Maddy knew she could confide in him. “The whole point of my list is to push me, because I hate new situations.” She tried to make it sound as rational as it did when Dr. Gill said it. “But I can do only so much at a time, so that I can still draw a bit of control into the new situation with me. I was okay with coming here because I’m with you, and you make me feel in control.”
The corners of his lips turned up in the barest semblance of a smile. “Go on.”
“Going out there alone . . .” Maddy gestured widely with her arm. “It terrifies me.”
Clasping her by the upper arms, rubbing his hands up and down to ward off her chill, Alex pressed a kiss to her forehead. “It’s the responsibility of a Dom to know exactly how far he can push his sub.” His face was deadly serious. “So you’ll have to give me a little more credit. You’ll be serving drinks here, in the lounge around the bar only, for one hour. I’ll never have you out of my sight. Is this going to push you too far? Did I misread?”
The relief was instantaneous. She wanted to please him, she did. The thought of walking freely even in the lounge, dressed as she was, made tingles of both nerves and anticipation rumble through her. She was scared, but she thought she could do it.
She was at least going to try.
“All right. Sir.” Maddy tacked on the title at the end. “You said an hour. Will we leave then?”
“That depends on you.” Tracing his fingers over her cuffs one last time, he turned Maddy to face the bar, which sat like an island in the middle of the club. “If you see anything that interests you, we can go observe. Ultimately, though, I don’t care to play in public.”
She swallowed, wishing desperately for a glass of ice water. She was glad he didn’t enjoy playing in public. It was an interesting fantasy, but she wasn’t sure that she was okay with strangers watching her at her most intimate.
“That’s Luca.” The man behind the bar was massive, clad in faded black leather pants and a biker vest. Gorgeous, with a Latin tinge to his looks, he was at least six feet four of solid muscle.
Ringing his left bicep was a tattoo that matched the one on Alex’s arm. While Maddy always had the urge to run her lips over Alex’s, she could only objectively appreciate the beauty of Luca’s.
“Luca is the other owner?” Alex nodded. Maddy ran her hands over Alex’s biceps, where she knew the black ink to be. “Does Elijah have one, too?”
It was ridiculously cute to catch Alex off guard. She thought that his face flushed, though it was hard to tell in the lighting.
“We got them when we opened the club, as an oath to make this a safe haven for people like us.” He was embarrassed, she could tell. She tried to smother her grin. “Just don’t go spreading that around.”
Maddy mimed zipping her lips shut, though she couldn’t quite hold back her grin.
He patted her lightly on the butt, urging her forward. “Now go. Luca will tell you what to do.”
• • •
Maddy’s feet hurt.
It had been fifty minutes, and thankfully the sore feet, clad in the strappy stilettos that Alex had picked out, were the worst part. Many Doms, and even a few Dommes, had eyed her up and down, and several had even commented on various parts of her as if she weren’t there.
“Pretty sub.”
“Gorgeous tits.”
“Wonder what’s under that skirt.”
“Who does she belong to?”
Though several times she had to bite her tongue, she managed to follow Alex’s instructions. Head down. Don’t speak unless spoken to.
“Sub.” Though the male voice could have been addressing half a dozen people in the vicinity, for some reason Maddy was sure he was speaking to her. She looked up to see a slim Dom dressed in black leather pants and a white button-down shirt, lounging in a leather chair.
A beer was in his hand. Alex had told her that the alcohol consumption of everyone at the club was strictly monitored, but this guy looked like he might have started before he arrived.
“Come here.” His request was no different than a dozen others Maddy had received over the course of the evening. She couldn’t have said why, but a feeling of trepidation rolled through her.
Still, she did what she was told, crossing to where the man slouched. She studied him from beneath lowered lashes.
“You’re wearing too many clothes.” Before she could do more than squeak, he positioned his thighs between her legs and pushed her down until she straddled his lap.
Greedy fingers reached for her breasts.
“Don’t.” Maddy slapped his hands away and tried to remove herself from his lap. His hands clasped her waist, holding her down.
“Be nice, little subbie.” His breath smelled of beer. “I want to get acquainted with the newbie’s hot little body.”
She didn’t even consider her next movements. She didn’t care if she was going to get punished for disobeying an order; she hollered at the top of her lungs.
“Blackjack! Vino! Red!”
“I’m right here, Maddy. No need to yell.” Alex’s familiar hands found her waist. He wrapped her tightly in a hug, then pushed her behind him, so that he was shielding her.
From the corner of her eye, Maddy could see Luca, still behind the bar, but watching closely.
“Are you new here?” The rage emanating off of Alex was palpable. Maddy could feel the heated waves charging the air.
“A little.” The man stayed seated, though he shifted uncomfortably.
“Do you not have an understanding of what white cuffs on a sub mean?” Alex spoke so quietly, it was almost a whisper, but his words didn’t need any more volume.
He was scary.
“I’m a Dom. I’m allowed to touch.” The man looked belligerent, like a child who’d had playtime revoked. “She’s a sub. What’s your problem?”
Maddy watched, fascinated, as Alex pinched the bridge of his nose with frustration.
“What is your name?” He looked like he was about to peel the man’s skin from his body—and enjoy it.
Maddy wasn’t going to play Xena: Warrior Princess. The big man had been about to grope her in places that she sure hadn’t wanted to be touched, and Alex had fixed it. She was just fine with that.
“Kevin.” The man slammed his beer bottle down on a small side table. “I don’t need this shit. This club sucks.”
“How did this asshole get in here?” Maddy heard Alex murmur under his breath.
Still emanating fury, he pointed to the exit. “Out. You’re not welcome here ever again. You can leave peacefully, or Luca can escort you. Your choice.”
Kevin stood at that, his fists bunched. “You can’t do this! I’m a guest! Who do think you are?”
Before her eyes, Alex turned from scary to scarier and at the same time exuded his Fuck you, peon; I’m a billionaire attitude.
“You may call me Master Fraser, and I am one of the owners of this ‘sucky’ club. Now, unless you’d like to lose your teeth and gain a black eye in the bargain, I suggest that you leave.”
Kevin looked like he was having a hard time controlling his caveman impulse to lash out at everyone in sight. In the end, though, he stormed away, shrugging off Luca, who had come out from behind the bar.
Once the beastly man was through the exit, Maddy turned to Alex. His color was up, and he was breathing hard. He devoured her with a heated look.
“Thank you.” The words barely left her lips before he cupped her ass, lifting her off of her feet and crushing her against the hard length of his body.
When he possessed her lips in a feverish kiss, she felt the rigid length of his sudden erection pressing in to her with urgency.
His tongue swept over her lips, demanding entry. She opened for him, clutching him around the shoulders with eager arms. He explored her mouth as she arched into him, letting him do as he wanted, because clearly he needed this touch to defuse the anger of only moments ago.
He kissed Maddy until her head spun. When he finally pulled away, t
hey stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment. Maddy could feel something funny happening to her heart, and it made her tremble as, gradually, she again became aware of where she was.
“Was there anything else you wanted to see tonight?”
She shook her head vehemently. While serving drinks, she’d gotten an eyeful of all kinds of things that she’d never even imagined before. Some had distressed her, some she was merely curious about, and some . . . well, some definitely aroused her.
But they aroused her because she wanted to go home and do them with Alex.
She told him so, and he rewarded her with another fierce kiss, sliding her slowly down his body. When he clasped her hand in his and they began to walk toward the exit, she heard catcalls and whistles from those who had witnessed the entire scene.
Maddy flushed, and Alex wrapped an arm around her. He bent close to whisper in her ear. “Don’t worry about them. Let’s go home.”
It didn’t occur to Maddy until later that when he said home, she thought not of her apartment, but of the penthouse. And it was also then that she realized that, for most of the night, Alex had shoved her from one new situation to another, and so long as he was nearby, her panic stayed away.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Maddy was naked and standing in the middle of his bedroom.
Taking his time, Alex walked around her in a wide circle, keeping his pace deliberately slow. He wanted her to feel exposed and under his control.
His desire for this woman had permeated his entire being. He’d wanted, so badly, to bring her up to the penthouse the night before. If it hadn’t been his weekend with his daughter, Rae, he would have.
Against his better judgment, he wanted to introduce them. But he wasn’t going to introduce a new woman into the five-year-old’s life unless he was sure she was going to stay, and though what was between Maddy and himself was palpable and undeniable, he’d learned quite quickly that Maddy never did exactly as he expected she would.
Her eyes followed him until he frowned at her, shaking his head slightly. Maddy dropped her eyes to the floor, and Alex felt the rush of sexual pleasure that came with a woman’s submission.
“I took you to the club tonight to see many of the different aspects that can make up a BDSM lifestyle.” Moving to stand directly in front of Maddy, he undid the buttons of his shirt with care, swallowing his grin when she darted a look at his naked flesh and swallowed, hard.
“The things that we do, the things that we don’t do—that’s entirely up to us.” Unable to resist touching her, he grazed the knuckles of his hand over her cheek, savoring her shiver. “There’s one form of bondage, however, that you didn’t see tonight, and since I’m particularly fond of it, I want to show it to you.”
He heard the swift intake of her breath and shifted the caress of his hand to the hollow between her breasts. “Have you ever heard of shibari?” He enjoyed the way the word sounded, flowing off of his tongue.
Maddy stared up at him, wide-eyed, and shook her head.
“Shibari is a Japanese word that translates as to tie or to bind.” His cock rose at the mental picture of Maddy, laid out before him, the soft, triple-stranded hemp rope laced over her skin in an intricate pattern. “Though the correct Japanese term for beautiful erotic bondage is kinbaku-bi, most Western practitioners use the other term. Regardless of what it’s called, it’s a beautiful practice that binds the submissive in a beautiful way.”
“Is it . . . does it bind me more than handcuffs would?”
Alex could hear the trepidation in Maddy’s voice. He made sure to keep his tone firm and confident. He was an experienced Dom, and it was important for the growing trust between them that Maddy knew she could trust him to keep her safe.
“It can bind as much or as little as I choose. Since you’re still very new to this, I will bind your arms and your legs, but it will be in a way in which I can release you almost instantly if you feel the need to use your safe word. All right?” Her muscles visibly relaxed as he reminded her of the fact that she did indeed have a safe word.
“On your knees.” He simply gestured to the floor. He didn’t want her to have a chance to overthink it before he started.
Dropping to the floor, Maddy sat up straight.
Kneeling behind her, Alex pushed her knees apart and, with a hand splayed flat on her stomach, set her weight back so that she sat on her heels. “Hands clasped behind you.” Again, he guided her into the position that he wanted. “Don’t move.”
Alex rose and took a moment to look down at Maddy before he retrieved the coil of soft, thin rope from his dresser.
He’d had two somewhat serious relationships, and he’d had numerous casual affairs. None of the women had ever caught his attention and held it quite like Maddy had. He couldn’t quite put his finger on why she was so special.
She had more spunk than most, and was skittish, which was a trait that he wasn’t used to. It was more than that, though. And as a man used to having his own way, he highly anticipated the pleasure of her submission.
“I wish you could see how beautiful you look right now.” Again kneeling behind her, Alex started the binding by looping the end of the rope around Maddy’s ankle.
She started when he pulled the loop snug, then slid a finger between it and her skin to ensure that it wasn’t too tight.
“It’s all right.” He could feel the tension in her muscles. He’d used handcuffs on her, a scarf, but from what he understood, rope made a person more aware of their bonds.
With sure fingers, Alex wound the rope around Maddy’s naked ankle, then up and around her wrists. He secured the two together, ensuring that, while the ties would feel snug to her, he would be able to get them off quickly if it became too much for her.
“You’re so lovely.” For now this was as much as he intended to do for bondage, though one day he knew he would love to see her suspended while in his ropes.
But this was enough to start.
From her wrists, Alex wrapped the rope around her waist. Looping it up over a shoulder, he wound it between and around her breasts, down over her other shoulder and back to her waist. He threaded it between her legs, making sure to tie a knot directly over the swollen nub of her clit, and then finished by securing the rope back to her ankle.
“Now three deep breaths, slowly.” Alex counted with Maddy. He wanted her to get used to the tightness of the rope, to understand that she could still breathe.
With the third breath, she appeared to notice her muscles relaxing just the tiniest bit. Acceptance, submission—it was beautiful.
“Have you ever had a cock in your mouth before, Maddy?” Standing in front of her, he slowly undid the button and then the zipper of his slacks. She jolted slightly at the question, but he saw her incredibly blue eyes widen with arousal as he fisted his cock.
Slowly, warily, she nodded, fixated on his naked erection.
“Open your mouth.” She couldn’t do much more than that, bound as she was. His cock was in line with her mouth, but he stepped closer, brushing the weeping tip over her lips, looking down at her as he did.
He enjoyed the way the pale ribbons of rope crisscrossed intricately over her rosy flesh. The bonds around her breasts held them up and out, and he could see that her nipples were fully erect.
Slowly he eased the head of his cock between her lips. She moaned softly around his flesh, her tongue swiping over the tip, and he felt a shudder pass through him.
It felt so good, to be inside of her without a layer of latex between them. Since Lydia—Rae’s mother—he’d always made sure to take care of protection himself. The feeling of Maddy’s hot, wet mouth around his erection was damn near the best thing he’d ever felt.
“Suck.” Clasping his shaft firmly, he allowed only the head inside her mouth. Slowly, tentatively, she began to pull, and he felt his testicles draw up toward his legs as the pleasure overtook him.
“Harder.”
Maddy hollowed her cheeks as she o
beyed; as she did, she gasped and her body jerked.
Alex couldn’t withhold his wicked grin. She’d discovered what the knot of rope over her clitoris was for.
“You may move however you’d like to bring yourself to orgasm, provided you continue to bring me my pleasure.” He watched her eyes darken as she considered his words. He wondered if she would be brave enough to ensure her own release as well, or if she would stop with his.
As she worked him with her mouth, she tentatively moved her hips. He closed his eyes against the sensation as she inhaled sharply, a jolt of pleasure shuddering over her.
“That’s a good girl.” He stroked his hand up and down his own cock, a thin stream of precome falling onto Maddy’s tongue. She continued to suck, finding a rhythm with the rope between her own legs. Alex looked down through heavily lidded eyes, transfixed by the sight of her.
Her cheeks would hollow, and his fist would move up and down his shaft, slick with her saliva and his own excitement. Then she would tremble as small waves of pleasure passed through her body.
Mouth, fist, tremble. The rhythm continued, and Alex felt his release beginning to build in the base of his spine. Reaching down with his free hand, he cupped Maddy’s throat in his fingers, forcing her to rise up a fraction on her knees. It brought her into sharper contact with the knot of rope, and her body stiffened. She cried out as her release broke over her, her teeth grazing him as she shuddered.
It sent him over the edge. Taking care not to thrust himself down her throat, he emptied himself into her mouth, overwhelmed with pleasure when she swallowed, then laved her tongue over the tip.
“Babe.” Maddy looked up at him, and the pleasure and contentment he saw in her eyes reflected what he felt himself. Bending, he planted a kiss to her forehead, then ran his fingers lightly over her shoulders. He had to untie her, had to look to her aftercare.
He hadn’t set out to feel this way, and he knew that she hadn’t submitted to him, not fully, as he needed her to.
He was a man who liked a challenge.
And Maddy Stone was the most delectable challenge he’d ever faced.
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