by Rita Lawless
“You do that,” he said with a grin.
She didn’t get up to let him out the door. “Should I be worried about Titan?”
“I didn’t say that.” He flipped the lock to open.
“Then what are you saying?”
“Just that it helps to know a little about someone before you bare your ass to them.” He left before she could ask him to qualify his remarks. It bothered her that he was so cryptic. She had two recommendations from people she knew, Tom and Misty, about Titan. April was sure both of them would tell her if there was anything bad about Titan that she needed to know.
But then again, what did she really know about the man? He showed up right after the cops were here to inform her that Virginia had been murdered. She didn’t know his last name, or where he worked. She didn’t even know how old he was, or where he lived.
April snatched up her phone and punched in Misty’s number. She answered on the second ring.
“Tell me about Titan,” April said without a greeting.
“Like what? Do you want his social so you can run a credit check? Or maybe just his blood type?”
“Be serious.” April was surprised she didn’t scream the words. Her friend was far too flippant about things. Sometimes, April wished she could be more like Misty, willing to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. But April had been burned too many times before. Maybe she did need to run a credit check. And get a blood sample.
“Okay.” Misty sounded properly chastised. “But there’s really not much I can tell you. I know he’s friends with Tom, which you already know. I know he’s lived in Denver for about three years now. I know he was a lawyer, but I don’t think he is anymore.”
“Misty, I don’t think you stop being a lawyer, unless you’ve been… disbarred.” That made her mind roll. What were the reasons a lawyer could be disbarred? And was she jumping to conclusions thinking that’s what happened? Maybe he wasn’t a practicing lawyer now, and still had his license.
“He’s been friends with Tom for years now,” Misty said. “Do you like this guy? Is that why you want more information on him?”
“He scares me.” The truth was the best way forward, April thought.
“In a good way, or a bad way?” April could hear Misty taking a drink of something. After she’d swallowed, she continued, “I guess what I’m asking is, do you want to know more about him because you want to get involved with him. Is that it?”
April wanted to say that she was already involved with him. After all, he’d spanked her twice. But Misty wasn’t the type of person to think two spankings equaled involvement. To Misty, that was a get to know you phase.
“Why don’t you call Tom and ask him?” Misty suggested. “Or better yet, why don’t you call Titan and ask him? If you like this guy, you shouldn’t have to sneak around behind his back to find out about him.”
“Why do you have to make so much sense?” April clicked off the phone. Misty was right. If April felt an attraction to Titan, she should ask him the questions she wanted answered, not try to get others to tell her what she wanted to know.
It took her a minute to find the card where she’d written his number. He answered on the first ring. “I was going to call you. How’s your ass?”
She couldn’t help but smile. “Sore.”
“Then I did well.” He sounded very pleased with himself. “The only thing that would have made the evening even better was if Tom hadn’t shown up, and we’d sealed the deal, so to speak.”
Her nipples tightened at his words.
“No answer? Don’t tell me you’re going to pull a Tom on me and just use me for my spanking abilities. That would hurt my feelings.”
“Well, I… that wasn’t the plan.”
There was a pause before he said, “That would be good.”
“But I don’t… that is… I… I need answers.”
He didn’t ask her what answers she needed, which didn’t surprise her. “How about dinner? Have you eaten anything? Is the burger from last night still in your fridge?”
“Yes.”
There was another pause, and she imagined him considering how long the food had been left in the car while they were in Charlie’s.
“Pizza?”
“Pepperoni?” she asked. “Or sausage. Either one of those will be fine.”
“With little fishes?”
“Yuck. Mushrooms are good, though.”
“You got it. I’ll be at your house around eight.”
He didn’t ask for the address, and April didn’t offer it. She was pretty sure he already knew where she lived.
***
“I’ve changed my blouse four times,” she said as she rummaged through her clothes. Misty was on the phone’s speaker that sat on the dresser near the closet door.
“Just wear a robe,” her friend said. “It saves time.”
April chuckled. “You’re terrible. Tonight is not about sex. Tonight is about learning who Titan is.”
“If he doesn’t fuck you tonight, I’ll pay your rent next month,” her friend challenged. “And I won’t even ask for anything in return, like you having to pay mine.”
“I don’t know him well enough.” April gasped as the doorbell rang. “Gotta go.”
“Make him suit up!” Misty yelled before April shut the phone off. She took a deep breath and decided that, due mostly to time, the purple shirt she had on would have to do.
She opened the door to find him juggling a pizza box and a six-pack of soda. He looked handsome, even in jeans and a tee shirt. Funny how she hadn’t thought him to be that good looking when she’d first met him. But now that she’d had two fantastic spankings from him, he seemed like the most incredible man she’d ever seen.
Shake it off, she said to herself as she closed the door behind him. Good spankings don’t mean he’s a good man. He might be a serial killer just waiting to attack at the right moment, after he’s toyed with you for a while.
He sat down on the couch as he set the box on the coffee table. He placed the six-pack on the floor at his feet. “The drinks are already cold, so I don’t need ice. Straight from the can is fine with me.” He flipped the pizza box open, and the smell of melted cheese wafted out.
“Smells delicious.” She moved toward him. He was already taking a slice out of the box. “Do you want a plate, fork, or napkin?”
“A fork with pizza?” He sounded stunned. “Where did you grow up?”
“Here, in Denver.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “And you?”
“It wasn’t a place where we ate pizza with a fork.” She hated the smirk on his face. “But I tell you what, you go get your fork, and some napkins, and when you get back you can drill me all you want. That is, if I can drill you later. And that part of the evening will be a lot more fun.”
“That will depend on your answers,” she shot back as she moved toward the kitchen. Of course she knew she was lying. By the end of the evening, she’d be under him, and she was pretty sure she’d be smiling.
Chapter Six
April hadn’t started eating before she found out Titan wasn’t a former lawyer or cop. He was a history teacher; and he didn’t teach at one of the universities, he taught at one of the public high schools.
She was so stunned by this news, given that Misty had been so confident he was a lawyer that she’d stared at him with her mouth open. At least there wasn’t any food inside.
“My mother always told me an open mouth attracted flies,” he said as he chomped on his own food. “Something wrong?”
April put her slice down. “I just never pegged you for the teacher type.”
“Well, I’m not teaching right now,” he said after he’d swallowed his food. “Right now I’m… taking some time off.”
April stared at him. “Because?” she prompted.
“Because I wanted to.” He started to eat again.
“Because you’re rich and you don’t have to work?” April was pretty sure that people j
ust didn’t take time off work, unless they had a huge amount of savings built up, or they’d won the lottery. There had to be some other reason.
“Just because,” he said, the words muffled as he chewed. “Do you need to run a credit report before you sleep with me?”
April crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. “Are you independently wealthy?”
“Not that I know of,” he said after he swallowed.
“Then you have to work for things like rent,” she cocked her head in his direction before she swept her hand toward the pizza, “and food.”
Titan didn’t respond, so she pushed on. “Detective Threadway thinks I should be leery of you.”
“Does he?” He seemed unconcerned.
“Do you know him?”
Titan picked up another slice of pizza. “Our paths have crossed, but we’re not golfing buddies, if you know what I mean.” He bit into his pizza.
Frustration surged through April. Each answer he gave led her to question something else, and he wasn’t exactly being forthcoming with his answers.
“Why do you think Threadway doesn’t like you?”
Titan continued to eat. Finally, after he’d finished off that slice, he wiggled his eyebrows at her. “Maybe he wants to take you over his knee, and he’s pissed that I got there first.”
“He wasn’t talking about sex,” she countered. “He was saying it as if—” She stopped mid-sentence, because Titan was right. Threadway had been talking about Titan taking a crop to her ass. Maybe the man sitting next to her was right.
“Is there anything you want to tell me about yourself? Other than the fact that you’re unemployed?”
He’d already picked up another slice of pizza. “Who said I was unemployed?”
It was like they were going in a circle, and they weren’t getting anywhere. April decided to change her tactics. “How do you pay your bills, if you’re not teaching?”
“I saved… a lot.” He polished off another slice. If April wasn’t careful, he was going to eat the whole pie without her. She dug into her food, realizing this was getting her nowhere. For some strange reason that didn’t bother her. He’d given her a plausible reason for Threadway not to like him. Two people that she trusted did.
“How long have you lived in Denver?”
“Seven years,” he said. “I taught at Coolidge the whole time.”
He was fast with his answers, and that told her he wasn’t a liar. It was another ‘fact’ of Misty’s that was shot down. She decided to pose a really important question to him.
“Do you read books?”
“I do.”
April narrowed her eyes. “Then how come you haven’t come into my store?”
He looked amused. “Because it’s not close to where I live.”
“You’ll have to come in more often.”
She took a bite of her food, almost choking on it when he said, “Will I get to spank the owner in the stacks? It might be interesting to do it while the store is open, see if we can get away with it. Maybe toward the back, you with your panties down around you ankles, me with my belt off. You’d have to concentrate on listening for the door, and for customers while I laid the leather down on your sweet ass.”
A thrill of delight ran through her. The shelves in the store were fairly narrow, so that she could fit more books into the space. Would there be room for a spanking? She wasn’t sure, but it was certainly fun to think about.
“April?”
“Yes?” She glanced over at him.
“Yes, Sir,” he corrected her.
“Yes, Sir?”
“Was that a question? Do you think I need to be called Sir, or do you know it?”
“I know it?” Damn, she knew her tone of voice was wrong the minute the words were out of her mouth. “I mean, I know it, I know it.”
She felt as if she might wither under his gaze. Finally, he said, “Do you? Because it sure doesn’t sound like it to me.”
She loved the authoritative sound of his voice. It was one of her favorite parts of being a sub. Her breath caught at that thought. She wasn’t really a sub. She played at it with Tom, but she’d never really felt like one with him. It was just a game.
It wouldn’t be that way with Titan. Once she gave in to him tonight, took him inside her after he’d reddened her ass, she would be a sub again, a true sub who submitted to a Master who locked a collar around her neck.
“Stand up.”
Once she was on her feet, April took up the position that her former Dom had taught her. She spread her legs, clasped her hands behind her back and bowed her head.
“I’m not really sure your heart is in this,” he said, sounding as if he were bored.
“It is, Sir. I promise.”
“You want to prove it to me? Do you have a hairbrush? One that I can use on your tender buttocks.”
“Yes.”
“Go and get it.”
April hurried out of the room. When she and the ex had been together, she’d used to search for things he could use to spank her with. One time, at a craft show, she’d come across a woodworker who made beautiful hairbrushes.
She’d bought two of them, one with a large back, the other with a smaller one. She and the ex had split before they could use either of them, and she’d put them in a drawer, where they’d been ever since.
Now, she pulled them out. They’d been put away for some time now, but they still seemed to glisten as she held them up. Which one should she take him, the big one, or the little one? They both had their good points. She imagined giving him one of them, seeing the look on his face.
But which one? Maybe she should let him decide. She grasped one in either hand, and started back to the living room. She’d let Titan pick which one they would use, and she would savor his choice.
While she’d been gone, he’d picked up the remnants of their dinner. He sat in the middle of the sofa, his expression dour.
April showed him what she’d brought. “I wasn’t sure which one you’d want to use.”
“Has anyone ever used one of these on you?”
“No, Sir.” He cocked his head just a little, and she knew what he was thinking. She quickly told him how she’d bought them, and then stuffed them in a drawer.
“Good.” He relaxed into the cushions, crossing his foot over his knee. “Take off your clothes.”
He didn’t have to tell her twice. But, as always, she took them off slowly, folding each article of clothing and carefully placing them on the table in the spot recently vacated by the pizza box. When she was naked, she assumed the same position as before.
“You show great aptitude,” he commented. “There are some things we need to work on, obviously, but the structure is there. We just need to build on it. Come over my knee.”
April settled herself into place, her body pulsing with need. She was already soaking wet, and her nipples were tight and needy. She knew she should not be giving of herself so freely so soon in their relationship. But something about him made her want to stay in this position forever, to let him redden her ass, and then to feel his fingers stray between her legs and make her explode.
“I want to make sure we’re both on the same road,” he said. “I’m going to spank your ass, and then I’m going to fuck you.”
April shivered.
“Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“There will be no spanking only relationship with us. I’m not saying every spanking will end in sex, but a great many of them will. You either accept those terms, or you get up right now, get dressed and I go home.”
Silence filled the room, and April had the feeling Titan was waiting for her to say that she didn’t want to have a sexual relationship with him, that she wanted what she had with Tom. Instead, she said, “I understand.”
It seemed so formal, so unemotional. But somehow it fit. She needed this, someone to take charge and not allow her to set the tone. She needed—no, wanted—hi
m to be in charge.
A sharp gasp escaped her throat as Titan rubbed the smooth wood against her skin. At first, it was in slow swipes across her ass, and then he moved it in circles, faster and faster, the friction making her ass feel as if it were on fire, and he hadn’t even laid down one swat.
She moaned again, and that’s when Titan struck. He slapped first one cheek, then the other.
“Oh, hell’s bells,” she groaned. It earned her a slap, then another.
“Did I give you permission to speak?” Two harsh slaps landed on each cheek.
“No, Sir.”
“You will not even gasp until you have permission.”
April didn’t answer, because he hadn’t asked her to confirm his order. Instead she pressed her lips together, to keep herself from making noise when he hadn’t said she could.
Once she’d convinced herself that she could follow his directions, she closed her eyes and relished the feel of the wood slapping her ass. The swats landed in the same place for the first ten, maybe fifteen.
After that, Titan started to vary his landing spots. The swats went to the left, or the right of the original place before they strayed to her thighs.
It was hard to keep from crying out, both from the discomfort that accompanied the spanking, and from the sheer ecstasy that spread through her, setting her toes and fingers on fire.
Part way through, she realized that she didn’t even know which brush Titan was using. He hadn’t told her, and she hadn’t noticed when she set them down which one he’d selected.
Part of her wanted to ask, but a bigger part didn’t want to do anything that would disrupt the incredible flow of the brush meeting her flesh.
He delivered about twenty swats on her ass, each one making her cry out, before he slapped the brush against her thigh. “Stand up!”
April trembled as she followed his order. She ran her fingers through her hair, keeping her gaze locked on the ground.
“Kneel on the couch.” She grasped the back with her hands, spreading her legs without him asking. She thought the couch was a little high for him to take her this way, but she was sure he would figure it out.
