That curious blend of aching love and fierce dominant desire warred in him as it often did when he sexually tortured Daniel. He didn’t know whether to kiss him tenderly—suckling his cock until Daniel came, or take him cruelly, ramming his hard cock deep into Daniel’s tight ass until he came, leaving Daniel burning and begging for release.
That image spurred him on. “Get up,” he said gruffly, his cock throbbing. “Let’s go to bed. You’re going to be fucked. Get your ass ready. Now.”
Daniel stared at him with shining eyes as he hoisted himself to his feet. He nearly ran to the bedroom with Liam just behind him. Daniel positioned himself on all fours on their bed. He smeared lubricant on his nether entrance and lowered his head submissively to the mattress.
“Please fuck me, Sir. Use me.”
Liam positioned himself behind his lover, nearly trembling with lust and aching with need. For one bizarre second he caught a small blonde head in his peripheral vision, green eyes flashing. She was kneeling naked beside the bed, pert breasts tipped with dark pink nipples hard as pebbles.
But when he turned to see, there was no one there.
~*~
Alex’s mouth was dry and when she tried to speak her voice was hoarse. She cleared her throat and tried again. “I want to stay. I mean, not forever.” She giggled nervously. “You know, to try it out. What you said. True submission.”
God, she was insane. She didn’t even know this guy. But then she hadn’t known Liam and Daniel either when she’d agreed to the trial week with them. Damn it, she was tired of always being so careful. She was going to go for it. If Anthony turned out to be a dick, she’d hit the road.
“Is there anything you need in your car? I’m hoping you’ll want to stay a while.”
He walked with Alex to the front door and watched as she retrieved her overnight bag. There was still time to change her mind. She could just climb into the driver’s seat and leave then and there.
Except for the fact her purse with her keys was in the house.
And except that she didn’t want to go.
A strange spirit of recklessness had settled over her, no doubt fueled by the wine, by his kiss, by his dark, exciting words and his fingers on her nipple. She grabbed her bag and returned to him.
He took her into his arms at the open door and kissed her, pushing her back so she started to fall and then catching her, keeping her off balance while he claimed her mouth with his.
When he let her go, she could barely catch her breath. He led her into the house and shut the door. “I wanted you the second I saw you, Alexandra. This isn’t a game. Not to me. Let me claim you in the way I know you long for.”
Alex’s heart was pounding. “Um, what about a safeword? Mine is butterfly.”
“Safewords are for players. We won’t need them.” While she absorbed this, he said, “Let me show you the house.”
The first floor contained the usual assortment of rooms—along with the living room and kitchen she’d already seen, he showed her the den and the dining room. The rooms were neat and tidy but nondescript. Alex couldn’t help comparing the warm colors and inviting arrangements in Liam and Daniel’s place where fresh-cut flowers graced every room and the delicious aromas of Daniel’s cooking invariably filled the house.
He led her down to the basement, which he’d converted into his leather workshop for his whip-making business. There were swaths of soft leather hides hanging over most the surfaces. One counter held spools of cut leather of all different thickness and color. There were several whips in various stages of completion, partially braided and lined up in neat rows.
“Wow.” Alex was impressed. “This is some setup.”
“Thank you. I learned the craft from a master whip maker in Spain. I do everything by hand using techniques honed over hundreds of years.” The pride in his voice was evident. Alex had a feeling if she asked a single question she would be in for an hour’s lecture so she held her tongue.
Upstairs were three bedrooms, two of them guestrooms as neat and lifeless as motel rooms, the third the master bedroom. Anthony’s bed was king-size and set low to the ground on a black metal frame. The head and footboards were made from the same black metal, thin rods set into the frame like the bars of a cage.
The room was large but sparsely furnished. There was a leather lounge chair and a small table beside it. Along one wall was a high, narrow chest. There was no bureau in sight but there were two doors off the bedroom and Alex speculated one was probably a walk-in closet dressing room and the other the master bath. He didn’t show her what was behind those doors, however.
Instead he walked to the center of the room and pulled a long, thick string that was attached to a trap door in the ceiling. The door opened and a folding set of stairs came down.
“What’s up there?” Alex wrapped her arms around her torso, a frisson of fear sliding into her gut.
“The chamber. Come, I’ll show you.” Anthony held out his hand and Alex took it. He helped her up the narrow wooden stairs, keeping right behind her, a supportive hand on her back.
It was completely dark in what must be the attic. Anthony reached for a switch and a moment later the room was bathed in harsh fluorescent light. Alex looked around, her eyes widening as she took it in.
It was obviously a BDSM playroom, if that term could be applied. Though in contrast to the thick, comfortable carpeting on the floor of Liam and Daniel’s playroom, this floor was bare wood and made from narrow uneven planks of pine. The room wasn’t large, maybe twelve feet by fourteen.
A set of sturdy black metal manacles had been bolted into one whitewashed wall. They hung loose and open on short, thick chains. Along another wall sat a punishment chair, worn leather cuffs attached to the arms and legs.
Taking up most of one wall was something that looked like a rack. It had the shape and look of a ladder that had been shaped into one large square. It was made from two-by-fours and stood perhaps seven feet tall, one foot wide and five feet long. The rack was chained to the ceiling, probably for support.
Perhaps most disconcerting was the small mattress resting on the ground in one corner, no sheet on its stained fabric.
Alex shrank back and bumped into Anthony, who was standing just behind her. He brought his arms around her and kissed her neck.
I can’t believe I’m doing this.
Her heart was pounding.
This guy could be a rapist. A killer.
But she didn’t really believe it. A killer wouldn’t have been invited to Liam and Daniel’s party. True, he wasn’t directly invited, but they’d welcomed him to their home and even let him scene with Daniel. Plus, he’d said such nice things to her. And he was hot. She had to admit the edge of danger thrilled her. She felt wildly alive.
“Stay with me and I’ll take you to heights of masochistic pleasure you’ve never dreamed of and depths of erotic suffering you can only imagine.”
Okay, that was a little much. Alex pulled away. “Um. You know, maybe we should take this a little slower. Get to know each other better.”
In a moment he had her in his arms again. He whispered in her ear. “You know you need this. I can give you what you’ve only dared dream of. I know your secrets.”
Was this guy for real? He held her at arm’s length and stared into her eyes. Something electric and powerful flashed between them. Something primal that needed no words. She was mesmerized by his stare.
He let her go. “I want you, Alexandra. I see enormous submissive potential in you. I see the desire in your eyes and I also see the fear. Sometimes fear is a good thing. It motivates and keeps you focused. If we take it slower, as you suggest, you’ll be cheated of the experience you crave. You’ll be enacting yet another in a series of BDSM games you’ve played all your life.”
He spoke earnestly. “I’m giving you a chance for something real. But it will be on my terms, not yours. This is one scene you will not control with your beauty and your charm. Do we understand each other?”
Alex stared at him. How did he know? Before Liam and Daniel, Alex had played at BDSM. She had always used sex and her manipulative skills to top from the bottom. Even with Liam and Daniel she had tried to manipulate situations, though she’d been less successful with them.
How did Anthony know her so well when they’d spent so little time together? Was his promise of the ultimate submissive experience one he could fulfill? Even more to the point, was she really ready to stay and find out?
“I will take your silence as acquiescence. If you want to leave, do it now. If you stay, you belong to me.”
Alex stood rooted to the spot, her mind warring with itself. Anthony chose that moment to pull her back into his arms. He kissed her, another of those long, lingering kisses that left her breathless. His hands roamed greedily over her body, slipping beneath her skirt, cupping her heated sex, making her weak.
He let her go at last. She stood, trying to catch her breath, her pussy throbbing, the bloodlust in her head blocking the warning call from her gut. Daniel and Liam didn’t want her but this handsome authoritative man did. He knew her secrets. He knew how to make her wet with his dark gaze and his knowing hands.
“Alexandra, we begin. Take off your clothes. You will be naked at all times in my presence.”
She hesitated. Daniel and Liam often kept her naked. Maybe it was rule one in the
How to Dom a Slave Handbook
. Her flippant thoughts flew from her head as Anthony stared at her, willing her to comply.
Her eyes locked on his, she unbuttoned her blouse and let it fall from her shoulders. “And the skirt,” he said softly. Alex reached behind her and unzipped the denim skirt, letting it fall to the floor. She was wearing flat yellow leather sandals she kicked off. The pine planking beneath her bare feet was rough and unfinished.
He pulled her to him and slipped his fingers into her pretty lacy panties. With a jerk he ripped them from her body. Alex gasped, but before she could protest, he gripped her sex, covering it with his hand and pressing hard fingers into her.
“You’re soaked,” he announced. “Of course you are. Because you’re a slut. You’re a dirty little slut who needs to be taken firmly in hand.” Alex flushed at his crude words but couldn’t deny it. His fingers still buried inside her, he ordered, “Take off that bra unless you want me to rip it off too.”
With trembling fingers she obeyed. He let her go and stepped back, raking her naked body with his eyes. “What about those? I seem to remember those are your slave cuffs from your former Masters. Take them off.”
Alex stared down at the silver bracelets. “I—I can’t take them off. There’s a key but I don’t have it.”
“Then I’ll cut them off.”
“No! No, don’t do that. No.” Alex put her hands behind her back.
Anthony stared hard at her but then backed down. “Very well. You can keep them—for now. But when I claim you I will remove them. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” She whispered the word.
His expression softened and he stroked her cheek. “You’re so beautiful, Alexandra. I’m sorry if I was harsh, but when I give an order you must obey instantly. Understood?”
“Yes, Sir.”
Anthony smiled. “Very nice. You may call me Sir. I like that.” He moved toward the rack, pulling her with him. “I want to take your measure. See what you can tolerate.” She noticed there were thick leather wrist and ankle cuffs hanging from the top rungs of the rack.
“Come stand here. I’m going to flog you and you need to be properly restrained.”
She could have run then. She could have listened to the niggling whisper in her brain instead of the raging heat in her pussy. But she didn’t. She stepped willingly onto the rack and lifted her arms toward the cuffs that easily covered her silver bracelets. Anthony quickly secured her wrists close together on two center rungs.
Next he removed the other two cuffs and placed them on her ankles, clipping them closed. He moved behind her and, in one deft movement, he lifted her. Supporting her in one strong arm, he jerked one of her legs upward and attached the clip of the ankle cuff to a rung on the far top side of the rack.
Alex struggled, panicked and unclear as to what he was doing. He ignored her, quickly securing the second ankle so she was hung from both wrists and ankles from the top of the rack, her ass the lowest point of her body, her legs spread wide.
“Hey. I can’t do this. I don’t bend like this. Let me down!” Though the cuffs were thick, her position exerted painful pressure against her ankles and wrists and she wasn’t used to being bent at this angle, her legs spread just wider than was comfortable.
“Be quiet or I’ll gag you,” Anthony’s smooth voice had become harsh. “You’re fine. Stop sniveling like a coward. Show me the courage I know you possess.”
He left her, disappearing through the hole in the floor that led to his bedroom. She jerked hard against her cuffs but only succeeded in swaying. She was immobilized and completely at Anthony’s mercy.
She opened her mouth to scream but his head appeared at that instant and then he was up and back into the room. He was holding a thick braided flogger in one hand, a riding crop in the other. He stuck the crop into his belt and came to her.
“I don’t mind if you cry out. No one will hear you. But the longer you can stay quiet, the easier it will go on you.” He stroked her body with those long-fingered hands and she shivered, trying to twist away from him.
“Stop it,” he said softly as he moved his hand toward her splayed sex. “You know you need this. You look so hot like that, Alexandra. So vulnerable.”
“Please, Anthony. Sir. I’m not comfortable. This is making me really nervous. I need you to let me down.” She tried to keep the hysteria she felt rising from her voice. If he could just hear her surely he’d listen.
He stepped back and slapped her cheek. She was so startled she didn’t make a sound but merely stared at him in surprise. “You need what I
tell
you you need. And right now what you need is a serious flogging. After that we’ll see.”
The rack was just tall enough for him to stand beneath. He moved to stand beside her and struck her ass with the flogger. Bent as she was, she felt its sting more sharply than if she’d been erect. He struck her back, her legs, her breasts, even her arms and bottoms of her feet.