by Marlee Wray
“Maybe you should gag me,” she whispered as he tested the tightness of the cuffs.
He didn’t respond, just bent to secure her legs.
He stood, his body warm and solid behind her. He put a hand on the back of her neck, tightening his grip reassuringly. She was glad he never pulled the collar or made it feel tighter than it did when she secured it. He’d bought her a leather collar, not just the symbolic jewelry, but he seemed to understand that having her throat constricted would scare her.
He put a hand on her ass and his mouth by her ear. He bit her earlobe, hard enough to make her suck in a breath. When he let it go, he licked and blew on it. Her earlobe throbbed. So did her pussy.
“Out in the world you might forget what you are. In this house, you won’t. You’ll always know who owns you.”
Her lids fell, and she licked her lips, which had gone dry from her panting. He backed away and she waited, shaking almost uncontrollably in anticipation.
When the belt finally kissed her skin, it was almost a relief.
Chapter Twenty-One
Rory had marked her from shoulders to knees. She’d been crying for about ten minutes, but when he used a blade to cut her panties off, she moved her hips like she wanted him to fuck her.
He drank some water and walked around the cross. Mascara streaked her face, and tears dripped onto the floor. There were some girls who needed him to ease way off during an intense scene or they wouldn’t make it through, but Kate resisted anything that threatened to break the spell.
He pulled some water from the bottle into his mouth, grabbed her ponytail and lifted her head. He put his mouth against hers and spit water into her mouth. She swallowed then coughed, spraying a few droplets.
“You just keep getting wetter and wetter,” he said, slipping his fingers between her legs and into her. She strained toward him, her eyes squeezed shut in concentration.
The sound of her breathing and sniffling made him want to put more than his fingers inside her. He bent his head and bit her nipple.
She groaned.
“Look at me,” he said.
She raised her lids, staring into his eyes.
“A body like yours,” he said, “was made for three things. Punishment, fucking, and breeding.” He rolled her nipple between his finger and thumb, pinching her until she winced and bit her lip. “Who do you belong to?”
“You, Master Rory,” she said hoarsely.
He tipped the bottle over her shoulder, spilling the last couple of ounces onto her. It ran down her back and ass. She jerked in surprise.
“A belt against wet skin,” he murmured with a shake of his head. “Let’s see whether you can take it.”
He walked back around, grabbed the belt and swung it hard enough for the slap to be heard halfway to the lounge. Droplets of water sprayed the gathered crowd, making them murmur. He didn’t look to see if they backed away or not. He was no Blade. There was only one person who mattered to him, and he worked her with the belt until she couldn’t keep herself from screaming, then he tossed it aside.
Drinking in the sight of her bright red ass and the lines that marked her as his, he knew what she needed now. He needed it too. He unzipped his jeans and pulled out his swollen shaft.
When he moved close, she pressed back, bringing her punished flesh into contact with him. He reached around her, sliding a hand down her belly to cup her pussy. He rubbed her clit, pushing her ass harder against his groin. She hung her head, panting, still crying, but her body thrummed with tension, craving release.
“I can do anything I want to your body, Kate. Because you’re my property,” he said, pushing into her tight tunnel. She was soft and wet, ready for him to stretch her open.
She groaned softly, almost a sob.
He started slow, savoring the feel of her damp silky skin and the way her body hugged him as he slid in and out.
He bit her shoulder, then licked away the mark, picking up his pace. Then he pulled out, making her cry out. He walked around the cross and kissed her, sliding his tongue into her just as he did his cock. She moaned against his mouth, helpless.
He squeezed her warm, punished ass, which made her struggle to escape his grip. But there was no escape. He moved his hands to just under her cheeks. Let the crowd see that gorgeous red ass shake from his thrusts. Let them watch him claim his gorgeous little sub while she dangled from her restraints. There was nowhere in the world he’d rather have been than in the club and inside her body. This was the ultimate rush.
* * *
Kate was floating. She had no idea how long she’d been on his lap with his arms tight around her. He said things, whispered them, about how proud he was of her, about how beautiful and strong she was.
She couldn’t think, couldn’t speak. And she didn’t care.
* * *
It was almost an hour before Kate lifted her head. After toweling her off, he’d wrapped her in a blanket and rubbed her skin. She’d lost a lot of heat from being exposed and wet with all her blood rushing to the surface of her skin where he’d whipped her. He’d had to work to warm her up. He didn’t want her going into shock.
That scene had been unbelievable.
She’d come; he’d felt her clenching around him. Afterward, though, she’d been limp when he’d unrestrained her and picked her up. He doubted she heard the crowd clap for her, which was a shame since that didn’t happen often and since she cared about being seen as a good pet.
“Kitten?” he said, testing again to see if she was back with him.
“Yes?” she murmured, finally curling and stretching against his body.
“How do you feel, baby?”
“Amazing,” she said. “I went someplace. Heaven, maybe,” she murmured sleepily. “How do you feel?”
“Like I stole an angel.” And dragged her down into hell, he thought with a small smile.
“Don’t give me back.”
“Never.”
* * *
Kate woke with her head on Rory’s thigh. She was curled on her side on the couch under covers. They were surrounded by people. Rory’s hand rested on her neck. When she moved, she realized one of his fingers was in the ring on her collar. For some reason that made her smile.
He moved his hand to her shoulder.
She sat up, trying to work some slack into the blankets that were cocooned around her.
She really needed to pee. She leaned near his ear and whispered, “May I go to the locker room?”
He nodded.
She rose from the couch and wove through the gathered people who smiled and said things like, “Great scene” and “Good girl.”
She thanked them, feeling happy… and more. She couldn’t remember a time when she’d felt so comfortable with the things she craved. She belonged here.
She went to the bathroom and then checked her appearance. She looked a fright. She washed her face and took her tangled hair out of the ponytail.
A pretty Asian girl strode in, her body covered in fading rope marks. Kate had seen her suspended from the ceiling earlier in the night.
“Hello,” Kate said with a smile.
The girl didn’t smile back.
“Okay,” Kate murmured.
“What? You expected a warm welcome after the shitty thing you did? Not a chance.”
“What? I think you’ve confused me with someone—”
“No, Kate, I know exactly who you are.”
Kate leaned back, shocked.
The woman walked around the corner. After a moment, Kate followed her.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Were you hoping Master Rory would collar you?”
She rolled her eyes and turned to a locker. She removed a bag. “I know Master J. For years. Claiming he did something traumatic to you in his office makes you a lying bitch.”
“What? I never said—”
“Spare me the big eyes. Pull any more manipulative bullshit to get attention, and you’ll be out on your ass. Th
e board met, you know. That kind of thing doesn’t play here. You got away with it once. There better not be a next time.”
Kate felt like she’d been slapped, and her stomach lurched.
The girl pulled a loose t-shirt dress over her head and then shouldered her bag. She bumped Kate’s arm as she passed, not saying another word.
Kate needed to hurry and dress. She had no idea where her baby doll top was and knew her underwear were ruined. She went to the locker she’d used and retrieved the dress she’d worn from the outside world. She pulled it on quickly and hurried out and around the corner to Master J’s office. She wasn’t sure he’d be there. She hadn’t seen him all night. Maybe he wasn’t in the club. She felt bad that she hadn’t even noticed until now that she hadn’t seen him. She’d been so caught up with her own stuff. But she should’ve thought about him and apologized, especially if there were rumors. But why would there be? She hadn’t said one bad word about him.
His door was open a crack, and she heard voices. She held the knob so that when she knocked it didn’t drift open. She tapped lightly.
“Come in,” Master J said.
Kate pushed the door open and entered hesitantly.
Master J leaned back in his chair. Nikki, who’d put a black micro mini skirt over the strap outfit, sat cross-legged on Master J’s desk. Tyler, back in vinyl shorts, sat cross-legged on the rug next to Master J’s chair.
“Oh, I’m sorry to interrupt.”
Master J looked her over. “That’s not clubwear, sub.”
She glanced down at herself. “I lost my outfit.”
“Then your master must want you naked,” Master J said.
“Um, I’ll come back.”
“Does he know where you are?”
“I just needed—”
“Don’t come back unless he does.”
She nodded and ducked out of Master J’s office. When she got back to the locker room, Rory was standing near the door with his arms folded across his chest.
“Where are you coming from? And why are you in that dress?”
“I wanted—I should’ve asked permission. I wasn’t thinking straight.” Her thoughts were still jumbled. She dropped to her knees in front of him, sitting on her feet. She bent her neck so her forehead rested against him.
For a moment he said nothing. “I asked you two questions.”
The story spilled out of her in disjointed fragments.
“Stand up, kitten.”
She did so, looking at him through damp lashes. “They must think that I claimed he did something wrong so that Master D would stop him from training me, so I could be with you. I would’ve explained that that’s not what happened, but she didn’t give me a chance. I wonder how many people think—?”
“Calm down.”
“Master J might have heard rumors, too. After he spent so much time—I have to tell him it’s not true. And that I’m sorry for not answering his texts when he tried to check on me. I need to apologize—”
“Kate,” Rory said sharply.
“Yes?”
He took a breath in and exhaled slowly. “There’s no reason for you to apologize to J or anyone. You didn’t accuse J of anything, and you ignored his texts when I told you to. You did nothing wrong.”
“Well, I was supposed to be his submissive in training, and I ignored the rules about no contact with other doms without his permission.”
“I made it impossible for you to follow the rules.”
“No, you didn’t. I chose,” she said. “If anyone but you had wanted me to break them, I wouldn’t have. I would’ve gone to Master J and told him, the way I was supposed to. And he would’ve intervened. I didn’t go to him, though, because—you know why.”
Rory nodded. “Take the dress off and put it back in the locker.”
She went inside and put the dress away, returning in the blanket. He could make her drop the blanket, of course, but she hoped he wouldn’t. She felt really vulnerable and upset. Being naked would make her feel worse.
He didn’t make her remove the blanket though, until he took her to a rack of clubwear. She guessed they’d been put there for when clothes got damaged or ruined before a sub was ready to leave for the night.
He gave the okay for her to put on a black lace slip. It didn’t completely cover her butt, but it was enough.
Master Rory led her to Master J’s office. With one look at Rory, Nikki and Tyler immediately hopped up and fled.
Master J continued to half recline in his chair, arms folded lazily across his chest.
Kate lowered herself to the carpet, sitting on her heels. She wanted to show him respect in every way.
“Kate didn’t take offense at what happened in your office. I did. If anyone wants me to go on the record to crush these rumors, I will.”
Master J said nothing.
Kate looked between them, feeling like she was missing something. “May I say something?”
It took a moment for them to acknowledge her.
“Go ahead, Kate,” Rory said.
“I don’t understand what’s going on, but I wanted to tell you, Master J, that I would never have said anything negative about the way you treated me. You were really great to me. I know you were trying to do what you thought was best for me. I’m the one who broke the rules. It’s not up to me, but I think you should be allowed to punish me for it. And not in the ‘sexy, get to feel good at the end’ way. A real punishment.”
Master J’s gaze slid from her to Master Rory.
“No,” Rory said. “I’ll never give her to anyone for that. I’ll set the record straight. That’s it.”
Master J looked at her. “It was brave of you to volunteer for a hard punishment to make up for disobeying me when I was your master. And the way you made the offer with sweetness and humility was noted. Well done, Kate.”
“Wait for me outside, kitten,” Master Rory said.
Kate rose and retreated to just outside the door, but didn’t close it.
“So now you know how it is. Your problem is with me, not her.”
“I always knew how it was,” Master J said.
“Let’s not dance around it. I don’t regret what I did to get her. I’d do the same again, except I’d take her away from you sooner. With regard to what I said in D’s office, it was true. She wasn’t safe with you, but that wasn’t on you. There was a thing between us that was never going to make it okay for someone to keep her holed up in an office without me there. I’ll set the record straight.”
“Do that or don’t,” J said casually. “I don’t care.”
Master Rory didn’t answer. He simply walked out of J’s office.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Rory had brought some things home from his drawer at the club. In response to her trying to ask questions he didn’t feel like answering, he’d taken Kate to bed.
She was tied with her wrists to her ankles, and he’d just slid a snub-nosed wide-neck plug into her ass. She was uncomfortable and flushed, and his cock was ready for the second round of the night.
“I don’t need to be stretched there tonight,” she said, trying to move and finding her mobility too limited to make a difference to her situation.
Her phone buzzed. He glanced over. It had been going off all night.
He stood and walked over.
“It’s nothing,” she said.
He raised his brows and picked it up. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected, but it wasn’t to see that she had three unopened texts from her parents.
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing. I—we’re in the middle of something.”
“Why haven’t you read these and answered them?”
“Please, can we talk about it later?”
“Give me the code to unlock your phone.”
“No. Why?”
“So we can see what they want and send a message. You can’t do it. I’ll send it for you.”
“A phone’s access code is really p
ersonal. And if you trust me, I don’t think you should ask for that.”
He frowned and gave her an appraising look. She looked harried and gorgeous. She also looked open and exposed.
He set the phone down. He would find out what was up with her parents later.
He stripped down and returned to the bed. “Pull your legs toward your chest,” he said.
She did so, but whined. “I’m really uncomfortable.”
He landed a series of smacks on her exposed ass. She immediately fell silent, and her breathing changed. He rubbed her clit while manipulating the plug, and within moments, she was moving her hips in that telltale way.
“Want me to fuck you?”
“Yes!”
He smiled and delivered another dozen smacks to her ass. When he toyed with her again, it sent her into a frenzy. There was no denying that the cocktail of pleasure and pain that he liked to dish out, she loved to take.
He pushed his cock into her. She was so slippery with need it took almost no force to enter her, despite the plug narrowing the space. She throbbed around him, tight as a fist.
He savored the feeling. She was beautiful and helpless beneath him, bound with her ass red and swollen and her skin marked by the earlier swings of his belt. When she should have wanted to escape, all she wanted to do was to stay his prisoner. It was like winning a fucking lottery to find a girl that he never tired of and who enjoyed the things he did to her.
It took less than five minutes for her to come. Then he rode her hard until he spilled his seed into her.
“I love you, Kate,” he murmured against her mouth.
She, not unexpectedly, was overwhelmed and started to cry.
* * *
“Oh, my God! What happened?” Kate asked when Rory rolled onto his side to turn out the light. She’d discovered that his back was covered in welts and scabbed scrapes and cuts.
“It’s nothing. Get your phone, kitten. Let’s see what your parents are texting about.”
“Please tell me how you got these. I need to know,” Kate said, unable to move. It was like he’d been dragged over gravel. Who could’ve managed to hurt him? He was so strong. Had there been more than one of them? There must have been. Was it over? Or would they come after him again?
