At His Mercy

by Tawny Taylor

  “Then we stop.”

  “And then what? What if I discover that none of this is for me?”

  “We talk.”

  Could it be so simple? She tells him it isn’t for her, and he says that’s okay, that he doesn’t need it. She doubted it.

  Clearly, this bondage stuff had been a part of Kyler’s life for a long time, a significant part. He had invested in the furniture, was a member of some kind of group. Gosh, it wasn’t just a part of his life. It was a part of him.

  He’d already told her he wasn’t going to just walk away from it, not for any woman. Not for her. Besides, she couldn’t ask him to do that. Any more than she’d expect him to ask her to quit reading or stop loving art.

  She’d have to walk away. Call him a good friend, but accept the fact that they weren’t meant for each other, regardless of the chemistry they had.

  It had been such a short time. What this was between them was still very new, and she completely understood the risks of taking things too fast. Yet just the thought of saying goodbye to Kyler again made her insides ache. In a very bad way.

  Maybe it wouldn’t be necessary.

  She sensed a lot rode on this first time in his dungeon. Perhaps, even, a chance for love.

  Kyler had said he’d sensed she was a natural submissive. How he knew that, she had no clue. She could admit her fantasies had always been about powerful men, surrendering to their control. Being stolen away by a time-traveling Viking or hauled from a burning building by a burly firefighter.

  But how many fantasies were better left to the imagination?

  “We’ll start slow and easy. I’ll explain everything beforehand. And if you want me to stop, say rose petal.”

  “Rose petal. Got it.”

  He took her to the one wall that didn’t have a piece of furniture affixed to it. Instead, two long shelves stretched the entire length of the wall. Arranged neatly on the shelves was a wide array of wrapped sex toys. Some she could identify. Some she couldn’t. Beneath the bottom shelf hung a variety of whips, leather restraints, feathers, and paddles.

  “I want to let you know that your safety is my primary concern. Only new, sterile toys are kept in my dungeon, and my whips, restraints and paddles are sanitized after every use. I am regularly tested for sexually transmitted disease, even though I have not had intercourse with anyone in over two years. During play parties, I act as a Dom or Master only. There is no sex during play. I want you to understand, I only have intercourse when I am in a committed relationship.”

  Wow, what did that mean? Did he want to have intercourse with her? Did he consider them “in a relationship”? Maybe he was ready to be vulnerable again. Trust her.

  She felt genuinely honored.

  “You understand now, don’t you?” He took her hands in hers. “Regardless of what I said, it’s never ‘just a fuck’. Not for me.”

  She thought she might cry, hearing those words.

  “Especially with you.”

  “Why me?”

  “I can’t say for sure. It’s not one thing, I guess. It’s lots of things. The chemistry between us is a part of it, for sure. But there’s more.” He hesitated for a moment. “Maybe it’s crazy to say this, to feel it. But the truth is, it hurt when things weren’t right between us.”

  She knew the feeling.

  They were both crazy, going this fast. Letting their emotions carry them away like this and indulging in what might be a dangerous game with their hearts.

  Once again, she felt like her back was against the wall, although not literally. Kyler was asking her to dive into the deep end, take a chance, let go of all her fears…with him.

  She combed her fingers through the leather strands of a whip, letting them slide through her fingers.

  “A whip’s bite can sting, but its caress is very gentle. This is a cat-o-nine tails.” He lifted the whip from its hook on the wall. “I know I have no right to ask this, but trust me.”

  She nodded.

  Kyler walked around to Elena’s back, slid a hand around her side, and pressed his entire length against her backside. Little tingles and zingy miniblazes swept up and down her body. “Kneel down, Elena.”

  Supported from behind, eyes closed, she slowly sank to her knees, settling into the position Kyler had placed her in earlier.

  She was so nervous and scared it felt as though her heart was trying to beat its way out of her chest and the air in the room had suddenly been depleted of all oxygen. She gulped in each breath, shaking hands resting on her thighs. She instinctively flinched when the leather strips cascaded over her shoulder. The sensation was sensual, erotic, soft, like fat droplets of water striking her skin. Her body reacted. Her shoulders relaxed. The tightness in her chest eased. But the heat between her legs spiked higher.

  It was sexy, this anticipation, not knowing what would happen next. More thrilling than she’d ever imagined.

  Then it was gone, the teasing caress. And the next instant the thongs struck her back again, this time higher and a tiny bit harder. It didn’t hurt, not really. But it did catch her by surprise. She gasped and her back arched away from the whip’s stinging nip. A shudder of heat quaked up her spine.

  “How’s that feel, Elena?”

  How did it feel? Awful? No, not at all. It felt good. The skin of her back was warm, the sensation adding to an already confusing and intoxicating mix of erotic scents and sounds and feelings.

  “I-I like it.” She could hardly believe she was saying that. “I want more. Not harder. But more.”

  “This way.” Once again, he helped her to her feet, led her to the wall with a big cross-like structure affixed to it. He positioned her so she was facing the wall, arms out to the sides, legs spread wide. He fastened leather cuffs around her wrists and ankles and then hooked chains to each cuff, basically binding her spread-eagled. “You’ll enjoy it even more if you’re restrained. Remember, rose petal.”

  She nodded and gulped several times. Her mouth was as dry as sandpaper. Her heart was racing so fast she was dizzy. And she was sure her knees had melted. What was she doing here?

  So terrifying. So thrilling.

  The whip’s thongs cascaded down her back again, tickling her skin, down to her buttocks. The muscles in the small of her back clenched. Her sex clenched. And then every muscle in her body clenched.

  She was one tight ball of jangling nerves.

  When the teasing touch of the whip vanished, she grimaced and leaned forward, ready for the strike.

  Once again, it wasn’t as painful as she expected. A million little stinging nips, followed by a million more. She didn’t count the number of times he struck her, just closed her eyes and let the anticipation and wicked pleasure swirl through her, carry her away to a quiet place. She nearly wept when he stopped.

  “Please, more. Oh God, that feels wonderful.” She’d never felt so alive. Energy was coursing through her body in superheated surges. She felt as if she were ten times stronger than normal, and ten times happier. “I don’t want it to end.”

  “I knew you were a natural.” He smoothed his hands down her stinging skin. “Although I had no idea you would take to it so quickly.” He unfastened her ankles first, then her wrists. “Come here, my pretty little submissive.” She clung to him as he led her to the bench she’d been caught trying on for size the first time she’d entered this room. He helped her get positioned, fastened her wrists and ankles in the restraints and then knelt before her, just as she’d imagined.

  “I want you so bad, Elena. My balls are killing me. But I won’t take you yet. Not until you’re ready.”

  She was about to spontaneously combust. How could he think she wasn’t ready? “Please.”

  He shook his head and went back to the wall of shelves. When he returned, he held several wrapped toys in his hands and a tube of lubricant. “I want to go slow with you, but dammit it’s hard. Especially when I see that pretty little pussy all wet and ready for me. And your tight anus. Have you eve
r been fucked there?”

  “No.” Her pussy and ass clenched at the thought. She’d seen Kyler’s penis. It wasn’t small. She had to guess it would hurt to have him try to put it in her bottom.

  “Then I won’t try today.”

  A huge relief.

  “But I will teach you how to prepare yourself for me. How to train your muscles to relax so you can take me. Would you like that?”

  “I-I don’t know.”

  He looked her directly in the eye as he nodded. “I’m going too fast for you. I’ll slow down.” He unwrapped one of the toys, a slender, hard vibrator with a bullet-shaped tip, and smoothed some lubricant on the very top. “Today is all about your pleasure. How are you feeling now, Elena?”

  “Really, really good. Hot,” she added.

  “Excellent.” He twisted the base of the vibrator and her pussy once again clenched at the sound of its telltale hum.

  This was crazy, how every little sensation affected her body. Never had sex been so exciting for her. Never had every sound, scent and touch been so intense. She flamed at the smoldering hunger in Kyler’s eyes, the tension she saw in his rigid muscles as he moved. The scent of leather and man and her own arousal hung heavy in the air. Everything, from the room’s semi-sinister appearance to the tingling heat on her back, was like an aphrodisiac. Her natural responsiveness to all the sensations battering her system was amplified. Her body was so hot and tight she trembled.

  Release loomed close but just beyond reach. She wanted to close her eyes and throw herself toward the finish line. Or put her hands between her legs and caress away the throbbing ache in her tissues. But Kyler wasn’t about to allow either. She could see that.

  “Open your eyes, Elena.”

  She hadn’t even realized they were shut.

  His expression was dark, feral, so incredibly sexy. “You like being like this, powerless and under my complete control, don’t you?”

  He was so damn good at the controlling. “Y-yes.” Would she have felt safe to allow any of her previous lovers to play with her like this? To actually strike her with something that could no doubt do a lot more harm if he let it?

  No.

  Kyler clearly knew how to control the whip, and her body. And yet she sensed he wouldn’t use the power she so easily surrendered to him against her. Something wonderful was happening between them here and now.

  Trust built.

  Respect earned.

  Love sparked.

  He touched her labia, gently, with his fingers. Traced the seam of her nether lips from front to back. It was a deliciously teasing touch. Erotic and tempting, promising so many delightful possibilities. She arched her back, thrusting her breasts forward.

  Oh God, wouldn’t he touch her harder? Flick that fingertip over her burning clit. Thrust those fingers into her empty pussy.

  No. It seemed he meant it when he said he’d go slowly. Even though she was burning for completion, he wasn’t going to let her get there, not until he decided she should.

  What a fucking blow-your-mind hot way to drive a girl crazy!

  “Please, Kyler. I want you inside me.”

  “Not yet, sweet thing.” He slipped just the tip of his finger into her tight sheath and groaned. “When I get inside you, I can’t promise anything.”

  She really liked the sound of that. She tested the restraints holding her arms out to the sides, her ankles tight to the ends of the bench. They were fastened just tight enough to keep her from moving more than an inch or two. Definitely too tight to get a hand down between her legs and stroke her way to bliss.

  “You’re so fucking beautiful. Your body’s absolutely perfect. And your sweet cunt…I want to taste you again.” He leaned down and parted her labia with his fingers. His tongue darted out to shyly taste her slick folds. He groaned and she moaned. Her thighs tightened.

  “You taste so sweet. Oh fuck, Elena. I want to eat you for hours.”

  God, no. Please. Not hours.

  His tongue danced over her clit and she just about wept in gratitude. Little bolts of pleasure zipped through her body with every wet stroke. It was magic. But it ended much too quickly, long before she could come.

  She sagged against the wooden structure behind her, boneless and desperate and burning up. Tears slipped from beneath her closed eyelids. She wasn’t sad. In fact, quite the opposite. She was so happy her emotions overwhelmed her, spilling from her body in hot salty tears.

  He lifted his head. “Elena. Open your eyes, sweet thing. Look at how hungry I am for you.”

  It took Herculean effort for Elena to lift her heavy eyelids. Her gaze instantly snapped to Kyler’s intense and desperate one. The desire she’d seen in his eyes had become impossibly hotter. There was a wicked inferno simmering in those dark depths, the kind of heat that pulsed through her own body.

  He lifted his hand, brandishing the vibrator. “I’m going to put this inside you, but I don’t want you to come yet. You understand?”

  She didn’t want to understand. Nor did she want to obey him. Her entire body, from her scalp to the soles of her feet, was one big pulsating blob of desperation. But she nodded anyway, unable to do anything but obey.

  She just knew she’d be disappointed if she failed him.

  The vibrator inched into her slick passage, the electric buzz spreading out like ripples on the surface of a pond. With the buzz, came more tight, wet heat. More desperation.

  She was going to come.

  The vibrator slipped out of her pussy, and her head slumped forward as every muscle in her body sagged. She whimpered, caught up in the twitches that followed.

  Only a second more and she would have had release.

  “You’re ready.”

  Oh, thank God.

  She opened her eyes to watch him shed his black shirt and unzip his snug pants to push them down his narrow hips. His erect cock jutted proudly from a trimmed nest of dark curls. His testicles snugged tight to the base of his rod. A droplet of white pre-come glistened from the ruddy tip.

  He rolled on a rubber and slowly eased into her. They groaned in unison as he completely seated himself in her slick heat. “You’re so tight, sweet thing. So fucking tight.”

  He rested his hands on her knees, using them as leverage as he withdrew from her and then pushed back inside. This time, she didn’t let herself hide in the darkness, the swirls of colors behind her closed eyelids. She watched his beautiful body work. His shoulders bunch and bulge. The corded muscles of his arms tighten and relax. The planes of his stomach harden when his hips pushed forward.

  With every intimate caress of his cock, she soared ever closer to climax. And the erotic sound of skin striking skin as he fucked her harder only made her journey that much swifter.

  And then she was there and she couldn’t breathe. Her stomach cramped as she gulped in one shallow mouthful of air after another. There was a brilliant explosion, deep inside. Followed by bliss. Like hot honey. Pulsing through her chest, up her neck.

  Oh. My. God.

  She knew the instant Kyler also found release. He stopped thrusting for a single heartbeat, groaned her name, and then resumed fucking her, his thrusts sharper and harder than ever. Her body welcomed every sweet invasion, until he finally sagged against her, his slick chest sliding over hers.

  He kissed her eyelids. Her cheeks. Her mouth. Her neck. “I’m sorry, Elena. So sorry. I wanted to go slower with you.”

  She was so not complaining.

  “I wanted to taste every inch of your body. To play with these beautiful tits. Your soft stomach. Nuzzle your neck and nip your earlobes.”

  She smiled. Such sweet promises. “There’s always next time,” she quipped.

  “You betcha. And the time after that.” He withdrew from her, removed the condom and disposed of it. And then he gently helped her out of the restraints.

  She was shaking all over when he carried her to his bedroom down the hall and laid her on the world’s softest bed. Warm, safe and adored. It
simply didn’t get any better than this.

  If this was a dream, she never wanted to wake up.

  Chapter Six

  “Elena, wake up.”

  It took Elena about ten seconds to remember where she was, and another thirty to gather up the strength to open her eyes. Oh, she was so sleepy, and achy all over. It was a good achy, the kind that came from using muscles that hadn’t been tested in a long time.

  Kyler lay next to her, his torso uncovered, the crisp white sheets a sharp contrast to his tanned skin and dark features.

  “I don’t want to wake up.” She snapped her eyes shut, wishing they had more time just to be together, another day. Week. Month.

  Monday already. She hated Mondays.

  “Come on, sleepyhead. I want you to have a good breakfast before heading to work.”

  “Do I have time to eat? What time is it?” She lifted her heavy head and squinted at the glowing red numbers on the clock.

  “Yes. Breakfast’s the most important meal of the day. You’ll just have to make time.”

  “Oh my God! Is it really seven-thirty?” Now fully awake, she rolled onto her side. “I’ll never make it to work on time.” Nearly in a panic, she flung her legs over the side of the bed. “I have to get home, shower, change my clothes—”

  “Whoa, hold up there. You’ve got plenty of time. The office is five minutes from here. You don’t have to clock-in until nine.”

  “But I can’t go to work in yesterday’s clothes, and I need a shower.” She scrambled around the room, trying to find her discarded garments. She found them draped over a chair back. Her shoes. Where were her shoes?

  “Not a problem.” Naked, he caught her by the arms, completely halting her progress. “I had a few things delivered for today. I hope you like them.”

  “What kind of things?”

  “Shower first. Then I’ll show you.” He physically turned her toward the bathroom door and gave her backside a love tap, sending her from the room with a stinging bottom and big smile.

  She hesitated just inside the bathroom door, turning to say over her shoulder, “You know, I feel bad that you’re the one doing all the giving and I’m the one doing all the receiving.”