On Your Knees (7 page)

“That was different. It was almost therapeutic, like sex counseling. This is…”

“Wrong? Sinful? Exciting? Arousing? Exactly what you’ve dreamed of since you were old enough to understand sex?”

Her fingers clasped around the loop of metal holding her cuffs. It was all the things he said. “Yes.”

“I won’t endanger you, Jessica.” His deep, sexy, almost-familiar voice sank through her. He could take her to the verge of orgasm just with his confident tone alone. Every word proved he had complete control of this situation.

She loved how he said her name as if just that was his claim on her.

50

On Your Knees

“You’re completely safe with me.”

So this was it. Again she was presented with a decision. He was offering exactly what she’d asked for. She could go home unfulfilled. Or the alternative…explore this unknown lifestyle. She wanted both. Her mental pendulum swung back and forth like a wind chime caught in a tornado. She should reassert that she wanted to leave, yet she didn’t really want to leave. She wanted to see what happened. Wasn’t it true that the only real reason she wanted to leave was because she was scared of the flog? Jessica Rush, who wasn’t afraid of anything?

“I want to go on,” she said, tightening her fingers on the ring.

She yelped as the flog thudded against her ass before she could beg him not to hurt her. Much. Deep down, if she examined her hidden fantasies, all those dominations, all the captures, all the force, this was in there too.

“Let it out,” he said. “Scream if you must. Personally it makes me hotter for the frenzy that will take you.”

Tears welled in her eyes and the sting spread against her buttocks. Frenzy? Hah!

“Again,” she whispered. The flog fell, the knots biting into her tender flesh and she bucked unable to hold back a loud cry. He didn’t give her time to react before another caught her thighs, another on her back, on the crease where her leg met her ass so perilously close to her needy cleft.

Her mind went fuzzy as she anticipated another stroke and the backslap as the ends ricocheted and connected again. She angled her hips toward it. He ignored her silent plea and let it fall on her upper back.

“Please, oh Master please,” she begged, widening her knees and dropping her shoulders to the floor. This time he gave in to her but the extra strength in the blow made it clear it was his decision and his alone. No amount of angling or begging would sway him from his mission of total power.

She didn’t care. He could have it. All of it. As long as he wanted.

51

Brynn Paulin

Ryan watched Jessica’s body quiver as he doled out the promised flogging. He’d purposely chosen a medium weight flog to give her an intense experience without risk of really hurting her. He’d meant to count how many strokes he’d given, but instead he’d lost track, just watching her body and listening to how her screams had segued from pain to intense pleasure. She rocked toward him wanting more.

He weighed his options.

He could go on, give her the release needed by this loss of control and total submission while he denied himself or he could drop his fly and plow his rock hard cock as deep into her as it would go. Either way, their pleasure would continue.

Maybe a few more strokes. He didn’t think either of them could take much more.

Sweat had broken out on his brow and not from exertion. Just working Jessica, whose body also glistened with her perspiration, drove his temperature up too.

Drawing back, he angled the flog, letting the tails fly down toward her delicate folds. Jessica jerked and he knew one had connected. He suddenly had the urge to kiss it better while he drove her straight over the edge with his mouth.

He’d never had a slave affect him like this. Each thud of the flog jerked his cock, pulling her toward him and waiting oblivion.

“Again,” she begged, her body sagging with the extreme pleasure attacking it. She felt his discipline everywhere—he’d seen to that—and now it overwhelmed her. She cried out passionately even when the tails weren’t connecting with her. Her hips rocked in search of someone to fill her.

Him.

Not one more stroke. He flung the flog aside and reached for his zipper. He shoved down his pants just far enough to expose his cock. Jessica looked over her shoulder, her face tearstained and her eyes dazed.

52

On Your Knees

“Oh thank heaven,” she whispered when she saw what he was doing. Quickly, he rolled on a condom and knelt behind her. Grasping her hips, he drove into her with one powerful stroke.

“Yes!” Jessica shrieked, straightening her arms and shoving back into him. Her molten passage branded him, the burning honey of her extreme arousal coating him and dripping down to his tight balls. He moved just to relieve some of the pressure of her clutching walls, only to find he needed that tight squeeze more than he needed to breathe. Urgently, he rammed back inside, giving everything over to her. She thought she was helpless? Her writhing body had the power to give or refuse what he’d desired for so long. Her sharp little tongue honed his need. He couldn’t survive without both of them.

Reaching between them, he rasped his thumb over her exposed nub. Her cry echoed off the stone walls and back into his ever-tightening body. He wouldn’t last long and he wanted her flying with him when he finally erupted inside her.

She bucked under him almost throwing off his wild rhythm as he pistoned in and out of her cunt. Her “Yes!” and “oh God!” alternated with “Please!” and drove him on.

Her fleshy walls convulsed around him.

“No! No!” she wailed, going rigid while he continued to pull her back onto his erection. The tight grip closed around him. He drove on, fighting the release until the last moment when she was spent in his arms and a ball of vibrating nerve endings.

Knowing it would drive her to another orgasm, he dragged his fingers over her clit again, coaxing another explosion.

“Take it,” he rasped, knowing it would complete this scene in her head. She needed it. She needed his command over her. “Yeah, squeeze my cock. Milk it.” She made a strangled sound and her body shuddered beneath him. Another wave of release tore through her, even stronger than before. It pulled him with it. Urgently, he made one last drive and blasted inside her.

53

Brynn Paulin

“Mine!” he bellowed, filling her. She was his and he never intended to let her forget it.

54

On Your Knees

Chapter Three

Jessica slowly became aware she was curled on the cool stone floor with a very male body wrapped around her. Sometime in her haze, he’d released the cuffs holding her.

Her arms were crossed over her chest with his crossed over them.

“You did well,” he murmured. “I was proud of you, my little slave.” She nuzzled her head back against him, warm with the praise. It pleased her inordinately that she’d pleased him. “Thank you for convincing me not to run.”

“Hmmm,” he replied. He sounded distracted as he pulled back slightly. She winced when he touched his fingers to her back. The flog didn’t feel so good now. She smiled, despite the pain. This would be a constant reminder the next few days of the intensely perfect time she’d spent in the Pleasure Palace dungeon. Every time she moved, the dungeon master would be with her.

Getting up, he carefully lifted her in his arms. He kicked the pillow toward the bench.

“On your knees. On the pillow,” he told her. “Then lean over the bench.” She immediately complied, though she couldn’t stifle her groan. She didn’t know if she could take any more quite yet.

He’d had somewhat kind moments before but now he was almost tender while still commanding her. He smoothed his fingers over her brow. “There won’t be more right now,” he promised, somehow knowing her thoughts. Why should she be surprised?

He’d known them up until now.

She didn’t move as he left her and crossed the room. She heard him open cupboards and run water but didn’t look at him. Slowly, she took measured breaths while she leaned her head on her crossed arms. The dichotomy between earlier and now made her head spin.

55

Brynn Paulin

“Master?” she asked, figuring she’d better continue to use the title. Especially since she still didn’t know his name. She had a feeling he still wouldn’t tell her, either. Not tonight. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Ask me anything.”

“How did you…um…when did you…”

He returned to her side and sat on the bench beside her, a square bowl on his lap.

He’d completely removed his pants while he’d been away from her. “How did I get to be a Dom?”

She flinched as he dabbed a warm, damp cloth over her bruised skin. “Yes. I’d imagine you don’t just say one day ‘I think I might like to be a Dom. All I need is a submissive’. There has to be some process.”

“There wasn’t really.” He dabbed cool cream onto her back, carefully rubbing it in to each mark. “I was raised in a D/s family. My father is a Dom and my mother’s a sub.”

That surprised her. She’d never thought of this in a family setting. “How does that work? I mean with kids and all.”

“It was subtle. My mom didn’t run around naked, wearing chains. We never saw our father do anything that any other dad wouldn’t do. Sometimes they’d disappear to their room, even in the middle of the day.” He shrugged continuing his ministrations.

“My father was always in charge and Mom mostly complied with what he said. That didn’t mean she was weak. She’s extremely strong and successful in her own right. Just like you are. I have total respect for her.” He lifted her chin so that she looked into his eyes—she still wished she could see their color. His thumb smoothed over her swollen bottom lip. “And believe it or not, I have total respect for you too. Submitting doesn’t make you weak. You have to be very strong to do it.” She’d never thought of herself as particularly strong. Actually, she spent every day trying to prove herself. Maybe she didn’t need to do that.

“My screams weren’t very strong.”

56

On Your Knees

“That’s a matter of opinion. While I flogged you, you didn’t swear at me. You didn’t cry and beg me to let you go. You let your body adjust and take it and sink into pleasure. I know men who couldn’t handle as much. You were so beautiful.”

“I bet you say that to all your slaves.”

“There are none. I don’t do polygamous relationships. If I had another partner, I wouldn’t be here with you.”

Bending over, he kissed one of the stripes crossing her shoulder blades. Warm threads of awareness started through her middle again. Again? She wanted him again.

She couldn’t possibly. New need building low in her belly argued her body wasn’t nearly as broken as she might think. She moaned and dropped her head to her arms.

No, she couldn’t take more. Physically or mentally. She liked his hands on her body but she was done in right now.

Then his firm fingers moved to her ass. Oh man. He seemed to know just how spent she was though. Gently, he worked the cream into the marks, unknowingly easing her desire. Was it crazy that she wanted him to take her to bed somewhere and press her into a firm mattress? Wouldn’t Keera have a field day with this? She’d say, “I told you so. And you doubted Madam Zelda?”

Okay, so she should have had more faith. How could she? She wasn’t really a tarot believer—not like her friend. Keera lived by the cards she’d inherited from her mother.

Her weak faith was growing fast, both in what Madam Zelda had said and in this man rubbing his hands down her thighs.

Silence fell between them, the only sound their breathing and sporadic groans from her as he occasionally touched spots already more sore than others. It wasn’t long before her body practically dissolved into jelly. If not for her increased awareness of this man, she could have slept he had her so relaxed. Overall she just felt good.

She couldn’t rouse the energy to move when he left her again. Again she heard water and she wondered if he wasn’t the cleanest Dom in the world. She smiled turning her head and watching him move. For a guy, he had a graceful manner about him. He 57

Brynn Paulin

really did move like a cat, his frame working in unison in a lazy assured roll as he walked.

The scarf tied around his head had hiked up a little in the back and short strands of hair peeked out. In the dim light she couldn’t tell if it was brown or black, just dark. She knew a ton of built dark-haired guys—she worked in construction for God’s sake. It could be anyone. She was swiftly coming to the conclusion that she knew this man. The familiarity about him…the things he said…how well he knew her. And why else would he be here if he wasn’t getting paid?

The realization that she must know him should have troubled her. It didn’t. She only hoped he’d introduce himself later, without the mask, and they could continue this in the bright light of real life. She wouldn’t push the issue now. Her brow furrowed when he turned toward her and her gaze dropped to his tattoos. Perhaps she didn’t know him after all. She couldn’t think of a man she knew who she hadn’t seen without a shirt or at least with sleeves short enough that they would have revealed the wide band on her dungeon master’s arm.

So she was back to square one.

“What do your tattoos signify?” she asked when he returned and sat beside her. She sat back on her heels, wrists at the small of her back and winced only slightly when her ass connected with her ankles. “They look like some sort of words.”

“Hmmm… well, in a way.”

He cleaned the inside of her thighs with the new cloth he’d brought, wiping away her sticky cream. The way he cared for her made her all shuddery inside. She looked into his mesmerizing eyes, enveloped in his intense gaze. Her lips parted.

She wanted him again. Her eyes dropped closed on a tiny moan as the warm cloth pressed to her folds. She heard the wet slap of the cloth on the cement as he tossed it away and he cupped the back of her head, pulling her to him. His mouth covered hers, feasting at her parted lips and sending tremors once again shooting through her. She lifted up at his urging, meeting him chest to chest and feeling his jutting erection 58