By My Side (9 page)

“Thank you.” Marcella wanted to ask if they’d planned this. Even though it looked like a spur-of-the-moment thing, Fuller was an excellent actor. This could have been staged, but she couldn’t think of a reason why they would feel it necessary.

“Fold your hands behind your neck, Cella.”

Sean’s warm hands caressed her thighs, a small weight of promise that made her swelling nether lips throb with remembered heat. She placed her hands under her neck and made a mental note about how much he seemed to enjoy this position. Perhaps when this fantasy ended, she could use this position in a casual manner to remind him of the incredible sex they’d shared.

He eased her thighs apart and slid her toward him to hang a little off the edge of the table. “Good girl. Remind Fuller and me of your safe word.”

“Oasis.”

She couldn’t hear the sound of snickering, but she swore the word made Fuller laugh. The future definitely held a private conversation with his name on it. She wondered about his association with the wish-fulfillment service. Had he used it? She hoped to God this wasn’t his fantasy. While she liked Fuller, she wasn’t comfortable with the idea of teasing him or turning him on, not in an intimate setting like this. As a one-man woman, she wanted Sean and nobody else.

Hot lips seared a path along her inner thigh. She shivered at the juxtaposition of the cool wood below her and the heat Sean generated.

He lifted his lips, but he retained his grip just above her knees. “Are you okay, Marcella?
Too cold?”

Her nipples, still sore from the extended use of clamps earlier, had shriveled to such tight peaks that they throbbed painfully. While her skin might be a little chilled, she enjoyed the sensation because she knew once he whipped
her,
the heat would make her long for this coolness. “I’m fine, Master.”

Sean eased her legs farther apart, opening her to him completely. Wet fire seared her slit. He licked long trails and short flicks, unhurried strokes that casually explored every fold of her pussy. His tongue teased around her clit and pressed it flat. The light touches triggered an avalanche of heat as cream rushed to her pussy.

She moaned, a low sound that broke the silence to plead for something more. Teeth, lips, and fingers would all be welcome. This slow foray would drive her insane before long. If he increased his pace or his pressure, she could counteract the urgency with breathing and reminders to please her master.

But this seduction by degrees would drive her over the edge whether or not she wanted to go. It would rob her of every ounce of control. She didn’t have the skills to survive this kind of onslaught. She breathed deeply and cautioned herself to be patient. No man could or would keep this up for very long. Even men who professed to love oral sex never spent too much time worshipping a woman’s pussy. Sean might be an exceptional man, but he was still a man.

Minutes passed. Heat
built,
a measured inferno that lacked friction and violence. Her thighs shook, and the tremors spread through her body. He seemed singularly focused on enjoying her texture and flavor. The soft moans vibrating from him every now and again attested to exactly how lost he had become between her legs. She wanted to thrust against his mouth, but she knew it would only prolong the torture. Had she earned a punishment she’d forgotten about? He’d been very clear about administering her punishment earlier.

Behind her neck, she dug her fingers into her skin as she struggled to stay still. Oh, why hadn’t he tied her down?

A whimper escaped, and a moan followed. She lost the battle and thrust against his face. “Master, please.”

He bit her clit. Her pelvis tilted, jerking away from his mouth, but he held her down with a firm grip on each thigh. She went nowhere, and he didn’t ease the pressure of his bite.

“I’m sorry, Master. Please, oh please. I’m so sorry.”

The pressure eased, indicating he’d accepted her apology. He closed his lips around her tender clit and sucked away the pain. He eased two fingers into her waiting pussy and finger fucked her cunt as gently as he sucked her clit.

Tears escaped the corners of her eyes and were swallowed by the blindfold. How dare he be so gentle with her? She’d craved this kind of treatment from a
dom
, but she’d never thought it would happen. For some reason, dominant behavior and sadism seemed to go hand in hand with every
dom
she’d ever met. Though she’d fantasized about Sean and how perfect they seemed for one another, she had never thought he would turn out to be everything she wanted in a man.

Suddenly the solidity of her emotional foundation fell away, and she faced the edge of the cliff far sooner than she thought possible. Her panted breaths took on more and more volume as she struggled to stave off her orgasm. “Oh fuck. Master, please let me come.”

He didn’t answer. Her body shook with effort and emotion. The pleas falling from her lips came faster and louder, each
cry
more desperate than the last.

At last, at long last, he lifted his mouth
away,
releasing her for a brief second, but he didn’t stop the slow thrust of his fingers. “Come, my slave. Scream it out for me.”

Deep pulses began in her pussy the moment he gave the order. When he resumed sucking her clit, the mad rush of pleasure only increased. The world shook and screamed down around her taut body. She arched from the table, and the blindfold no longer mattered. Nothing mattered except Sean and the way he mastered her body and soul. Reality splintered as she ceded control of her pleasure to her master.

When she came down, she found herself enclosed in Sean’s arms. He had tucked a blanket around her back. It curved around her hips and fell over her legs. Her cheek rested on his shoulder, and his hand traced reassuring paths up and down her arm.

She opened her eyes. Someone had removed the blindfold, but she had no idea when that had happened. Sean smiled down at her.

“Thank you, Master.”

He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You performed beautifully, Marcella.”

She hazarded a glance around the dining room. Fuller and all the dessert plates were gone. “Did Fuller leave?” Heat crept up her neck as she asked the question. Really she wanted to know whether or not she would be able to face him now that he had seen something she had shared with very few people.

“He’s giving us some time for aftercare. He’s waiting downstairs.”

The last vestiges of her orgasmic fog lifted. Though she had aced this part of the test, she knew she wasn’t out of the woods. Even if things weren’t weird now when she saw Fuller again, submitting to her master in front of one person wasn’t the same as submitting in front of a room full of people.

And the whip still awaited her.

The darkness brought by the blindfold sharpened her awareness of sounds and smells. The faded scent of peanut sauce vanished by degrees the farther she moved away from the kitchen and dining areas. The leather of the restraints Sean had used to bind her wrists behind her back creaked as she tried to adjust the position of her hands.

Sweat and musk colored Sean’s normally clean scent. The familiar aroma quieted the butterflies in her stomach. Whether freshly showered or slick from time spent doing physical activity, his unique scent never failed to make her feel safe and comfortable.

The density of the air increased as she descended the stairs that led to the dungeon. She didn’t know if her perception was colored by trepidation or if the air conditioning just didn’t circulate efficiently on the lower level. Being naked, she didn’t mind the slight increase in temperature brought by the higher humidity.

Through it all, Sean never left her side. He maintained his position behind her and a little to the left, his hand always somewhere on her body, his presence and innate strength lending support and courage. He wrapped his hand around her arm on the stairs to keep her from stumbling. His fingers tickled the small of her back as he guided her down various hallways.

Now he rested a hand on her shoulder. “Stop here.”

Strands of her bangs slid from beneath the blindfold. Sean pulled them out so they lay against her forehead. He fiddled with her hair, smoothing caresses along its thick length. Though he seemed to like the sloppy style she’d affected before, he didn’t ask her to put it up again. At last he slipped the blindfold, an overlarge sleeping mask, up to her forehead. Immediately she dropped her gaze.

With the curve of his finger, he urged her chin up. “Marcella, look at me.”

Apprehension made her need to swallow a few times as she obeyed his order.

“You don’t have to do this.”

Oh, yes she did. If she didn’t, he would find some other submissive to bring to a climax under the power of his whip. No matter what the cost, she would be what he needed. She didn’t want to do this, and lying outright to Sean was not acceptable, so she phrased her response carefully. “I want to please you, Master.”

His lips pursed, and she sensed a refusal lying just behind them.

“Please let me do this.”

Finally his head bobbed in a curt nod.
“All right.
Let’s use the stoplight system. You’re familiar with it?”

Bless him, but this wasn’t about control. Marcella had no problem ceding complete control to Sean. He had repeatedly earned her trust, and she craved his domination. Giving her this additional level of control made her fall for him even harder. “Yes, Master. Red means stop. Yellow means slow down. Green means everything is okay and
keep
going. It’s also consent.”

He smiled, his lips curling with satisfaction while firmness glittered from his hazel eyes. “Give me your color.”

She liked how he phrased it as an order. These details meant so much, and they went a long way toward soothing her nerves.
“Green, Master.”
With him, her color would always be green.

“Once we’re inside, I won’t touch you except to put the restraints on you. Fuller won’t touch you either. Nothing but the whip will be allowed to give you any pleasure.”

She noted that he didn’t sound pleased with that rule. When he’d talked about it before, he had always sounded like he looked forward to the challenge. Now he sounded a little miffed that he had to keep his hands off. She didn’t mind if he broke the rules, but she wasn’t exactly in a position to tell him that without sounding like she was topping from the bottom. She had too much respect for Sean to do something like that.

“Yes, Master. I understand.”

He eased the blindfold back into place and rearranged her bangs to fall over it. A soft breeze followed the soft
click
announcing he’d opened the door to the dungeon. Her nerves tingled with anticipation. Though she didn’t exactly look forward to the whipping, she looked forward to being bound and to the sex play that would happen afterward.

With a hand on her back, he guided her to the spanking bench. He moved his hand up her back to grasp her neck, and he pushed her down, bending her over the padded bench. A long bar no wider than a two-by-four supported her torso. The soft pad pressed between her breasts, which dangled down each side to hang free. This modified bench would let her master have access to her breasts and nipples.

A longer, wider beam supported her hips. The padding on the edge was a little thicker than anywhere else, and for that Marcella was grateful. Her hip bones could jab annoying bruises into her skin and rub it raw. The additional padding would prevent that from happening so quickly.

Sean adjusted something near her head before he pressed her face down. Divine softness cushioned the periphery of her face. She hadn’t known the table had the same kind of arm as a massage table. Bless him. Now she could breathe, and this would alleviate any tension on her neck. Other tables forced her to turn her head to the side, which stretched her muscles oddly and affected the sting of the whip.

The leather strips binding her wrists slackened and fell away. Sean’s strong, warm hands caressed a path up her back and down her arm, moving it into place. Cool leather cuffs encircled her upper arm and her wrist as her master belted her in place. He did the same thing with her other arm, and then he secured cuffs around her thighs just above the knees.

A thicker belt covered her lower back. It would keep her from squirming away from the whip. This was both a safety measure—if she moved and he struck an area he hadn’t intended to strike, it could cause internal damage—and another instrument to strip away control.