“Easy, sugar. Let me in.” He ran his free hand over her back, trying to relax her as he continued to slowly drive his finger inside.
With his free hand, he cupped her mound, feeling her heat against him. He rubbed his hand back and forth, pressing against her clit as she sighed, wiggling against him.
He stilled. “No moving, sugar.”
She froze. “Sorry, Sir.”
Duncan pulled his finger free, then twisted his middle finger and forefinger together before pushing them into her asshole. Resistance was tight.
“Have you had anyone else inside this ass, Laken?” he asked with a growl. He was feeling terribly possessive. He was reclaiming her, making her his once again—the way she always should have been.
He twisted his fingers inside her, then slapped her pussy. She cried out in shock, almost letting go of her ass.
“Answer me.”
“No, Sir… no one but you.”
A surge of satisfaction drove through him. “Good girl.”
She stiffened at his words, growing completely rigid. Shit, he had to get her past this. Once those words would have filled her with joy; she would have taken it as her due praise for pleasing him. Now they brought fear. He couldn’t have that.
“Who are you with, Laken?” he crooned.
“Duncan,” she answered.
“Where are my fingers, Laken?”
“I-in my ass. Sir.” He heard a small bite to her voice. Knew how she hated it when he made her talk about what he was doing to her.
“And how does it feel, little girl? Do you like it?”
“You know I do,” she snapped.
He pinched her clit in retaliation. She shuddered, groaning with delight.
“It turns me on, Sir. It makes me hot.”
“Damn straight it does.” He pulled his fingers apart a little, stretching her as he flicked her clit with his free hand.
Up, down. Round and round until he knew she was close, could hear the way her breathing grew ragged and low whimpers came from deep in her chest.
He stopped, pulling back from her.
“No,” she cried out. “I was so close, damn you!”
He gave her two hard pops on the butt. “No swearing at me,” he told her sternly. “Stand up.”
Standing, he watched her carefully to make sure she wasn’t dizzy as she stood. She stared at him warily. He stared at her for a long moment.
“Now, what to do with that naughty mouth of yours.”
She dropped her gaze to where his cock pressed against his pants.
“Oh, I could think of something,” she said.
He snorted. “Now, wouldn’t that be rewarding bad behavior?”
“Oh, I think you’ve been pretty well behaved today, Sir,” she said with a grin. “But if you like I can give you a spanking instead.”
“Brat,” he growled, but he had to turn away to hide a grin. This was his old Laken. Sassy and full of fun.
He turned back. “You sure you’re up for all of this, Laken?”
“I was just talking about a blow job, Sir,” she replied with an innocent look.
“That’s not what I meant, brat, and you know it.” He sat and patted his lap, gratified when she immediately curled herself up on him. He tipped her chin up so he could read her expressions.
“If you’re too scared, just say the words and this stops—we go back to taking things slowly.”
“We can’t afford to take things slowly. We have less than a week before we go to Saxon’s.”
She was right, but he didn’t have to like it.
He brushed her red-gold hair off her face. She was so beautiful with her large blue eyes and pert little nose that was slightly upturned at the end.
He ran his thumb over her cheek.
“You can pull out of this. We’ll find another way to get him.”
Her forehead crinkled as she thought through his words, then shook her head. “I can’t risk him taking someone else just because I’m a coward.”
He scowled. “You are not a coward and I don’t want you thinking that way. How many women do you think could do what you’re going to do? Facing your fears the way you are takes great courage.”
“I’m so scared, though.”
“Most courageous people are. Doesn’t make them any less brave.”
She took in a shuddering breath. “I need to do this. I can’t keep running and hiding.”
He ran his fingers through her hair. “That means I have to push you, baby. You might think you’re ready for all of this, but there may be parts that bring back some bad memories for you.” He was certain there would be.
“I know,” she said in a small voice.
“If things become too tough to handle, use your safe word. We need this to look completely real, for you to actually enjoy this again when we’re in the club. We have no idea whether he’ll be inside the club or not, but if he is, he can’t get any hint that we’re on to him. You can seem a bit afraid, a bit unsure, but being downright terrified is going to raise some alarms.”
She nodded.
“All right then. On your knees, brat. Prove to me that you have another use for that mouth other than sassing me.”
Laken kneeled breathlessly at Duncan’s feet, her hands shaking as she helped him remove his pants and underwear. She’d always loved giving Duncan a blow job. There was something about Duncan’s cock that enthralled her. She reached out with one hand when he was seated, completely naked.
He grabbed her hand before she could touch him. She looked up in surprise.
“Hands behind your back, you’ll do this with your mouth only,” he challenged.
Well, she should have known he wouldn’t make this easy for her. If he thought she couldn’t do this, he was wrong. She might be slightly out of practice but she’d never back down from a challenge.
“Lick me first,” he directed. “And keep those legs wide apart.”
Sizzle and spice. She gritted her teeth against a sarcastic reply and widened her legs.
“Very nice,” he told her. “You may start licking me.”
She leaned down and licked his knee, then looked up at him with wide eyes.
Reaching down he pinched her nipple, tugging on it as she gasped.
“My cock. Lick my cock.”
“Sir, yes, Sir.”
“Maybe that spanking I gave you wasn’t long enough,” he mused.
“It was, it was,” she said hastily, leaning forward to lick his long, thick cock. It was warm and hard. Delicious. She licked at it as though it were her favorite cone of ice cream, even making little noises of pleasure.
Damn, she’d missed him. Her pussy throbbed and clenched, growing so moist she was worried she’d start dripping.
“That’s it, sugar. Now take the head of my cock into your mouth. Just the head. Be careful to keep your balance; we don’t want you head-butting anything precious.”
Precious. Men, they really did think they had the crown jewels between their legs.
“That’s it, sugar. Now suck. Hard.”
She sucked strongly on the head of his shaft, and then used her tongue across the slit at the top.
He blew out a deep breath. “Okay, take more of me inside you now. Slowly, slowly. Good, very good.”
Laken followed his directions, moving back and forth on his shaft, taking him fully into her mouth.
Finally, he clasped her face in his hands. “Hold still, sugar. I’m not far away.” Then he began thrusting, moving his hips up and down until he came with a yell. She sucked him down, swallowing.
“Let go now, baby,” he told her. Reaching down he pulled her up until she was straddling him. Then he kissed her, his tongue slipping through her lips to play with hers.
“That was fantastic.” He nipped at her lips as his hands moved to her breasts, kneading and cupping them. She arched against him as he toyed with her nipples. Arousal rushed through her. She needed him so badly.
“Such a bea
Good girl.
The words shuddered through her, but her arousal was stronger and for once they didn’t have the power to make her feel ill. There was a small kernel of fear. But this was Duncan. Duncan holding her. Duncan driving her mad.
“Yours,” she replied. “I’m your good girl.”
He dropped one hand to her pussy, driving two fingers deep inside her. She groaned, clenching around him. That felt so good. His thumb brushed her clit.
“Say it again. Say whose good girl you are.”
“Yours. I’m your good girl,” she cried.
“That you are,” he said with satisfaction. “Come, Laken. Come now.”
With a low cry, she let herself go. She cried out as she slammed over the edge into an intense orgasm. A storm of pleasure swept through her.
“My good girl,” he murmured. “All mine. Always.”
Picking her up, Duncan carried her into the bedroom. Sitting on the bed, he rested back against the headboard and just held her tight.
Laken stirred and he loosened his hold a bit so she could sit up. Damn, it felt right having her in his arms, in his bedroom. She stared up at him. Leaning down, he kissed her forehead.
“All right, sugar?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Laken, I just want you to know that you can tell me anything. I’m here for you. I want to help you.”
She shifted on his lap, wriggling off to sit on the bed beside him. He hugged her close to his side, waiting patiently.
“I glossed over everything because I didn’t want you to feel guilty for what happened. It was my fault. I was acting like a child looking for revenge. I know you—you take everything on yourself. You’re so protective that you would have seen it as your failing. But it was mine and it was his. Oh, was it his.”
She rubbed her hands together, looking slightly anxious. He covered her hands with his. God, if he allowed it, the guilt would eat them both alive. He couldn’t give into it. And he certainly wouldn’t let her blame herself.
“It was his fault. Not yours.”
“I shouldn’t have been out alone.”
“You were upset; you made an error of judgment. But what he did to you was not your fault.”
“He said it was,” she whispered. “He said it was my fault for being such a dirty little slut, for being unnatural. He said he had taken me so he could cure me. That for every dirty thought, every dirty act I had done, he would show me how wrong I was. He knocked me out and when I woke up I was in a basement. It was dark and cold. God, I was so cold. He stripped me naked and there was no heating.”
His poor baby felt the cold. God, he couldn’t stand the thought of her suffering, scared and needing him.
“I screamed for what seemed like ages. He tied my hands above my head, but used a rough rope so if I tried to get free my wrists would rub raw and bleed. The other end of the rope was tied to a hook on the ceiling and my feet were tied to some hooks on the floor. I could barely move.”
He brushed her hair off her face, unable to stop touching her. “You must have been terrified.”
“When he came in I was exhausted from the yelling and crying. Then he appeared, and this overwhelming terror just stole my voice. He opened up a chest and pulled out a flogger, but not a soft one— this had bits of metal in it. Then he would use a whip and some clamps. He made me hurt so bad. I begged him to let me go. I would have done anything, anything.”
She looked at him and the shame in her eyes had his stomach tying in knots. “Of course you would have,” he told her fiercely. “Because you wanted to live. No matter what, you always do what you need to in order to live, you hear me? Nothing else matters. Nothing you had to do to survive matters because you lived.”
Tears ran down her cheeks and he realized his own gaze was blurred with tears. He scooped her back onto his lap, needing to hold her.
“All the time he sounded so reasonable, you know? As blood dripped down my back from the flogger and then the whip, his voice was so… civilized… as he told me what a dirty slut I was, how nobody wanted a filthy whore, how no one was coming for me. That one really hurt because I knew it was true. Not that I didn’t have people who cared about me, but no one would be looking for me right then. He choked me a number of times.”
“What?”
“He choked me, just to show me how easily he could take my life. Sometimes I passed out, only to wake up in the nightmare once more. When I had to go to the bathroom, he escorted me over to this filthy toilet off in a tiny bathroom. He watched me the whole time. I was so weak; I didn’t think I would have a chance to ever escape.”
She took a shuddering breath, then another. “He’d put t-things in me. Vibrators, plugs… and force me to come as he hurt me. He hurt me even more when I did come, as though it were proof that I was all those things he said.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck. Where had he been? Cursing her for being childish. Throwing himself into his career. For what?
No, he had to stop this. No more guilt. He couldn’t change the past; he could only take care of the future.
“Then one time when I passed out, I woke up to find myself free. He let me go… but why? Why me?”
“I don’t know, sugar,” Duncan said. “But we’ll find out. We’ll find him.” Then he was a dead man.
God, he had fucked up and nearly lost her. Duncan didn’t try to stop the tears from drifting down his face; she deserved to see his pain, his regrets.
“Forgive me, baby.”
“There is nothing to forgive. I don’t want you to feel guilty, and I don’t want you to see me as a victim. That was three years ago. I’ve healed—well, mostly. Obviously I could never heal the fear of letting myself submit again, of letting someone tie me up and flog me, because I only ever wanted to do that with you. But I’m no longer the frightened girl I was. Don’t cast me as a victim.”
“You’re not a victim, baby. You’re a fighter. I want to fight with you. I want to be there for you. I want to help you heal all the way and protect you while you do.”
“I’m so glad you didn’t let me push you away.”
“I’m surprised you don’t have more scarring, from what I saw…” he trailed off.
“Saw?” her voice trembled
“I saw the police photos.” He ran his hand through her hair to soothe her.
Laken let out a shuddering breath. “I did what I could to minimize the scarring. Most of those cuts were shallow and those scars faded over the first year. For the other scars I use a special cream.” She placed her hand on her side, where the worst scar was.
He removed her hand and kissed the puckered skin. “This is just proof of what a fighter you are.”
She smiled at him.
“Once this is all over, the two of us are going to go away. I need you to myself for a while.”
She smiled tremulously. “That sounds good. But I’ve got a shop to run and I—”
He placed his hand over her mouth. “Let me take care of that. Just say yes. Say you’ll come away with me. Say you’ll trust me again.”
“I do. I trust you.”
“I don’t know that I deserve it, but I’ll take it and I will spend every day living up to your trust. You’ll never regret giving it to me.”
“I know.”
Chapter Thirteen
Duncan clasped his large hands around her waist and lifted her down from his truck. The pleasure he’d given her last night seemed to have only increased her need for him. She’d spent the whole day thinking about him, wondering about what tonight had in store.
Taking her hand, he led her to his house. He’d insisted they come back here tonight. He had a security system so she hadn’t argued.
Today was Tuesday. They had until Saturday for her to grow more at ease with submitting to him. For her to trust him enough to let him put her in situations which filled her with fear.
There were moments when she experienced complete terror at the idea. Not because she didn’t trust Duncan, she did. But what if this guy got close to her, what if he touched her? She didn’t know who he was, he could be someone she trusted, anyone.
She bit her lip as she waited for Duncan to check through his house. What if something went wrong and Duncan left her while she was tied up. Logically, she knew he would never do that but the part of her that didn’t work on logic couldn’t help but fret.
“Laken?”
She looked up to find him standing in front of her.
“What’s wrong?”
She forced a bright smile onto her face. “Nothing at all. Well, other than the fact that I’m standing here waiting while you search for the bogeyman. Did you check the closets? How about under the beds?”
He gaze grew firm as he sighed. “Strip and put your clothes away. Go to the bathroom if you need to, then you will join me in the kitchen.”
She nodded and ran off, grateful to get away from his too-piercing gaze. He didn’t need her to start freaking out on him. It wouldn’t take much for Duncan to pull the plug on this. He wasn’t sure she could do this and she needed to show him that she could.
Even if she wasn’t so sure herself.
She stripped then used the bathroom, taking a moment to just stare at herself, to calm down and bring her shields back. When she had some semblance of control she walked back into the kitchen. Duncan placed a pot of rice on the stove.
“Can you chop up those veggies for me?” he said.
They worked in silence, cooking up a stir-fry and some fried rice. Duncan spoke about his day as they ate, sharing some funny stories. Jake had put him permanently on days until they caught this guy. Something she was grateful for. There was no way she would feel safe by herself at night anymore.
They washed the dishes then Duncan turned to her. “You ready to talk about what was frightening you earlier?”
“Well, the mustard carpet in your hallway is pretty damn frightening. Do you think it was always that color or that the previous owners had some cats with severe stomach issues?”
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