Emma spread her thighs, and Dan homed in on the center of her desire. Molten pleasure spiraled outward, spiking when Dan lightly bit her nipple.
She reached for his cock to bring him the pleasure he was giving her, but he dodged her grasp. “No.” He shook his head and nipped her again. “This is for you. Just for you.” He sucked on each nipple, then scooted down her body and settled himself between her thighs.
She held her breath as he parted her folds, but he lay there, seemingly content to gaze. The warmth of his gentle exhalation against her flesh stirred her simmering desire, but when he finally fluttered his tongue over her clit, Emma discovered he wasn't a magician, but an actual sorcerer who spellbound her body into performing at his command. The sensation he wrested from her was nothing short of wizardry.
"Oh my God, Dan. Oh God,” she cried, grabbing handfuls of his hair. He sucked on her clit and slid first one, then a second finger into her channel. He finger fucked her, reaching upward to torment a particularly sensitive spot. She squeezed her muscles around his fingers.
Dan transported her to the brink of orgasm, then stopped. Her cry of protest morphed into a moan of pleasure as he licked his way up her tummy. He flicked lightly—too lightly—at her nipples.
He kissed her, communicating the depth of his need with his hungry mouth, and a granite cock oozed a snail trail of precum on her leg. She closed her fingers around his girth, satisfaction coiling within her at the way he throbbed in her hand.
He permitted her to stroke for a moment but then freed himself and flipped her over to position her on her hands and knees. Excitement shot through her like a bullet. Dan stroked her clit, then trailed his fingers along her cleft before smoothing his hands over her ass.
"You're no longer red,” he commented.
She shook her head. “It faded after a few days."
"Does it still ache?"
"No, that went away too.” She could hear the pout in her voice. “Darn it."
He chuckled. “I think I can fix that."
The lamp behind them cast their reflections in silhouette on the opposite wall, the shadow of a woman in submission, the man poised behind her. Emma sighed at the rightness, at the sense of coming home. All the roads she'd walked in her life had converged to this moment. She couldn't return to who she'd been before. That Emma no longer existed. Her surrender padlocked her past but liberated her future.
Dan caressed her ass, squeezing and warming.
She craned her neck and peered around her shoulder. The reverence in his eyes pierced her heart. Yes, she craved the physicality of being spanked, but more, she treasured the connection with Dan. “I'm glad it's you,” she softly.
Emma returned her attention to their twins on the wall.
The male shadow raised his hand.
Ah, sweet bliss...
DAN CRACKED HIS hand sharply across Emma's right cheek. She flinched, more from surprise, he thought, than real pain, although her ass blushed immediately. Her breasts swayed with the impact. Not giving her time to catch her breath, he delivered several smart smacks in rapid succession to each pert cheek.
The snapping of flesh against flesh beat a sharp, sweet rhythm, harmonized by Emma's blissful whimpers. His erection throbbed in time, urging him to fuck her, but a lust running deeper than desire delayed the dictate.
He had spanked her with a hairbrush and a paddle, but tonight his hunger could only be sated by the intimate connection of skin-to-skin contact.
He
craved the sting, the pain that radiated up his arm, needed to feel the heat rise in her skin as her tender cheeks reddened. He wanted his hand to make her honeyed pussy cream, his palm to bring moans and whimpers to her lips.
Dan delivered a heavy spank to Emma's cheek, and she rewarded him with a jerk and a yelp, then a moan. His cock throbbed with lust.
He varied his pace and intensity to ensure no discernible rhythm would develop to permit her to coast through the sensation. Dan wanted her to fully experience the sharp edge of rapture and wait with bated breath for the next caress. He spanked her soundly, crisply, until her ass colored to that beautiful rose he loved so well and moisture from her aroused pussy glistened in her curls and ran down her inner thighs.
Emma was born for this.
He sat back to drink in the loveliness of her color and her supplicating, submissive pose. A sense of completion, of perfection welled up in him, filling him with warmth rivaling the heat emanating from her reddened bottom.
"Oh God, don't stop now!” She tossed her head back and widened her passion-glazed eyes in alarm. Her pretty face was flushed with desire, her lips swollen from his earlier kisses. Her breasts swung with her movement, the hard tips a temptation too enticing to resist.
He pinched one pebble-hard bead in a manner that would have been painful at the onset but that now delivered the right amount of pressure to make it erotic. She flung her head back and sucked the air in through her clenched teeth in a hiss of pleasure.
He grunted in satisfaction. He loved that she enjoyed receiving as much as he enjoyed giving.
Dan released her nipple and pressed his palm against her upper back. Emma responded to his gentle command and lowered her shoulders until her face rested on the bed. The position lifted her hips and enhanced the presentation of her ass and sex. Carnal hunger shuddered through him. Raised by loving parents to believe in an egalitarian partnership between the sexes, Dan respected women and was falling in love with this one. He would never think of ordering Emma around, of dominating her outside of the bedroom. But inside? He couldn't deny his primal need for her to submit to him this way.
He ran his hands possessively over her shoulders, down her back, to the slope of her ass. He squeezed one cheek, fascinated by the way redness receded, then returned to full flush. He shifted his gaze from the rosy stain to her swollen pussy. He trailed a finger along her cleft, then slipped it inside her slick channel. Emma gripped his finger, and his mind flooded with memories of her squeezing his cock. Fighting for control, he yanked his hand away and rained a barrage of slaps against her buttocks. Balancing her weight on one arm, Emma reached between her legs for her clit.
"No!” He stung her ass. One day he would spank her as she masturbated to orgasm, but not today. “Not yet, Emma."
She moaned a protest but obeyed. Exultation swelled his chest and his cock. He'd never wanted to fuck her more than he did in that moment. He slapped her again.
His hand ached, but he spanked her until her cheeks glowed and she went wild, twisting to avoid the blows, rearing back to receive another. He probed her entrance with his cock, then dived for home, his guttural cry of fulfillment merging with her passion-soaked moan. He plunged into her, a man possessed, a man clinging to control by a thread. He gripped her hip with one hand as he strummed her clit with other.
"Yes. Yes!” she cried, her body tensing, her pussy tightening and spasming around his cock. Behind his eyes, he saw stars.
"Dan!” Emma screamed and arched her back.
Blood roared through his ears, obliterating everything but the needs of his body. His muscles knotted, tension swelled, and his balls contracted. “Oh fuck,” he growled as his hips took over, pounding, propelling him toward the abyss. With a cry, he spilled himself.
EMMA LAY GASPING, too dazed to move, to think, to speak. Only her basic senses seemed capable of responding, registering Dan's movement as he separated from her, padded into the en suite bath, then returned.
She slumped crosswise on the bed. Dan yanked aside the comforter and top sheet. She grumbled as he scooped her up and relocated her.
"You're cold.” He crawled in beside her and tucked her body against his. He covered them both with the sheet and quilt. “You have goose bumps.” He rubbed her arm.
The warmth of his hand made her realize she did feel chilly—except for her bottom. Her ass felt plenty warm. She smiled.
Dan curved an arm beneath her head and cupped a breast with his other hand. His cock, still semihard, nestled between her cheeks. “All right?” he asked with an undertone that signaled he was inquiring about more than her body temperature.
"Wonderful,” she purred, recalling how she'd screamed his name like a banshee. Fortunately she'd learned her lesson and hadn't made any more sucker bets. “Is my butt pink?” She wiggled against him. The contact with his hair-roughened skin deliciously seared her bottom.
"No, not pink.” His chin rubbed against her hair.
"Oh.” How stupid to feel disappointed.
"Your ass is fiery red.” His tone vibrated with triumph.
She smiled. “Proud of yourself, are you?"
He shook his head. “Humbled."
Emma rolled in his arms to face him. His eyes were serious. “Your willingness to trust me, to give yourself over to me and gain pleasure from spanking humbles me,” he said.
She caressed his sandpapery cheek. “You set me free. I had a need deep inside. I didn't know what it was until I met you.” Acceptance made the complex simple. What was, was. Emma would fight to the death for equality in the business world. Let a guy boss her around, and he'd discover the short end of her temper, for sure. But being spanked filled a core need to submit to a stronger force—a masculine one.
Dan kissed her gently. “You're my other half, Emma,” he said. “You're the part that makes me whole."
Her eyes welled with tears, and her lips quivered. “Me too. I mean, you too. You're half too."
He brushed a tear of joy from her cheek. “Are you saying I'm half a man?” He grinned.
Who could have predicted she'd meet and fall for a guy who happened to be passing through her neighborhood? A gentleman who was strong when it counted, who liked cats—or at least, Jinx—who cooked, and who fucked like a stallion. A guy who'd fulfilled her secret, deepest desire. Her ass throbbed blissfully. Her heart thumped. She'd found her keeper.
Chapter Thirteen
Emma was still floating on a cloud of well-being as she rode the elevator to her floor at Pacific Health on Thursday morning. Dan had made the sky bluer, the air fresher, the sun warmer. Her life richer. She jumped as a voice pierced her reverie.
"I'm sorry, did you say something?” Emma squinted at the woman standing next to her.
"I asked if you changed your hairstyle?” asked the female colleague Emma knew by face rather than name.
Emma tucked a strand of hair behind one ear. “No. It's still the same."
"New lipstick?” the woman asked.
"No."
The elevator dinged, and the door opened. “Well, you look good—whatever you did to yourself,” the woman said as she exited.
"Thank you,” Emma responded. The doors closed, leaving Emma to her thoughts.
Cocooned in the rosy aftermath of a weekend in Dan's arms, she felt insulated from the petty politics, punitive corporate culture, and the crises du jour. None of what occurred at work seemed important anymore. Her relationship with Dan, her discovery of her innermost desire—that mattered. By five p.m., she recalled little of the day's events, but as no one mentioned any glitches, she assumed she'd completed her tasks to her micromanaging boss's satisfaction.
If her insurance job barely blipped on her radar screen, her newspaper work caused a major spike. After killing her column, Emma had to hustle to fill the news hole. Before heading home for the day, she wrapped up some final interviews for her replacement column about people who kept exotic pets.
She arrived home late to a ringing phone. She'd already spoken to Dan twice, but her heart skipped as she raced for the receiver. “Hello?” she gasped.
"You sound out of breath. I'm not interrupting anything, am I?” Melania's cheerily wicked voice filled the earpiece.
"No. I just got in.” Clutching the handset, Emma went into the living room and sank onto her sofa. “How are you? What's up?"
"How are
you
?” Melania asked pointedly.
Emma's mouth twitched with amusement. Due to their busy jobs, she and Melania had played phone tag for several days. “Oh, Melania. I'm wonderful. Dan is amazing. I'm falling for him in a big way. Maybe I should slow down because we've only just met, but it feels so right."
"You do have the one big thing in common."
Emma tensed her butt cheeks in remembered pleasure. “Yeah."
"You're an inspiration to women everywhere."
Emma laughed. “I don't think I'm that."
Melania was insistent. “You are. You set a goal, and you achieved it. You wanted to meet a dominant man who practiced domestic discipline, so you joined Rod and Cane and bagged the most eligible bachelor in the Society."
Emma frowned. “I didn't meet Dan through Rod and Cane."
"No, but what a great coincidence!"
"What do you mean?” The hairs on the back of Emma's neck stood up. This didn't sound good.
"Dan's on the governing board!” Melania announced as if Emma had won the grand prize.
"Of Rod and Cane?” Emma's voice shot up half an octave.
"He didn't tell you?” Melania giggled. “I guess you've been doing too much spanking to talk about spanking, huh?"
Emma clamped the phone between her ear and shoulder and shot off the couch. She sprinted to her dining table and tore through the thick folder of transcribed notes in search of the Rod and Cane Society directory.
"How do you know Dan is a member?” Emma asked as she thumbed through the gold-embossed book.
"Jared happened to mention it,” Melania said at the same time Emma spotted the name Daniel Tanner. No wonder his name had sounded familiar when she had met him. She had seen it in the directory at some point.
Emma sighed at the complicated web she'd woven for herself. “Oh crap."
"Why do you say it like that? This is a good thing,” Melania said. Emma knew her friend ranked Rod and Cane third in line after God and country.
"It's a...surprise.” Emma improvised. “I didn't mean ‘oh crap’ like it sounded.” When you lived a double life, you had to watch every word you said.