by Brandi Evans
She'd gone through her usual routine of cleaning the house after Raven had left. Katlyn would have followed that up by cooking dinner, but Maddox had told her not to cook tonight, that he was bringing dinner home. Jeff never brought dinner home, at least anything she could eat.
Maddox isn't Jeff.
She held onto the thought as the door swung open. Maddox carried two pizza boxes tucked under his left arm, a paper bag, and a bouquet resting atop. In his other hand, he juggled his briefcase and keys.
She rushed over and took the pizza boxes from him, Sarge padding along happily at her side. "Why didn't you ask me to come help when you texted?"
"Well, it was all easy sailing until I got up here and couldn't get my damn keys out of my pocket."
Chuckling, he dropped his briefcase to the floor, tossed his keys on the little table by the door, and kissed her softly. His tongue played against hers in a slow dance that had her heart rate climbing as quickly as her desire.
Careful not to send the pizza boxes tumbling to the ground, which Sarge would have thoroughly enjoyed, she wrapped an arm around Maddox's waist and pushed onto her toes to deepen their kiss. Why she'd felt anything other than complete bliss at his return home, she couldn't remember.
He pulled back and smiled hugely at her. "Now, that's something worth coming home to."
Butterflies swarmed in her stomach. "I'm glad you—oh my god." She placed her free hand to his cheek and turned his face to the left. "You have a black eye. Did someone hit you?"
"Uh, yeah, but it was nothing." His gaze slid from hers, and a possibility she didn't like unfurled in her mind.
"This morning's nightmare…" She waited until his eyes again met hers. "Did I hit you?"
"It was my fault, Kat. I got in the way of your elbow."
"I hit you?"
"It's okay." He nipped at her bottom lip. "Tonight's a night for smiles only." He nibbled on her earlobe this time. "And orgasms, hopefully."
She'd hit him hard enough to bruise him, and he was brushing it off like lint from his sleeve? "Maddox, I—"
"Kat, sweetheart, do I look upset? Even the tiniest bit."
She shook her head. He really didn't.
"Besides, even if I had been upset—which I wasn't—what happened afterward more than made up for it. But, if you want to apologize that way again, I wouldn't say no."
Relief washed through her, and she pulled him into an awkward, one-armed hug. "As many times as you can handle, Sir."
"Challenge accepted."
After one more lingering kiss, he released her, took the pizza boxes, and handed her the flowers. The blooms were a colorful rainbow of kinds, shapes, and sizes that ranged the color spectrum. There were orange ones and purple ones, bright pinks, reds, and oranges, too; she even swore one was neon yellow.
She buried her face in the blooms and drew in their sweet, earthy aroma. "I love them. Thank you."
"When I saw these, all bright and colorful, I thought of you and knew you needed them."
Emotion tightened her chest. Aside from the period at the very, very beginning of hers and Jeff's relationship, no one save for her parents had ever bought her flowers. And when Jeff had brought her flowers, he'd always had an ulterior motive. She hadn't known it at first, but over the years, she'd caught on. It was Jeff's version of the carrot and the stick, but eventually, there were no carrots, only sticks. But Maddox… she'd hit him, and he'd brought her flowers.
No, Maddox most certainly wasn't Jeff.
She pressed back to her toes for one last kiss. "I'm gonna go put these in water right now!"
She hurried to the kitchen, the pitter-patter of feet following her, both the human and canine variety. She'd cleaned and re-organized Maddox's kitchen, so she knew he had no vases. He did, however, have a couple of quart-sized mason jars that would look simply stunning with the bright, colorful blooms. By the time she'd set the jar and the bouquet on the bar, Maddox had sat opposite her. He didn't speak, simply watched as she unwrapped the filmy plastic wrap from the flowers and spread it open. He remained silent as she retrieved a pair of scissors and cut the band holding the stems together.
She eyed him as she snipped the first stem. "What are you looking at?"
"You. Smiling. I like it. You get this cute wrinkle at the top of your nose."
Self-consciously, she touched the spot. "Jeff said it made me look ugly."
"Yeah, well… he's a giant fuck-face."
Her stomach flipped, flopped, and neither spoke again until she'd finished the task.
She took a single step back and admired her unexpected gift. "It really brightens up this space, don't you think?"
"Yeah, I do."
But when she glanced at him, she noted he wasn't looking at the flowers; he was looking at her. It was the most beautiful way anyone had ever told her she lit up a room, and she fell a little bit more in love.
He held a hand toward her. "Come here. I've got another present for you."
"Maddox, you didn't have—"
"I know, but I wanted to."
When she stepped around the edge of the table, she spotted the paper bag on the seat beside him, sitting on the pizza boxes.
Without taking his gaze off her, he pointed to the bag. "Those are for the scene I want to perform with you tonight."
She swallowed hard, liking where this was going, even as it scared her a little. This fear, however, was the kind she craved: fear of the unknown, of willingly giving herself over to a lover, of accepting pleasure she had no control over. This was the kind of fear she'd once felt when offering herself to a Dom.
Maddox's features hardened, severe but not harsh. "You asked me to be your Dom, and I want to be your Dom. That hasn't changed, but I've had some time to think about it once the shock settled. And I'm even more determined to keep from pushing you too hard, too fast, so like I said this morning, the name of the game is slow. We'll take this in baby steps so that I can judge your reactions. If there's a resurgence in panic attacks or nightmares—anything like that—we back off and reassess. Understand?"
Reassess, but not stop. She could work with that. "I understand, Sir."
"Good, because I want this, too." He drew a fingertip along her carotid artery to her collarbone and then teased his way to the center of her chest. "I want you, Kat. That hasn't changed." He teased his finger down, down, down to the valley between her breasts. "That said, we do this my way or not at all. And by "my way", I simply mean the speed and the pace of the BDSM elements. You will still have your safe word. Are you amenable to that?"
"Yes, Sir," she answered, voice breathy and foreign to her ear.
"Good." He pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose. "Now, go to the bedroom. When I get there, I want to see you sitting naked in the center of the bed, waiting for me…"
Chapter 14
Maddox forced himself not to rush as he took Sarge out for his last nature call of the night and then filled his food and water bowls. While the dog chowed, Maddox checked the locks and engaged the security system. He even put his phone on "do not disturb", so they'd have no interruptions for the next several hours, not unless they were absolute emergencies.
Speaking of interruptions, he knelt beside Sarge. "Kat and I will be quite engaged for some time. If I were you, old man, I'd stay out here until things go quiet, okay?"
Sarge stopped eating and spared Maddox a glance. If Maddox didn't know any better, he'd have sworn understanding reflected in the animal's eyes.
"Good then. We understand ourselves."
Sarge nodded—he fucking nodded—and then promptly returned to his dinner.
Maddox gave the old cop a good stroke from head to tail, grabbed the paper bag from where he'd left it on the barstool, and then headed to the bedroom. True to his instruction, Kat—his sub—sat cross-legged in the center of the bed. She'd taken time to pull the covers down, the dark blue comforter and sheets folded back neatly. The dark hue was the perfect backdrop for the pale-skinned beauty wai
ting for him, adrift on an ocean of cloth, and he had to take a moment to steady his breath.
His cock went rock hard. If he weren't so disciplined, he would have stripped down that very second and fucked her blind but getting his rocks off wasn't the purpose of tonight's scene. Although, if all went well, he'd still get his rocks off. He'd play that by ear, though. Baby step by baby step, he'd inch her back into the lifestyle and see how she responded. Wanting something with the mind didn't mean the emotional self would react accordingly.
The part of the brain responsible for fear could hijack the rest of the emotions quickly, and an emotional battlefield was all too often the result. He didn't want that for Kat. He'd seen similar scenarios in many of his abuse victims. They wanted to testify against their abusers, but they also wanted to go back to them. The brain was a fickle meat computer.
At the edge of the bed, he produced the delicate box he'd stored in the bag and crooked his index finger at her. Obediently, she pushed onto hands and knees and crawled to him. Her pert breasts jiggled with the movement, and her bare ass swayed. His dick ached to be inside her again, but his inner Dom had a firm hand on the reins.
When she reached him, she sat in a kneeling position, and he handed her the gift, wrapped in simple butcher paper. What the simple-looking wrapping concealed, however, was far from bland.
She tore the paper away much too slowly for his liking, as if she purposely wanted to drive him mad.
When she freed the treasure—a neutral-colored box with a pair of manacles shaped into an "R" and an "F" carved on top—her eyebrows knit together. "What's this?"
He touched the manacles. "It's the logo for the club I'm a member of: Restrained Fantasies."
"Oh." Her throat worked, but he didn't think it was with fear, more like facing the unknown.
"I'm not comfortable taking you there yet, so I decided to bring a little of the club to you. After you finish opening it, I'll explain."
With a nod, she levered the box open at its hinges. Two burgundy tassels, connected by a cord of about two and a half feet, sat twisted inside. She reached for the material and then pulled her hand away as if the cord was a snake about to strike.
He gripped a tassel by one of its ends and lifted it so that it un-coiled. "These hang along the platforms inside the club, and the platforms are one of my favorite places to play. Each one's suspended from the ceiling by four thick chains, which make great anchor points to tie sweet, willing subs."
She swallowed, her throat working, but when her eyes met his, excitement played in the light blue hues. Oh, fear still hid there, but he could work with that.
"While I'm not ready to take you to the club proper, I wanted something physical from the club here tonight while we played, linking the two places in your mind."
He folded the rope so that he held both tassels in one hand. He teased the strands over her left nipple until the peak went rigid, and goosebumps spread over her skin. To his delight, she leaned farther into the touch, an invitation if he'd ever seen one, so he rewarded her submission by doing the same to her opposite nipple.
Her breathing lost regularity, becoming shallow as the repetitions increased. She drew her bottom lip between her teeth, but she kept her eyes open and on him. The intensity of her gaze made him feel as if she'd dropped him in lava, and heaven help him, he never wanted that to change.
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Before we get started, do you have a preferred safe word?"
"No, Sir," she said. "The first time I was ever with a Dom, we just used the party's safe word: red. I've used it ever since."
"Would you like to change it, something new for this new direction in your life?"
She pondered his question for a long moment. "What about blue?"
He hadn't had an inkling what word she might choose, but he could certainly say he hadn't expected that. "Blue… as your safe word?"
"Yes, Sir. I equate that color with you and being with you is my safe place."
She couldn't have shocked him more if she'd have produced a knife and stabbed him through the heart. The blue-star special: the code phrase he'd given her the first time they'd met. The blue Dallas PD T-shirt she'd slept in the first night in his apartment. The blue sheets and comforter she'd slept in every night. And, of course, blue, as a nod to his profession.
He dropped to a knee before her, took her hands in his, and one after the other, brought them to his lips. "You humble me, kitten." And she did. It had been a long time since any sub had.
His memories shifted to another time and another sub, a sweet innocent newbie dressed as a sexy kitten. She'd been so scared, but she'd put her trust in him. Oh, and the way she'd responded to him, he wished all his subs responded to him so passionately. She was the reason he'd begun calling all subs kitten. He only wished—
Kat's eyes widened, snapping him back to the moment.
He took her face in his hands. "Kat, what happened?"
"Nothing," she said quickly, too quickly.
"Don't lie to me. If we don't go into this with complete honesty, then we don't go into it at all."
"You're right. I know that, but it really is nothing, Maddox." She closed her eyes as if trying to force away a memory of her own. "It's just, I had another Dom call me kitten, and hearing you say it just made me think of him. It wasn't Jeff if you're worried."
Actually, he hadn't been worried about that; he'd noted shock in her eyes, not fear.
She pressed a palm to his cheek. "But I don't want to think about him tonight, not when I'm naked in front of you and wanting you so much."
She spoke the truth. The shock was gone, and only need remained.
For both of them.
He pushed to his feet and slowly unbuttoned his shirt, watching her watch him. There went her bottom lip disappearing between her teeth again.
"Would you like me to call you something different?" he asked.
She shook her head. "You may call me whatever you want, Sir. I won't be surprised next time."
With a nod, he teased the tassel along the valley between her pert tits. "Hold out your hands to me, kitten, wrist over wrist, palms down."
She obeyed.
He used the cord to secure her hands. The binding looked complicated, and in a way, it was. But its complexity was also its blessing; with one good tug on the right thread, he could have her hands free. He wouldn't tell her that, though. He wanted to see how she handled this minimal binding, as it and his words would be the only restraints he'd use tonight. They were just testing the waters.
"Now, lie on your back, kitten. Center of the bed with your legs open wide for me so that I can have unfettered access to this right here."
He cupped a hand over her pussy and dipped two fingers inside her. She was already wet and ready, precisely what he liked to see in his subs. The fact his sub was Kat only made things better.
Keeping his fingers right where they were, he grinned at her. "Well, kitten, what're you waiting for? Move."
Her eyes widened, and then, her lips curled. Oh yeah, she understood.
With slow, careful moves, she eased onto her back and scooted to the middle of the bed. He knelt on the mattress and moved with her, and when she finally stilled, his fingers were still inside her even wetter cunt, precisely as he'd planned. He rewarded her submission by slowly sliding his fingers into her, out, back in. Okay, he sort of rewarded her. He kept his movements too slow to be anything but tortuous.
He had to ease away from her. The things he needed for the second part of tonight's test were still in the paper bag from Restrained Fantasies but seeing her open to him like this was too much to move away from so quickly. So, he'd take a moment, just a moment, to indulge himself in the sight and the feel of her.
"Arms above your head, kitten."
Her obedience was immediate—but so was her joy. Sir liked seeing her like this. She'd worked that out after their first time together, and she liked knowing that seeing her like this put that look on his f
ace. She, just by being his, made him smile.
This need to please as she was being pleased was a rusty concept after so long with Jeff, but Maddox… oh, he wanted her. The knowledge was the best aphrodisiac she'd ever had. Then again, what he was doing with his fingers was damn amazing, too. If he showed just a little attention to her clit, she'd be gone.
He pushed from the bed, leaving her wanting. She had her mouth open to call him back, the words on the tip of her tongue, but she caught them and pulled them back. That was the thing about submission. You submitted. Otherwise, what was the point? And she wanted to submit to Sir, wanted to see where tonight took her—and them.
He removed something from the paper bag he'd brought home, and her eyes went wide when she saw the remote-controlled vibrator. This one had offshoots for clitoral and anal stimulation. Only the thick shaft would be inside her, but all her neglected erogenous zones would get plenty of attention. She wasn't sure she could survive that, but she'd take the chance.
He held the control in his left hand and the toy in the other. "This is your other present, kitten. You're going to fuck yourself with it while I watch you do it."
Oh. Wow.
He tapped the tip rhythmically against her mons as he continued. "Tonight's game is all about obedience. You'll be the one using the vibrator, but I'll be telling you exactly what to do. At first, anyway. I'll take over eventually, and then, you'll just have to take the pleasure I force from you. Understand so far, kitten?"
"Y-yes, Sir."
"Good."
He changed the angle and slid the silicone between her folds. As he held up the remote control, he gave it a flick. She gasped as the device vibrated to life against her already sensitive sex. It wasn't even inside her yet, and her hips were already moving. She couldn't help it. She craved more contact.
"I selected this vibrator for you, kitten, because it has multiple places that vibrate. Also, I wanted to make you squirm, which I already see you're doing."
"I want you, Sir. A lot. I won't apologize for that."
"Nor do I want you to."