Shield's Submissive (10 page)

“Well, I guess we know how long the hot water lasts.” She shivered before he wrapped a heated towel around her. His bright green eyes sparkled.

“Really? I don’t remember how long we were in there. Whenever I’m with you, time ceases to exist. I guess we’ll just have to do this again and bring a timer.”

She nodded. “We definitely want to be accurate. Besides my science teachers always told me to measure twice.”

They dressed in comfy lounging clothes, both choosing to go barefoot. Lunch was simple and consisted of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. He let her pick the movie, and she chose a classic comedy. His large body relaxed against the armrest of the sofa, and she climbed between his legs to recline against his chest. The fire crackled and the air was comfortably warm. They both fell asleep in the same position halfway through the movie.

* * * *

Mark opened his eyes and looked out the large expanse of windows to find that the sun setting. Erica was no longer in his arms, but he still felt the lingering warmth of her body where it had relaxed against him. She couldn’t have been gone long. Sitting up, he scrubbed his hands over his eyes and through his hair. He had loved the feel of her cuddled up against his chest. The relaxing atmosphere and exertions from earlier must have caught up to both of them as they’d slipped into contented sleep.

He smelled fresh coffee brewing but didn’t hear any sound of Erica moving around the house. She was obviously not on the first floor, and running upstairs, he checked the bedroom and bathroom.

Where was she?

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Just then, her blood-curdling scream shot through him like a bolt of lightning. Although it was safe enough here, they were essentially in the wilderness and always needed to take general precautions. Animal attacks and accidents were known to happen from time to time.

Running back downstairs, he tore out the back door onto the deck and saw Erica racing across the meadow towards the house as if the hounds of hell were chasing her. She waved her hands at him, but he barely heard her voice on the wind.

“Go, go, get back inside!”

To hell with that, he was going to find out what the hell was going on. He jumped over the railing of deck and sprinted towards her. Catching up to her in a matter of seconds, he did a quick check to make sure she wasn’t hurt anywhere then pulled her into his arms.

“What the hell is going on?” He scanned the area for any sign of what had terrified her.

“Talk to me! What scared you?”

“I was just taking a walk, and as I reached the tree line over there, this ridiculously large man in full camo regalia with a very large weapon just appeared out of nowhere. He grabbed my arm and started yelling, asking me who I was and what I was doing here.”

Mark had a pretty good idea of who she was talking about. He cursed as he led her back towards the house.

“You know who that is, don’t you?”

“I do. I’m impressed you got away. What did you do?”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “I kicked him in the balls then punched him in the nose as he went down, then started running. Who is he, and why did he approach me that way?”

“His name is Winston. He owns the property adjacent to us and is a Desert Storm veteran. I think he was in some kind of Special Forces unit. Occasionally, he still gets geared up and goes out on what he calls patrols. He’s a nice enough guy but can be intimidating if you’re not expecting him. I’m sorry he scared you, honey. It certainly doesn’t excuse his behaviour, but he probably wasn’t expecting anyone to be around. He usually checks on the place for us when we’re not here. I’ll go have a talk with him. Do you want to come with me or do you want to go back inside?”

Now that she knew they weren’t about to be invaded by some rebel army, her fear subsided and anger infused her body. “No, I’m going with you to give him a piece of my SHIELD’S SUBMISSIVE

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mind. What the hell gives him the right to scare the living crap out of innocent people on a peaceful mountainside? How are we going to find him? I swear when I looked back to see if he was following me, it was like he had disappeared.”

“We don’t need to find him. He’ll find us. Come on. We’ll take a little walk to the tree line.”

As they walked through the meadow, he reached over and took her hand. About halfway to their destination, he stopped and, pulling her close, gave her a gentle, reassuring kiss. He let his lips linger against hers until he felt the air around them change. As he lifted he head, he looked over her shoulder.

“Hello, Winston. I’d like you to meet Erica Cross. She’s a close friend and will be a frequent guest at our cabin.”

Winston nodded. “Shield. I apologise, Miss, for scaring you. That wasn’t my intention. I didn’t recognise you from around these parts and wanted to make sure you weren’t a lost hiker or something.”

Erica looked on at the behemoth standing before her but held her ground. “I appreciate the sentiment if not the execution. Mark didn’t let me know about other cabins in the area and I apologise if I was trespassing. I also apologise for attacking you, however I felt within my rights at the time.”

Winston smiled. “No need to apologise, Miss. You were justified in your reaction, nicely executed as well. You weren’t trespassing. My cabin is a good five miles from here. I’m sure Shield didn’t consider I would be patrolling.”

Mark wrapped his arm around her waist and gathered her into his side. “I assume everything has been secure since I last saw you?”

“Yes, sir. I’ll be on my way so you and Ms. Cross can enjoy the rest of your weekend.”

The two men shook hands, and they started walking back towards the house. Erica took one last glance over her shoulder and saw that Winston had disappeared again, this time in the middle of an open field.

“How does he do that?”

“I have no idea and quite frankly am slightly wary of asking him why he knows how to do that.”

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They reached the cabin, and he led them over to the sofa. Making Erica sit, he knelt on the floor in front of her. He placed his hands on her knees and looked up into her eyes.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” He pushed his hand though his hair. “God…when I heard you scream—I can’t even begin to describe the terror that jolted though me thinking you had been hurt in some way.”

She leaned forward and cupped his cheek. “I’m fine. And I’m sorry I scared you. It was just a knee-jerk reaction when I saw him standing there like he’d been conjured out of the mist.”

He put his head down in her lap, and she ran her fingers through his hair. She loved how thick and silky it felt threading through her fingertips. Seeing his concern for her made her feel special.

He must care for me a little bit to react that way.

The whole reason she’d taken the walk was to clear her head. The reality of her emotional reaction to their lovemaking earlier and the contentment she’d felt waking up in his arms had made her feel the need to escape for a few minutes. She’d realised that she was coming to care very much for him, maybe even starting to love him, and that was very frightening. They’d only been seeing each other a few days. Logic told her it was way too soon to be feeling the stirring of such an encompassing emotion like love.

Mark lifted his head and moved to sit on the sofa next to her. Taking her hands within his, he tried to decide if he should pose one of the questions that had been burning in his mind for the past day or wait until they had gotten to know each other better. However, after all they had shared and experienced together, he felt confident enough that she would be honest with him.

“Erica I need to ask you something important, and I’m hoping you trust me enough to be honest.”

“Last night, you said you’d been rejected after sex more than once. Why? What happened?”

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Her breath escape in a rush. “Oh… Is that all? You had me worried. I thought you were going to ask me something else entirely.”

“What did you think I was going to ask?”

She leaned back into the sofa to get comfortable. “Never mind. It’s not a big deal or anything. The reason I said that was because it’s true. I told you before that I may not have an extensive sexual repertoire, but as you are well aware, I was no virgin before last night.

When I was in college, my friends had set me up with a few guys who for one reason or another turned out to be less than ideal.”

“Tell me about them, please. I don’t ever want to do something that would hurt you or make you compare my behaviour to theirs, even unintentionally.” He hoped none of the men had given her a bad experience with the scene. On more than one occasion, he’d seen a sub whose trust had been violated, and the road back to a healthy D/s relationship was often very difficult.

“I already know you could never do what they did,” she said. “I pride myself on learning my lessons and now trust my instincts to avoid men like that in the first place. The first one was a boy named Tim. It was freshman year, and I was eager to explore the college scene. I met him at a frat party. He was nice and charming. We went out on a couple dates then one night started getting hot and heavy back at my dorm. He convinced me to go down on him, and when I was finished, he adjusted his pants, stood up and said, ‘thanks babe.

That wasn’t too bad,’ then walked out my door and never returned another one of my calls.”

“He said that then just left you there?” Mark asked incredulously.

“Yes. I was still a virgin at the time and wasn’t really expecting to go all the way, but I thought he might return the favour or at least touch me a little. My friend set me up with the next guy. As you can imagine, I was hesitant to let our relationship progress too quickly, but after dating for about a month, we decided to sleep together. I gave him my virginity, and he gave me a complex. First times are always awkward, and this was no exception. He didn’t do anything in the manner of foreplay so when he shoved himself inside, I was barely wet. I tried to tell him to slow down, that it was hurting but he just looked down and said ‘maybe you should try a little harder, darling. It’s not exactly a pleasure for me to fuck someone lying there like an ice block’. A few more grunts on his part and he was finished. We tried it SHIELD’S SUBMISSIVE

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together a few more times, but nothing improved. He started calling me a snow queen to his friends, and right about that time is when my family was in the accident.”

“I take it he didn’t come to the services or give you any support?”

She snorted. “Yeah, right. When I called to tell him what happened he said ‘gee, babe, I’m real sorry. Maybe this is a good time for us to call it quits. It’s obviously not working, and I’m sure you’ll want to concentrate on other things right now’. I took the rest of the semester off and never saw him again.”

As Mark listened to her stories, his heart ached. All he wanted to do was gather her in his arms and promise to get revenge or at the very least protect her from all the assholes in the world who treated women like that. Despite the frank and emotionless manner she recited the memories, he could see how she’d been incredibly hurt by those boys and the way they callously used her. He thought she was done, but when she continued talking, he realised she’d saved the most traumatic for the last.

“I didn’t really date much throughout the rest of college. A few casual dinners here and there, but I never let myself get sexually involved with another boy at school. A couple years ago, I convinced myself that I needed to stop living in the past and open myself to the possibility of a relationship with a man versus spoiled, immature boys. So I started going out to clubs with friends and checking out the dating scene here in Denver. We would frequently meet after work on Friday nights. One night, I met Dan, and we both felt an instant attraction. We started dating, and he was the first man to give me an orgasm. He taught me to explore my sexuality and enjoy the pleasure that could be found with another person. Our relationship remained casual despite the sex. I never saw him during the week, he never slept over and I never went to his place. At the time, I was just starting at AA and was so busy that I never questioned the arrangement. When I finally did, he just told me he felt more comfortable keeping things simple. It was a few days later I learned from a friend that he was married and had three kids.”

Mark was absolutely stunned. At first, he’d felt incredible jealousy that this Dan character had been the one to open up Erica’s sensual side, but now, he just wanted to murder the man. How she managed to remain such a happy and passionate person after these experiences humbled him. The fact that she’d trusted him enough to not only share her body but her experiences with him made him feel honoured. He wanted nothing more than SHIELD’S SUBMISSIVE

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to take her in his arms and hold her but sensed she would take that as pity so instead he held her hands and looked directly into her eyes.

“Thank you for sharing with me and thank you for trusting me enough to not hurt you the way those idiots did. I want you to remember, no matter what, not to ever let any man make you feel you do not deserve to be treated with care and respect or that you are undeserving of love. The last few days, you have given me the privilege of getting to know you, the real you, and that means more to me than you know.”

Erica leaned in to accept Mark’s kiss, and they kissed deeply, hungrily. She moved so she straddled him, never breaking their embrace, then ground her hot arousal against his hardness. It was amazing. They’d had mind-blowing sex just a few hours ago, yet it felt like it had been years. The barrier of their clothing only fuelled them even more. His hips arched and ground against her crotch. They both wore thin, cotton lounging pants that provided little barrier and allowed them to feel with little restrictions. Erica was already swollen and damp, and the pressure felt like heaven as she moaned at the sensation.