MasterofVelvet

by Kirstie Abbot

  “However, while you wear this collar you will submit to me and your focus will be on me and only me. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, Adam.”

  She wanted this, wanted him, so much.

  A tumult of emotions was doing crazy things to her insides—excitement, nerves, apprehension—even shyness, although that, she realized with a mental jolt, was rapidly dissipating. She really was getting used to being naked around Adam.

  A small smile teased the corners of her mouth. Adam loved her, he thought her beautiful—she knew she wasn’t but around him she could feel beautiful. And she was wanted. It would never cease to amaze her that a man such as Adam, who could have any woman he wanted, actually wanted her.

  “Stand up, put your shoes on and follow me. And for Christ’s sake, stop thinking. Let it go, Beth.”

  Stunned, she looked at him, wondering how he could possibly know. The question must have been reflected in her face.

  “I’ve worked with you every day for three years,” he said softly. “I’ve seen your face run through the whole gamut of emotions and expressions—so I know that when you look like this,” he tapped her nose with his fingertip, “your quicksilver mind is bubbling with questions and concerns. Stop it. Now.”

  He led her back into the hall and up the sweeping staircase, along the gallery to a locked door. She longed to look round and take in the details of Adam’s house but her concentration was on him, her Dom. There was plenty of time for the guided tour later.

  She watched Adam unlock the door then followed him inside the room. With her eyes lowered, her range of vision was limited. The impression she had was of a light wood floor and a proliferation of beautifully crafted bondage equipment in wood and leather, and a magnificent four-poster bed that couldn’t possibly be as innocuous as it appeared. This was Adam’s playroom? Somehow she’d expected something a little darker and more Gothic. This was both dark and light—like its owner.

  “Second position, Beth. Wait there. I’ll be back in a moment.”

  She sensed more than saw him disappear through another door at the other end of the room. It would be very easy to cheat and look around, even take her hands down, but that just seemed so wrong. Her Dom had commanded her to stand like this, so stand like this she would.

  “Well done, Beth. You can put your arms at your sides now and look up.”

  He was gorgeous. Black leather trousers, black boots and a flowing white silk shirt left unbuttoned so that she could see his chest. He looked like the romantic lead in a costume drama. Her knees turned to jelly in half a heartbeat.

  “Aroused already, Miss Harrison? Your nipples are such a giveaway.”

  He was standing in front of her now. His right hand cradled her breast, his thumb flicking back and forth across the sensitive, puckered flesh. “Give me your thoughts, Beth.”

  She looked at him with openly adoring eyes. “You’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen.”

  The flicking stopped short. He looked into her eyes. She held her nerve and never wavered until his lips touched hers. Eyes closed, she gave herself up to the kiss.

  “Oh Beth,” he breathed her name. “Why didn’t we do this years ago?”

  “May I have your permission to speak, Adam?”

  “You may, sweet.”

  She smiled. “When you reach that part of the job interview where the interviewer asks you if you have any questions, ‘Do you happen to be a Dom, because I need one badly?’ isn’t exactly on the list of suggested subjects for inquiry.”

  Adam raised an eyebrow. “And I suppose if I’d told you that I wanted your submission you’d have run a mile.”

  “Probably.” Beth felt her confidence drain a little and knew it showed in her expression.

  “It’s all right, love. You’ve been at war with yourself for a long time and it will take time for you to fully embrace your need to submit. And don’t forget—we can always make our own rules up as we go along.”

  “Thank you, Adam.” She took his hand and lifted it to kiss the palm.

  “You’re a natural, Beth.” His voice was warm with approval. “I think that maybe you deserve a little reward now—although with your stubbornness this morning…”

  Beth lowered her eyes. “I apologize. I should have trusted you, Sir.”

  “Yes, you should have. So what should I do with my sub now?”

  “Whatever you see fit to do, Adam.”

  The St. Andrew’s Cross. She’d seen pictures of them before and now she was being bound to the freestanding saltire that dominated one end of the playroom. Adam was taking great care, checking her bonds, ensuring her circulation wasn’t compromised and her delicate skin wouldn’t chafe and making sure that she was comfortably settled against the red leather upholstery. With her back to him she was especially vulnerable and once shackled in position, she could do nothing to stop the delicious sensation of his hands roaming freely over her body, stroking her skin.

  Or the sharp crack of the openhanded slap on her bottom, followed by the soothing stroke of that same hand.

  “Ah, Beth, we both know you like that, don’t we?” He nuzzled the side of her neck while playing with her breast. “In view of the fact that you’ve kept your submissive tendencies hidden from me all this time, I think I need to introduce you to something with a little more bite to it.”

  Moving around so that he could see her face, Adam produced a length of chain. “These are called tweezer clamps—ideal for someone new to the scene. I can vary how much pressure they apply to your nipples. Hold yourself away from the cross.”

  The pinch of the clamps on her nipples made her gasp.

  “Because you’re new to this, I’m going to ask you how this feels. In the future though, I will decide how much pressure is applied. You may speak.”

  “Thank you, Adam. It feels good.”

  She started at the touch of his hand between her legs.

  “I can tell. Your pussy’s dripping with need right now.” He tapped her clit twice. Her knees buckled when he followed that with a relentless pressure. “And now that we have your delicious nipples nicely adorned, it’s time to reacquaint you with the flogger.”

  If such an implement could be said to be beautiful then this one was a work of art. The sensation of the tails—fashioned from red suede—teasing her flesh as Adam draped them over her shoulder was exquisite. When he used it in a sequence of figure of eight movements across her upper back, it felt divine. The rhythm matched the pulse of blood through her veins.

  “My darling Beth, I wish you could see what I see.”

  He dropped the flogger and moved to stand close, his chest pressed against her back, his hands stroked down the sensitive skin of her sides. When he reached her hips, he pulled her back hard against him, leaving her in no doubt as to his state of arousal. “You feel what you do to me, sub?” he growled into the side of her neck.

  His hands wandered further, around to her breasts where his fingers caught hold of the chain linking the nipple clamps. When he tugged gently, she whimpered with pleasure-pain, letting herself lean back against his body, anchored by the arm that had moved around her waist.

  “There’s so much I have to teach you, love. So much I have to learn about you.”

  Whatever he could teach her would simply be the icing on every birthday cake for the rest of her life.

  With her Dom’s strength to lean on, Beth knew that she was where she was always supposed to be—with the man she was always supposed to be with. Every nerve ending she possessed buzzed with vitality at his closeness. She felt him in every cell in her body. If she weren’t chained to the St. Andrew’s Cross, she’d be on her knees in front of him.

  The heat of his body left hers, disturbing the haze that was enveloping her—almost holding her breath she awaited his return, and was rewarded a few moments later with the touch of something light and soft tracing the line of her spine.

  “D/s isn’t all about chains and whips, my love.” His ve
lvet voice wrapped itself around her senses. “I can torture you with feathers and hold you captive in silk and lace just as easily.”

  It wouldn’t even take that, Beth realized. That voice could hold her captive, a disapproving look in his eyes could torture her. He was holding her again, anchoring her against his heat and strength so she had no chance of wriggling away from the feather that he was stroking across the tender skin. She moaned softly, turning her head away from the agonizing sensation, only to feel the sharp spike of the nipple clamps, which left her gasping.

  How long the sheer torment of it all went on for Beth had no idea. Her Dom teased and tormented her to the brink of orgasm at least a dozen times, before drawing back and starting all over again. All her limbs were turning to spaghetti by the time Adam allowed her to come with an explosive orgasm that had her screaming his name. She could barely stand.

  When Adam took her down from the cross he laid her on the huge bed, where he soothed her nipples with his mouth as he removed the clamps. The sensation of blood rushing back to the tormented flesh had her arching against his mouth and then his fingers replaced that sweet agony.

  “Please may I speak, Adam?” she whispered, loving him with her eyes.

  He stroked the damp hair off her forehead. “You may, Beth.”

  “Thank you.” She turned her face to rest her cheek against his palm.

  He was smiling down at her, a smile that spoke of a special intimacy that came along once in a lifetime. “You’re mine now, Beth. Let me be your guide and your protector—”

  “Will you be my lover, too?”

  He bent to kiss her forehead. “I already am, little one.” He frowned as she gave a little shiver. “Time to get you into bed, I think. You need to rest.”

  Beth giggled a little drunkenly, still high from the session. “I’m already in bed, Adam.”

  “Not this bed. Our bed.”

  As if she were a fragile work of art, he carried her from the playroom to his bedroom. Once she was safely tucked in, he stripped off his own clothes. Beth watched him greedily, drinking in every perfect line of his body, the way his muscles flowed with his economical movements. He disappeared briefly, returning a few moments later with a bottle of water and a glass.

  “You need to have a drink before we sleep,” he said, filling the glass. “All of it.” He remained by her side while she finished the water.

  “Thank you, Adam.”

  “Beth, you don’t need to keep thanking me.”

  “I do it because I want to do it and because it feels right to do it.” She sighed, the sigh turning into a yawn she tried to stifle. “I feel so tired.”

  “Then there’s just one more thing I need to do.”

  Her neck felt too bare without the collar and when she asked about the gold chain, Adam shook his head.

  Beth felt strangely bereft—it felt wrong to be without the mark of Adam’s ownership. “Then please may I have the ribbon back, Adam?”

  “No.” His response was immediate. “You’ve earned your real collar now, Beth, and I am not demoting you back to a bloody ribbon. It’s not open for discussion.”

  He gave her a look that plainly said he knew best.

  Beth knew she should be happier about that but she wasn’t going to argue the point now. She watched her Dom move round the bed and when he joined her, she moved into his embrace as if they were the two halves of a whole, reunited after a lifetime apart.

  Her last thought, before sleep claimed her, was that no one and nothing would ever come between them again.

  Chapter Ten

  Beth woke up alone.

  It was not yet 6 a.m. and everywhere was in darkness. The other half of the bed was cold. Wherever he’d gone, it must have been a while ago.

  What was today going to bring?

  Since there was no point in trying to go back to sleep, Beth decided to get ready and make some breakfast—assuming of course that she could find the kitchen in this maze of a house. Wherever Adam was, she was sure he’d be back soon. Otherwise he’d have left a message.

  While the coffee machine was working its magic, Beth stretched, feeling the slight pull of muscles that had undergone exercise they weren’t used to. She remembered Adam holding her close, his arms wrapped around her as if he’d never let her go and then nothing until she’d woken this morning. She could only assume that she’d slept like a log the whole night through.

  She was rummaging in the American-style fridge-freezer when all of a sudden the kitchen door behind her burst open. It was Adam but an Adam she’d never seen before. He was dressed in camouflage gear and chunky military-style boots with a heavy pack strapped to his back. He was in the process of shrugging it off his shoulders when Beth turned around. Strands of dark hair clung damply to his forehead.

  “Adam?”

  His face broke into a grin. “Good morning, love. I hope I didn’t disturb you.”

  “Only by not being there when I woke up. What have you been doing?”

  His expression sobered. “Getting back into training. God, I’m getting old!”

  Beth flew to his side, her arms finding their home around his waist as she pressed close to him.

  “Hey, what’s this for?”

  “Just because. So what have you been doing?” She looked up at Adam’s face. Even unshaven and glistening with sweat, he was still the man she craved beyond all others.

  “Ten miles and it took me too bloody long. Fifteen years ago, a performance like that would have had me drummed out of the Regiment.”

  A strange feeling rippled through Beth. Now that she knew about his past—the specific and highly secretive regiment he was talking about and all the things he’d done in the service of his country—dressed as he was, he no longer looked like her suave, office-working boss. He was a man of action who had put his life on the line countless times without a thought for his own safety.

  “Now, woman, let me go and get a shave and a shower. We have a lot to do today.”

  And with a playful slap to her behind he disappeared.

  Beth busied herself with making a full cooked breakfast—bacon, eggs, sausages, hash browns, mushrooms, tomatoes, the works. Once everything was cooking, she went to move the backpack from where he’d dropped it only to find that she could barely drag it, never mind lift it. He’d run ten miles with that on his back? What did he have in it? Bricks? She opened it up.

  She wasn’t far wrong. It looked like half a quarry. What amazed her most was that he’d arrived back barely out of breath—that spoke volumes about his existing level of fitness. He didn’t just look good.

  And he had perfect timing as well. She was just putting the finishing touches to his breakfast when he ambled back into the kitchen, his hair slick and damp from the shower. She looked up with a grin, only for her face to fall when she caught his disapproving look.

  “Beth, have you already eaten?”

  “No, I thought I’d wait for you.”

  “Then where the hell’s your breakfast?”

  Beth looked from him to the plate, then back at him and raised her eyebrows. Her glasses had slipped down her nose slightly, so she ended up looking at him over the top of the frames. She pointed to the grill. “There’s three rashers of bacon under there. Should be ready any time now. I don’t do cooked breakfasts, there’s way too much food for me on one of those, but I’m from the North and I have a weakness for bacon sandwiches. Go and sit down and I’ll be right with you.”

  Beth carried the groaning plate over to the informal dining table by the French windows, taking a seat opposite Adam when her breakfast was ready. She shot him a look and pointed at the evidence. He paused with a laden fork halfway to his mouth, glanced at the sandwich…then put the fork down again, picked up the sandwich and helped himself to a bite. A big one. His eyebrows rose in appreciation as he chewed thoughtfully. After he swallowed, he said, “That’s good.”

  Beth slowly folded her arms with what she hoped was an appropriate deg
ree of menace. “I know. I make a mean bacon butty. How’s yours?”

  “Excellent.” The laden fork resumed its interrupted mission.

  “So what was all the fuss about? You didn’t think I was going to wait for permission…did you?”

  He shrugged. “It’s been known. Some Doms demand it. I’m not one of them.”

  Beth put her sandwich down so that she could give her full attention to the man in front of her. “I never thought for one moment that you were.” Then she leaned across the table and gently kissed his cheek.

  The moment passed. Adam grinned. “Anyway, you never told me you could cook.”

  Beth’s eyes narrowed. “You never specified cooking as an essential skill on the job advert nor do I remember ever having to cook as part of my office duties.”

  “Touché.” Adam grinned. “My, we are grumpy this morning.”

  “I wasn’t grumpy until someone helped himself to my breakfast. Just for that, I’m not cooking the steaks I found in the fridge for dinner tonight.” She took a delicate bite of her sandwich, relishing the crisp grilled bacon between the slices of whole-grain bread.

  Adam didn’t even look up from his plate when he spoke. “That’s okay. It’ll save you burning them.”

  Beth responded with an indignant glare, which was promptly defused by the mischievous grin he gave her. His eyes were shining with humor. Oh, she’d show him. Mustering all her dignity, she sat up straight and stuck her tongue out at him before taking another bite of her sandwich.

  “You know you just earned yourself a spanking.”

  Beth nearly choked. “Are you sure you’re just a sexual Dominant?”

  He shrugged again, loading his fork with hash browns, sausage and tomato. “I know I like spanking you. Any chance of a coffee?”

  * * * * *

  After breakfast, the first thing Adam had intended to do was to lock his sub’s day collar into place around her beautiful neck. He hadn’t replaced it after the play session because he didn’t see any point in having her sleep in it.