Linger (12 page)

Luca hadn't led her astray yet.

“If you think that's all I've got, you weren't paying attention the night we first met.” Scarlett was amused to see a trickle of apprehension work its way down Logan's face. Smiling to herself, she moved back to her bag, sifted through the contents, and considered her options.

Chains rattled as Logan tried to turn, to see what she was doing, so she made sure to remain just out of his line of sight.

If he had time to brace for what was coming, to think about it, to get angry over it, he'd use that anger to shore his walls right back up. So she had to take him straight through to release, one that overwhelmed him, in order to make any headway.

Her body ached to strip him bare, to strip herself, to press up against him.

She ignored it.

Decision made, Scarlett carefully laid her chosen toys out on the scattering of straw that covered the floor, then rose with the two things she needed first.

Next she dragged a small stool over to bring her closer to his height. At five six, she wasn't
that
tall, but Logan still loomed over her.

The heels of her boots clicked sharply on the worn wood of the stool as she stepped up. Logan craned his neck, trying to see what she was doing, his entire body jerking in resistance when she placed the soft silk of the blindfold over his head.

“Take that off,” he snapped at her, shaking like a dog trying to shed drops after the rain. “I want to see.”

“We're not doing what you want right now.” Scarlett was out of breath by the time she managed to get the blindfold securely fastened. “We're doing what you need.”

“And you get to decide what that is?” Logan's voice was full of bravado, and if Scarlett hadn't been listening for it, she might have missed the slight tremor that lay beneath the bold words.

Whatever kept him from submitting fully, it haunted him, and her heart melted.

He'd asked her for this tonight. He'd turned to her for help. Which was why she had to ignore what she wanted and give him what he needed.

So yes, she was in control. He'd given his to her.

Steadying herself, Scarlett placed the noise-canceling headphones over his ears, holding them in place while he again cursed and shook. After selecting a Coldplay album, she clipped the attached iPod to the silk of the bandanna that was secured snugly behind his head.

Logan's body went rigid as she climbed down off the stool, and she knew that he understood the enormity of what she'd done. He couldn't see, could hear only what she wanted him to. He couldn't reach out to touch, could feel only what she gave him.

Kicking the stool away, she again took up the flogger. Now he wouldn't be able to see it, to hear the telltale hiss it made before landing. He wouldn't even be able to focus on the coming blows, because his mind would be occupied by the music playing in his ears.

Lifting the flogger, Scarlett let the supple ribbons fly.

Logan's body was completely tense and rigid—and she knew he was trying to hold on to some semblance of control. But she thudded blows over his shoulder blades and down his spine, heating his skin, waking up his senses.

It looked like the tension that he was holding so tightly on to was on the verge of easing, though he stayed silent.

Scarlett swung the next blow with more force, landing it right over the lower part of his ass so that he would feel the vibration all the way to his balls.

He shuddered, but still didn't utter a sound.

“Stubborn ass.” She couldn't hold in the smirk. “You're going down, baby.”

Tossing the flogger to the side, then scooping to stuff two more toys into the pocket of her jeans, she circled around him, studied his face. A fine sheen of sweat glossed his brow, and his mouth was set in tense, stubborn lines.

But he turned toward her, sensing her movement even through the blindfold and headphones, and that pleased her.

Baby steps
, she reminded herself as she slid a finger between his cuffs and his wrists, checking to make sure that they weren't too tight, then gave him a thorough once-over.

His breathing was quicker than normal, but even. His
skin was slightly flushed, and while he sure didn't look relaxed, she could tell he was still with her.

Reaching into her pocket, Scarlett removed the next item that she intended to use on Logan. They were a set, two slender pieces of metal that looked like skinny pliers, each with a wooden ball weighing down the ends.

Standing on her tiptoes, she fastened her mouth over one of Logan's nipples.

“Oh!” He groaned, his voice louder than usual because he couldn't hear himself. He pulled at his chains as Scarlett sucked hard, then flicked her tongue over the hardening flesh.

Pulling her mouth off of his skin with a wet pop, she pinched his nipple between two fingers, then applied the clamp.

“Damn it!” That big body bucked, and while he was preoccupied, Scarlett paid the same attention to the other side, sucking his nipple to a point and attaching the clip.

Finally, he stilled, the lines of his muscles telling Scarlett that he was furious. After dragging the beaten wooden stool over and stepping up on it, she pulled one side of the headphones away from his ears.

“What color are you at, Logan?” She made sure that her warm breath fanned out over the lobe of his ear as she spoke, adding every extra layer of sensation that she could.

As if by instinct and not design, he pressed into her touch rather than away from it, but his reply was still full of tension.

“Green,” he said curtly, and Scarlett nodded. She knew he wouldn't ever willingly use his safe word, but he'd confirmed what she'd noted.

Replacing the headphone, she flicked one of the heavy wooden balls dangling from the end of one of his clamps, sent it swinging, and smiled when he gasped. Then she circled behind him again, and this time she set aside the deer-hide
flogger for a cat-o'-nine-tails. Like its name suggested, the wand was connected to nine long ribbons, each with a bead at the end to add bite.

His skin was flushed a beautiful rose, darker in the places where the flogger had struck. Scarlett loved seeing it, loved knowing that she was the one who had marked him.

But now was not about her pleasure. It was about pushing him through his barriers so that he could obtain his own relief.

Being careful not to swing too hard, Scarlett let the cat-o'-nine-tails fly. It had enough bite on its own—she didn't need to put much force behind it. She struck slowly at first, a blow on one shoulder blade and then the other, repeating the pattern on his buttocks.

When he seemed to be anticipating those slower strikes, she upped the pace, the flogger landing in what she knew would feel like a series of quick little nips—nips from very sharp teeth.

And as she flogged him, as she wiped away her own sweat with her free hand, she kept an eagle eye on his body language. She'd known he was stubborn since her first interaction with him, but now—

Now she was starting to see just what lengths he would go to, to protect himself. He held out far longer than any sub she'd ever seen before finally, finally, he started arching to meet the blows, his breath slowing, deepening, demonstrating that he'd finally hit that high, the rush of endorphins known as subspace.

To keep the transition from being shocking, Scarlett dealt five more blows, decreasing the intensity of each until the last was just a tickle against the now red skin of his back.

Bending to pick up the final two items that she'd laid out, Scarlett noted that her own arms were trembling.

Seeing this particular man, this one who held on to control so fiercely, reacting so strongly to what she did to him, made her ache.

Inhaling deeply, she once again moved in front of him. A quick glance told her that his fingers were still pink, his skin still smooth, despite the way he'd been pulling at his cuffs.

Setting one of the two toys on top of the wood that bordered the stall, she opened up the bottle she held and squirted oil into her hand.

Rubbing it between her fingers to warm it, she looked up at Logan. For the first time since she'd met him, he seemed to be waiting expectantly for her next move.

It was the endorphins of subspace that had made him so open, but that didn't bother Scarlett. It was why she'd pushed him the way she had.

One day she hoped he would let her in consciously. But for now, it was her job to push him there, kicking and screaming if it came to it.

“Here we go,” she murmured, then clasped his erection in both hands.

“Fuck!” Logan reared back, then arched forward, pushing into her touch. He groaned as she interlaced her fingers around him, then started to slowly pump up and down the length of his shaft.

Lost in sensation, he sagged on the chains, shuddering every time she reached the tip of his cock and slid back down to the root. Liquid gathered on the fat head of his cock as she slowly picked up speed, working the pulsing length methodically, carefully.

“Damn.” Watching Logan's head fall back, watching him lose himself in pleasure from the touch—
her
touch—had heat gathering between Scarlett's legs, and she knew that her panties were growing damp. Hunger smoldered within her,
and for a moment she contemplated taking him in her mouth, tasting the salt and musk of his arousal.

But that would distract her, and this was all about him.

“Oh.” Logan moaned louder, pushed harder into her grip. Swiftly, Scarlett reached up and removed first one of his nipple clamps, then the other, letting them fall to the ground as she returned her fists to his cock.

“Shit!” he yelled, his mouth set in a grimace born of both pleasure and pain, and Scarlett knew that the blood was rushing back into his nipples, a controlled burn. She began to stroke him faster, one hand returning to the base of his cock as the other slid off the top, a nonstop stroke over his swollen flesh.

“Yes. That's—oh. Right there. Yes!” Beyond himself, Logan's hips began to pump, thrusting into her firm touch, and she knew he was reaching toward his release. His breath quickened, his muscles trembled, and his cock stiffened in her hand.

Right before he could come, she pulled her hands away.

Logan howled, even as he thrust into the air. Scarlett grabbed the heavy sacs of his testicles in her hands, pulling them away from his body to help stave off his climax. His lips twisted in a sneer, his voice desperate as his body tried to find a way back into her touch.

“You fucking cock tease!” he swore, sweat beading on his forehead. He was clearly frantic, and Scarlett licked her lips, watching the strength of his big body, restrained by the cuffs. “Let me come. Please let me come.”

Ahh. There are his manners
. Such as they were. Her focus narrowing to include nothing beyond this man, this submissive—not even the wood and straw and still air that surrounded them—Scarlett took the final toy from where she'd placed it at the edge of the stall.

Flicking the switch, she let it hum against her hand, a low but pleasant buzz.

Except—he was almost there. She didn't want to tease anymore—she wanted to shove him off the edge of the cliff from which he refused to jump.

She turned the vibrating plug up to high, then doused it with a generous stream of lube. Working the liquid over the entire surface, she moved to stand behind Logan once again.

His ass was still a beautiful scarlet from the kisses of her flogger. It was hard, and tight, and she found herself wanting to pinch it.

Another time.
Right now she needed to send him over the edge.

When she slid a finger through his crack, he stiffened, though his pelvis still rocked into ghostly hands.

When she pressed the tip of the plug to the pucker of his ass, he tried to pull away.

She followed.

“No! No, I don't want that!” He yanked on his chains, and Scarlett pushed. The plug pressed against the tight muscle, and Logan groaned, the sound frantic. Then the tight flesh gave way, and the long, slender wand was in, the base snugged tightly against the hard planes of his ass.

The vibrating of the plug sent Logan thrashing, his feet planted on the floor, his hips moving as if he were already inside Scarlett.

“Not like this! I want to be inside of you!” he snarled.

He had shown her why he didn't like to come like this the first night that they'd met—that tender bundle of nerves inside of him milked his release from him despite anything he said or did.

It shoved him past his own control and into hers. Which was why Scarlett ignored his pleas, pulled the plug out, and
slowly slid it back in, even though she wanted exactly what he did.

To be twined together, no barriers. Just naked skin and raw need.

“Scarlett . . . Mistress . . . no!” Scarlett's pulse skipped as he pleaded. Even though she knew his safe word, hearing the word
no
was disconcerting.

But he groaned and shuddered as she pulled and pushed one more time.

Standing on her tiptoes, she removed his headphones and tossed them aside. Then she tugged at the blindfold, pulling it free, the iPod following the headphones down to the ground.

Logan's eyes went wide as vision and hearing were returned. His gaze narrowed in on Scarlett, looking her right in the eye.

“Please,” he begged, and she didn't think he even knew anymore if he was asking for release or asking her to stop. “I want to fuck you.”

Climbing back onto the stool, she traced a hand over the line of his jaw and savored the shudder. When she fisted her hand in his hair and tugged, he only moaned.

“You don't get to come inside of me until you let me in.” Her eyes were fierce, claiming his, as she reached down and wrapped her hands around his cock.

“Mistress!” The word was a shout, and then he cried out again as he shoved into Scarlett's hands, liquid heat streaming into her palms as he came.