Hard Rhythm

by Cecilia Tan

  “I dunno about that. I think some people are desperate to be understood.”

  “Even those people might still be afraid, though…” I kept my voice from quavering, but it was probably obvious to him I was talking about myself. “…that once people figure them out, they’ll stop liking them. They’ll decide they’re not worth it after all.”

  Chino pulled steadily on my hands until I was almost nose to nose with him, our hands in front of our chests as if we were about to start some kind of formal dance. He slipped one of his around me and rocked me back and forth, not to the beat of the soft techno coming from the living room but to the gentle sway of some song in his head. “I want to know you better, Maddie, and it’s not so I can hurry up and decide you’re not worth it.”

  I leaned my head on his shoulder, letting his words sink in. I felt like the better I knew him the more I liked him, too, but why was it so hard to believe that he was going to stay interested in me? Because no other guy had? “Do you want to ask me something? I’ll answer any question you want, you know.”

  He ran his fingers through my loose and wavy hair. “No, sweets, I don’t think an interrogation scene is on the agenda. After all, twice during scenes I’ve asked you what was going on in your head and you’ve refused to answer.”

  He was right and the knowledge that I’d shied back from whatever was brewing in there embarrassed me. “I wasn’t…doing it to disobey you.”

  “I know. But how about we do an obedience scene.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I want to find out if following orders actually turns you on or if I need to tie you down to really get a rise out of you.” His lips twisted in challenge and his eyes sparkled with amusement.

  “Okay, sure.”

  “And what’s the safeword?”

  Right. He was being very responsible. “If I don’t want to do something I should say I’m nervous.”

  “Good. And if you want to stop right away?”

  “Then I’ll say that.” The truth was I was still nervous not knowing what we were going to do. He was right—I didn’t fear what was going to happen physically. Been there, done that. It was not knowing itself that was the hardest.

  He stepped back from me then and said, “Stay still.”

  “Will there be a punishment if I don’t obey?”

  He seemed wickedly amused. “Do you want there to be?”

  “What? No. I mean, whatever you want. I’m just asking.”

  He held his hands palm up and I put mine into them automatically. “Maddie,” he urged, “if you have a lot of questions, now would be the time to ask them, before we get started.”

  “How can I ask questions if I don’t know what you’re going to do?”

  Chino’s cheer was undeterred. “How can I answer them if I don’t know what I’m going to do either? Go with the flow, Maddie. And do what I say. That’s the test.”

  “Oh.” Of course. “You didn’t say it was a test.”

  “Well, now I did. Don’t you feel every scene is kind of a test? Some of them are a test of endurance, some of skill, some of love. This one, I told you, is a test of obedience.”

  “And what happens if I pass? Or fail?”

  “If you fail I get to punish you by demanding the filthiest hot sex imaginable. And if you pass, I get to reward you with the filthiest hot sex imaginable.”

  That made so much sense I was surprised I was that concerned over success or failure. “So it doesn’t matter.”

  “It matters because if you fail, you’ll be disappointed in yourself.” He let go of my hands and stepped back again.

  And you won’t be disappointed, too? I wanted to ask, but he was trying to tell me to “go with the flow” and me grilling him was starting to feel like too obvious a stalling tactic. Because that’s what it was. I don’t know why I was so self-conscious. It wasn’t because I was naked. I was used to that.

  “Go with the flow,” Chino said, and took another step farther back from me. “First order. Stay. Still.”

  I was about to nod my head when I realized that would be against the order. Shit, obedience was tricky. I didn’t move a muscle and he nodded in approval. “Good. Right like that. Like you’re a robot and you can’t move until I give you the next order.”

  His approval was like a sip of cool water on a hot day, a momentary pleasure, but then it slipped away as he went into the main house through the patio door. Huh. Was he just going to leave me standing out here? Was it that kind of mindfuck? I felt the night air moving against my skin and where my hair brushed my shoulder blades it began to tickle. My nose itched. Did I dare reach up to scratch it? He was probably watching, right?

  Chino emerged a few minutes later with Lion, each of them carrying a drink. Lion’s appeared to be a margarita. Chino’s was a curved glass of some amber liquid, cupped in his fingers. Scotch, maybe?

  They sat down not far from me. “Maddie, walk to the far side of the pool, and then back to your spot,” Chino said.

  I turned and walked to the far side of the pool, trying to figure out what the exact right spot was to turn around. How far should I go? The pool was mostly rectangular with one curved end and a hot tub built off to one side. I decided making a full turn around on the other side, clearing the corner, was enough, and then I walked back to my spot and waited for the next order.

  “Do it again,” Chino said, “but this time a sexy walk. Walk like you want every guy in this place to be drooling by the time you get back.”

  Okay, I could do that. I retraced my steps, but I used the runway walk, putting each foot onto the imaginary balance beam in the center of my path, my hips swiveling. I swung my head, shooting sultry glances this way and that. Sakura and Helene came out onto the patio and settled in ironwork chairs at a small table. They were wearing matching silk robes and I wondered if they were finished playing or if they were just taking a break.

  When I returned to my spot I resisted the urge to put my hand on my hip.

  Chino took a sip from his glass and then licked the rim. Watching his tongue sent electric shocks between my legs, the memory of him eating me seared permanently into my nerve endings. “This time, all the way around the pool.”

  Okay, around the pool. I can do that. I assumed he still meant with the sexy walk, so I pretended I was in a Beyoncé video. When I had just reached the corner by the hot tub, though, his voice rang out. “Stop. Freeze.”

  I stopped where I was, both feet on the ground but my hands splayed a bit to the side from the way I had been sashaying.

  “Three steps forward.”

  One, two, three. I held my pose again on the third step.

  “Good. Three more steps.”

  One, two, three.

  “One step.”

  One.

  “One more step.”

  One.

  “Now continue around until you return to your spot.”

  I walked slowly but freely once again and was amazed to find how aroused I was. All from being ordered around like that? From obeying him? From everyone watching? Or from the way walking naked was affecting me physically? My clit was swelling and as I walked, my folds rubbed it. I could feel myself growing heavy with damp desire, and the more people drifted out to the pool area to watch, the more aroused I felt. This was very different from being tied up and flogged; it was pushing buttons I didn’t even realize I had.

  Faisal and the puppy, whose dog mask hood was now hanging down his back, walked over to stand behind Chino and Lion, sipping drinks of their own. “So is she a sex doll? Is that the idea?” Faisal asked.

  “Basically,” Chino said. “She can only do what I tell her and she’ll do exactly what I tell her.”

  “Bend down and touch your toes!” Puppy yelled at me.

  I stayed still and tried my best to keep an oh really? expression off my face.

  Faisal clucked his tongue. “Weren’t you listening? She only does what her master tells her.”

  “Ju
st seeing if she was paying attention,” Puppy said, and sat down on the stone patio next to Chino. “Will you make her bend down and touch her toes? It fascinates me the way big breasts flop around.”

  Chino chuckled. “Are you getting tempted to try being bi for a while?”

  “No no no,” Puppy insisted. “I’m one hundred and ten percent gay. But I can appreciate the fascinating variations and wonder of nature.”

  “Hello! You can’t be one hundred and ten percent of anything,” Jill yelled from the open patio door to the kitchen. “That’s not how percents work!”

  “Nerd!” Puppy yelled back, to general laughter.

  “Madison,” Chino said. “Come closer. Stand right there.” He pointed to a spot a few feet in front of him.

  I marched up to the spot.

  “Lift up your breasts. Heft them. Show them off for this poor, deprived soul. Show him what he’s missing.”

  I did as he ordered, and the orders kept flowing. “Brush your fingers over your nipples. Make them hard. Roll them. Pinch them. Harder. Use your fingernails. Now tug them, stretch them.”

  “Can she lick them herself?” Puppy asked.

  “Let’s find out. Madison, try to lick your nipples.”

  I knew I could tongue my own nipples, but I normally never did. It just wasn’t something I enjoyed when I was pleasuring myself. But doing it for Chino’s pleasure, at his command, made it one of the most cheek-glowingly hot things I had ever done. So naughty. His free hand, the one not holding the glass, rubbed up and down the bulge in his leather pants as he watched me.

  Bry and Jill came out and pulled up chairs to join the growing group around Chino. “She’s a real beauty, isn’t she?” Chino said.

  “Easy on the eyes doesn’t even begin to cover it,” Bry said.

  “Madison. One step closer, turn around, and bend over to show us your ass.”

  I did that, my face burning but my arousal just as hot as they watched me like an animal doing tricks for them.

  “Legs apart, and reach back and pull your cheeks apart, too,” Chino said.

  So fucking hot. They were staring at a trickle of my juices; that’s how hot this was. I couldn’t even process why it turned me on so much. I used to get excited when I first danced burlesque, but it had quickly become a job and I’d concluded exhibitionism wasn’t my kink after all.

  Maybe I’d been wrong.

  “So look at these two gorgeous holes I have to choose from,” Chino said. “I’ve been in the back door but not the front. What do you guys think: Should I try the other one this time?”

  The debate broke out immediately. “My daddy always said the pussy is for her pleasure, the ass is for yours,” Bry said.

  “But he was wrong because I can come from ass-fucking,” Jill said with a giggle.

  “You can come from Bry looking at you wrong,” Puppy chimed in and made everyone laugh. “Personally I’m an ass man myself, not that you would’ve guessed that.”

  Faisal took an analytical approach. “Well, if you are trying to maintain a mystery, some depths literally unplumbed, then you could leave her vagina untouched.”

  “Well, it’s not untouched, if you see what I mean,” Chino said. “I’ve got no problem with putting vibrators or my fingers or whatever up in there, but no cock yet.”

  “Ah. Well, the metaphor still stands. If you wish to maintain territory for future explorations.”

  The pup’s master, David, still in his leathers, joined the group. “I would hold out until she was begging you to do it. That’s what I did with Puppy here.”

  “Four months of pure torture,” Puppy whined. “He’s like Scrooge McCock. Always making me work for it.”

  “With women it’s different,” Jill told him. “It’s more like a metaphorical wedding night thing.”

  Sakura joined the group then. “I never understood that. I’d never buy a car without taking it for a test drive first.”

  “Oh, no kidding. I mean, the whole female virginity concept is just there to oppress us anyway,” Jill said.

  “I think,” Chino said, clearing his throat a little, “that Madison isn’t letting her virginity or lack thereof rule her life. Or her lack of my cock in there.”

  My insides spasmed with desire and I was sure they all saw it, setting off another wave of heat to my face.

  “She obviously wants it,” Bry said.

  “And you obviously think there’s something special about it or it wouldn’t be the thing you’re dangling in front of her,” Jill added, coming around to Chino’s other side. “Fucking, I mean; not your cock. Every guy thinks his cock is special.”

  “My cock is special!” Bry and Puppy exclaimed in unison, causing all of them to crack up with laughter.

  Chino’s attention never wavered from me, though. “I guess you could say by holding out I’ve turned traditional sex into something special. Plus torturing her is a lot of fun. I think I’ll know when the moment is right to give in. Madison, stand up straight.”

  I straightened slowly, making sure to unlock my knees. Part of me was hoping he was about to tell me to come climb onto his cock. I was sopping wet, hungry for him, and willing to do anything he said. It would be perfect.

  “Come over to me.”

  I walked until my toes were almost touching his. Have I mentioned that Chino in leather pants but bare feet was sexy as hell? Leaning to one side in his chair he was the very picture of raw sexuality.

  “Kneel.”

  I sank to my knees, focusing on him and him alone, even though nearly all the other party guests were gathered around us now. He took a drink from his glass and then leaned close until his mouth touched mine. I kissed him instinctively and his hand at the back of my head encouraged me. Then his lips parted and his tongue and a heady flood of cognac swept into my mouth. I swallowed reflexively but he didn’t stop kissing me, alternately teasing and crushing my lips, suckling my tongue and invading with his.

  By the time he pulled away I was breathless and dizzy and not from the booze.

  “Can you make her come on command?” someone asked.

  “Maybe after I train her,” Chino said.

  “She seems pretty well trained to me.”

  “Thank you for saying so, but I think orgasm from voice command probably requires a software upgrade.” He stood in front of me looking very pleased. “Pardon me, folks, but the urge to wet my dick is overwhelming at this moment.”

  For a second I thought he meant he was going to take me somewhere private to fuck, but no, he unzipped his pants and revealed his cock to all assembled.

  “Mouth on the head, circle your tongue, lots of spit,” he said. His voice was calm, quiet, brimming with confidence that I was going to do as ordered.

  Because I was. It was so easy to do exactly as he said. I had stopped worrying about how I was doing and simply concentrated on what.

  His commands kept flowing and I realized he was directing me to give him his ideal blowjob. Interesting. I always thought guys preferred the “deep throat” method, which I’d never been super-good at but could do it if a guy wasn’t as large as Chino. With Chino it was going to take some doing, I thought, waiting for the command to take him all the way in, or not to gag, or something.

  That command never came. He liked my hand working the shaft while my mouth was busy on the head, and for me to pull on his ball sac firmly but not suddenly. He liked his crown nibbled with my teeth, the slit explored with the tip of my tongue, and for me to coat my lips with precome so he could kiss it off me.

  I felt a sudden throbbing in his balls at one point while I was pulling them and working the head with my mouth, and I thought for sure that meant he was coming. But no bitter flood burned my mouth, just another spill of precome. Chino leaned a hand on my shoulder, unsteady on his feet suddenly. “Maddie, I think these folks would like to see me fuck you.”

  Cheers and clapping ensued.

  “I’m reserving your orgasm for me in private, though,”
he said. “So I’m turning off your ability to come.”

  Huh, okay, I thought.

  “Turn around and place your hands on the chair.”

  He slipped aside and I put my hands on the patio chair cushion he’d been sitting on. The chair was made of wrought iron, sturdy and probably almost as heavy as me. I gripped the edge as his hands smeared my natural wetness around.

  “Okay folks, place your votes. Ass or pussy.”

  The voting was overwhelmingly for “ass,” and someone even brought him additional lube and a condom. I felt a tinge of disappointment, but it was washed away by a flood of desire and sense memories of the last time.

  “I’m going to try to make this ass-pounding last,” Chino said. “But honestly she’s so hot, I don’t know if I’ll succeed.”

  He lubed me fairly quickly, and before long he was pushing his way in.

  “Making it ache the way she likes,” he told them and I couldn’t hold back a groan. So good. Exactly the way I liked it. And him telling everyone made me feel like such a naughty girl; my face turned as hot as my pussy.

  Once the fucking began I lost track of how long it went on. Apparently not so long that anyone got bored of watching him drill me. Someone even changed the music from the thready techno to a pumping, loud, guitar-driven Nine Inch Nails song. And as Chino transitioned from giving a porn-star-worthy artistic performance—pulling his cock completely free sometimes to slide it up and down and then driving it back in, varying his rhythm and showing off his hips—to going like a steam-piston racing toward the finish line, people started chanting his name louder and louder, faster and faster.

  When he came we all broke into cheers and raucous laughter, me included. I just couldn’t help myself. It was like Chino had just had sex with everyone here simultaneously and as he came he raised his arms and pumped his fists in victory.

  * * *

  CHINO

  I sequestered Madison into our casita after the scene by the pool. She deserved an orgasm or three after that performance for sure. I lay her down on the bed and kissed her all over, starting at her toes and working my way up her legs, hips, tummy, tits, mouth. “You are the most beautiful, fantastic woman in the world.”