Finding Master Right

by Sparrow Beckett

  He shrugged. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. You’re competitive, and you don’t want me to win. And yet, you do.”

  “I do?”

  “Don’t you?” He went to the chest of drawers and opened one, fishing out a coil of rope. “Have you ever played with rope before?”

  “Not rope, no, but my ex tied me to the bed once. Just my hands. He got bored, though, because he didn’t want to do the work, so he untied me after a couple of minutes.” The frustration in her tone made him sad. What was it with men who didn’t want to blow a woman’s mind in bed? Was there no pride in workmanship anymore?

  “I apologize on behalf of my sex. Men like that should have warning labels.”

  “He didn’t believe in reciprocating for oral either. Add that to his label.” She shook her head as though incredulous that she’d dated such an idiot. “And why on earth am I telling you this?”

  “I think it’s because deep down you know you can trust me.”

  “Hmm.” She shook her head skeptically. “I think I just have a tendency to overshare.”

  “Well, you answered my question anyway.” He uncoiled the rope. “I’m going to tie your hands, and we’re going to see how you feel about that, okay?”

  “Why?”

  “To see if you like rope, of course. I’m not tying you to anything, so you’ll be free to move around.”

  When she nodded, he moved behind her.

  “Would this be easier if my shirt was off?”

  Jeez, was she trying to kill him?

  “No. It would be prettier if your shirt was off, but I can bind your arms just fine while you’re wearing your T-shirt, if that’s what you’d prefer.”

  “Would it be okay with you if I took it off?” She wasn’t playing a game. Her furrowed brow spoke of her uncertainty.

  Fuck. Take your pants off, too, and sit on my aching cock while you’re at it.

  “Whatever is most comfortable for you.”

  Kate stared at him a moment before yanking her shirt off like it was driving her crazy. “Can I just . . .” She stepped closer and reached up, unbuttoning his shirt from his neck to his midchest. “That’s better.”

  She really did seem to have a thing for suits.

  Instead of stepping back, her fingers slid over the contour of muscle under his shirt. If she was trying to keep this all business, she was using the wrong approach.

  “You, young lady, are driving me crazy.” He grabbed a handful of hair and pushed her onto the coffee table. “Kneel here. If you keep touching me like that, I’m going to assume you’re interested in more than training.”

  “I’m sorry. I just—you’re good to look at.”

  “So are you. Not turning this into sex is hard enough. Don’t be mean.”

  She looked smug, not sorry.

  Cock tease. She had a safeword, but he got the feeling that if he tried to turn this into sex she wouldn’t object. But she was the one who’d said no, so she was out of luck until she begged for it.

  He moved behind her and tied her wrists together, then worked up her arms until she was immobilized to the elbow. Stepping back, he admired his work. So pretty. The curve of her cheek, the slope of her neck to her shoulder, the flawless skin, the look of rope on a helpless woman—all of it made him want her even more.

  “Kneel straighter.” As he walked to stand in front of her, she straightened, her breasts pushing out at him impudently, the nipples hard and seeking his attention.

  What he wouldn’t do for a camera. To him, this was far sexier than any porn, and she still had her pants on.

  “Stay.” He walked back to the cabinet and sorted through the contents, then returned with an armload of sensation playthings.

  “What’s all that? Is that a paintbrush?”

  “It is.”

  “Do I look like I need retouching? Is my paint flaking off?”

  “Shut your sexy mouth before I shove something in it.”

  She blinked at him. “Sorry.”

  The paintbrush would be his starter, then, since it had her attention. With a gentle stroke, he flicked the tip of the brush over Kate’s skin, along her collarbone. Her breath caught, and she wriggled in place, then settled.

  “People think of pain as the only sensation in kink, but there are so many others. Do you like being tickled?”

  “I don’t know, Sir.”

  He used the brush again, dragging it along the curve of her breasts, down to her navel, then back up to her nipples. They puckered harder when he traced them with the brush, and Kate moaned, arching toward him. He went around her and painted along her back then, the brush drawing out shudders and goose bumps, as well as squeaks and sighs of appreciation. When he reached her waistband he traced along it, then pushed it down a couple of inches to play with the band of skin he’d bared.

  Kate sank further into her kneel, her knees widening. Taking that as a cue, he reversed the brush in his grip and ran the smooth, wooden handle over her clit.

  “What’s working for you, little girl? Being tied, being tickled, or both?”

  “Both, Sir,” she said through gritted teeth. She whimpered.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “Nothing,” she said, her voice tight. Her hips were angled as far toward him as they could get, and she’d even shuffled a few inches toward him.

  He pressed hard on her clit, then eased off, tickling again.

  Kate mumbled something profane under her breath. “Why are you so mean?”

  “Mean? You don’t like this?”

  “Ugh! It’s . . . frustrating. My pants are annoying me.”

  He raised his brows. “You told me you wanted them to stay on, remember?”

  They stared at each other. She couldn’t have it both ways.

  He ran one of his short fingernails over the bump of her clit, and she moaned. He’d never claimed he played fair.

  “Temporary insanity!” she blurted. “Could you take them off?”

  Don’t gloat. Just give the woman what she wants. “Certainly. Up.”

  She stood, and he slid the yoga pants down her long, perfect legs, then steadied her as she stepped out of them.

  Damn. Her bare pussy was so close to his face that he could smell her arousal. So her ex hadn’t been big on giving oral? Poor girl. He leaned in and blew a breath along her sex. Automatically, her hips tipped toward him again.

  Not so fast, greedy.

  “Kneel in the position I showed you last time. Facedown, ass up.”

  She groaned, but complied. He held her elbow so she didn’t topple over.

  “Tell me if your neck starts to get sore.” He checked her hands, which were warm and still a good color.

  “Yes, Sir.”

  He ran the brush over her bound arms, tickled between her fingers, drew invisible designs on her back.

  “Look at those pretty stripes.” Her ass had several red belt marks still visible. He went over them with the brush and she whimpered, and then held her breath every time he went near the cleft of her ass.

  “How have you stayed a virgin here with an ass like this?” He swept his brush down the valley, fascinated at the way Kate cringed and her ass tightened when he drew close. As he used the brush to lick a tickling path over the puckered hole, her high-pitched whine made him chuckle. Maybe she’d marked “curious” on the questionnaire, but her response now told a different story. She was nervous which meant he’d have to go slow.

  “I don’t know.” Her voice was high, plaintive. “No one was ever interested in . . . that part of me before, I guess.”

  He tossed the brush aside and slipped a finger between her legs, finding she was even more soaked than before. Playing with her clit made her squirm, her breath coming hard.

  “Well, if you have a Dom, chances are he’ll use you there too. Some guys aren’t into it, though, so you might be safe.” If she went to Konstantin or Ambrose, however, she wouldn’t be.

  “You’ve taken all your slaves
there?” She gasped, trying to edge backward and capture his hand between her thighs.

  “Yes. A few were anal virgins, but I fixed that. My slaves don’t get to tell me no without a damn good reason.”

  “Like?”

  “If it was an abuse trigger, or if there was a health reason why they couldn’t.”

  Kate didn’t answer, but her moans were eloquent. Apparently, her clit liked him just fine, even if she didn’t want sex.

  She squirmed and whined exactly the way he wanted, her body far more obedient to him than her mind. As she was about to come, he stopped and untied her arms.

  “I think that’s enough for today.”

  “What?” She got to her feet and looked at him incredulously. “But . . . you put that big pile of things there. I thought we’d be experimenting for a while.”

  “Actually, Kate, I’m getting pretty uncomfortable.” He was careful to keep his expression neutral. “I know you’re curious about things and want to know whether you’ll like them, but I’m having trouble staying scientific about this. You don’t want sex, and I respect that, but I’m not a machine. I have needs to deal with too.”

  “So you want me to leave so you can . . . ?”

  “Exactly.”

  “But I could help you with that.” She grasped his hard-on through his dress pants.

  Banner thought about the accounts receivable paperwork he had to deal with the next morning. He thought about it long and hard, until he regained control. There was no D/s agreement between them. There had been such intimate contact between them, yet he didn’t have consent to throw her on her back and fuck her. This vanilla shit was fucking irritating.

  “You said you didn’t want sex.”

  “I changed my mind.” The control she had over the situation was making her arrogant. Enough was enough.

  “You changed your mind?” He frowned at her, not bothering to hide his annoyance, and she let go of his dick and backed up a step. “I know you see this whole thing with me as an experiment or a game, Kate, but I can’t keep doing this. If I’m just a pretend Dom with you, it keeps me completely off balance, and then what are you learning? That Dominants are weak and you can manipulate them? We have no real agreement between us, so I’m putting up with shit I’d never take from a girl of mine. I’m not sure how I got myself into the position where you’re calling the shots, but that’s over. If you stay, I’ll treat you like you’re mine while you’re here. If you set foot in this house I’m fucking you whether you like it or not.” A spark of apprehension showed in her eyes. “I will honor your safeword, of course, but the rest of this cock-tease bullshit will be dealt with as I see fit.”

  Silence spread between them, and Kate chewed on her thumb, the edges of her teeth leaving indentations on its pad. How could she make even that sexy?

  So, was she walking out or submitting? He’d never been big on ultimatums, but this thing between them was seriously fucked up. There was something about her that he found completely irresistible, but there were certain things that didn’t work for him—like handing over his power to someone else.

  Instead of giving him an answer, she popped her finger into her smirking mouth, then trailed her hand down between her breasts to her mons. She slid her fingers between her legs and started to play with her clit.

  Fucking little brat.

  He lunged for her, and she bolted from the room, shrieking with laughter. Some predatory instinct tore at him. Obviously, she wanted him to chase her. Between his hard-on and the adrenaline coursing through him this might not be pretty. Any self-respecting Dom would have ignored this behavior and sat in the room until she got bored and came back looking for him, but the idea of hunting through his house for a naked, horny girl was too interesting to ignore.

  He pulled off his shoes and socks and stalked up the stairs, avoiding boards that squeaked.

  “I’m assuming you want me to find you and fuck you, Kate.” His voice boomed through the house. “If that’s not what you want, come out now, and we’ll forget this happened.”

  A laugh bounced through the corridor, but it echoed and was hard to tell which direction it came from.

  “If you catch me you can do anything you want.”

  Fuck, I’m going to make her regret saying that.

  Had that laughter come from upstairs? First things first. He went up to his room, grabbed a condom out of his drawer, and stuck it in his pocket.

  The upstairs hall was silent. He stood very still, listening, wondering how many closets he’d have to search before he found her.

  The guest room nearest his looked empty, but he checked under the bed, behind the door, in the closet. Nothing in the upstairs sitting room, or the rooms that were usually used by Rook, Ambrose or Konstantin when they stayed over.

  Had she grabbed her clothes and left the house?

  His breathing was loud in his ears, and his heart hammered. He’d never had a girl run from him before. Instead of being annoyed, the hunt turned him on.

  There was something very primal about hunting for a girl to fuck.

  A noise came from downstairs, and he took the steps three at a time, skidding to a halt by the front door.

  Girl.

  Kate ran into the living room, knocking over a magazine rack. He followed her slowly, knowing there was no other way out. Her back was to the far wall, and her gaze flew around the room, looking for an escape route. Leisurely, he strolled toward her, feinting once when she dodged to the side, as if she were going to make a break for it. The heaving of her chest drew his attention to her breasts. At the last second she tried to get around him, and he slammed her back against the wall with just enough force to surprise her.

  He pressed against her and slid a hand from her waist up to cup her breast, tugging at the nipple and rolling it between his thumb and forefinger. Kate was quivering as though her instincts were telling her to run. She didn’t.

  “That wasn’t fair. You know the house, and I don’t.”

  “You said if I caught you. You didn’t say it had to be fair.”

  “What are you going to do to me?” she asked, eyes gleaming.

  “Whatever I want, apparently. It was your idea.” He lowered his head and brushed his lips against hers. Kate clamped her lips shut, and she tried to turn her face away, but he grabbed her jaw to hold her still. She tried to push him away, but he pressed his knee up between her legs. She moaned, as he’d hoped. Her mouth fell open, and he kissed her with all of the suppressed arousal he was having trouble containing. He pressed his knee up harder, almost lifting her off the floor. Without much urging, she kissed him back, her mouth moving hungrily under his.

  When he stopped, she bit his lip.

  Banner recoiled. “Fuck!”

  The girl gave him a long, worried look, then ran into the hall. Did she surprise herself as much as she’d surprised him?

  He went after her and found her standing at the other end of the hall, looking for somewhere to hide. The bite had rattled her.

  Their gazes locked. She squeaked and bolted into the kitchen, her tits bouncing and her cheeks flushed. Banner headed for the dining room, assuming she’d try using the other door to get out of the kitchen, rather than coming back into the hall.

  Nothing in the dining room, and he pushed through the swinging door into the kitchen, but it looked empty too. Had she tricked him and gone back out into the hall? He stood still, listening hard.

  Over the sound of his own breath and the thumping of his pulse in his ears, he heard a scrape. Making his steps purposely heavy, he walked around the breakfast bar. He heard her whimper before he saw her, crouched beneath the bar, between one of the tall chairs and the wall.

  Kate’s eyes were wide, her hair wild. The spoils of war.

  “Come out.” He extended his hand, willing to let the game end now before he scared her.

  She tucked farther into the corner and shook her head, looking fearful.

  “Come on, Kate. Did you forget yo
ur safeword?”

  “No.” Her eyebrow quirked. “Are you man enough to make me use it?”

  The verbal part of his brain shorted out. He shoved the chair out of the way, not caring when it fell over and banged onto the floor.

  Kate laughed and pushed him away, then squealed when he grabbed her wrist and hauled her out from under the narrow table.

  “No!” She fought, kicking him in the shin and digging her nails into his hand, trying to pry his grip open.

  He wrestled her into the middle of the tiled floor, then pushed her down on her knees. While grabbing her hair with one hand, he unzipped his pants and fished out his painfully hard cock. She clamped her lips shut and tried to turn away, but he pressed down on her chin and her mouth opened involuntarily. Before she could recover, he shoved his dick partway into her mouth.

  “Bite me, and I’ll beat your ass.”

  She whimpered but started to suck, her tongue swirling around the head of his cock and making him wish he had something to keep him upright. He kept a tight hold on her hair, directing her movements, using her mouth.

  Kate watched him when she could, her eyes glassy and tame, looking at him adoringly, as though he was her lord and master. Oh, to have this woman as his own little slave. He panted, trying to hold back, and finally made her stop when he was about to come.

  He pushed her onto her back, then straddled her waist. Beneath him, she seemed to wake again. She struggled and bucked.

  Banner fought to catch her wrists, then pinned them to the floor. He slid on top of her and wedged his knee between her legs, even though she struggled to keep them closed.

  Pausing, he looked down at her, his eyes narrowed. “What’s your safeword?”

  “It’s wombat.” Panting, she tried to shove him off.

  There was a strong temptation to take her there and then, but the tile was starting to hurt his knees. He could only imagine how sore the back of her head was.

  Banner pulled her up and dragged her out of the kitchen and down the hall, trying to decide where he wanted her, other than right that second on the floor. He wasn’t a teenage boy. He could wait another few minutes. Maybe.

  The nearest bedroom was a guest room he hardly ever used, seeing as how it was central and didn’t provide much privacy. Not an issue in an empty house. She was struggling, but not hard enough to give him the impression she wanted to get away. She just didn’t want to lose.