Raising a hand to brush back a strand of hair brought to light how badly she trembled. This first real punishment would tell her so much about his temperament and his control. For the first time, fear dried her throat.
Dawdling wouldn't make things easier on her, so she stripped out of her outfit, folded it neatly on the counter, and headed to the living room. A bank of windows, yellowed with light, greeted her first thing.
“It's reflective glass. Nobody can see inside.”
She whirled at the sound of his voice and found him leaning against the bar separating the kitchen area from the living room. At one end of the room, a living room group had been arranged. At the end where Theo stood, it should have been a dining room. However, the huge St. Andrew's cross and the spanking bench spoke to a different use for the space.
He sipped from a glass and eyed her speculatively.
This time she dropped to her knees and clasped her hands behind her back in the most supplicating position she knew. Part of her wanted to thank him for his assurance, but the sane portion of her brain cautioned her against speaking without permission. She didn't fear the punishment would be worse. She feared he wouldn't punish her at all. While she was fully aware she hadn't been all that submissive in her heart, she still didn't want this fledging relationship with him to end. True submission was an earned gift, not something a Dom got just for being a Dom.
Nobody moved for the longest time. The ticking of a clock counted the long seconds in the silence of his disapproval. She couldn't glance up to find out if he'd moved from his position at the counter. Theo moved quietly on a normal day. Even if he stomped, she might not hear him over the pounding of her heart in her ears.
She started when he gathered her hair into a ponytail and secured it out of the way.
“I'm not going to deduct strokes from your reward. However, you will not be allowed to come tonight. I will whip you and use your body for my pleasure, but you will receive no release. Do you understand?”
Implicit in the question was an acceptance of her punishment. The paradox of the submissive being in charge had always appealed to Darcy's sense of irony. She accepted the punishment without reservation. “Yes, Sir.”
“What color?” His voice had dropped to a soft, barely discernible caress.
“Green, Sir.” She answered in a strong voice so he would hear her consent. He could play with her pussy for hours without letting her climax, and she would live on the glorious feelings he aroused with the whip. It wasn't a bad trade-off.
“Give me your wrists.”
She lifted her hands, and he locked a pair of handcuffs around each one. A glance showed they were both the quick-release kind. Silently she thanked him for maintaining that level of thoughtfulness. Though she would be bound, she could get out of it in a heartbeat. It didn't really count as true bondage.
He tugged, and she rose to her feet. They headed toward the cross. Darcy had never been tied to a cross before, though she'd seen other submissives strung up on the heavy wooden X. Though she and Scott hadn't played in public, they'd attended a number of parties where they'd played the parts of the voyeur. She stepped up on the platform. Theo secured the other end of each cuff to the restraints already attached to the cross.
“Test the quick releases.”
Darcy angled her fingers and groped for the button. It took a little maneuvering, but she was able to push it and free herself on each side. In this position, there would be no accidental release. Part of her wished he would push her by using the leather cuffs that dangled from chains attached to the top of the cross, and then she shoved the thought away. She'd discovered the submissive side of her nature with Scott. Developing desires she hadn't felt when she was with him seemed disloyal, as if she was leaving him behind. She wasn't sure she was ready to do that.
“If you pull too much on these, it'll take the skin off your wrists or leave horrible bruises. Hold on to the leather cuffs. You're going to need something to hang on to.” Theo closed the cuffs around her wrists again.
A blindfold covered her eyes, not that she could see anything except the stabilizing beam of the cross and the bare wall. Silence and the absence of stimulation followed. In the lingering nothingness, her clit heated and pulsed as if sending signals of invitation to Theo. He didn't respond.
Darcy liked stimulation. She liked being petted and stroked, whipped and fucked. She could live with not coming, but she didn't like not being touched in any way. A whimper of protest escaped before she could stop it.
Nothing happened. Finally Theo touched her back lightly. She sucked in her breath, and her whole body twitched. “You're not much of a screamer unless you're coming, so I'm not going to gag you. However if you want to be gagged, you only have to ask. I'd rather not have the neighbors notify the cops about the screaming woman being tortured next door.”
His chest brushed against her back, and she realized he had removed his shirt. She wanted to lean into his warmth and feel his arms around her body, supporting and lending strength.
The soft heat of his breath feathered over the sensitive skin of her neck. “And make no mistake, sweetheart. You will be tortured.”
It was already torture, and he hadn't even begun. Softness and affection were her downfall. They could reduce her to a sobbing mass faster than any combination of whips and clitoral stimulation ever could.
“Spread your legs. I won't tie them to the posts unless you move them.”
She braced her legs shoulder-width apart. Something cold and wet smeared over her anus, and a plug pushed inside. Though it wasn't long, it was wide enough to stretch her uncomfortably. She struggled to not squirm it into a better position.
“This is to remind you about your upcoming punishment.” His hand cracked against her ass, shoving the plug a little deeper before it settled back where it had been. If he sought to punish her with anal stimulation, he was in for a rude awakening. It only made her hornier. Crap. With the ban on climaxing, that might very well be part of the punishment.
“I'm going to warm you up before I deliver your reward. Any questions, sweetheart?”
God, he smelled good. With the impairment of her vision and tactile abilities, her senses of smell and hearing had become more acute. “I'm not allowed to come during the reward, am I, Sir?”
“No. No coming tonight for you.”
“What if I do come, Sir?” She whispered the question, terrified of the answer.
As if he sensed her insecurity, he chuckled and drew the falls of a whip down her back. “That won't be a problem, sweetheart. You're going to prove to me how much you can take.”
Oh Lord. She prayed for strength as she felt open air behind her. He had stepped back.
Falls landed near her right shoulder. Taking his cues from earlier sessions, he wasn't going to start with a heater and work his way to the painful stuff. He had begun with a flogger and a heavy hand. As the first streaks of burning pain receded, the whip struck again.
Theo set a steady rhythm, and he didn't pause between licks to tease or torment her in other ways. Darcy appreciated his pure approach, and her knees weakened at this show of dominance. Oh, but she loved a merciless man.
Before long her back, ass, and thighs were on fire. When being whipped, it was natural to flinch or try to move away from the pain. She hadn't moved an inch or made a sound, and she gloried in her accomplishment.
Theo traced the handle of the whip across flesh that was no doubt bright red. At first, she thought he was writing his name with the white streaks that would result at the small pressure, but the only letter she could make out was the o, and it wasn't at the end of the word.
Since he didn't play a guessing game and she didn't have permission to speak, his word remained a mystery.
“I'm going to pause after the first one. If you feel you need to be gagged, tell me then. Otherwise I'll expect you to be as quiet as you are now.”
“Yes, Sir.” Her answer came out strong and even. She felt calm
and centered. A blaze burned over her back, and she couldn't be happier.
A whistle, louder and more ominous than anything she'd ever heard before, reached her ears a split second before a resounding crack filled the room. The pain didn't register for several seconds.
It started slow, a tingling on her left ass cheek to let her know where he'd struck. Just when disappointment at the lack of pain registered, her nerves kicked into high gear. Searing pain sucked the oxygen from her lungs and all thoughts from her head.
“Do you need a gag?”
Darcy shook her head. “No, Sir.” The words came automatically, generated by her ego and not common sense. Keeping quiet and still during this would take a concentrated effort. She didn't know how long she would be able to keep it up. It was a good thing he'd only promised ten lashes. Twenty might have her squirming and screaming.
For one moment, she yearned for the freedom to squirm and scream. Then the feeling fled as the second lash fell high on her right side. Before that pain made itself known, the lash licked against her tenderized flesh three more times.
That heady, floaty feeling came over her. She tried to resist it because it took her to the place where she had no control. Seizing on the only concrete things in her reach, she counted six, seven, eight, and she tightened her fists around the leather cuffs that weren't holding her in place.
The ninth lash found her knees buckling, and the tenth struck when she fell. Awareness slipped away. She knew where she was, but she didn't know if Theo had meant to send her to subspace. It might ruin his planned punishment. She struggled to embrace the calmness, not the senselessness.
But the single tail took those choices away from her. She floated on a sea of nothingness. Ahead, blurred images waited. She knew what they would look like in focus, but she was powerless to keep from approaching them. Slowly, grainy images of her fears came into focus. Scott, alive somewhere, locked away in a dank and dark place, beaten and bloody, waiting for her to rescue him. The police, going through her things, laughing and making crude jokes, judging her and finding her guilty of something she hadn't done. Next to that, the images of working for Victor and public speaking didn't seem so bleak.
She came back to find her face pressed to Theo's shoulder. He held her on the sofa. He'd wrapped her in a blanket, and his arms cocooned her from the world. She snuggled into him, her fingertips grasping desperately at his chest.
Hooking one fingertip under her chin, he gently urged her face to his. Without saying anything, he feathered a kiss across her lips. The slow, reverent strokes betrayed a depth of feeling she didn't expect. It humbled her greatly. Resisting orgasm during her punishment became about pleasing him and not about an egotistical proving of her endurance.
When the kiss ended, he pushed her head back to his shoulder. She relaxed against him for a little longer, but she feared falling into such a calm state that she fell asleep. “Thank you, Sir. I'm ready for my punishment.”
“Are you, Darcy? I plan to push you hard. After what just happened, I'm not sure you can handle it. Perhaps we should wait until tomorrow.”
Okay, maybe it was still a little about her ego. Her head jerked up, and she nailed him with her most resolute stare. “I can handle anything you dish out, Sir.” She didn't want to know what had happened to give him doubt. Judging by the rawness of her throat and the stuffiness in her sinuses, she'd cried like a baby.
She made a mental note that he didn't like when she broke down. It had disconcerted Scott too. That was how she learned to have such iron control in the first place.
His jaw ticked a few times, and she thought she heard his teeth grind. Finally he nodded. “Okay, take a minute in the bathroom to wash your face, and then get your ass back out here.”
Walking the short distance to the bathroom proved challenging. The single tail had left blazing trails down and across muscles that hadn't benefited from a regular beating in almost a year. She sucked strength from those sensations.
Once she looked into the bathroom mirror, she realized why Theo had sent her here instead of cleaning her up himself. He wanted her to have a moment to reflect on how completely ten lashes had broken her down. The image that greeted her in the mirror bore little resemblance to the cocky, clear-eyed woman who had undressed in there a half hour earlier.
She wet a washcloth and put it over her puffy, bloodshot eyes. Holding it with one hand, she blew her nose with the other. After several minutes, she removed the cloth. Some of the puffiness was gone. Turning to see what the single tail had done to her back, she found the redness from the flogger almost faded. Ten perfect lines, each about two inches long and an eighth of an inch thick, occurred at regular intervals from her ass to her shoulders. He'd placed five on each side.
Running a fingertip over one produced heat that shot straight to her pussy. While she had no desire to revisit the place where ten lashes drove her, she wanted to feel this part of it again. Then she shook her head. This kind of emotion made Theo uncomfortable.
Three deep breaths later, she returned to the living room. Theo leaned against a window, staring out at the city below. He'd dimmed the lights considerably. She knelt in the center of the room and waited.
When he turned to acknowledge her, she couldn't make out enough of his face to gauge his emotions. He approached and stopped in front of her, holding out a glass of water. “Drink it.”
She downed the whole thing, suddenly aware of how thirsty she'd become. “Thank you, Sir.” She handed it back.
He took it and regarded her with narrowed eyes. “Give me your color.”
“Green, Sir.”
The long expelled breath told her he'd hoped for another answer. “Darcy, are you sure?”
She wasn't the only one who could use the safe words. “If you can't trust me to know my colors, Sir, then perhaps you'd better end this.” In her head, the sentiment had been more like a challenge. Spoken, they came out as an ultimatum. Theo tensed.
He set the glass on the windowsill and circled to stand behind her. “Perhaps you're right. Let's start with you telling me exactly how your back feels.”
The coolness of his light touch on a welt made her gasp. Electricity zinged to her pussy. “There's a fire burning that shoots straight to my clit when you do that.”
“Touch your clit.”
Her inner thigh twitched, and her ass clenched. She realized he'd removed the plug when he held her so tenderly on the sofa. Knowing he would want to check out her back, her hands had been resting on her thighs to give him access. It took all her willpower to move one hand to where she could reach her clit.
Breathing deeply and evenly, she pressed one finger into her slit. Theo knelt in front of her and watched. She drew her finger up and down, slowly rubbing her labia.
He reached forward with both hands and pulled her lips apart to give him an unobstructed view. A half smile crooked his lips. “Touch the tip, sweetheart. That little hard peak is begging for your attention.”
She licked her lips and wished he would forget about her clit and just fuck her mouth again. His attention didn't divert, so she slid her finger to the tip of her clit. It felt so fucking good. The muscles in her cunt pulsed in anticipation.
Theo shifted his hands so that he held her open with the thumb and forefinger of one hand. The other slid over her shoulder to caress the welt he'd created there. A whimpering moan tore from her depths, and she had to bite her lip to keep from begging.
“You're biting your lip, Darcy.”
Before she could respond, he closed his mouth over hers and sucked her bottom lip deep into his mouth. At first he soothed the sting with his tongue. He set the rhythm she echoed with the swirling of her finger around her clit. He pinched a welt on her back as he sucked hard at her lip. The sharp pain brought tears to her eyes, and she knew he'd left a hickey on her lip. Bastard. Now she'd have to wear dark lipstick for a week.
She gasped. When he pulled away, he regarded her with a smirk, and she realized he had
been playing nice for the past week. The demanding man she'd met at the conference reappeared. She liked him. She liked the softer him too, but this one was a better Dom.
Abruptly he pulled her finger away from her clit. “Stand up.”
Once she obeyed, he took her hand and led her to his bedroom. She stood next to him as he peeled out of his slacks and shorts, admiring the way muscles corded his arms and legs. They bunched and moved in his back and abdomen as he bent and straightened. She hadn't seen him work out yet. He must fit it in during the workday.
He climbed onto the queen-size bed and settled himself in the center with his legs slightly apart. Waving his hand in the direction of the dresser, he indicated she should open a drawer. “Get a condom and put it on me.”
It looked like he was pointing toward the top right drawer. A search revealed various sex toys in unopened packages, some of which she really liked. Others had toys she hadn't yet tried. He'd gone shopping for her. Just as warm fuzzies threatened to envelop her heart, he broke the spell. “Those aren't mine. They belong to my buddy who owns this apartment. He's in Mexico until next month. The drawers on the left are mine.”
That top drawer yielded clean underwear and a monster package of condoms. She grabbed several and closed the drawer. Throwing all but one on the nightstand, she climbed onto the bed next to him and ripped open the foil wrapper.
“Wait. First lick my balls. Keep those hands behind your back.”
Oh, the trust was gone. Leaning down, she darted out her tongue for an initial taste. The precarious way she bent over him gave in to gravity, and her shoulder crashed into his thigh. It would have been so much easier to use her hands for balance.
He didn't help her regain her balance, and he didn't comment on her clumsiness. He slapped her ass hard over one of the welts. Tears came to her eyes, and cream rushed to her pussy. The scent of her arousal filled the room. She spread her bent knees a little wider for better balance and leaned down again.
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