No Safeword: Matte - Happily Ever After (Safewords) (30 page)

Two weeks before Miguel was scheduled to arrive, Dave let them know he was flying into town to speak with them. They picked him up at the airport Saturday afternoon, and the three went to a nice restaurant.

The conversation stayed casual in the car and during the first part of the meal. Sam wanted to know what had brought him to town, but didn’t want to lose any negotiation weight by bringing it up first.

Dave didn’t get down to business until the wait staff brought their main course.

“How long do you think you’d need to train for a fight?” he asked Ethan.

“Depends on who I’m fighting, doesn’t it? I’d be okay fighting someone mediocre next week, but if you’re putting me into a top level fight we’ll need Jerrod’s input as to how much time he’ll need to get me ready.”

“Jerrod says you can be ready in two and a half months.”

“Sounds reasonable. Who are you putting me up against?”

“The current number three.”

Sam couldn’t stay quiet. “But, the man Ethan lost to is ranked fourth.”

Ethan looked at her in agreement and then back to Dave, “I assumed I’d be fighting number five or six.”

“The general consensus is if you’d been fresh you’d have easily taken him. The promoters want you in a big fight, and they offered a nice size payout to whoever would take you on.”

“What are the risks with jumping ahead?” Sam asked. “Will the other fighters be antagonistic because he gets such a good deal right off the bat?”

Dave shrugged. “Some will, but we won’t worry about them because he earned his stripes by making it to the final fight in Atlantic City. The biggest risk would be him not gaining the experience needed as he works his way up, but after watching him fight all day? I don’t think it’s a problem.”

“When do you need an answer?” Ethan asked.

“I need to tell them something Monday morning.”

Sam asked, “Why didn’t you bring Jerrod? Shouldn’t he be in on this conversation?”

“He’s out of the country, but we can Skype him tomorrow morning if you need to talk to him.” Dave took a drink and added. “He’s on board, and says he doesn’t mind coming back to Chattanooga to train you.”

A thought occurred to Sam, and she blurted out, “Wait, we’ll both be fighting the same night? On TV?” Dave nodded and she said, “You’ll need to have my fight at least an hour before Ethan’s. He’ll want to coach me, and if I get hurt he’ll need to be assured I’m okay or he’ll be crap in the cage for his fight.” Or, he’d knock the guy out in ten seconds so he could get back to her, but Sam didn’t say that part out loud.

“No problem. You’ll go into the bantam slot, which should put enough fights between. If you aren’t up to coming out to help during his, you can watch from backstage and we’ll fit someone with an ear-piece so you can tell them the strategy you think Ethan needs to hear.”

Ethan smiled. “You’ve put some thought into this.” He looked at Sam. “What’s your initial feeling?”

“I’d like to look over some video, but if Jerrod thinks you can take him you should jump on the offer.”

During the almost two weeks they waited for Jerrod and Miguel to arrive, Ethan decided he’d take Sam’s ass every chance he could.

He ordered her to wear a loose dress or oversized tee with no underwear when home, and she never knew when he’d walk up behind her, bend her over, stick some lube in her, and jam his cock up her ass.

Sometimes he took a few minutes to get her horny first, but every once in a while he’d spread her legs and bend her so nothing touched her clit, and take her when he knew she wasn’t aroused. Most of the time, she was worked up and horny a few minutes into it, but a few times she had to survive the entire ass fucking with no arousal.

On the fifth day her body went into defensive mode, but a strange thing happened. It was still instinctual, but her brain cataloged him as “not a threat” before she threw the punch, and she went to her knees as she realized she’d almost punched him out of the blue,
again
.

He stood over her a good fifteen seconds before he went to the floor with her and pulled her into his arms. “Tell me what just happened.”

“Permission to talk normally, Sir? Relaxed speech?”

“You don’t have permission to tell me off, but…yeah. I need to know what happened, so however you need to tell me.”

“In our martial arts training we’re taught it’s best to avoid confrontation when possible, but the work we do makes reacting to an attack a matter of instinct. A fist comes at you, your body blocks and retaliates without consideration for who the person is.”

Ethan nodded and she continued. “In weapons training, a target pops up and you have to identify it before you pull the trigger. Girl carrying schoolbooks? You don’t shoot. Bad guy pointing a gun at you? You shoot. The discernment becomes instinctual, too. It happens so fast, you have to make split second decisions, and Tyler’s training forces you to get used to making it.”

He smiled. “So, your body started to attack, but the discernment kicked in—”

“Yes, and I stopped before I struck you.”

He kissed her on the forehead, the nose, the mouth. When he let her up he said, “I’m almost tempted to kiss Tyler, too, but…no. I do need to tell him about our breakthrough, though.” He took a breath. “I’ve caught myself bracing for you to turn on me the past five or six times I’ve taken your ass. I started to back off just because I didn’t want to have to deal with you turning on me, but I
want
your ass. I want to take you every chance, all over the house while I can before Jerrod arrives and I can only do it in our bedroom and the playroom.”

“Sir, you have no idea how tender I am, but…I’m yours.”

“Yes, you are,” he said as his eyes went to a more vivid shade of green. “Since we’re on the floor, turn around and go to knees and chest.”

* * * *

The next day Ethan told her to come home from work and pay extra close attention to her shaving, and then to stay naked when she got out of the tub.

She assumed he’d be home around six o’clock, and since she made it home at three-thirty, figured she had time for a quick swim before getting in the tub.

Unfortunately, she was wrong.

She’d managed around twenty laps when she stopped and saw him standing on the side of the pool — legs spread and arms crossed in full angry Greek God pose. Her heart fell to her stomach and all she could say was, “You’re home.”

“Yes. I’ve already closed the living room blinds. Take your bathing suit off when you step in the door, use the downstairs restroom if you need, then go to your closet and kneel in the corner. I’ll be up in a few minutes.”

She put her suit in his outstretched hand as she stepped inside, and gasped as he slapped her cold, wet, bottom and herded her towards the steps.

Her stomach flipped and her mouth went dry when she saw the wooden pony set up in her closet.

She was waiting in the corner when he arrived, and passively allowed him to use cloth bandages to strap her arms to her abs. He had her swing a leg over the pony, raised it until it was touching her pussy, and then added ankle cuffs and a spreader bar. He also tied her ankles off to two of her kettlebell weights, to be sure she couldn’t fall off the horse. Everything happened in slow motion, and she hoped time sped back up
soon
.

He motioned towards a camera. “It’s infrared, so don’t worry about images of you getting out.” His mouth to her ear, voice so deep the vibrations caressed her skin. “I figure it’ll be interesting to watch your cunt get hotter, and hotter, and
hotter
. Rest assured, I’ll sink myself into either your pussy or ass when I let you up, and you’ll take it.”

He turned the light out and prepared to close the door behind him. “The mic’s on, I can hear you. Be careful what you say unless you want to add a punishment to your tongue, too.”

She could freely go to her toes this time, so the first thirty or forty minutes weren’t so bad, as she spent the vast majority of the time with her weight off the horse.

Eventually, her calves gave out. In the competition for which hurt the least? She once again found herself rotating from ass, to pussy, to clit, to raising up on her toes and then letting herself back down on her asshole again to start the cycle anew.

Time was irrelevant in the dark as she shifted from position to position. With no way to know how long she’d suffered, and how much more she’d be forced to survive, nothing mattered except enduring this moment. And then the next.
And the next.

He didn’t leave her alone the entire time. He came in with water at intervals, and when she told him she had to use the restroom he took her off long enough to let her pee in the toilet, but then put her right back on.

When she tried leaning forward and propping herself up with her forehead, he came in long enough to add a posture collar, which made her position so much more uncomfortable. This particular posture collar forced her to look up a little, and after a time it started hurting her shoulder. She didn’t want to, but finally had to say, “Master, the collar hurts my shoulder.”

He was to her in just a few seconds and took the collar off, rubbed something on her shoulders to help them feel better, and said, “No more leaning forward or you won’t like what happens.”

As the pain and heat in her groin grew worse, she wondered how it looked on the infrared. Part of her wondered if he was slowly jacking himself off as he watched the colors grow more intense.

She made it to the stage she’d been before, with the feeling of needles shooting through her when she changed positions, and transitioned to several stages of pain she hadn’t felt before, so she was pretty sure she was on it a good bit longer than last time.

By the time he took her off she was beyond exhausted and almost delirious with pain, though she had no idea how long she’d been on the horrible contraption.

When he carried her into the bedroom her eyes sought out the clock and read eight twenty-one. She figured he’d probably come home just before four o’clock, and had probably put her on the horse around four-fifteen. Her tortured groin throbbed even louder once she did the math in her head.

He settled her on the bed and took the cloth bandage off to release her arms. He’d removed the ankle cuffs before taking her off the horse.

“Lie back and let me look you over.” His voice was a command, but he didn’t sound angry.

He rubbed something cooling and soothing over her bruised genitals and said, “Lucky for you, these holes are in no shape to be fucked. Looks like it’ll be your mouth tonight. Turn crossways on the bed and hang your head off.”

He was rough, but thankfully didn’t take long, and when he finished he handed her a wrapped gel pack, which she gingerly applied to her tortured groin.

“You can speak, just stay respectful.”

“Thank you for the cold pack, Sir.”

“You’re welcome. Why didn’t you follow my instructions?”

“It was stupid. I’m sorry, Master. I just wanted to get some laps in and I thought I had plenty of time before you came home.”

He sighed. “If you’d called or texted to ask to swim laps, I’d have okayed it.”

Sam felt doubly stupid, and she apologized again.

He caressed her face, kissed her forehead. “No more apologies, punishment’s over. Are you hungry? I ordered Chinese and it should be here soon.”

“Can we eat in bed?” Exhausted, she thought she might want sleep more than food until her stomach growled to remind her she was just as hungry.

“Of course.”

He was on his way out the door when Sam asked, “Sir? What did I mess up? What plans did you have for us?”

“I wanted you shaved extra close because I intended to give you a lot of pleasure with my mouth.”

Sam pulled her pillow over her face and groaned again.

* * * *

Sam was shocked when she awakened the next morning, spooned into Ethan. She’d been able to go to sleep this way a few times, but hadn’t spent the night cradled in his arms with her back to his front since she’d been shot.

Her body snuggled back into his farther, and she gasped in pain as her poor, bruised groin screamed in agony.

Ethan awoke, saw how they were, and rubbed her right breast with his hand. “This calls for a celebration, though I’m guessing that little yelp was due to your punishment?” Sam nodded and he chuckled. “Well then,” a kiss to her neck, her shoulder, “I’m hard as granite so I suggest you dive under the covers and take care of me with your mouth before I decide to stick my cock somewhere else.”

Sam wasted no time turning and shifting under the covers, and soon discovered Ethan hadn’t been exaggerating about being hard as a rock.

* * * *

Sam fought with herself before doing it, but an hour later she gingerly sat on a cushioned chair to write a note to Ethan.

The wooden pony is off limits while I’m in training. I have enough time to heal before Miguel and Jerrod arrive, but I’m not up to my usual morning run, and I’m planning to drive to work this morning instead of riding my bike. I wanted to be in better cardio shape when they arrived.

I’m not blaming you and I’m not upset. You had every right to punish me, but the pony needs to be put away until after the fight, and I’m asking that you take my training into consideration if any other punishment is needed.

Ethan read the note and said, “I’d pretty much already decided it couldn’t happen once you began training in earnest. There are other things we can do to work on your cardio for the next couple of days. I’ll forego my run this evening and we’ll do them together.” He kissed her forehead. “I’m not upset. You’re absolutely correct. Once we start training we can’t do anything to put us behind.”

* * * *

Three days before the coaches arrived, Ethan had to fly to California for some live interviews and a photo session.

Sam once again had to experience her big house with no one in it but her, and she wondered how she’d survived all those years, thinking she was happy.

No
, she corrected herself. She’d been happy as she’d defined it then. She just hadn’t known the joy she could find in sharing her life with someone.

Because she’d been afraid outside at night when Ethan was gone before, she forced herself to go for a late run one evening. She was safe about it, with her Sig-P938 secured in a belly-band under her yoga pants and her concealed carry license tucked into her sports bra, but she needed to know she could still function alone, without Ethan. Sure, it was great they spent so much time together, but she kept thinking of her mother, afraid to go to the kitchen alone in the middle of the night.

She could understand a little more how her mother had become so dependent, but Sam was resolved to never let it sneak up on her.

By the time she arrived home from her run she was assured she was still self-sufficient and not dependent on Ethan to be her full-time protector. She was alert to her surroundings, but only because she was aware, not because of fear. If something happened, she’d handle it.

She fixed a glass of greens and ate a piece of aged gouda, put her dishes into the dishwasher without regards to placement, and went upstairs to sleep in her huge bed.

Without Ethan.

God, she missed him.

She might be capable of living without him, but it didn’t mean she had to like it.