Submissive's Journey (Masters of Blackstone Book 1), page 35
“Actually, no. This is one of six guest rooms. I sleep in the attic. The master suite is a lavish oasis away from the rest of the house. Once you wear my collar, you will join me there.”
She was bound to his bed and at Everett’s mercy. She felt her panic rising, but reached out to find the peace she’d found in his suite at The Cincinnatian.
“Trust me to not accost you. I promise I will not tie you up or do anything else you don’t wish me to do. I wouldn’t want to scare you off the first time I get my hands on you, would I?” Everett waggled two fingers to draw her near. Nervously, Julia moved closer. He caught her wrists and pulled her between his legs. “You’re safe with me, Julia. Anything we do will be just like what you learned in the novice classes. Safe. Sane. Consensual.”
Julia repeated, “Safe, sane, consensual.”
“Tell me your safeword. “
“Red, Sir.”
“When you cried, ‘Yellow,’ did we pause to talk about things, just like I promised we would?”
Her brow wrinkled in thought, but she nodded. “Yes, Sir.”
“You just admitted you want this. Will you allow me to tie just your hands behind your back?”
She’d felt so safe with him in his hotel suite. Why had she been so worried about flying here to meet Everett?
A feather light touch down her center drew her gaze back to him. He smiled when their gazes collided and just as she had at the Cincinnatian, she whispered, “Just my hands?”
“There she is.”
“A sound almost made me panic. She jerked the chains her wrist cuffs were attached to. “That sound.”
“The jangle of chains?”
“Mmm-hmm, that sound teases at the edges of my memories to rattle the door that locks away all the bad shit that happened to me.”
Everett stretched out beside her and reached up to again jangle the chains. “I think it’s the sexiest sound on the planet. Maybe I can change your perception?”
He caressed her stomach with small swirling circles, teasing her to the edge of sanity. “Tickles, Sir! Tickles!”
She shuddered in response. “Sir!”
“Everett tonight, love. For now, I’m just a man not a dominant.”
She teased, “Said the man who chained me to his bed.”
EVERETT STRADDLED HER and leaned as close as he dare to barely brush his lips over hers. Not a kiss, not yet, but the promise of a kiss to come. Truth was, he was worried about her and hated seeing her fears and insecurities written so clearly across her face. He nibbled her bottom lip then tugged it gently with his teeth. Julia pressed into his lips, wanting and needing a kiss desperately. God, her desperation was like a sweet fragrance calling to him. She didn’t need just any dominant as Maxwell had insinuated. She needed him, a dominant well-versed in helping abused slaves and submissive’s accept the dominance of another again. He knew his work was cut out for him, but he wanted to try with her. He’d obsessed over the perfectly trained slave for years, only to learn she wasn’t well-trained, she was terrorized.
She’d never been the perfect submissive, and he feared she might never be able to submit fully again. On the short return flight from Cincinnati to Savannah, he’d decided he didn’t care if she never submitted to his dominance, if only she acquiesced to being his. He felt it deep in his soul, they’d always been meant to be together. One way or another they would be.
She would be the woman he loved for eternity.
“I don’t kiss my submissive’s, Julia, but I’ve kissed you. I think it’s important for you to know that truth.”
“Truth,” Julia whispered. “I need you, Everett. I know because I feel something for you when you touch me and I can’t say that about a single other man. I need your dominance, but I’m also terrified of it.”
“I’ll dominate you as gently as I can, Julia. I want you to be mine.”
Julia closed her eyes and he hated that she was trying to hide her tears from him. He kissed her, claiming her mouth. She pulled against the chains and made a frustrated sound, but kissed him back with passion.
Everett could feel her need bubbling through her. He abandoned her mouth, leaving her whining for more kisses and grazed a gently teasing trail down her body, stopping only long enough to nip the tips of her breasts.
He brushed his stubble-covered cheek over her mons and Julia pulled her knees up reflexively. “Nuh-uh-uh, none of that. Leave your legs flat and spread.”
He eased down and pressed his lips against her glistening folds, not able to resist her fragrance or the glistening moisture escaping her sweet pussy. He licked the length of her slit and murmured how lovely she tasted. “I’m going to feast on your sweet juices all night, sweetheart.”
Julia moaned. “I need you inside me.”
He chuckled and promised, “Eventually.”
Chapter Seventeen
♥
Julia awoke to Everett kissing a trail from her breasts to her navel. At first, she believed she was dreaming, but as his kisses dropped lower she opened her eyes and lifted her head to meet his heated gaze. She tried to move her hand to stroke his cheek and realized she was still bound. “When do I get to touch you, Sir?”
“Eventually.” He bit her stomach, but it wasn’t painful. No, it tickled, and she was so very, very ticklish. She feared when anyone would discover her most guarded secret because she reacted quite violently to be touched on any of her sensitive spots.
Everett bit again, making her tense. Julia squealed and kicked her feet. When he released her flesh, he chuckled. “Tell me you’re not enjoying my attention.”
Julia shook her head and kept her lips tightly pressed together. She wasn’t about to admit no one had ever made her orgasm fourteen times in one night. She wasn’t sure if she’d fallen asleep or passed out drunk on pure bliss.
Whether she replied yes or no, either would be incriminating and in her current bound state, she was too vulnerable to tempt fate. He nibbled his way across her reactive stomach and lower, making her giggle and wiggle.
“Tell me to go away, Julia.”
“No.”
His answer was to lick a circle around her belly button. She jerked under his tongue. “Oh god! Tickles! Tickles! Stop! Stop!”
“You have a safeword, Julia.”
“I do, Sir, the traffic light system, but why would I safe word?” She tried to make light of what was quickly becoming a risky situation. He must not learn how susceptible she was to tickling. Merely thinking the word made her toes curl and her anus clench.
“Why indeed?” He licked lower, bypassing her mons and clit to her spread wide and very tender thighs. She took a deep breath and exhaled, hoping it didn’t sound like the sigh of relief it really was. One of her few not ticklish places was her inner thighs.
“What is the appropriate punishment for a little subbie who doesn’t call her potential Dom for a lift from the airport?” He kissed his way over her mons, stopping at the curvature just above her clit before licking her in a long, hot line back to her sternum that had her stomach muscles clenching as she fought to remain silent. “I’m sorry, Sir! I should have let you know. I was just so excited to be coming.”
Everett narrowed his gaze and she knew he wasn’t buying it. “Excited, really? Or were you being sneaky? Hoping to not get caught spying on me?”
“I’m sorry, Sir. Please forgive me for not telling you when I headed this way.”
“Trevor called before you arrived.”
Julia couldn’t stop her gasp or her suddenly racing and not in a good way heart. She knew Skye would have never ratted out her hiding place. “Are he and Maxwell…?”
“They are waiting patiently for you to call them and tell them that you are home safe. Maxwell is not having you institutionalized.”
Julia exhaled with relief.
“Sweetheart, you should have called me immediately and told me what was happening.”
“In hindsight, yes I should have. I’m sorry, Sir.”
“Sorry, so sorry, yes?” He smiled at her mischievously, putting her on edge. Anything could happen from here. Punishment? Pleasure? He whispered softly, “Why is my little dragon always so sorry in hindsight?”
She knew before his hands ever moved that she was doomed. She mouthed, “No,” pleading with her eyes, but his mind was made up. He slid his fingers lightly over her ribs and her body convulsed violently in reaction. Julia shrieked, arching and bucking. “Please, stop. Please, please, please!”
Everett lifted his hands and waited for her to still. It took her a beat to stop moving. He said firmly, “Julia.”
She froze in reaction, meeting his gaze and holding her breath.
“Are you ready to tell me the truth?”
“The truth?” she squeaked.
“Yes beautiful, the truth. You fled your house and Maxwell’s threat to have you committed to a mental institution under the care of Dr. Merrill.”
“Oh. That truth, Sir.” Julia exhaled a worried sigh.
“It hurts me you not only didn’t trust me to come to your aid immediately, but that you would rather secretly hide here under the guise of snooping and face my wrath than admit the truth. Did you fear I would turn you over to him to keep from handling you myself?”
“No! That’s not right!” Julia lunged upward as far as her bound arms would allow to get nearer to him.
“Are you sure?”
Julia dropped back down, defeated. “No Sir. I’m sorry, Sir. I guess there is still a part of me that doesn’t trust anyone, but I should have trusted you.”
“If anyone has the right to distrust, baby, you do”—Everett gazed into her eyes and it felt like a hundred butterflies danced in her tummy—“but not giving your dominant a chance to protect you is quite an insult. You must be punished and as we determined last night, spanking seems to be a reward for you, not a punishment.”
Julia pouted, batting her eyes prettily, or so she hoped; but he shook his head, warning, “You can’t cute your way out of this, little dragon.”
Everett eased off the bed and crossed the room. He pulled out a drawer from his dresser and removed items he shielded from her view until he again sat beside her. He lifted a small sand timer. “Do you know what this is?”
She shook her head, but answered, “It looks like an hourglass.”
He winked. “Yes, a very small one, so can you guess the increment of time it measures?”
She gulped, recognizing a horrifying situation was at hand. “A minute?”
“Very close. Good, sweetheart. It’s actually a three minute egg timer.”
Everett flipped it so that she could see the sand drain from one side to the other. She guessed, “You’re going to time my punishment, Sir?”
Leaning very close to do so, he met and held her gaze. “I am.”
Three minutes? That isn’t long. This is fine. I’m okay.
Everett lifted a padded eye mask, letting her see it and acknowledge it, not just fitting it over her head. “I want you to remember this lesson, Julia, so that you won’t repeat the infraction ever again. So I am going to time your tickle torture and limit it to three minutes. I’ll be watching the timer, not you.”
“T-tickle t-torture, S-sir?” Heart racing, she couldn’t breathe. Oh God, no! I can’t! “P-please, r-reconsider, Sir.”
Everett stroked her cheek. “Breathe deeply. Catch your breath.”
Julia breathed along with him. Long, deep breath in. Long, slow, slow, breath out. They breathed together and she felt more connected to him in that moment than she had to any other person ever. He didn’t want her to fail and give him an excuse to hurt her badly. He wanted her to succeed. On her last exhale she whispered, “I understand, Sir. Three minutes.”
Three minutes isn’t long at all.
“That’s my good girl. What you need to remember to make this disciplinary measure most effective is that every time we have to repeat this particular punishment, the time will increase three minutes.”
Her eyes widened and her pussy clenched. “What do you mean this particular discipline?”
“Excellent question. Any disobedience involving time. For example, being late. Arriving a weekend earlier than expected.”
Ohh! She felt a pulse of heated liquid leak from her pussy and knew that if he hadn’t figured it out already, he would by the time he was finished with her. As much as she dreaded what he was proposing, she also wanted it with a sick and perverted desperation. She needed him to hold her accountable.
Everett fit the mask over her eyes and it blocked out every bit of light. Nooo! Not the eye mask! Not the eye mask!
Not sure what to expect, Julia tensed and was almost relieved when she felt him straddle her hips and start to knead her shoulders. He commanded, “Relax,” then massaged her shoulders and arms, her thighs and calves, until she was a limp noodle. “Good girl. Stay relaxed.”
She realized even as she was drifting on his expert caresses that he was carefully avoiding her torso and dreaded what that might mean for her poor, vulnerable body.
“Your punishment starts now.”
Everett’s fingers danced over her stomach and torso, teasing first giggles out of her and then screams as she jolted and lunged as far as her restraints would allow to ineffectively seek escape. He moved to her ribs, each stroke and dig designed for maximum effect.
“Aaah! Ha-ha-ha!”
She wiggled left and right but was so securely bound, she wasn’t really going anywhere and the effort to fight the restraints and endure the tickles was exhausting. Overwhelmed, she shouted, “Jesus fucking Christ!”
He leaned over her, licking the shell of her ear, one of her most reactive places at the same time his fingernails teased over her armpits. “Now you’ve earned three strikes from the cane for cursing.”
She thought about the pain the cane would cause and the night’s previous welts flared to life and radiated as need through her pelvis. Her giggles and screams became breathy pants, his threat ratcheting up the intensity every sensation. Her clit sparked, making it feel as if it was swelling in size.
Tears slid from her eyes. “Please, please, please!”
“Please what, love?”
“Mercy!”
“Mercy is not your safe word.”
Julia gulped, wanting to say safeword so badly, but knowing this was her punishment and really, she’d learned what true punishment was when she’d been with Jasper. Three minutes tickling was a joke. But as the frenzy of feather strokes, his fingers and tongue continued, she began questioning her sanity because her pussy was screaming to be filled. “Is it three minutes?”
“I can’t tell you.” Everett moved down her legs, his new target the backs of her knees. She jolted, jerking hard on the restraints. “You do the crime, you do the time, love. When the three minutes is over, I will stop. Trust your Dom.”
“I-I—ha-ha-ha!” She could barely “T-trust—ha-ha-ha!” get out the words “Y-you!”
He turned on her, swiveling over her and then focused on her feet. Her poor bare feet. “God! Oh god!”
She shouted, then shrieked with laughter. Anyone listening would think she was having the time of her life, but her heart was now racing and she could barely pull air into her lungs. She insisted, “Sir c-can tell me the time. Ha-ha-ha. You. Can!”
“Fine. I won’t, Julia. Take your medicine and be a big girl about it.”
She didn’t know what he was doing to her feet, but whatever torture devise he’d devised, it was equally soft and hard, and seemed like hundreds of points all scouring her soles. She jerked, her knees instinctively pulling away from the source, but the cuffs held her in place.
No escape.
No escape.
She shrieked and screamed, her pussy started pulsing with her heartbeat. I’m gonna come! I’m gonna come!
“Time.” The torture ended abruptly. No climax. No crescendo.
Julia was left silent in a state of shock as Everett left the bed. She felt the abandonment deep in her soul. All the adrenaline speeding through her veins left her shaking. She waited for him to touch her. To remove the blind from her eyes and release her wrists and ankles from the cuffs circling them. He didn’t.
She listened for his movements but all she could hear was heated air flowing from the ducts. She whispered, “Sir?”
Her racing heart amplified the emotions she was feeling. She asked louder, Sir? Are you there, Sir?”
His abandonment left her soul shredded in a way she’d not felt since her mother and Jasper’s deaths. What if he never came back for her? What if he sent someone else to free her and take her to the airport so he’d never have to look at her again?
“Sir?” She screamed and pulled on her restraints. “Please don’t leave me, Sir!’
She shouted louder, “Don’t leave me! Come back for me! Sir! Please, Sir!”
Julia’s worst fears were playing out in her mind. What if the shadowy men from her dreams were coming for her? What if Everett was in collusion with them and that had been the plan all along? No, no, no! This can’t be happening!
“Master! Please Master! Don’t call the enforcers! Please!”
SUDDENLY JULIA SHRIEKED, shocking the man watching her even though he’d felt her rising panic. Everett looked at his watch. It wasn’t even close to the five minutes he’d planned to leave her in silence, but the way she was thrashing and screaming, she risked hurting herself and he risked destroying any chance of a trusting relationship he planned to have with her.
“Don’t leave me! Please, please, don’t leave me, Sir.”
“Sh, sh, sh-h, Julia. I’m here.” He climbed back on the bed and stretched out beside her. He laid his hand over her diaphragm.
Sucking back her sobs, she begged pathetically, Please, please, please!” Heavy gasps broke between her words. “Don’t leave me alone again. I was so scared!”
The sweet woman was breaking his heart. “It’s done. Sweetheart. Deep breaths.”
