This world held so many questions, an unending array of whys, wheres, hows and what ifs. My widening perspective drew me onward into the unknown.
Taking several refreshing breaths in, I headed back up the pathway and on towards the house.
Winston ran from plant to plant marking his territory.
“Not the flowers,” I scolded him, though considering he’d been taught this since a puppy the chance of him ever behaving was unlikely. He didn’t even sulk when scolded, merely looked up at me lovingly as though waiting for a snack.
I made coffee and carried a mug into the bedroom. Richard was fast asleep. He looked so beautiful, so peaceful, with his head resting on that pillow, those ruffled sheets askew.
Gently, I ran my fingers through his hair. “Wake up. We’ll be late.”
He stirred. “What time is it?”
“8AM.”
He sat up, his hands rubbing his face. “Damn jet lag. It’s always worse coming home for some reason.”
I handed him his coffee. “This will help.”
“Thank you.” Richard took it from me and sipped. “All hail the caffeine God.”
I melted into those blue eyes. They were so alluring, so kind.
“How about I drive us in?” I said. “You can sleep in the car if you like.”
“Eager to drive your gift from Cameron?” he said.
“I’m not going to keep it. It doesn’t feel right.”
My new silver BMW sat in the driveway. A stunning reminder of the kind of money that flowed around here. That new car smell had stirred excitement, but reality had sunk in that it would never be mine. The loss of my mini brought a wave of nostalgia. Cameron had confiscated it.
Other than this act of control, I hadn’t heard from him.
“Well you can leave it at Chrysalis when you visit later,” said Richard. “Have Leo bring you back. But don’t be surprised if you don’t rile up Cameron’s wrath.”
I’d be seeing him again. “Chrysalis?”
“You have an appointment this afternoon.” He took another sip. “Great coffee, Mia.”
“Why?”
“You didn’t think you’d gotten out of math that easily did you?”
“I hate math.”
“From all accounts, you’re a great student.”
“What time?”
“2PM,” he said. “Gives you enough time to settle back into Enthrall. We only have one client on the books this afternoon and I can welcome them.”
“I have so much catching up to do,” I said. “Maybe I can resume my lessons in a week or so? I’m kind of jet lagged too.”
“Say thank you.”
I lowered my gaze. “Thank you, sir.”
There was gratitude for Richard allowing me to study on work time, only I wasn’t sure I was ready to see Cameron again so soon.
A lump caught in my throat.
I didn’t trust myself not to crumble at Cameron’s feet, beg him to hold me one more time. I’d embarrass myself and betray Richard all over again and ruin my self-respect.
From Richard’s stare, he might have been thinking that too.
“I like the new playroom.” I quickly changed the subject. “Perhaps…tonight?”
“You feel ready?”
“Yes. More than anything.”
“Pleasure or pain, Mia?”
A thrum settled low in my belly. “Both.”
“You always favored pleasure?”
I sucked in my breath. “Whatever you deem me worthy of?”
Winston leaped up on the side of the bed and I leaned in to kiss him, so grateful for his ability to break the tension at the perfect time. He always sensed when we needed a time out.
I stood. “I’ll feed him.”
Richard nuzzled into Winston’s head. “Someone needs a bath.”
Winston jumped down and ran after me.
“Yes, mister,” shouted Richard. “Don’t think I’ll forget. Tonight, you’re both getting taken care of.”
I stopped in the doorway. “Roll on tonight then.”
Richard smirked. “Careful what you wish for.”
“Goes both ways.”
Richard sat up. “What does that mean exactly?”
“These lessons you’ve got me taking,” I said. “They’re teaching me an awful lot. Are you sure you don’t want to keep the old Mia?”
“Remember what I once told you? I want you to reach your full potential.”
Resting my hands on my hips, I turned to look at him. “Potential?”
“If Cameron has anything to do with it, you’ll be on a fast track to a PHD.”
“In fashion?”
“No, Mia. In the subject you thrive in.”
“Which one is that?”
“Psychology,” he said. “You’d make a great therapist.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Cole has spotted your talent for understanding the human condition.” He waved it off. “But if you want to pursue fashion…”
Staring down at Winston, I found he looked as surprised as me.
“Cameron told you that?” I asked.
“No, Mia. I’ve developed an uncanny ability to read minds. Yes, Cameron and I discussed your future.”
“And where was I when this was going on?”
“Apparently on the fast track to laying over my lap and heading for a spanking.”
Winston’s bark brought me back into the room. “First things first,” I said. “We’ll get Mr. Mutt fed then I’ll start plotting how I’m going to take over the world.” I rolled my eyes.
Richard frowned. “Roll your eyes again and we’ll be utilizing the playroom now.”
I hurried off to feed Winston.
My future had yet again taken a 180.
The drive along the Pacific Coast highway in Richard’s open top BMW was a great way to start the day, with the view of the ocean on our right and the sun bursting rays upon it. Other than hitting a little traffic, our journey into Enthrall was uneventful. We stopped off for breakfast and brought it with us.
By mid- afternoon, I’d had the chance to settle back into my desk in the reception, make coffee for everyone, and spend time with ‘the girls,’ Scarlet, Lotte, and Penny. They looked stunning in their dominatrix outfits, and talked enthusiastically about their new clients, and all we’d missed at Enthrall.
Penny’s Scottish accent was as thick as ever and she took delight in showing us photos on her phone of her new niece born just a week ago. Lotte was her usual self, fussing over me, asking me question after question. Her motherly nature made me feel so at home here. Scarlet wanted to hear all the details of my training at Chrysalis. The last she’d seen me had been on Richard’s Malibu beach, and we had so much catching up to do. I told them all that had happened, even sharing how Cameron had used BDSM along with psychology to delve into the truth of my past.
Their eyes had been full of admiration for Cameron, proving once more I wasn’t the only one in awe of him.
When they finally let me return to my desk, I’d stolen a few more minutes to Google psychology courses and took this quiet time to mull over Richard’s statement that I’d make a great therapist.
Had fashion merely been a fad? Had I really found my true calling?
A buzz at my desk made me jump.
“Can you come in here please, Ms. Lauren?” came Richard’s voice on the intercom.
Reaching for my pad and pen, I hurried through the doorway and down to his office.
I took a seat in front of his desk.
He looked up at me. “What are you doing?”
“Taking notes?”
He pushed himself to his feet. “For what?”
I lowered the notepad.
“I have two sessions today. Yours is the first.”
“Two?”
“Yes. I’m assisting Lotte with a session with a new client. Your training needs to resume as quickly as possible.”
“Not tonight?” I said. �
��In our new playroom?”
“Submit.”
With a nod, I placed the notepad on his desk, along with the pen, and stood with my arms behind my back.
“We discussed the need for your orgasm training,” he said. “You didn’t think I’d forgotten?”
“Well I…” I shook off those words and stood tall.
On the wall to my right, one of those three pictures of Richard’s daredevil stunts had been changed out. The photo was of me. The one he’d taken of us atop the double-decker bus in London. The first one was of him swimming with a great white and the other was him hanging off a sheer rock wall without a harness. It could only symbolize one thing. Richard was hinting he considered me a dangerous pursuit.
“Bend over,” he ordered.
It crossed my mind I too needed a series of photos.
Obediently, I took a step forward and leaned over his desk, staring ahead, wondering if he was going to lock the door. A thrill shuddered up my spine.
Richard came round and hitched up my dress. He eased my panties off and tugged them down my legs. With his help, I stepped out of them.
“Under no circumstances,” he said, “may you come during this session. Afterward, when you leave my office, you will not touch yourself. You are forbidden from any pleasure for the next three days. Do you understand?”
Like Cameron’s denial on the plane…
Don’t think about that now, my mused scolded me. That’s in the past. Richard is your future.
“Yes, sir,” I burst out. “Thank you, sir.”
Richard’s hand came down hard on my butt and made my mouth gape.
He set a deliberate pace, spanking me, his slaps echoing. I tried to settle into the punishment, find my way into subspace, willing myself to go under, deeper into a trance.
He traced his fingers along my sex.
Strong hands rested on my hips and raised my butt higher. My thighs were eased apart, my spine curved elegantly, and those spanks to my ass now lowered to my sex, Richard’s slow steady taps against my clit caused another moan to escape.
His fingers circled, as did my scattered thoughts, concluding if he kept this up any longer I was going to come.
“Permission to speak, sir,” I managed breathlessly.
“Permitted.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“For what?”
“My punishment, sir.” I closed my eyes in response to his flicking fingers.
“Not a punishment. Training.”
I gripped the edge of the desk.
A wave of guilt. A flurry of betrayal; as though an intimate act performed with any man other than Cameron was wrong.
I begged that thought to leave, silently admonishing myself for taking it there.
The tallest tower.
Ice skates scraping upon a frozen surface.
Cameron telling me that pleasing Richard would please him.
Richard dropped to his knees behind me and I jolted when his mouth met my sex, lapping, nipping, his tongue entering. His hands wrapped around my thighs and his fingers played with my clit.
I was so close, dangerously so. “May I come, sir?”
“No,” he said. “I believe I was clear about that.”
Holding the edge, my knuckles white, I tried to pull back on my arousal, but I was already there, climbing higher, exulting at the pleasure he brought between my thighs. His tongue fucked the entrance, owning my sacredness.
I rode out my climax, trying to tame these shaking thighs, trying to hide this orgasm sweeping over me.
“What just happened there?” he said.
“Oh.” I let out a protracted moan.
“Let’s try this again, shall we?” He rose to his feet to stand behind me now. The sound of his zipper preceded the tip of his cock sliding up and down my sex in a tease. A thrust inside stretched me wide and threw me forward.
He took me from behind, hard.
He pulled me up so I was half standing, and twisted me slightly to reach my mouth to kiss me, sharing that sweet taste. His tongue entered my mouth in time with his cock sliding in, and as he took me from behind, his slow, steady pounding drove me into a frenzy.
“You’ve been taking your pills, Mia?” His voice was husky with need.
“Yes, sir.”
His left arm wrapped around my waist and lowered, his fingers finding my clit again to flick me into a state of bliss. His right hand wrapped around my throat in a firm hold of control. “No coming,” he warned. “Understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
This cruel punishment of denial played itself out, with him flicking my clit and fucking me from behind, slow and sure, causing me to pretend I wasn’t coming, despite my body trembling. My tell-tale spasming around his full on thrusts surely gave away my disobedience. This blissful pleasure took hold and carried me with it.
I shuddered, caught up, my body rigid with pleasure.
He slid out and turned me around, his expression fierce.
Trying to keep my eyes on his, I caught that shininess of his cock, needful and yet unfilled.
He gripped my shoulders. “Did you just come?”
Biting my lip, I looked down, strangely ashamed I’d disobeyed.
“I asked you a question.”
“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.”
He lifted me up onto the desk and pushed me back to lay on it, spreading me before him, hoisting my dress around my waist. Standing between my legs, he eased my thighs farther apart.
He lowered his mouth to my sex. “Obey me this time. Think you can do that, sub?”
“I’ll try.”
His mouth fixed once more on me, and no sooner had my promise been spoken than it had morphed into a lie as pleasure thrummed between my thighs. His tongue explored and savored, cruelly teasing.
“Sir,” I moaned again. “Please.”
“You’re forbidden to come.” His tongue danced on my clit, hurtling me over the edge into yet another orgasm.
My body unable to hide the proof, I trembled violently, and some part of my addled brain sensed this was his way of taking revenge on me for all that had conspired in London.
Richard rose above me and pinned me to the desk and thrust inside me again, grinding out his orgasm until he’d filled me with warmth and his face contorted in bliss.
Stillness surrounded us.
He fell atop me and we hugged, me on the desk, him above, both of us needing this intimacy. Needing to find our way back to the time before.
I’d failed him, failed me, and guilt for the pleasure I’d seemingly stolen brought a wave of angst.
I now stood before him, arms behind my back, my head bowed low, my heart thundering with how he’d react to my failure to obey. He reached for a box of tissues and set about cleaning me down there.
When he was done, he stood in front of me, tall and intimidating. “You do what I say and when. Any further disobedience will be punished.”
My nod gave my understanding.
“Return to me in an hour,” he said.
An hour?
My expression revealed a hint of rebellion.
All it took were his eyebrows to rise defiantly and I scurried out of there, leaving my notebook and pen behind. This climax ban was obviously something I was crappy at. This post orgasm bliss filled me with guilt.
Post fucked. Mind-fucked; I needed chocolate.
Back at my desk, munching on one of Lotte’s home baked cookies, my Googling went from how much a top of the line silver BMW ran for, well over one hundred thousand dollars apparently, to how a girl could control her climax.
The advice was pretty lame. Most of the articles circled around orgasm dysfunction and I had the opposite problem. My body still thrummed from the multiples I’d just had, and my flushed face revealed Enthrall’s secretary had gone a few sexy rounds with her boss. I hoped there’d be a few minutes before I saw anyone so I could return to a nonchalant expression.
How was I ever going to not come with Ri
chard working me into a frenzy like that? My climax ban was destined to go on indefinitely.
The phone buzzed through to let me know someone was at the front door.
I lifted the phone. “Hello? How can I help you?”
“I’m here to see Richard Sheppard,” came a quiet voice.
“May I ask your name?” I said, a little rattled to hear someone say Sheppard. The surname Richard no longer used.
“Hope Oren.”
That sounded familiar.
“Do you have an appointment?”
“I’m a good friend of Richard’s,” she said. “May I come in?”
With a press of a button, I buzzed open the front door of Enthrall.
And finished the rest of my cookie.
The elevator carried her up and I rose to greet her. The doors opened and she stepped out—
My heart wedged in my throat. She looked terrifyingly familiar. An impossible vision of Richard’s ex-fiancé. The stunning woman who he’d lived with in New York. The girlfriend who he’d tried to save after she’d cut her wrists in that bathtub.
And killed herself.
CHAPTER 35
I FOUND MY voice again. “Please, wait here.”
Hope gave a nod she would.
With no memory of making my way down the hallway, I merely found myself standing in front of Richard’s desk. The only explanation was the one I desperately needed to hear. Any other conclusion would render me useless for the rest of my life.
“Does…” I said, nervously.
“Yes, Mia?” said Richard.
“Did Emily have a twin? Your ex?”
Richard rose to his feet. “Please don’t refer to Emily as my ex.”
“Can you answer the question, please.”
He frowned. “Yes, Em had a twin. Why?”
Thank fuck for all the angels.
My hands loosened their grip on my shirt, where I’d balled the material in a daze of confusion.
“Mia?” he snapped.
“She’s in the foyer.”
“Hope’s here?” He nudged past me and ran out.
When I rejoined them in the foyer, they were hugging. Her head rested on his shoulder, and his arms were wrapped around her and were squeezing her into him.
Enthrall Him (Enthrall Sessions Book 3) Page 28
