His Little Tart (8 page)

Bondage Ranch 4: His Little Tart

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they did to some people, and she hoped she wouldn’t be out for long, though there was something quite freeing about the idea of going outdoors barefoot. She could still remember her mother telling her to put shoes on for the umpteenth time and the tone of exasperation in her voice. She sometimes wondered if her joy of playing with dough and icing was a grownup expression of the fun of getting her hands and feet in the mud when she was small.

She walked out and closed the door behind her. The moment she was outside, she wondered why anyone had been in the dungeon, or inside at all. It had been nice when she left, but now it was perfect, and the mountain air was fresh and clean. She looked around. A couple of girls were kissing each other on a swing set. A set of stocks had a beefy man in it, and the domme she’d seen earlier was standing nearby, a riding crop in hand. “That’s the third time I’ve had to put you in there this weekend,” she was saying.

“I’m starting to think you like it.” She looked up at Constance. “Hey there. Want to help me punish Billy here?”

“Um, no thanks.” Whatever was going on between those two could stay between them, as far as she was concerned. “Have you seen Aid—never mind.”

Past a big wooden stage, she could make out Aidan’s head. There was another guy there with him, and they appeared to be having a conversation. She walked forward with confidence, making her way through the benches laid out in front of the stage. She didn’t know that she looked sexy in the red vinyl dress exactly, but if he found her attractive in her chef’s uniform, he’d probably drool to see her in the dress.

Then she froze. The man she thought Aidan had been talking to had moved back to lean against the stage. Aidan was with another woman. It took her a moment to recognize her as Laera. She had on a black leather dress as short as Constance’s, with a dipping neckline that exposed a good deal of her chest. Aidan was tying her up.

Aidan spotted her.

It dimly hit her that the other man was Bruce, but he didn’t seem to be taking an active role in whatever was going on. And Aidan was definitely playing with Laera,

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who was lifting her breasts so he could tie a rope under them. Her stomach twisted up in a knot.

“Oh.” As all eyes turned to look at her, she realized she’d said it rather loudly.

Maybe she intended to, on some level, wanting Aidan to know that she’d seen him and was hurt, but that didn’t seem like such a good idea anymore. It would probably just feed the man’s ego. “Excuse me,” she mumbled and turned to run back inside.

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Aidan almost hadn’t recognized Constance in the short vinyl dress, but she looked all kinds of sexy. Some women couldn’t carry off bright red, but Constance clearly could. And the sight of her running away from him in her bare feet aroused a primitive desire in him.

“Go after her if you want to,” said Bruce. “I can take care of Laera.”

Oh, Aidan wanted to, all right. But he wasn’t in the habit of leaving girls tied up.

Damn sense of honor. On the other hand, Bruce was her master, and he wasn’t. Still, he took a moment to look at Laera. He wasn’t going to challenge Bruce’s authority by asking her, but he cared what she thought. And he was pretty sure Bruce did too.

“Go, Master Aidan. Anyone can tell you want to,” Laera said.

“Thanks!” Not the cleanest end to a scene, but it wasn’t really a scene, more of a demonstration or a practice session. He broke into a run, his long legs eating up the yards. He was more of a long-distance runner than a sprinter, but he was still a lot faster than most people. He hoped he was fast enough.

He caught up with Constance outside the dungeon and grabbed her arm. “Hey.”

“Get your hands off me.” She shook him off, looking at him long enough for him to see the tears in her eyes before she turned away.

He nodded. He didn’t intend to hold her against her will. “Sorry about that.”

She reached for the door. He didn’t want her opening it yet, so he grabbed the doorknob before she did, and she ended up with her hand on his instead. For a moment, they stared at each other. If he’d had a chance to rehearse an opening line, it would have come in handy, but he didn’t know exactly what to say. He’d chased her on

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instinct, feeling like she was about to walk out of his life forever. But she wasn’t going to be a part of his life anyway. At most, they had another day or two together.

“Go ahead and go back to your friend,” Constance said. “A gentleman wouldn’t leave a girl he was tying up.”

“I’m more of a working-class bloke.” He still saw himself that way, despite the fact his lifestyle didn’t match it. He’d started working in a factory, made a few good investments, and one thing had led to another. But he definitely hadn’t been born a gentleman in the classic sense. “Look, it’s not what you think.”

“Oh, I think I may have heard that line before. Which movie are you stealing it from? Now let me at the door.”

He didn’t budge. Sooner or later, someone was going to try to come out, and he wouldn’t stop them, but he was going to use the moments he had. Her fire only made her more attractive to him and made him more determined. And her hand felt nice and warm on his. “Listen, I wasn’t playing with Laera. She and Bruce are inseparable, anyway. Bruce was showing me how to tie some knots, and I was practicing.”

“Some people would use a post.”

“That wouldn’t have been as practical for what Bruce was teaching. And all the time I was concentrating—”

“On her breasts?”

“—on learning, because I was thinking how I’d love to tie
you
up if and when you came back.”

She pulled back her hand. “I’ll give you credit for a good line. But no one tying up her body would be thinking that it would be better to tie up mine.”

He rolled his eyes.
Women.
He’d give dollars to doughnuts that Laera wished she was thinner. Especially if Constance was making the doughnuts. “Then why am I here and not there?”

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Constance took a step backward. He let her create some space. She knitted her brows for a moment, shook her head, and then began to smile. He waited.

“You’re insane?” she suggested, and then the smile turned into a grin.

He felt as if a weight had been lifted from his heart. “I prefer to think of it as having exquisite taste. Constance, I would very much like to play with you again.”

“Hmm.” She stroked her chin like she was thinking it over, but the mannerism was too exaggerated to be real. Had she been thinking of him as much as he’d been thinking of her? If they let their hearts get involved, this wasn’t going to end well. He had a flight out of Baltimore-Washington Airport on Sunday and didn’t expect to be back in the States for at least a couple of months, after all. He couldn’t even give her a soft landing. And yet he wanted her.

“I think I might consider that,” she said at last, her eyes twinkling. “I’m not fooling you, am I? Yes. I’d like to play with you again too. But not in front of everyone again. I feel like everyone’s been staring at me—and when people comment on what we did—well, maybe that takes some getting used to, but I feel pretty selfconscious about it.”

“I don’t see any reason you should trust me in private, however.” Aidan knew he was trustworthy. But he was conscious that Constance would probably be playing with someone else someday. The thought made his gut tighten uncomfortably, but the idea that she would be playing unsafely bothered him more.

“Is there some place we could go where people could hear me yell but not see me?”

If he blindfolded her, she might not know people were close enough to see, but he wasn’t going to deceive her, even for her own good. On the other hand, if they went into the woods just a little way, she could still be heard by the people who were playing near the entrance. There was a place off the path where people would wander by, and that would provide some safety too.

“Do you have a good, loud scream?” he asked.

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Her eyes lit up. “Oh yeah. You want me to demonstrate?”

“Um, no. There’s a spot. I can’t guarantee no one will see us, but they won’t gather around and watch, most likely. If someone does, I’ll chase them away. It’s safer that way. We might be left alone unseen for an hour, but I won’t be able to depend on that.”

“Do you not trust yourself?” Constance asked.

“More I don’t trust the next person you might play with. It’s important to be cautious, even with someone you know a little.”

Constance laughed. “You people haven’t converted me yet. Maybe there won’t be a next time.”

He didn’t want there to be. Not with anyone else. But if submission was as much a part of her sexuality as he was beginning to think it was—and the fact she had come back reinforced that—he didn’t want her to deny herself. “Maybe.” He put out his hand, palm up. She looked at him, confused for a moment, and then put her small hand in his.

He closed his hand around hers. There was something he’d wanted to do all day, and he didn’t feel like holding back any longer. He wrapped his other arm around her waist and pulled her to him and kissed her hard. She smelled of vanilla and rose. Her lips parted for his tongue. Her mouth tasted sweet. He closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of her soft body against his, letting his other senses drink their fill.

When the door opened behind them and another couple came out, Aidan and Constance sidestepped as if they were dancing and kept kissing. The couple sauntered off down the path into the woods.

“Wow,” she said at last when their lips parted.

Her reaction made him glow inside. “You’ve got a hell of a kiss,” he told her truthfully.

“Thank you. You took me by surprise.”

“I couldn’t hold back any longer. Or at least I didn’t want to.”

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“I guess one of the things about being the dom is you get to do what you want, hmm?” She smiled at him coquettishly.

“Yep.” There was more to it than that. Maybe he’d explain later. But a submissive wanted to know her dom was getting his way and wasn’t just catering to her.

“So what does my Dom desire that we do next?” Her impish grin made him wonder if he’d bitten off more than he could chew. He suspected he was going to find out.

He squeezed her hand, which he’d never let go of. It felt too good inside his, so small and delicate, so warm. “The first thing we have to do is go talk to Bruce and Laera.”

Her eyes narrowed, and her fingers twitched as if she was thinking of pulling away. “So you owe her an apology after all?”

“No. They have my rope.”

“Oh! As in, Laera has it wrapped around her?”

“I suspect Bruce may have it off by now.” Bruce had already told him that he preferred rope an eighth of an inch wider. Even if Bruce was continuing what had been started by tying Laera up, Aidan doubted Bruce would use anything but his own rope.

CONSTANCE SHOOK HER head. There was something surreal about the whole thing, as if she was in a dream. Was she really casually talking about going back and getting some rope so that this man could tie her up? Rope he’d recently been tying around someone else? She’d heard his explanation, and it made sense, she supposed, but it still seemed awfully strange. Except for a few conversations among her best friends at college, she wasn’t used to people being frank about sex, and a discussion that involved bondage would have resulted in giggles. Yet here Aidan was, talking about it quite matter-of-fact. And she was going to let him take her into the woods and tie her up. Her pulse beat a mile a minute.

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Not just let him. At this point, if he did anything less, she’d be annoyed.

Hand in hand, they walked over to where Bruce and Laera were standing. As Aidan had guessed, Bruce had untied Laera.

Laera’s eyes lit up when she saw them. “Hey. Hi. Constance, is it?”

Constance nodded. “And Laera, right?”

“I wrapped up your rope and put it in your bag,” Bruce told Aidan, nodding toward a plain blue-and-white gym bag. Apparently, not everything had to be black or red and made out of leather or something shiny.

“Great,” said Aidan. “We’re going to go play in the woods.”

Constance felt like Bruce and Laera were staring at her, even though they looked friendly. She supposed Aidan owed Laera an explanation, but did he have to tell them?

It made her sound like she was easy, maybe a bit of a slut. Then again, maybe it was another safety thing, to let people know where you would be.

“Have fun,” said Laera.

“Play safe,” added Bruce.

Aidan led her into the woods, down a well-worn path, but they hadn’t gone far when he steered her off it, lifting her over a damp pile of leaves and setting her back down, standing in front of a large old maple tree. He dropped his bag next to her. There were a few trees in between her and the path, but someone walking through could definitely catch glimpses as they walked by. A couple of metal posts with a nearly flat plate on top had been stuck in the ground nearby. She wondered what he was going to do to her, and she shivered despite the fact that it wasn’t cold. Her skin broke out in goose bumps. What were the posts for?

He stroked her cheek. “You don’t need to be nervous, Constance. This is all about pleasure. Yours, mine. We’ll do a few things, some you might like, some you might not.