Tabula Rasa (24 page)

“Is that all you bought?” he asked, oblivious to my internal
struggle.

I felt heat flood into my face. “I bought some lingerie,” I
mumbled.

An eyebrow raised. “Oh, really? Put it on. Now. Then come back
downstairs. And bring the candles with you.”

My heart was nearly throbbing out of my body. I felt like I was
vibrating from the inside out as I changed out of regular clothes,
and into the lingerie. I added a swipe of cherry red gloss to my
lips. I put the candles in the paper shopping bag the lingerie had
been in and descended the stairs back to Shannon.

But he wasn’t in the living room.

“Shannon?”

“I’m in my office. Come on back.”

He glanced up when I walked in. “Are those the candles?” he
asked, indicating the bag I carried.

“Yes, Sir.”

“Good. Put them there on the side table.”

There was a large glass table next to a window with a white leather
chair beside it. On the table stood various decanters of alcohol that
appeared to contain different types of whiskeys—bourbon, scotch,
all the usual suspects. Next to that were glasses of varying shapes
to allow the flavors to do whatever magic thing they seemed to do in
just the right glass. Next to all this was an empty space where I put
the bag.

“You can sit,” he said, indicating the white chair I stood
beside. I sank into the leather. On the ground at my feet was a thick
black shag rug.

Meanwhile Shannon clacked away at the keys on his laptop. Every now
and then he’d make a
hmmm
sound, but other than that, he
just stared intently at the screen. I had no idea what he was looking
at, and although I was deeply curious, I wasn’t foolish enough to
ask.

I also tried not to be too put off by the fact that he hadn’t had
any strong reaction or even any
discernible
reaction at all to
the lingerie. Did he not like it? I hated the way this made me feel.
For weeks before our relationship had changed, I’d felt comfortable
and safe with him. But the moment things had shifted... he made me so
nervous now. Those nerves were no longer about what he might do to me
but about what he might
not
do. I couldn’t stand the idea
that he’d lost interest in me, not because I thought he might get
rid of me in some gruesome way but because I couldn’t stand the
idea of losing him.

Shannon’s eyes narrowed, and he looked up at me, accusation in his
gaze. “You drank red wine in my bathroom.” When he spoke, the
words came out in that scary dead calm of his.

“I-I’m sorry. I was taking a bubble bath.”

“Yes. I can see that.”

“What?”

“Oh, you thought I’d just leave you alone in my house without
monitoring the situation? There are hidden security cameras all over
this house. I’m watching the footage. Additionally, I’m
confirming all the places you’ve said you’ve been. I can’t know
what exactly you said or did while there, but I know everywhere you
went and when you went there.”

“How?”

“I put a tracking device in your shoes.”

“But... when?” He’d left so fast that day.

“The night before I left. I set up the money and everything else
the night before as well.”

So... if I’d run, he would have just brought his little computer
with him and tracked me down that way. I had no doubts that Shannon
could find me anywhere. I just hadn’t thought he would do it in
such a literal tracking device way.

“I can’t believe you put a tracking device in my shoes.”

“Be glad I didn’t insert a chip under your skin. I’m still
considering it.”

This was the kind of thing that always brought home to me what an
idiot I was where Shannon was concerned. I thought he had no
malevolent intentions and that I could trust him, and yet he was
calmly considering implanting me with a tracking device. Wasn’t
that evil? If Trevor had done it? Yes. If Professor Stevens had done
it, no question. But my mind went out of its way to give Shannon a
pass for everything. As long as he was feeding me, caring for me, not
hurting me, and giving me orgasms, my brain refused to register him
as a threat—at least for more than a couple of minutes at a time
anymore.

And he wasn’t hurting me. Outside of sex games, he’d never raised
a hand to me. He’d never lost his temper in any measurable way that
would give the average person pause. And I really, really liked being
here with him, despite all the fluttery nervous fucked-up feelings he
made me feel. And half of that I would have felt with any man I was
so attracted to.

Shannon closed the lid of the laptop and slid it into the middle desk
drawer. Then he opened another drawer and pulled out some scary
looking chains and cuffs and a collar.

“Come here.”

I swallowed around the hard lump in my throat but went to him. When I
reached him, he finally took a moment to appreciate the lingerie. He
drank me in slowly, his eyes roving over every inch of me as if
trying to mentally capture the image forever in his mind. His hands
followed his gaze, skimming over me.

“I like this. We have to buy you more beautiful things that you can
barely wear in my presence. And once we have these things, I expect
you to only put normal clothes on to leave the house. Is that clear?”

My breath got stuck in my throat for a moment. “Y-yes, Sir.”

“Good.”

His hands traveled under the sheer black lace. He ripped the panties
off. “No panties,” he said. “I don’t care if it comes with
it. No panties. I don’t want anything ever in my way.”

When his hand moved between my legs without any obstruction, I
started to grind against it, unable to help myself. He pulled away.

“No, not yet. Down on your knees.”

There was a second black shag rug underneath this desk. I knelt on
the thick carpet and waited for further instruction. None came.
Instead, he took the black leather collar off the desk and secured it
around my throat. The chain that was attached made a sharp clanking
sound against the desk as it was dragged along.

Shannon undid his pants and freed his cock. He didn’t have to say
anything else. I took him into my mouth and sucked like my life
depended on it. I dragged it out as long as I could, teasing and
pulling away whenever he seemed close to the edge. I licked and
stroked and caressed him until I’d worked him into a state I’d
not yet seen him in. His fingers tangled in my hair as he groaned and
came with a shudder. But I didn’t let up until he was finished and
pushed me away.

His breathing came very heavy for several minutes. I felt flushed and
pleased with myself as I stared up at him from the floor.

“Your punishment is going to be worse, now,” he said.

“What? Why?”

“Because you
thought that talented little mouth could lighten your sentence. Well,
you
are
quite talented, but that sort of manipulation doesn’t work on me.”

“I wasn’t trying...” We both knew I was lying.

“Of course you were.”

Shannon put the cuffs on my wrists and ankles, then he stood and
pulled me up with him by the chain.

“Bend over the desk and spread your legs wide.”

When I did, he moved the chain out of the way, and he took my arms
and spread them out to either corner of the desk. He attached the
cuffs to discreet metal rings that were attached to the corners. I
hadn’t noticed them before, though I was sure they must have been
there the other night when I’d used the computer.

Off my confused expression, he said, “I put them in the day after
the party.”

I was stupidly happy that he hadn’t done this with another woman in
here.

He similarly attached my ankles by the cuffs to the rings at the
bottom corners of the desk. Then he moved behind me and shoved the
lingerie up over my hips. I thought he was going to fuck me like
this, but instead, he went to the side table and withdrew the candles
one by one from the bag. There were six in all. He brought them back
to the desk and put three on either side of me in the large empty
space of the desk that my body wasn’t occupying. He lit them.

“Elodie, you know how much I dislike messes. You knew I wouldn’t
approve of candles burning all over my house. Or you drinking red
wine—or any wine—in my bathroom.”

I was about to protest, but yeah, I knew. And I’d done it anyway.
But sometimes a girl needed a glass of wine in the bubble bath and
candles.

“I just needed comforting things. And you weren’t here.”

An odd expression moved over his face, and for a moment, I thought
I’d somehow moved him to compassion, but in the next second, it was
gone, replaced with the kind of devilish glee I imagined he got on
his face moments before he completed a job.

“Be that as it may... candles drip.”

“Not the fat ones.” If they were taper candles, I’d see his
point, but he was being over-the-top about this issue.

I shrieked when his hand came down hard across my ass without
warning.

“Don’t talk back,” he said.

“Yes, Sir.”

I let out a hiss and gripped the side of the desk as hot wax landed
on my flesh right where his hand had been a moment before. I glanced
over to find Shannon holding one of the candles with an almost
maniacal look on his face.

“Like I said, candles drip.”

I wasn’t nearly stupid enough to ask why he wasn’t worried about
the mess he would no doubt make by intentionally causing the candles
to drip. I just kept my mouth shut about that one.

“All of these candles drip,” he said, as if this were some novel
discovery the world should know about.

He shoved the lingerie farther up my back, giving him a nice expanse
of flesh to work with. I felt another sharp sting as what seemed to
me like molten lava dripped down my back. I squeezed my eyes shut,
whimpered, and tried to breath through it.

“Please, Sir, it hurts.”

“I know it hurts. Punishments are meant to hurt. That’s why we call them
punishments.” He poured the remaining wax out of that candle onto
my skin to the sound of my shrieking protest. Then he blew that
candle out and set it on the desk. “Only five more to go. You can
take it.”

He pushed a finger inside me. “Maybe I should punish you more if
this excites you so much.”

I shook my head furiously. “No, please... no. I can’t help how my
body reacts, please, please Shannon.”

He smacked my ass. “Sir,” he corrected. “Don’t try to get
personal with me. I know what you’re doing. If you’d been a good
girl in the first place, this wouldn’t be happening.”

Shannon moved on to the second candle and a new fresh piece of skin.
I gripped the edge of the table as he poured all the wax over me at
once.

“Shit!” I shouted.

“Tell me you’re sorry, Elodie.”

“I’m sorry, Sir. P-please. Please, I won’t do it again.”

He moved close to my ear and whispered, “You may as well have a
little fun occasionally, I’ll probably do this to you anyway.”

“N-not this much, okay?”

“Be good and we’ll see.”

After the third candle and a lot of panicked tears and pleading,
Shannon did something miraculous. He showed mercy and blew out the
other candles.

“T-thank you, Sir.” In some strange way I was sure this meant something. Why
should he show me any mercy when he liked this so much and when it
wasn’t going to actually harm me? Did my distress bother him now?
Was that possible?

In moments like this, he was more human to me. It seemed as though we
had some sort of real connection. It wasn’t hard to imagine he was
a regular guy, and I was his regular girlfriend. No trauma or
skeletons in our respective closets

My hands went limp, no longer clutching at the desk. Despite how much
it had hurt, I was humiliated to realize how wet I was now. Shannon
chuckled as his hand moved between my legs.

“Despite your protests and begging, part of you likes that,” he growled.

I didn’t bother denying it. For better or worse it tripped my
wires, and delivering it tripped Shannon’s. With the fingers of one
hand, he stroked my clit, and with the fingers of the other, he
penetrated me. Both of those large, strong hands touching me like
that had me gripping the desk and begging again, this time for more.

“Please,” I panted as I moved with him.

“I want you to come for me. Come harder than you’ve ever come. I want to feel it.
If you don’t, I’m going to have to relight those candles.”

The panic of that possibility sent me spiraling into the strongest,
hardest orgasm I’d ever had, not only with Shannon, but ever.

“Good girl,” he whispered in my ear. “You know I hate messes.” He held his
hand next to my face and I obediently licked my juices up.

While my breathing went back to normal, he uncuffed me from the desk
and peeled the hardened wax off my skin. He ran his fingertips over
the places where it had dripped. “You’ve got a few burn marks,
but they aren’t serious. Go get cleaned up and I’ll take you out
for dinner. There’s a nice little Italian place on the other end of
town. Do you like Italian?”

What the fuck? Not that I was complaining about being taken to a nice
dinner, but what the actual fuck was going on? I wasn’t stupid
enough to verbalize this, however.

“Yes, Sir.”

“Good, then we’ll go as soon as you get ready.” He put everything that looked
like an impromptu dungeon, back in the lower desk drawer and gave me
my lingerie, then took out his laptop. “I need to make a private
call, so if you’ll close the door behind you.”

I nodded absently, still not sure I’d heard him right about going
out for dinner. Though why shouldn’t we go out? I’d already
proven, given total free reign and him probably out of the state
somewhere for days, that I would return right back to my crate like a
good dog.

“Do you want me to take the candles?”

He glanced up sharply, that look of disapproval on his face. That
would be a no.