No Safeword: Matte - Happily Ever After (Safewords) (7 page)

Sam kept looking around the room and her eyes landed on the pony.

“How often does Tyler put you on that horrible thing?” Sam asked.

Viv shook her head. “Not more than two or three times a year, thank goodness. It’s horrible, and I’d love to see it thrown into a huge bonfire but with my luck he’d only build another, even more cruel.”

Sam looked past Viv and saw the men putting away floggers and wiping down the equipment. “Ethan told me he wanted to see how I handled it. I think he’s going to build one, but use it primarily for discipline.”

Viv shuddered. “Well, my guess is if he does, you’ll rarely need to be disciplined. Like,
ever
. Shit.”

“What’s the longest Tyler’s kept you on it?”

Viv’s face looked pained. “Four
fucking
hours.”

“What did you
do
?”

Viv shook her head. “It wasn’t for punishment, just a scene. I’m rarely on it more than about an hour and a half, but he told me two weeks ahead of time that I’d be on it four hours, even marked it on the damned calendar. By the time the day came I was a wreck, worrying about it.” She closed her eyes a second. “The reality was so much worse than I’d envisioned. He put a clock up so I could watch the time crawl — an old-fashioned school clock, complete with a fucking second hand. Somewhere around two and a half hours I was offering to get rid of specific hard limits if he’d cut the time short.”

“Did he?”

Viv shook her head. “No, my hard limits are mostly stuff he isn’t interested in, but there’s one I thought might sway him, and I was desperate.”

The three men walked back to them, and Ethan said, “On your back and spread your legs, Samantha. Master James wants to check you.”

Sam didn’t want to spread her legs for Master James, but she knew she was in no shape to accept a punishment so she rolled to her back and closed her eyes as she let her legs fall apart.

Ethan let her keep her eyes closed and her face sideways as he and Master James once again discussed her as if she weren’t present. She bit her tongue and tried to keep quiet as they pushed her lips to the side to get a good look at the entire area. 

“See this section?” Master James asked as he pushed her labia out of the way and leaned down for a closer look. “You’ll want to make sure it’s healed before you use her too much, as you don’t want to risk it splitting more.”

He stood and turned to Ethan. “The board she was on is natural, untreated wood. I can give you the name of a local sawmill to buy your lumber, as the chemicals used in the pressure-treating process weren’t designed to come into contact with human flesh.”

Master James leaned over her again, and a finger touched her pussy lips and gently manipulated them once again. “She’s going to have some deep bruising, and will feel it intensely for days, possibly a week.”

The lips around her clit were delicately pulled open again, and a finger shifted her clit right and then left. Sam gasped and yelped as he slid the clit hood up to bare her clit, and wished he’d let it go as he spoke. “Tyler chose the triangular piece for Viv, but Sam’s genitals might be better suited for a wider surface, especially as your goal is to keep her on it longer. I’ll send you a couple of designs so you can decide which will work best for your purposes.” He finally released her clit hood, and reached down to spread her ass cheeks. He asked for some lube, and gently pressed a finger into her and opened her, his face mere inches away as he inspected her most private parts.

“If you want to be ultra sadistic, you can buy some fresh ginger and fig her in the next day or two. Won’t cause any damage, and will actually increase the blood flow and help with the healing.” He gave a sadistic laugh. “Of course, she won’t be a fan of the process.”

Sam awoke the next morning feeling as if she’d been in a title fight. Her entire body hurt, and the bruising and tenderness in her crotch had her wanting to just take some pain pills and sleep for the day.

Ethan brought her breakfast in bed — blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs with cheese, hash browns, and what seemed like a pound of bacon, which she pounced on.

“Tara will be here in two hours,” he reminded her.

“Shit. There’s no way I can show her any kind of self-defense today.”

Ethan tilted his head. “You had a note on the calendar about her coming over, but you didn’t put anything in about teaching her to defend herself.”

Sam rolled her eyes. “I told you she wanted some pointers. Kirsten let me know it might be a good idea to teach her, and Tara said she doesn’t have the problems now she did, but sometimes people still get aggressive with her.”

“You may have said something about it, but I didn’t put it together with the reason for her coming over.” He sighed. “Shouldn’t be a problem though, we’ll just let her know you’re not up to par and I’m going to be doing the demonstrating while you do the teaching part.”

Sam took another bite as she considered. “I think she’s expecting you to have a problem with her.”

Ethan smoothed a stray lock of hair away from Sam’s eyes. “Nothing I can do about her expectations, Darlin’, but I promise I’ll behave.” He kissed her forehead. “If there’s a problem it’ll be her baggage, not mine.”

“Okay, but won’t it be better if I’m the one teaching, so I can…I don’t know, give the two of you more distance?”

“I don’t think so. I’ll treat her as I would any other Domme asking me to teach them something. I’ll show respect without submitting or dominating, and teach as I’d want to be taught.”

* * * *

Sam wore yoga pants, a sports bra, and a loose t-shirt, and took in Tara’s form fitting jeans and tight baby-doll tee when she let her in the door.

Tara looked Sam over from head to toe and said, “I thought about wearing something like that, but more often than not I’m in tighter clothes, and I should learn how to defend myself when dressed like this.”

Ethan stepped into the foyer and Sam introduced them. Tara’s face lit with obvious appreciation as she eyed Ethan from head to toe. “My, my,
my
. Such a
fine
specimen.” She looked at Sam. “You said it took a long time to find someone you could submit to?” Her gaze trailed back to Ethan. “I’d have to say the wait was
well
worth it.”

Sam laughed. “I won’t argue.” She motioned towards the back of the house. “I’m a little out of sorts today, so Ethan’s going to do most of the self-defense instruction, but I thought we could go out back and talk a little first. We have some iced lemon water if you’d like some?”

Tara had asked for water with lemon when they ate, so Sam felt safe offering it now.

“That would be great. This is a beautiful house,” she said as she spun in a slow circle taking everything in. “Looks like the divorce lawyer gig pays well.”

“Thanks. We’re still moving things around, figuring out how to make it our home instead of my house.” She rolled her eyes. “I had a much smaller television in the den. What
is
it with men and the size of their TVs?”

Sam caught what she’d said, and worried for a moment she may have offended Tara, but her new friend only laughed and said, “With most men I tend to think they’re compensating, but I doubt it’s the case with your man.”

Ethan went to get their drinks, and Sam showed Tara to the back patio. The day promised to be warm, but with the ceiling fans it was still comfortable.

“What happened to get you out of sorts, if I may ask? You’re walking more gingerly than the last time I saw you, and you just sat as if you have hemorrhoids.” Her eyebrows rose. “Or maybe a butt plug?”

Sam laughed. She hadn’t intended to go into details, but Tara was easy to talk to. “We went to a play party last night, and Ethan tried out a new piece of equipment. Something he’s been thinking of building, but wanted to see how I did on it.”

Tara’s smile let Sam see the sadist in her as she said, “Do I dare ask what piece of equipment?”

Sam rolled her eyes. “Do you know what it means to
ride the pony
?”

“Oh, girlfriend, do I ever.” Her face showed compassion now. “You poor thing. How long did he leave you on it?”

Ethan stepped into the room. “Forty-five minutes, and I had her situated so she could go on her toes and come down, so she didn’t spend the entire forty-five minutes bearing her weight.”

Tara leaned forward and patted Sam’s thigh. “If this was your first time, I’m sure you think this is as bad as it can get.” She looked to Ethan and back to Sam. “It isn’t, though. Forty-five minutes is a walk in the park; he only gave you a
taste
, baby-doll.”

Sam’s gaze went to Ethan’s face, then Tara’s. “Yeah, so he said. What do you know about putting girls on the horse? I thought you just played with boys?”

“Well, yeah, but there are usually girls around at the clubs, and I’m interested in how they handle things, seeing as how I’m slowly turning into one.” She sat back. “Not that anyone’s ever going to put me on a wooden pony. I do the torturing, thank-you-very-much, and once I get my girl parts I’m going to be very
nice
to them.”

Ethan smiled and asked, “How much longer until you finish your process?”

Tara looked at Ethan a few seconds before she asked, “You really are okay with me, aren’t you?”

Sam threw a pillow at her new friend. “I told you he would be.”

“You did,” Tara agreed, “but your husband is the exception. A lot of boyfriends and husbands pretend to be okay so their woman won’t be upset with them, but they most certainly aren’t okay being in the same room with me.”

Ethan shrugged. “I try to see people for who they are, without focusing on gender or race.”

“Well, since you brought it up, I’ll ask. Just what race
are
you?”

Sam laughed. “I wanted to ask the first time I met him, too. He’s Chinese, Latino, Jamaican, German, Irish, and Italian.”

Tara shook her head. “And one hundred percent
man
.” She looked at Sam. “You are one lucky woman. I prefer my men submissive, though, so there’s no worry of me misbehaving while he teaches me self-defense.”

“Good to know,” Ethan deadpanned. “Speaking of self-defense,” he shifted back to his normal speaking voice, “have you had any formal training?”

“I took a class about ten years ago, but it was a complete waste of time. Kirsten tells me Sam can teach me things I can actually use in real-life situations, though.”

“Why was the class a waste of time?” Sam asked.

“They just made me squat funny and wave my arms around.”

Ethan chuckled. “It may have seemed pointless, but if you did it for any length of time you built some valuable muscle memory we can make use of.”

“Right,” Sam agreed. “Let’s move downstairs, so we can get started.”

When Tara said her goodbyes a few hours later, she did so with some new self-defense skills she felt confident using if necessary, and with the knowledge she was accepted by her new friend’s husband, which apparently wasn’t the norm. Sam was saddened her friend had been so nervous about their friendship falling apart because yet another man couldn’t accept her.

As they closed the door after walking Tara to her car, Ethan said, “You were right about her.”

“What do you mean?”

Ethan shrugged. “You told me you liked her outlook on life, and her self-confidence, and I like those things, too. She’s special, but not because she’s chosen such a difficult path, which is what I assumed when you told me about her. She’s special just because of who she is and how she sees the world.”

Sam smiled and hugged him. “I’m glad you see it, too.”

Ethan pulled her towards the stairs. “Let’s get you into a bathing suit and go for a swim.”

Sam thought a swim was a fantastic idea, and immediately considered which bathing suit might give her the least discomfort in the water. But, something else was going through Ethan’s mind, so she said, “Great idea, but there’s something else. What are you holding back?”

Ethan rolled his eyes and walked towards the steps in front of her, so she couldn’t see his face. “I wondered why you asked if you were too muscular, if you were feminine enough for me, when you told me about her, and now I understand the question.”

Sam wasn’t sure where he was going with it, but said what was on her mind. “Right, because she’s better at being a woman than I am.”

“But I disagree. She’s just a different kind of woman. You’ve both chosen the image you want to reflect to the world, and nothing is wrong with either archetype. Tara is choosing to add more glamour and drama into her personality, while you’ve chosen a stronger, more professional persona. There’s nothing wrong with either of you, but your questions made sense once I’d spent a little time around her.”

He turned and folded her into his arms. “You’re the perfect woman for me, you know that, right?”

Sam closed her eyes and rested her head on his chest. She loved the feel of his arms wrapped around her. “I do, but it’s still nice to hear. You’re kinda perfect for me, too.” She paused and added, “Minus the damned pony thing, anyway.”

He patted her back and kissed her forehead. “We’ll talk more about the pony in the pool.”

Sam intended to swim some laps, but made one circuit and asked Ethan to toss her some pool noodles. Kicking her legs hurt her entire groin.

She wedged a few noodles behind her back and one under her knees, and relaxed every muscle in her body to let the noodles and water support her.

Ethan gave her some time before floating up beside her and saying, “So, tell me your thoughts on last night.”

“I came very close to making something off limits in writing, this morning.” She didn’t open her eyes to see his expression. She didn’t know if he’d show disappointment, and she wasn’t sure she could handle it if he did.

“What made you decide not to?”

“I haven’t actually decided for sure, actually.”

After a couple of minutes of silence she said, “I still need to sleep on it a few nights, but I’m leaning towards telling you it’s off limits for anything except consequences for something extreme.”

“And will you define extreme, or will you leave it up to me?”

Yeah, keeping her eyes closed had been a good call. “Can we not jump to you getting defensive, please?”

Sam heard him draw in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay, I’m sorry. Please continue.”

“Apology accepted. Thank you.” She opened her eyes long enough to find his hand and reach for it. “Forty-five minutes was hell, Ethan. I don’t want to ever have to do that again, but I also don’t feel I can dictate what you can and can’t do. I mean, I know you’re fair, so if you let me know what I have to do to receive it punitively, then all I have to do is follow your orders.” She shrugged and squeezed his hand. “I’m not promising I’ll never place a time limit on it, even for consequences, but as of now I’m willing to trust you won’t keep me on it longer than I can truly handle.”

He squeezed her hand back. “I’ll go ahead and buy the materials to make one, then, and you need to consider how you want to write your contract addendum.”

“Are you upset I’m considering writing a change?”

“Not upset, exactly. I’m…” He paused long enough Sam wasn’t sure he’d finish his sentence, but he finally said, “I’m pleased to know if I truly cross the line you’ll let me know, and at the same time disappointed you’re taking back some of your power.”

Sam considered his words a few moments before saying, “I’m good with that, actually, as I’m pretty conflicted about it, too.”

He laughed, “What, if you’re conflicted then I should be, too?”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “Pretty much.”