“Harder, sweetheart. I’m tougher than I look.”
Julie laughed because that seemed impossible to her. And standing in the shower with the water rolling over those hard, tanned muscles, she knew he was playing with her. The fact that he seemed intent on continuing to joke with her, even with the change in their relationship relaxed her a bit.
She gripped him harder and started to move her hand back and forth.
“Yes,” he groaned. “Just like that.” He gripped the metal bar attached to the shower wall so hard she thought he might break it off.
Gaining confidence, she worked faster. Within a couple of minutes, he came. He pressed his hands against the wall on either side of her and took several slow breaths. Then when he seemed to have recovered his senses, his gaze shifted to her. He pulled her flush against him and captured her mouth in a kiss.
It was so much like the intensity and dominance of his kiss on that first night in her apartment. And though she was trapped in a small space with him with nowhere to run, instead of feeling afraid as she had that first night, she knew she was safe in this moment inside the water with him. He was as overwhelming as ever, and she felt consumed. With each devouring kiss, she felt as if she blinked out of existence for a fraction of a second only to come roaring back brighter and more real than she’d been the moment before.
He moved to her throat then, leaving bites much like that first night, only this time she knew that when the marks faded, he would still be there. He held her against the wall, his large hand pressed against her ribcage just under her breast. His other hand moved between her legs, and she pressed herself into his hand for more contact.
She felt almost as if she’d left her body. How could this be happening? She responded to him so easily. She wanted to beg him to fuck her, but he’d just come, and he’d already said he wouldn’t today.
After a few minutes, she felt as though something was building both between her legs and low in her belly. Gabe seemed to come to himself and pulled back. He shut off the water and stared at her hard.
“Oh no. I said you weren’t coming for a while and I meant it.”
Was that what was building? Whatever it was, it felt as though it would grow and grow and then explode into a million warm tiny lights around her.
He pressed another kiss, this one much softer, against her lips and helped her out of the shower. He wrapped a towel around his waist and then one around her. His phone rang in the other room, and he sprinted to get it.
Julie followed him back into the bedroom as he answered.
“Yes, this is Gabe. Already? That was fast. I should have stayed and waited. I can be there in fifteen minutes. Yeah, thanks.”
He disconnected and turned back to her. His smile was dazzling. “Your collar’s ready.”
She felt blank for a moment, unsure of how she should feel. Should she be repulsed? Excited? Resigned? Could she just not have an opinion at all and take the whole thing as it came?
Gabe got dressed and turned back to her. “Drop the towel and come here.”
She let the towel go and crossed the room to him. He guided her back a few feet as if he needed her to be in one very specific spot. Then he crossed to the nightstand and pulled a remote out of the drawer. He aimed it at the ceiling and pushed a button.
A panel slid back and chains dropped down into the room.
“On your knees,” he said.
Julie’s trepidation rose as she dropped to her knees on the spot he indicated.
“Good girl, now spread your legs.”
Her heart beat harder as she spread her legs. He raised her arms over her head and fastened her wrists into soft cuffs. Then he went back to the drawer and pulled out another remote-like object with a black button on it. He positioned the remote beside her knee where she could easily roll onto it.
“That’s a panic button. I want you to stay like this for me until I get back, but if you absolutely can’t handle it or have some sort of emergency, press it, and someone will come release you.”
He went to a dresser and took a scrap of black silk from the top drawer and blindfolded her. Then he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “That’s my good girl. I want you like this when I return, if you can stand it. I will be quick.”
Gabe was a bundle of electricity. It still felt like a dream. Finally. Finally she was his to train and do whatever he wanted with. Every time the word master fell from her lips it sounded sweeter. Already he could feel her will melting and merging with his own. There was no question that very soon her desire would be only to please him.
He’d seen the fight within her, but they both knew it was manufactured and artificial, created in Dmitri’s house. Without that unfortunate detour in her life, Gabe imagined she’d already be completely surrendered to him. But this morning was a good start.
He’d gone with a simple collar. A sold gold band with a few carved flourishes that made it seem to glitter and sparkle when the light hit it. It looked like a very nice wedding band, except much larger. Gabe had wanted something that would make her feel as though this were a marriage. Perhaps she could begin to see things his way if she could frame the relationship that way.
Perhaps not the average modern marriage, but a much more traditional one from a time very far in the past. After all, wasn’t there a time where a woman didn’t pick her husband? A time where he took what was his and yet provided food and clothing and shelter and protection. And didn’t love often grow and follow from that?
In the end, except for the kink side of things, her life was not so very different than had once been quite normal. Perhaps the level of comfort and luxury was a bit more.
Gabe hadn’t wasted time chatting with the collar guy, because he didn’t want to leave her for very long. That kind of bondage could be intense for someone not used to it. The real question was would she still be in the chains when he got back?
There was some small deterrent in her nudity. The compromising position she found herself in. The vulnerability of the blindfold. She might not want to call any random person into the room to see her that way.
Either way, whether she was still in the chains or freed, no doubt a strong point about her situation would be driven home.
When Gabe got to the house, he took the stairs two at a time to get back to her. But at the end of the hallway, he stalled, unsure of what he wanted to find behind the door: perfect submission, or a freed but embarrassed captive. Finally, he opened the door.
Julie was still exactly as he’d left her, naked on her knees, legs spread, blindfolded, arms stretched and chained above her head. As soon as he saw it, he realized he’d expected to see her quietly waiting on the bed for him, someone having released her. He’d been gone a good thirty minutes. This would be intense for anyone new to this. He hadn’t really expected she’d still be there.
Tears were streaming down her face, no doubt from pain and perhaps some anxiety.
“M-master,” she whispered.
The way her voice quivered when she said it nearly broke him. He couldn’t believe he’d doubted for one second that this was in her.
“Yes, it’s me.”
She let out a shuddering breath. Relief. The tension that had strung her body tight from the moment he’d opened the door wasn’t from the chains, but maybe the fear of being discovered by someone else this way.