The Dominant (19 page)

I pressed against her natural resistance and, with one gentle push, slipped the head of my cock inside. Again, I felt the
urge to thrust the rest of the way in and again I resisted, focusing on the woman in my arms, on the trust she had in me.
I would not destroy that trust.

She sucked in her breath.

Damn, she was hurting.

I removed my hand from her clit and found her hand. Took it in mine.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

It was painful, but while I could not totally ease the pain, I could show her I knew. That I would be gentle. That she was
cherished.

She sucked in another breath. “Yes.”

She wouldn’t lie. If she wanted me to stop, I would. If she told me she wasn’t okay, I would put an end to the night.

I squeezed her hand and leaned close to kiss the nape of her neck. “You’re doing great,” I whispered.

The tension left her body with one large sigh, and she melted against me.

I took the vibrator and turned it on. With one arm, I pulled her closer to my chest, leaving my hand between her breasts so
I could feel her breathing.

With the other hand, I ran the vibrator down her body, so she would be aware of what I was doing. My body shook with the need
to press forward, to thrust entirely within her, but instead, I slipped the vibrator inside her. Her breath hitched as I slowly
entered her both ways, pushing my cock farther inside at the same time as the vibrator.

I held her tightly to me, both our bodies strained with effort.

Just a little more. Stay with me, Abby
.

Almost
.

Then, finally, I was inside.

I let out the breath I’d been holding.

“Still okay?” I asked, surprised at the hoarseness of my voice.

“Yes,” she replied in her own hoarse voice.

I held still once again, allowing her time to adjust to the feeling of being filled so completely.

It was utter and complete hell.

Separated by only a thin piece of skin, the vibrator buzzed against my cock, driving me mad with the urge to begin thrusting.
The need to thrust. Anything to relieve the burning ache inside.

But her heart pounded under my fingers and her breath came in sharp gasps.

And I would not,
would not
, hurt her.

So I gritted my teeth and waited for her to relax.

I pulled the vibrator out slightly while holding my own body still. Then pushed it inside again as I pulled my hips back.
Back
and forth I worked the vibrator and my cock—one thrusting in as the other pulled out.

She felt so fucking tight. I groaned as I thrust and the vibrator struck me again. I held her even tighter against me. Her
heart raced.

I moved a bit faster, working my body and the vibrator opposite each other. She held still and groaned. I angled the vibrator
so it pressed against her clit and was rewarded with a tiny whimper.

I began thrusting faster, pushed the vibrator deeper. She squeezed her muscles around me, and I almost lost it.

Sweat ran down my face as I pushed us both toward climax. Wanting her to draw every conceivable bit of pleasure possible.

She tossed her head and moaned.

I couldn’t hold back anymore. I thrust again, and she screamed as her climax threw her back against me. Her muscles clenched
around me, drawing me deeper, forcing the vibrator against my cock.

Fuuuuuck
.

My release shot through me, and I thrust harder and bit into the tender skin of her back. She screamed again, her second orgasm
just as intense as her first.

She didn’t move for several seconds, but her heart pounded steadily under my hand and her breathing came in heavy pants.

“Abigail?”

“Oh, God.”

“Are you okay?”

She mumbled something but didn’t move. I wanted nothing more than to stay exactly where I was and never move again, but I
had to attend to Abby. Had to help bring her down, relax her so she wouldn’t be quite so sore in the morning. Let her know
just how much it meant that she’d trusted me.

“I’ll be right back,” I whispered, rolling off the bed and walking toward the bathroom.

I turned the dimmer switch on in the bathroom, casting the room in a warm, soft glow, and padded over to the tub. I’d brought
Abby’s toiletries from my house, and as warm water filled the tub, I poured her body wash in. Within minutes, the bathroom
was filled with wet, steamy, Abby-scented heat.

I walked back into the bedroom and found her still lying on the bed in the same position I’d left her in. I slipped my arms
under her body and carried her into the bathroom, where I placed her gently in the tub.

She sighed as the warm water enveloped her body. I took a washcloth and dipped it into the water, then squeezed it over her
shoulders, washing her gently. Cleaning first one arm and then the other.

I leaned her forward and washed her back. Reverently, I lifted her hair to one side and rubbed her neck, placing soft kisses
against the mark I’d left. When I finished with her back, I drew the washcloth over her breasts and watched the soapy bubbles
slide between them.

I washed her abdomen next, remembering how it had clenched in pleasure under my hands. Then I dipped my hands lower and pulled
her knees up so I could wash her legs.

The entire time, she lay against the back of the tub with her eyes closed. A small smile played along her lips.

I slipped the washcloth between her legs, being as gentle as I could.

“Lift up for me, my lovely,” I said.

She raised her butt, and I drew the washcloth lower, washing away the last traces of my release and the lube. Then I pulled
the plug from the tub and let the water drain out.

I picked her back up and sat her on the edge of the tub. I draped one towel around her shoulders while I took another and
dried her feet. Slowly, I worked my way up, drying every inch of her perfect body.

When I finished, I took a brush from the countertop and brushed her hair with soft, gentle strokes. “You were wonderful. I
knew you would be.”

She smiled again.

I took the nightgown I had hanging on the bathroom hook and slipped it over her head. Then I picked her back up and carried
her to her bedroom.

She was already asleep when my lips brushed her forehead.

I woke at five thirty and slipped quietly out of the suite to hit the exercise room downstairs. Before leaving, I stopped
by Abby’s room. She was sleeping soundly and probably wouldn’t wake up before my return.

My thoughts ran back to the previous night, the way she’d melted against me, her complete and absolute trust. The night had
been a turning point in our relationship. Now we could start to delve more deeply into our play. I would show her even more
pleasure. Make her scream out in delight more often.

When I returned to the suite more than an hour later, I called for room service and took a shower. Before walking back to
the living room, I stopped once more in Abby’s room and left a cold bottle of water and a couple of ibuprofen. She might be
sore when she woke.

The knock on the door sounded as I left her room, and I went to let room service in.

After the deliveryman left, I heard the water running in Abby’s bathroom.

Excellent.

While I waited, I sat at the table and ate my own breakfast. Not that I counted, but she stepped into the living room twenty
minutes later.

“Come sit down and have breakfast, Abigail.”

She sat at the table and started eating.

“Linda and Elaina want you and Felicia up in the spa at nine thirty,” I said. “I’m not sure what they have planned, but apparently
you won’t finish until sometime this afternoon.”

She ate silently while I drank another cup of coffee. I wondered what she was thinking. I thought briefly about asking her
to spend the day with me instead of going to the spa—I’d beg out of the golf game and we could do something together. But
I remembered how I wanted her to spend time with my family and changed my mind.

“Come here,” I said, when she finished eating. I walked into the living room and she followed.

I moved behind her. “Elaina and Felicia know of our lifestyle. I’d like to think my aunt doesn’t, but even if she does”—I
unhooked her collar—“there’s no reason to flaunt it in her face.” I circled her and stood before her. “You’ll get your collar
back this afternoon.”

Her head dropped.

Was she upset I took it off? Had she wanted to wear it to the spa? Where people might ogle her? Where my aunt would wonder
why she insisted on wearing a necklace?

Or maybe . . .

Maybe she didn’t want to take it off because of what it represented.

I lifted her chin and stared into her eyes. “You’re still mine,” I assured her. “Even with this off.”

Jackson sat downstairs in the lobby. At least, I thought it was Jackson.

He wore a hooded sweatshirt, dark sunglasses, and a wig made up of dark dreadlocks.

“Hey, man,” he said. “There you are.”

“What the hell are you wearing?”

“I’m in disguise.”

I glanced around the lobby—we were drawing all sorts of stares. “I don’t think it’s working. You just look like a football
player in disguise.”

“Yeah, but which football player?” His eyebrows waggled. “No one knows and no one has asked for an autograph yet.”

“That doesn’t mean the disguise is working. It just means you’re scaring people off.” I smiled. “But now that I’ve approached
you, maybe everyone else will work up the nerve.”

“Damn it.” He pushed his hood back, exposing more dreads.

“Did you get hit in the head too many times at practice? What are you doing hanging out here on your own?”

“I wanted to talk to you before I left with the team and you went off with Todd.”

I glanced around the spacious lobby. A small cluster of chairs sat in a far corner.

“I’ve got twenty minutes.” I nodded toward the corner. “Let’s go over there.”

“What’s going on?” I asked once we sat down.

“Last night, Felicia and I—”

“Take off the sunglasses. I can’t concentrate on a word you’re saying when you look like that.”

He slipped off the glasses. “Felicia and I . . .”

I could not for the life of me decide where this was going. Had Felicia said something? Did she and Jackson break up? How
would it affect my relationship with Abby if they broke up?

“Yes?” I said.

“It was like nothing I’ve ever done. I mean, we just talked, you know? Talked. Then we walked and we talked some more.” He
shook his head, like he couldn’t believe it either. “She’s unbelievable. Like no one I’ve ever met. ’Course she’s smokin’
hot as well.”

I nodded. I supposed she was hot. If you liked redheads. I thought back to Abby—her lush brown hair, the graceful curves of
her body. Felicia Kelly had nothing on Abby King.

“I grew up watching Mom and Dad,” Jackson said. “Watched Todd and Elaina fall in love. I mean”—his expression grew serious—“I
just never thought I’d find what they had.”

I knew exactly what he meant.

“But now,” he continued, “whenever I’m with her, I feel like it’s there. Like I can reach out and touch it.” He shook his
head. “I don’t know. Maybe I should talk to Todd. But I thought if you understood, if you thought it was possible to find
. . .”

Why would he think I knew anything? Me? I was in no position to offer any sort of advice. Especially on that subject. Surely
he knew as much. I had no knowledge, no expertise whatsoever on relationships. Which is why the next words out of my mouth
surprised us both.

“Of course I think it’s real,” I said. “That you can find it. And if you’ve found it with Felicia, I couldn’t be happier for
you.”

Todd beat me at golf. It was a close game, but in the end, as I told him, everyone knew doctors didn’t really work. They just
played golf all day. Of course he won.

After the game, I asked him if he wanted to go find a drink. I wasn’t sure why I’d decided to talk to him—maybe I still felt
something of a natural high after the previous night.

Or maybe it was because Todd knew about my lifestyle and I finally felt like I could talk about it with someone close to me.
I didn’t know. I think I just wanted someone to talk to.

Abby and I were to have dinner with Todd and Elaina later, but dinner was hours away and I didn’t want to spend those hours
alone in the hotel room. Looking back, that drink with Todd would be both the best and the worst decision I ever made.

We sat down and I thought for a few minutes about how to approach the subject of my lifestyle with Todd. I finally decided
to be direct.

“Abby told me you know about our lifestyle,” I said after the server took our order.

Todd’s eyes bulged out. Obviously, he hadn’t planned on me taking the direct approach.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I wanted to get it out there. I don’t want it to become the elephant in the room.”

He sat back in the booth. “That’s some elephant, Nathaniel. Are you sure you want to talk about this?”

“Why not? I have nothing to hide. But let me ask you—how did you find out?”

“Melanie visited a few months ago.” He paused briefly and I nodded. “I think it was hard on her, the breakup with you. She
wanted to see some familiar faces and, once she saw us, she broke down.”

“I knew dating her was a bad idea.”

“Why did you do it?”

I raised an eyebrow. “You aren’t going to psychoanalyze me, are you?”

He laughed. “You’re my best friend. It would be unethical for me to psychoanalyze you.” The corner of his mouth lifted. “Although
it would be fun.”

“Shut up.”

“Sorry. I couldn’t help it.” He grew serious. “Why did you do it?”

“I wanted to see if I could do a ‘normal’ relationship. It had been a long time.”

“How long?” He glanced around the nearly empty bar. “Listen, man, you don’t have to answer anything you don’t want to. I get
too close, you tell me to shut the fuck up, okay?”

I nodded. “Okay. I was in graduate school at Dartmouth. I’d
had a few relationships, nothing serious, nothing too exciting. I wasn’t a girl magnet like Jackson. I didn’t meet the love
of my life in the sandbox like you. Linda never said anything, but I knew she didn’t like me being alone all the time.”

“You never did bring anyone home.”

“I never found anyone I wanted to bring home. I had this friend, Paul, who was a dominant. I went to a few parties with him,
hung out some.” I closed my eyes, thought back to the early years. “I never looked back. I enjoyed the lifestyle—grew to where
I needed it. I’ve wondered, over the years, if my childhood had anything to do with it.”

“Probably not.”

“I thought you weren’t going to psychoanalyze me.”

Todd threw his hands up. “No analysis. Just my thoughts.”

“You have a lot of experience in this?”

“No, but I don’t think your parents’ deaths have anything to do with it. I don’t think it’s just one thing. I mean, why do
some people like green and others blue? It’s just the way your brain works.”

“You don’t think it comes from some overwhelming urge to control everything?”

“Do you?”

I thought about the question. Thought back to my time with Melanie, and to Paige and Beth. And Abby. “No,” I said honestly.

“Okay then. There’s your answer.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “I always thought maybe there was something wrong with me.”

“You know better than that.”

“I know. I know.” I picked through the peanuts the server had brought. “It’s just hard sometimes.”

“Doesn’t look too hard lately.” He smiled. “You and Abby, huh?”

I ducked my head, images of the night before running through my mind. “She’s . . . not like anyone I’ve ever been with.”

“And that’s a good thing?”

“A really good thing.” After last night, our relationship would only grow better.

“A really good permanent thing?”

“Hell, Todd, we’ve been together for only a little over a month. Give me a break.”

“Right, right, right.” He popped some peanuts in his mouth. “But the potential’s there?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know if I’m cut out for that.”

“See that?” He pointed at me. “That right there? I think that’s due to your childhood.”

“And this—” I pointed at him. “This right here? I think this is when I tell you to shut the fuck up.” I smiled so he would
know I hadn’t taken offense, but that I meant every word.

“Sorry. It’s the job. Hard to quit, you know?”

“I don’t need a head shrink.”

He wasn’t paying me any attention. “It’s just that when my workaholic best friend brings a new woman around, walks with a
spring in his step, and smiles all the time . . .”

“Knock it off, Todd.”

“And are those diamonds in her collar?” He wrinkled his brow. “I don’t remember any of your other girlfriends wearing diamonds.”

“I mean it.”

“And you’ve known her how long? A few weeks?”

I stood up.

“Okay, okay,” he said. “I’ll stop. Sit down and finish your beer.”

I took a long swig and looked at my watch. Still too early for the women to be finished at the spa. Damn. Why had I thought
it a good idea for Abby to spend so much time away from me on a weekend?

My mind went back to the night before. How I’d held her in my arms and given her so much pleasure that she screamed.

“I meant to ask you,” Todd said, dragging me away from my pleasant thoughts again. “What ever happened to that girl you liked
at Columbia? Wonder if Abby knew her.”

My mind was still hazy with thoughts of the previous night. That was the only reason I could come up with later to explain
my unplanned admission.

“It was Abby.”

He set his beer bottle down and leaned close. “Really?”

“Really.”

“Wow.” He took a drink of his beer, swiveled the bottle. “What did she say when you told her?”

I broke out in a cold sweat.

Fuck.

“I—uh—I—” I stammered.

He raised an eyebrow. “You did tell her you’ve been somewhat obsessed with her, right?”

“Not exactly.”

“What do you mean, not exactly?”

“I couldn’t tell her while she was still at Columbia,” I said. “I was already a dom and didn’t want to corrupt her. I knew
we couldn’t have a normal relationship. That’s why I never approached her.”

“But that was six years ago. You must have told her when . . . when she became your submissive.”

“I didn’t exactly tell her then, either.”

“What?”

I had already admitted everything—there wasn’t any reason to lie. “I haven’t told her.” I didn’t add a “yet.” I wasn’t sure
I’d ever tell her.

Todd’s jaw clenched. “You haven’t told her?”

“No. And don’t you go trying to be the morality police.”

“Wait a minute.” He held up a hand. “You followed this woman around for years—”

“I never followed her.”

“You damn well might as well have.” He sighed. “I knew you were up to no good, but now . . . fuck.”

“Stay out of it.”

“The hell I will. I won’t pretend to know or understand everything involved in this lifestyle of yours, but from what I do
know, honesty and trust are two of the most important aspects.”

“Exactly,” I said. “You don’t know, so don’t try to act like you do. What have you done? Read a few books? Googled it?”

“I understand this,” he said, voice rising slightly. “You’ve deceived Abby.”

“I’ve never deceived Abby.”

“You deceive her every second you don’t tell her the truth.”

He was right. He was right and I knew it. He spoke my worst fear. Voiced the worries that nagged me as I fell to sleep every
night.

You’re wrong
, the worries said.

Tell her
, they insisted.

I’d ignored them and pretended I couldn’t hear, but I no longer had that ability.

So I did the only thing I could do—I took the anger I felt at myself and turned it on Todd.

“Shut the fuck up,” I said. “You know nothing. Nothing. Everything is going just fine—”

“Fine?” he interrupted. “
Fine?
You think Abby will think what you’ve done is fine? I’ve seen her, Nathaniel. I’ve seen you. That woman is in love, and if
you think she’s going to be fine when she finds out what you’ve done—”

“Who’s going to tell her? You?”