MasterinMelbourne (10 page)

“I won’t break,” she murmured.

He grinned. “In that case, you like help taking your clothes
off, Zoe?”

She blinked. “Um, I don’t get to keep them on? I mean, after
all I’ve been through?” She knew it was a lame excuse. For someone else maybe
it wouldn’t have been. But he’d seen her naked in the cage, having drooled all
over herself. She didn’t look as bad now as she did then. She felt shy about
her body, but she didn’t need to keep her clothes on.

“If what you’ve been through means that it would hurt you to
follow directions at any time, Zoe, you have your safe word. You remember it?”

She nodded.
Pad thai.
She could still remember the
taste and smell of the food she’d eaten with him back in Australia. The memory
helped relax her.

“I expect you to use it,” he said. “You won’t have to
justify it, although I might ask questions so that I understand. But if you
have to use it five times a day or five times a minute, that’s all okay. I want
you safe. Mind, body and soul.”

She nodded and took a deep breath. Her side complained
bitterly.
I’ll have to learn not to do that.
“I’m not using my safe word
for this.”

“Then answer the question, please.”

She took a moment to remember exactly what it was. “Yes, I
would like help taking my clothes off. Especially my shirt and my bra.” She
smiled and added, “Sir.”

He lifted her shirt over her head. It hurt for a moment,
lifting her arms, but only a little, and not nearly as much as it would have
working the whole thing off herself. Being able to get dressed in the morning
and undressed at night without pain was something she usually took for granted,
but now she was really looking forward to it.

He sat on the bed to get her bra. It was nice not to have to
reach back too. It’d be even nicer not to be wearing tape all around her lower
torso.

“Now the pants.”

She made a face. “I can’t be much to look at right now, and
if you’re not going to join me on the bed anyway, can’t I keep the rest of my
clothes on?”

“I didn’t say I wasn’t going to join you on the bed.” And in
fact, he didn’t get up off it. “I said I wasn’t going to be sleeping in it.
Awake, I think I can trust myself. I’m going to make love to you. Take the rest
of your clothes off.”

“Yes Sir.” She got up and noted his words. Not have sex
with, or fuck, but make love to. A lot of guys might say it that way, but she
had the feeling he meant it. Normally something more primal might be desired,
but not in her current state. In fact, any sort of sex might give her trouble.
“Sir? I don’t think I can take your weight, and I’m not sure I could move
around on top either. You may have to give it a few days.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Did I mention I had a very thorough
conversation with the nurse about what I could and could not do with you?”

She could feel the heat rise in her face, and figured her
cheeks were as red as Rudolph’s nose.

“You’re going to have to trust me,” he said.

Trust him. Doubt flickered through her for a moment, and she
could tell by his expression he could read that doubt in her eyes. But he
didn’t say anything. He just waited. She wanted to trust him. She knew,
intellectually, she could. It was the opposite of how it had been with Stu in
the early days, when she knew she shouldn’t trust, and yet she found it all too
easy to pretend she did. Now she had faith in Nick and found it difficult to
act like it. She unbuckled and unzipped her pants, and pushed them down along
with her panties.
Naked he wants, naked he gets.

“You still have your clothes on,” she complained.

“I love a girl with good powers of observation.” He patted
the center of the bed. “Right here, darlin’. Lie back and let Nick take care of
you.”

She crawled onto the bed. Her breasts felt heavy as they
swayed beneath her. She wanted to sway her hips sexily, but she didn’t feel
sexy. She slid her arms forward and let herself drop, and instantly regretted
it. “Ow.”

“You okay?”

“Yes.” It hurt, but she hadn’t injured anything. Everything
she did seemed to hurt.

“Can you roll over onto your back?”

“It’d be easier if you rolled me over.” She hated to sound
as if she expected him to serve her, but it was the truth.

“Okay.” He put his hands on her left hip, and then seemed to
change his mind and moved to her right, which meant he’d be pulling her rather
than pushing her. It also meant she wouldn’t be on her right side for even a
moment as he rolled her over, and she was grateful for that. For a Dom, he sure
was thoughtful. Or maybe he was extra thoughtful
because
he was a Dom.
That idea would take some getting used to.

“Where do you want my arms?” she asked.

“This time, wherever they are the most comfortable.” His
fingers moved to her shoulders, his touch featherlight as it drifted lower. Any
lighter it would tickle and she would laugh, and that wouldn’t feel good at
all, but a heavier touch on her welts would have been painful. He seemed to
know what level was right. Her nipples tightened and poked toward the ceiling.
He avoided them, sliding his fingers around her breasts until the peaks ached
and she needed his touch. Then, finally, he relented, brushing a calloused
finger against one, lightly pinching the other. She caught herself before a
sharp intake of breath and tried to keep herself calm and steady. She was able
to help her breathing, but the rest of her didn’t feel calm at all. Her thighs
tensed and pulled outward in response to the liquid warmth in her pussy. He’d
have her tingling all over if he kept it up.

He bent down and sucked a nipple into his mouth. There was a
welt below it, and it stung for a moment when he touched it, but then his
tongue soothed and cooled the burning line. He pressed the peak between tongue
and tooth, compressing it almost to the point of pain. It made her want more.
“Yes.”

He took her other nipple between two fingers and pressed.
She whimpered and hoped he wouldn’t take it for disapproval. She ached to arch
at his touch, but her rib wanted no part of that. The sting in her nipples
distracted her from the ache in her side and the burn on her skin from where
the cane welts rubbed against the bed. She needed the intensity, now more than
ever. Just because he was being gentle with her injuries didn’t mean he had to
have a soft touch.

She moaned when his fingers left her breasts to nudge her
thighs farther apart. She half expected him to plunge his fingers deep into her
melting core, but he didn’t, instead feathering along her inner thighs. That
area, at least, had no cane marks. She supposed Stu hadn’t been able to get
enough of a wind-up, although she knew a true Master with the cane could make
the instrument sing with just a slight flick of the wrist.

Nick moved in between her legs, his knees pressing her own
knees farther apart.
He’s not going to fuck me, is he?
Panic threatened
her for a moment, thinking of his weight on her tender rib. But it quelled as
easily as it rose. She trusted him. She knew she could. And if she was healthy
she’d like nothing more than to feel his body tense as he came inside her.
Soon.

He bent his head and she realized what he intended to do.

The first touch of his tongue on her pussy was electric. He
started at the edges, licking up and down her folds, building a fire deep
within. She reached out to bury her fingers in his thick, dark hair, hoping he
didn’t think she was taking too much control. She needed to do something. She
couldn’t
just
lie back and enjoy it. But she was happy letting him do as
he wished, especially because he was doing it so well.

His tongue flicked across her clit and sent a surge running
down her spine. “Yes!”

He lifted his head for an agonizing second. “Be quiet, love,
you don’t want to let the kids know what we’re doing.”

She suppressed a giggle. No, she didn’t. She was supposedly
in his room because he was nursing her back to health, and cries of ecstasy
might puncture that story. When the tip of his tongue slipped across her pearl
of pleasure again, she settled for closing her eyes tightly shut and making an
unladylike grunt.

He didn’t seem to object, since he brought his tongue back
again in exactly the same place. If he kept doing that, there was no way she
was going to hold on.

Something entered her pussy, slipping in easily. His
fingers. He curled them inside her, stroking her G-spot. He licked around her
clit, dodging it first, and then sucking it in. She whimpered. So close.
“Master,” she whispered. He reached up with his free hand and pinched a nipple
between thumb and forefinger, compressing the hardened flesh so hard it stung,
and that sent her over the edge. She jammed her left fist in her mouth to stop
herself from screaming at the top of her lungs.
Nick, Nick.

Pleasure ripped through her body like a tidal wave, running
the length of her torso and shivering down each of her legs. She grabbed on to
something and pulled hard with her right hand, and let go when she realized it
was his hair. But he didn’t jerk back, didn’t say a thing. She rode it out,
feeling herself undulate in response to the pulses of intensity. Her rib didn’t
complain too much. She wouldn’t have listened to it if it did.

At last she lay still, trying to get her breath back, chest
heaving. Shallow breaths were best, the doctor said, and she knew that was
right, but they took longer to do the job when she felt short on oxygen.

With Nick smiling down at her, she felt as if she had all
night. Maybe all of a lifetime. She had a feeling she’d be spending a lot of it
catching her breath.

“You get some sleep now,” Nick told her. “I’ll tuck you in
and get you all comfy.”

“Please no.”

“Hmm?”

“I need to know I can make you happy. That I can give you
pleasure.”

“Oh, you do, darlin’. But I don’t think you’re up to—”

“Not up to much. Not up to a lot of body shaking around. But
I can lie on my side.” She rolled over. “One side anyway. Bring your cock up
here. Let me show you I can please you.”

He was about to tell her she didn’t have to, she could tell.
But he stopped, apparently realizing the depth of her need. He got off the bed
and stripped for her. She admired the way the light gleamed off his firm,
sculpted muscles, but she liked the way his cock stood straight out for her
more. She felt wanted, desired. Pampered was nice, but lusted after was better.

He knelt on the bed and she rolled over, resting her head on
a muscled thigh. She pulled his cock over toward her lips. It wasn’t the best
angle ever for a blowjob, but it was what she could do. She licked the drop of
salty precum off the tip, and then took him inside, rubbing her tongue against
the side of his shaft. If it was awkward with his cock sideways in her mouth,
his cock twitching let her know it didn’t bother him. Heck, maybe something a
little different was an extra turn-on.

He rocked his hips, making it easier for her. She didn’t
have to move quite as much, but she still had control over how much of him she
took in. She wrapped her fist around his shaft and squeezed, then pumped him up
and down. He groaned. She salivated. It was strange to want to taste his cum so
much, but it wasn’t the taste, it was him. She moved her hand faster, knowing
it was doing most of the work, feeling his cock pulse in response. She swirled
her tongue around the sensitive tip and felt him jerk. She did it again,
enjoying the power of it, feeling his muscles tense as he struggled with the
intensity.
Submissives don’t have to be weak. I’m strong. And I can drive
him crazy.

If she’d been healthy, she imagined he might have grabbed
her head and shoved it down. They’d save that pleasure for another day. This
time he seized the blankets in clenched fists and gave a soft, low cry as he
erupted inside her, shooting cum across her tongue and down her throat, and she
tried to swallow it all. There was too much. Some dribbled out the side. It
seemed as if his pulses went on and on.
I did this. Me.

She rolled off when he’d finally finished. She was exhausted
and satisfied. He wiped the dollop of cum off her cheek and ran his hands
through her hair. She was dimly aware of him adjusting the blankets around her
naked body. Somehow, despite the welts, it didn’t sting. It felt warm and
comfortable and good.

Epilogue

She stood on the balcony of Nick’s house, watching the
woods. His place backed up to a nature preserve, and a few hours after twilight
she could occasionally catch sight of possums, or once, a wombat. She’d been
retreating to the balcony more and more lately, she knew. He’d been wonderfully
sweet to her. When she had said she wanted some time off from being a
submissive, he had simply told her that he’d figured she’d need that
eventually. When she’d started spending her evenings on the balcony alone with
her paints, rather than with him, he’d given her the space.

She missed him horribly, and he was only twenty-five feet
away, behind the screen that separated the balcony from the living room. She
glanced back and saw him looking past the television, watching her. He didn’t
turn away or pretend to do anything differently, or act as if he’d been caught.
He was the same calm force he’d always been for her. For everyone—she’d watched
him with kids and with his colleagues, and he was always a rock. Unflappable.

He hasn’t given up on me. I won’t give up on myself.

She flipped the cover over on top of her watercolor palette
box and set her block on top. It was more than him not giving up. He was
confident. Stu had stalked her, but Nick simply lay in wait, patiently.

She set her brushes down on the palette box, resting them
against the edge of the slightly smaller block to stop them from rolling, and
then wiped the bottom of her clean water jar with her T-shirt to make sure it
was dry. She did the same with the “dirty” water, although in an hour of
staring at the woods she hadn’t gotten any paint in it, and balanced it all on
top of the block. She got up and took a step, and he was up, moving as smoothly
and gracefully as a panther to get the screen door for her.

“Thank you,” she said. She didn’t take the paints up to the
little room he’d set aside for her studio, as was her habit, but set them down
on the little wicker table near the door instead, on top of some magazines.

“No luck tonight?”

“No beasties, anyway.” Her heart hammered.
Am I really up
to this?

He took her hand and she wondered if he was going to derail
her plan. It might be weeks, months, forever, until she had the courage to
offer herself to him again, and yet she wasn’t quite strong enough to make this
the moment if he led her in another direction. He was probably going to take
her to the kitchen for tea. Or to the bedroom for simple lovemaking. He didn’t
need toys or ropes to make her feel heavenly.

He walked back to his chair instead. Did he know? No matter.
She pulled the loose dress she wore over her head and knelt down before him.
Words were harder than actions after the gap that had been created. That she
had made. But she wanted to say at least one. “Master.”

He smiled. “My love. I love you, Zoe.”

She nodded. “I think I knew that.”

He leaned back and waited.

She knew what he wanted. She wanted to say it too. “I love
you too, Nick.”

“Well then.” He moved out of his chair and scooped her up
into his arms. “You’ll have to stay. Time to play, darlin’.”