When the garment hit her feet, Nikla stepped out of them.
“Crouch down,” she heard Sweet say.
Nikla did as instructed. She felt him take one of her hands and bring it to the side. The softness that encircled her wrist let her know that he had attached a fur-lined cuff to her. When she noticed how her arm dangled, she assumed he must have connected the cuff to the beam.
“So that so much pressure is not on your shoulders and wrists, I’m going to tie your arms to the beam.” Sweet stroked her arm.
Nikla nodded.
“Use your safe words.” Sweet cuffed and connected her other wrist so that she now had her arms outspread.
Then Nikla felt soft rope circling her arms. Since both sides had been worked at the same time, she knew more than just Sweet tied her arms. She had to think of the situation in the same way she thought of Wasabi. She had to trust Sweet. He wouldn’t do anything to harm her. He would only put people around her who know what to do.
“Were you serious about being flexible?” Sweet asked.
“Yes, Sir.” She turned her head to follow his voice.
“Good.”
The familiar whirring sounded again. This time Nikla felt the bar going up. She had no choice but to follow the ascension. When she could stand normally the bar stopped.
A soft cuff became affixed to one ankle, then the other.
“Tell me if this hurts or is uncomfortable.” Sweet put his hand on the small of her back then slid it down over her ass to her thigh.
He raised her thigh, then let his hand travel down her leg to her ankle. At it, he lifted it in the air and met it with her wrist.
Nikla had to scoot her planted foot in order to keep her balance.
“Very good,” Sweet whispered to her. “Can you do that with your other leg at the same time?”
Nikla turned her face toward his voice. She felt his warm breath feathering over her cheek.
“Yes, Sir.” She hoped he picked up on the confidence in her voice.
Sweet must have. He raised her other leg in the air and attached it to the bar along with her wrist. Now Nikla had her arms and legs spread open wide for all to see. Not being able to view the audience members’ faces did calm her a little, which struck her as odd.
Sweet seemed determined to make her stand out.
He gave her a kiss on her cheek, then whispered, “You look like a bird in flight. Just magnificent.”
That wouldn’t have been the adjective she would have chosen for that moment. Maybe she looked flexible. She looked open and willing. She looked fearless.
At that description, she pumped up her chest as Sweet raised her higher. She didn’t care how far he hoisted her in the air. She liked how much he wanted to push her just like she’d pushed him at the rock gym.
Nikla yelped as soon as she felt the tips of thin canes drumming over her back. She didn’t know Sweet had picked up canes and moved behind her. The stinging sensation crept up her back to the top of her head and spread throughout her body. Her heart seemed to beat in rhythm with his drumming.
Sweet moved the canes down to her ass, striking them lightly and in different spots, which offered her a new way to experience the pain. Nikla leaned her head back as he continued.
“Green,” Nikla whispered.
“Good.” Sweet’s voice sounded like he’d moved to the side of her.
Just as the caning took her by surprise, so did the light, tickling feeling under her thigh. Nikla jumped but with her wrists and ankles bound, she couldn’t move that much. In her mind, she didn’t see Sweet sweeping a feather over her flesh. She imagined him holding a handful of cotton candy.
The delicate touch went away and she felt a hard slap against her inner thigh. Nikla gritted her teeth and absorbed the pain.
Sweet worked her body over, alternating between caning her, rubbing her with something that felt like fur and paddling her. At some point, Nikla lost track of time. Her mind seemed cluttered and cloudy, then strangely became clear. Her body belonged to Sweet. He controlled her reactions.
Until she felt one of her legs being lowered did she realize that the play had ended.
“What’s going on?” Nikla asked. She desperately wanted to see Sweet.
“Help me get her down.” Sweet’s voice didn’t sound frantic, more excited than anything else.
Nikla felt hands working at both ends of the board in an attempt to untie and release her. With her arms and hands unbound, she fell into a man’s arms. She’d hoped Sweet had caught her.
“Amazing.” Sweet kissed her forehead.
Nikla realized he moved around and felt him sitting down. He finally removed her mask. A look of excitement covered Sweet’s face.
“What’s going on?” Nikla rubbed her eyes.
“You went into subspace.” Sweet smoothed her hair from her face. “It’s when you free your mind so much that you feel super relaxed. Sometimes you don’t realize what’s happening around you.”
Nikla blinked and tried sitting up.
“Easy. Easy. Let me just hold you for a while.” Sweet cradled her naked body on his lap.
“Tell me what happened. What did I do?”
“You said your safe word ‘green’ a few times. Then you rolled your head back and smiled.” Sweet leaned in like he wanted to kiss her but stopped. He glanced around their surroundings and sat back.
“So Doms, do you go to Dom-space or something?” Nikla curled closer to his chest.
“Yes, some do. You think play is only for the submissive or the slave.” He shook his head. “The one administering the discipline gets something out of it, too.”
“So did you go to Dom-space?”
Sweet averted his gaze. “Let’s get you dressed. It’s late. I need to get you back home.”
The disappointment must have been easy to read on Nikla’s face. As she started to get off Sweet’s lap, he stopped her.
“You did amazing up there.”
She offered a slight smile before she pulled away from him to dress. Her sports bra rubbed against her welts. The feeling of the sores elevated her pulse again. Nikla slipped on her thong panties and couldn’t help but run her hand over her enflamed ass cheek. She craned her head around to see the red streaks that colored them.
When Nikla searched for Sweet to see if he watched her observing herself, she found him standing behind the stage putting on his t-shirt. With his back to her, she watched him shaking his head as though arguing with himself.
Nikla slipped on her shoes and her jacket and strolled over to him. She touched his back, which caused him to twist around in a flurry.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
Without answering, he walked by her and headed to the door. Nikla followed him, racing behind his hurried steps. He burst through the back door and headed to his truck. He opened the passenger side door first. She assumed that he had completely tuned her out and forgotten that she had accompanied him to the club.
The drive back to Decadent Treats, where she’d left her car, remained just as tense and quiet as when Nikla had touched his back and asked about his well-being. In the parking lot, Sweet turned off his truck. He drummed his thumbs on the steering wheel before finally acknowledging Nikla.
“I used to feel it.” His low voice rumbled. “The Dom-space thing. I used to get so worked up after a session that I would physically feel wiped out.” He shook his head. “I don’t feel that way anymore. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” He stared at her. “I want to. I want to feel it with you, but I feel–” Sweet struggled to find the right word until he finally belted out the word, “stuck.”
Nikla breathed a sigh of relief that he’d confided in her. Justin wouldn’t even tell her when he’d gotten a speeding ticket.
She put her hand on Sweet’s arm. “I don’t know much about this lifestyle of yours other than what I’ve experienced and what you’ve told me. It seems to me like trust is the ultimate ingredient in that type of relationship. Ma
ybe once you truly can trust who you’re playing with, it’ll come back.”
Sweet stared at her with astonishment in his eyes. “Why are you being so nice to me? You could just call me a weirdo loser and be done with me.”
“Because I don’t think a man who helped me when I had my panic attack and who was able to make me have an incredible orgasm without penetration is a weirdo or a loser.”
He glanced at her. He held her wrist and pulled her close to his body. His kiss started off soft and became forceful and eager. His tongue darted in her mouth.
“I want you,” he said in between kisses.
She started to open the truck door, but Sweet pulled it closed. When he broke from the kiss, he smiled.
“Here. I want you now.” Sweet reached down and pulled down his sweatpants as Nikla removed her jacket and pulled up her bra. She didn’t have an opportunity to remove her pants before Sweet grabbed her and forced them down her legs.
He scooted to the center of the bench seat and brought Nikla onto his lap with her back to him. She raised her hips enough for Sweet to guide his hard cock to her pussy opening and entered her with one thrust.
“Shit!” Nikla gripped the dashboard as she ground her hips onto his lap.
Sweet held onto her hips and moved in and out of her like an expert, like he owned her. He freed one hand to palm her breast. He squeezed her nipples between his thumb and index finger.
“Christ! Yes!” Nikla covered his hand with hers and kept up her gyrations.
Sweet filled her up like no man ever had. She shouldn’t have cared about him. Hell, she shouldn’t have fucked him or allowed him to spank her or cane her. At this point, she couldn’t do without him. He’d infected her, and she had no interest in a cure.
Their heavy breathing clouded the windows. Sweet pulled her back so that her back lay flushed against his chest. He removed his other hand from her hip and coasted it over her thigh to her clit. As soon as he touched it, Nikla twitched. When he pinched it, she wailed.
“Swithin!”
Sweet growled like a bear and pushed himself in her harder and faster. Nikla felt her body shaking before the inner walls in her vagina started constricting around him. She reached her hand back and grabbed a handful of his hair just as she came.
Nikla screamed so loud she thought the sound would shatter his windows...in his apartment.
Sweet kept pumping inside of her. “Say my name again. Say it.”
“Swithin. Mmm, Swithin.”
He wrapped his arms around her body just as he emptied himself inside of her. She felt his hot jism bathing her womb as he held her. Sweat rolled down the sides of her face.
“May I stay with you tonight?” Nikla asked.
Sweet kissed her shoulder up to the back of her neck. “You can if you promise me you’ll do one thing.”
Nikla didn’t care what he wanted–blow job, hand job, her on her hands and knees crawling up to his apartment– she would do it. “Name it. Please tell your Sugar Baby what you want.”
“Have dinner with me, my brother, and his fiancée.”
Not what Nikla had expected to hear, but she smiled at the gesture. If Sweet wanted to introduce her to his family it must meant that he saw more in her than just a fuck buddy or a play toy, or even an adversary.
“I would love to.”
“Good.” Sweet kissed her back. “Good.”
Nikla hoped so.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Hey!” Deana plucked Nikla on the side of her head.
“Ow!” Nikla rubbed her temple. She didn’t expect abuse like this from her friend during lunch.
Some of the diners near them in the restaurant glanced their way. Nikla ignored them.
“What was that for?” Nikla placed her fork back on her plate and rubbed her head, which still throbbed from the hit.
“I’ve been going on and on about my date and you look totally zoned out. What is going on with you?” Deana waved her hand in front of Nikla’s face. “Earth to Nikla. Are you with me?”
“I’m right here at the table with you.” She took a sip of her water, then glanced at her cell phone.
Today Sweet allowed her to have twenty pieces of baby spinach leaves for her salad, three cherry tomatoes, ten slices of mushrooms, four cucumber slices, and a tablespoon of Italian dressing. Down to the exact measurement, she prepared and ate what he commanded.
Now she kept glancing at her phone to see if he had any other orders for her. Would she be allowed a dessert? Would he want her to be his dessert? Nikla crossed her legs.
“There! You’re doing it again. What’s going on with you?” Deana crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back. “And why are you wearing that candy bracelet? What are you, two?”
Nikla covered her bracelet with her hand. “It’s nothing. I’m fine. I’m just thinking. That’s all.” Nikla flicked around the remaining salad that she had on her plate.
“You’re still not fucking that guy, are you?”
Nikla scanned the area around them to see if anyone else heard her crass friend. “Will you keep your voice down?”
“You are, aren’t you? Please don’t tell me you’re hung up on him.” Deana laughed.
“And what if I am?” Nikla crossed her legs under the table. “You’re the one who said I should go out and meet people. Weren’t you the one gushing over Sweet Hawkes when I told you about him?”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “But I thought you would have hit it and quit it. You just got out of a long-term relationship.”
“It was less than a year.” Nikla distinctly remembered that they hadn’t even reached their anniversary date yet.
“That’s almost a year of being in a bad relationship. Almost a year of bad sex. Almost a year of being unhappy. Don’t get hung up on one guy you’ve only known a week.”
“Almost two weeks.”
Deana cocked her head. “As fine as he is, I’m sure there are other guys out there who will go along with your vision for a sugar-free, gluten-free, fun-free America.”
“Not fair.” Nikla actually liked that she and Sweet differed on topics. It gave them a lot to talk about, especially after sex.
She loved that they would argue about politics and current events. No man had challenged her like Sweet had. So why couldn’t he fully give himself to her? Why couldn’t she show him out in public how she felt about him?
Deana interjected into Nikla’s thoughts. “You know he’s probably doing other women on the side. No man as fine as that is alone, not for long.”
That idea haunted Nikla. She’d thought the same thing each time he seemed distant after playing. The man did invite her into his home whenever he could, so if he had someone else on the side, the other woman could only be getting a good five minutes of Sweet’s time.
“And you know about his special hobby.” Deana finished off her steak.
“Yeah. I know.” Nikla tried to hide her smile but it came through. So did the kick that Deana administered under the table. “Ouch! What was that for?”
“Please, please, please tell me that you did not let that man spank your ass.” This time Deana spoke in a whisper.
Nikla rubbed the sore spot on her shin. “And what if I did? It’s not like you haven’t had some guy spank you during sex. Same thing.”
Deana shook her head. “It’s not. You know that.”
Nikla did. She just hoped Deana didn’t know, didn’t understand about the Lifestyle.
“Those BDSM people are freaks. They’re like a cult. They will force you to drink the Kool-Aid and lock you up in a basement for ten years like that dude in Ohio.”
Nikla sighed. “It’s not like that.”
Deana held up her hand. “And you don’t have to tell me anything about it. Just know this. When your business is up and running, are you going to have time to cater to him like he wants? I’m sure that man wants a naked-twenty-four-seven type of sex slave.”
“Submissive,” Nikla whispered.
“And I’m sure you working all the time will be a problem for him. He’ll force you to choose. If you don’t choose him, it’ll be bye-bye Nikla.”
Nikla shook her head. “You have no idea what’s going on between me and Sweet. You can’t generalize what we have based on the little bit you know. Sweet likes that I work.”
“And yet he doesn’t want you to have that unit downtown.”
Nikla got quiet.
Deana continued. “Just don’t hang your hat on this one guy. Sounds like he may be a lot of fun and someone you can check off your bucket list. At the end of the day, he’s not boyfriend material. Hell, he’s not even husband material. Sure he’s good looking and has his own business. But he’s a Dominant. Read into that that he’s selfish. He wants what he wants when he wants it. Didn’t you get enough of living under someone’s thumb from growing up with your dad?”
Nikla shook her head. “Jesus H. Christ, Deana. Can’t you for once ever be in my corner? You see me looking happy and you just want to dump all over that.”
“No, I just–”
“I know what you just want to do. You want me to remain the predictable, stable one while you get to do whatever the hell you want with whoever you want. You talk about going out with women and expect me to be fine with it. I talk about a guy who’s a Dominant and you think I’m ruining my life.”
“Two separate things.”
“No. The same thing. We’re both stepping outside of our comfort zones. At least, I did. You’re just all talk.”
“Easy, Nikla. I’m your friend. You don’t want to lose me. With what you have going on at work and this shaky thing you have going on with this guy, I have a feeling you’re going to need all the friends you can get.”
Nikla covered her eyes and tried to suppress her laughter. “Wow. First Big Tom and now you. The threats just keep on coming. You know the only person who hasn’t threatened me? Sweet.”
Nikla called for her check.
“I didn’t mean to piss you off.” Deana fluffed out her big hair. “I’m trying to be your friend.”
Licorice Whips Page 24