Mastered: Ten Tales of Sensual Surrender (47 page)

Alle closed her hand around the pendant he’d given her and squeezed. She didn’t need protecting from trolls. She needed an entrapment charm, or maybe three wishes.

“How long will you be?” she asked when he made a move towards the door.

He paused and wetted his lips. “I’m not sure.”

“Are you actually coming back?”

Restlessly, he scratched his pale stubble. “Course.”

She wasn’t actually sure she believed him. Alle blinked back tears. It was all her fault. She ought never to have kissed him. Now instead of getting to spend the day with her idol, she’d chased him away. Stupid…That’s what she was, and if he said anything to anyone about it, out of a job most likely too. She didn’t imagine the management would take kindly to her jumping the people she was supposed to be working with.

Nope, she was only supposed to fix their recordings. Right at this minute, she wasn’t sure any amount of fixing would make
Within You
palatable. It was just too uncivilized.

Spook did return. He arrived twenty minutes later carrying take-out from the local café: Green tea for himself and a skinny latte for her. Either he was psychic or he’d asked one of her work colleagues what she drank. He looked a good deal calmer than when he’d left, though his blue eyes still blazed like twin balls of fire when his gaze swept over her. She wished she felt half as calm.

“Did you cause a riot?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Hardly anybody recognises me unless I’m with the other guys.”

That, she didn’t believe for a second. Obviously, people had simply been too polite to hassle him, or there’d been no teenagers in the vicinity.

“Am I all right to sit in still?”

“Yeah. Please.” Of course she still wanted him here. Even though… God, it was awkward. She didn’t want to just sit next to him. She wanted to touch him, maybe sit on his knee, but she was going to have to accept that it wasn’t going to happen. If he wanted her, then he wouldn’t have walked out.

“How are you getting on? Made much progress?”

She supposed the song was neutral territory. If they were talking about that, they didn’t have to discuss the kiss, and the tension between them. She’d washed her face and reapplied her make-up while he’d been gone, but she could still feel his kisses on her lips and the stroke of his tongue, not to mention the hard press of his body.

“Some.” She hit the playback switch so that he could listen while he sipped his drink. “It’s coming, see.”

“That’s shit,” he spluttered, and lay his cup aside. For a second she thought he meant the drink. “Oh, Christ is that bad. I can’t believe you’ve actually done what Xane said you would. Alle, we can’t use this.” He dragged a hand through the front of his blond hair revealing the makings of a widow’s peak. “You’ve ripped the bollocks off it.”

“But I’ve done what I was asked,” she blurted. His words were like a battering ram, leaving her confidence in her abilities shattered. “It needed the edges shaving off it.”

“Those spikes you’ve evened out are what deliver the emotional punch. Look—” He wheeled his chair closer and leaned over the control panel to adjust a few of the sliders. “—I think this is more of what we’re after.”

The sound scourged her nerve-endings. “Only if you want the listener to feel as if they’re being smacked around the head. How I had it is less—” She reached out to move the sliders back, but Spook covered the control with his hand.

“Exactly, it’s less.”

“Less is more,” she insisted.

Spook shook his head. “Not in this case. I don’t think you really get his song. I know you’ve listened to it, but I don’t think you’ve understood it.”

She wasn’t sure she understood anything at the moment. Not the song. And definitely not him. Alle curled her fingers into the spaces between his fingers. She expected him to pull away, which only confused her further when he didn’t. Instead, he looked at her with those blazing blue eyes.

“Where’s the original? Put it on.”

“Spook, I’m sorry,” she blurted, unable to pretend nothing had happened. “I thought there was something there between us, but I obviously got it wrong and over-stepped the mark. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to be sorry, unless you’re saying it had an effect on the song.”

She shook her head.

“And Alle, you didn’t misjudge. There is something, and I do feel it. I wish…” He shook his head, and then reached out to touch one of the springy ringlets in the ends of her hair. “You’re beautiful. But, I’m probably not who you think I am. There’s stuff about me you don’t know, and probably don’t want to know.”

“Nobody’s perfect.”

“You are,” she swore she heard him mumble. He pulled his arm back to his body. “I think we should concentrate on the song. Put it on, we’ll listen to it.”

In all honestly, Alle didn’t want to, and not just because she’d rather learn about him. She just didn’t like this track, but she put it on to please him.

Spook rose from his chair and moved to stand behind her once the track began. “Lean back. Close your eyes. You need to understand this song in order to know how to make it shine. Listen now. Hear the words. Let the riffs slide inside of you.”

They did. Like knives.

The only way she tolerated it was because he was with her, his agile fingers stroking lightly over her temples.

“I don’t like it, Spook. It makes me uncomfortable. It leaves me too on edge.”

“But that’s why it’s so good.” His hair tickled as it brushed against her cheek. “It’s a song about trust and precipices. Sometimes to move forward in life you have to risk falling and being broken on the rocks.”

Her eyes fluttered open. “Will you take that chance with me?” She’d already thrown herself off a cliff when she’d first made the decision to act on her impulses and kiss him.

“I’ve been broken,” he replied, gently brushing stray threads of hair from her upturned face. “You might think I’m still broken given the sorts of things I like.”

“What kind of things?” She wished he’d be plainer spoken instead of so cryptic.

Spook moved his hand from her temple and instead splayed it across the front of her throat. Alle’s breath immediately hitched. She felt vulnerable with his palm covering her windpipe and his thumb and forefinger tucked against the ridge of her jaw, but at the same time, arousal bloomed inside of her, leaving her breasts feeling heavy and a mellow throb drumming between her thighs.

“Do you like pain, Alle? I do, I enjoy inflicting it. I like seeing women tied up. I like photographing their skin when it’s been reddened by numerous smacks.”

Dear God, had he really said that? Her mouth turned dry. It wasn’t what she’d expected. Hoped for, yes, but never anticipated.

“I like to wrap the strap from my guitar around their wrists and bind their hands behind their backs.”

She could picture him doing that to her, winding the long strap round and round, and then up between both hands. She’d be naked at the time, and on her knees, and oh so dreadfully aware of what came next.

“Do that to me,” she blurted. She sat forward in the chair and swivelled it around to face him. “Spook, I’ve wanted someone to do that to me for so long.” It was as if this meeting between them was bound to her destiny.

“You’re supposed to be listening to the track,” he reminded her, clearly unprepared for her response. But then, he had been trying to scare her off.

“Fuck the track,” she spat, though she hit the button to put it on endless repeat. “Finish saying what you were saying. You like restraining your lovers and reddening their backsides.”

“And I take pictures of that. Lots of pictures. Lots and lots.”

“Thank you, God,” she muttered briefly closing her eyes. Not about the photographs part, but that she hadn’t imagined him admitting to a love of spanking. “Spank me, now,” she said to Spook.

“What? No.” He backed up a step or two. “Alle, I wasn’t suggesting. I was only stating facts.”

“Really. Please. You’ve no idea how much I want you to. I’ve waited years for someone who’s prepared to paddle my arse properly. No wimping out because I moan, or my skin’s turned red. I’ll let you take pictures, as many pictures as you want. Really, do this.”

She turned her head to take in the contents and the layout of the room, trying to ascertain the best location. There was the tub sofa, or she guessed the desk, if she was prepared to spread herself over the mixing board.

“I’ll lock the door.” She hot footed over to it and secured the latch. “Really, Spook, make it painful for me to sit down. Punish me for making such a mess of your song. Make me understand it. I’m begging you.”

“That’s not begging.”

She dropped to her knees on the spot, with her head bowed and trained her eyes on his feet.
Please make this happen
, she prayed.

“We really ought not to.”

“What the hell had ought to do with it?”

“I want you to do this and give me a framed picture of the results.”

Chapter Six

Spook knew the most sensible option at this point was to walk away. It wasn’t as if he’d never had a woman beg on her knees for his attention before, but none of the others had been as appealing to him as Alle, and normally the women in question were pleading for his affection not for him to redden their cheeks.

Damn! He bit his knuckle. He couldn’t pretend that he didn’t want to, but given they’d only known each other a couple of hours, maybe it was a little too soon to be leaping into anything. Where was the established bond of trust, the safe words and reassurances that he’d promised himself a million times over he’d ensure were in place before he ever did anything like this again.

Not that they’d helped much in the past. Amazing really what could be conveniently forgotten.

This would be a mistake. Yet it was one he couldn’t help making.

He watched her inch towards him on her knees. Her peaches and cream skin was flushed and a smear of moisture made her lips shiny. I’m coming for you, Spook, her expression boldly claimed, even if she was on her knees. It gave him a little kick that she was so eager, she was willing to push for what she wanted. He liked strong women, particularly those who weren’t afraid to reach out. The thrill when they submitted was always twice as great as when the lady was naturally submissive.

When she leaned forward onto all fours and started stalking him, his heart rate sped and his cock got hard again.

Fuck, that was hot! But, bugger…He thought he’d conquered his erection by reading the global news feed. It was hard to be horny when there were people dying unjustly and the planet was falling to pieces. But here he was, standing erect again, and no amount of thinking depressing thoughts seemed likely to make it go down.

She turned him on too much.

Fuck it!
He grabbed one of the two swivel chairs and placed it in the middle of the room, and then adjusted the seat down to its lowest setting. It was without arms, which made it perfect for what he wanted it for. “Come here,” he mouthed, barely raising his voice above a whisper. “Over my knee.”

She apparently heard him clearly enough, because she was up and balanced across his lap in seconds. The position set her bottom nicely in the air, but kept her toes on the floor.

“Is this really what you want?”

High colour swept her cheeks as she nodded. If her skin blossomed with colour that easily, it wouldn’t take much to make her bottom livid.

Still, he didn’t strike immediately. Instead he began by stroking her bottom through her clothing, just getting her used to the position and the idea of his hands upon her. After all, they hadn’t really touched all that much. The women he’d done this with previously, had been his lovers. He guessed if that’s what they were doing; it was also what Alle had become.

Yes, despite what his band mates probably thought, he’d had a few relationships. He certainly wasn’t the virgin Ash sometimes speculated he was.

“I’m going to lift up your skirt now, Alle.”

He watched the muscles in her bottom tense. Her skirt framed her derriere perfectly, but for a spanking, bare buttocks were definitely best. It wasn’t just about the visuals. Sound was important too.

Spook hitched her clothing all the way to her waist.

“Sensible skirt, but silky knickers,” he remarked on revealing her underwear. His cock kicked in approval. Her panties were a mix of satin and lace, cut like shorts that rode high on her cheeks. It was almost a shame to take them off they were so pretty.

He took some photos of them with his phone to appreciate later. Then drew them down a little way and left them dangling around her thighs. The scent of her pussy gave away the extent of her arousal. She was already ripe with anticipation and hungry for his touch.

The muscles in her bottom tensed, causing her cheeks to quiver as she waited for him to land the first blow. Spook explored their surface gently first, learning the shape of her and the texture of her skin. “Ten, shall we say, as punishment for your incompetence?”

That was probably being lenient, but despite her eagerness, he didn’t think she was overly experienced.

“I defer to your wishes. Whatever you think I deserve.’

Considering how badly she’d mangled the song, she probably deserved a few hundred. He wasn’t sure either of them had the stamina for that.

‘You realise this is going to hurt?’

“Yes,” she hissed, tensing again in anticipation. “Please. Do it.”

Spook waited for a moment, until he saw her muscles relax.

Chapter Seven

Why didn’t he do it? Why did he only circle her flesh and not strike? Alle’s legs were jelly. The blood was rushing to her head making her feel light-headed and that was on top of already feeling needy. Her clit had perked up as she lay across Spook’s knee and she’d become aware of his scent and the tension in his thighs. She knew he was hard too, because the swell of his erection pressed against her side, full of heat and the promise of things to come.

In her fantasies, he always fucked her after he’d reddened her behind, while she was still tender and sensitive to every touch. The slaps they made as their bodies joined together, were agony and ecstasy inducing. Still, she was unprepared for the reality when it was visited upon her ass.