened, he pulled the blindfold off her. She rubbed her
eyes then lightly fingered her breasts.

  “Study yourself, slave,” he ordered. “See what your Master has done to you.”

  Mouth open, she did as he’d commanded. He studied her every move while she traced the marks. She didn’t wince as she caressed what he’d done to her.

  “Do you understand what they represent?” he asked.

  She licked a forefinger and rubbed the moisture over her nipples. “My Master has marked me. Left proof that I belong to you.”

  “How do those marks make you feel?”

  For the first time following being given back the right to see, she looked up at him. Her eyes had darkened so they reminded him of midnight.

  “Owned,” she whispered. “Worthy of Master.”

  It had happened. She’d entered the place he’d long believed only he inhabited.

  “Express your gratitude, then.”

  She stared at his erection. “What do you want of me?”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Look into yourself and do what feels right.”

  Master’s words swirled around her. She left him and walked over to the window so she could breathe in some of the air that meant so much to him. The rain had practically stopped but the wind had increased. It had also cooled off a little, drawing her attention to the deepening shadows. It would soon be dark.

  Feeling renewed, she faced him. Seeing him looking like a primitive lord heated her. She smiled then tried to recall whether this was the first time she’d done so today.

  ‘Look into yourself and do what feels right’. Would a Master say that to a slave?

  She tried to remind herself that she wasn’t his possession, only to lose the thought. Today their worlds didn’t go any farther than this room. Tomorrow didn’t exist.

  “I want to make love with you,” she whispered.

  “With me?”

  His voice didn’t sound any stronger than hers had. He appeared shocked.

  “Yes.” She could barely believe she’d said what she had.