Sweet Discipline (5 page)

“This is only one method of getting your attention.” He paused. “There are others more painful.”

“Screw you!” She wrenched at the chain, and cursed when she achieved nothing but hurting herself.

He pushed her thigh. She swung to the side, increasing the strain on her arms and shoulders. Yelping, she bit her lip and swore. He pushed harder. Her toes left the floor for an instant while she scrabbled for balance. Pain shot from her fingertips to her toes.

“Okay, okay,” she gasped.

“Does this mean you are staying?”

She hesitated.

“If you want to leave, now’s the time. If you’re going to stay, you put yourself in my hands.”

He’d said that before. His hands. The image of them, tanned, strong, with long slender fingers flashed through her mind. She’d liked the look of them and now, without her willing it, she wondered if there was any tenderness in them.
Tenderness?
In him?

He pushed her again. “I dislike being kept waiting.”

“I dislike being hurt!” she retorted as she scrabbled to keep her balance. “All right.”

She took a deep breath. “Look, can we work this out? I’ll do what I have to do and you treat me with courtesy.”

“Courtesy. We can do that. If and when you earn it.”

She blew out an exasperated breath. “And who will decide that? You?”

“Exactly.”

She swore under her breath, calling him
bastard
among other things.

“I have excellent hearing.”

“And sight no doubt,” she muttered. “Like a big, black buzzard.”

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Sweet Discipline

He laughed. “Are you suggesting you’re dead meat?”

So he had a sense of humor. That and nice hands wouldn’t get him very far. Still, it was better than nothing. “Get me down from here.”

“Only if you’re leaving. Are you?”

“No. I’m here to stay.”

“Good for you.” His approval eased some of her discomfort, but he made no move to release her from her cuffs.

“You’ve made your point. Now get me out of this.”

“Not yet. Now it’s question and answer time. Remember, nothing but the truth.”

He paused, as if waiting for her to protest again. “Why are you here?”

“I’m wondering that myself!”

He placed the flat of his boot against her thigh. “Try again.”

It didn’t take a genius to realize that he held all the cards. Until he let her down, she was at his mercy. But when he let her down… She held very still, composing herself, planning ahead. “To lose weight.”

“Anything else?”

“To keep it off.”

“How are you going to accomplish that?”

“Diet and exercise,” she recited by rote. She’d heard the same thing from every diet counselor she’d ever consulted.

“Have they worked for you in the past?”

It was if he could read her mind. “At the beginning, yes.”

“Then what?”

“Do I have to spell it out?”

He gave her a little push. She gasped out, “Then I get bored and cheat!”

“Is that your plan here?”

“No. I mean, how do I know what will happen?”

He chuckled. “With your success rate, I can guess that’s exactly what you expect to happen.”

He laughed? He laughed at her!

“But—” She felt the change in the air around her as he stood and came closer. The mask left her sightless, but enhanced her hearing and her sense of smell. She detected a clean, forest scent that was oddly appealing, considering how much she was beginning to loathe the smug bully. The heat from his body warmed her naked flesh. Her muscles quivered in the age-old dilemma of woman versus male. Stay or flee? But she was tethered, unable to help herself.

“That is not going to happen at
Sweet Discipline
,” he said softly. “You will learn new habits of treating yourself with respect, treating your body with care, and if you have to 27

Bonnie Hamre

absorb pain to do that, I will accommodate you. You will learn by instruction and practice to control impulses, your desires and satisfying those whims. In short, you will learn self-control.”

Norris gulped.

“You will be pleased with the results. I won’t fail you,” he repeated. “In fact, I can guarantee you that all aspects of your life will improve.”

She wanted to impress potential clients, her clientele and her associates. Jack Rodriguez in particular. “That’s why I’m paying the big bucks.”

“Don’t forget it.” He was very close to her, his breath clean and sweet. With her vision gone, her other senses came to life, including all her female awareness of him as a man. If she didn’t hate him so much, she might be tempted to turn her head and find out how he tasted. Did he ever get it on with his clients? Maybe that was one of the unpublicized benefits. And it had been a long time…

“Do you have an active sexual life?”

Her breath whooshed out. How could he read her mind? Active sex life? No. Dull, sluggish, nonexistent? Yes. And worse still, it was her fault. Along with her once slimmer body, she seemed to have lost what few skills she’d had to attract men, much less lure them into bed.

“N…no,” she admitted. The only activity her sex life had seen lately, besides her immediate and uncomfortable awareness of Adrian, were her fantasies of throwing Jack to the boardroom floor, jumping his bones and taking him so deep inside her, he’d never get free. Never want to, either.

“Why not?”

How humiliating! He’d already seen her body bared to him, did she have to expose the depressing facts of her sex life? It was embarrassing to admit that her age she had so little experience. Her weight was a turn-off for men, she knew that, but she hadn’t always been this heavy. Even before she gained this weight she’d been a washout in the seduction department. She turned her head away.

“Don’t make me repeat myself, Norris.”

He didn’t touch her, but she felt the threat. She licked dry lips. “Too busy, I guess,”

she mumbled.

“I don’t believe you, but we’ll let that go.” As soon as Norris began to feel relief, he added, “For the moment.”

He walked around her. Even without her vision, she knew he was looking her over.

Like a side of beef in the meat market, she grumbled to herself.

“Are you hetero?”

Why did men always assume that if a woman wasn’t busy servicing some man, she was lesbian? Was she? No. Had she ever wondered what it would be like to make love to another woman? Of course. What woman hadn’t?

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He touched her mouth with the tip of one callused finger. “Well? Men, women or both?”

She parted her lips. “Men.”

He ran his finger down the valley between her breasts. When he paused, she urged him silently to go on, then stopped herself. It boggled her mind that she’d be here, naked, restrained with a mask over her head, letting a stranger touch her so intimately.

Let? She wasn’t
letting
him do anything! He stroked slowly down her belly, down below her navel. Her breathing slowed, waiting to see what he would do next. She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. His finger traced the edge of her mound. Oh, lower…lower… How could she be responding to him when he’d strung her up and…
ohmigod
, that felt so good!

“Would you like a satisfying sexual life?”

She flinched and tried to ignore the heat behind his finger just barely touching her curls. “Wouldn’t everyone?”

He set her swinging again. Frantically, she pressed her toes against the floor.

“Okay, okay!”

“Would you like to improve your sexual life?” he repeated.

“Yes,” she whimpered as he stopped her swinging and the pain eased.

“Are you willing to learn what it takes to make it happen?”

All it would take was to lose those pounds and get the hell away from here!

“Are you?”

“How?”

“Yes or no?”

“Yes, dammit!”

“Then I will teach you that, too.”

“
You
?”

“I am your trainer in all things.”

“No way! I’m not attracted to you.” Okay, so she wasn’t quite truthful with that one, not after the way she’d responded to the way he touched her, but sex? No way!

“For sure I don’t like you.”

“That’s not important. Along with adopting some exercise habits, you’ll learn intimate techniques. When you earn your rewards, it won’t matter who taught you.”

She shivered. “What rewards?”

“I ask the questions.”

Norris hesitated. She eased her weight from one foot to the other, stretching both her body and her viewpoint. If Adrian could teach her to seduce Jack, it would be worth whatever she had to go through. And no one would ever know. Client confidentiality worked both ways. She ran her tongue over her dry lips. Nodded.

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Bonnie Hamre

“I have some instructions for you. Listen carefully.” His voice was crisp, impersonal, as if she hadn’t just agreed to have sex with him. Sex with the man who’d bound her? Hurt her? Talk about kinky!

“First, you will wear a tunic when you are outside your rooms. Otherwise, you will be naked. “

“Why? So you can get your jollies?”

“My ‘jollies’ are my own concern. Being naked will help you remember your body at all times.”

“As if I’ll forget how much I hurt!”

“Your pain level will be your choice.” He paused to let her consider that. When she said nothing, he continued, “You will be clean at all times. This may mean several baths or showers a day as I decide.”

Okay, she’d expected massages and mud baths. She could live with that. She nodded.

“Your body will be mine to treat as necessary.”

Uh-oh. This one, no matter that she’d signed that damn contract and had just agreed to sex, this one made her uneasy. Being tethered was more than enough. What else did he have in mind? She started to ask, but he overrode her voice.

“Next, to learn respect for your body, you must be respectful. You will speak only when I give you permission. If you wish to say something, you may attract my attention by placing one finger beside your mouth. Like this.” He demonstrated, his long index finger resting beside her lips, facing inward. His finger was hard and warm. It was living proof that he was there with her, flesh and blood, not some heartless robot. She wished she could see him. Feel more than his finger. She parted her lips, as if inviting his finger in.

He stepped back. “As I indicated before, you will kneel in my presence. You will keep the position I taught you earlier, but you will sit with your back straight and your chin tucked in.

“You will look at me only when I give you permission.

“If you are in need of anything, you will ask me and if I agree, I may grant it.”

This smacked more and more of submission and domination, something she’d read about, but hadn’t ever experienced. She considered what that might mean. Her breasts tingled as she remembered some of the racier things she’d read. Bondage and physical restraints. Well, wasn’t she experiencing that right now? It hurt when she moved, and she felt powerless, tethered as she was to the bar above her head. He’d trussed her up here with no problem, proving he was stronger than she. If she had to ask for permission for what she wanted, that meant giving him additional power over her.

Could she do that? Give up control over her body to a man she’d labeled odious and a bully not long ago? But then, there had to be something in submitting to someone else that kept people coming back for more. She’d heard that there was a tremendous sexual 30

Sweet Discipline

satisfaction in submission and domination. If she agreed to Adrian’s demands, would she find some of that satisfaction for herself?

“From now on, I will be the only person you see. I will be everything to you.”

She frowned. She’d taken it for granted that she’d be working with other people.

Masseurs, skin care specialists, manicurists, and a dietician. Those were staff she’d find at any spa. But just him? That might be too intense. Her heart raced.

“Your meals will be brought to your room. You will not speak to the person who delivers them. When I give you permission, you may eat and drink what I allow.” Her protest died in her throat when he nudged her into another swing. Her wrists ached.

“If you disobey any of these instructions, or others I give you during training, you will be punished until you learn to discipline yourself.”

Fear rippled down her spine.

“You take my meaning. Good. I don’t enjoy giving pain, but I have no scruples about administering it. What you’re experiencing now is only the smallest example of what you might expect.”

She believed him. He’d been successful in demonstrating who had the upper hand, coolly trussing her and letting her hang while he sat comfortably.

“On the other hand, as you go through training and succeed at your tasks, you’ll be rewarded. One hand,” He ran his finger along the tendons of her left hand. “Discipline and pain. On the other hand,” he murmured as he traced the curve of her right arm from wrist to armpit. Her skin quivered as she waited for him to touch her breast.

“Success means rewards. Good feelings about yourself and your efforts.” She swallowed, eager to feel a taste of that particular reward.

He stepped away. “The choice is yours.”

She bit back a groan.

She felt him check the handcuffs then heard him move to the door. “I’ll be back later.”

“You’re going to leave me like this?” she wailed.

“Think about the choices you want to make.

He was through the door while she still spluttered. How could he leave her alone?

And more important, when was he coming back?

She tried to roll her shoulders. That didn’t work. She tried standing on one foot, then the other, but that didn’t relax the cramping in her legs. She tried to blank out her discomfort with thoughts of what she’d be doing if she hadn’t listened to Kendra and come to
Sweet Discipline
.

Damn Kenny!

For a few moments, it felt good to blame her friend for her predicament, but it was nobody’s fault but her own. Kendra had warned her. She’d disregarded that warning and insisted Kendra recommend her. Even at the last moment, Kendra had cautioned her. So now, she had no one to blame but herself.