by Eden Rivers
After hanging out all day at the beach, enjoying a lazy Sunday with Abby, Nathan, and Jeremy, she felt relaxed and drowsy. She’d been reluctant to see Abby go when she left for Boston at the end of the day. Despite any lingering insecurity, she enjoyed having a female friend around while Brenda was visiting her family.
Okay, you’re stalling, Val. She shifted on the bed and examined the packages spread around her. Several, including the one with tonight’s date on the outside of the attached card, had “Open when you’re alone” warnings. When she’d talked to Ian earlier, he’d refused to give any hints about his presents.
Trying to decide if she was more excited or apprehensive about whatever new game he’d planned, she tugged the blue silk robe tighter around her. Last night’s gift, the robe caressed her bare skin like the brush of butterfly wings. Along with the warning note, tonight’s surprise came with instructions to wear the robe ‑‑ and nothing underneath.
Even with Brenda off on vacation, wearing the thigh-length wisp of silk without so much as a skimpy thong underneath left her feeling exposed. More naked than if she’d worn nothing at all. With a deep breath, she opened the card attached to tonight’s surprise.
Hello Miss Vee,
I wish I were there to play this game with you, but you’ll have to carry on without me. I’ll be thinking of you tonight, imagining your breasts peeking out from under the blue silk, the expressions on your face when you play this game for me, the sounds you’ll make while you’re playing.
Before you open the box, remove that ridiculous pastel bedspread you’re borrowing from Brenda and hide it in the closet. This isn’t a game to play on a pastel background.
Chuckling, Val shifted two weeks’ worth of gifts back into shopping bags, put tonight’s on the bedside table, and hid the lacy bedspread in the closet. She picked up the note again, not sure what to expect.
Good. Now lie back against the pillows. Touch your pussy. Not your clit at first. Save that until you’re so hot, you can’t stand it anymore. But don’t let yourself come. When you’re on the edge, but not quite there yet, stop and open tonight’s gift. You’ll find another set of instructions.
Always,
Ian
Her heart beating so fast she felt light-headed, Val took a few deep breaths to calm herself. This game carried a different tone than anything they’d played so far. Ian’s note issued direct orders.
Touch your pussy. The words sent a bolt of heat through her belly.
Until now, he’d gone out of his way to make it clear she had choices, determined not to pressure or frighten her. She’d told him no kid gloves. Had she really meant it?
Of course, if she didn’t like the rules, or didn’t react well to the commanding tone of the note, he wasn’t here to coax her into playing along. But holy hell, judging by the moisture beading at the creases of her thighs, she liked being told what to do a lot more than she’d have expected.
Without questioning how right it felt, how hot and sexy she found the idea of Ian calling the shots, she lay back against a pile of pillows, leaned over to dim the lights, and trailed her fingers between her legs.
As each stroke of her fingers raised her body temperature a notch, she wondered if Ian was imagining this, maybe even jerking off as he thought of her following his instructions. One thing she knew for certain. They were going to have to make love on the floor when he returned to Gulls’ Harbor, or risk destroying his bed. Distance served as a potent aphrodisiac.
She dipped two fingers into her…pussy. There, she’d managed to adopt one of Ian’s less scientific labels for that bit of anatomy. When he returned, she planned to surprise him with her new vocabulary. She suspected he’d find it a turn-on.
Spreading moisture across her burning skin, she let her fingers stray toward the center, seeking the sensations that would bring her hips up off the mattress, arching toward release. Striving to play by Ian’s rules, she lingered there only a moment, enjoying the bright lights that flashed behind her closed eyelids, but not allowing herself to rise the last distance toward release.
The images drifting through her thoughts were sensual and warm. Ian’s mouth on her belly. His fingers in her mouth, toying with her tongue. Her lips tugging tight around his cock, sliding wet along the silky-smooth skin, allowing herself to scrape her teeth ever so lightly over the taut surface.
Abby’s hands in her hair, braiding the wayward curls. Jeremy kneading her ass, squeezing and tugging until she whimpered. Tyler taking her into his arms, kissing away any lingering self-consciousness, stroking her breasts until she begged him to enter her.
Whoa. Val sat up, shaken and on the edge of orgasm. Where’d Ian go? And how did Abby sneak in there? For that matter, what about Tyler? She knew he wanted to have sex with her ‑‑ was eager to have another woman enter their tight little circle of friends. Did she want the same thing?
If Ian were here, he’d tell her not to think so much. He’d touch her face, and she’d bring her fingers up to trace the sun-bleached streaks in his honey-blond hair. The contact would be enough to reassure her that her fantasies were healthy, sexy, and beautiful.
Remembering how hot he’d been while he’d watched Jeremy enter her, how his cock had leaped against her hand when she’d reached back to touch him, she suspected he’d be aroused to know she was fantasizing about their friends. Okay, she knew he’d be fine with her masturbating while she thought of Tyler, Jeremy, and even Abby. Hell, knowing Ian, maybe especially Abby. But her unease reminded her she was on foreign soil.
She reached for the small box on the bedside table. If she touched herself again, even the slightest brush of her fingers against slippery skin, she’d come in an instant. According to Ian’s note, that meant it was time to open his present. Savoring the sense of anticipation and the little shivers of apprehension, she slid the silver ribbon from the package and tore off the foil paper.
The box had an embossed image of a naked woman holding a peacock feather. Whatever the package held, it sure as hell wasn’t a pair of earrings. She fumbled with the lid, eager to reveal what lay inside.
After tugging away a layer of cotton padding, she stared, trying to make sense of the gleaming metal chain with clamps on each end. Tucked underneath the chain, she found another note.
Dearest Val,
Did you do what I said? Are you dripping wet? So hot, you’d come if I so much as took your earlobe into my mouth?
No question about that. As she read, sparks of energy shot directly from her brain to her soaking pussy. Damn, what she wouldn’t give to have his mouth on her earlobe right now. Or other places.
Take off your robe. I want to picture you naked for this part, with nothing but your auburn curls to accent your tan. I want to see the creamy white of your skin where your bikini covers it from the sun.
Now lift the chain, and secure one of the clamps on your right nipple. Not at the tip. Close to the areola.
Her hands trembled as she lifted the silver chain and examined the rubber-coated tips of the nipple clamps. Could she do this? The only sex toy she’d ever played with was her trusty battery-operated solution to the dissolution of a two-year relationship. But the vibrator hadn’t come out of its hiding place since she’d met Ian.
Unless the leather wrist restraints ‑‑ um, and the handcuffs she’d used on Ian ‑‑ counted. Okay, so Ian seemed intent on coaxing her into new territory. But now he’d left the gentle encouragement behind and moved on to commands.
And she suspected this would hurt. He knew she liked it when he rolled her nipples between his fingers, pressed hard when she was just about to come, but the sensation always stopped just short of pain.
You’re stalling, Val. Damn, she didn’t know if she wanted to do this. Although Ian’s note issued direct orders ‑‑ Secure one of the clamps on your right nipple ‑‑ she suspected he’d started this game long-distance to allow her enough wiggle room to back out if she wanted. Even if he were here, she knew he’d back down i
f she told him this was just too kinky for her good-girl sensibilities.
Which gave her the answer she was looking for. She liked the new Val a hell of a lot better than the old model. Free. She could do whatever she wanted now. And she’d enjoyed every game Ian had introduced so far. Why not give this one a chance? Her nipples hardening into rigid peaks of anticipation, she rushed through the rest of Ian’s note.
Secure the second clamp and lie back on your bed. Ride the sensations for a couple minutes. Get used to the feel of the chain resting on your chest. Is it cold against your skin? Now touch your clit and bring back the heat. With your other hand, tug the chain just enough to move the clamps a fraction of a centimeter. What does it feel like? Do you like it more than you expected to?
I want to play this game when I see you again. I can imagine the expression on your face when you feel the first pinch of the clamps on your skin, the look of pure lust when you release them and blood rushes back into the compressed flesh. Just as you’re starting to come, remove the clamps and see how high the sensations can take you.
Lie still a moment afterward. Think of me. After you’ve caught your breath, e-mail me. Naked. I want to imagine the just-fucked flush on your chest as you write the message. Tell me everything. Every thought, every sensation. I’ll be waiting for your message.
Always,
Ian
Shivering as a breeze billowed through the curtains and brushed across her sweat-damp skin, Val set the note down and lay back against the pillows. Her hand trembling, she picked up one of the clamps, squeezed it to open the rubber-coated tips, and secured it at the base of her nipple.
Ohmygod!
Involuntarily, her hips arched off the bed. Colors and shapes flashed behind her closed eyelids. Her fingernails pressed against the palms of her hands. Knowing if she waited she might not go through with this, she bit her lower lip and secured the second clamp at the base of her left nipple.
Ride the sensations for a couple minutes.
Ian’s words echoed as if he were in the room with her. Her suspicions had been correct. This hurt. But not in the way she’d expected. Shivers of blue and black darted past her field of vision, and she closed her eyes again.
With every heartbeat, tugs of sensation radiated across her breasts, hot and wild and fierce. What rocked her world, chased the breath from her lungs, and left her limp against the damp sheets, was how her clit responded, how her pussy clenched in delicious anticipation.
A current of electricity rippled from her nipples down to her clit. With every breath ‑‑ each shift of the cool chain that stretched from one clamp to the other, connecting her breasts in an arc of heat ‑‑ her clit twitched and throbbed. She ached to touch herself, and in her frustration, she let a guttural noise escape from her lips.
But Ian had said to wait, and she wanted to play his game. She lay panting, her body taut with need, as the flashes of blue and black faded to a fuzzy red glow. Once she became accustomed to the intensity, the sharp edge of her hunger, she let her hand stray down her belly to her soft curls.
When she found her clit, a rock-hard nub of excitement, a couple of tentative strokes with her fingers brought her back to the edge. She hadn’t been prepared for how much she’d like this, the sharp sting of the clamps on her nipples, the desperate, aching need for release.
What came next? She struggled to form coherent thoughts through the haze of sensation. Again, Ian’s voice filled her thoughts, husky and rough with desire.
With your other hand, tug the chain.
As she traced circles around her clit with one hand, the other, acting almost with a will of its own, reached up to stroke the chain. More substantial than a necklace, but light enough that she’d almost forgotten it was there once the metal links warmed against her skin, it seemed innocent enough.
Until she applied the slightest touch of pressure, pulling the chain against the resisting tug where the clamps clung tight to her nipples. With a groan, she dragged her fingers across her clit. Her hips strained against her hand, seeking more pressure, and she quickened the rhythm of her strokes until her fingers ached with the effort.
Her ears filled with the sound of her own blood rushing through her veins, and desperate to come, she tugged harder at the chain linking her nipples in a single arc of sensation.
“Iaaannnn!”
Breathless as she rode the crest of her orgasm, she fumbled with one of the clamps, screaming as she pulled it loose and searing heat radiated across her breast. Driving her fingers faster across her clit, she released the second clamp, and her body convulsed with pleasure.
Not sure how she’d arrived here, but wanting to prolong the unfamiliar sensations, she stroked the puckered flesh of her nipple, threw her head back, and moaned through a climax that rose and fell and rose again, like waves across her body.
Spent, she curled onto her side, tucked into a ball, and wrapped her arms around her knees. Ian should be here to stroke her back and move wet strands of hair away from her face. Just when she thought the hollow ache of his absence might swallow her, when her throat tightened and she wondered if she was going to sob like a baby, she thought of him waiting for her e-mail.
Suck it up, Val. Still a bit shaky, she sat up and groped for her robe. Remembering he’d said he wanted her naked, she retrieved her laptop from her desk, settled back against the pillows, and began to type.
Ian,
I’ve never felt so many things at once. One of which is angry at you for leaving me here alone with all these feelings and sensations, and you not here to gentle me and whisper soothing words as I come down off something higher and more wonderful and more frightening than I knew was possible.
Although if you’d been here, I don’t know if I would have played the game, not without blushing a lot, anyway. And that’s what you wanted, wasn’t it? For me to experience all this without wondering what expressions were reflected on my face? Without being tempted to stifle my moans out of pride?
But then, you weren’t here when I screamed your name, and that seems wrong. I want your arms around me. For…
She backspaced over the last three letters, censoring out the word forever. At this moment, she wanted that so much, it tore through her like a hurricane moving across the ocean. But what she wanted couldn’t change the way things were.
I want to curl up in your embrace and fall asleep next to the sound of your heartbeat. Are guys like that too, or is it a female thing, needing to be close to someone after sex, craving the comfort of arms around you?
But that’s not what you asked me to write. You wanted to know what it was like for me, every thought, every sensation. I was embarrassed when I saw the gleam of metal in the box. But you probably knew I would be ‑‑ maybe even enjoyed that thought? You like to challenge me, don’t you? Coax me a few steps more than I might otherwise be willing to go.
When I put the first clamp on my nipple, the sensation burned so hot, I threw my head back. It hurt, and I decided I might not want to play this game after all. But I secured the second clamp, rode the waves of heat and color, and I liked it, Ian. That scared me, because my inner good girl wasn’t sure I was supposed to enjoy something so kinky. Something that hurt.
I touched my clit like you said to bring the heat back. When I moved the chain, and the clamps twisted a fraction of a centimeter against my nipples, I about climbed out of my skin. I couldn’t stroke myself fast enough, hard enough, couldn’t come quick enough to satisfy the urgent need for release.
As I struggled to fall over the edge and heat plastered my body to the damp sheets, I moved the chain again. I know you didn’t say to, but I wanted to see if that would set me free ‑‑ give my body the last push it craved and let me fly.
I flew, Ian. And when I removed the clamps, I went somewhere I hadn’t imagined existed. The first one hurt ‑‑ a lot ‑‑ but I was coming too, so I hardly minded. When I released the second one, my body skipped the pain and went somewhere else entirely, a pl
ace where I arched my head back, moaned, and shivered with the power of the sensations.
I’ve never come that way before, wave after wave throwing me up against the rocks, hard and deep and beyond all thought or description.
So yes, I’ll play this game with you sometime. In person, and without blushing. Screw my inner good girl. She was never much fun, anyway. Right or wrong, this left me feeling free. But also wanting you. I’ll sleep with my arms around my pillow tonight, but it won’t be the same as having you here.
She hesitated, unsure how to sign the message. But then, caution be damned, she typed out what her heart wanted him to see. The same word he’d used to sign his notes to her.
Always,
Val
Before she could reconsider, she hit Send. And waited, watching the screen. Damn, maybe she should have edited the message. Taken out some of the more candid references and descriptions. What would he think?
Staring intently at the screen, she willed his reply to show up in her in-box. She hadn’t felt this edgy since that morning she’d been pulled under by the riptide and dragged halfway out to sea.
“Shit!” She almost upended her laptop when her cell phone chirped from the nightstand, the unexpected sound harsh in the quiet of the night.
That damn well better be Ian. She scrambled out from under the laptop, grabbed the phone, and glanced at caller ID. Ian.
“Hey.”
“Yes, sometimes guys feel that way too, although I’m violating the male code by admitting that. Jesus, Val, I want you to hold me while I fall asleep tonight.”
Caught off guard, she scrambled for safer ground.
“Is that all you want?” There, he’d jump at the husky tone of her voice, at the suggested possibilities of this call. Phone sex she could handle. The naked tenderness in his voice when he’d confessed he needed her as much as she needed him, not so much.
“Why, Miss Vee, what are you implying?”
“Are you alone?”
“Yes. I’m at Tyler and Abby’s place, but I’m in the guest room. Door’s locked.”