Vulnerable (7 page)
“Battery’s getting low,” she said to Emily before stuffing the cell back into her bag. She started the car and took Emily home, making desultory talk to distract herself and keep Emily from grilling her. Ross would go to pick her up and get the message that she was blowing him off when she wasn’t home. His male ego wouldn’t allow him to put up with her behavior, and he would drop her, she hoped. It was the coward’s way out, but she didn’t feel that she had any choice. Maybe when she could put a coherent thought pattern together, she would call him to say good-bye properly or send him a note. Sudden tears blurred her vision, and she blinked furiously in order to make the final turn onto Emily’s street safely.
* * * *
Ross sat in his car in the parking lot and waited on Elise. He had shown up at her door with a coiling excitement in his gut and a bouquet of roses in his hand. When she hadn’t answered the door, he had called her cell and got the same message, to his frustration. If she had been held up at work, surely she would have called. He told her that he had programmed his number into her cell, and Elise had good manners, so he grew concerned. A chat with one of her neighbors elicited her place of work, something he was grateful for, but the lack of confidentiality annoyed him at the same time. What if he had a nefarious interest in Elise? That woman in the next apartment had not only opened the door to him but had parted with Elise’s work place information with alacrity.
He sped to the address, only to find the place locked, the students from the last class of the day filing to their respective cars. He had been standing by his car, pushing redial on his phone when a mature student nodded to him, clearly admiring his choice in vehicles. Ross mentioned that he had just missed his girlfriend, a teacher, and the fellow, Adrian somebody, inquired after the name. He knew Elise from the previous semester and called another student over, a young woman who was one of Elise’s current students. Alice told him that Elise had left with Miss Brown, the math teacher, maybe an hour earlier. Ross made himself nod and make a civil farewell before heading back to Elise’s, stopping to pick up a coffee and a sandwich. It was a far cry from the meal he had hoped they would share and didn’t do much to assuage his anger and disappointment, but he understood that Elise was deliberately avoiding him because something had happened in the intervening hours between their time together. He wasn’t prepared to allow her to run from him, at least not until they could talk about it, after he expressed his disappointment and worry.
By nearly midnight, Ross was entertaining thoughts of marking Elise’s ass with his belt in front of the entire membership of the Club, followed by a thorough fucking of that sweet ass. He had been forced to drive to a service station twice to relieve his bladder, and was convinced that Elise would return home while he was gone and pull up the drawbridge. Then he thought that moving his car had probably been a good idea in case the tenants in the building had noticed him hanging around and called the police. He began to wonder if she was planning to stay overnight with Miss Brown to avoid him, and added that to the list of punishments to be meted out. He knew he was thinking along the same lines as he would if they had an established D/s relationship, although most Doms surely wouldn’t have lost control of their subs the way he seemed to have done, but there you had it. He and Elise were invested in one another, and he wasn’t letting this go, her go, until they hashed it out.
The next car that pulled into the lot disgorged its driver, and Ross recognized Elise’s tall, elegant stature in the orange-hued sodium lighting. He was out of his own vehicle without any memory of making a move, and at her side just as she pulled open the building’s main door. She froze at his touch under the more natural light flooding from the structure and turned to look at him, her mouth slightly open in shock, drawing in a breath, probably to scream, when she recognized him. Her eyes widened and then shut, the long thick lashes fanning over the crest of her cheeks, her shoulders slumping in acceptance. She didn’t say a word, allowing him to usher her through the doorway and down the hall to her garden apartment. It was yet another thing that bothered Ross. Women were not safe in ground floor apartments, where intruders had such easy access. It was something else to talk with her about. He plucked her keys out of her hand and shuffled through them to find the right one. Once he had her door open, he gently pushed her inside and closed the door behind them, throwing the dead bolt before turning to face her.
Elise fought exhaustion and exhilaration in equal parts. She had stayed at Emily’s as long as she had dared until her friend had quit making hints about her leaving and had come right out and told her to go, that they both had work in the morning. Emily had complained about Elise’s uncharacteristic quietness and inattentiveness much of the evening, but seemed to accept her explanation of a headache, resulting from a poor night’s sleep. Em had then gone on about her own insomnia and delicate constitution until Elise could have screamed, but did penance, because the whole time she had been thinking about how Ross would have felt once he realized she had blown him off. And she tried really hard not to think about how she missed him, trying to tell herself that it was just because she hadn’t had sex in forever and had developed an appetite for it.
It now appeared she had done it all for nothing, because he was looking at her with an impassive face and eyes that resembled nothing less than chips of blue ice. She had simply put off what she knew she would have to face, and she wasn’t any better prepared. She waited for Ross to speak, and when he didn’t, was momentarily puzzled. Then it came to her. She remembered his edict from Saturday night and accepted that it applied now. She could use her safe word and he would leave, but she couldn’t make herself do that. Her behavior had been unacceptable, and she needed to make amends.
Elise prayed her mother was wrong, and forced her fingers to go to the hem of her sweater. Ross’s face relaxed infinitesimally, but Elise read him. He hadn’t been certain she would comply and would not have forced her. He was nothing like her ex-husband, and she had been wrong to be such a coward. She began to tug the top up her body and over her head. Ross moved past her, and she could hear him heading in the direction of her bedroom, stopping to draw the living room drapes. She understood immediately that he would not put her privacy at risk by leaving her exposed, back lit by the inside lights of her apartment, for anyone on the street to view.
By the time he returned, she was kneeling in the proscribed position, privately amazed that she had remembered it so well, and how natural it felt. She wanted to plead her case and seek his clemency, to please him, and it had nothing to do with fear or coercion, because she felt none. She needed this, both for forgiveness and clarification, because she thought she had given it away, lost it. He gently tapped her knees further apart with the toe of his right foot, having taken off his shoes somewhere along the way. Elise felt exposed under his bright gaze, under the merciless overhead light in the kitchen, and accepted it. Ross would fix this, and Elise wouldn’t allow herself to consider what would become of her if he didn’t.
Ross stepped away, and from the corner of her downcast eyes, Elise could see him move to the table again and drag a chair out from its tucked position under it. He leisurely unbuttoned his shirt and rolled the cuffs up to his elbows, stretching the moment out with excruciating slowness before settling himself on the chair. He finally spoke.
“Get over my lap, sub.”
Elise stood and walked to her destiny. She lay over Ross’s lap and he trapped her legs between his strong thighs, placing a firm hand on her back as her shoulders dropped forward, her forehead nearly brushing the floor, her hair falling wildly about her face and obscuring her vision, serving to mute the cacophony of her thoughts. He waited, motionless, and she felt her heartbeat level out and her mind settle.
“You’ll take twenty from my hand and count them, Elise. You have your safe word but if you use it, we are finished.”
Elise heard the myriad of emotions that vibrated through Ross’s tone and accepted his ultimatum. It wasn’t blackmail. She had deliberately hurt him, and he wasn’t going to let it happen again. If she didn’t cooperate, he would walk away and this would be over. She would do this for him after her unconscionable behavior earlier this evening, worrying him needlessly. She would do this for her.
“Yes, Sir.”
Ross ran his big hand over her buttocks in a caress and then brought it down in an entirely opposite action. Elise gasped at the sensation. It hurt like the devil, and she couldn’t make her brain work to count. She took two gulping breaths and said, “One.” The number emerged on a whisper, but it satisfied Ross who administered another stinging wallop.
Elise was crying and whimpering by the nine count and thought her bottom might combust. When Ross rubbed the heat, she began to beg him, writhing and squirming to no avail against his inexorable hold. Her safe word hovered at the edge of her sanity, but she prevailed and began to slip away to a place that felt calm and blurry. She vaguely heard Ross exhorting her to count and thought she might have done so, but it no longer mattered. She existed somewhere that held only the two of them where she drifted safely, only because he kept her close and grounded. When he stood, propping her on her feet so that he could tip her back into her arms, Elise tried to smile at him, tell him, and was rewarded with a press of his lips on her forehead. He carried her into the dimly lit bedroom and laid her down, first on her side and then over onto her belly, atop a pillow. Elise soaked in the feel of her satin comforter and shams against her disembodied form but had no energy for anything else. When Ross returned, the bed dipping under his weight, Elise thought she might just float away in his direction. She felt a cooling sensation on her buttocks.
“I have plans for this ass, Elise.” Ross’s voice and dark promise pulled her back. Elise’s gut clenched, and she forced her mouth to open as he drizzled whatever it was between her ass cheeks and onto her anus.
“I don’t like that,” she tried to say, her voice just a thread of sound.
Ross made a noncommittal sound, and what had to be his finger pressed against her puckered opening. “Relax, sweetheart. I won’t do anything you won’t want. I promise.”
Elise kept her eyes closed and searched for that out-of-body experience again, but it was elusive. That finger at her anus wasn’t, though. It was quite tangible and rubbed and pressed with increasing authority until it pushed past the outer ring of muscle and slipped inside. It felt uncomfortable, but it didn’t hurt, not like her other experiences. Her cheeks throbbed and stung though, and as if he read her mind, Ross smoothed more of the cool stuff over them. Elise recognized the scent. He had purloined her stash of cucumber lotion, the best thing for sunburn she had ever found, and she nearly giggled at the thought of it being used for a spanked ass, except she didn’t have the energy. Then the finger had penetrated much deeper, and Elise tried to push it out, only to find that action allowed it further access. She began to pant, the sound really loud in her head. Anal sex had been something to fear, something that hurt and left her in pain for days afterward, but this felt different. It felt forbidden, naughty, and it made her belly coil in little tendrils of sensation. Elise involuntarily squirmed against the smooth bedding and her nipples responded, as did her clit. She heard Ross chuckle above her, and then his hand pushed between her thighs, flirting between her folds to find that little nub. She spread her legs to give him better access, and he chuckled again. God, this was so messed up and so incredibly hot.
“Please.” Had that little plea come out of her mouth? Ross worked her clit in concert with the finger in her ass and Elise reached for her climax, only to feel his hand pull away from her clit and a finger push up inside of her pussy. She bit her lip against a moan.
“I need you to relax, Elise.”
She immediately tensed before again forcing herself to go limp and take whatever he wanted to do to her, for her. He pulled out of her bottom hole, and she felt empty, and this time her moan escaped. More lotion cooled her there and something larger poked and pushed, albeit gently. Elise accepted the intrusion and realized Ross had put two fingers inside of her. He moved them around, and she felt herself being stretched as the finger withdrew from her vagina and returned to rub her clit. She humped his hand, no longer caring about anything but coming.
“You’ll wait, Elise.” Ross stopped rubbing, and she whimpered in frustration, near tears. Her anus burned a little but the overall sensations, the fullness in her ass, her throbbing clit, her stinging ass, overwhelmed the burn, and she clenched on Ross’s fingers. He thrust them deep and scissored them in a movement that took her breath, and then he pulled them out again. She heard the rustle of tissues followed by the snap of latex and then the blunt head of his cock was nudging her back opening and pushing inexorably inside without pause, and yet being gentle with her. Elise couldn’t describe how she felt. She was full, stuffed full, and any sting of pain was blooming into pleasure. Ross’s chest lowered over her back as he shuttled his cock in and out of her with increasing authority, her heated buttocks rubbing against his pelvis as his sack smacked her pussy.
“You may touch yourself, Elise.” Ross’s strained tone garnered her attention and Elise reached to her apex where her clit poked out from its sheltering hood. She worked it hard, the copious amount of moisture from her vagina easing her task, and her efforts, combined with Ross’s now-vigorous shafting of her ass sufficed to push her up and over the proverbial cliff. Elise heard her own voice mingle with the sound of Ross’s hoarse groan as he, too, climaxed, his ejaculate filling her with heat even shielded by the condom.