“I know. I knew it then.” His eyes flickered down at me so beautifully green and deep as he studied me. “God, you’re so…fucking sexy.”
“You are too,” I said shyly, “and I still can’t believe what I did with you—a total stranger.” And even now when recalling what I’d done with Ivan at The National Gallery that night I was filled with shame at my weakness. Why did he affect me so? One look, one touch, one command and I turned to putty in his hands. It had to be uniquely him I was certain.
“You've said that before, Gabrielle, and I hear you. I do. But honestly, I don't want you having shameful feelings about what we did together that night. In fact, I don't accept the idea at all. You did nothing wrong, kitten. Everything you did that night was perfect…to me. That’s why it happened the way it did with us. Don’t you see?” He pressed yet another erection into the side of my hip, and I had to give him props for stamina. The man was the mortal embodiment of a Greek god—an Eros—with a really big cock, which just kept going and going— “You felt comfortable with me that night…and we clicked, Gabrielle.”
I nodded at him and enjoyed my view. Admiring his handsomeness, loving the weight of his lower body pressing into mine, the firm dominance he used with such ease. We clicked all right. Major clicking happened, that’s for sure. I basically fell into his arms and let him do whatever he wanted to me in the gallery storeroom. Something I’d never allowed any other stranger to do within moments of being introduced. Ha! We were never even introduced. He thought I was Maria-the-Escort, and I got a kinky alter ego name for him. Mr. Ivanhoe. Embarrassment filled me yet again as I remembered. I’d been living such a guarded existence regarding men and dating since I’d come to London, that I had truly forgotten what it felt like to be desired intimately.
Ivan brought those feelings back for me while making it all feel so damn good; his offer was nearly impossible to resist.
“Just like you feel comfortable right now being restrained by my hands, wondering what I’ll do next. You want me to do more and you’ll surrender to it, too. Ivan continued watching me, the penetrating gleam in his eyes which appeared during sex only made me hotter.
Ivan reached his free hand into my borrowed smoking jacket tumbled on the bed beside us and drew out the silk-fringed belt. He dragged the dangling edge over my nipples, making me arch into the tingling sensation. “I want to use this, Gabrielle. I’d like to have your gorgeous body tied to my bed while I fuck you this time. Knowing you’re going nowhere until I release you. Until I am done taking pleasure from the sight of you spread out and shaking from all the orgasms I’m going to give you. Until you’ve had as much as you can take and my cock has worked itself out to the point of fucking exhaustion,” he said, watching me carefully, his body tense and tight looming above me.
I shuddered hard, again a completely involuntary action on my part. His simple words rendered me helpless when he started in with the directing. And he knew it, too, because he smiled darkly at my shuddering.
“Do you consent?”
“Yes,” I whimpered, falling under the spell he’d cast on me with complete ease, letting him take control in this. Instinctively I knew he would be better than anything I'd ever experienced before.
Green eyes blazed down at me with lust at my answer, and he wasted no time putting me into position. “You’ll tell me what you need, Gabrielle?” he asked firmly while working on binding my hands together with the silk belt, testing the tautness before securing the silk to the headboard of his bed. “Green, yellow, or red. I’ll hear you, whatever that may be.” He deliberately brought his hands down to find my nipples, rolling them between his fingers, applying pressure until I felt the burn of sweet pain shoot through me and straight down to in between my legs. “If it’s to back off, or if it’s to give you more—just tell me.” Ivan studied me intently to judge my response, for this was indeed a test.
I shuddered out a moan and arched my back, letting the rush of pleasure roll through as he eased off from pinching the nipples and switched to caressing my cupped breasts in each of his hands. “Yes, I’ll tell you,” I managed to gasp.
The green of his eyes seemed to flare once more at my agreement, the unmistakable gleam of triumph easy to see. I had pleased him very much, and the knowledge that I had done so switched on something inside me from which there could be no going back. This was a precipice and I’d just committed to going over the edge.
“And you want this with me, Gabrielle? You understand what your agreement means?”
I nodded slowly but deliberately, my heart surely on its way to flying out of my chest at the question, forcing me to acknowledge this thing we were starting together. We weren’t just hooking up for sex anymore. Things had morphed into something new. There was so much more to this than a few fabulous orgasms for the both of us.
"What's your color right now, kitten?"
"Green." I felt a ripple of longing set free inside me as I answered him, remembering something he'd said to me earlier: Don't shut your eyes. I need to see those green beauties on me when you say yes.
So, I kept my eyes on him as I gave him my agreement.
My soul felt free for the first time in longer than I could recall.
Chapter 2
GABRIELLE
Oh yes, an exchange of power was a great deal more, and then some. Especially when it was Ivan demanding it from me knowing I was powerless to resist. He'd caught me now. My secret was no longer a secret to him. Rather it was a bargaining chip between us. A negotiation tool for what we could offer to each other.
The potential of what it might mean for me to head back into territory that had been influential in a disastrous relationship which had left me emotionally devastated and adrift in my life. The D/s hadn’t been the reason for my messed up history with Kent, but it’d definitely been a contributing factor in the poor decisions I’d made with him… and sadly tragic for others, I thought shamefully.
I truly didn’t know if I was capable of delving into another D/s relationship and survive. A mysterious question to which I couldn't know the answer… until I did.
The circumstances were totally different with Ivan though. He was single. Yeah, a single guy who orders up an escort when he wants a date. Ugh. I didn’t like those thoughts swimming around in my head, but I couldn’t judge Ivan any more harshly than what I’d been party to with Kent. My deeds had been far worse.
Could I do this with him?
You want to.
I knew now I was about to find out.
The idea scared me as much as it excited me. No, that probably wasn’t true. It excited me more.
He leaned back on his knees after he finished binding me, a satisfied expression creeping over his face. I wondered what he was thinking even though I had a fairly good idea. He finally had me where he’d wanted me since that first time we’d been together. Ivan had me tied to his bed and I’d be there until he was good and ready to let me go. That sexual desert I’d been in? Well, the drought was very much o-ver. As in: Girl, you’d better brace yourself for some rain, cuz some big black storm clouds are headin’ your way.