Plopping the two shopping bags to the polished hardwoods with a thud, Maxine stood between the purple velvet sofa and the four poster bed and willed herself to calm down.
Ticking off her mental list, she needed to put the damn caviar in the fridge and start the chocolate sauce. And then...she had to figure out how the hell to wiggle her way into that lingerie she carefully selected for their very first Valentine’s Day together.
First, though…she had to text Drew.
Kind Sir,
Will you please meet me in the Dungeon
at noon for a little surprise?
xx M
As she poured a generous amount of gel fuel over the grill to begin warming the fondue pot—a Christmas gift from Vicki—she unbuttoned her little red blouse with her free hand.
Multi-tasking was crucial to pulling everything off before Drew’s arrival. As she struck the flame, she struggled with her jeans, shoving them down her hips and kicking them to the floor. Panties...bra...socks! She had so much to remove, and so little time. And there was simply no stalling Drew now that she’d sent her invitation. He was never late. Not even a blizzard could keep him away.
Pulling out her skimpy, silky attire from the layers of tissue paper in which the pieces were wrapped, she held up the red satiny ribbons between her thumb and forefinger, still pondering what part went where.
The small photo on her iPhone didn't help to guide her at all. This little get-up—the birthday suit playset from Agent Provocateur—should have clearly been sold with its own set of instructions.
However, she took one quick break to read Drew’s response.
I shall be there precisely at noon, little one.
Kisses, KS
Maxine found herself running out of time. Oh, what an interesting afternoon it was going to be...if she could only figure out her own fucking lingerie!
“Easy stuff first,” Maxine coached herself as she slipped her toes into the foot of the red fishnet thigh-highs. “Just don't fall on your ass, Captain!”
The sparkly heart-shaped pasties, complete with tassels, were quite simple to adhere. Capping her tiny but taut nipples, she knew she was only arousing herself with her own costume. However, it never took much. In fact, there were times when she could will herself to orgasm just thinking of Drew—without touching herself.
Oh, if he only knew about her little secret, he'd punish her. Perhaps she needed to confess, she thought. She wondered what his trusted Naughty Sassy Maxine App would have to say about that little indiscretion.
Louboutin heels in one hand and the silky little garment in her other, she made her way to the full-length mirror to slink into her Valentine's Day outfit. Once she'd pulled the panties on, the straps that crossed over her tummy were relatively easy to maneuver around. With bows fastened at the neck and hips, she felt like a giant Valentine's Day gift, all wrapped in crimson just for her Kind Sir.
Mustering her poise, she made her way back toward the tiny kitchen. However, just as she began to stir the chocolate sauce, the first of the three locks on the door turned.
Maxine stopped suddenly, frozen in time. She hadn't even picked up her clothes yet! Oh, Drew was going to be one Cranky Sir in about a minute...
Folding his hands together, he merely shook his head as he looked around.
“You know I don't like to punish you on holidays, Almost Mrs. Mack...”
Protest, and he'll do it! she thought to herself. “But the snow...and Zabar's was packed...and I wanted to...I just...” She noticed that her voice always seemed to rise an octave when they played.
“What the hell is going on here? This isn’t your bedroom back at the old townhouse, Maxine!” He kicked her bra and sent it scudding across the floor. Through his gruff, though, Maxine could see that smile of approval as he appraised her new little outfit. In his mind, Drew was already unwrapping those bows. “Now, I come here...expecting a little Valentine’s Day release with my fiancé. There's a mess on the floor. And dammit...she's not in position yet.”
Turning carefully in those damn shoes, Maxine rolled her shoulders back, the tassels swinging to and fro as she swiveled.
“But I...you...we have...”
“Uh-uh-uh!” Drew raised his hand as he crossed the room toward her. “Excuses are not accepted, and you should know that by now.”
In one swift move, he'd clasped her hands in his and held them above her head as he pinned her with his body against the cold, stainless steel refrigerator. “Should I deny you on this frigid, snowy afternoon?”
Now was her chance to spill the beans and send her punishment into overdrive. “I can do that myself, Kind Sir,” she insisted. “Without touching myself.”
Raising a brow, his pride swelled. Such a perfect submissive was she.
“Oh, yeah, Sassypants?” he challenged as he plucked at a strap. “Show me...”
Maxine took one very slow, deep breath into her lungs. Wrapping her fingers around the refrigerator door handle, she opened her green eyes wide and held his gaze as he watched her. Already, she could feel her clit twitching beneath that damp wisp of satin that covered her, and her nipples throbbed against those little pasties.
“Uhhhhhhh...” she groaned.
However, Drew couldn't resist closing just a bit of distance between them, fearing she'd collapse and hurt herself as orgasm took hold. Placing a hand on each side of her, he was ready to catch her, just in case.
“Tell me what you're thinking right now, Maxine.”
“I'm thinking...ohh, I'm thinking I'm on my knees, Sir...”
“And what are you doing in your little fantasy?”
“Sucking you...sucking you off, Sir...and I'm... oh, fuck...!”
Without warning, she gripped his shoulder as she kicked her heel, scraping it against the hardwood floor. His face was so close, so intense, as she writhed before him but not against him. Drew hadn't laid a single finger on her, yet orgasm consumed her as her body just shook with the shocks of oblivion.
Drew's thoughts were likewise awhirl. Her sexual appetite knew no boundaries. Maxine’s need to please him—and to please herself—astounded him. Seeing her shuddering and screaming when all he'd done was simply walk in the door and give her a mild scolding nearly reduced him to ashes.
He fucking hated losing control with her, but he simply couldn't resist slipping his hands between them to rip away those two little hearts from her nipples. He dipped his head to bite down and pulled one swollen little bud between his teeth.
“So help me, Maxine, if I come in my fucking jeans...you're getting spanked until next Valentine's D—”
Reality, however, struck him suddenly like a lightning bolt to a tree.
Fuckballs…
The power went out.
The last time the city lost complete power was during Hurricane Sandy, sending him to camp out with his parents for a few days until electric was restored. However, with a foot of snow on the ground—and continuing to fall—there was no way he was about to leave this building.
“Drew...” Maxine finally managed, her breathing ragged. “My first New York blackout?”
The blinds were drawn, so they were left in near darkness but for the tiny flame flickering beneath the fondue pot. There was no way that he could possibly walk Maxine up the emergency staircase to the penthouse at that given moment. Lou was still hunkering down at their place. Their body heat would have to keep them warm for a while.
Thinking quickly, he murmured against her hair, “Little one? Listen to me, okay?” His mood shifted from Domination to tenderness in about two seconds.
“Yes?”
“We're breaking for a moment, alright?” he said, carefully sliding down her body to carefully remove each shoe. “Hold on to my waist, and I'm going to help you to the bondage bed. Got it?”
“Still playing...?”
“In a bit, little one, just let me—fuck!” Nearly tripping over her clothes on the floor as he led her through the darkness, he muttered u
nder his breath, “This is why you need to pick up after yourself...”
Somehow, he managed to ease her up on the soft leather mattress without incident, then turned to find the candle on the vanity behind him. Removing her from that little bit of lingerie she was wearing was going to be another task.
The absolute silence brought an uncanny calm to the room. Curling up against Drew’s chest, she mused that with the blizzard shutting down the entire city, the random street noises to which she'd grown so accustomed enhanced the atmosphere.
“I hope that you still can find your way in this blackout.”
“Maxine, I think I know my way around your body in the dark.”
That was true. And now, he even knew his way around the Dungeon. In fact, he’d spent an entire day while she was at work, opening drawers and closets just to acquaint himself with their personal playspace. He memorized where she’d placed every last nipple clamp and where she stored their stash of diaper cream.
Drew’s first order of business, however, was to open the blinds. They needed any bit of light they could get in that dark dungeon before he gathered her toys.
All the while, Maxine tried to guess what he was digging for in her toybox. Drew had clicked on the flashlight on his phone and hovered overhead. He looked like a miner searching for coal.
However, as she continued to fantasize about Valentine's Day Blackout Sex, her nose caught the drift of something not so pleasant.
“Drew...”
“What, little one?” he whispered, exasperated.
“I smell chocolate burning...”
Of course, they'd both forgotten about the damn fondue pot between Maxine's magical orgasm and the fucking blackout. If nothing else, he reasoned as his boots pounded across the floor to attend to the flame, the drama settled his dick down for a few seconds.
So much for feasting on fine chocolate from your fiancée’s nipples this afternoon, Drew thought.
First, though, he had to forego his own rule about holidays and issue her punishment.
After helping her to sit up, he scooted her along, just so that she was sitting on the very edge of the bed. Dutifully, she opened her legs for him. And those little red panties were dripping dangerously.
“Quite adorable, Maxine,” he complimented, pulling at one of the straps, “but unfortunately, this has to go...” In truth, Drew simply needed to rid his own filthy mind of the thoughts of her earlier orgasm in this little piece of lingerie.
Maxine stretched her neck out so that he could unfasten the bow at the collar. “Lift,” he tapped her hip, and dragged her panties away, allowing them to fall to the floor.
One hand on each thigh, he rolled her red stockings down her legs and allowed those to drop to the floor, too.
“Now...” He folded his arms over his chest and just looked at her with her head hung in obedience. “Five cracks—and one clothespin—for everything on my list today. Got it, Sassypants?”
No wonder the birthrate went up with blackouts. Maxine thought they were having just far too much fun!
“Yes, Sir...”
Taking her chin in his hands, he lifted her head. “Are you going to come again?”
“No, Sir!”
“Good,” he said shortly. “Now...confess...”
“I wasn't ready for you this afternoon, Kind Sir...”
“And?”
“And I wasn't in position.”
“Keep talking, Maxine,” he prompted.
“I-I let myself come...without you, Sir...touching me...or permission…”
“Yes, you did,” he said with appreciation…then stopped himself. “Then what?”
“If the power hadn't gone out...you would have come...and spanked me...” Damn generator failure, she thought.
“And I would have made you clean up the mess, too,” he added.
With a near mournful sigh and a heave of her shoulders, she pouted, “My loss...”
“Yes, your loss indeed, Sassypants.”
“And...and one more...” she added with a suddenness he hadn’t anticipated.
One more? Drew ran through his mental list of her indiscretions and came up empty. But if she wanted five extra cracks and an extra clothespin, who was he to deny her?
“Go ahead.”
“I burned the fondue...”
She was just too damn delightful, Drew thought. “Yes, you most certainly did, my bad girl...”
It was Valentine's Day, however, and he thought he'd take a new approach to her punishments. As he bent down, he untied his laces with a leisurely air and then removed both boots and socks. As he stood up, he hooked his thumbs into the waist of his jeans and waited a moment before reaching for the zipper.
“You need to understand—and be fully aware—of what your little antics do to me, Maxine,” he said, tearing that zipper downward.
Maxine swallowed hard, her eyes trained on the outline of his cock pressing through those boxer briefs.
“Now, I have something to show you...” he said, reaching into his pocket only to tug his jeans down a tiny bit further.
She sat up even straighter and shook her breasts, waiting. “Yes, Sir?”
With that devilish chuckle she knew so well, Drew bent down on the floor before her and covered her knees with his hands, easing her legs apart. Along her thigh, he lined up five of the tiniest little wooden clothespins Maxine had ever seen.
“What could I ever possibly think to do with these, Maxine?”
“Your discretion...Kind Sir...”
He nodded his head from side to side as if in deep contemplation, but those daring blue eyes never left her warm, swollen center. “Why don't I start right here...?”
He took the first pin and fastened it just below her clit. And Maxine was smiling.
Placing the second one right next to it, Drew asked, almost rhetorically because he already knew the answer, “Safeword?”
“Bright green...” she answered. “Sir.”
As he placed the next two in a straight line, she flinched slightly. There was indeed a bit of a pinch, but she'd endured much greater intensity at his creative touch. It was when he attached the final pin that she realized this wasn't so much an exercise in pain as it was in teaching her how to curtail her own pleasure. Those little clothespins were intended to serve as a stimulant, keeping her cognizant of her constant need for satisfaction.
Taking her hand, he helped her off the table, then turned her around to face the bed in the dim candlelight. She could feel his long fingers tickling over her bare ass, dancing over her skin and up her back.
“I thought we'd work on some modern art this afternoon, Maxine,” Drew said. “Thought we'd put some polka dots on your ass since you so love to wear them...”
He’d selected the leather paddle with precise little holes cut into the surface. Oh, how he loved to push her...but the pain was her reward.
“Then...” he began, “I think we're going to try something new.”
“New?” she marveled.
“You'll see...” he whispered, his lips kissing her neck.
She squirmed, feeling the not so gentle pressure of his cock framed by the open zipper of his jeans pressing into her ass.
“Come and we start over,” he reminded her, his voice tender as he pulled back and raised his hand with the paddle in his firm grip. “Now...one...”
The delicious sting of that first crack always left her trembling in exquisite delight, but that afternoon, she couldn't feel the pain at all, so lost was she in the transfixing sensation between her legs.
The next three strikes were almost gentle, giving Maxine pause to think that perhaps she just might be capable of holding out on her own pleasure. However, the heavy-handed wallop of that fifth crack just sent her completely over the edge.
“Oh, fuck!” she cried out, knowing there was no way she could hide her orgasm, intensified by the clothespins. That sweet prickling sensation right against her most sensitive skin seemed to be taking the long
route to oblivion, lingering yet deepening with each second that passed.
Meanwhile, Drew wondered for a second time within the hour if he could hold his own with her. Reaching into his jeans, he closed his eyes and gave himself a quick jerk. He cursed himself for his own inability to maintain control. He'd just made love to her that morning—a mere five hours ago. One would think he could exert some patience.
Drew filled his lungs with a deep breath, then exhaled and opened his eyes. Maxine was still straining against the bed. Too far and too fast, she’d already dipped too deeply into subspace. At any second, she just might call Red.
“Little one...?” Drew bent over to hold her close for a bit, certain she could feel his heart pounding against her back. “Do we need a few minutes here?”
“Start...again...over...”
“Hush, Maxine...” He kissed her neck as his voice soothed. In the beginning, he would have stopped their play completely. In time, her tolerance levels had increased so greatly that a short break and some gentle coaching was all she needed. “Just settle and relax. We have the whole day for a change...”
“Whole day…” she murmured into the mattress.
Against her shoulder, he smiled. “Do I need to pull the pins?” he turned her head to look into her desire-dazed eyes.
“Don’t you fucking dare—” Maxine spat, then scrambled to find an apology. “I mean…no, Sir…I…”
“I'll leave them for now,” he agreed, “but if it gets to be too much again, we're going to have to stop. Not as a punishment. For your own well-being.”
“One more thing, please, Sir?”
“What is it?” he brushed his fingers through her hair.
“Kisses?”
“Maxine…” he admonished. “Back to the beginning. Count for me—it keeps your focus. Come on twenty-five. Ready?”
“Yes, Sir...”
Crack!
“One...”
While Maxine continued to feel that slow and steady build of need once again, she willed herself to take things gradually this second time around. Drew's pauses in between each whack of the paddle were lengthy and intentional, permitting her the chance to still herself and prepare for the next.
KNOTTED: The Manhattan Bound Series, Book Three Page 2
