Liberated Heart (Windy City Book 4)

by Measha Stone

  Her eyes bolted open as the first strike of the paddle landed against her ass cheeks. The force pushed her forward on the bench, and she cried out from the pins and needle sting of the damn wood. Again it fell on her and she clenched her fists around the grip handles. Another blow, to her thighs, and she grunted. Sure that bee stings would be less painful than that damn paddle, she bit down on her lip and waited for the next blow

  "Aagh! That thing hurts!" she cried out after the next stroke.

  He pressed the wood against her ass, which no longer felt cool to the touch at all. "Does it?" He asked, rubbing the implement in a circle over her burning cheeks. "Then maybe you should be honest with me." He pulled back and unleashed another stinging blow.

  "It stings so much!" she cried out, the pain in her backside starting to spike her temper.

  "Who's actions led us here? Mine or yours?" He placed a steady hand on the small of her back. A simple touch.

  She felt the tears burn her eyes again. "Mine did, sir," she admitted on a choked sob.

  "Yes," another stinging blow sent a jolt of electricity through her body, "yours did." And then came another. Before she could catch her breath he continued with a volley of swats. The burn of one stroke barely registering before the next was delivered. Sharp pin point sensations shot through her over and over again. She cried out after each, letting the tears fall down her cheeks freely and wishing she could say something to alleviate the pain in her chest.

  He was unrelenting, as he always reminded her, over and over again she felt the paddle contact her ass. Her upper body collapsed on the bench, her mind tried to whirl away, to find that sweet spot where his spankings and floggings often sent her, but the paddle pulled her back. Each time she thought she'd found a place to hide, he would move his strokes to her thighs or to the other cheek, higher than lower.

  Unable to hold still anymore, her ass began to dance, trying to avoid his punishing hand. He wouldn't be deterred. One arm wrapped around her waist, holding in her place as he finished the spanking with a quick dozen swats in rapid fire succession.

  "Oh. God! I'm sorry!" she screamed out. Mercy played on her lips, ready to throw it out there to catch her breath, but just as she began to call out for him to relent, the paddle was placed on her back, no longer being held in his hand.

  It took several moments to realize how hard she was sobbing. His hands weren't punishing anymore, they were stroking her back, her hair. He whispered how good she was to take her paddling so well. Reassuring her.

  "Come on, pet. Up." His hands helped her move from the bench.

  Her ass should have been smoking, it burned so much. With each move of her legs the tight burn of her skin began anew. She'd never felt so raw before. Tempted to touch her skin, just to be sure it was all still there, she began to move her hand behind her. A sharp slap to her ass stopped her. She jumped up to her tip toes, but didn't look at him. What sort of glare would she receive now? How much more could she disappoint him in one day?

  "Now, I have some questions." He helped her walk over to the St. Andrews Cross and turn so her back was pressed against it. She thanked the genetics of her parents for making her the right height so her ass didn't touch any part of the wooden X.

  Avoiding his eyes while he went about securing her wrist to the top rings, she turned her face away. The tears weren't rolling anymore, but she could feel as much pressure in her chest as before.

  After the last clink of the bonds signaled her ankles were locked in place, she drew in a ragged breath. How could she look at him? He held so much confidence and control. The perfect dominant, while she showed how horrible of a submissive she could be.

  He went back to the cabinet and came back with a small metal bucket. "I'm going to do some decorating, and then we'll start our conversation." Between two strong fingers he held a wooden clothes pin.

  "Open your mouth." He held the handle of the small bucket to her lips. She took the handle between her teeth, surprised by how lightweight it was.

  Taking one pin out of the bucket, he pulled a long rope out from his back pocket. Wasn't he the perfect boy scout too, always prepared. Who knew what else he had in those pockets of his cargo pants.

  She felt a sharp pinch to her right arm, just under her bicep when he placed the rope between her flesh and the pin, securing it onto her skin. She winced at the pain, but had to admit to herself it wasn't overly bad. Even when he flicked it with his finger, she managed to keep from crying out.

  He continued in this manner up her arm, and over both breasts before finishing down her left arm. When he was finished, a steady burn ran over her arms and chest, but no worse than the white fire on her ass.

  "Ah, you drooled in my bucket." He tugged the handle out of her mouth and she licked her lips, trying to wipe away the spittle that ran down her chin. "You can clean it later," he assured her and put the bucket on the floor, away from them. "Now." He began to play with the ends of the clips, adjusting and readjusting until she was squirming from his administrations. "What happened with Jonathan?"

  Jonathan? He wanted to talk about Jonathan now? "I, I, what?" She tried to focus, but he continued to unclasp and re-clasp the pins on her arms.

  "Your dinner. What did you and he talk about?"

  "We didn't have dinner. I just asked him to sign the papers for the listing." She couldn't have eaten in Jonathan's presence even if she had wanted to. The man made her sick with his weakness and manipulations. She couldn't imagine Bradley ever doing what Jonathan did. He was too honest, too open with his communication to let something like his unhappiness go unsaid.

  "Was he alone?"

  How could he know? "No." He stopped tinkering with a clip and stepped in front of her, making her stare into his eyes.

  "Who?"

  "His girlfriend," she whispered, waiting for the pain, the sharp sting in her chest, but it didn't come to her. "He brought his girlfriend, but she didn't sit with us."

  "Did he give you any trouble?" Of course he would be concerned about that, about how she had handled it, how it made her feel. Meanwhile she hadn't been concerned at all about how it would hurt him, or anger him if he found out about her lie.

  "No, not really. He signed the papers. And… he said he saw us together." Bradley's eyebrows raised, a prompt to go on. "He said… he tried to be protective, said if you ever hurt me—" She closed her eyes as he removed another peg and moved it to a new place before securing it. "I laughed at him and left."

  "Then you came straight here because you got my text."

  "Yes. I'm really sorry. I didn't think. I mean, I'm sorry." Fresh tears burned her eyes.

  "I know," was all he said, picking up the end of the rope. Pressing his body against hers, his fingers played with her nipple, plucking and pinching until it stood fully erect for him, then dragging his nails down the length of her torso until he reached her mound. With her ankles bound apart, she couldn't pull her legs closed even if she wanted to. With the skill she'd come to depend on, he slid his fingers through her folds. "Wet, even when you're being punished."

  Two fingers sunk into her and she clenched down on him. "Oh, don't worry, pet. You aren't coming tonight. Maybe not even tomorrow night. But definitely not tonight, but that doesn't mean you don't get to feel the pleasure you're giving up by being a naughty girl."

  The heel of his hand ground into her clit as he pumped his fingers in and out of her. She kept her eyes on him, unable to look away from him as he drove her quickly to an edge he would pull away from at any moment. Her thighs began to tremble and her stomach sucked in tight, the pressure built to uncomfortable heights. Just when she thought he'd changed his mind he pulled his hand away, and ripped the rope across her chest, yanking off every clothes pin in a zipper like fashion.

  She screamed out into the room, from the surprise, or the pain, it didn't matter. Her chest heaved, her lungs begging for air, her eyes filling with more tears and her body trembling.

  He held her chin between his fing
ers, yanking her face upward to meet his mouth. His lips crashed down over hers. The sweeping of his tongue took her mind away from the buzz of pain in her arms and focused it on him. He commanded all of her attention, all of her energy as he deepened the kiss. Both hands held her cheeks. His aftershave tickled her nose, and brought the calming sense of his presence.

  When he pulled away, dilated pupils met her gaze. "I'm going to unbind you, and you're going to get dressed. You'll come to my office and kneel in the corner while I finish up the work I need to do. When I'm done, we'll go home. In the morning, we will talk about your living arrangements. Until then I don't want to hear a word out of you unless I speak to you. Do you understand? If you need me, if you need something, you'll raise your hand and wait until I come to you. Is that clear?"

  The lump that settled in her throat finally moved down enough to let her speak. "Yes, sir." He didn't want to talk to her. Of course he didn't. Would she want to look at his face if he had lied and hidden so much from her? The punishment may have cleared the air, but she'd damaged them.

  Maybe she wasn't cut out for being his submissive. Maybe he was starting to realize that. Maybe she'd messed everything up beyond repair.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  "Are you serious? Nothing?" Bradley stared over the back patio table at Kendrick who thankfully was not accompanied by his temperamental fiancé. She had been deposited directly upstairs to be with Erin. Bradley had not had a chance to have a talk with her yet because Kendrick and Kelly showed up first thing in the morning. Kelly with an apology, and Kendrick with some information.

  "Not a thing. Jonathan has been completely clean, if he is the one that's harassing her he's a lot smarter than I ever gave him credit for." Kendrick hooked one foot over his knee and leaned back in the chair. "There is something else, though and that's partly why I trekked my ass clear across town this early in the morning. Those photographs you showed me, the one's she received? They weren't taken on the street. They were taken from the security cameras that line the building. Freeze framed and blown up, but they were from those cameras."

  "So there isn't someone following her around?"

  "It wouldn't appear so, but that doesn't really mean anything. Someone could be following you around. And we have to face the fact that someone either within my security team is involved, or someone who knows how to tap into the secure camera feeds."

  "I thought that wasn't possible." Bradley tried not to sound accusatory. Kendrick ran the security for the whole building.

  "It's extremely difficult, almost impossible, but with the right smarts, it's doable. I'm going back into the logs to find out who was working when these pictures were taken so I can talk to them, but I don't think it's coming from my guys. Almost all of them have either police or military back ground. It's just not their thing to try and blackmail someone, and sure as fuck not someone's woman."

  "What about Travis or John? Any chance they are trying to get back at me after they lost almost all of their shares?"

  "So far I haven't seen anything that points to either of them. Besides the letters started before you cut them off. Has she gotten anything else?"

  "No. Not that she's told me about anyway." Bradly reached for his coffee. Erin had gotten up that morning before him and made breakfast and coffee. Things were the same as usual at least in actions, but something wasn't right. Her eyes held a dullness to them that he couldn't place. He tried to reassure her that the events of the night before were over. She wasn't going to be punished anymore, and that the ban of talking without permission was completely lifted, but she only nodded and went to the fridge to get the cream for him.

  He wanted her. His cock wanted her. Lying next to her all night knowing he couldn't sink into her again until they talked didn't stop his dick from standing ready. He could have taken her and left her wanting for an orgasm, and he wouldn't have felt remorse for doing it. He knew she would have found fulfillment in that as well. Servicing him would have been a reward, although small, and he wasn't ready to reward her.

  His pet had taken her punishment well, hadn't fought him on it and took more than he thought she would with that paddle. She despised the wooden paddle. Just the way her eyes widened when she saw him holding it had been enough for him to know he picked up the exactly right implement to deliver her punishment.

  After seeing her at the breakfast table, he wondered if he'd made the wrong decision by not giving her a small reward after having such a rough night. At the very least, his balls wouldn't be so damn uncomfortable.

  "Everything going okay with you two?" Kendrick asked, giving him a sidelong glance. The man couldn't ease into a topic if his life depended on it. "Erin looked a little… I don't know. Withdrawn. Tender maybe?"

  "No more tender than Kelly looked," Bradley shot back, pouring his coffee over the rail of the patio and into the rose bushes below. If her friends didn't stop running around her with a fucking net under her ass, he was going to start losing his patience. He'd shown enough already and it was beginning to wear him down. "But you're right. She was a little withdrawn this morning. I promised her we'd talk after breakfast, but I wasn't expecting you."

  "That's my fault. I took Kelly's phone from her, so she couldn't text Erin and I, well, I'm so used to Kelly handling that stuff I forgot to take care of it."

  "Lost her phone did she?"

  "Don't look so smug. That girl had a whole lot to say about you on the way home last night. I know she's just looking out for Erin, but she really has it in for you."

  "Thanks." Bradley picked up his phone from the table top. He expected to hear back from Erin's real estate agent soon. He wouldn't get involved yet, but he wanted to be sure the agent had the right idea in mind about the sale. Erin hadn't argued when he asked for the agent's information. He took that as a good sign.

  "I think she's just intimidated. You know with the bald head, all those damn muscles, and well, you can look a bit scary when you're in full dom mode. I've seen more experienced women than Kelly walk away from your scenes in the dungeon."

  Bradley had noticed that as well. He never claimed his play was light, and he never played with anyone who didn't know what they were getting themselves into. Even with Erin he had lain it all out there for her. He was hard, unrelenting and damn demanding when it came to submission. Hard dom yeah, but he never once hid that from his partners.

  "Kelly has nothing to fear from me. She's not mine to deal with. And she should have enough faith in Erin to know she wouldn't be doing something that she didn't want or enjoy."

  "I told her all of those things," Kendrick said, and nodded. "On the car ride home, on the elevator ride to our apartment. She's a little stubborn."

  Bradley put his head back and laughed. "A little. Right."

  Kendrick took a glance at his watch. "Well, I'm going to go get my red-headed dragon and head out. I just wanted to let you know about Jonathan."

  "Thanks."

  "As much of an ass as Jonathan is, he really doesn't stand to win anything by messing with your or Erin," Kendrick pointed out. "But, then again, who knows with him. He's obviously not the guy we all thought he was."

  "Erin probably felt the same way when this all went down," Bradley mused out loud. She really hadn't talked much about him at all when he really thought about it. Could she still be missing him? Still trying to get over him, and that's why she went alone to meet him? After all he was the rebound guy, that's what he'd signed up for at the beginning. Maybe things never developed past that for her as he had hoped they would.

  "I haven't known Erin for as long as everyone else, but one thing I've always noticed about her is her reservation. She was always willing to jump into a fire to help someone else, but when it came to her own stuff, she pulled back. Like she didn't want to be a bother in some way. Kelly said she's always been that way, just kind of pushing herself into the background."

  "And when this whole mess with Jonathan happened, she did it again. Only to the extreme," Bra
dley said to complete the story. His little pet wasn't very good at hiding her feelings, so she would just hide herself instead.

  "Yeah, for a while it was hard to get a hold of her and when the girls did, she would be really distant, and that was before Jonathan left. So I'm sure things were messy for a while and she was just trying to wait it out, hoping things would come out okay in the end."

  "She's listing her house for sale." Bradley said, and let out a breath of air.

  "She moving in here permanently?" Bradley didn't miss the skepticism in Kendrick's voice.

  "I don't know, but for the first time in my life the idea doesn't make me want to bar the doors and windows. You know? How can someone edge their way into your life so easily and so fucking fast?" He ran a hand over his head. Since when did he become so wishy-washy about a woman.

  Kendrick laughed. "I know that look. And I sure as hell know that feeling. My advice is don't over think it. Nothing you can do about it anyway."

  "That's reassuring. Thanks." He narrowed his gaze. Of course there was nothing he could about it. He'd finally found someone that he wanted to wake up next to every morning. She'd stumbled into his life, but he was damn sure he wasn't going to let her waltz out of it.

  The first thing on his to-do list for the day became completely clear. Hire a moving truck to move all of her shit into his house, immediately.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  "I don't understand." Kelly's thick curls swayed as she shook her head. They seemed to be having the same conversation over and over again.

  "I already explained all of this, this morning." Erin groaned while she picked the chicken out of her cobb salad. Kelly had insisted on meeting for lunch after spending a whirl wind of a morning with her.

  "I wasn't there, so explain again." Jessica turned her phone to vibrate and placed it in the center of the table.