Had he meant it? Should she call? Or was it just bullshit, like his claim he’d wait a thousand years.
What the hell? She’d already lost everything by leaving Daniel and Liam. What was left to lose? She grabbed her cell phone and punched in the number. She got his voicemail, panicked and hung up.
Less than thirty seconds later her cell phone rang. She recognized the number she’d just dialed. Her heart began tapping high in her throat. “Hello?”
“Alexandra. Is that you? Did you just call me?”
“Oh. Yes. Um, I got your voicemail.”
“Forgive me, I was on a call. I hung up when I saw your name on the caller ID. How wonderful to hear your voice.”
“Thanks.” Alex smiled for the first time in three days.
“Do you have permission to speak with me?”
“I don’t need permission. I left them. I’m back at my place.”
She waited him for to say
I told you so
but instead he said, “Come to me, Alexandra. Do you know how to get to Wilton?” He gave her brief directions, not even giving her the option of refusing. Something in his tone and manner was so compelling it didn’t even occur to her to say no.
“I eagerly await your arrival, lovely Alexandra. My heart pounds in anticipation.” She couldn’t help but grin at his flowery language though it pleased her nonetheless. After she hung up, she thought about calling Cheryl so at least somebody would know where she was. After all, how well did she know this guy?
She nixed the idea, not willing to hear yet another lecture about responsible behavior. “I’m a grownup,” she told herself. “I don’t have to tell people where I’m going. I can take care of myself.”
Before she could talk herself out of it Alex packed an overnight bag, put on some mascara and lip gloss, changed her practical cotton panties for a sexy, lacy thong beneath her denim miniskirt and headed out the door.
In fifty minutes she pulled up in front of a two-story gray stone house with white pillars flanking the porch. It was set back on a well-manicured lawn in a very nice neighborhood, though not as nice as Liam’s place in Westport.
It occurred to Alex she knew next to nothing about Anthony Campos. Was he married, divorced, bisexual? He wasn’t gay and he was definitely Dom. She didn’t even know how old he was, though she suspected he was in his mid- to late-thirties.
She pulled into the driveway of the attached garage and sat there, wondering just what in the hell she was doing. Maybe she was rushing into something she wasn’t ready for. Maybe she’d just take a drive through this nice neighborhood and think things through a little more.
Before she could put her car in reverse the front door opened and there he stood wearing dark slacks and a white button-down shirt. He had a few days’ sexy stubble on his cheeks and chin and he flashed a white smile as he waved.
She couldn’t very well turn around and leave now. She grabbed her keys from the ignition, reached for her purse and climbed out of the car. She’d leave the overnight bag in the car, not wanting to appear overeager.
“Alexandra.” He approached her as she moved toward the front door. “It’s wonderful to see you.” He gripped her forearms and looked her up and down. “You are lovelier than even memory served. Please come in.”
She followed him, unable to help from staring at his sexy ass and thighs as he walked in front of her. She had been pretty tipsy when they’d interacted at the party and hadn’t really focused on what a seriously excellent body the guy had, though she did recall the feel of his erection beneath her thighs when she’d sat on his lap.
They entered a large living room decorated in muted masculine colors of pearl gray and charcoal. The furniture was leather in clean, almost austere lines, the pictures on the wall abstract. He led her through the room to the kitchen, which had marble countertops, new appliances and peninsula bar with barstools set around it. No kitchen table she could see. The kitchen of a man who ate alone.
He gestured for her to sit. “Can I get you some tea or coffee? Soda? I have a bottle of chilled Chardonnay. I was just going to have a glass. Or perhaps you are hungry?”
Alex sat at the bar, setting her purse down on the floor beside her barstool. It was nearly five in the afternoon and Alex realized she had forgotten to eat lunch but found she had no appetite. At least not for food. “Wine sounds good.” Alex tried not to fidget. She felt like she was on a blind date. What the hell had she been thinking to come here?
She had to admit the house was very nice and Anthony was being extremely polite and pleasant. He was obviously well off and very good-looking. He was into her. So what the hell—she’d drink a glass of wine and see where things went.
He placed two large wineglasses in front of them and poured from an open bottle, which he left on the counter. He sat beside her. “I’m so glad you called. I have thought of you often.” He sipped from his glass and set it down. Alex took a long, deep drink and wrapped her hands around the wide globe of the glass. The wine was good and warmed her stomach. Anthony lifted the bottle and refilled her glass.
Usually talkative, she was shy around Anthony even though he’d already seen her half naked at the party. Then she’d belonged to Liam and Daniel. Now she belonged to no one.
As if reading her thoughts or at least the nature of them, Anthony said, “I was surprised but pleased to get your call. I thought you were the proud property of Liam and his sub boy?”
Alex flushed. “Yeah, well. I guess I’m just taking a little break. You know, some breathing space. They, uh, they have some stuff to work out.”
Anthony nodded. “I would imagine it’s very difficult to share someone as lovely and special as you. Jealousy is bound to raise its head despite the best of intentions.”
Though flattered by his words Alex felt compelled to be honest. “I wish it were so simple but it’s not really about me. That is, I’m involved, but the real issue is between them. How they can work out their relationship as a couple. I’m not sure…” She blinked away the tears that were threatening behind her eyelids. “I’m not sure there’s a place for me there. Unless I’m willing to settle for always being in the background. A toy they take out to play with when they’re in the mood.”
“And you want more.” Anthony’s eyes hooded though he continued to smile. She nodded. “Naturally,” he went on smoothly. “You want to be the subject, not the object. You want to be both controlled and adored. Both claimed and loved by the man who has the courage to harness your fiery spirit and take possession of your body, heart and soul.”
Alex wanted to make fun of Anthony’s lofty speech, at least in her head, but she found she couldn’t. Yes. Yes, she did want that. Harnessed, possessed, adored,
loved
…
He put his finger beneath her chin and raised it, forcing her to look at him. “I sense a potential in you ripe for exploitation. Let me show you what it is to truly submit to a real Master. No games. No pretense. Stripped bare and completely exposed. It’s what you
need
. I knew it the minute I saw you. I know we don’t know each other well yet, not in the traditional way of exchanging life stories and making endless small talk.
“But between Master and slave such exchange is superfluous. We already know each other, you and I. We were born knowing each other. I know what makes you tick. I know how to break you down and rebuild you, bone by bone, muscle by muscle into my perfect slave.”
Alex drank her wine. Who the fuck
was
this guy? She wasn’t sure she wanted to be broken down and rebuilt or whatever the hell it was he was saying. Yet even as her mind rebelled her body was responding. Her nipples ached and there was a throb between her legs. What would it be like to spend an hour or a day submitting to a man like this?
“Talk to me.” It was a command to which her submissive nature responded. “Tell me about what you learned during your brief stay with those worthy gentlemen. Was that your first submissive experience?”
“No. I mean, yes. That is, I played around before but not like with them. I never lived it. I never had the formal training they offered. It was my first real 24/7 experience.”
“And what did you learn? Can you take a whipping with grace? Can you service and pleasure a man without regard to your own desires? Did they teach your proper slave decorum and positions? Did you have a signed contract?”
“A contract?”
“Yes. A contract negotiated between Master and slave so you know your place and what is expected and required. I think it’s a good idea because then you know what you’re getting into. It isn’t some nebulous arrangement where you don’t know where you stand.”
“Huh.” Alex thought this over. Maybe if she’d had a contract with Daniel and Liam they wouldn’t have ended up so muddled and confused with differing expectations and desires.
She looked down at the pretty silver bracelets on her wrists. How happy and proud she had been to accept them, foolishly believing they meant something.
They do mean something
, a voice whispered inside her head but she shook the words away.
Again she felt his dark eyes on her and felt compelled to look at him. “Stand up,” he ordered. She stood, aware the wine had gone to her head. He stood as well. Lowering his head, he kissed her mouth.
At first he just touched her lips with his. Then he pressed the tip of his tongue between them. She parted her lips and closed her eyes, her heart dancing in her chest, her knees weak. He took her into his arms and held her as he probed her mouth. He pulled her close, crushing her breasts against his hard body. His arms were tight around her and she could barely catch her breath.
When he finally let her go she stumbled back. He reached for her and helped her regain her balance, half lifting her back onto the stool. Her nipples were stiff against her bra and her panties were wet. She knew she was flushed by the heat in her face and neck. She licked her lips, still feeling the imprint of his kiss.
He too sat again beside her, his dark eyes glittering. Something hard in them nearly frightened her but she was too aroused to give this much credence. “I want you, Alexandra. That kiss only confirmed what I knew the moment I saw you. We are already bound together. I hope you have the courage to realize this with me.
“Let me show you what true submission is really about. Not the playacting games those men put you through for their own titillation and amusement. I’m talking about
real
submission. Giving yourself one hundred percent. The ultimate exchange of power. Do you have the courage, Alexandra? Do you dare?”
He reached for her, slipping his hand past her blouse and bra. Sure fingers found her erect nipple. He twisted until she gasped. She felt herself slipping and tumbling into that submissive headspace where she would do anything to please her Master. She was at once thrilled and terrified by her own strong response to him.
Still grasping her nipple, his eyes bore into her soul. “I already own you, Alexandra. Now it’s up to you what you do with it. Will you stay?”
“Tell me what you need.”
“I need this, Sir.”
“
Tell
me.” Liam jerked at the black rope wound tight around Daniel’s cock and balls. Daniel winced and closed his eyes.
“Open your eyes. Look at me and tell me what you need, slave boy.”
Daniel’s eyes opened, the pupils dilated and rimmed with silver blue. “I need to be whipped, Sir. I need to be beaten and I need to be fucked.”
“That’s right.” Liam flicked the snake over Daniel’s bare chest, letting the tip catch the round coin of his nipple. Daniel gasped with pain but his cock betrayed him, rigid in its confines and straining toward Liam.
It was Saturday afternoon and they were in the playroom. Alex had been gone since Monday. They had talked incessantly the first two days about what had gone wrong, what had gone right and how they could fix things.
They went back and forth over whether they could really make it work with a woman in their lives. Daniel finally said the words that resonated in Liam’s heart. “It isn’t really so much can we make it work or not. It’s do we want it to? If the will is there, if the love is there, we can make anything work.”
They waited, expecting each day she would return to them, but she didn’t. After a few initial phone calls they let her be, consoling each other she was young and needed time and space to work things through.
Now they were both coming to the sad conclusion she wouldn’t be returning to them. Maybe it was for the best. Somehow they would have to put the aching emptiness she’d left in their hearts behind them.
By some unspoken agreement they stopped talking about her. Over the last several nights they threw themselves into their D/s play with ferocious passion and then fell into bed to make love until they passed out. This helped to keep memories of her at bay. It helped to try to prove they didn’t need her to be happy.
Of course they didn’t need her. They had each other. They would always have each other.
Liam refocused on the sexy naked man bound before him. His arms were pulled taut over his head, tied in several feet of thin black rope, wound round and round his arms and wrists and secured to the chain that hung from the eyehook in the ceiling. His legs were forced apart by a metal spreader bar, the ankles cuffed at each end. His cock and balls were cruelly bound with more of the black rope, the erect shaft nearly purple.
His back, ass and chest were reddened from a long, sensual flogging and now Liam was ratcheting up the pain with the snake whip. He stepped behind Daniel and flicked the whip against his ass several times in stinging succession. Daniel jerked forward. Liam massaged his aching cock. Just a little more to take Daniel right to the edge. Then he’d let him down and fuck him for all he was worth.
When he was satisfied Daniel had suffered enough, Liam dropped the snake and knelt to open the ankle cuffs. He retrieved the small footstool they used to reach Daniel’s tethered wrists. He released them from the chain and unwound the rope along the length of his arms.
Daniel sagged against him and Liam held him fast. Gently he lowered him to the ground and knelt beside him, carefully unwinding the rope from his cock and balls. Unable to resist, he took Daniel’s erect shaft into his mouth, licking and caressing it with his lips and tongue.