Iron Dominance

by Cari Silverwood

  “Um. Yes. It’s clear.”

  He let her think about everything he’d said, in silence. For a while they sat together, finishing off most of the delicacies and listening to the wind rustling the tree tops, and the plop of water as fish searching for bugs popped to the surface.

  “Now, I’d like to hear about you. Something that’s not in that report.”

  He took a sip from his glass. “Come, tell me something? Anything. I’ll listen.”

  “This isn’t what I’m used to.”

  “What? Bodyguards don’t get to talk? Do you have friends?”

  She shrugged.

  “Right.” He suppressed his annoyance. How was he going to get her talking? She was so different from his previous consorts.

  He began to clear away the food, and after a moment, Claire joined him at his side. They put everything back into the basket, except for the bowl of strawberries, which he whisked from her hand.

  “Now. We’re going to play a game. Sit there. Kneeling.” No dalliance this time; he made that a command.

  She opened her mouth but did as he asked.

  He waited until she sat with knees together on the plaid rug, stretching those leggings in many appealing directions.

  “You said that you’d not made love to a man before?” Red spread across her cheeks. Still so easily embarrassed by sex? “So, I was your first lover?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then, I’m honored that you gave me that privilege. And I hope I didn’t disappoint you.”

  “Ah.” This time he got a smile back. “No, Theo, you definitely didn’t disappoint me.”

  For once, he was the one in shock. She’d smiled at him and called him Theo.

  “Good.” He put a wicked twist to his own smile. “I’ll have to make sure my record stays impeccable. Give me your hand.”

  With only the slightest hesitation, she extended her arm. He turned her hand over, then stroked her palm.

  Fascinated, he watched the shifting colors in her irises, like clouds and sunlight passing through.

  “I said I wouldn’t tie you up with ropes yet. I also said that ropes aren’t the only form of restraint.” He kissed her palm, then gave each fingertip a brief touch of his tongue. Ah, yes. Her eyes widened the slightest. He curled her fingers into her palm, let go of her hand.

  She blinked at him, the tip of her tongue coming out and resting in the middle of her upper lip. Clearly, she was thinking about his words. He’d like to suck that little pink tongue into his mouth while he kissed her…or have her lick his cock.

  “What are you planning?”

  “You’ll see soon enough.”

  She shut her eyes. The sunlight haloed her hair in gold. She was so beautiful. Yet, he thought wryly, he valued the smile she’d just given him more than the prettiness of her hair.

  “Sit up on your knees, Claire,” he said softly.

  Slowly, she did so.

  “Straighter. Good. Now, I’m going to answer your questions, and you will answer mine. If you answer me, I will reward you with an instruction, and some food.” He plucked a strawberry from the bowl.

  “What?” A tiny crease appeared on her forehead.

  “You’ll see. My first question, and I’ll warn you in advance—this means those leggings come down—tell me your earliest memory.” He dangled the strawberry. The lure, of course, was not the fruit.

  “Wait. So, I have to answer you, and then you’ll make me take off my clothes? And if I don’t answer you? What happens then?”

  “I’m not sure. Perhaps, I’ll spank you…perhaps not. Depends on how much you’ve said. Do you want this to go further or not?”

  Her eyes looked fathomless as pools, yet deep down, he glimpsed a rising swirl of desire. He waited, grinning, the strawberry rotating on its stalk where he held it between finger and thumb.

  He’d tried just plain asking, and she’d still held back. Dankyo was right. He had to know more about her. If she couldn’t handle honesty, he’d be better off sending her away, no matter how that tore him apart. With his political connections and all those under him, there was too much at stake.

  He aimed to make this talk fun. And with this game, he’d blurred the lines of who held the reins and who did not. He made up the rules and the consequences. She had the choice of opting out.

  “I…” Claire opened her mouth a few times, ducked her head.

  Ah. She’d decided to participate. He studied her sweet body. The anticipation might just kill him.

  “My earliest memory? I remember running down a forest pathway. My friend, Francine, ran beside me. We used to play hide and seek. She was darn good at that. Too good.” She raised her head, stared at him, as if daring him.

  As if he’d not follow through. He put the strawberry to her mouth. She parted those soft lips and sucked in the redness, chewed and swallowed. He let his finger trail into the hole created by those lips and imagined his cock there. “I think, after all, you should do this. Pull them to your knees.”

  And at last, finally, she was talking.

  She put her hands to her waist, and slowly, teasingly, she shimmied the leggings down until they bunched at her knees. No underwear. The golden triangle of hair greeted his gaze. Now that was worth seeing.

  “Your question?” He found another strawberry.

  “What happens after?”

  “This time it’s a secret.”

  “Hmph.”

  He cocked his head. How he liked messing with her. One of the perks of being the dom. Keeping the submissive off-kilter was at least half the fun. Too predictable, and things got boring. He never, ever, wanted boring. Neither would she.

  She sucked in her bottom lip. A nervous habit. One he could count on. The more he understood her, the better. “You won’t tell me?”

  “No.” He shook his head.

  “Then I should make it a hard question. Why did you not listen to Dankyo when he told you to…dispose of me?”

  Oh, now that was some question.

  “Because, though I listen to Dankyo, I trust my own instincts even more. I don’t think, even now, that you’re a danger to me. How could anyone who’d do this be a risk?” He smiled. “Take off your bustier.”

  He fed her the strawberry and ate some fruit himself while she opened the buckles on the jacket to get at the bustier, then undid the gold hooks and took it off. Her breasts, round and inviting, swung free. The nipples shrank, wrinkling up into perky pinkish buttons.

  “My question.” He found a small bunch of red grapes, examined Claire, naked apart from the opened jacket, all the way from her knees up. Too tempting. He put a hand above the twisted cloth at her knee and ran it up toward the delicious territory between her legs where the light tuft of pubic hair came to a point.

  * * *

  Claire found her breath stilled in her throat as she waited for his hand to get to where she wanted it to be. Her clit and vulva had acquired heartbeats of their own. Yet he didn’t caress her there; instead his fingers combed lightly through her pubic hair while the fingers of his other hand traced their way to an areolae…again, not quite touching the center.

  “Claire?”

  She opened eyes she’d not known she’d closed. Damn, the man was smirking at her, or near enough.

  “What are you most afraid of?”

  She flinched, felt herself come down from the isolated world of pleasure she’d inhabited.

  “Claire? I understand that’s an even harder question than yours.” He put a hand on her knee. She focused on that. “Maybe, just this once, I’ll let you reserve that one. Answer later. Would you like a different question?”

  Would I? But I’m afraid of so many things. Myself, to start with. This was a trade-off. Hand him her heart and soul on a platter, and he’d what? Give her great sex? No, she belittled what he offered. “Claire?”

  She looked at him. Kind, gentle when she needed him to be, twice her body weight, and he wanted to tie her up and spank her. Whew. And j
ust the thought of that made her squirm, made her want to both climb all over him and run the opposite way.

  “You’ll give me a different question?”

  “If you want. But you get to answer it later today.” His hand on her knee squeezed.

  She screwed up her face. “No. I’ll answer. I understand why you need honesty. Even if I hate talking about things like this.” She huffed. “I guess…I’m afraid of being lost, of having no home, nowhere to go. Of not being me.” She couldn’t keep the misery from her words. This topic was so close to the core of sadness in her. Even in the midst of desire, she felt the worst of it. And now, I’m afraid of losing you, because really, what I just said makes me sound like the most useless sort of person.

  His arms enfolded her, and he pulled her tight into his chest. “Thank you,” he said softly. “Shh. It’s okay.”

  He didn’t think she was something awful? She crumpled a bit and slid her arms around him, put her face into his shoulder. Solid. Nice. For a while it was enough to sit and be comforted; then slowly she remembered her ass was bare, for Theo had glided his hand down, feeling her between the cheeks of her bottom.

  “Hey,” she whispered huskily, turning her head up.

  He kissed her. A slow, steamy kiss that warmed her from her toes to her pussy and left her thighs quivering.

  “Enough of this.” His voice rumbled deep. Suddenly she was aware of everything, her skin so sensitive, and every detail before her sluiced sharp, as if ice water had been thrown on her. From the way he glowered, Theo had plans. Devious ones. Oh, dear.

  With a last pat on her bottom, he drew away. “No more questions. Not from me, though Dankyo wants you to elaborate on that report, and you will do that.” He ended on a stern note. “But now, straighten up and keep your arms by your sides. Don’t move.”

  Dankyo, oh damn. She could handle him. But this was going elsewhere. Where Theo wanted, and she was sure he meant to do more than hold her with a dish cloth.

  Confused, quaking inside, she straightened as he’d commanded, rising up on her legs from where she’d hunkered down while they’d cuddled. The bumpy ground under the picnic rug poked into her knees. What did he have in mind? At least, she noticed with relief, there were no ropes.

  He pressed her chin up and rearranged a part of the jacket. She couldn’t see exactly what, but, straining her eyes, she saw him unclip something and remove a piece from the middle section; then the front straps were pulled in snug across her front.

  Aha. Now she knew why the thing had so many buckles and straps going in every which direction. Devious indeed.

  “This garment is from the same place as the corset you wore last night.”

  “It is?” She tried to look down.

  He caught her chin, stopped her. “Uh-uh. No.”

  Just that…holding made her clit warm a degree more.

  Metal jingled, and the edges of the jacket pulled together, tightened around the sides of her breasts, squeezing them together.

  “The pressure, though light, will increase the pleasure you get from this.” He brushed a nipple, and she jumped.

  “You may look.”

  What did he do? Two buckled straps crossed tightly over her chest. One cut above and one below her breasts, squeezing them together between what remained of the left and right flaps of the jacket, making her breasts look and feel far plumper than ever before. Her nipples scrunched up hard as pebbles. It wasn’t just the feeling, as if her breasts had become small balloons; it was the look of it and knowing that this was how he wanted them to be. Exposed. Emphasizing her sexuality.

  She breathed faster, deeper.

  “Now, some more food.” He retrieved a grape, bit the red globe open, and pressed the cut surface to her nipple. She gasped. Cold, and it made her nipple protrude even more.

  He watched her, crinkles appearing around his eyes.

  He liked doing this to her, and that made her even hotter…knowing, feeling his approval. Then he leaned in and kissed her, sucking her lower lip into his mouth while that grape scooted in cool lazy circles across her nipple. The fingers of his other hand skirted her clit and made their way along her wet slit. She lost sight of him, knew her eyes closed as sensation swallowed her. Her nether lips parted under his finger. Swelled. Behind her eyelids, her world had gone muted yellow, but she knew he watched. He kissed her again. The smell of her arousal mingled with the sweetness of fruit in his mouth.

  His tongue swept into her mouth, played slippery warm games with her tongue. Lust ripened. Her breasts, squashed up into firm melons, thumped with blood, as if she’d grown new nerve paths. Her moistened nipples felt so tight they might have been forged in iron. The brush of his hand or shirt on her made her utter little uncontrolled noises of pleasure.

  He backed away a small amount, leaving only that finger in her cleft. She thrust to gain more of his touch, needing that pressure. She looked up, saw him. Always, he watched her, carefully, as if she was something precious.

  “Don’t move.” He swiped that finger, slick as treacle, along her labia and past her clit, took it away.

  Ah!

  Swaying, she fought to steady her breathing. The sexual games were intoxicating.

  He bowed his head until he was close to her cheek again. “Time for a distraction.” He moved lower. His wet mouth fastened over her nipple and sucked it in—liquid heat spread like fire. Her bound breasts, her clit, her cleft—all throbbed in time to the suction and licking of his mouth.

  She stiffened, bowing her back and hissing though her teeth, her hands instinctively grabbing hold of his biceps and digging in with all fingernails.

  “Better,” he added. “Much better. There’s no point in coming all the way out here and remaining sad for the rest of the day, is there? You, my dear, need sex.” He tweaked her left nipple. “Yes?”

  She couldn’t deny that, not when it seemed he’d connected every part of her with electrified wiring and turned on the power. Her body hummed, waiting for his next move. “Mmm.”

  “Excellent.” His gray eyes glinted. “Put your arms together behind you. Clasp each forearm at the elbow with the other hand. Now, dear.”

  Oh, heck.

  Whatever he wanted, she knew it would set her alight. She did as he asked, and he went around behind her. Holding her arms there, at the small of her back, made her breasts push out even more, making them protrude so much she wondered they didn’t pop from the tension. If there were birds and bees out there, she couldn’t hear them. The thump of blood in her arteries and heavy sigh of her lungs had come to the fore. And the clink of buckle and slide of leather fed into the growing tightness along her arms, from wrists to elbows, where they lined up against each other. She couldn’t separate them. He was buckling them together, no other explanation possible.

  More straps. Restraining me.

  Lord. This, then, was the control he’d spoken of. Not utter and complete—she could move—but closer than he’d taken her before. Every part of her sang like a soprano on the highest note and came alive. Theo bit her neck. Electricity swept sizzling through her, from top to bottom. Yes. Oh, God, yes…

  “Hinchcliff and Co. do make very nice clothing. I think you’ll agree?”

  She half-groaned out her reply. “Yes.”

  She looked down at herself, where her breasts jutted out, and felt wetness seeping from between her legs, near where her buttocks rested on her heels. She was naked except for the jacket and pushed-down leggings. The buckles above and below her breasts made them and her nipples stick out and ache. She struggled a bit, tried to free her arms. Nothing gave.

  Heat pulsed, vibrating from everywhere, becoming one unified throb that threatened to turn her into jelly. Theo resumed biting her neck. She couldn’t do anything to stop him—even her legs were trapped by where the leggings were wound around them at her knees. She panted, wanting him between her legs.

  “You tied me,” she blurted hoarsely, amazed at her own reactions. Why, oh why, did t
his make her so hot?

  “Not really. No ropes.”

  Mmm. But almost the same. He’d found a middle ground that she liked. She knew he wouldn’t hurt her, trusted him not to—maybe that was the difference?

  He set her straight, held her shoulders a second or two to make sure she balanced properly, then moved away and lay down.

  With his eyes lit up with amusement, Theo rested on his elbow regarding her. He was still clothed, though his erection pressed at his pants hard enough to show a clear outline.

  “This is so much better. Ropes are nice, but I think this could be worth exploring in the future.”

  How casually he assumed power. She wanted him so much, and he lay there—cool and calm.

  She remembered where they were. “Mightn’t someone see us?” she said thickly. What is he doing over there? She wanted his touch.

  “No. And if they did? Would you mind?”

  “I…don’t know.” She shocked herself with that answer. If someone saw her, like this, exposed—oh, that excited her even more.

  He rose to his feet and efficiently stripped off his clothes, removing his trousers last. She couldn’t help staring at his erection, recalling what it had been like in her mouth. Her pussy squeezed as he walked toward her, the hard muscles of his chest, abdomen, and thighs shifting enticingly.

  Why she wanted this, she didn’t know, but the allure of being restrained was obvious now, even to her. Her body heat climbed to inferno level.

  “I’d like to put this”—he put his fist around the base of his cock—“in there, inside those soft lips. Wet your lips and open your mouth.”

  He wanted to…fuck her mouth. She squeezed her thighs tight together, swept her tongue over her lips, and opened her mouth.

  The soft tip of him nudged her and then pressed in until the hardness of his shaft entered. She moved her tongue around, feeling him out, welcoming him in. Then she felt him slide farther, farther, and the tip touch the back of her throat.

  “I’ll be gentle.” His voice was tight. “Ahh, yes.” A thrill ran along his penis, and she felt it twitch. He halted.

  Even with her hands strapped behind her, she felt in some control of his pleasure and explored him, swirling with her moist tongue.