by Raven Dark
“You looked riveted.” She lifted onto her knees, running her hand over his jaw. The light stubble tickled her fingers. “Can I ask you something, Sir?”
“Of course.” His gaze searched her face. At least he was being attentive now.
Ella opened her mouth and then closed it. “Permission to drop protocol, Sir.” She’d had only ever requested this once, when he’d been unusually late for a date.
Rock sat up, brows knitting together. “Granted. What is it?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing. Don’t bite my head off again, but I know something’s wrong.”
Looking back at the television screen, he sighed. The scowl on his face made her wonder if he was going to avoid again, to retreat from her and close off. She almost wished she hadn’t asked. But then he turned to face her on the couch properly, eyes more intent than they had been all weekend.
“Annabella…”
She cocked her head, trying to ignore the unease creeping in. “What’s wrong?”
He lowered his chin to his chest, drew in a long breath and pushed it out. Then he met her gaze. “Sweetheart, there’s something I need to tell you.”
CHAPTER 12: EQUALS
When Rock finished, Ella stared at him for a full minute trying to process his words. She sat back on the couch on her knees.
“So let me see if I understand you. You like sex in public venues, specifically so you get caught?”
“No, not exactly. I don’t like getting caught. I like…doing it where there is an element of risk. I take measures to avoid getting caught, but it’s the thrill of the possibility that gets me going.”
“You’re an exhibitionist.”
“Yes, but open clubs and public places meant for sex do nothing for me. The club does for me what sex in a bedroom does for you. It’s just sex.” He patted his chest. “For me, the forbidden element gets me off. The taboo, a place where you aren’t supposed to be.”
Ella closed her eyes, heartbeat filling her throat. After Cord’s cross, she’d sworn off anything remotely public and certainly anything that offered the risk of being seen by just anyone. The thought of facing the humiliation of being seen by people who didn’t understand or respect kink was just too much.
Unsure what to say, Ella got up from the couch and paced the room. Her chest constricted, as if a python had coiled around her and begun to squeeze. Rock stood, worry etched into every line on his face.
“Annabella, say something.” He stopped her, taking her arms. “Look, after what happened with Cord, I know this is way, way out of your comfort zone. And I know your limits about public scenes. I should have told you earlier.” He sighed and released her, running his hand down his face.
She couldn’t help feeling a twinge of something unpleasant. “Why didn’t you?”
“Because.” The desperation in his voice twisted her heart. “I was trying to figure out how to tell you without scaring you off.”
He opened his mouth to say more, but she stopped him. “No, I get it.” She blew out a breath and walked back across the room, lowering herself onto the couch. “I….just…I’m not sure how to handle this. What sort of fantasies do you see?”
He spoke carefully. “Sometimes, when I’m out with you, I get an urge. Like when we were at the restaurant looking for something on Scalder. I wanted to drag you into the washroom right there.”
Ella widened her eyes.
“Sometimes when I’m in a theater, or a back room somewhere, even at the office, I think about what I’d do if you were with me. Splaying you across my desk, or making you suck me off after a movie’s started.”
She swallowed. Six years ago his admission would have sent excitement careening through her. Even now, she pictured him slamming her against a bathroom door and lifting her onto his hips, swallowing her cries and taking her hard and fast. But now that excitement mingled with a clenching in her gut.
Rock sat beside her and touched the underside of her chin. “I know this kind of thing scares you. I would never force anything on you.” His eyes begged her to believe him. Why would he think she wouldn’t?
“Rock, you have to understand, it’s not just what happened with Cord. I have clients who’ve wanted me to do things to them in an elevator or a stairwell. There, specifically, because it’s risky. That kind of thing can be incredibly hot.”
Rock’s shoulders dropped in visible relief.
“But with Scalder out there, waiting for me to make a mistake, looking for anything he can use as a scandal, doing anything like that could be a problem.”
“I know. I can’t stress this enough, Annabella. I would never do anything to cost you your job, or your reputation. I know how to control situations so they’re as safe as possible and the likelihood of getting caught is minimal.”
“I believe that. You’re a great Dom. I know you’d never hurt me. And who knows, maybe someday I’ll be able to let you do something like that. But not now. Not with Scalder still out there.”
Rock slid his arms around her, pulling her into his warmth. “If you knew what it meant to hear you say you trust me.” He inhaled deep. “I’ve worried for a long time I’d never find anyone who believes in me, who didn’t just see me as a brute, like my father.”
“I’ve never seen you that way, Rock.”
Nervousness of what he needed remained. She couldn’t help thinking how quickly her life could go downhill if anyone in Scalder’s circle ever discovered the future mogul of Clayton Enterprises was screwing her boyfriend in some public washroom somewhere. She’d never recover. Not with the way Scalder would spin it. Not in this town.
Ella clutched at his back, burying her face in his chest. The racing of his heart, the tension in his frame tugged at her. So vulnerable. “We’ll figure this out. We’ll find a way to give you want you want, somehow.”
He kissed her temple. “You’re one in a fuckin’ million, you know.”
They sat there like that, in each other’s arms for a long time, until something drew Ella’s attention to the television. She glanced at the screen.
A woman lay across a bed, a man’s head between her legs. The woman arched her back, crying out and clenching his hair. The sight made Ella’s stomach flutter.
“Oh, would you look at that,” Rock said.
“Figures, it gets good when we aren’t watching anymore.”
He gave a shaky laugh, like the last vestige of the tension between them was being released. A bulge grew in his pants and she resisted the urge to stroke him.
“We could always rewind.” A sexy grin twisted Rock’s lips. He picked up the remote.
“Wait a minute.” Ella stopped him, nodding to the screen. The man had stopped eating the woman’s pussy and lay over her, fucking her almost as rough as Rock liked. Except he had his hand over her mouth, muffling the screams she let out with every thrust.
The image sent a charge of erotic desire through Ella. The idea of a gag still scared her. Cord had used it to circumvent her ability to safeword while humiliating her in front of his damn friends, but a hand over her mouth? No, Rock’s hand over her mouth, that was different. And while he fucked her, here in the privacy of his hotel, there was nothing to fear.
Ella swallowed. “Rock, I want you to do that.”
He glanced at her. “What?”
“The next time we do a scene, I want you to cover my mouth like that, with your hand.”
A low sound rumbled from his chest. He leaned over her, putting his face close enough that his hot breath fanned her neck. “Do you have any idea how hot you make me?”
She ran her hand over the bulge in his pants. Taking advantage of the lack of protocol, feeling the hard ridge of his cock swell to steel against her palm. “I have an idea.”
His jaw muscles flexed with the effort it took for him to remove her hand from his cock and set it on his knee. He clicked the blue-ray back a few beats. At the start of the scene the man shoved the woman onto the bed and began stripping off her
clothes with sensual slowness.
Ella moved to undo Rock’s pants, but he gently pushed her shoulders against the backrest. “Nope, lie back.”
“What are you doing?”
Rock moved the coffee table back and knelt in front of her. “I want to taste you.” He slid his hands around the back of her knees and jerked her forward.
The admission made her muscles tighten. He’d done this plenty of times, but the adoration in his tone told her this time would be different.
“No arguments here…Sir.” Ella lay back spreading her knees for him.
Rock’s gaze held hers, pools of hungry blue light. “No. No protocol this time.”
She leaned up a little, brow crinkling.
“Annabella, after what I told you, you made me feel so…free. You make me so crazy about you.” He brushed her hair back. “I want to make you come with my mouth, but I need you to touch me and take me like an equal. I need to know everything you feel and want.”
Emotion for him unlike anything she’d ever felt washed over her making her heart feel huge. She knew what it cost Rock to ask for that. Being a Dom was like breathing to him, more natural than not. That he’d let her see him as just a man, as bared to her as she would be to him, was more special than words could express.
Ella sat up a little more and threaded her fingers through the back of his hair. Her whole body tingled with the need to feel his mouth on her.
On the screen, the woman guided the man’s mouth lower, to her bared breasts. Ella turned the volume up, letting the sounds charge the ambiance with passion, especially for Rock, who wouldn’t see it and had only the benefit of hearing the scene that played out. She could hear the man on the screen sucking, licking, the woman panting. She tipped Rock’s face up, not unlike he often did with hers.
“I want your mouth on me, Rock.”
He pushed her gently back on the couch and his head swooped down, mouth claiming hers, hard and hot. His lips pried hers apart, tongue ravenous.
Ella flicked her tongue over his, swirling it, licking the way she might the head of his cock. She clawed at his back.
A groan scraped from him and he shoved his hands between their bodies, quickly working the buttons loose on her blouse. She did the same with his shirt, grinding her pelvis against his. He slipped his hand between her legs and stroked her core through her jeans, soothing and deepening the ache at the same time.
“Mmm, fuck.” Rock pulled her knee up to his hip, letting his hardness rub against her. Ella arched for him, and he pulled her shirt from her shoulders and opened her bra. Then he bent, kissing, licking along her collarbone.
A whimper came from the TV and Ella lifted up enough to see the screen. The man worked his way between the woman’s legs and Ella spread her own. Her pussy hummed for Rock’s touch.
“Let me see your pussy.” He opened her jeans with a flick of his wrist and yanked them, then her underwear from her hips. Eagerness threatened to engulf her. Ella lifted her hips to let him slide her clothes off. He sucked hard on her nipples, and she raked her hands through his hair, loving this chance to touch him, to take what she wanted.
“Lick my pussy ‘til I come, Rock.”
His fingers slid away and he lifted his head. Need darkened his eyes. “I like having you talk dirty to me. Maybe next time I’ll have you call yourself the slut, not me.”
She chuckled. “Fine, but please don’t stop.”
He did stop, pushing to his feet and pulling her up with him. She let out a frustrated groan. “What are you doing?”
He led her by the hand across the hotel suite into the kitchen and picked her up so suddenly she yelped. She wrapped her arms around him and Rock deposited her on the wide marble counter.
“Better angle,” he explained, pressing himself between her legs.
“I’ll take it.”
His mouth covered hers. Ella kissed him hungrily, letting her tongue war with his. His taste, male and chocolate from whatever he’d eaten during the movie, flooded her taste buds, every lick mounting her need. She worked the buttons of his shirt free and slid it from his shoulders, loving the way his powerful muscles bunched under her fingers. He took her knees, tugging her forward against him.
When he broke the kiss, his mouth worked its way over her collarbone to her breasts. She urged his head lower. Her nipples ached for sucking, but her pussy flamed hotter.
It surprised her when he bent his knees and spread her legs wide. The first hot, wet flick of his tongue nearly sent her over the edge and she let her head fall against the cupboards behind her with a thud and a moan.
“Yes, that’s it.” She threaded her hands through his hair, pushing his mouth closer to her.
A deep rumbling sound vibrated from him. Rock dragged his tongue through her folds, then swirled her clit with the tip. Ella arched her back, gripping his head in her hands.
“Fuck, yes.”
The last time he did this, he’d bound her hands, never letting her touch him. His letting her take what she wanted gave her a needy charge. Rock devoured her, long, slow licks.
“Oh God, yeah.” Her control shattered and she rode his mouth hard, legs spread, hips bucking furiously. “Ah, oh, fuck, fuck, yes!”
White lights flashed in her vision and she came explosively in his mouth.
He sucked a little more, drawing out the last spasms of her climax. Then, barely letting her process the mind-blowing orgasm, he stood up, unbuckled his pants, took her hips and thrust into her with a carnal grunt.
“Annabella, you’re so fucking hot.” Thrust.” Give me your mouth.” Thrust.
He savaged her mouth and the taste of her own need rekindled her arousal. She kissed him back, hips rocking against him, groaning with every stroke.
“I know this isn’t like the scene you wanted from the movie,” he rasped. “I’ll cover your mouth next time. I need to kiss you.”
“Mmm.”
The anticipation of his hand clamped over her mouth while he took her just like he was now made her pussy clench around his cock with a delicious tightness.
Rock cupped her ass, palms exploring every slope and curve. He clapped both generous cheeks with his hands, just hard enough that the slight sting combined with the pleasure of him inside her nearly sent her into a frenzy again. He put so much possession into that slap. Ella fucked him faster, and Rock’s movements sped up.
They both came, bucking and crying out. Rock shuddered and panted in her ear and Ella trembled as she came down. They held each other close, Ella running her hands over his bare back, Rock driving his hands through her thick hair.
“Wow.” She put her head back against the cupboard and Rock grinned.
“Oh, yeah. Woman, you are so damn hot when you come like that. No wonder men flock to Mistress E’s door.”
She giggled.
Rock released her slowly and a crooked smile toyed with his mouth. “You know, protocol has to be reinstated some time.”
“I know.” This rare chance to see this side of him felt precious somehow and she wished she could savor it more.
“Tomorrow?” he asked.
Her heart buoyed and she nodded.
“Come here.” He took her hand, pulling her off the counter.
“Where are we going?”
“Shower.”
Ella followed him, but inwardly her thoughts returned to what he’d told her earlier. How do I give him what he wants?
* * * * *
After their shower while they lay in bed wrapped in the warmth of each other’s arms, Rock leaned up on his elbow and looked down at her. When he spoke, his voice was a soft rasp. “How do you feel, sweetheart?”
The tenderness in his voice made her smile. She ran a finger through the sprinkling of fine dark hairs that fanned across his chest, the after-effects of their last lovemaking session in the shower still lingering.
“My legs feel like jelly.”
“Good.”
But uncertainty shadowed his eyes
. Ella touched his face. “What is it?”
Rock sat up and turned to the bedside table, pulling out a small white box. It was too big to be a ring and Ella stamped down a surprising twinge of disappointment.
When they were together before, they’d never talked of marriage. Rock had gone off to school. Had she loved him then? Did she now? Sometimes her emotions filled her with an intensity she’d never felt before, but was it love? She didn’t know.
Ella slowly took the box, curiosity and nervousness pulling at her. “What is this?”
Eyes soft, he said nothing, only waited for her to open it.
Ella lifted the lid. A silvery bullet-shaped butt plug gleamed inside. She drew it out, letting it hang from the string on one finger, watching the polished metal shine in the light from the lamps. Muscles in her ass and pussy tightened and heat spread through her belly at the idea of wearing this for him. She had used plugs before when they’d dated, but not since.
“Are you wanting…now?” She moved to roll over on her stomach but Rock stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
“No, not now.”
She didn’t like the lines furrowing his brow.
“I want you to wear it to work Annabella.”
The words hit her like a jolt. Ella let the plug drop and lay back on the mattress. “Oh.”
Rock closed his hand around hers, pressing her palm to his chest. She looked at him, her heart beating a little too fast.
“Sweetheart, I want you to feel you can say no, without any sense of obligation to please me as a sub. This needs to please you as much as me.”
“When we were together six years ago I would have jumped at the chance. But now…” The need to explore his fetish with him, to experience the freedom of putting herself in his hands rode her hard. “God, I want this.”
“I know this won’t be easy for you, but I want to take things to the next level.” He rubbed his hand over her belly sending shivers through her. “Wearing this in public is a way for you to work on your fear. With this, the risk of getting caught is purely psychological. No one can know what we’re doing unless you or I tell them.”
