The Darkness Within Him: The Untwisted series

by Alice Raine

  ‘Are you mocking me?’ Nicholas demanded, his tone incredulous and utterly terrifying, before he stalked off to the cupboard again and reappeared a few seconds later. I was about to apologise when I saw the thing in his hands. Forget the possibility of fainting; I think I very nearly died on the spot.

  Standing behind me, Nicholas leant down and spoke next to my ear. ‘I will not tolerate sarcasm from my sub, Rebecca. Open your mouth.’ His voice was silky smooth but I’d seen the thing in his hands and I panicked, clamping my lips firmly shut and wondering if maybe I should just walk out now.

  As ridiculous as it was, though, I wanted to prove to Nicholas that I was strong enough for this. I’d asked him to show me his darker side so if I walked away now I’d always feel weak and be left wondering what would have happened. No, damn it, I must try and stay, I decided firmly. Ninety-nine per cent of me trusted that Nicholas wouldn’t push things too far with me … and if I’m being truthful, deep down I was curious to see what else he had in store for me.

  I should also admit that for whatever perverted reasons, I was also aroused by all of this. I could feel the moisture between my legs and even as my brain was telling me it was wrong, I knew my body was disagreeing.

  ‘You wanted me to treat you as my submissive, Rebecca. Well, this is what would happen if someone defied me. Either use the safeword to stop this, or open your mouth, it’s your choice. I won’t ask again,’ Nicholas’ tone was so icy that my arms erupted in a sprinkling of goosepimples.

  Holy shit. Breathing was suddenly getting more difficult. I was having a hard time registering what I should do. This was wrong on so many levels but I was unbelievably turned on, and for whatever reason, I didn’t want him to stop. What the heck was wrong with me? Surely it was sinful to want this? For now, however, I stowed my confused emotions away to consider in more detail later when I was alone. Maybe I’d need to read a few home psychiatry books tomorrow to work through my issues.

  Taking a deep breath for courage, I unclenched my teeth and, in a moment of immense bravery, I opened my mouth as he had asked. I was fairly sure I heard Nicholas gasp in surprise behind me – apparently he had been expecting me to use the safeword and chicken out, and even through my fear a tiny part of me felt pleased that I’d shocked him.

  Recovering his composure, he reached around and placed a small white ball in my mouth, just a little smaller than a golf ball. Attached to the ball on both sides was a leather lead, or collar I suppose, and I felt him lift my hair and fasten it at the back of my head, effectively gagging me. Actually, the ball was small enough that I could still breathe through my mouth but it pushed my tongue down and made talking impossible.

  It briefly flitted through my brain that I wouldn’t be able to use a safeword now, but before this thought even had time to settle I felt Nicholas’s breath flutter across my neck as he leant down to speak to me. “You might find it tricky to safeword now Rebecca, so if you wish me to stop at any time just raise your hand and the scene will immediately cease.” His lips brushed my skin as he spoke and goose-pimples raced across my heated flesh, making me shiver with desire. Nicholas' sudden gentleness, combined with the fact that he was still giving me a way to stop things helped me relax, and I felt my muscles slacken as I rested back on the chair again. It was strange, given the situation I felt oddly calm and peaceful, it seemed that I must trust Nicholas a whole lot more than I had realised before.

  ‘Finally, you are subdued,’ he murmured, perhaps more to himself than me, frustration evident in his tone.

  He came to stand before me, producing something from behind his back and holding it out for me to see, causing my already heightened breathing to speed up to the point where I was practically panting.

  Holy fuck! It was a …. a thing I had never seen before. He must have had it tucked in the elastic of his pyjama trousers because I was sure he hadn’t been holding it a second ago. I definitely would have noticed that in his hand.

  For a second, I thought the object was the “paddle” he’d offered me use of in my flat a few weeks ago because the handle was similar, but as he let it drop down I saw it was completely different. In his hand, Nicholas held a stout handle but hanging from the handle were lots of thin strips of material. Looking closer, I could see leather, suede, and a few strands that looked rougher but were an unfamiliar material to me. The way he was holding it made it look a lot like a cheerleader’s pom-pom, with all the thin strands hanging down limply, but I was guessing that wasn’t what this was.

  ‘This is a flogger,’ he stated calmly, looming over me dressed only in his thin navy pyjama bottoms and somehow looking both scary and sexy as hell. I drew in a shaky breath. Well, that had eased my curiosity. It was a flogger; the name didn’t leave much to the imagination, did it?

  ‘Regardless of what you may initially think, this can be used for both pleasure and pain, Rebecca. If you do as I ask without hesitating, it shall be used for pleasure; if you disobey me or break any of my rules, I will use it to punish you. Do you understand?’

  Again, his voice was low, steely and laced with an authority that for some reason thrilled me to the point where I was almost quivering.

  I nodded numbly, but my eyes were still focused on the flogger. It looked harmless hanging there, but I was fairly sure those little, thin strands would sting like a whip if he wanted them to. The thought made me shudder but I wasn’t sure if it was through fear or excitement.

  Good God, what dark path had this man led me down that I was now starting to see these things as acceptable, potentially pleasurable even? I blinked several times to clear my mind, unable to focus on the internal conflict in my brain and knowing that I needed to keep my wits about me right now.

  ‘You asked me to show you this side of me – remember that, Rebecca,’ Nicholas reminded me as he stalked toward me with the flogger hanging at his side.

  ‘Stand up, walk to the dresser next to the bed, and hold on to the edge,’ he instructed shortly, so I did, just like a good little sub.

  One of his hands snaked around me from behind, splaying across my stomach and pulling me against him so I could feel his erection digging into my lower back. Apparently, Nicholas was enjoying himself. Then he used a knee to push my legs further apart into a more braced position.

  ‘Keep holding on to the dresser,’ he instructed briskly, as his hands pulled my hips backwards even further, so I was bent right over, facing the drawers. As I leant over, I noticed that the gag in my mouth was starting to make me salivate rather excessively and I had to concentrate on swallowing regularly so it wouldn’t dribble from my mouth. What an unpleasant device it was.

  ‘So far you are doing well for your first time, Rebecca,’ he conceded hotly at my ear, ‘but you have defied me once by speaking without permission. You need to learn not to question everything. I am going to punish you briefly for disobeying me, then pleasure you immensely,’ he told me in a calm but utterly suggestive tone.

  Oh boy, punish then pleasure me? What a heady combination. I tensed all over from a cocktail of lust and fear and against all sensible reactions felt myself moisten further between my legs. Jeez, I was such a freak.

  ‘Relax your muscles,’ Nicholas instructed me in a whisper as he gently rubbed his palm over my bare backside. ‘If you relax this will be pleasurable, as opposed to painful.’

  I tried to relax my muscles, I really did, but when you know someone is about to spank you – no, not spank, flog you – it becomes rather difficult to get your muscles to comply with your brain. Maybe he sensed that because I became aware of something soft trailing over my back in a swirling sensuous pattern. It was almost hypnotic and made my muscles soften instinctively. It didn’t feel like his fingers any more. Suddenly, a stinging blow bit into my buttock and I realised it was the first strike of the flogger. Holy shit! I bit down on the ball in my mouth and moaned at the unexpected pain that was warming my skin.

  ‘Shhh. Relax, baby,’ Nicholas said softly, his voice sudd
enly seeming calmer now. And there was that word again, “baby”; it seemed so reassuring from his lips, even in this bizarre situation. As I felt his body shift away, I knew what was coming next and tensed in anticipation for the next blow. It rained down again but this time on my other buttock. Nicholas kissed my back before moving away and hitting me with the flogger once more. Kissing me and hitting me, how messed up was this? He continued with his blows for about a minute until both my buttocks were burning and starting to sting more than a little.

  Expecting another hit on my backside, I was taken by surprise when Nicholas flicked the flogger up between my parted legs and caught me directly on my sex. Fuck, that stroke had been much more gentle and unbelievably erotic. I moaned against the ball in my mouth, then, drowsy with the remnants of my fear and growing pleasure, I hung my head and clutched at the top of the dresser for support.

  ‘Was that a moan of pleasure or pain, Rebecca?’ Nicholas asked softly. ‘Shake your head if you wish me to stop, nod it if you would like me to hit you between your legs again.’

  I considered it for the barest of seconds and then, feeling almost ridiculously pervy, I raised my head and nodded it.

  A rumbled noise escaped from his chest, possibly one of approval, and the flogger flicked up against my sensitive flesh again. Jeez, if he did it much more I would probably come standing up, and I wasn’t sure my body could take that after all our exertions this evening, morning … whenever.

  ‘Remove your hands,’ he instructed, and then, gripping my hips, Nicholas shifted me to the right so I was now leaning over the bed, my hands sinking into the soft mattress. Behind me, I heard the soft noise of his pyjama bottoms falling to the floor and I felt a thrill of expectation running through my groin.

  ‘You have behaved yourself very well, Rebecca. I’m going to remove your gag. No speaking, though,’ he reminded me firmly.

  I felt his hand tangling under my hair, unfastening the collar, but once again, he took me completely by surprise, because as that hand was busy at the back of my neck I felt something begin to prod gently at the entrance to my vagina. What the heck? It wasn’t his fingers; it was wider than that, and made of a strange material, cool and slick against my damp, throbbing flesh.

  The ball-gag, complete with copious amounts of saliva – ugh – fell free from my mouth onto the bed. Nicholas’ hand slid to my shoulder, gently tugging me back onto the object between my legs so it buried itself inside me in one smooth movement.

  ‘Ahh,’ I moaned softly at the pleasurable intrusion, then, as I felt a tickling on my upper legs, I realised it must be the handle of the flogger that he was pushing inside me. It was surprisingly thick, but I could not concentrate on its dimensions as Nicholas began to move it in a circular motion inside me, occasionally brushing my clitoris with the pad of his thumb.

  ‘Fuck …’ I murmured. I didn’t mean to speak out loud but as the adrenalin rush from earlier began to pass, the sensations in my body were almost too much to take.

  Even though I had broken his “no talking” rule, I heard a low chuckle from Nicholas. Apparently, his earlier anger had subsided and he seemed more like the Nicholas I knew again, which helped me to relax.

  ‘Oh I intend for us to, Rebecca. In fact, I’m going to fuck you so fast and hard you won’t know if you’re coming or going. But you will be coming, I promise you that,’ he muttered darkly. ‘That’s why I’m getting you nice and wet with this, although I have to say you already seem rather lubricated. You appear to have enjoyed your flogging; perhaps you and I are more alike than I first thought.’

  Oh boy. My insides clenched at the thought of him taking me fast and hard, and I very nearly came around the damn flogger handle, wishing Nicholas would replace it with himself instead.

  Having eased the flogger out of me, Nicholas spent several minutes rubbing his hands across my back and my behind, almost as if massaging me, then turned me to face him. ‘Lie down on the bed. Bend your knees up and place your feet on the edge of the mattress,’ he instructed me. I knew I wasn’t supposed to, but I risked a glance at him and saw his strong features were glowing. A grimace crossed his face as he caught my gaze so I quickly lowered it again and positioned myself on the bed as he had asked.

  Unravelling the chains that were wound around each bedpost – how had I not seen those earlier? – he silently attached a soft leather cuff around each of my ankles. I followed the path of the chains with my gaze and saw they ran from my ankles up over a bar across the top of the four-poster bed before falling to the other side where Nicholas stood, holding the loose ends.

  A dark smile played on his face as he slowly and deliberately lowered his right arm, pulling the chain, which shocked me by raising my left leg off the bed so it was at a right angle to the rest of my body. I gasped in surprise as he quickly followed suit with the other chain so I was lying flat on my back with my legs straight up in the air.

  Apparently, I was the puppet and he was my master. How very apt.

  I could hear rattling as he fastened the chains off. He then placed his hands between my knees and opened my legs just as if he were opening a pair of curtains. The chain slid across the bar at the top and I was now lying with my legs splayed and my lower back slightly raised off the mattress. I had never felt more exposed or vulnerable.

  ‘What a beautiful view I have from here,’ Nicholas murmured, his eyes taking in the skin of my legs and my sex, no doubt parted, wet and in full view for him.

  How embarrassing. I flushed and closed my eyes.

  ‘Agh!’ A sharp blow from the flogger across the back of my thigh had me opening my eyes wide and looking up in surprise; that one had really hurt.

  ‘Don’t close your eyes, Rebecca, and don’t look embarrassed,’ he admonished me firmly. ‘You are beautiful. Be proud.’ Easy for him to say; he’s not the one giving a grand display on the bed, I thought sourly.

  He flicked the flogger lightly across my belly in sweeping motions, causing my muscles to clench. From the look of amusement on his face, it must have done funny things to my down below area too. These strokes were soft and teasing, nothing like the ones to my backside earlier, and I found myself almost craving the next sweep.

  Having teased the flesh of my midsection Nicholas suddenly delivered a flick of the flogger to my right breast and I felt the nipple tighten harder under the delicious contact.

  ‘Ahhhh ….’

  ‘Do you like that?’ he murmured and I blushed. Why did it feel so wrong to admit it?

  ‘Yes, sir,’ I replied softly, not embarrassed by having to use the stupid title for him any more.

  ‘I thought so.’ Lazily, he brought the flogger down on my left breast with similar results. ‘You are full of surprises, Rebecca,’ he observed, managing to strike both breasts simultaneously with another gentle blow.

  Back at ya, I thought wryly, but then all thoughts were lost as he flicked my nipples again and I arched my back off the bed, feeling the delicious onset of an approaching orgasm.

  I was left feeling utterly bereft when Nicholas stopped with his attentions but I quickly realised his intentions as he took hold of my hips and remained standing between my legs.

  ‘You may look at me now,’ he instructed softly, and I raised my eyes to his for the first time. I watched as he gripped my hips and pulled me onto his straining erection in one slow, gentle slide. With my legs hanging from the bedposts, Nicholas had full control of the movement. After gazing at me for several seconds, he set about a pounding rhythm of strokes that had me gripping the sheets as I tried desperately not to close my eyes.

  Our flesh slapped together loudly as Nicholas drove himself into me relentlessly but after all his teasing, it didn’t take long before I exploded around him, my body pulsing exhaustedly. Pounding into me several more times, Nicholas buried himself deep as I felt him silently empty inside me before collapsing forward between my legs and falling onto my chest. He didn’t break eye contact once through the entire time, although I did
notice his jaw was tense from his attempt at self-control.

  Holy shit, so now I had met Dominant Nicholas. He certainly wasn’t a man I’d forget easily, that was for sure, especially at the beginning when he had been so angry and, if I’m honest, terrifying. I was either crazier than I’d ever believed possible or braver than I gave myself credit for, I decided with a deep breath. Or perhaps a little bit of both.

  Somehow, I had managed to turn his anger around because by the end, he was much more like the Nicholas I knew. Well, it was official, I had survived my encounter with his dominant side; and apart from a slightly sore rear end and a very well exercised heart, I wasn’t any the worse for wear. Although I might walk a bit funny tomorrow after the three hard sessions he’d given me today. I’d never had so much sex in my life.

  After several minutes, Nicholas wordlessly eased himself from inside me, uncuffed my ankles, and then scooped me into his arms before carrying me back to his bedroom where the first rays of the sun were seeping through the curtains. Gently, he laid me on the bed before crawling up beside me, dragging the covers over us and pulling me against him.

  ‘Are you OK?’ he asked against my ear, concern filling his voice as he practically burrowed into my neck.

  Was I? I mulled it over; it had certainly been quite an experience … but yes, on the whole, I think I was OK. Apart from my behind, which still felt quite delicate, and was no doubt very pink at the moment.

  Rolling onto my back, I looked up and saw his wary gaze, mixed with that weird, vulnerable look again. Dominant Nicholas Jackson looking vulnerable was not something I could ever imagine getting used to. ‘Yes,’ I said finally, which was probably a bit less wordy than he’d been hoping for, but I was still unsure how to vocalise the thoughts running through my head about what had just occurred between us.

  ‘You’re very quiet, Rebecca … you’re not going to leave, are you?’ he whispered and I almost laughed out loud because the difference between dominant, “stick this in your mouth and like it” Nicholas, and terrified, “please don’t leave me” Nicholas was unbelievable. What a frigging contrast!