The Seduction Hypothesis

by Delphine Dryden

  “Nice.”

  She favored him with a shy, swift smile before switching legs and repeating the performance. Boots finally off, she drew both feet under her and knelt on the bed.

  “You’re sure about this?”

  He snorted. “I think I’m the one supposed to be asking you that. Are you sure?”

  She nodded. “Very sure.”

  “Then come here.”

  * * *

  It’s just Ben. Even so, Lindsey’s knees trembled as she slipped off the bed and walked the few steps to the chair. It was one thing to propose a spanking, another to bend over, awkwardly arranging her weight on Ben’s lap. She felt approximately ten times more naked than she’d ever been in her life, a feeling not mitigated by the arousal that came with it. He hitched her closer, one hand closing on her shoulder and one on her hip to pull her in. Getting comfortable.

  She was so primed that she gasped when he slid a hand down to the back of her thigh. He splayed his fingers over the crease between leg and ass, tantalizingly close to the center. Time slowed down, a sticky silence, then Ben took in a deep breath and released it slowly. Released her leg. Doubt filled her brain—had he changed his mind? What if—

  Smack!

  “Ow!”

  She’d been so panicked, she hadn’t sensed it coming.

  He popped her again, harder this time, pulling a hiss from her. That one stung. What else had she expected? She hadn’t realized how big Ben’s hand would be, how heavy and warm against her skin. Another few spanks, alternating sides, and the growing heat started to spread. Tingling, seeping in. Filling in the spaces he wasn’t hitting, the spaces she wanted him to touch.

  Strong, flat hand on her back, gentle between her shoulder blades. “Okay so far?”

  “Yeah.” Awesome so far. She wished, though, that she’d thought about how they transitioned from this to whatever the next thing was.

  “Your ass is already all pink.” He brushed fingertips over heated flesh, and Lindsey couldn’t help but squirm. “I thought that would bother me, seeing where I’d spanked you, but it doesn’t. It makes me want to leave more marks there. Makes me want to go harder.”

  “You’re already hard,” she pointed out, wiggling against him. She earned a swift series of smacks, harder and faster this time. Then he concentrated on one spot until it glowed with pain. Lindsey thought his handprint must be emblazoned there like a brand. Muscles in her neck and shoulder pinched, flexed, as she tried to withstand the growing agony. But when Ben finally shifted his focus to a new spot, all that tension drained out of her at once, leaving her light and lightheaded, taking in the fresh pain with a new appreciation.

  The sting was melting into something else, even as he layered on more, and her clit had started to throb where she pressed it against Ben’s thigh. She shifted her weight forward, bracing her fingertips against the floor, and spread her legs shamelessly in hopes of catching a glancing blow from his fingers against her pussy. Any kind of attention she could get.

  “Settle down!” he growled. Growled. She’d never heard his voice like that. “I’m not done yet.”

  She’d created a monster. Who set up a rhythm now, his big hand clapping her butt in a merciless beat that short-circuited her brain. He’d tightened his grip with his other hand, preventing her wiggling. Lindsey palmed the floor, legs flailing in space, all her thought reduced to the scorching pain and searing need Ben was inflicting on her. She wanted the monster. Wanted his fingers inside her, his cock inside her.

  A second later she got her first wish. Ben stopped the spanking and slicked two fingers into her channel, meeting no resistance along the way. Lindsey wailed like a cat and pushed into his touch, but he pressed her down again.

  “I’ve never felt you this wet before. God, you’re so ready.” He teased one finger down to her clit, and the jolt of pleasure nearly lifted Lindsey off his lap. If he’d pressed there a second longer she’d have come, but he didn’t. Just one swirling caress, then he stopped. “I’m not ready to fuck you yet, though.”

  “Yes, you are,” she protested. She could feel it, right there, extreme readiness pushing into her hip. Want, want, want. She was made of it, like a mindless sex-bot.

  “I beg your pardon?” He whacked her again and she cried out, startled into remembering what they were doing. What she’d gotten herself into, and the part she wanted him to play. Until that moment she hadn’t really believed it, that Ben would follow through. But he was, and it made the wanting ten times worse.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Master.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me.”

  Why did that seem like a big step? It was, because names and titles had power. Even a small amount of science fiction or fantasy reading taught you that. Heck, religion taught you that. If she did this, she’d be granting him power. And he already had more than she’d expected him to take. It’s just Ben, she tried to tell herself. It didn’t work, though.

  “I’m sorry, Master.”

  “That’s better. Now get on your knees and show me how contrite you are.”

  She would have fallen off his lap at that point if his hand hadn’t been steadying her. Twisting her torso, she gaped up at Ben’s face. He was holding it together, looking absolutely serious. A pang of anticipation-tinged pleasure arrowed through Lindsey. She slid off Ben’s thighs, landing none too gracefully in a kneeling position between his feet.

  “Yes, Master.”

  He scooted forward, unbuttoning his trousers as he went. He’d shrugged the suspenders off already, and the loose cut of the pants allowed him plenty of room to free his erection. Allowed Lindsey plenty of space to work her hands around his girth and stroke the base of his cock while she flicked her tongue over the tip. Leisurely, like she always had.

  “No.” Ben’s hand fisted in her hair, pulling her away an inch or two. “Suck it. Take it all the way in.”

  He pressed her back down, not roughly but not gently enough that she could do anything else, either. She opened her mouth and licked to wet his cock, slicking her way as far as she thought she could go. Ben seemed to think she could go farther, and proved himself right, guiding her down just past the point of comfort and holding her there for a second.

  “Like that.”

  She swallowed around him and dipped lower still, a strangled moan marking her surprise and a soft curse marking Ben’s.

  “Oh, good...so good. Do that again, keep doing that.”

  He guided her head up and down, giving her little choice but to comply. When he thrust up to meet her, Lindsey struggled not to gag around him. She realized he was using her like a sex toy, fucking her mouth. But her pussy throbbed with each stroke, and her muffled whimpers of need were no act. This was what she’d wanted from the first time she’d read the comic that started it all. And it was the hottest experience of her life, no contest. Her hips ground in time with her strokes up and down his cock. She wanted him inside her, and needed to come, and the slow burn of her arousal had somehow turned into a bonfire. At the same time, she never wanted this to stop. This, allowing Ben to use her as the instrument of his pleasure. Something ancient and basic in it appealed to some long-buried part of her psyche, perhaps. Or maybe she was just a simple pervert, which was also fine.

  When he tugged her off him, she growled in complaint and struggled to get her mouth on his cock again. Possessive, greedy, craving.

  Ben was already standing, though, grabbing her hand to pull her up with him, then picking her up by the waist and depositing her on the bed. She expected him to pounce, but he waited by the end of the bed and eyed her speculatively.

  “Hmm. Lie back and spread your legs. Wide. I want to see everything.”

  Hadn’t he seen enough already? But she complied, falling back and spreading her legs, knees slightly bent.

  “Wider.”

  She slid her feet out another few inches, until she felt the strain on her inner thigh muscles.

  “Now
wait there. Don’t move.” He tucked himself in and re-buttoned his trousers.

  “What are you—”

  “Shh.”

  His hand was already on the connecting door, and Lindsey held her breath in anticipation of hearing voices, but the other room was silent and dark. Ed and Lin were obviously still out partying. Her relief lasted only a few seconds, until Ben returned with a handful of stuff that had the potential to be intimidating if he got creative. She suspected he was more creative than she’d ever given him credit for in the past.

  She was right.

  “Is that...Ed’s Gandalf staff?”

  Ben locked the door behind him and twirled the long staff around his hand once. “Yup.”

  He also had a rope, probably a costume belt for one of the guys. And a necktie. Why the heck does one of them have a necktie here?

  “Do they know you’re using their stuff to...you know?”

  “I could tell them.” He wasn’t even cracking a smile. “You think they’d mind, if they knew what I’d used it for? ‘Hey, Ed, there’s this thing called a spreader bar, but I didn’t have one and I’d seen some cool alternatives with bamboo poles. So I borrowed your staff,’” he said, sliding the slender shaft of wood behind Lindsey’s feet, “‘and tied Lindsey’s ankles to it, while she was mostly naked.’” He slipped the length of coarse rope around her foot and ankle on one side, securing them to the staff, then picked up the tie and teased the inside of her thigh with it.

  “But I couldn’t have done it without Lin’s belt from his lame-ass monk outfit. Or my interview tie.”

  “Interview?”

  “Quiet.” The tie was already in play, as Ben carefully wrapped and tied it with an expertise that surprised Lindsey. Hidden talents. “‘And then, once I had my sweetie’s legs spread nice and wide, and tied up tight so she couldn’t get away, I had her at my mercy.’ Ed can use his imagination for the rest.”

  Lindsey’s own imagination was in overdrive, picturing every possible approach Ben might take to her bound, vulnerable self. He wasn’t taking any of them right away, though, which was driving her insane. He was just standing there, looking at her. Admiring his handiwork. And finally, finally taking off his clothes and rolling on a condom he must have retrieved when he went for the staff.

  “Oh, thank God.”

  Another huge grin broke out on Ben’s face—the old, familiar, engaging grin—and Lindsey grinned back, giggling as the weirdness of the whole situation broke over her. His smile widening, he flung his clothes aside with a graceful sweep of his hands and moved forward, kneeling between her legs in the triangle completed by the makeshift spreader bar.

  “Next, I put on my robe and wizard hat—”

  “Right? Oh, baby, your stats are so high.”

  “I got your critical hit right here!”

  “Ben...” she pleaded through her laughter, reaching toward him. He took her fingers, twining his through them playfully for a moment, then withdrew them and shook his head.

  “Master,” he reminded her.

  “I will call you Lord High Emperor of the Universe if it means I can have an orgasm in the next two minutes.”

  “I don’t think you’re supposed to be trying to make deals and set terms, Linds. Pretty sure there’s a name for that, but I’ll have to look it up later.” He leaned over her and backhanded one of her nipples with his fingertips, hard and fast and startling.

  “Fuck!”

  Just as sudden, just as startling, his hot mouth covered the stinging flesh. Lindsey jerked at the warring sensations, but couldn’t go far. She wrapped her fingers in Ben’s hair instead, combing through the soft curls and trying to catch her breath.

  “Next time I’m cuffing your hands, too,” he mumbled, lips never quite clearing her skin.

  The prospect sent another bolt of need through her, and Lindsey felt a hot trickle of fresh fluid between her legs. It occurred to some tiny, detached part of her mind that she should be embarrassed about generating a wet spot. Then that inner voice had an argument with itself about “shoulds” and society’s arbitrary double standards and slut-shaming and a number of other distracting concepts.

  “The whole point is to externalize that shit,” she muttered, annoyed with herself.

  “Huh?” Ben’s eyes were glassy and dark. He looked near the edge of his control, though Lindsey wasn’t sure how she knew that; he was already so far past the control she’d seen him exercise in the past, she was no longer sure she knew this Ben at all. Wasn’t sure she’d ever known him. She wanted to, though.

  “Master, please.”

  “I guess I could be magnanimous.” Scooting back off the bed, Ben grabbed the staff and raised Lindsey’s legs, pressing until her knees were almost in her armpits. With one hand on the bar to keep her in place, he used the other to tease through her folds, tracking the slick evidence of her readiness from the top of her slit all the way down to her ass. He smacked her butt, not very hard, then smoothed his hand over the curve and teased his thumb over the pucker of her asshole. Lindsey shivered at the wicked pressure. “Damn, I wish I had lube.”

  She shook her head, not a protest of that notion but of his failure to touch her anywhere else. His hand moved away from her ass, denying her even that sensation. Unable to so much as move her hips, she felt genuinely out of control for the first time that night. True, she could have reached down and taken matters into her own hands. But she couldn’t kid herself; Ben was offering more than she could do on her own right now, and if she wanted that she would only get it on his timeline. That limitation was a feature, not a bug, of this encounter.

  “Open your eyes,” he said softly. “I want you to see what I’m doing to you.”

  She forced her eyes open, made herself look down her torso to where Ben was positioning his cock to take her. One hand on the ridiculous Gandalf staff, the other on his own staff, two fingers tipping his erection down to angle it into her. Wet as she was, he could have slid in to the balls with no resistance. She knew that. She wanted that. He gave her an inch or two instead, just enough to seat himself so he could free up his hand to tease the metal bar that snuggled against her clit.

  The sight of his cock disappearing inside her pussy, the sweet pressure of him stretching and filling her as he fingered the piercing, was so erotic Lindsey nearly came on the spot. Trembling, breathing hard, she forced herself back from the precipice and watched the subtle movements of flesh against flesh as he worked himself deeper. When he broke his rhythm to give one of the steel balls a sharp flick with his fingers, desire flared up her spine like fireworks bursting. It was unbearable, and she wanted more of it, less of what she wanted and more of whatever Ben deigned to give her.

  So fucked up. So much hotter than she’d ever let herself dream.

  “Watch.” He sank down in one smooth drive, forcing the last half inch or so with a determined grunt that conjured an answering moan from Lindsey. His weight bore down on her bound body, pressing her legs even closer to her chest. His pubic hair rasped against her swollen clit, arousing her to insanity but not giving her quite enough stimulation to come.

  “So deep,” she whispered.

  “Fuck yeah. I’m gonna give you more, though, and you’re gonna take it.”

  He shifted again, bracing both hands near her waist and using his weight to keep the staff pressed down, holding her gaze...and then he moved, fast, pulling away and slamming back inside Lindsey’s body so hard it drove the breath out of her. So deep it almost hurt. And then again and again, a fresh sort of punishment, but it was just as arousing as everything that preceded it. His balls slapped into her, his pelvis ground out a filthy beat against her clit, and Lindsey was over the edge before she quite knew what was happening. A free fall, a climax that didn’t climax, as if her atoms were reassembling themselves and weren’t quite sure what to become next.

  Oh, and then it was pleasure, but not a kind she knew. The sharpest, most brilliant, biting bliss she’d never imagined, roarin
g through her body and claiming it just as Ben had. It ebbed, then rose and had its way with her again, finally leaving her limp and senseless and wondering what the hell had just happened to her.

  Ben came seconds later, shaking his way to a gasping halt. She opened her eyes, still breathing hard, to see him hovering over her in the last second of orgasm. His entire body clenched, then it all drained away as Lindsey watched, until he looked as floored as she felt.

  Maybe a little less floored. He had the presence of mind to sit up and untie her, shoving the equipment out of the way and massaging her legs with shaky hands.

  Aftercare, she thought. He really has been studying up.

  She would have commended him for it, too, if only she’d stayed awake long enough to form the words.

  * * *

  The morning had dawned as it usually did at a convention. Blurry from a slight hangover, woozy from oddly broken hotel sleep, and mindless except for a ruthless focus on the procurement of coffee. In Ben’s case, he was also suffering from a case of the surreals. He knew it wasn’t a dream, what had happened the previous night with Lindsey. But in the cold light of day, as he tried to will away his morning wood, he couldn’t fully believe it either. So improbable, so hot. And he’d felt like a supergenius giant when everything was going smoothly.

  He’d felt like a dork, however, whenever things had gone awry. He’d made a plan, in the night, because he knew only one thing that would help him achieve and maintain that glorious feeling of mastery again. Overpreparation. It worked for tests, it worked for important business presentations, and it would help him woo Lindsey back like a BDSM boss.

  Fortunately, his trusty smartphone had come to the rescue and he had all the information he needed to get his nefarious overpreparation plan started: an address.

  An hour and one overpriced breakfast later, Ben parted company from Lin and Ed with the excuse that he’d left something back in the hotel room. Once they’d wandered safely off into the gathering crowd, he turned around and headed straight to the nearest coffee shop for a stronger caffeine infusion. At nine-thirty, he was outside again and ready to rendezvous with the cab he’d ordered. His next step along the road to greatness.