by Marie Skye
“You need it, Emmalin?”
She nodded. “Yes. I do.”
I stood back.
“Take off your dress.” She slowly pulled her dress over her head, and I watched as her hair cascaded down her shoulders and fell midway down her back. She stood still as I unbuttoned my shirt. Her eyes never leaving mine. She knew what I was looking for. Any hesitation, any fear, any inkling. As usual, there wasn’t any. I folded my shirt and laid it on the chair.
“What’s your choice tonight, Emmalin?” I started circling around her. She looked at me, briefly confused. I’d never given her a choice before. I stood behind her, waiting for her response.
“I want whatever you want.”
Normally an answer like that would’ve pleased me. But tonight wasn’t about that. I walked in front of her. “Tonight is your decision, and yours alone.” She looked down at her hands before meeting my eyes.
“The belt.”
I tensed. Of all the words she could say— the belt— is what came out of her mouth. I’d only used it once, and it was when she had walked out of my life for five days. The belt was used out of pure rage. I took a step back, all of a sudden needing distance. She never ceased to amaze me. “Are you sure?”
She glanced down at my belt, and crinkled her brow briefly before quickly looking back up at me like she had been caught, but I already saw. The sign I’ve always been waiting for. She nodded before answering. “Yes.” Her face was impassive as she stared ahead. Fine. I may have let her pick, but I was doing it my way. There was always a stipulation.
“Turn around, head down.” I walked over to the closet, retrieving the blindfold and flogger. Her breath hitched as I placed the blindfold over her eyes. With her back still turned toward me, I turned her around, wrapped the belt around her hands, securing them tightly, and lifted her easily onto the bed, in a standing position. I attached the belt to one of the higher wooden beams above the bed, so she was barely on the tips of her toes. I knew this wasn’t what she had in mind when she said belt, and I knew it was a matter of minutes before her arms began to ache. Perspiration already started to gather on her smooth skin. I gripped the flogger in my hand, turning it over several times, admiring the leather, thinking about the marks it was about to make on her beautiful soft body. Which was my body. She was mine. She was my prey. Her moving caught my attention. I walked over and took her iPod, placing it on the speaker.
I grabbed the flogger and started to slowly round the bed as FKA twigs’ “Two Weeks” began to fill the speakers. I smiled at the irony of the lyrics. I flexed my wrist, and with no warning, I swung, and she gasped; the tendrils from the flogger spreading over the sleekness of her skin. I swung three more times at three different points of her body. She was breathless. Each hit was harder than the last.
“Again?”
She nodded yes, but I made no attempt to move, and she knew it, unless she gave me actual words. Finally, she spoke. “Yes. Again, please.” I changed my stance, and she cried out as I gave her four more lashes, each one harder than the last. Her blindfold was wet with tears, but not as wet as the evident desire that was dripping down her leg. I climbed up on the bed, licking the trail her wetness created from her calf that led up to her mound, which was the ultimate treasure. She jerked the moment my tongue touched her clit. Her muscles were already strained from the position I’d forced her to stay in for the past fifteen minutes. Her body glistened with sweat. Now she got to be rewarded.
My tongue swirled around her swollen nub as I lifted both of her legs, putting all of her weight on my shoulders. “Relax, baby.” She sighed contently as she gripped the belt tighter. I knew having those beams up there would come in handy. She jerked as my tongue probed her entrance, seeking all of her. Her moans were my favorite sounds in the world. Her muscles tensed, and I could feel her getting close. She whimpered as I eased back.
“Tell me what you need, baby.” She was breathing hard. I blew lightly over her pussy, causing a reaction out of her when she didn’t answer right away. “You. I need you to make me come.” My girl. I dove back onto her clit and sucked. She arched into me as I inserted two fingers. She tightened around me and I bit down, knowing it was her undoing. She cried out as she reached her release. I slowly brought her back to a standing position and stood up, wrapping both of her legs around me, grabbing onto the beam and sinking her down onto me. I moaned at the tightness. I tore off her blindfold, needing to see all of her. I suddenly needed to be deeper, and was finding myself grinding as deep as I could. She met me thrust for thrust, giving me everything she had, and I gave it back just as good.
I noticed she still had the silk scarf on that covered her neck from the attack, which only surged my anger on. I bent down and bit right above her shoulder hard, eliciting a scream from her, but I didn’t care. I sucked at the trickle of blood that formed. Her pussy started to tighten around me as she threw her head back. I buried my face in her neck, relishing in the tightness, pushing forward as I chased after my own release. Just a little deeper. And finally it’s enough as she exploded, bringing me with her.
I reached up, and unhooked the belt that she was attached to, and we collapsed to the bed. I began smoothing out her muscles and I’ll be damned if I started getting hard again at the moan she let out. My cock had no shame. I pulled her closer into me. “You okay?”
She yawned. “Yeah. That was good. I liked the beam. Can’t say the position was comfortable but it worked.” I smiled into her hair.
“Was tonight’s session too intense? Is that was prompted your reaction? I should’ve went with you, Emmalin.” She turned toward me.
“Tonight was fine, Grayson. I just…I just needed this, and you gave me what I needed.” I studied her face, yet for some reason, I still didn’t believe her. I brushed her hair off her face. I reached up to unknot the scarf she still wore at her neck when her hand shot up. “I’m still a little self-conscious about it, Grayson.”
I sighed. “The attack was my fault. I’ll never forgive myself for it. I’ll find who did it, and I’ll kill them. I swear to you, I’ll kill them.” She nuzzled into me and sighed.
“Unless I kill him first.” I momentarily stilled. Ever since Florida she’s been saying all sorts of things nonchalantly. Things half asleep. Things just out of character, even for her.
I pulled her tighter against me. “Do you know who he is, baby?”
“I’m tired, Grayson. It’s been a long day.” I agree. It had been a long day.
Emmalin
Grayson wasn’t in bed the next morning. I stretched, my muscles a little sore from being tied up and stretched on my toes, but it was so worth it. I got up and took a quick shower before getting ready for work. I had just gotten to the kitchen when I ran into Grayson, already in his three-piece suit. He smiled, motioning for me to sit down as he placed a cup of coffee and a plate in front of me. He sat across from me, watching me as I ate.
“You’re really starting to creep me out. What is it?” He leaned back in his chair, looking me up and down, assessing me.
“I’m just trying to figure you out, Emmalin. You seem to be full of surprises.” I looked down at the remainder of my food, as I began to feel nauseous again. I got up and took my plate to the sink. I grabbed my bag, saying, “Well, let’s get our day started.” I tried to sound chipper, completely failing at it.
A few hours into work, I still hadn’t gotten anything done. I was just staring at the screen. I also hadn’t heard from Carson. That was either good or bad. I was sick of this shit. A part of me wanted to just get this over with, and figure out a way to get Carson out of town for good. He wanted money. I didn’t have much, but I had some that could keep him away. Maybe that would be enough to keep him from doing whatever he planned to do. I looked up as a knock came on my door. Glenda appeared around the corner, and I smiled.
“Hello, Ms. Ross. I was sent to remind you that you have a meeting at 2:30 in conference room A.”
I nodded. “Yes, of
course.”
She smiled, then leaned in and whispered, “It’s 2:40.” I looked at my watch.
“Oh shit! Thank you, Glenda.” I gathered my files and did a quick check of my appearance. I got to the room, and thankfully, they hadn’t really started yet. They were just standing around and talking. I barely walked into the room when I stopped in my tracks and dropped the stack of files I was carrying, shocked at who Grayson was talking to. Carson.
What the hell was he doing here? I lowered myself slowly to the ground, and began picking up the folders, not taking my eyes off him. He walked toward me, and knelt on the floor, grabbing a few of the fallen folders. In a low voice, he spoke. “Don’t fuck this up. Now shake my hand.” We both stood as Grayson came up to us, looking me over.
“What’s wrong?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. Sorry about that.” His gaze penetrated me like he didn’t believe me, and I smiled, trying to reassure him. He finally turned to Carson.
“This is Michael Leaks. The anonymous donor I met with. Michael, this is Emmalin Ross.” I watched as Carson extended his hand, and I looked at it like it was a venomous spider ready to strike. I looked at Grayson, and I knew he was watching me. I finally looked up at Carson and saw the dark glint in his eye, and the slight raise of his brow. I extended my hand and shook his as if it was the first time we ever met.
Grayson
“Michael here wanted a tour of the company, as well as a presentation, and since he was so gracious, I thought I would give him the opportunity.” Emmalin gave a half smile as she still stood near the door. She cleared her throat.
“Mr. Mandrake, do I need to be present for your presentation?” Before I could speak, Carson did.
“Ms. Ross, I would love it if you would stay. The more the merrier, right?” He looked at me and smiled. I looked at Emmalin who seemed to be fidgeting. Michael stood up and pulled out the chair next to him. Guest or no guest, no fucking way. Edith and Kevin took that moment to walk in. I watched as Emmalin walked around the table to the seat next to me. I gave her hand a squeeze under the table. She shot me a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. In fact, she looked completely different.
“Mr. Leaks, can we get you anything before we start?” Edith stood in front of the room, ready to begin, with her usual annoying, bouncy self. A few minutes into the presentation, I looked over to Carson and noticed he wasn’t even looking up front. He wasn’t looking up front at all, nor did he seem to have any interest as to what was going on. He was staring at Emmalin with a slight grin on his face. I looked at Emmalin, and her eyes were cast down. She was gently rocking herself back and forth and silently whispering something. I suddenly stood up.
“Everyone out!”
Edith stopped talking. “Mr. Mandrake?”
“I said, everyone out! Now! Edith, have Chace finish with Mr. Leaks.” As everyone filed out, I slowly turned Emmalin’s chair toward me. Her eyes were closed. Tears were falling. She was gripping the sides of the chair so tight her knuckles were white. I gently laid my hands on top of hers, kneading them.
“Emmalin. Baby, look at me. Listen to my voice, okay?” She wasn’t moving. Fuck. I cupped the sides of her face, wiping away her tears. “Emmalin, I’m here. It’s just me. Only me. Follow my voice. You and me, remember? Stay with me, baby.” Her eyes started to flicker. I slowly smiled. “That’s it. It’s just me. Focus on me. Look at me, baby.” Her eyes fully opened as her breathing started to calm. I ran my hands down her arms to the death grip she still held on the arms of the chair. Suddenly her head snapped right, in the direction of the chair across the room. She then looked around, seeing that no one else was in the room. She looked back at me. “What happened?” I studied her closely.
“You had another panic attack,” I whispered.
She looked down at her hands still gripped tight and loosened them. “I’m…I’m sorry, Grayson.” I shook my head and walked over and grabbed a bottle of water off the tray.
“This is the second time this week, Emmalin. You went from once a month, maybe, to two this week alone.” I slammed the water bottle down harder than I anticipated and she jumped. She slowly stood up.
“I’m fine. Maybe I just need more sleep.” I slammed both hands down on the table, creating a loud boom. I walked over to her, grabbing her by the shoulders. “You had the same frightened look in your eyes from the last time. I think it’s about time you stopped lying to me.”
“You’re hurting me.” I let go of her and took a step back. “Emmalin, you need to talk to me. We said no lies, remember?
She smirked before rolling her eyes. “Yeah, I remember. Took a lot to get that out of you, didn’t it, Grayson? Took me finding out you bought my apartment complex for you to finally agree to the whole no lying thing, and that was only because I found out.” I shut my eyes, remembering that day. We were still at Caliscades.
“What is this?”
I looked down at the paper Emmalin just threw on my lap. Fuck. I sighed, looking up at her. Her arms were crossed and pure rage was blatant on her face. I’ll be damned, but my dick got hard. I cleared my throat. “Well, it’s something you clearly weren’t supposed to see.” She stared at me a moment longer before walking out of the room and heading up the stairs. I followed after her. “What are you doing?”
“I’m not doing this with you right now. You said you would change, but you clearly haven’t.” She began taking stuff out of the drawers.
I went on alert. “Emmalin, stop. This was before all of that.”
She faced me, arms crossed. “So what, Grayson, that makes it all better? When did you buy my apartment?”
I took a deep breath. Might as well jump in the fire. I held out my hand. “Can you sit with me?”’
“Grayson, just tell me.”
“Emmalin, please. Just sit with me.” She sighed before placing her hand in mine, and I led her to the bed. I was quiet for a minute. “Remember when you declined my first offer to move in with me, after our game of pool?” She slowly nodded. “That morning.” Her eyes grew wide as she covered her mouth with her free hand. “Why would you do that?”
“Emmalin, you know how I felt about that place. How unsafe it was.” She tried removing her hand from mine but I held on tighter. “Emmalin, look at me. It’s still yours.”
“Grayson, you don’t get it. That place was mine. It was all I had. By you buying it, you took the one thing I had. Because you had to stake your claim. You had to stake your ownership. You can’t just decide something is yours by pissing all over it, Grayson. That’s what you did. You pissed all over what was mine and took it.” She stood up and headed back to the dresser.
“I’m sorry.”
She continued to pack, not saying anything. “Are you leaving me?”
She finally stopped and looked up at me. “No.” She barely got the word out, and I walked over to her pulling her into me tightly.
“I love you, Emmalin.”
“I love you too, Grayson,” she whispered back. “I’m not leaving you, but I think a night or two apart would be good for us. I think we need it.” That was the last fucking thing I wanted. I sighed. “This isn’t up for discussion, Mandrake.” I took a step back to prevent myself from saying anything as I finished watching her pack a small bag. So, like the dumbass I was, I shouted out the only thing I could to prevent her from leaving, even if only for a day or two.
“Marry me.”
She paused. I held my breath, as she slowly turned toward me. “What did you say?”
I stepped toward her. “Marry me?”
She narrowed her eyes, and slowly walked the rest of the way toward me. “Are you kidding me? You’re using a marriage proposal to get me to stay, because I said a little time apart would do us some good? Did you even listen to anything I just said, Grayson?”
“Making you my wife was always in the cards, Emmalin. You just had to say yes.”
She looked down at her hands. “This isn’t the time to talk about this, w
hen we’re both feeling out of sorts right now.” She zipped up her bag, and headed downstairs.
“I asked Alistair to take me to the apartment. I’ll see you in a few days.” She closed the door, and I refrained from punching the wall.
She said a few days. I waited. But it wasn’t a few days. It turned into two weeks. Two fucking weeks. If she was trying to teach me a lesson, she was definitely mastering it. By then, I had already gotten rid of Caliscades and was ready to show her the new place. She just hadn’t come home yet.
She had just come in to tell me goodnight like she did every night before she left the office, and I finally had it. I locked the office door the moment she walked in. She gave me a questioning look at the sound of the click. I stalked toward her, ready for a fight.
“You said a few days. It’s been a little over two weeks. Two weeks! How much longer?” I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. “I can wait. However long you need me to. I can. I miss you. I don’t see enough of you, and quite frankly this is bullshit. But, like I said, I can wait.” She looked at me, trying to suppress a smile. I narrowed my eyes at her. “This isn’t funny, Emmalin.”
“I don’t like what you did. I don’t need you doing shit like that anymore; do you understand? I don’t need that from you. I can take care of myself without you swooping in just because you can. No more lying to me, or hiding things from me, because if you do it again, I will leave. Do you understand? I will leave, and you’re not going to stop me.”
