RequiredSurrender

by Riley Murphy

  Chapter Six

  Jo followed Ted as she had all night long while he opened up a whole new world to her. Although she’d gotten a taste of it through her visits to the resort to meet the various Dom candidates he’d set up for her, she always felt inadequate. Maybe inadequate was the wrong word. More like out of her league. As if she were a high school sophomore visiting a college senior’s party. But here with all the wonderful people they’d met and the outrageous things she’d done with them and in front of them it was as if she were an accepted peer and that bolstered her confidence. Of course, with a guy like Ted wrapping one hundred percent of his attention around her, calling her sexy and getting her off every chance he got it was no wonder she walking on air.

  “Right through here.”

  By now Jo knew better than to scan the room. She kept her eyes on him until the door closed and he walked them to the end. From her peripheral vision she guessed they were alone in an empty room. She hadn’t caught a glimpse of anything but walls and floor.

  “I want you to have a look around.” Ted put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around.

  She’d been right on both accounts. They were alone and the room was nearly empty except for a large leather lounge chair that sat off to one side of the room. “We’re going to play a game that kitties love.” He went to the closet and opened the door. Inside were a series of drawers that were all labeled with black and white lettering. He opened one drawer and pulled out a blindfold and after searching downward he opened another and got out a package of some sort.

  “As you can see there’s no furniture other than the chair I’ll be sitting on while you play ‘find the balls’.” He held up the package and shook it. Inside there were a number of colorful plastic caged balls with bells in them. “To make the game more interesting, I’m going to blindfold you before I drop each ball in a different location. You’ll have to listen so you’ll have an idea which way to crawl to retrieve them. There’s six in all, and you’ll have five minutes to find them.”

  Piece of cake. The room wasn’t huge and it was empty.

  He came to her and unclipped her leash. “And after you’ve collected all six you must come and find me. Understand?”

  She nodded and was going to sink to her knees, but he grinned in that way she was coming to know, the one that meant “don’t try to second guess me because you’ll never get it right”.

  “Let’s make it a little more interesting even.” He slipped the blindfold over her eyes and said, “You’d find the balls in a second if I didn’t do this.” He turned her once, twice, three and after four times she stopped counting because she got dizzy. At some point he scooped her up and walked around with her. Then he put her down. “Put your hands out.” He’d positioned her facing a wall, but she wasn’t sure which one, the sneaky beast. “Pay attention. You only get one chance for each.”

  The first ball landed behind her to the right. The second to her right again. The third went left, but the trailing tinkle of the bell sounded like it took a bad bounce and went right, or was that left? By the time all six had been thrown she didn’t have a concrete plan, she just knew she was going to head right and go from there.

  “Remember. Down on all fours and keep your ass up, I don’t want your tail touching the floor.”

  She used her hands as a guide down the wall and once she turned and landed on all fours she realized this wasn’t going to be as easy as she thought it was.

  “Time starts now.”

  It was as if a gun went off in her head and she focused on the race against the clock. Unfortunately, she hadn’t thought her technique through. Quickly sweeping her hands out was not the best idea as the first ball she came across she hit instead of grabbed and it sailed away. Following the trilling bell inside was a mistake too because in her haste she knocked another one away with her knee.

  These setbacks, combined with Ted’s chuckles, only made her more determined. She found one ball, then two and by the time she reached a wall and another ball, she was faced with another dilemma. How to hang onto them and still have her hands free to get more?

  “Be creative.”

  She stopped crawling and tilted her head. Creative? She put one in her mouth, that was all she could fit and one between each of her hip bones and the leather bikini bottom. They dug into her, but when he called, “Three minutes left,” she dealt with the pain.

  “Ass up, kitten, your tail is dragging.”

  She found the fourth one and held onto it as she scampered across the floor. Then five.

  “A minute left.”

  Her heart hammered and she scrabbled over the smooth linoleum. She only had one more to go. It was probably that one that had the bad bounce. It could be anywhere.

  “Cold.”

  A thrill went through her because he was helping her. She turned right.

  “Colder.”

  She turned left.

  “Warmer.”

  She slowly crawled toward his voice, making sure her ass was up. “Warmer.”

  She continued to go in the same direction, sure now that the last ball was near him.

  “Thirty seconds, sexy.”

  She was close. She could feel his heat and when she reached a hand out and felt the leather on his boot she shivered.

  “Very warm.”

  She frantically searched the area around the chair and his feet and then had an idea. Reaching with her free hand, she went up his calf.

  “Getting hotter.”

  That did it. She knew without a doubt that the ball was right on his—

  “Ooh, too bad. Time’s up.”

  She came up to a kneeling position as the ball fell out of her mouth. She’d been so close and hearing him chuckle this time really irked her.

  He took the blindfold off her and grinned. “Maybe next time you’ll win.”

  The thought of a future plan with him eased her disappointment and got her smiling.

  He wasn’t. On the contrary his expression went dead serious. “I think I’m going to have to make it a rule that you smile at me at least ten times a day.”

  Those words slid right into her heart. No one had cared enough to bother with her smiles. She doubted anyone had ever noticed how infrequently she did it, but he had.

  After she handed over the rest of the balls and he’d unzipped her mask and took it off, she was shocked to discover she still felt liberated. Unbelievably, she wanted to be his pet. And there was no shame in that admission.

  “Sexy?”

  “Call me kitten,” she purred and laid her head in his lap.

  Out of every possible scenario he’d played over in his mind about how this night would go, the way it had unfolded was not even close. Jo was a true submissive to the core. She was responsive, playful and smart. Maybe too smart. Probably why she’d lost sight of her natural desires. Obviously, what had happened to her had contributed on some level, but not on all levels. Thinking about this had him wondering about Anjay. There was still something about the situation that didn’t add up. Like the situation with her parents. Could be—

  He was yanked out of those thoughts when she shifted to trace the outline of his hard-on through his pants with her mouth. It took him longer than it usually would to notice the action as he’d gone numb in that area a few hours ago, determined, if he was going to do this thing with Jo, they’d go slowly. He wasn’t a guy who’d shared himself deeply with anyone in years and he wasn’t about to do that again without one hand on the emergency brake.

  “I didn’t give you permission to do that.” He spoke softly and brushed her hair back off her forehead.

  “May I?”

  “Not tonight. Come up here.” He lifted her onto his lap and let her curl in. When she was settled he said, “I think we suit.”

  She snuggled closer.

  “It’s not going to be easy on you. I have specific tastes. Likes and demands that I’ll want met. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  “
I think so.”

  “Tell me.”

  “You’ll expect me to kneel at your feet when we’re at the club.”

  His head dropped back against the chair and he closed his eyes.

  “What?”

  He took a deep breath and looked at her. “If and when you come to the club with me you’ll be doing more than that for me.”

  “I know. It was just a place to start.”

  He put a finger under her chin and lifted. “You will always be required to kneel at my feet. From now on whenever you’re in my company, unless I tell you otherwise, you will sink to your knees beside me.”

  She searched his face and he thought he heard her gulp as she processed his words.

  “It’s not going to be easy because I will eventually expect, no I will require your complete surrender to me. This is the hardest thing a submissive must do for her Dom. She must be honest, loyal and above all truthful when she shares her fears, hopes, dreams and fantasies.”

  “I can be those things.”

  “Can? No, if you want me you must be those things.”

  Her gaze lowered and he let her think about that for a minute. Then he said, “What’s your day like tomorrow?”

  “Tomorrow?”

  “Yeah.” He adjusted her and leaned back in the chair. “I know your work is mobile and you mostly work from home. I was thinking I’d take the day off and hang at my house. Maybe you could bring your laptop and I could see firsthand what you do for a living.”

  “I guess I could.”

  “It doesn’t take you all day, does it?” Ted’s stockbroker seemingly never worked. He was always doing lunch or dinner with someone.

  “No,” she sighed a warm breath against his neck and he decided he could get used to this, “a couple of hours tops.”

  “Great. The rest of the time we can spend going over certain expectations. My list of rules and your new schedule.”

  “Sounds like fun.”

  Whether she meant that to be a joke or not he had no idea. But he didn’t want to mislead her by any means. “I’m sorry to say it won’t be fun. Once I outline the rules you’ll have to accept them and even if you don’t agree with them you’ll have to follow them or else break them. Which wouldn’t be wise because my discipline is not something you’ll want to face often if ever. I’m warning you now. I can be as kind as the next man, but when I’m defied, lied to or betrayed I become a different person. A guy you’re sure not to like.”

  She nodded and he hoped to hell she understood what he was saying.

  “I’m going to have Cam take you home now and later while you’re lying alone in your bed I want you to think about what I just said. I want you to think about everything you’ve shared with me so far and if there’s more you need to tell me I want to hear about it tomorrow.”

  “Like what?”

  “If I knew that, kitten, I wouldn’t have asked.”

  * * * * *

  Jo did nothing but think about it all night and most of the morning while she waited for Cameron to come by and take her to Ted’s. The voice of reason and caution begged her to come clean and tell Ted everything, but the devil on her shoulder whispered that he didn’t need to know. It wasn’t as if those few left-out facts would change anything.

  By the time they pulled up in front of his home she’d decided to wait and see how things went with Anjay tomorrow night. Then if she had to tell Ted she would.

  Ted opened the door and all she could say as he motioned her in was, “Wow, this is…beautiful.”

  The exterior of his home looked like a Boston brownstone, but the inside? All sleek lines with sharply clean contours. The various walls were done in successive shades of taupe from light to dark with warm cream woodworking that was nearly a foot wide around the high ceilings and floors.

  “I thought I’d give you the tour first and then we’d go into my office and you can show me how you work your magic.”

  Jo was astounded by how big the place was. Three floors in total, although she didn’t get to see the third floor. He explained that this area was his personal space and it wasn’t time for her to see it. She didn’t need to see it to react to it. Her body hummed and sexual anticipation built as she imagined what was up there. She had to work hard to stay focused and was glad when they went to the office.

  Thirty minutes later, she pushed her chair away from the desk and smiled. “That’s all there is to it,” she said, hooking her hair behind her ears. “Then I wait. This one is going to go up another quarter and when it does I sell.”

  Ted was staring right at her, not at her laptop screen, and said, “Amazing.”

  “Not really. If you’d read the papers yesterday and remembered about that embargo last week you’d probably have worked this all out too.”

  “Don’t shortchange yourself. Are you done for now?”

  “Yes.”

  “Come.” He stood and took her hand, pulling her up. “I want to go through a few things with you.”

  When they reached the living room and got within a few feet of the Arctic-white leather sectional, he let go of her hand. “Have a seat.”

  She wasn’t sure what to make of this. He was so not Dom-like it was almost disconcerting. She watched him pace until he abruptly stopped.

  “How do you feel about sleepovers?”

  “Here?”

  He nodded.

  “I hadn’t considered—”

  “Consider. Now.”

  “Is this part of the schedule you mentioned?”

  “Yes.”

  “All right. I could manage a night here or there.”

  “Actually, what you’ll manage will be whatever I decide. A simple yes or no will suffice.”

  Okay, so Dom mode was escalating. She nodded.

  “Good. Now do you remember what I told you about how you’ll present to me?”

  She looked up. “Present?”

  He was staring at her. The heat and thrill from his unwavering gaze was nearly enough to make her breathless.

  “I explained last night that you’d be kneeling at my feet unless I specifically stated otherwise, don’t you remember?”

  Now she recalled. “Yes.”

  “Great. Let’s start now.”

  She knew enough about the lifestyle, and him, not to question this. Without a word she shifted to move off the couch.

  “No, I want you to stand and strip down to your panties. You can keep them on, but everything else including your bra I want off you.”

  She hesitated until his intense gaze convinced her to do as he said. She nodded and stood. The crackle of leather crinkling under his weight as he sat made her shiver. She couldn’t help it. With their positions reversed, this felt intimate, so personal after last night when they’d had other people around them doing the same things. She was alone here. Alone and awash with excitement. By the time she finished undressing and he directed her to kneel at his feet, she was almost hyperventilating. He was a force, all dressed to her nearly naked.

  “Why are you shaking?”

  She kept her eyes directed to the floor and quietly answered, “Your attention is overwhelming.”

  He leaned forward and tilted her chin with his index finger. “Did you think about what I asked you last night? Do you have anything more to tell me about Patel?”

  “P-Patel?”

  He nodded.

  God he was handsome. She was sure most women would have said he was despite the scar, but for her it was because of it. His hazel eyes were enthralling and drew her right in deep. “How did you know his—?” She didn’t finish that question and went about giving him an answer. “No. There’s nothing more you need to know about him.”

  “That’s not what I asked, sexy. Are you sure that’s the answer you want to run with?”

  She wasn’t sure about anything right about now so she remained silent.

  He gave her one last penetrating look before he dropped his hand. The release acted as a cue and she immed
iately dropped her gaze. Grateful because she didn’t want him to read the worry in her eyes.

  “All right, let’s forget about that for now. Talk to me about your decision to pursue this kind of relationship. With me.”

  That one she could answer. “You winked at me.”

  “And?”

  She wanted to look up so bad, but looking down felt so good that she took a deep breath instead and let it out slowly. “The night of the grand opening at the resort you called me mera pyar.”

  His voice rumbled low like distant thunder, “I thought you hated it when I did that.”

  She shook her head. “Then at Colin and Ethan’s wedding you danced with me.”

  “I did and as I recall it took me nearly the length of that whole song to get you to stop trying to lead.”

  “I eventually stopped though.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you didn’t. You wouldn’t let me lead no matter how many times I purposely stepped on your toes.”

  Hearing his chuckle, she flushed with pleasure until her blush grew hotter when he said, “I would have put you over my knee had I known you were doing it on purpose.”

  That thought thrilled her. “Then later at the vineyard, at the reception, you lifted me up onto the rock like all the other girls, for our picture to be taken.”

  “I remember, but what was so special about that?”

  “You were the only guy there brave enough to treat me like one of the girls. It was nice. Better than nice and…” She shrugged. How could she put into words something so indefinable as belonging? “I know it’s going to sound crazy, but I felt at ease.”

  “That’s not crazy. I understand perfectly.”

  His somber tone gave her the courage to put it all out there. “That was when it happened. That night I started having dreams about you.”

  “What kind of dreams? Sexual?”

  She wanted so badly to put her hand on his knee. To touch him and feel the heat and power that radiated from him, but decided against it. Not until she was done telling him this much of the truth. “Not at first. In the beginning I would dream up scenarios where you’d take me places. Fun places that I used to enjoy as a child.”

  “Like where?”