The idea of that accelerated her heart. Her knees already started to get sore from meeting the hard flooring. Nikla could do this. The fact that he had her crawling on the floor around strangers gave her a sense of pride, an unusual reaction considering the seemingly demeaning position.
Nikla brought her head up to scan her surroundings. At the end of the hall, Nikla spotted a tall man walking toward her and standing next to a beautiful black woman who wore what looked like a black leather one-piece swimsuit and high heels.
“Come over here with me.” Sweet tapped Nikla on her back. He aimed her toward a room and closed the door behind them.
The cozy room reminded her of a waiting room in Hell. Red couches stood out against the painted black walls. The only great thing about the room had to be the hardwood floors. They felt better against her hands and knees than the concrete.
Nikla scraped the tips of her shoes against the dark hardwood floors. Sweet led her to a couch. He sat first, then he pointed to a spot on the floor next to himself, a space he must have wanted her to occupy.
Just like when she dropped to her hands and knees, she assumed the spot just as dutifully. She sat back on her haunches. Fear gripped her before she brought her attention to Sweet. What kind of man would she see next to her? Since coming into this place, his whole demeanor had shifted. Then again, so had hers.
Nikla started to open her mouth to speak but Sweet shook his head, halting her from that thought.
“We need to go over some ground rules and some procedures.” He stared at her for a moment before he pressed a button on table next to the couch.
Within a minute, a petite blonde wearing a short pleated black leather skirt, a white mesh top, and no bra sauntered in the room. Nikla peered down at the woman’s feet. She’d had each toe painted a different color.
“Sweet iced tea for me,” Sweet said to the woman. He glanced at Nikla. Before she could speak, he said, “She’ll have an ice cold glass of water with a lemon.”
The simple gesture made Nikla smile. She liked being cared for, more than she thought she would.
The woman nodded once before starting to turn to leave.
“Wait.” Sweet stared at Nikla. “Take off your coat.”
Blazing heat engulfed Nikla’s face. “What?” She leaned close to him and in a low tone said, “You know what I have on underneath.”
Sweet’s scowl deepened. “I’ve only given you one directive since we got here. You do as I say. Take off your coat. Now.”
Nikla balled her hands and took a deep breath before she removed the garment as she sat on the floor. She unfastened her coat and slipped the garment down her arms. If she felt chilly before, she now had ice water running through her veins.
With her coat off, she kept her stare on the man who’d made the demand of her. She let the coat drape in front of her body.
“Hand it to her.” Sweet nodded toward the blonde.
The woman held out her hand. She smiled as she accepted the coat.
“Thank you.” Sweet nodded and the woman left as quickly and as quietly as when she’d first walked into the room.
“Would you like for me to continue kneeling?” Nikla kept her hands on her lap.
Sweet said nothing as he scanned her. He put his hand to her head and stroked her hair.
Sweet looked ready to crawl out of his own skin. He balled his hands into fists and released a low groan.
“Stay where you are or I’ll do something I will never regret.” He rubbed his hands over his eyes.
“Yes, Sir.” The address to Sweet had started to become easier and easier each time she’d said it.
The thought of that shouldn’t have given her comfort. It did. She knew what he expected. She knew what would make him happy. By doing that, it had pleased her. A wave of relief showered over her body.
“Is this what you expected?” he asked.
“What do you mean? Expected from this place? This room? You?” Nikla felt him bringing his hand down behind her head. He rubbed the back of her neck with his thumb.
Nikla closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation. So strange that with just a few words and a thumb rubbed lazily across her skin how he easily controlled her. She couldn’t move. She didn’t want to move.
“All of it.” He removed his hand from her.
When he stopped touching her, she sobered to the situation. Nikla bit her lip. “This place is kind of what I thought it would be like. Dark and mysterious.” She gained eye contact with Sweet. “It’s like you. You’re very closed off.” Except for what he’d revealed about his last relationship. Nikla still found it impossible that a man this sexy would be without a woman for two years.
“Considering we’re going to end this in a couple of weeks, don’t you think I should be?”
“It would be nice to get to know the man who looks so comfortable to be in a place like this.”
Sweet put his finger to her lips. “Don’t over think this. It’s very basic. It’s just sensations.”
She slipped his finger into her mouth.
Sweet shook his head and removed it. “You do that, and I’ll want to do other things. In here, I can’t.” He nodded upward.
When Nikla peered up, she caught a blackened, overhead dome affixed to the ceiling. “Cameras.”
“Everywhere.”
Nikla looked around the empty room. “What is this room? Do people do what you do in here?”
“It’s called playing or you can call it discipline.” To give her a reminder of what he could do, he fisted her loose hair and pulled her head back.
The sensation to her scalp awakened her senses. “No man has ever touched me the way you do.” Nikla remained quiet after her admission.
“You’re surprised at how much you like what I do?”
She nodded. “It’s different from a fantasy.”
“To answer your question, this is the meeting room. It’s the room we use to get to know our submissives or slaves before we play with them. We establish rules.” He held up his finger. “First rule.” Then he released her hair.
“Always do as you say.” Nikla lowered her head.
“Second rule. No sex.” When he mentioned that rule, Sweet almost looked disappointed.
Nikla wouldn’t be so subtle. Despite their rule that they wouldn’t get intimate again, Nikla had hoped for a repeat performance. No man had ever gotten her to come as hard and as often as Sweet in the one time she’d been with him.
“So no sex–”
“In here,” he said, interrupting her.
The anxiety bunching in her stomach subsided. “Anything else?”
“What is it that you want?”
Nikla snickered. “That suite downtown.”
Sweet almost broke into a smile. Almost. “That’s another rule. The real life, our vanilla world, doesn’t exist here.”
“If only it could be that easy.” She sighed. “What do I want? That I don’t know. I do know what I don’t want.” She placed her hand on her chest. “I don’t want to get hurt. I don’t want to be made a fool of. I don’t want to be the joke of some elaborate prank. I don’t want to be inconsequential or some afterthought.”
“Good. Now tell me what you want.”
As fire filled her belly, Nikla felt compelled to purge her feelings. “I want to feel. I haven’t really been touched in forever. I want to be the center of someone’s universe. I want to matter. How can I do that as a–”
The word “submissive” got caught in her throat.
Sweet cleared his throat. He made her look at him. “This lifestyle demands a lot from both of us. You may find that my playing style doesn’t suit you. One thing you need to know for sure. As a submissive, you are powerful. You regulate the play within the scene. The focus will always be on you. You will be the center of it all. Can you really handle that?”
Nikla thought of the idea of being the focus of a man’s attention, of Sweet’s attention. A tingle rippled through her body.
>
“I want one other thing,” she said. “Tell me what you’ll do to me.”
Sweet leaned in closer to her. “I’m going to make you feel more alive that you’ve ever felt. You will feel completely spent, another great reason for me to drive.” He got quiet before he finished his speech. “I will push you. I can tell you’re strong enough to take it. I’ve never met a woman like you before.”
She took a deep breath. “Is that a good thing?”
Sweet stared at her for a while before he answered. “It’s the best thing. You’re about the most open person I’ve ever met.”
“You’re only saying that because I’m sitting here on the floor in my underwear.” Nikla laughed.
“Not the only reason.”
The waitress returned with their drinks. She placed them on the side table and walked out without a word. Sweet handed Nikla her drink. Feeling a little overheated, she took a couple of gulps of the lemon-flavored water. The refreshing liquid cooled her down a bit but not enough to douse the intense fire between her legs.
“Ready?” Sweet asked after he finished his drink.
Nikla nodded.
He took her drink. “Come with me.”
Since he didn’t tell her to stand, she crawled behind him again. Sweet led her down a darkened hallway to a room at the end. Only a sheer curtain separated the hallway from the activities that would happen in the room.
Nikla stopped in the center of the room. She scanned the space. From the stone walls to the heavy wooden furniture, the place looked like a dungeon. What really startled her had to have been the different torture devices hanging from the walls. Whips, chains, floggers, paddles. One more sinister than the next.
As she looked around from her kneeling position, she suddenly saw Sweet reaching over her head with a black band in his hand. Nikla jerked her head back and slammed against his legs.
“It’s a mask, not a blindfold.” Sweet covered her eyes, making sure to line up the eyeholes properly. Then he secured it behind her head.
With the mask in place, Sweet reached behind her and undid her bra.
Nikla swallowed. “Nudity is allowed?”
“Trust that I won’t do anything to you that I shouldn’t. With me, you’re safe.”
She nodded. With it off, he hung it on a wall.
“Up,” he said as he walked back to her.
Nikla stood from the floor. Her knees throbbed. She couldn’t think about them right now. Her focus remained on Sweet.
Keeping his stare on her, he hooked his finger into the side of her thong and pulled it down her legs.
Bracing her hands on his shoulders, Nikla stepped out of them. Sweet hung them up on the wall along with her bra.
Being completely nude in a strange place in front of this man, Nikla would have thought she would have been self-conscious. Instead she felt free. The way Sweet looked at her, she now felt beautiful.
“Do you remember your safe words, Sugar Baby?” he asked as he moved to a corner of the room.
“Yes. Green, yellow, and red.”
Nikla watched his every move, his every step. She couldn’t help but feel helpless when he moved away from her and no longer looked at her. Standing in her underwear wearing her heels that she desperately wanted off her feet, she felt so unprepared if something were to happen. No one knew Sweet had taken her to this place. She hadn’t told Deana or her father about Sweet. If he hurt her, no one would know.
Nikla struggled to swallow. Her breathing became shallow. She balled her hands and pounded her thighs with her fists.
Sweet stood in front of her and framed her face with his large hands. “Breathe. Look at me and breathe.”
Even with his soothing voice, Nikla felt the attack coming on and she didn’t think she could stop it. “Just take me home.” She placed her hand on her chest.
“Come here.” Sweet held her hand and pulled her over to a large, high-back wooden chair with black leather accents on the back and arms.
He sat down first and pulled her onto his lap.
“I can’t breathe.” Nikla felt her throat tightening.
The longer she stayed in this room in this dungeon, the worse her breathing had become.
“Shh.” He held her arm around her wrist and pressed on a spot on her inner wrist. “Look at me and listen to my voice.”
Nikla nodded. She attempted to bring Sweet into focus.
He smoothed his thumb over her cheek. “Keep looking at me. Don’t stop looking at me, okay?”
She nodded again. With each movement of her head, her focus became fuzzier and fuzzier.
“Deep breath in and hold it, then release.” Sweet never broke his stare. “You’re stronger than this.”
Nikla had hoped to hold herself together for her first trip to Sweet’s playground. It embarrassed her that she came off so scared.
“You feel my thumb on your wrist?” he asked.
“Y-y-yes, Sir.”
Sweet shook his head. “Don’t worry about the scene right now. You keep breathing in and out. Concentrate on where my thumb is and your breathing.”
Nikla struggled to take in deep breaths. “Can’t believe I’m doing this. I swore I wouldn’t panic.”
“It’s just us in here. Don’t think about anything else. Nothing else matters.”
Nikla kept her stare on his face to see if he had been teasing her. When his normally stoic face remained that way, she blinked. “Help me, please.”
“Do you know how brave you are to come in here, crawl on the floor, and get naked? You’re a lot stronger than you give yourself credit.”
She smiled. “Yeah? You think so?”
Sweet stared at her for a moment. “You feeling better?”
She nodded. “Maybe we do things where I’m lying down.”
Sweet shook his head. “You’re with the wrong Dom if you think you’re going to take it easy in here.” He patted her backside. “Up.”
Nikla stood on wobbly legs. Sweet helped her to the corner of the room where a cross she’d seen the woman hanging from over her head when she first walked into the dungeon sat.
“Put your hands up.”
Nikla did as instructed. Sweet wasted no time in wrapping a padded cuff around each.
“Let me show you something. See this?” Sweet engaged a clip that connected the cuff to the eyebolt that attached to the cross. “This is called a panic clip.”
Nikla snickered. “Sounds appropriate for me.”
“If you’re unable to say your safe word or if I’m incapacitated, you just hit this clip like this and it’ll set you free.” He showed her how to operate the clip then watched her do it one time. “Very good, Sugar Baby. Now spread your legs.”
Sweet crouched down and gave her ankles the same treatment as her wrists.
“You know I am really, really flexible.” Nikla liked this salacious side to herself that Sweet brought out in her.
As Sweet secured her other ankle, he moaned. “Good to know for future activities.” He stood.
Inches away from her face, he leaned in, his lips parted. Nikla smelled that familiar musky scent that she’d grown to love. She moved her face in closer to his just as he pulled back.
“You are a dangerous woman, Sugar Baby.” He tapped the end of her nose with his finger before going to the wall of toys.
Nikla heard him opening a drawer. “Says the man who has me tied up to a big X.” She heard the distinct sound of chains clinking together. She swallowed.
“A St. Andrew’s cross.” He turned back to her. “You can stop all of this if you want. You can engage the panic clips and go home.” He turned around and showed off a thin chain that looked like they had clips on either ends.
“You’re my ride.” Nikla couldn’t remove her stare from the chained device as he approached her.
He shook his head. “I wouldn’t leave you stranded.”
“Not your style, right?”
“You’re starting to get to know me.”
Sweet brought his face next to hers. She felt his lips brush against the shell of her ear. Nikla wanted to rip off her mask and press her face against his. She squirmed against the cross. She wanted to release herself and touch this man. Letting herself go from the restraints would keep her bound in her old ways of thinking, of wanting to try to control every moment. She had to let Sweet lead.
Sweet held her breast, which made her gasp. Nikla balled her toes and pulled against her cuffs. This time when her heart pounded, she knew it stemmed from a different reason. Why the hell had she agreed to keep their relationship sex free?
In her ear he whispered, “As the Dom, I decide when we play. If I’m not in the mood, it won’t happen.”
His hot breath warmed her body. Nikla no longer felt the chill swirling about the dungeon.
He continued. “When we do play, you can set the pace. I decide the implements. You decide the rhythm. Understand?”
Unable to speak, Nikla nodded.
“Talk to me.”
“Yes. Yes. Yes, Sir.” She panted her words as he massaged her tit.
Sweet’s thumb brushed over her nipple. The motion hardened it more than before. The sounds of Nikla’s panting breath echoed off the walls. He stiffened it to a painful level, and she wanted more.
The kisses Sweet made down her face to her neck eventually landed him at her other breast. He drew her nipple into his mouth, grazing the hardened pebble with his teeth.
Nikla gripped the chains that held her as Sweet lovingly laved her breast. When he moaned, she did also. She felt the vibration through her body.
He kissed across her chest to her other breast and gave it the same treatment with his hot mouth. When she felt something pinch her unattended nipple, Nikla gasped. She looked down to see a clamp on her nipple and a chain dangling from it.
Sweet pulled back from her and regained eye contact. “No more candy.” He grabbed the other end of the chain and showed her the other clamp. He opened the small rubber-tipped clip, held her breast, then attached it to her other nipple.
Licorice Whips Page 17