She wasn’t shying away from him yet, so time to push her a little more.
He took the next toy from the doorknob and slapped it against his palm. The thud of impact was misleading. It stung like a bitch, making the delicate skin on his palms tingle.
“What?” Lisette twisted in place, her brows rising. She groaned. “I hate those.”
“Too bad.”
He pivoted, standing hip to hip with her, but facing away. He wrapped his left arm around her waist and began paddling her ass with the wooden toy. It wasn’t a big one, just six inches long and four wide with a handy, leather-bound handle, but it did the job.
Lisette bobbed up and down, jiggling her knees. She’d bent at almost a forty-five degree angle and had her shoulder against the bedpost now. Her usually delighted moans and groans took on a high pitch.
He tucked the paddle under his arm and slid his hand over her abused skin. She gasped softly and her body relaxed. She hadn’t been kidding him when she said she didn’t like the paddle. He’d have to remember that for when he really wanted to do something she didn’t enjoy.
Mathieu grabbed her ponytail and pulled her upright, her back flush to his chest, and held her there with the paddle pressed to her stomach.
“I’m pretty sure you like it,” he said just to goad her.
“Fuck you,” she spat. There was no way she was thinking about anything other than this moment, what they had. It was a success in Mathieu’s eyes since there was no room for Seth in her life now.
He slapped the paddle on her stomach, just hard enough to make a nice popping sound. She gasped and brought one knee up, trying to curl into herself. He pulled back on her hair, reminding her who was in control.
He had her where he wanted her. She was putty in his hands. The panting, breathless sounds were music to his ears. He tapped the paddle against the underside of her breasts, watching the play of tension across her face. How she clenched her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut.
No, she really didn’t like the paddle.
She grasped his jeans in both hands, fisting the material while he peppered light slaps and taps to her torso. He was careful; the paddle could break bones if used too hard, and she was so small and breakable.
Lisette’s hand closed around his cock, squeezing him through the denim. He shuddered mid-blow and froze while she rubbed her palm across the length of his cock. He allowed her to continue, enjoying the uninhibited pleasure of it. There was nothing shy about Lisette, which was one of the things he appreciated about her. Though now he was far more appreciative of her other qualities, like a ready and waiting pussy.
He pushed his left hand past the band of her panties and she spread her legs. He cupped her mound, circling his index finger around her clit. Her folds were drenched with arousal. He swallowed his groan and forced himself to unwind himself from her body.
“Hands on the bedpost,” he said a bit more roughly than intended.
She glanced over her shoulder, an impish grin pulling at the corners of her mouth.
He tossed the paddle on the floor and took the last toy from where he’d hung it with the others. Lisette’s brows rose as she eyed the implement. He swung it through the air and cracked it against his palm. The carbon-fiber cane stung like a bitch, but it wasn’t the harshest of canes he had in his arsenal. By degrees, this one was the least stingy of the lot.
Lisette audibly gulped, which would have been comical except there was nothing funny about how he felt.
He brought the length of the cane down on the backs of her thighs, focusing on the area he’d skipped with the paddle. She yelped and did a little hop in place, but he didn’t stop. He pulled the tip of the cane back and walloped her with it.
“Ouch! Fuck!” she spat. He grinned and did it again on the other side.
Mathieu dropped the cane, uncaring where it landed. He spun Lisette in place. She was unsteady on her feet and stumbled against his chest. He wrapped one arm around her waist, holding her against him, her arms trapped between them. Her knees seemed to give way.
She’d taken everything he’d given her, and not once had fear entered the picture. Oh, she hadn’t liked it, but there was nothing broken about her. Not her body, her soul, or her heart.
“Mathieu.” Her voice was high-pitched, not quite a whine, but there was a thread of need in it.
“What is it?” He continued to touch her, caress the lines and bright splotches of color.
“I need you.”
His heart flip-flopped in his chest. It wasn’t exactly the statement he wanted to hear, but it was more than he deserved. He squeezed her close to keep his hands from trembling. She undid him. Totally and completely.
He dropped her unceremoniously on the edge of the bed. Lisette squealed, limbs flailing as she bounced a few times. When she went to sit up, he pushed her onto her back and held his palm against the base of her throat. She stared up at him, eyes wide.
“Don’t move.” He was too on edge; his need had grown so great.
Lisette licked her lips. “Yes, Sir.”
He removed his jeans and boxers, feeling her gaze on him as he hurried to strip. His hands still shook too much. Though he might be on edge, he took care sliding her panties off, leaning over her body to drop a kiss on her abdomen, her mound, and inner thighs.
She stretched her arms out over her head, the motion lifting her breasts up higher.
Mathieu leaned over the bed, covered her with his body, pressing a gentle kiss to her mouth while plucking her nipples with his fingers. He brought his hand up to rest at the base of her throat and placed his cock against her entrance. Her arousal coated the crown and his fingers. He flexed his hips and sank into her pussy.
Lisette moaned at the intrusion, her eyelids dropping and her hands bunching the comforter. He pressed against her chest and thrust again.
He let his fingers circle her neck, never squeezing, but holding her, reminding her just who owned her body in this moment. He thrust, over and over, staring into her gaze.
Lisette squealed and climaxed, her pussy pulsing and hugging his cock as he continued to thrust.
He came in a rush of sensation, rising from his balls, prickling his skin and erupting out of him.
Mathieu slumped forward and Lisette gathered him close, pulling him down on top of her. He rolled them to their sides, each curling their legs up so they weren’t quite hanging off the bed, but they were still a tangle of each other.
“That was nice.” Lisette reached up and planted a kiss on his cheek.
“Nice?” he groused.
“Okay, fucking fantastic. Thank you.”
“That’s more like it.” He stroked her hair and tugged her closer.
They lay quietly for a few minutes, or at least until bodily urges became too great. Mathieu climbed off the bed first and cleaned up in the bathroom first. While Lisette was in the bathroom, he let Gator out of his crate and made apologies to him in the best way possible, with his favorite treats.
“Guess her moaning isn’t so alarming anymore, huh?” He scratched Gator behind the ears before snagging the red and pink bag he’d stashed in the closet and returning to the bedroom.
Gator followed him, leaping onto the bed and making himself comfortable at the foot where he belonged.
Mathieu turned the comforter down and fluffed the tissue paper. He might not be Lisette’s Dom or boyfriend, but he wasn’t so much of a chump that he wouldn’t celebrate the holiday with her. She deserved to feel special.
“We’re almost out of toilet paper…” Lisette stopped in the doorway, still naked as the day she was born. “What’s this?”
“Happy Valentine’s Day.”
“Oh.” She blinked several times and covered her mouth with both hands.
Had he done something wrong? Was she one of those anti-Valentine’s Day types?
She crossed to him and wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him tighter than he’d expe
ct from her. “Thank you.” Her voice was thick with emotion.
Still a little confused, he rubbed her back and held onto her. Maybe he shouldn’t have sprung this on her post-play, but it wasn’t like he had a plan for today at all.
She let him go and fanned her face. “I’m sorry, you just caught me off guard. Thank you, really.”
“You don’t even know what it is.”
“I’m sure I’ll love it.”
“Come on, get into bed. You’re still flying a bit.”
“I am.”
He ushered her into bed, tucking her in and giving Gator a scratch.
“Can I open this now?” she asked as he slid between the sheets on his side.
“No, it’s just an empty bag. There’s nothing to open.”
“Shut up.” She chuckled and smacked his arm with her knuckles.
“Of course you can open it.” He propped himself up with pillows.
Lisette’s smile spread as she tugged the tissue paper out of the bag. Gator scooted toward them on his belly, making little ruffing and chuffing sounds in his throat.
“We haven’t forgotten you, pretty baby.” Lisette scratched the greatly ignored canine, who beat the bed with his tail.
“Spoiled is more like it.”
She grinned at him and pulled out the first thing in the bag.
“Caramel chocolates!” Lisette clutched the heart shaped box of her favorite candy combination to her chest.
He kind of liked the idea of her and just that heart shaped box, kind of like one of those retro pin-ups, but a little edgier.
“Rope? You bought me rope?” She pulled out four bundles of hemp rope, two in pink and two in red.
“I did.” He’d caught a deal at the Fuck Valentine’s Day party when one of the local guys was selling some in the colors. At the time, he’d purchased them to use that night, but this was better.
“Will you tie me up? Right now?”
Lisette went from being completely boneless to jumping across the bed and straddling his legs, throwing rope at him. It was almost too much energy to handle.
“Right now?” He chuckled, caught up in her enthusiasm.
“Yes, please.” She placed her hands on his thighs, plumping her breasts between her arms.
“Hm. Okay.”
He unrolled the pink rope and began looping it around her ribs, up over her shoulders and crisscrossing the strands until she had what appeared to be a six pointed star bisecting her breasts. It was a pretty, decorative tie that brought out the pink of her marks and the tattoo.
“There.”
“I love it.” She ran her hands over her breasts and the rope.
“Tease.”
“Yup.”
“Open the rest of your present.” He pulled the bag across to them.
“There’s more?”
“Well, yeah.” He hadn’t quite known how much to do, or what was appropriate, so he’d sort of thrown everything in there.
Lisette pulled out a small, stuffed penguin holding a heart, a few notebooks, and a BluRay.
“Connie and Carla?”
He groaned, remembering a few evenings subjected to the musical mash-up rom-com. His torture would be worth her smile. At least, that’s what he told himself as Lisette snuggled up close to him, babbling about her favorite parts. He didn’t care about the movie, only that she was happy and safe.
chapter Twenty
Porkchop
Lisette crouched in the grass, scratching Gator behind the ears, and tried to tell herself no one was watching. She kept her smile firmly in place and her focus on the dog, but couldn’t shake the sensation that someone was out there. With Mathieu by her side, she’d been confident in this plan to go out, pretend as if she weren’t being hunted, and see what happened. Except ten minutes ago Mathieu had received a phone call, then promptly left her in the middle of the empty dog park.
Even the ropes wrapped around her chest under her clothes didn’t offer her any more support. She’d asked Mathieu to do another of his designs that morning and couldn’t bear the idea of removing it. He’d laughed at her when she just put her clothes on top of his creation, but if she was honest with herself, the rope had made her feel a little stronger, a tad bit more confident at the time.
Grass stretched out on either side of her, unobstructed except for a few trees. She could be watched and not even know it. She licked her lips and peered out of the corner of her eye while pretending to dust off her legs, but she was no good at this game. Gator let out a bark and bounded toward the fence. Lisette spun, her heart in her throat—and saw Mathieu walking toward her with a huge, very badly-wrapped pink box. The paper was rippling, torn in a few places. If she had to guess, it was a printer paper box from the precinct. What the heck was he doing now?
She met him at the gate, still perplexed by the box.
“Is this what you ran off for?” she asked. What kind of crazy was he into?
“It is. Open the gate for me?”
She flipped the latch and swung the gate inward. Gator waited, ears perked, as a scratching sound emanated from the present. Oh my, he hadn’t…
“What is that?” Did she need to ask? Little tingles of joy shot up and down her arms. Had he really done what she suspected?
Mathieu set the box on the ground and held it closed with his hand. The top still bobbed up and down. “It’s your last present.”
She knelt and tilted the top of the box off.
A brindle face bisected by a line of white that surrounded the cutest button nose thrust through the crack, pink tongue shooting out to lick her hand.
“Oh my gosh.” She tossed the lid back in time to catch the little bundle of joy launching itself at her. “A puppy?”
She wrapped her arms around the stubby-legged creature and hugged it as it squirmed and licked its way across her exposed flesh.
“Yup.”
“Oh, aren’t you adorable?”
The puppy had a collar and leash already on. She grasped the end of the leash and sat back to admire the puppy as he launched toward Gator. The puppy had a brindle blanket that covered him from his shoulders down each leg, with white stocking feet, and a white ruff of fur around his neck. He had the most perfect, slightly floppy ears that were almost as big as his little square face. Except… he lacked a tail.
“What about Gator?” she asked.
Mathieu held his dog by the collar, but there was nothing aggressive in the way the older dog strained toward the puppy.
“He loves them, thinks they are all his children and need to be taken care of and coddled.” Mathieu slowly gave Gator enough slack to touch noses with the puppy.
“Oh aren’t you a cute little pork-chop?” Lisette scratched the puppy’s back. His hindquarters wiggled and the stump of a tail rose. “What happened to his tail?”
“He was born docked like that. The rest of the litter have tails, but he came out tailless.” There was a softness about Mathieu’s features she wouldn’t have anticipated him being capable of two weeks ago. He’d changed since being around her.
“Really? That happens?”
“He’s the runt, and it’s technically a birth defect, but he’s done pretty well.”
“How do you know so much about him?” She crawled after the dog on her knees, completely enthralled by the bounding bundle of joy.
“Uh… his mom was one of a handful of dogs we confiscated.” The way he spoke, as if each word were carefully chosen before it was dragged out of him let her know the full story was probably not a happy one.
The puppy pivoted and bounded back to her. She laughed and scooped him up, hugging him.
“Why are his legs so short?” In comparison to the length of the puppy’s body, his legs were fairly fat and stumpy.
Mathieu laughed. “He’s part corgi, part pit bull.”
“Oh no.” Lisette squeezed him to her chest. “You’re going to have cute little leg
s, Porkchop.”
“Porkchop?” Mathieu’s face scrunched up.
Lisette blinked at the grinning puppy. “Yeah, he’s my little Porkchop.”
Seth pretended to study the magazine he’d lifted from a corner vendor, but his gaze was on the couple in the middle of the park. He’d counted no fewer than two patrol cars making rounds and one surveillance vehicle. He was still far enough away the blind cops hadn’t noticed him. Besides, they were looking for a blond man. A little dye and he was a brunette, completely off their radar.
As much as he’d like to end this now, there was no way to escape without witnesses.
Lisette felt a little guilty about placing a yawning Porkchop in a crate next to Gator’s. The puppy was rambunctious and a little terror, but she already loved him. With that love came worries about the future. How would she take care of a puppy? Once Seth was out of the picture for good, she could figure out how to get back on her feet again. Until then, she didn’t know what she would do. It had been hard enough to find a place for just her.
“My lease is up in about five weeks. I’ve been dragging my feet about renewing.” Mathieu sank onto the couch with a sigh.
“Yeah? What brought this on?” Secretly she was glad for it. This apartment wasn’t right for him or Gator, just a temporary way station while he mourned the death of his marriage.
“I’ve been wanting to for a while. It’s cruel to have Gator shut up in here like this. I really hate it and that crate.” Mathieu paused, staring at the wall, seeing something she didn’t.
She gave a sleeping Porkchop one last scratch and joined Mathieu on the sofa. After all the running around after the dogs, it was nice to just sit for a moment. He patted her thigh, the gesture somewhat mindless.
“It’s just time, ya know? I don’t like living here. I want a house with space for a playroom, a place for the dogs, and you. There just isn’t any of that here.”
Her? He wanted space for her?
Lisette licked her lips and mentally berated her pounding heart for misunderstanding him. He couldn’t possibly mean that he wanted her to stay with him indefinitely. It just felt like that right now. She threaded her fingers with his.
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