Commanding Her Trust

by Lili Valente

  She lifted a dubious brow. “Highly doubtful.”

  “From what I hear, your picture was on half the billboards in L.A.”

  “That was almost two years ago.” She shook her head, remembering how bizarre it had been to see herself blown up ten feet tall. “In Los Angeles time that’s eons ago. I’m old news.”

  “You’re still the featured model on the Damned Naughty Web site.”

  She shrugged as she swirled her last drink of coffee in a circle at the bottom of her cup. “I’m sure that’s just because they’ve been too lazy to change the template. My body is part of the banner.”

  “Yeah, I’ve seen it,” he said, his voice dropping half a register. “That red corset thing is…very nice.”

  Erin laughed. “Thank you, but stop trying to change the subject. I want to hear about you.”

  “Me.” He sighed as he scooted his chair back and began to gather up the breakfast dishes. He hadn’t served her on his hands and knees like he’d promised, but he had cooked, set the table, and motioned for her to stay seated as he continued cleaning up.

  A Dominant man who didn’t mind serving as well as being served. She’d never dreamed such a person existed, and knew she’d be falling for Blake even if this were the first time they’d ever met.

  “Let’s see,” he said as he set the dirty plates in the sink. “After high school, I did the part-time tattoo artist, part-time bouncer thing. I built up a nice portfolio in the first six months and started planning my move to Reno.”

  “Just like you said you would.” She smiled, but it felt sad on her face. “Good for you.”

  “But then I got an offer to move to Vegas and work as a bouncer for some new club,” he said. “They were looking for a certain type and I fit the bill.”

  She lifted a brow as she watched the powerful man her high school love had become stride back toward the table. “The tall, sexy, scary type?”

  “Something like that.” His lips quirked as he poured himself another cup of coffee and then refilled her cup before easing back into his chair. “So you think I’m sexy?”

  “No, I’ve been faking all those orgasms,” she said with a wink.

  His lip quirk became a smile. “You’re an excellent actress.”

  “I’m thinking about trying my hand at an acting career if the modeling thing doesn’t work out.” She grinned at him over the rim of her cup.

  “Really?” he asked. “I bet you’d be great.”

  “No, not really.” She rolled her eyes. “I’d have no idea what I was doing. I’d be terrible, and even if I weren’t, modeling is bad enough. I’d have a nervous breakdown if there were paparazzi stalking my every move.”

  He laughed. “So the famous thing isn’t as great as you thought it would be, huh? Hate to say I told you so, but…”

  Erin’s eyes narrowed in Blake’s direction. “No, you don’t. You love it. You always did. Must have been the Dom in you, dying to come out and impose his will on people in need of his guidance.”

  “I don’t know about that.” He glanced down at his coffee. “I just thought you’d be happier doing something more low-key. You always hated it when people paid too much attention to you at school. I couldn’t imagine the attention of strangers would be any better.”

  She sighed, floored by how well he’d known her, even better than she’d known herself back then. “You were right,” she said softly. “It was weird getting that much attention, especially lingerie-model kind of attention. But by the time I got the Damned Naughty gig, I was tired of working twelve-hour waitressing shifts to pay my rent. The money made up for the weirdness.”

  He nodded. “Money does help. I was against the reality show idea at the beginning, but my partner, Rafe, was right to push me into it. It was amazing free publicity. Quadrupled our business in the first year.”

  They talked for another hour and drank their way through a third pot of coffee, the conversation flowing more smoothly than any in Erin’s recent memory.

  How long had it been since she’d been able to sit and have a relaxing conversation with a good friend? It seemed like forever. And she’d never felt so at home and relaxed with any man but Blake.

  Scott had been the type of man who liked to keep his Dom hat on twenty-four seven. At first, twenty-one-year-old Erin—who was new to the scene and hooked on the high of subbing for the first time—had thought that was a wonderful thing. But after six months, she’d started to crave some downtime. Time when they could just be comfortable together. She’d started to wish for a Dominant and submissive relationship where the different roles underscored their relationship like music, not smothered it like a wool blanket.

  It wouldn’t be like that with Blake. She could just feel it.

  Sitting across from him at the breakfast table already felt achingly familiar. They’d never had a chance to live together, just the two of them, but this was how she’d always dreamed it would be. Hell, it was better than she’d dreamed it would be. In her younger fantasies, she hadn’t known how much she craved the thrill of submitting to a Dominant man or guessed that her first love would grow up to be her dream guy.

  Of course, she should have known. Blake had always been a knight in shining armor, the kind of brave, confident, caring man who seemed extinct in modern times. Even in the BDSM club scene it was rare to find a man in possession of himself the way Blake was. A lot of crazies who lacked the personality or finesse to win a woman in the “real world” assumed they could come into a club and find a docile submissive to put up with all their crap.

  A true Dom was a hard thing to find.

  “So how did you get into the scene anyway?” Erin asked, not realizing she’d propped her toes on the edge of Blake’s chair until he took a foot in hand and began to run his thumbs along her instep. “Breakfast and a foot rub? I must have been a very good girl.”

  He laughed beneath his breath. “You were.”

  “I tried to use the shower nozzle last night,” Erin said, the confession spilling from her lips before she could think better of it.

  The compulsion to be honest with Blake was just too strong. No matter what her rational mind had to say, her inner sub wanted to turn over control to this man, to trust him with every thought, every secret.

  “I wasn’t planning on obeying that last order,” she continued. “I just…I wanted you to know.”

  He didn’t pause in his massaging of her feet, but Erin saw the muscle in his jaw tense. “So what changed your mind?”

  “My body.”

  He raised an eyebrow, silently urging her to continue.

  “I couldn’t come,” she whispered. “Not without your permission.”

  “You couldn’t?” he asked, sounding more curious than angry.

  “I physically couldn’t. And I tried, believe me.” She bit her lip as she set her empty coffee cup back on the table. “But a part of me wanted to please you too much.”

  Blake stared at her for a few minutes, his dark eyes unreadable. When he finally spoke, his silky Dom voice was back in full effect. “That’s one of the hottest things I’ve ever heard.”

  “Yeah?” she asked, a part of her hoping he’d prove it by tackling her to the floor of the kitchen and showing her just how hot he was.

  But he only smiled and turned his attention back to her feet. “Yeah.”

  “Well…good,” Erin said, ignoring the heat pooling in her belly. She couldn’t be ready for more already. It had only been a couple of hours since she’d come so hard she was sure she’d done herself damage. “So are you going to tell me how you got into the scene?”

  “My first girlfriend after I moved to Vegas was interested in checking out this dungeon they had going at the edge of town,” he said. “She had fantasies about getting chained to a wall by a man wearing black leather.”

  She grinned. “Sounds fun.”

  Blake laughed. “She thought so, too, until she was all strapped in. Then she couldn’t get out of her restraints or t
hat club fast enough. Turns out the BDSM scene wasn’t for her. But I liked it just fine.”

  Erin squirmed slightly in her chair, finding it damned difficult to consider Blake’s foot rub relaxing instead of arousing. “Yeah, some people just want to have the fantasy. But not me. When I first discovered the BDSM clubs in L.A., I wanted to live there. All the time.”

  “I can imagine.”

  “Can you?” she asked, voice hitching as Blake’s thumb dug into her arch.

  “You’re excited right now. Aren’t you?” He pinned her with a look she felt sizzle across her skin. “After we spent half the night and all morning playing, you want more.”

  Erin nodded slowly. Within seconds, her breath grew faster and her pussy wet simply from watching the heat flare in Blake’s eyes.

  “You can’t get enough,” he said, continuing when Erin shook her head again. “So why don’t you take that shirt off. I have something I want you to put on while we finish talking.”

  Erin couldn’t obey fast enough.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Erin

  Erin’s hands were trembling as she stripped her nightshirt off and threw it to the ground, amazed that the moment had gone from comfortable to erotic so quickly.

  It was incredibly arousing.

  Almost as arousing as the sight of what Blake had fished from the kitchen drawer.

  “I didn’t bring my nipple clamps, but I think these will work just fine.” Blake knelt in front of her, setting the clothespins on the table before placing his hands lightly on her hips. “Would you like me to put those on your nipples?”

  “Yes.” Her breasts were already aching, her nipples drawing into tight points despite the warmth of the room. “Very much.”

  “I thought you might.” Blake held her eyes as he lowered his mouth, capturing one aching tip between his lips. He suckled her gently at first, teasing her with the tip of his tongue, swirling around and around the taut bud until Erin’s eyes slid closed on a moan.

  “Open your eyes, watch me,” he said, his words sending a jolt of arousal searing along her nerves, and more heat pooling between her thighs. “And don’t move until I give you permission.”

  Erin met Blake’s eyes again as he plucked one of the clothespins from the table and attached it to her nipple. The pinching sensation only intensified her desire, the pain and pleasure fusing together to create an arousing sensation more powerful than either one alone.

  Blake waited until she regained a measure of control over her rapid breathing before transferring his attention to her other breast, licking, sucking and biting, driving her mad with the need to move. It was hellish work not to squirm in her seat, not to thread her fingers through Blake’s hair and hold on for dear life.

  But she wanted his approval and the reward for her obedience—which she had no doubt he would deliver—far more than the small relief movement would afford.

  “Good, so good.” Blake breathed the words against her breast, then flicked his tongue out across her nipple one last time, making her gasp. He attached the second clothespin, his own breath coming faster.

  “So, what have you been doing for the past two years?” he asked, still on his knees in front of her. “Why did you quit modeling?”

  “D-do we really have to talk?” she asked, her voice thin and strained.

  “I think we should give the clamps some time, don’t you?” His calm tone and the relaxed way he reclaimed his chair would have been enough to make her scream if his excitement weren’t abundantly obvious. The front of his pajama pants was tented where his erection strained the fabric.

  Erin could see the outline of the bulbous head of his cock through the thin material and it was enough to make her mouth water. She wanted his cock back in her mouth. She wanted to suck him until he cried out in that way that made her positive no one had ever given him the kind of pleasure she had.

  She wanted to swallow down every last drop of his cum and then keep sucking him until he was hard again, until he pulled his thick length from her mouth and shoved it between her legs. There wouldn’t be any foreplay aside from the nipple clamps, but she knew she’d be wet. Though, hopefully, not too wet. She loved the hint of pain as he forced himself inside her during those first few moments. The resistance of her body, the sting as he demanded entrance, took her halfway to orgasm in one earth-shattering thrust.

  “What are you thinking about?” he asked, his voice thick with lust.

  “How much I want to suck your cock.” Erin met his eyes but didn’t move an inch from her present position, determined to show him she could be good. “I was thinking about how hot it felt to have your hand fisted in my hair, to feel you fucking my mouth.”

  “What about your ass?” he asked. “Because I want your ass to belong to me, too.”

  “We’d need lube,” she said, her pussy getting wetter despite the fact that anal had been her least favorite activity with her ex. Somehow, she knew that would be as different with Blake as everything else. “But I want you to fuck me any way you want.”

  His expression grew stormy with desire and Erin’s pinched nipples tingled and stung. “Would that turn you on?”

  “Yes.” The word emerged as a moan as she imagined Blake forcing her to her hands and knees and taking her in the ass. She could practically feel his large hand landing stinging slaps to her bottom as his cock stroked deep inside her. “And I’d…I’d like you to spank me while you fucked me.”

  “Spank you, and call you my dirty girl?” he asked, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees until his lips were only inches away from her mouth.

  “Yes. Please, yes.” Erin swept her tongue across her lips, her entire body screaming with the need to be touched, with the need to throw her arms around Blake and never let him go.

  “Why do you like to hear those words from a man, Erin?” he asked, his eyes drifting to her lips.

  “I don’t like to hear them from a man. I’d like to hear them from you.”

  “You didn’t like your husband to—”

  “No, I didn’t,” she said, the sound of the word “husband” on Blake’s lips making her ill. She couldn’t wait for the day when Scott would no longer hold that title. “He would say them, but I never got off on it. But I would with you.”

  “Why?” He moved one hand to her face, tracing a soft finger along her jaw. “Why is it different with me?”

  “I don’t know…I guess…” For the third time in less than a day, tears threatened at the backs of her eyes.

  There was something about being with Blake that turned her inside out, that pushed her to wander the edges of her own emotional landscape. It was what she’d always heard a good Dom would do, but she’d never been there, never been forced to look into another person’s eyes and know they were seeing straight through to the core of her.

  But here she was and there was the answer to his question, suddenly floating in the air in front of her. “I’d like it because I’d know you didn’t really think I was dirty. That, to you, it would be a term of endearment.”

  “It would.” He nodded. “What else?”

  “I know you wouldn’t say it to just anyone,” she said, tongue slipping out to dampen her lips. “So it would make me feel special.”

  “And why wouldn’t I say it to just anyone?” he asked, his lips moving closer to hers, so close she was certain he would kiss her, but he stopped when there were still a few inches between them. “Why would I only say it to you?”

  “Because…” Erin sucked in a deep breath, fighting tears, refusing to let the liquid pooling in her eyes spill down her cheeks no matter how scary and emotional this moment had become. “Because you care about me?”

  “I do,” Blake whispered. “So much, Erin. So fucking much.”

  Erin started crying then, she couldn’t seem to help herself. She was sobbing when Blake pressed a kiss to her lips and pulled her into his arms, tears rolling down the cheek she pressed against his chest as he carried her ac
ross the room.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Blake

  Blake laid Erin down on the soft carpet by the fire and hovered above her, dropping kisses across her forehead as she cried, for the first time in his life not bothered by a woman’s tears.

  She wasn’t crying because she was sad. She was crying because sometimes it hurt to learn that someone cared about you. When you’d convinced yourself there was no goodness or softness left in the world, at least not for you, the unexpectedness of a tender emotion could be overwhelming.

  He knew that’s how she felt because he felt the same way.

  “I still love you, Erin.” He whispered his confession against her lips, feeling close to tears himself as she brought trembling fingers to his face, her touch communicating more emotion than he’d thought possible.

  “I love you, too, Blake. I’m so sorry I ever left, I’m sorry—”

  “It doesn’t matter.” He silenced her with a kiss, a real kiss this time, slipping his tongue into her mouth, tasting coffee and maple syrup and Erin. He kissed her until both of them were breathless before he pulled back to look her in the eyes. “I don’t care about the past. I only care about the future.”

  “Can we have a future?” she asked, fear creeping back into her voice. “There’s so much we don’t know about each other, so much—”

  “We can have whatever we decide to have.” He captured her chin between his fingers and thumb, willing her to see that they had to seize this second chance, no matter how crazy it might seem. “More importantly, we can have whatever I say we can have.”

  “Because you’re the big bad Dom?” she asked with a sad, crooked smile.

  “Because I’m your big bad Dom,” he said, knowing his eyes were shining, but not giving a damn. “And you’re my girl. I love you so much, Erin. I swear to you I will never treat you badly or abuse your trust.”

  “I know you wouldn’t, Blake. But it’s been eight years.” She sucked in a breath and shifted her gaze to stare at a place above his head. “And there are things you don’t know about me, things that might change your mind.”