Heart of Submission

by Claire Thompson

  "Chase! I had no idea. And it's because of me." Kate exclaimed.

  "Because I made a bad choice."

  "No," Chase said firmly. "It's because Brighton was an ass who stepped way over the line and had to be reined in.

  Now, let's not talk about that anymore. Come here."

  He reached for her, and she allowed him to draw her into his arms. They kissed again, and Chase felt the slow burn of desire curling through his body. Pulling back, he reached for her arms and lifted them, guiding her hands to the O ring hanging from the ceiling. Taking his cue, she gripped it, swaying slightly.

  "Will it support my weight?" she asked, her voice tremulous.

  "Oh, yes, absolutely," Chase assured her. His cock was aching, fully erect and pointing toward his left hip.

  He stepped behind her, reaching up to grasp her wrists. She didn't release her hold of the ring, but stood still, as if already bound. Chase leaned forward, pressing his body against hers, feeling the curve of her ass against his cock. She didn't pull away. His mouth next to her ear, he murmured, "Would you like for me to give you a taste of sensual bondage?"

  He ran his fingers lightly down her arms, moving along the silky fabric that covered her torso, feeling the slight tremor in her body as he touched her.

  "Yes, please," she said throatily.

  When he moved to retrieve the proper rope, Chase realized his owns hands were trembling slightly, with both excitement and perhaps a bit of fear.

  It had been so long. He wasn't worried about his skill with the various intricate knots that he used or his ability with a flogger or cane, but was his touch still sure? Did he still have what it took to dominate a woman, to make her shudder and moan with desire, to make her surrender her body and her will?

  He used a basic two column tie on her wrists, securing her with the soft rope. The room was relatively cool, compared with the summer heat outside, but Kate's skin was hot to the touch. His lips itched to kiss her again, but he forced himself to focus on his task.

  "How's that?"

  he asked, stepping back to appraise his handiwork. He'd chosen the royal blue rope, which looked pretty against her pale, smooth skin and contrasted nicely with her coppery red hair.

  "Are you comfortable?" Kate's cheeks were flushed, making her eyes look even greener, a deep, clear emerald green with tiny flecks of gold around the pupils.

  She pulled against the rope.

  "Yes." She swallowed and took a deep, shuddery breath. She was fidgeting, moving her feet in a nervous little dance on the floor.

  He stroked her cheek and spoke gently, caressing her the way one might gentle a wild horse.

  "Relax. You're safe. We're just experimenting right now.

  I'm going to take off your sandals. And then I'm going to raise the pulley, just a little, just enough to put you on tiptoe, but not high enough for full suspension, okay?"

  Kate nodded, visibly swallowing again. Chase knelt and slipped the sandals from her pretty, slender feet. He noticed her toenails were painted a pale pink, like the inner part of a nautilus shell. Standing, he moved toward the wall, taking the long blue rope with him and threading it through the winch. He turned the handle slowly, watching as she was forced higher, rising on tiptoe, her arms stretched taut.

  Returning to the bound girl, he lightly kissed her cheek.

  "Is this what you want, Kate? Is it what you need?"

  He ran his hands down her sides again, barely touching the swell of her breasts as his hands moved past them.

  She nodded. Her nipples were poking against the thin fabric of her blouse.

  "Say it, Kate. Tell me what you need."

  Though he'd meant to go slow, Chase felt his natural dominance rising to the fore. Something about the rope, something about the knots and the steel, coupled with her beauty and

  vulnerability, all triggered that primal urge to assert his mastery that was never too far below the surface.

  "Tell me." Chase fixed his gaze on hers. He felt Energized, alive, for the first time in ages. He rocked on the balls of his feet, lust and power zipping through his body like electrical currents. Jesus, he wanted this woman.

  "I want..." Kate began. She took a breath and continued.

  "I need ... this. I need to feel the rope against my wrists, my body pulled taut. It just feels so ... right. I don't know how else to say it."

  "I understand. And it is right. Just right for you, and for me." He moved closer and pushed the tendrils of hair out of her face, tenderness and raw lust warring inside him. Kate was wearing a pale blue sleeveless blouse with tiny buttons down its front, several of them opened at her throat.

  Chase squelched the desire to grip the fabric on either side of her collar and rip it open, letting the little buttons spray over the loor so he could bury his face between the luscious mounds of flesh.

  "I want you," he murmured, before realizing he'd said the words aloud.

  "Kiss me," she replied.

  ****

  When he stepped back from the kiss, Kate realized she was panting. The feeling of the rope, wound and knotted securely around her wrists, was incredible. She loved the way her body was stretched, her back arched, breasts thrust forward, nipples achingly erect.

  All that was missing, she realized, was the feel of leather stroking her flesh, moving over her skin.

  "What?" Chase asked, watching her face.

  "What is it you want, Kate? Tell me."

  "The flogger," she begged, too aroused to be shy.

  Chase raised his eyebrows.

  "Are you sure? This was just a demonstration. A taste, if you will. Do you think you're ready to be flogged while so thoroughly restrained?"

  "I want it," she asserted, adding afterwards a belated, "please."

  Chase laughed. "All right then. You shall have it. But I can't flog you with all these clothes covering you. We'll have to remove the skirt, at least."

  Kate nodded, recalling the pretty pink lace panties she was wearing, aware on some level she'd known, one way or the other, that Chase would end up seeing them. Chase moved behind her and unzipped the skirt, letting it fall to her feet.

  She stepped out of it and he picked it up and hung it on a spare hook beside the whips and floggers.

  He selected a flogger, a large one with thick, soft-looking tresses, and approached her again.

  "You sure about this, Kate? You can still change your mind."

  "I'm sure," she whispered, aware of the throbbing ache between her legs and the rapid tattoo of her heartbeat.

  Chase nodded and moved behind her.

  "Your safeword is lemon, though I doubt you'll have need of it.

  I'm going to start very gently. We'll take our time."

  Kate shuddered slightly as he drew the smooth leather tresses over her ass and trailed them along her thighs. He let it strike her with a whisper of a sting, and then slid it sensually along her skin again.

  "Spread your legs," he ordered, a quiet steel in his voice that hadn't been there a moment before. He moved to stand beside her and faced her.

  Suspended as she was, Kate couldn't move too much, though by rising higher on her toes she was able to move a little.

  She swayed in her bonds, startled and aroused when Chase, one hand in front of her, one hand behind, drew the whip between her legs, passing it along her swollen labia.

  "Have you ever been flogged, Kate? Properly flogged?"

  His voice was a low, sensual purr.

  "Not properly," she answered, knowing it was true, certain he could give her what she'd been seeking, but with the wrong men.

  Chase moved in front of her, tucking the flogger under one arm.

  "I'm going to open your blouse, Kate."

  It was a statement, not a question, and it didn't occur to Kate to protest. He kept his eyes on her face while he unbuttoned the blouse, revealing her pink lace bra.

  His eyes flickered down then, and they were hooded with lust.

  "Beautiful," he whis
pered. "Perfect."

  He moved again to her right side and ran the whip's tresses between her breasts and down her abdomen. He drew it up between her legs, pulling up until she felt the tug of the leather against her sex.

  "Please," she begged, not entirely sure what she was begging for, but aching for it nonetheless.

  He moved again behind her. This time the kiss of leather carried a sting, though just enough to heat her skin. She leaned back into the stroke of the flogger as it landed again and again on her ass, only just hard enough to make its presence felt. She wanted more, but didn't ask for it, letting him set the pace and intensity.

  As her skin became more sensitive, the sting made itself felt, edging from just a brushing of skin into the realm of erotic pain.

  "Yes," she moaned, aching for more. Victor had never understood this need for the pain, thinking of it only in terms of punishment, of suffering. But it went far beyond that for Kate.

  Or she knew it could, with the right person to lead her there.

  Chase paid attention, because the strokes came harder now, a steady series of stinging blows that made

  Kate dance on her toes, swaying as she gripped the steel ring high over her head. "Oh, oh, oh..." She could feel herself hovering on the edge of something, moving toward a place she needed to be, if only she could get past the stinging pain.

  "How're you doing?" Chase asked, stopping to stroke her heated flesh with cool, sure fingers.

  "Do you want me to continue?"

  "Yes, please," she murmured.

  Yes, yes, yes, yes! He stroked her a while longer and then stepped back, flogger in hand.

  "Ah!" she cried, the blow coming so hard she lost her footing, her weight completely on her wrists for a moment until she righted herself.

  "Do I go on, Kate? Have you had enough?"

  "More," she begged, surprised at how ragged, how needy, her voice sounded to her own ears. This was what she wanted, what she had sought when she'd agreed to the scene with Master John.

  Chase resumed the flogging, covering her ass and the backs of her thighs with a fire of leather, almost too much to bear, but only almost. Kate was panting, small, bleating

  moans escaping her lips, coming in time with each strike of the flogger.

  It's too much ... too much ... oh god ... oh no ... oh yes ...

  ooooooh....

  The oddest thing began to happen. The panic edging the pain slowly leached away as an odd, heavy kind of peace took its place. Her fingers, which had been tightly curled around the steel ring, eased and loosened. She sagged against her bonds and her head fell back, her mouth hanging open. She tried to close it, but couldn't muster the will.

  She was floating, barely conscious, or rather, she was conscious but in an almost trancelike state. A dreamy erotic sort of floating sensation had overtaken both her body and her mind.

  Chase continued to flog her, but she no longer felt the sting. It was more of a kiss, the swish and thwack of leather stroking her deeper and deeper into the heavenly trance. I'm flying, she realized dimly, as she soared. This was what she'd read about, but never really understood. It was ... perfect...

  ****

  Chase put down the flogger and lowered Kate until her feet were firmly on the ground. Her head was back, the long, beautiful hair streaming down. Her lips were parted, eyes closed, a look of utter bliss on her face.

  He knew where she was, he had taken Lisa there many times, but not until they'd been together several months. He was amazed to see where Kate had gone, so quickly, and with someone so new.

  Though his cock and balls were aching, he forced himself to focus. Deftly he released the knots that bound her wrists, supporting her as she sagged against him. Chase cradled her in his arms, feeling at once on fire with lust and achingly tender toward this new woman in his life.

  Was she in his life? Was he ready for another relationship?

  Would Lisa let go of his heart at last?

  Kate slowly opened her eyes and smiled dreamily at him.

  "Wow," she said softly.

  "Where was I?"

  "Right where you needed to be," Chase answered.

  CHAPTER 12

  Kate leaned heavily into Chase as they moved from the bondage room along the hall toward his bedroom. He put a

  steadying arm around her as they walked, guiding her. He took her into the master bedroom, leading her to the large bed, which was set in a four poster wrought iron frame.

  She sat at the bottom of the bed, perched on the edge, a look of dreamy contentment

  on her face.

  "Gosh, Chase. That was amazing. I've never experienced anything like it. I guess that's what they call flying, huh?"

  Chase knelt on the rug in front of Kate and put his hands on her bare thighs.

  "Yeah. It's really something to watch, to be a part of. There's no greater high for a Dom than taking his sub there. It's..."

  He paused, trying to come up with the right words to capture what was, essentially, indescribable.

  "...it's a moment of intense connection. There is no other time, or place, or past or future. Everything is completely concentrated in that moment. It's like a beam of light as focused as a laser, and as powerful."

  He laughed at himself.

  "I know I'm making absolutely no sense."

  "No, no, you are. I mean, I experienced that too, the connectedness. Like the flogger was an extension of your arm, like you were," she paused and ducked her head, finishing shyly,

  "making love to me with it." She laughed.

  "Now who's making no sense?"

  "It makes perfect sense," Chase murmured, stroking her impossibly soft skin. "It's about trust. I could feel your trust and that freed me to take you further on the journey. You give me the power, you see, when you give me that trust.

  That's what I mean about an erotic exchange of power.

  When it happens, there's nothing like it. I take that gift very seriously, Kate. And I would never abuse it."

  "Thank you," Kate whispered.

  "Thank you," he responded, "for your gift."

  He looked down at his hands, still resting on her thighs. They were tan against her pale skin. He moved them slowly upward, toward her panties, spreading her legs as he moved.

  "Oh," Kate said, putting her hands on top of his, as if to stop him. He looked at her. Her nipples were hard points through the lace of her bra, and her eyes were wide. He understood her hesitation, moving past a bondage scene to something much more intimate was a lot for the mind to handle, even if the body wanted it. Yet he could feel her desire radiating like shimmering heat moving over her skin.

  "Do you want me to stop, Kate? I want to go on. I want to touch you, to stroke you. To continue the lovemaking we

  began back in the bondage room. Would that suit you?"

  "Yes," she whispered. "Please. Yes."

  He leaned up and kissed Kate's lips, a long lingering kiss.

  She brought her arms around his neck, kissing him back, their tongues intertwining, her breath coming faster.

  When at last they fell away from each other, Chase leaned back again on his haunches.

  He again moved his hands, letting the tips of his fingers graze the lace-covered heat between her legs. Kate's lips were parted, her eyes shining.

  "Lie back on the bed, Kate. I want to look at you."

  Kate didn't obey, but nor did she close her legs or try to cover herself. She was nervous, he could see, but she wanted this as much as he did, he was pretty sure. Gently he pushed at one shoulder and Kate yielded, lying back on the mattress, her hair a fiery copper storm against the dark blue of his duvet.

  Chase drank in her beauty. He reached for the buttons on his shirt, undoing them, his eyes on Kate's lovely body. It had been so long since he'd been inside a woman, embraced and

  stroked, held tight as she shuddered and sighed beneath him.

  When Lisa was in one of her depressions, which was more often than not toward the
end, she wouldn't allow Chase to touch her, except with rope and leather. Though she craved the kiss of the lash, she refused sex, claiming it hurt her to be penetrated when she wasn't relaxed.

  But when she was happy, high on the upside of the seesaw of her mood swings, sex with her was phenomenal, they would work themselves into a frenzy of delight, a soaring wet ecstasy of orgasmic abandon that left them both utterly spent, pinned to the bed by sheer exhaustion.

  Dear heart, I miss you. For a split second Chase thought the words had been spoken aloud in Lisa's distinctive, rather girlish voice. Of course that was impossible and he refused to indulge the strong impulse to turn around just to make sure she wasn't standing there.

  Dear heart. That had been one of their many secret jokes, the kind shared between a couple who has been together for a long time. When she'd first used the endearment, for some

  reason he'd thought she was saying "deer heart" and was bewildered as to why she would call him that. It had become a running joke between them, for him to reply, "Yes, doe heart?"

  "Chase?" Kate had propped herself on one elbow. She stared at him with watchful eyes.

  "Are you okay?" She frowned.

  Damn it, he was doing a great job of ruining the intense, sexy mood of a moment before, he thought darkly.

  Forcing the unwelcome memories aside, he leaned down, kissing Kate's bare thigh as he placed his hands on either one.

  "I'm fine. Better than fine."

  Kate fell back against the bed, watching Chase through half-closed eyes, her arms flung loosely at her sides, her legs spread just enough so he could see the alluring swell of her pussy barely hidden in pink lace.

  Chase pulled off his shirt, tossing it aside as he leaned over Kate, intent on kissing her. She reached for him.

  He held himself carefully at first, not wanting to crush her beneath his weight. But she pulled him down, wrapping her long, strong legs around his back until he was resting his full weight on top of her. They kissed, lips parting, tongues dancing, hearts beating fast. He felt as if he were drinking her in, and she was the purest clear water for a man who had been, literally, dying of thirst, the thirst for love and connection he'd denied himself for so long. He extracted himself from the ardent tangle of her legs and arms just long enough to pull off his jeans and underwear. His cock sprang