As You Wish (3 page)

“What are you waiting for, Princess? Unless you want me to take them off for you.”

The implied threat was enough to make her shove down her panties and unhook her bra as she kicked them away. He walked around her, looking at her. Her breath shortened to a sobbing pant. Humiliating slickness pooled between her thighs. She stood with her legs clenched together to hide it. Her body tightened, her skin tingling with an electric charge. What was he looking at? He completed one circle and began another. The weight of his gaze threatened to make her climax. Would he punish her for that? How?

How soon?

“Please,” she gasped as he began a third circuit.

“Please what, Princess?”

Patricia whimpered. Tears threatened at the corners of her eyes. “Please, Ryan?”

He leaned over her shoulder, his breath featherlight across her ear, crackling along her cheek. “You don’t call me that now. You call me Master.”

“M-Master.” Patricia shivered. “Please, Master.”

He leaned over the other shoulder. “
Please, Master
what?”

Patricia bit her lip. What was she supposed to say? Her entire sexual history could be summed up in two words: drunken mistake. She’d only gotten this far courtesy of books, movies, and the fact that she didn’t have to make any of her own decisions. She licked her lips in a vain attempt to wet them, but her mouth was arid despite the water she’d just drunk.

“Do you want me to touch you?” he asked, leaning over her with a playful sneer curling his lips. “Do you think you deserve to be pleased?”

“Yes,” she whimpered.

He drew the back of his index finger down her cheek. “And whose pleasure is most important here, Princess?”

Patricia shivered. He stood so close she could see flecks of gold in his eyes, as if a fire burned in their dark depths. He had a smudge of dirt on his cheek below his eye. The gardener. Her master. Everything she wanted and needed right now depended on how pleased he was with her. Nothing else mattered.

“Yours,” she sighed.

“Remember that.” He leaned down and captured her lips gently. He tugged her lower lip into his mouth and traced it with his tongue.

She reached for him. Her hands skimmed his powerful biceps before he stopped her. Pressing her back against the post, he forced her hands behind it and laced her fingers together. His gentle assault on her mouth didn’t pause. He nibbled on her lip until it felt swollen, throbbing in time with the rest of her body. One-handed, he secured her entwined hands while the other roamed across her hip and up her stomach. Her nipples cried out to be touched, but he only traced around them. Arching toward him, she tried to shift his attention, but he moved back, still engrossed in her lower lip.

Then he stepped back half a pace, releasing her. She sobbed at the desertion but didn’t move.

“Well, Princess, it seems you are pretty smart. You learn fast.” He stood in front of her with his arms folded across his broad chest. “Now, I don’t want you to move from that position unless I tell you to.”

“Yes, Master.” She looked at him with wide eyes, waiting for his next command.

He smiled, brushing the backs of his fingers across her quivering belly. She moaned. She couldn’t have parted her fingers if she’d needed to. He had laced them together so well they seemed to be fused.

“So eager,” he commented. He dropped his hand to her thigh, allowing his fingers to brush the edge of the slickness there. “So very eager. You must have spent a long time with your legs crossed, Princess. Open up.”

Fresh humiliation flooded her cheeks, making her whimper. He pushed his fingers between her legs. Forcing her feet apart, she closed her eyes and turned her head so she wouldn’t have to see his face.

He chuckled in a dark, velvet tone. “No, no, Princess. I want you to look at me.”

She turned her head back toward him but could not make her eyes open. Her heart hammered. Her lips still felt swollen and tender from his assault, and her nether lips swollen and tender from the lack of one. When she opened her eyes, his fingers worked circles on the inside of her thigh. Low pleading moans rumbled through her chest. Her fingers clenched together behind the post.

“You can do better than that, Princess,” Ryan purred. “You were begging so nicely before. I like seeing that pretty mouth of yours begging almost as much as I like seeing it wrapped around my cock. Did you like being on your knees in front of me? Did you like being down on your knees begging to be allowed to suck my cock?”

“Yes.” Her body spasmed. She imagined what she had looked like to him. Kneeling on the concrete floor of the potting shed with her hair hanging around her face like a tramp, flushed and wet lipped. Her body shook again.

“You’ve never begged for anything in your life, have you?”

“Please touch me.” Patricia sobbed. She inched her legs farther apart. The rough wooden pole scraped against her back. “Please. If it pleases you, Master.”

“She’s so clever.” Ryan moved his hand from her thigh to lick her juices off his fingers. “And so sweet. Taste.” He touched her lips.

Patricia stretched forward to take it in her mouth. She wanted to close her eyes and savor the taste of herself on him, the rough texture of his calluses against her tongue, but he’d told her to keep her eyes on him. If she disobeyed, he would stop. She would do anything to keep him from stopping.

“Oh, you must just ache. Do you ache, Princess?”

She nodded, sucking hard on his finger as he pulled it free with a pop.

“I bet you would like it if I got down on my knees and kissed that little ache of yours.” He leaned closer until she had to press her head against the post to meet his gaze.

“Yes, Master,” she moaned.

He cupped her breast, brushing his thumb across her nipple, causing shock waves of pleasure to ripple through her. “That presents us with a little problem, because you see, I want to see your face when I make you come. I want you to be looking into my eyes so you know I’m the reason you feel so good.” He brushed her nipple again. “That is a problem, isn’t it? What do you think we should do, Princess?”

“Whatever pleases you, Master.”

“That is true, isn’t it? Of course, at the moment, I’m pretty pleased by the reaction a simple flick of the thumb is getting me.” The heat of his body swirled around her, carrying his rich scent as he leaned closer. “Maybe I’ll just play with your hard little nipples for a while. I wonder how long this will be entertaining. It’s like that old candy commercial. How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?” He studied her face as he traced his thumb around her nipple. “Unless you want me to stop. I could stop.”

“No!” Her eyes clenched closed against the shudder of ecstasy, and a helpless tear ran down her cheek. “No, please don’t stop. Don’t stop, Master.”

“Open your eyes, Princess. I want to see them when you’re begging me, remember?” he asked with a sultry growl.

He still loomed over her with a smirk playing around his lips. “I never thought I’d see the day when the pretty little princess would be shivering under my thumb.” A trickle of sweat ran across his temple. “You know, I’ve decided. I do want to see your face this time. Maybe if you’re a very good girl, someday I’ll make you lay down on that big oak table in the formal dining room and kiss that little ache of yours until you scream. How does that sound?”

“Please.”

“Please, what?”

“Please, Master.”

“I knew you’d like it.” He brushed his hand down her belly to cup the damp curls between her thighs. “Is this what you want?”

“More.”

He kissed the corner of her mouth. “More like this?” He pressed his callused forefinger between her nether lips. “You’re so hot. I think the Ice Princess might be melting. Are you melting, Princess?”

Patricia swallowed hard and nodded. Her entire body was melting into a pool, and Ryan had thrown in a live wire. She moved her hips against his hand, but he went with her and laughed.

“You are an eager one. You keep yourself still. This is my show, and I want to hear you beg.”

“Please touch me. Stroke me.”

He started rubbing his strong, thick fingers across her hard knot. “Like this?”

She moaned. “Please. Faster.”

“You’re so beautiful when you beg,” he whispered. His hot breath brushed across her cheek as he worked his fingers harder on her.

She rose up on her toes. Every muscle in her body tightened with the motion of his fingers. Then she released in a blissful, violent shaking that blotted out everything around her. Swept away in her own world, lost and out of control, but not caring for the first time in her life.

For a long moment she couldn’t think past drawing her next breath. Then it occurred to her that she was being supported. She opened her eyes and looked up. Ryan wore the old impassive expression. He had an arm around her waist, keeping her from slumping to the floor.

“You can let go of the pole now,” he said.

A stab of embarrassment lanced through her. A stupid reaction, considering what had happened between them, she decided. She feared she wouldn’t get her fingers apart. She jerked them, and they came away bent into a claw position. Ryan picked her up and carried her to the potting table. He scanned the room before snatching up a blue windbreaker hanging on the handle of a seed spreader and wrapping it around her shoulders. “Are you all right?”

“Divine,” Patricia sighed. Did she look as much like gelatin as she felt? She pulled the coat tight around her shoulders. It smelled like Ryan. What would she have to promise to get him to do that again?

“That’s a pretty good answer,” he said. “You took me by surprise. I wasn’t really ready for a full dom session.”

“Dom?”

“Domination and submission.” He stepped back, folded his arms across his chest, and looked at her with dark, hooded eyes.

“Oh.” The gentle but demanding Ryan she’d met today had left, leaving the old one in his place. She missed the new Ryan, and she didn’t like being naked in front of this one. She tried to gather the scattered remains of her pride but couldn’t quite find all of them. “I didn’t realize it had a name.”

He shrugged and reached behind her to pick up her clothes. “Well, I guess this puts us in an awkward position. You can’t fire me now, and I don’t want to quit. I’ll do the best I can to stay out of your way so you’re not embarrassed.”

The bits of her pride she had managed to pull around herself slipped away again. If he stayed out of her way, he would never touch her again. Never make her feel like this again. She couldn’t imagine the rest of her life without this. “Could we do it again?”

Pausing in the act of shaking dirt out of her lace panties, he met her gaze. “Again?”

Glancing down only aggravated the tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. “I liked it. I’ve never felt like that before.” She looked up. He was still staring at her. “Would you really make me lay on the formal dining table while you—” Her throat closed against the words. Nice girls didn’t say things like that.

For a long moment, he didn’t move; then he smiled. “I could keep it in mind. I’ve never eaten at a table that grand before.” He held out her panties.

“So, will you…meet with me again?” She clutched the panties. What would she do if he said no? Seeing him every day, knowing how much pleasure he could give her and knowing he wouldn’t ever do it again…

He paused for the space of several deep breaths. Was he considering her request or trying to come up with a nice way to turn her down? Dead leaves skittered through the potting shed door on a breath of hot air.

“There’s got to be some rules,” he said.

Patricia nodded. “Anything.”

Ryan captured her chin between his thumb and finger. “Isn’t that the word that got you in trouble last time?”

Patricia’s breath caught in her throat as his eyes went dark. He leaned forward. She thought for a moment he would press her back on the table and take her again. Her heart swelled at the idea that he might.

He broke contact with her. Turning, he walked across the room. “You should get dressed. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Patricia slid off the table, wondering where he had to go so suddenly. Her clothes felt rumpled and misshapen when she put them back on. Her body felt a little that way too. Dirt stuck to the backs of her thighs as she pulled on her jeans. At least she hadn’t had to spend the early afternoon speculating about Rita and Bruce Scalia. She’d spent too many evenings either alone with her studies or with her vibrator, pondering the results of Rita’s dates.

She turned toward the potting table, hoping to keep her mind off—well, everything—until she’d gotten it sorted out. He’d been working at something when she came in. She dredged her fingers through the soil in the seedling tray.

“What are you doing?”

Patricia jumped, scattering soil across the table. “I’m sorry. Did I ruin something?”

Ryan grabbed the tray away from her. “Not this time.”

Patricia put her hands behind her back.

“First rule, the safe word is ‘cease.’ If you get scared or uncomfortable, or if I’m hurting you, just tell me to cease, and I will.” He leaned his hip on the table beside her, the annoyance of a moment ago forgotten in his brisk, businesslike manner. “I will always stop if you say that.”

“Why do I need a safe word?”

He studied her. “In case I get carried away. I’ll try to notice when you’re not feeling right, but I could miss something. I won’t miss it when you tell me.”

She nodded. A tingle slipped down her spine at the delightful ways he might lose control. Automatically, she started to suppress it but remembered what she’d just done with him and let it go. With Ryan, she didn’t have to hold anything back.

“Second, I’ll tell you when to come to me. I’ll leave a note in your mailbox at least one day ahead of time, telling you where and when. Otherwise I won’t mention it. You’re the boss, and I’m the gardener.” He sneered as if that meant something more than what it sounded. “Until we’re in a session, then I’m the master and you’re my slave.”

“What if I’m on call and can’t make it?” Patricia bit her lip. Any other plans she would cancel, but duty nights were her responsibility.