by Kari Miller
Reaching over and separating her bound wrists from the bed rail, he opted to keep her wrists tied. He then scooped her up and sat her in his lap. He left the blindfold on because he knew it would be easier for her to admit to her folly and face the lesson that he had imposed on her, without having to look at him. For some mental reason, the blind fold always makes it easier to admit defeat and to be more honest with yourself. That was a mercy he would grant her for doing so well.
She rested her head against his shoulder and made no move to dash. He was encouraged by that and wasn’t all that surprised. Women in general had a natural submissive nature, with a few exceptions of course. It was the rules of nature. Women would never admit to being submissive beings, but with the right male who is not afraid to take and dominate, they naturally allow their mate to assume that role without belittling her, and she would love him for it. He was the right male.
He wasn’t going to ask her if she was ok because he didn’t want to feed into her insecurities and doubt that what they had just shared was anything but ok. He would remain firm but gentle.
“Can you please untie me?” She asked as calmly as can be.
He respected her greatly for that because he knew without a doubt that inside she must be a basket case of nerves.
“First we need to talk” He replied just as calmly, trying his hardest to keep the arrogance out of his tone. He did not want her on the defensive.
“Can we clean up and then talk?” She asked hopefully.
He smiled and kissed her forehead.
“No kitten. We need to put this talk behind us so we can move forward.”
“Oh” she whispered out as her muscles started to tense.
He soothed his fingers up and down her arm in a calming gesture.
“Katherine, I am not here to steal your freedom or eradicate your independence. I do not look to break down your character or mould you into a meek creature. I need you to remain as you are.”
“But…” She tried to pipe in.
“No Katherine. Right now I just want you to listen and then I will grant you the same respect. It is my turn right now.”
She nodded and lowered her head, trying to hide her face from him.
He gently placed his finger under her chin and tipped her head up so she faced him. It was odd speaking to her while she was blind folded. He would have preferred to see her eyes so he could read her emotions and reactions, but knew that the blind fold was what was keeping her together.
“I will be the first to admit that I am a hard man to live with. I am set in my ways, I expect obedience from everyone who resides under my care, I take what I want with no remorse and I have a temper that rivals the Devil’s.”
She nodded but still remained quiet.
“I receive obedience because those who know me respect me. I do not abuse of my power, I place everybody’s safety before mine, I provide fair wages and safe working environments, I am a good landlord and show compassion and understanding when it is needed and I am one of the most honest people you will ever meet. Nobody under my care has ever been mistreated by me or by anyone else. I cannot properly take care of my own if they are dishonest with me and do not follow my rules.”
“But…” She tried again.
“Kat” He warned her with a low growl to emphasize.
She closed her mouth and blushed.
“If I tell you to heed my wishes and you feel strongly against them, by all means, feel free to object and explain to me as to why you feel I should relent. But Katherine, you will do so in a respectful manner and not lash out at me if I choose not to agree with you. You need to trust that I will keep you safe and if I cannot trust that you will follow my orders then I will not be able to properly care for you and you will suffer unnecessary consequences, be it from myself or from someone else. I need to know that you will follow through with what I am saying; if you continually defy me I will place your safety above your feelings and take necessary actions. If you feel to challenge me then do so when we are alone. I will not disrespect you in front of others nor will you disrespect me. Is that clear?”
He could see her scowling behind her blindfold but gave him a reluctant nod.
“I have a temper Kat and sometimes I have to fight to keep it leashed. Do not provoke it. Do not slap me, throw things at me or deliberately hurt me in any manner because I cannot guarantee that you will walk away unscathed. I lose myself in my temper and cannot always control my actions. I have always believed in like for like and will not even question my response if pushed past the point of no return. Yell at me if you must but do not make it a habit. If you feel to physically lash out on me, I encourage you to curse me instead. I do not want to encourage you to be disrespectful, however I know how hard it is to tame your temper when you are in the passion of the moment and would prefer to be labelled a buffoon rather than feel the sting of your slap, and then the regret of me having to peel you off the floor as a result. Not an abuse of power but a guarantee of your safety. Is that clear?”
She nodded her head again. He kissed her on the lips this time ever so softly and then continued.
“I like to banter and tease just as I enjoy when you banter and tease along with me. I like when you share pieces of yourself with me and am eager to share your intelligence. I admire your survivor skills and your self-worth. I think you are beyond beautiful, which by the way will not help me with my growing jealousy issues which I have never experienced in my life, so bear with me in the meantime. I think you are sexy, erotic, personable and witty, everything I could ever want in a wife. I appreciate your modesty, however would prefer your true self. Never be ashamed for enjoying what your husband has to give to you. If you feel a rush of desire and wish to act on it, then it will do nothing but please me to see that you desire me. If you are happy then don’t cheat your happiness by hiding it just to spite me. If you are angry, sad or hurt do not hide that from me either because I will know. I do not want a civilized wife who tip toes around and hides behind proprietary. I see the person you are and that is the person I was so eager to fetch the priest for. By hiding behind your embarrassment and pride, you only chance to cheat yourself. If I want something, I reach out and take it and am not ashamed to make my needs known before, during or after. Never ever lie to yourself because in turn you are lying to me and I will see through your lies. Do I make myself clear?”
With a blush that made him want to crush her to him, she nodded and then waited.
“Good. Now I am eager to hear your thoughts on that.”
She bit her lip, which was already bruising from previous worryings and he could do nothing less than lean down and kiss her again. First it was a slow kiss but when he felt her lips starting to move against his, he needed to taste her – mark her. With her bound hands, she reached up and caressed his jaw as the kiss intensified. He felt his passions brewing again and cursed himself for it. They did not have the time for this and he needed to finish this discussion before they continued on in their journey.
He broke free from the kiss and smoothed her hair back. She was breathing quickly and he knew she felt desire as well.
When she was able to control her breathing, she shifted her position on his lap so that her back was to his chest and she was facing away from him. He knew this was a defensive move. Most people tend to hide their face when faced with the fear of rejection. They either don’t want to see the rejection in the other persons face or don’t want to show their weakness to the rejection. It was a natural defence that he would allow, for now.
~
Katherine had been digesting everything he was saying as he was going along. She mentally cringed at the words obedience and obey, but in actuality what he was asking from her and his explanation as to why, was completely reasonable and within his rights as her husband. Some husbands expected blind obedience and constantly abused their authority, where as Salvador was at least willing to listen to her reasoning and expected her not to be meek and quiet. That w
as reassuring in of itself. She was married to him now and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it, short of having him murdered, but that was not an option. She needed to make the best of the situation and appreciated his honesty. He was right too. Her constant demons consisted of her pride, modesty and self-preservation which all went hand in hand. She did desire him and if she wasn’t so busy battling her demons, she would have been more than happy to give over to his love making, before he felt the need to tie her to the bed and blind fold her. She should have been outraged that he had done that, but she understood his reasoning behind it and truthfully it gave her the excuse she needed to admit defeat. When she did, they had both exploded into a storm of passion. Knowing that she was helpless to him and he was in full control had enhanced the experience. Part of her felt dirty for enjoying being tied up and at the mercy of her husbands desires, but again that was the demon who he had just finished calling out. He warned her that he would win over her demons every time and she believed him. She was grateful of that because if he just simply accepted her rejections brought on by proprietary, then she would never experience that with which she was quickly growing to love. He forced her to enjoy herself and she couldn’t fault him for that.
As for his own judgment of his character, she would see for herself what others really thought of him and how he actually treated them, but for now she would accept his words. If indeed he was true to his word, then she could easily see herself respecting and admiring him. He was a domineering alpha male at its finest, which she could learn to tolerate if he did not abuse his power. It actually made her feel safer and reassured her that he would not allow failure to seep into their lives like her father had. She did miss her freedom of the cabin, but she would not miss having to scrounge for food and having to cut enough wood to keep her warm during the winter. She was growing weaker from lack of food and activity; she knew it and feared that she wouldn’t have the strength to cut enough wood to last her through the upcoming winter, more or less any illness that would fall on her because of it. Her demon’s screamed at her to loath the situation he forced upon her, but in all truth, women were passed off to husbands on a regular basis and never once experienced the type of freedom that she had. It was that experience that shaped her into the woman she is now. She saw the world for what it was. She appreciated everything life had to offer her and never took anything for granted. She saw the ton for what it was and refused to be as hypocritical as them. She felt an incredible sympathy for those less fortunate than her because she too was in that category of less fortunate. Now, Salvador had swooped in and probably saved her life, offered her the world, demanded that she remain as she is but exercise a caution of obedience and introduced her to pleasures not of this world. Instead of being grateful, appreciative and thankful towards him, she acted the complete opposite and fought him every step of the way. If he teased her, she took it personally and lashed out at him. When he purchased new clothes for her, she called him names acting like a spoiled brat. When he made her feel desire, she slapped him. This was not the Katherine that she had been just a few nights before.
Oddly enough, she didn’t have much to say. Again her demons were forbidding her to apologize for her most recent behaviour, but she really couldn’t think of anything else to add to the conversation at this time. She grinned at the thought that this lack of words was a first for her.
She sighed outwardly, knowing that he was waiting patiently for her to say something and knew she had to get on with it.
“I understand everything that you have said and even admit to agreeing with everything, including the part that you are hard to live with…” She gently teased, to show him that she was not on the defence.
She felt his chest shaking against her back as he silently chuckled.
“Just as you are learning to deal with new emotions, I need you to understand that I too am dealing with new emotions as well and will slip up every once in a while.”
“Fair enough” He responded with light humour in his tone.
“I admit that I have acted as an ungrateful child since the moment we met and I assure you that is not my normal character. That is an apology by the way…” She added on with a grin on her face.
He only replied with another chuckle and kissed the back of her head.
“I do not take kindly to being threatened and have never backed down from a fight. I saw you as a threat and rather than thinking through the entire picture, I chose to view the situation through a narrow window and reacted in such. Don’t get me wrong, I feel you could have handled things differently and have been an arrogant ass at times, but I would like to think that your actions were a result of mine and not a normal occurrence.”
“Such actions as?” He asked.
“Fetching the priest and waiting not two minutes before we were to be wed to inform me. That was low. For all you know, I may have always dreamed of a beautiful wedding in a big white church dressed in a beautiful white dress with all the things to go along with a fairytale wedding, I am a female you know and have female wiles.”
She could feel him chuckling again.
“And is that really what you wanted, my Sweet?”
“Heavens no! But that’s not the point. You didn’t consult me and left me out of the planning for one of the most important days of my life!” She returned, trying to sound as though she was scolding him, but even she could hear the grin on her face at the thought of a fanciful wedding.
She never understood the big who-haw of spending scads of money on a dress she could only wear once, inviting people to share a very intimate event, even though the guest list consisted of people who really care not for the marriage and were probably hoping for failure. God she hated the ton.
“I apologize greatly for that Kat. I too was not thinking clearly and could only concentrate on making you mine. It’s not an excuse because on this point you are absolutely correct.” He stated, sounding genuine.
“Thank you. Although I am grateful for the new wardrobe which I have yet to thank you for, I do not appreciate you dictating what I am to wear. Nor did I appreciate you ridding me of my older clothes in the manner that you did. You could have simply explained to me your intentions, rode me into town and dropped me off at the dress maker and then picked me up when I was through. I would have given you a hard time about accepting new clothes at first, but would have relented no doubt, after trying to battle with that hard head of yours.”
“I know for a fact that you would have fought me every step of the way. I also know that you would never have picked out the pieces that I have picked out for you. You would have chosen the bare minimum just to shut me up and then secretly wished you had picked up what you really wanted.”
“True” she sighed out.
Most women would have emptied his bank account at such an opportunity, but she had never been pampered in her life and although at one point when she was younger, had all that she needed, it was never to the extravagance. She felt uncomfortable accepting such gifts and did not want him to feel as though she was vain and open to taking advantage of him, even if he could afford it.
“That aside, I rather enjoyed picking out your wardrobe. It pleases me to know that my wife is wearing nothing but the finest quality. In addition to that, if I see something that I believe would look lovely on you, it will please me to see that through. I will set up accounts at the dress makers for you and encourage you to take advantage of them; however I will insist that I have final word on all designs before the outfit is erected. I will object if I feel you are selling yourself too short, if I believe the outfit to be too revealing, not revealing enough, so on and so forth.”
“But what if your tastes are not mine? Do you wish me to tread around society feeling uncomfortable in my own skin? Do my feelings not matter to you?”
“Were you not pleased with my selection?”
“Well, yes. I would never have picked out those outfits for myself, but yes…I was pleased.”
“Then we circle back to trust. Trust that I know your likes and dislikes and will respect your limits.”
“Let’s take that one step at a time.” She conceded.
He chuckled and encouraged her to go on.
“There was no need to tie me up to prove your point Salvador. That was a little barbaric don’t you think?” She mustered up the courage to say, while blushing viciously.
“There was every need and you know it. And in addition to there being a need, I would like to hear you deny that your pleasure was not increased because of it. Be honest with yourself Kat, and with me.”
She should have anticipated his response and in truth he was right.
“Fine - I concede. But I still believe you could have been nicer about it.” She didn’t want to admit complete defeat to him.
“No, I don’t believe I could have, nor would you have wanted me to. Do you really want to discuss this point Katherine or leave it be and accept it for what it was? I’m going to give you that chance to retract your statement and move onto the next point. I do give certain allowances for some modesty.”
She was grateful for that.
“That was my last point, for now. I’m sure I will think of more as the day progresses.”
With that being said, he kissed her on the back of her head again and shifted her on his lap so that he could remove his cravat from around her wrists. Lifting the blind fold from her face, he kissed each eye as they squeezed shut to ward off the sudden light that filled her eyes, making them water. Before she could open her eyes again, his lips crash against hers and then she was gently lifted and placed on the bed. While she sat there trying to recover her wits, he stalked over to his bag and donned his robe.
“Get beneath the sheets Kat.” He called out over his shoulder as he headed to the door.
She was confused as to where he was going or why she needed to cover herself, but quickly obliged.
