by Lainey Reese
She looked down at her iPad and continued her search. What she’d found so far had shocked and aroused her. If Gage only knew what the writings and images brought to life inside her, he wouldn’t be so quick to refuse her. The things she had learned were so compelling, and each new facet only fascinated her more.
She saw one image of a woman, naked except for a collar around her neck, kneeling at the feet of a man dressed in leather pants. He was holding a chain attached to her collar, and she was lifting a riding crop to him with such a look of pleading desire that Zoe had flushed from head to toe.
She saw herself in that picture, and Gage towering above her as her master. Imagining that caused a sharp clenching between her legs. Every picture she saw, from the bondage and slavery to the flogging and punishments only intrigued her more. Here in this world of BDSM, the shadowy fantasies of her secrete desires were brought into full and vivid color. She couldn’t say she’d ever fantasized about some of these things specifically, because she’d never known about them to begin with. But those secret fantasies she’d always had, about Gage stealing her away in the middle of the night and ripping her clothes off now seemed less shameful and more and more possible. All of her dirty little daydreams seemed that way now. She just had to convince him.
“Hey, can I um, get you another coffee, or maybe something to eat?”
Zoe looked up to see a handsome guy in his early twenties, standing a little closer than she would have liked. He had short, light brown hair, brown eyes and was dressed like almost every guy at college—in worn jeans and a pullover hoodie. He smiled at her as she stared at him, and he got even cuter when a pair of dimples appeared in his cheeks.
“That’s really sweet of you to offer,” she answered, “but I don’t think my boyfriend would like it.” It was the line she had been using to move boys along since she was sixteen. She had no interest in anyone but Gage, and it only annoyed her when guys tried.
“Aw, a boyfriend huh?” He gave a shrug and sat down across from her without waiting to be invited. “Did he stand you up or did you have a fight?”
“What makes you ask that?” she asked, a little intrigued by his forwardness.
“Well, you’re dressed like you’re ready to party but you’ve been sitting alone since I got here—like an hour ago. It’s Saturday night and he’s nowhere to be found.” He picked up her coffee cup and took a drink out of it before he continued, while her mouth dropped open in shocked amusement. “Now, if you were my girlfriend, I would never leave you all alone on a Saturday. And I’d never let you out of my sight dressed like that.” Then he took another swallow of her drink and waited for her reaction.
“Well, I’ll say this for you…” She lifted a brow at him in question.
“Tanner.”
“Tanner. You got alotta nerve.” She snatched her drink out of his hands, and despite her best efforts, smiled at him.
“C’mon, tell the truth. Is there really a boyfriend, or are you just trying to blow me off?” He put both hands on the table and Zoe noticed that they were long fingered and wide. Nice hands—manly. She had always loved Gage’s hands—they were as big as the rest of him, and covered in scars and calluses from the work he’d done as a roughneck with his family’s oil company when he was young.
“Oh, there’s someone, all right. He just hasn’t accepted the inevitable yet and agreed to be my someone.” She looked at this charming and good-looking young man, and wondered if she was brave enough to follow through with the plan tickling in the back of her mind. “My name’s Zoe.”
“So, is this guy blind or stupid that he’s not out with you right now, Zo?”
“Hey.” What the heck, Zoe thought, it was worth a shot. “Would you be willing to help me with a little experiment?”
Tanner proved he was no dummy when he caught on and said, “If it involves me getting to rub up against you to make him jealous, hell yeah.”
Zoe smiled, and offered him back her coffee. “This is gonna be fun.”
Chapter Nine
He heard the giggling before they even got to the door. Gage pushed off the couch and stood in the entryway, legs braced and arms crossed over his chest. Zoe spilled into the foyer with a guy wrapped around her; for a moment disbelief froze him in place. The two stumbled in, and with a grunt, the kid kicked the door closed and shoved Zoe—his Zoe—against it and ran his open mouth over her throat, while his hands groped her from ass to breasts and back again.
Even as he told himself she was getting just what she wanted, Gage stormed forward and grabbed the punk by the back of the neck then yanked him off her.
“I will not be manipulated, darlin’.” He held the kid in a death grip. Without taking his eyes off his girl, he said, “You are not getting your way. And you won’t be pullin’ a stunt like this again, ya hear?” Then he pulled open the door with his free hand. Before he shoved the kid out, he finally looked at him and offered, “Nice meetin’ ya,” then tossed him onto the steps and slammed the door shut.
When he turned back around, Zoe was on her knees in front of him with her head bowed, her legs spread and her hands behind her back. His heart stopped. To keep himself from reaching for her, he curled his hands into fists at his sides and focused on breathing.
“Is this the right way?” Her voice was soft, tremulous and it stroked tendrils of fire over his cock. “Am I doing it right?”
“Where did you learn about that, Oops?” He tried to keep his own voice level as his mind scrambled for reasons he should be running like hell right now. Problem was, he couldn’t think of a damn one.
“I was on the net all night, reading and learning so I can be what you want.”
His sigh was part groan, part whimper, and full of defeat. “Aw, baby. You shouldn’t have done that. That stuff is not for innocents. It’s for people with darker things inside them than you got, sweetheart. You are all sunshine inside, not darkness.”
“I’m lying in my bed at the summer house and you sneak in my window in the middle of the night. I’m asleep so I don’t hear you. Without waking me, you slide the covers off and pull my panties down. Then you slip my nightgown up and I don’t wake up until you are kissing me between my legs.”
Gage stood in frozen shock, the image wringing unwelcome lust through his body.
“That was my first fantasy I ever had about you.” Her eyes lifted until their gazes met. “I was fourteen. And it’s also the tamest.”
“Dammit, Oops—” he began, not having a clue what he was going to say when she interrupted again.
“I have one where I’m running through the woods and I can hear you chasing after me. I don’t know why I’m running because I want you to catch me so bad, but I can’t help it. The running is making me scared a little and I can feel that you are going to make me pay for running and I kinda like that too.” He groaned and she stopped for a second before continuing. “When you catch me, you tackle me to the ground and you’re pulling off all my clothes and I’m still fighting you, but again I don’t know why because I can’t wait till you get me naked. And then when I am naked, I flip onto my hands and knees and try to crawl away, but you grab me from behind and you…you—God, you just shove into me and—”
“Christ, Zoe, stop.” They were both breathing heavily, and Gage felt himself falling down an endless abyss. And he was terribly afraid there would be no going back.
“My worst one had me so confused before today. I felt so guilty for having it. But it’s always there and now I know why. Do you want to hear it?”
Gage didn’t answer her with words, but she apparently took his steady look as assent and told him.
“It’s back in the Old West days. I’m a saloon girl and you’re a gun-slinging gambler. You’re at a table playing poker and there are four other men there with you. You have my hands strapped to the ceiling somehow and I’m standing in the middle of the table. All of you play your poker and drink your drinks and act like you can’t see me. You all can though, bec
ause every once in a while one of you will run your hand up my leg or reach up to touch me between them. Every time one of you wins a hand, the winner gets to take off a piece of my clothes. Once I’m completely naked, the stakes get higher and you get to do things to me. Like kiss my breasts or put your fingers inside me. All of a sudden you shove all your winnings into the middle of the table and bet everything you have on me. And you win. Then you drag me off the table and take me right there. Right in front of them while they all watch.” She spread her legs a little wider and lowered her eyes again. “Does that sound like sunshine to you? To me it sounds like I’m perfect for you, and everything I learned about today only makes me more sure about us, not less.”
“Stand up.” His voice was deep and the tone left no room for disobedience. She stood with a whimper.
“Strip.”
Her eyes flew to his and he saw hope and heart-wrenching joy reflected in them.
“Eyes down, girl.” If she wanted him to be her first, if she really wanted this, he was going to proceed the way he would with any sub. “You will keep your eyes down at all times unless ordered otherwise. Am I clear?”
When she only nodded and lowered her eyes, he added, “You will also answer every question and command verbally.” He stepped closer and whispered right into her ear, “And you will call me Sir.”
“Oh God.” Zoe trembled and he chuckled when her knees almost gave out.
“No, darlin’, Sir will be enough.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Hearing it whispered from her for the first time was as potent as any of the drinks he’d had tonight.
“Now, I believe I gave you an order.”
With another mumbled, “Yes, Sir,” she reached shaking hands to the hem of her dress and drew it over her head before letting it fall to the floor.
“Stop.”
Her hands, which had been about to remove her panties, fluttered at her sides.
“You left the house without a bra?”
The dangerous tone of his voice must have registered with her because the first words out of her mouth were, “I’m sorry.” She risked his punishment by looking up for the briefest second. “I was so mad at you, and I only wore what I did because I was hoping you wouldn’t let me out the door. I bought that dress for you in the first place, you know. Besides, it’s not supposed to be worn with a bra.”
The tips of her breasts were already tightly puckered, and those luscious mounds swayed gently with her erratic breaths. He took the time to look his fill, increasing her anxiety and her desire while she waited for his commands to continue. Her body was flawless perfection to him. Full lush breasts, long limbs, round hips and a nipped-in waist. She had all that dark hair curling in abandon around her face and shoulders, and one midnight curl was cradling a breast the same way it had at the airport. The memory had him closing his eyes for a moment to catch his breath.
He opened his eyes and looked at her hips. She wasn’t wearing a thong tonight. She had on a pair of those boy-cut underwear that looked as though they’d been painted on. They were a deep raspberry color and he could clearly see the outline of her pussy lips as well as the fact that her little clit was already swollen and poking out between them. It was also obvious she was wet. He walked around her and let out a soft curse at the view from behind. The painted-on look only grew more so from back here. Gage could clearly see where the seam rode up the center of her ass. The bottom seam left the lower curve of those firm round cheeks bare, and Gage could actually feel the saliva pool in his mouth at the sight.
“Go on.”
She hesitated only a second before he heard her murmur her assent, then slipped the material down her legs and stepped out of them.
He stepped close enough that he was pressed to every inch of her from the thighs up. He knew she could feel the erection he was sporting for her, and as for what he could feel… “Darlin’, this ass of yours has been drivin’ me crazy for a week and I am goin’ to make you pay for that.” He dipped his knees and pressed against that ass while her breathing grew frantic, and she let loose with a small cry.
“In all your readin’ today, did you read about safe words?”
She only nodded at first, so he reached up and grasped one tightly budded nipple, and pinched. Hard. “You’ve been told already, darlin’, you know how to answer me.”
“Yes.” She arched and gasped. “Yes, Sir. I did. Sir.”
He chuckled but didn’t let go of her nipple. He tugged lightly at it and gave it small twisting pinches just to make her squirm.
“Your safe word is goin’ to be Alamo, because just like those poor bastards there, I think you bit off more than you can chew.”
Then he scooped one arm around her shoulders, one around her knees, and carried her to his bed.
Chapter Ten
Zoe couldn’t believe she was naked in Gage’s arms. She’d been dreaming of this her whole life, and after this morning she’d been seriously afraid that it would never happen. There were about a million things she felt she should be saying or doing right now, but a strange paralysis had come over her. As he laid her out on his bed and arranged her, she let him without any resistance at all.
“That’s good, darlin’,” he told her in his rich Southern drawl. “Stay just where I put you and keep your eyes on me for now.”
She mumbled a breathy response and watched, mesmerized, as he began to remove his clothes.
She’d seen him almost naked more times than she could count. As a teenager, he had spent part of every summer vacation with her family, so she’d watched him run around shirtless and in cutoffs or swim trunks. But from the age of twelve and up it became something different—something more. He was so much bigger than even her brother or Cade. His chest was twice the width of hers and the muscles there had cost her more than a few sleepless nights. With his chest bare now, with the dynamics between them changed for the first time, she almost couldn’t stand it and a whimper of need escaped her. When his hands went to the snap of his jeans and then slowly lowered the zipper, she thought it was the most erotic sight in the world. His stomach muscles flexed when he hooked his thumbs in the material, and then with a shove, his jeans and shorts were gone.
He was magnificent. His shaft was long and thick and curled up toward his belly with a heavy sac underneath. There was a thatch of soft-looking hair around the base that was a darker shade of gold than the hair on his head. His lean hips and thickly muscled thighs were the perfect frame for his impressive groin, and Zoe let out another of those needy noises.
Zoe watched in hungry fascination as he cupped one hand over his sac and gave it a firm tug before sliding back up to stroke the length of his cock. When he got to the head, he squeezed and twisted a little. Her mouth watered, and she had an almost irresistible urge to replace his hand with hers. Only the fear of doing it wrong and displeasing him kept her in place. His touch traveled back down to his balls and he did the whole thing again. Her legs started getting antsy and there was this intense sort of weight building in her pelvis that made her squirm on the bed.
“I told you to stay where I put you, darlin’.” His voice was even deeper now, and Zoe dragged her eyes up from what his hand was doing to watch his face. “You don’t want to be testing me. Not tonight.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Her immediate compliance must have pleased him, because his eyes crinkled at the corners and he murmured, “Good girl. I won’t be tying you up tonight—it’s too soon for that. But you put those pretty hands above your head and grab on.” When she did with a gulp, those crinkles came back again. “No matter what happens, you don’t let go. If you do, there’ll be consequences.”
Her hands trembled, and her answer was barely above a whisper because he’d crawled onto the bed beside her as he spoke. That gorgeous naked body was pressed up against her from the shoulders down, he was so hot it was like snuggling up next to a furnace. With gentle fingers, he tilted her chin up and looked into her eyes. “God,
Zoe,” he said, looking so earnest she felt he could see straight through to her soul. “I can’t believe I’m doin’ this. I’ve loved you your whole stinkin’ life, but not like this. Never like this. You’ve got me so worked up I can hardly remember the kid you were up until a week ago. All I see now is you. The most beautiful fucking woman I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
Then he kissed her.
His mouth didn’t plunder so much as consume. He lapped and suckled at her lips like they were candy. Even though she’d never been really kissed before, she followed his lead and kissed back. Tugging first his bottom and then his top lip into the warmth of her mouth, she lapped up this first real taste of him. The fingers still gripping her chin trembled slightly, and with his lips pressed tight to hers, he commanded, “Zoe, open.”
And she did. His tongue filled her and he groaned, her body jerked in reaction to it. Her death grip on the headboard shook as she struggled to maintain it. Gage turned her head a little and angled his in the opposite direction, so he was even deeper in her mouth and his tongue was doings things in there she didn’t have words for. His hand caressed her face and neck, and every breath she took was filled with his marvelous scent, and her mouth with his intoxicating taste.
With a growl that vibrated throughout her body, he came over her more and tucked one arm under her neck to cradle her head while he slid the other lower to cup one of her breasts. Then he squeezed. Zoe’s back arched and she let out a cry he swallowed with a relishing sound, and then he took his mouth away.
“Please.” Her cry was high and breathy. “God, please, Gage, don’t stop.”
He nuzzled into her neck, and he bit hard on the tendon just below her ear. When she gasped and let out a yelp, he whispered with menacing intent, “What did you just call me, sub?”
“Sir!” she cried, desperate. “Sir. I’m sorry, just please—please don’t stop.”
His chuckle was mean and caused chills to race up and down her spine. “Oh, darlin’, I’m not stopping. Now that I got a taste of you, I don’t think I’m ever going to stop.”