Around them the partygoers bustled, chatted and played, but he shut them out to focus on Zoe.
“So you’re not really a masochist,” he told her softly, his lips an inch from hers. “And you’re not a simple bottom, or you’d have wanted to negotiate exactly what we were going to do, rather than just where your limits were. Which leads me to the conclusion that you’re a submissive, and that, at least, that bastard didn’t manage to beat out of you.”
She looked up at him as if she’d been caught out, although he didn’t think he was saying anything that wasn’t obvious. “We’ve talked a lot about what you don’t like, Zoe, it’s time we talked about what you do enjoy. You like having your thighs stroked. Do you like it when I rub you through your panties?” He cupped her crotch and rocked his hand on her vulva.
“Yes.” She sounded out of breath.
“Yes what?”
“Yes Sir.”
“You like calling me Sir, don’t you? Is that as hot for you as it is for me? Because it’s really hot for me, having my hands between your legs and you calling me Sir.” She was staring there, so he spread his legs a few inches, his eyes fixed on her but sure she could see the bulge in his jeans.
“It turns me on that it turns you on, Sir.”
He palmed her breast through her dress, his hand sideways, the heel of it over her nipple, which was starting to indent the dress. “Do you enjoy having your breasts touched, Zoe?”
“Yes, very much.”
He didn’t correct her on omitting the Sir, because getting beyond a simple yes was progress. His hand drifted over her peak, feeling it get stiffer with every pass. There were no words between them, but her sharp intakes of breath and soft sighs told him plenty. As did the strain on her face. Before long, the stress of the way she was kneeling was going to seriously interfere with her arousal.
“Let me move you.” He said it softly, but with enough steel in his voice that she’d know it was a direction and not a request. Her let her breasts and pussy go long enough to shift her knees inward, until they were a foot apart. He still could reach anywhere he wanted to, but it would be easier for her.
With someone else, he might have simply told her to relax, but if he read Zoe right, he wouldn’t be giving her what she needed if he’d done that. He wanted to show her that she could experience deep submission without being physically restrained or in danger, and the act of him setting her pose would be something like bondage for her without arousing the same fears.
“Thank you, Sir.” He watched her whole body relax, her shoulders still back but less stiff, her face less tight.
“You’re as I want you. Simple, really.” Her nipples were quite obvious now against the dress, and he plucked at first one, then the other, quickly pinching, tugging and releasing.
She smiled and closed her eyes. Submissives often shut their eyes to focus on the sensations and blot out distractions, but it was the first time he’d seen her do it. It was an expression of trust as well. She no longer felt she needed to watch his every movement to make sure she was safe. Of course, if he did something wrong, her eyes could open, her thighs close, her hands unclasp. There was no blindfold, no spreader bar, no cuffs holding her in place. Nothing but her will, backed up by his.
He had no desire to break that will, but he did want to challenge it. He pushed aside the gusset of her panties and pushed two fingers inside her wet pussy. He was rewarded by a loud sigh, and her hips flexed to meet him. Her channel was tight around his fingers, but it relaxed as he slowly fucked her with them.
“Don’t move from where I’ve put you, no matter what I do to you, Zoe. Not without using a safe word.”
“If you keep doing that, ‘ouch’ will be the furthest thing from my mind.”
“I’ll keep doing this then. But not just this.” He sucked her left nipple hard through her dress, and was rewarded with a sharp breath. He was willing to bet her eyelids fluttered open too, although he wasn’t looking at her face. “Good girl,” he purred and slipped a third finger inside her.
“No fisting,” she said with sudden urgency, tightening up again. “Your hands are too big, Sir.”
“Yes, they are. And your pussy is too nice and tight.” He put his eyes at her level again, and sure enough hers were open. “I won’t hurt you, Zoe.” He was willing to bet that in the right position, with lots of time and lube, he could get his hand inside her. But her reaction made him think that it had probably been done to her before, and not for her pleasure either, nor probably by someone who knew what he was doing. Without a lot of patience and technique, it could have been quite traumatic. She didn’t need to know he thought it was possible he could give her pleasure that way. Right now she needed to know her limits were going to be respected, and that she pleased him.
She nodded, took a long, deep breath and closed her eyes again. Lines around her eyelids showed him that they were scrunched too tightly for the action to be entirely natural. She was willing herself to trust, and he wasn’t going to betray that effort.
He turned his hand so that his thumb rested against her clit. Her panties made it more difficult, but he had strong fingers from years of playing the piano, and he wasn’t going to let a bit of fabric and elastic push him from where he wanted to be. He kissed her lips, and her tongue touched his. Her nostrils flared as she breathed and kissed at the same time. His hand cupped her breast as he pulled back from the kiss to let her breathe easier.
“How do you like to be touched here, Zoe? Tell me. A soft caress?” His palm moved over her breasts, from one to other, fondling and kneading gently. “Something more focused?” He rubbed around a nipple with two fingers, letting them brush the rigid peak through the fabric. “Or perhaps a little intensity.” He pinched, lightly.
She bit her lip, as if hesitating. “Intensity, please.”
He smiled and pinched some more. “I’ll enjoy that too.”
“Harder!” She blushed. “Sir. I’m sorry, Sir. I didn’t mean—”
He hushed her by doing exactly as she requested, and she let out a sound halfway between a whimper and a moan. She rocked her hips against the motions of his hand.
“It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?” Her need was obvious. He slowed down, trying to decide whether to give her the release she craved or to hold back. If he gave it to her, would she still want more? But as much as he wanted to play with the eager sub, he wanted to reward her trust more. Maybe she wouldn’t want more right away, but she wouldn’t be so afraid to get what she needed the next time. She needed healing, and he knew how to help, even though he suspected someone else would reap the benefits. He stroked his thumb across her clit and watched her gasp with sudden pleasure.
“I have you right where I want you, Zoe.” He moved his other hand, teased her other nipple to rigidity and then squeezed right as he curled his fingers to stroke her G-spot and rubbed his thumb roughly over her clit.
Her head fell back, her back arched. Her lower teeth bit into her upper lip, and the sound that came out of her mouth was an animal-like whine, but he was willing to bet it would have been a scream if she’d let herself. Someday, someone would hear that scream.
He let go of her breast and caught her as she flopped backward. “Oh my god,” she whispered when she caught her breath. Her cheeks flushed pink, either from exertion or embarrassment or both.
“You were beautiful,” he told her, slipping his fingers out of her to hold her better. “That was just what I wanted.”
“What you wanted.” Disbelief was written all over her face.
“Yes. What I wanted. I wanted to give you pleasure. I know that’s not so very alien to you.” His cock was hard, making a ridge in the front of his pants, and yet he felt satisfied. He could stroke it later if he needed to. He couldn’t deny he wanted to bury it deep in her pussy, or her mouth, but he didn’t need that as much as he needed to make sure she was okay.
She stared at him for a long moment and then nodded. “Giving pleasure can be a won
derful thing. All I ever wanted, at least for a long time. But it seemed that pleasing was harder and harder to do as time went on, and I had to do more and more to achieve it. Only my pain pleased.” She frowned. “You don’t want to hear about that. I’m spoiling a wonderful moment. Thank you.” She pulled herself back upright. “Thank you, Sir.”
“If you need to talk about it, I think I’m a pretty good listener.”
Her mouth smiled but her eyes fixed him with a stare. “I bet you are. Did you enjoy pinching my poor nipples, even though it was causing me pain?”
“I enjoyed causing you pain, Zoe,” he told her honestly. “And I enjoyed that it was giving you pleasure, or at least making you hornier. I enjoyed both those aspects of it.” He wanted to push her, and he’d have to rely on his instinct to know how far, even though she might be an emotional minefield because of her history. He brushed her cheek. “You’re blushing. Did you enjoy coming in a very public place?”
The pink turned to red. “No,” she said sharply. “And no one was paying any attention, anyway.”
“Most people weren’t,” he agreed. “A few were.” He hadn’t looked around, but he was pretty confident that they hadn’t gone completely unnoticed. There were people a few meters away. He didn’t think she was being entirely honest with her no, either. She’d come too quickly, too easily, even if she had been holding it in for a long time.
That didn’t necessarily mean everything about what happened was perfect, but he doubted any of it was very far off. He’d usually call a sub out for lying, but he gave her a nudge toward the truth instead. “I enjoyed it. I like the way you’re blushing now. And while I’d love taking you in private, giving you an orgasm in front of a few dozen people is its own special thrill.”
He grinned at her as he watched her process that. For a moment her features seemed to get softer, but her expression soon turned to a wariness he recognized from earlier. “If it pleases you, then it pleases me, Sir,” she murmured, and he couldn’t tell if she meant it or if it was a formula she’d been taught. Possibly there was a little of both.
“We could go back to your hotel, or I could take you to my house,” Nick offered.
She paled. “No.” She bit her lip. “I mean, no Sir. The people here make it safer.”
He ignored the selfish part of him that wanted to pout because she didn’t trust him. She had no reason to trust him, and she’d already given of herself more than he had expected. “They do, don’t they. So we’ll have to live with them. A necessary evil. And if a few voyeurs help make you hot, well, that’s fine too.” He winked.
“Seems you’re pretty turned-on yourself.” She looked straight at his crotch, and there was no mistaking her meaning. “Do you need me to take care of that?”
Here? In private, the offer would have been welcome. He wouldn’t be the first to fuck a girl at the club, or get a blowjob in front of everyone, for that matter. But he’d rather do without the distraction of the others, and yet private was totally out. Doing it in front of other people might be hot as hell if they were doing it because it was sexy, but not just because it was safe.
She obviously sensed his hesitation, because she interrupted his thoughts. “I’m sorry, Sir. If you wanted me to do anything about it, you would have asked.” She put her hands on her knees and turned them palm upwards. Her gaze was a few inches from meeting his.
He took her chin in his hand and moved her head until her eyes quit dodging and looked at him. “What I want is for you to speak up. Yes, I would love for us to do something about it, but I’d rather that happened in private. If you’re not ready for that, I can wait.” Now I’ll tell my cock that, because I can already imagine what those lips would be like around it.
“I don’t think I’ll be ready for that for a long time, Sir.” She winced. “And I’ll be gone soon.”
As if he could forget that little detail. If he wasn’t going to be inside her, he wanted the next best thing, to be pressed up against her and hold her in his arms. He stretched out his hands to her. “Rise. We’re going to dance.”
Her eyes widened. That, clearly, she hadn’t expected. She put her hands in his and let him help her to her feet. “Permission to speak, Sir?”
“Of course.” There was a time and place for telling a sub she couldn’t speak without permission, he supposed, but a first date wasn’t it. Even if he really knew his partner, he’d rather she said whatever she needed to. Didn’t he tell her he liked her speaking up?
“I just wanted to warn you that I have two left feet, Sir. And that I haven’t danced since college.”
He smiled. “Where did you go to school?”
“RISD,” she murmured, and after she caught his bemused look added, “Rhode Island School of Design.”
“Rhode Island is in the Eastern United States somewhere?”
She nodded, trying not to smile. “I keep forgetting you come from a different world. Even though you have a funny accent.” Her eyes went wide. “Oops! I’m sorry, I don’t mean funny like, I just—”
“I was appreciating your Southern drawl myself. But I guess you haven’t always been in Texas.” He put his arm around her waist and added, “I don’t care about your left feet, and for the record, I don’t have an accent.” He winked at her to let her know he was kidding, and steered her through the crowd. Mostly, people parted to let the linked couple through.
“I guess it’s all relative, isn’t it? No privileged frame of reference, and all that?”
“From art to physics—my, you are full of surprises.”
She grinned. “I’m educated, I am. Got all that book larnin’, fillin’ my head full o’ nonsense.”
“Fortunately for you, I find nonsense highly attractive.”
Chapter Four
Zoe didn’t know what to make of a Dom who didn’t jump on her every mistake as an excuse to punish her. He was almost easygoing, but the way he made her come with his hands and his fingers didn’t seem so easy. He found out what turned her on, and then turned up the intensity until it was all she could do not to scream.
Anyway, if he could deal with her telling him he had a funny accent, he might forgive her for the inevitable moment when she stepped on his foot. He couldn’t say she hadn’t warned him.
He pulled her on to the dance floor as the music changed. She didn’t know the song, but it was dark, heavy stuff with a solid rhythm, the sort of music that made one want to hang on to someone because it was a scary world out there. He didn’t try to do anything fancy, but held her close with his hand on the small of her back. She could feel his erection pressing up against her, and it was a lovely feeling knowing she had caused it. For so long with Stu the only thing that seemed to get him hard was her pain, and it had made her feel undesirable. Clearly, that was Stu’s problem, because this man reacted to her body quite nicely.
She rubbed her belly against the ridge in his pants and looked up with a mischievous grin. His eyebrows rose, and he kissed her under her ear before speaking. He needed to be that close to be heard over the music without shouting. It was much louder on the dance floor than on the edges of the room. “You want to play that kind of game, do you?”
His hands slid down to her ass and gave her a squeeze. He lifted her effortlessly a few inches off the floor until her mound was up against his cock, and grinded against her to the music. She was about to protest that everyone could see what was going on when his lips crushed against hers and his tongue invaded her mouth. The kiss made her feel lightheaded, and for a moment she had what she always wanted from submission, the feeling that she would and more importantly could do absolutely anything that was asked of her. Thoughts of being fucked on the dance floor, or even being pushed to the floor and wrapping her lips around his cock until he flooded her mouth passed through her mind. Master.
And then the moment was gone. He must have sensed it, because he set her back on the ground and loosened his grasp. She couldn’t let herself feel that way again. It wasn’t safe. Q
uesting for that high was what had gotten her into trouble in the first place. No.
“What’s wrong?”
“Me.” She wanted to give him a better explanation than that. I’m broken, and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put me together again. But that would be babbling, and he doesn’t want to hear me babble.
“You’re shaking.”
How many men would care to notice when they had a hard cock and a woman to satisfy themselves with? But it didn’t matter what a sweetie he was, because she was going to be gone in a few days. “I’m sorry, Sir.” She tried to breathe deeply and calm herself down.
“It’s okay, darlin’. Relax. She’ll be right, mate.”
Zoe blinked, not understanding why she was being referred to in the third person. “Huh?”
“Sorry. It means that it will all be okay in the end.”
“You can’t know that.”
“You can’t know that, Sir,” he corrected.
She laughed at the incongruity of what she’d said and the honorific. “Thank you,” she said. “I think that was just what I needed. Sir.”
He smiled and took her hand in his, his other arm around her waist. “Let’s dance. We don’t have to make it dirty dancing to have fun.”
The grinding wasn’t really what set me off, she wanted to protest. But she nodded and leaned her head against his shoulder. The closeness felt good. She felt guilty about not trying to satisfy him the way he had satisfied her, but she tried to shake it off and enjoy herself.
They swayed lazily for a long few minutes. She enjoyed the solidity of his body against her. It wasn’t threatening, and it wasn’t especially complicated or difficult. More importantly, he didn’t seem to mind the couple of times she’d stepped on his feet. Maybe the hard black boots he wore were enough protection. He tipped his toe, scooted her foot off his and kept dancing.
“What are you doing tomorrow?” he asked.
“I thought I’d just be a tourist. I hadn’t decided where though.”
Master in Melbourne Page 4
