by Opal Carew
Nate unsnapped his jeans. To Corinne, the sound was like a gunshot in the silence. She jerked.
Nate unzipped then removed his pants. He wasn’t wearing underwear and his length sprang free. He was not yet aroused, but he soon would be. Just like Steven. Corinne whimpered.
Nate grasped her chin. “I want you to remain still while I fuck your mouth. Do not move.”
He brought his cock to her mouth. She parted her lips and braced for an assault that would cut her lips, bruise her cheeks and rub the inside of her mouth raw. As Steven had.
But Nate didn’t ram into her. He slid past her lips, over her tongue, stroking her tongue as he made his way inside and bringing the nerves there to attention. His solid weight was familiar. As was his scent. Every breath she took and every time she swallowed, she smelled and tasted him.
He moved deeper, all the way to the back of her throat, pulled out, then entered her again, rocking in and out of her in a rhythm that triggered memories of other times with him. Wonderful times. To her shock, her frozen body began to heat.
Nate withdrew from her and turned away. He went to the wall and again activated the switch there. The hook began to rise and any warmth she’d known was replaced by ice cold fear again.
Nate was not aroused. Her fault. Her throat constricted. Steven’s accusations about her lack of skill and her lack of desirability returned to her. She’d failed to get Nate hard. What price would she pay for that?
The hook raised her to her full height and then Nate halted its movement. He walked to her and stood in front of her, right in front of her so she was flush against him. With her hands fully extended above her, her breasts were thrust forward. Every breath he took or she took rubbed her nipples against his hard chest.
Steven had used her breasts to torture her. Corinne tensed, waiting for that awful, emptying pain. Nate looked into her eyes, holding her gaze, then stepped away.
He went behind her and gently ran his hand over first one buttock and then the other. Corinne stiffened. She hadn’t seen a bullwhip or a cane like the ones Steven had used on her, but she didn’t doubt that Nate had them. At any moment, she would feel one or both, and the pain would spread like wildfire across her flesh. But Nate continued to caress her gently, warming and stimulating her skin.
He kept one hand on her, touching her ass. With his other hand, he cupped her mound and inserted one finger. She was dry. She closed her eyes and turned her face away, not wanting to see what he would do about that.
Nate began to move his finger, brushing softly along her inner walls. He kept up the movement, rotating the tip in small circles. He stroked her clit gently, then removed his hand.
Before she could do more than notice he was no longer touching her, he crouched in front of her, parted her folds and licked her. He was going down on her . . .
Nate’s grip on her tightened fractionally then he swept his tongue across her folds again, licking her slit. He swiped his tongue over her clit in one quick caress then drew it into his mouth, and sucked. Corinne squirmed.
Nate went on licking and sucking her clit, gently coaxing her moisture. A small amount of liquid spurted from her. She moaned.
He regained his feet and inserted one finger into her again. This time, her sex clenched around him, drawing him deeper. Corinne moaned again and she moved her head from side to side, rubbing against her raised arms.
Nate added another sensation, he struck her ass—but with his hand. While Corinne was processing that it was just his hand on her, the pleasure radiated from the spot he’d struck, moving all the way through her.
He added a second finger then went on and on easing his fingers in and out of her and striking her ass. All the while, he continued to work her with his fingers, combining the sensations so she didn’t know where one began and the other ended. She panted. Trembled.
Nate moved away from her and to the wall. Again he activated the switch, but his eyes never left hers. Whereas before she’d felt stalked by those eyes, now she didn’t . . .
The hook rose again, elevating her until her legs were now completely off the floor. But where was the pain, that feeling that her arms would rip right out of their sockets? Instead of her arms bearing her full body weight, the harness Nate had fastened to her waist bore her weight and she felt no pain only a weightlessness, a freedom.
She didn’t understand any of this. This time in the dungeon wasn’t happening the way she’d expected.
The hook stopped rising. The added height brought her eye-level with Nate and an instant later he was in front of her again. He put his hands on her waist and gently gave her a little push so she swung away and then against him. At this height, her pussy was in line with his cock. Unlike earlier, he was now fully aroused, magnificently aroused, and when she came against him, his erection pressed against her core.
Nate pushed her again with the same result. Corinne gasped, anticipating the next push, one that would bring him fully inside her but Nate continued to tease her and himself.
Her fingers curled around the chain then began clawing it. “Please . . . ” She heard herself begging—begging for more.
While suspended in the dungeon, she was begging for more. Nate was confusing her senses. Rewriting the script in her mind that Steven had directed with such precision. Up was down. Down was up.
Nate took one hand from her waist and palmed the back of her head hard, crushing her mouth to his. As their mouths fused, he brought her forward sliding her onto his cock.
Over and over he slid her on him then off, driving her deep and then withdrawing.
His muscles strained. His grip on her head tightened. Inside her, his erection kicked and swelled impossibly large, stretching her, filling every part of her. Corinne’s sex rippled around him with each thrust.
Her core was now sopping. She was moaning and whimpering, her body convulsing.
Nate kept their mouths joined as tightly as their bodies. Their chests were heaving. They were both gasping, taking air from each other as she inhaled his breath and he inhaled hers.
“Come, Corinne.” Nate’s voice was rough, harsh. “Come now.”
Against her mouth, Nate mumbled something else, something she didn’t catch. She didn’t know if he was incapable of forming a coherent sentence or if was no longer able to comprehend one.
An instant later, it ceased to matter. He drove into her, and at the same time cracked his hand hard across her ass. Corinne screamed, her orgasm going through her with the force of a hurricane.
Nate didn’t stop thrusting or slow down but continued to drive into her. She took what he had and when his own release overtook him, he gave her ass another hard slap and Corinne went with him again.
Just as she started to come, Nate wrapped one arm all the way around her, then reached up with the other hand and released her from the hook, the cuffs and the chain. She dropped onto him, into his waiting arms.
Corinne began to shake. Tears filled her eyes and trickled down her cheeks onto Nate’s shoulder. But she wasn’t the only one shaking. Nate was shaking too.
“Corinne?” He eased back from her just enough that he could see her. His eyes filled with remorse and regret. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt you.” Softly, tenderly, he kissed her hair, her brow, kissed each tear as it fell onto her face. “I wanted you to know what suspension with me would be like. I thought once you saw that it was nothing like you’d experienced, you could begin to overcome your fear and the nightmares would stop.
“I wanted to replace your memory of that night in Steven’s dungeon with a good one of you and me so you’d know you never have to be afraid of me or of anything we do together. I would never harm you, baby. I’ll remove the hook. You’ll never have to see it again.”
Corinne blinked to clear a torrent of tears she couldn’t stop. A damn had burst inside her and everything was rushing out. “You were so hard tonight. So cruel. You frightened me so much.”
Nate closed
his eyes and when he opened them they were tortured. “It killed me to do that to you. To be that way with you.” His strength seemed to leave him. He lowered them both to the mat, with her on his lap.
That was why he hadn’t been able to get an erection until she was aroused too. She reached up and touched Nate’s jaw, now dark with his evening stubble. Her hand was shaking as badly as the rest of her. “You gave me what I expected and showed me it wasn’t real. You pleasuring me the way I need to be pleasured, you caring for me, you loving me, that is what is real.”
Nate cradled her face with both hands. His eyes burned into her. “I will always give you what you need. I will always love you.”
Corinne’s heart gave a hard thud. “I know.”
Nate’s arms came around her, tight and strong. More tears spilled onto her cheeks, but these were good tears. She pressed her face to his chest and let them come.
Chapter Thirteen
One Year Later
“Nate.”
At the sound of Corinne’s voice, Nate stirred. He was in his bed, on his side. His arms were around Corinne, his legs tangled with hers beneath the covers. Her breath blew softly against his chest.
“Nate,” she said again a little louder.
He grunted a response then released a long breath about to drift back into sleep. She shook his shoulder.
He opened one eye and glanced at the clock on the nightstand. He groaned. “Baby, it’s six a.m.”
Corinne smiled. “It’s Christmas.”
She looked so happy. Nate closed his eyes in profound gratitude. How different this Christmas was from the last one. Last Christmas had come and gone without either one of them acknowledging it.
One year had passed since the first time he’d taken her into the dungeon and suspended her. A tremor shook him as the memory of the terror he’d felt that night washed over him. He’d been terrified that he’d pushed her too fast, pushed her too far. That instead of helping her to overcome the nightmares, he’d only added to them.
He’d never questioned decisions he made as a Dominant, commands he gave, but he’d questioned himself, doubted himself that night. He’d been more afraid than he’d ever been in his life, terrified that he’d fucked up. That instead of helping her to heal, he’d broken her.
“Nate, are you all right?”
She smiled up at him again. How differently that night could have turned out. How badly . . .
The nightmares hadn’t stopped after that first session in his dungeon but she was better. After that, every time she woke up screaming, he took her there and suspended her. He’d hoped, over time, the good experiences with him would override the bad.
With each session, the nightmares came less often until eventually she stopped having them at all. Nate took in the fact that she was here with him and happy and brought himself back from that horrific place and to this perfect moment.
In a lightning-quick move, he rolled her beneath him. “So it is. Merry Christmas, baby.”
He kissed her long and deeply. His morning hard-on pressed between them. He would have liked to do something about that, to sink into her as deep as he could get, but she nudged him.
“Nate, we need to get up.”
He rolled away from her. She leaped out of bed then tugged his hand. An instant later, she was leading him into the living room, naked.
In her excitement, she hadn’t given him any time to put on any clothes, but the upside to that was she wasn’t wearing any either. She’d regained the weight she’d lost last year and now Nate’s eyes fixed on her beautifully round ass that swayed with each step she took.
Corinne’s hand tightened on his. “I can’t wait any longer to give you my gift.”
She released him then crawled under the tree. Ass in the air, she sifted through the presents they would deliver later today to his partners, to friends, and their children. While she went through the packages to find the one she was looking for, Nate fantasized about driving balls-deep into her sweet ass. Oh, yeah, he’d be sure to do that today.
Corinne emerged from beneath the tree, and held up one brightly wrapped package. Her face was glowing. Nate took the box she handed him, then shook it, unable to resist teasing her.
“Open it!” She put her palms to her flushed cheeks. “Now. Please!”
Nate laughed then kissed her. He unwrapped the gift then roared with more laughter. As far as gifts went, he couldn’t think of anything better. It was a selection of DVDs, all chick flicks, including the one she’d chosen the first night she fell asleep in his arms.
Nate cupped the back of her head and brought her mouth to his. “These are now my favorite movies.”
Corinne laughed. She drew back from him and walked her fingers down his bare chest and grasped his turgid hard-on. “Now, about this . . .”
Nate swallowed hard then groaned. “You’re killing me, sweetheart.” He leaned into her and she pumped him a couple of times. As hard as he was, as desperate as he was to be inside her, it wouldn’t take much more for him to come.
He covered her hand with his, stopping her movement. “I plan to be inside you a good long time but I want you to be wearing my gift when I enter you.”
Corinne’s brows drew together as if she were working on a puzzle. She smiled as she tapped her index finger to her lips. “Clothing? You want me dressed when you come inside me. You have my full attention.”
Her spirit and sass were back. Nate loved it. Loved her. He took her finger from her lips and brought it to his own, kissing the tip. “Wait here.”
He went into his bedroom to his nightstand and returned with one long rectangular box.
Corinne rubbed her hands together. “Ooh! I can’t wait to see what you want me to wear.”
He handed her his gift. Squealing, she tore through the brightly colored paper then opened the box. Inside was a thin, white-gold collar.
“Nate . . . ” Corinne’s eyes glittered with a wash of tears. Carefully, as if it were a Crown jewel, she removed the collar from the box.
Nate didn’t need to ask how she felt about the obvious mark of his ownership. It was there in her eyes for him to see. “I want every Dom to know who owns you.”
Corinne apparently stopped trying to hold back her tears and just them flow freely.
She pressed her face against Nate’s chest. “Put it on me, now. I don’t want to be without it a second longer.”
Nate secured the collar around her neck then brought her close again. Into her ear, he whispered, “There’s something else in the box.”
Corinne shook her head, her confusion evident. “Two gifts, Nate?”
“They go together, at least they do for me. I’ve loved you so long. I can’t imagine giving you one without the other.”
Corinne dug beneath the cotton then gasped at the diamond solitaire.
Nate looked into her eyes. “No Dom will ever work harder to make sure your every pleasure is fulfilled. No man will ever love you more than I do. Be my submissive, Corinne. Be my wife.”
“Nate . . . oh, God.” Her voice broke. Tears spilled onto her cheeks then her eyes filled again. “You’re everything I ever wanted in a Dom, in a husband but never thought I could have.”
Nate thumbed her tears from her cheeks then held her in his arms until her tears subsided.
She looked up at him. “Will you put it on me?”
After, Nate kissed her finger where his ring now sat, kissed her neck where she wore his collar, then brought her mouth to his in a long searing kiss.
Against his lips, Corrine said softly, “Now that I’m appropriately dressed . . .”
Nate drew back. Her lips were swollen from his kisses. Her nipples were hard points pressed against his chest.
“If it would please you, Master . . .” Corinne sank to her knees at his feet then lowered her eyes but not before her gaze went to the dungeon door. Her gaze filled with longing and her breath trembled with unmistakable arousal. “If it would please you, Master, wit
h your permission I would be of service to you. If it would please you Master, use me for your pleasure.”
She looked so beautiful in her submission she took his breath. Nate figured that was the way it should be since she already had his heart. “That would please me very much.”
Now that Corinne no longer needed it to purge her nightmares, the dungeon had become their playroom as Nate had always intended. She loved playing there.
Nate held out his hand. When she put her hand in his, he lifted her to her feet. Corinne linked their fingers and he let her lead him down the stairs.
# # #
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About Karen Fenech
USA Today Bestselling Author Karen Fenech writes erotic romance, romantic suspense, and short works of suspense. She is the author of the bestselling romantic suspense series, The Protectors. As of this writing, the first four books in the series are available:
Book 1: IMPOSTER;
Book 2: SNOWBOUND;
Book 3: PURSUED;
Book 4: HIDE.
Karen's novels and short suspense fiction have received critical acclaim. Her novels have been translated into several languages and have been released in audio by her publisher. When Karen's not writing or spending time with her family, she loves to shop, watch movies, and just kick back in a comfortable chair and read. If you'd like to know when Karen Fenech's next novel is released, sign up for her notification-only news at: www.karenfenech.com/books.html
Other Books By Karen Fenech
Romantic Suspense Novels and Novellas