by BJ Wane
Avery tightened her thighs, her breathing turning shallow as he plowed into her quivering pussy with heavy grunts of exertion. Small contractions clutched at his invading flesh, her abundant cream easing his way as his shaft jerked against her clamping muscles.
“Fucking yes. Now, Avery,” he demanded, huffing as he took her harder, faster.
Yes, now… now… now They splintered apart together, their groans mingling, their slick bodies straining as they toppled over the precipice into blinding ecstasy. As she lay shivering under him, Avery wondered when, or if her response to his controlling possession would ever lessen. God, she hoped not.
“Come on, sugar. We need to get going.” After giving her a soft kiss, Grayson pushed off her, yanked her out of bed and swatted her ass. “Into the shower. I’ll bring you in a cup of coffee.”
Avery rubbed her butt as she padded toward the bathroom, looking back over her shoulder to see him strolling out, his jeans left opened, a small smile curling his mouth. Her heartbeat kicked up, and she found herself in the precarious position of teetering on the edge of falling in love. Yesterday, he’d told her his digging had revealed Darren and Chad had been questioned by IA, that small tidbit offering her the first ray of hope since she’d fled Chicago. But now the thought of leaving Willow Springs, and Master Grayson dimmed that beckoning brightness.
Shaking her head at her growing, contrary dilemma, she slipped into the bathroom, praying her heart stayed intact in the upcoming days.
Grayson pulled his gaze away from Avery where she sat wearing nothing but his black silk shirt and her glasses, twisting on the barstool to face Dan as he took the seat next to him. The activities already taking place in The Barn didn’t command his attention as much as she continued to do. Watching her had become his favorite pastime, even when she was doing something mundane, such as talking to Sydney and Nan at a table a few feet away, her soft face showing less strain, those whiskey eyes sparkling with the humor portrayed by her smiling mouth.
“Anything new?” Dan asked with a lift of one brow as he glanced from Grayson to Avery.
“No. I did a little more snooping today but couldn’t pick up any movement by Chicago IA toward Avery.”
“But that doesn’t mean they’re not,” the lawyer finished for him.
“I know and I can only dig so deep without sending up red flags. I’m tempted to agree to Avery’s suggestion she hack into their personal finances.”
“I wouldn’t do that, at least not yet,” Dan advised. “One, they’re sure to catch wind of it and two, anything she found couldn’t be used against them. Best to give it more time, see if IA goes so far as getting a warrant to do the same thing.”
“Are you two talking about Avery’s scumbag, crooked cop?” Caden asked as he joined them from behind the bar.
“You know?” Surprise colored Grayson’s voice.
Caden nodded toward the three girls. “She told Sydney and Nan the other day and gave Syd the okay to tell me. Given my girl’s experience with being on the run, Sydney said Avery seemed relieved to have it out in the open.”
Avery had kept that conversation from him, which was no big deal, Grayson admitted. So why did it rub him the wrong way, as if she still wasn’t comfortable speaking openly with him about any and everything like he wanted her to be? “That’s good,” he murmured, taking the beer Caden handed him. “How’s Con? Still cranky?”
“Not as much.” Caden shrugged. “He knows he screwed up going after cattle thieves by himself, without backup or telling anyone what he was up to, and how much worse it could have been.” Concern clouded his friend’s blue eyes. “I sure hope he doesn’t end up with permanent damage to that shoulder.”
“He’s tough and determined,” Dan put in. “He won’t let a gunshot injury keep him down for long. I hear the clinic’s hired a physical therapist, so maybe he won’t have to drive into Billings for therapy.”
“Let’s hope.” Caden sighed before cocking his head at Grayson. “So, you’re pitting yourself against two crooked Chicago cops?”
Scowling, Grayson replied in a deep rumble, “Fucking A, I’ll go up against the whole Chicago police force if I have to.”
Shaking his head with a smirk, the rancher who should know stated, “They slip under your radar when you least expect it.” Caden reached across the bar and slapped Grayson on the shoulder. “Welcome to the downfallen, buddy.”
“Shit.” Dan hopped off the stool. “Keep away from me, both of you. Whatever is going around, I want no part of it.” He took off, stopping at a sofa where two unattached subs sat and held out both hands to them.
“Lucky bastard,” Grayson commented when the girls accepted his invitation to play.
“So are you and I.”
Looking back at Caden and then over at Avery and Sydney, Grayson nodded in agreement. “Damn right. I’ll be back to relieve you in an hour.”
“No hurry. Have fun.”
He intended to. Reaching the table, he snatched Avery’s hand and pulled her up, raising one brow as she wobbled and leaned into him. Her face reddened, likely from the sudden shift of the larger plug he had inserted before leaving the house. “Please excuse us, ladies.”
With a breathless laugh he loved, Avery recovered enough to stutter behind him as he dragged her toward the stairs. “Wh… where… are you hauling me?”
“Upstairs.” Turning his head around halfway up, he inquired with a small smile, “Do you have a problem with that?”
Her reciprocating grin lit up her face. “Nope, not in the least.”
“I love your eagerness, sugar.” Grayson led her to the corner swing where he’d first introduced her to bondage. Dropping her hand, he ordered her to strip as he reached for the long strap dangling on a hook in the wall behind the webbed contraption. Seeing her standing there naked, her eyes darting around the loft to check who might be watching as she fidgeted with her fingers, he nodded in approval. “Excellent.” Clasping her soft waist, he lifted her onto the swing and smiled when the apparatus rocked and she made a frantic grab for the lines attaching it to the ceiling. “Relax. I haven’t let you fall yet, have I?”
“There’s a first time for everything. This thing feels so flimsy.”
“It’s not. As for there’s a first time for everything, that’s true about a lot of things, but not me failing to ensure your safety. But it does apply to this scene.”
Avery’s eyes turned wary as Grayson issued an up gesture using two fingers above her right knee, but she obeyed the silent command without balking. Wrapping the end of the strap right above her knee, he fashioned a loop by velcroing it closed and then brought the strap around her shoulders, lifting her bent leg up to her chest as he went, gesturing for her to raise her left leg to meet the opposite end.
“Sheesh,” she muttered in consternation after he bound her other leg in the same folded back and out position.
Standing between her splayed legs, he offered a token to ease her embarrassment. “Between the dim lighting and my position, it’ll be difficult for anyone to get as close a look at your pretty pussy and uplifted ass as me.” He ran his hands over her quivering thighs until her tight grip on the lines eased and she strained towards him with a tiny whimper. “There you go, sugar. Breathe.” As soon as she inhaled, he removed the plug and tossed it aside. “So fucking wet,” he growled, thrusting two fingers into her sopping pussy and swiveling them around until they were well-lubed with her juices.
“Oh, God.” Avery’s eyes flew from his face down between her splayed legs as she watched him pull his fingers from her vagina and slowly breach her back orifice, prepping her dark channel for his cock using her own abundant cream.
“Bear down and don’t tense up. I’ll go slow, and only so far. I know what I’m doing, Avery,” Grayson assured her with a light caress down the inside of her left thigh.
She nodded on a long exhale and didn’t shy away from watching him release his cock and sheath himself in a lubed condom. Pulling h
is fingers from her ass, he reached for her right hand and brought it down to her gaping pussy. “Finger yourself as I take you.” He didn’t give her time to think or balk at the order as he pushed two of her fingers inside her while fisting his shaft and working into her puckered rear entrance. Avery bit her lip, zeroed in on her clit as he pressed forward, filling her with half his length before pausing and then retreating until just his cock head remain buried inside her snug rectum.
“Sir… Master Grayson… please,” she whispered, lifting eyes drenched in need up to his face.
“Tug on your clit and keep tugging as I fuck you.” Grayson’s breathing grew as harsh as Avery’s as he jabbed back and forth inside her tight ass, feeling the small contractions in her pussy through the thin wall separating her fingers and his invading cock. As hot as her pussy, her ass gripped his girth with spasmodic clutches, her mewling cries and arching hips pushing him past the point of slowing down after a few, shallow thrusts. Clasping her buttocks, he lifted her hips higher to meet his deeper, faster plunges, all the while her fingers plucking nonstop at her swollen, crimson bud, her juices dribbling down her crack to aid in his possession.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Grayson ground out, wishing he could have made this last longer as he spewed his climax into the condom and saw stars. He heard Avery’s cry of release, felt it rippling along his cock even with the barrier between the orifices, and swore nothing had ever come close to rivaling the sensations her climax pulled from him.
Avery leaned on The Barn’s bathroom counter, hardly recognizing herself in the mirror. With her thick, unruly hair falling around her face and shoulders in a tangled mess and her face, neck and upper part of her chest exposed by the open buttons on Grayson’s silk shirt flushed and damp, she looked… ravished. Heck, she mused, with the muscles lining her rectum and pussy still contracting and her body still pulsating, she felt ravished. But that wasn’t what had prompted her hasty dash from the loft and into the restroom as soon as Master Grayson had released the binding strap she could still feel wrapped around her shoulders, holding her knees up and out, leaving her exposed in a lewd, decadent position.
Shaking her head, Avery wondered why she hadn’t seen her downfall coming. Tonight wasn’t the first time he had maintained his stern dominance and need for control while that inner core of protectiveness and decency prompted him to alleviate her insecurities first. But after choosing an apparatus in a secluded corner instead of one out in the open for her initiation into public fucking and anal sex and then easing her embarrassment over her displayed body by shielding her, how could she help taking that last step into falling in love with him?
With her mind whirling from that revelation and her body humming in sated bliss, she didn’t notice someone else entering the bathroom until Cassie’s mocking voice interrupted Avery’s musings and her cold face appeared in the mirror.
“Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in,” she sneered with an insolent look up and down Avery’s disheveled appearance. “Enjoy it while you can, hon, because it won’t last.”
“What are you talking about, Cassie?” Avery managed to ask with a semblance of calm despite her racing heart. It was no wonder the woman had few friends as she rarely offered any friendly overtures to females, only men.
The attractive blonde snorted and shook her head, crossing her arms in front of her. “Shit, you can’t be that stupid, can you? Do you honestly think a man like Master Grayson wants anything more from you than that ass fucking he just gave you? Hell, you’re not even his type. Trust me, you’ll be history soon, just like every submissive who’s come before you and will follow you.”
Avery surprised herself by shooting back, “Like you?” despite the coldness invading her body from the other woman’s cruel taunts.
Cassie laughed and stepped up to the other sink, running her fingers through her long hair. “Oh no, not me. You see, I’m the only one he returns to, time and time again. He can’t get enough of me,” she lied.
Moving toward the door on rubbery legs, Avery dug up enough bravado to toss over her shoulder, “And yet he continues to seek others. Mmm, I wonder why?” I am really liking this new streak of courage I’ve found, she thought as she opened the door with a shaking hand. Too bad her bravery only lasted long enough for her to get away from the other woman. Uncertainty assailed her as soon as she stepped back into the club room and saw Master Grayson leaning against the bar, talking around the toothpick in his mouth, those piercing eyes zeroing in on her with the quick, laser sharpness of a radar beam.
Was Cassie right? Maybe she’d read too much into Grayson’s solicitous attention since she’d come to town, injected too much hope into the signs of caring and concern he’d been lavishing on her. She’d never felt at ease around men like most women did or was good at reading them. Just look at what an idiot she’d been with Darren. Why hadn’t she remembered that hard-learned lesson these past few weeks?
Avery could tell the moment he read something on her face that drew his suspicions. Pushing away from the bar, he said something to Caden before striding toward her, nailing her in place with an unbreakable, intent stare. Wiping her clammy hands down the sides of his silk shirt, she pressed her bare toes into the wood floor, tried calming her ratcheting pulse and struggled to hold herself in check and prevent him from seeing anything else.
Fisting his hands on his hips as he reached her, Grayson cocked his head, asking, “Everything all right, sugar?”
Remembering his accurate astuteness, she answered with as much honesty as possible at the moment. “I’m a bit… overwhelmed right now, with all this,” she waved a hand around the room, “along with everything else I’m trying to work out in my life.”
Master Grayson nodded but his eyes remained sharp and assessing. “Understandable. Do you want to head back to my place now, or would you rather visit more with Nan and Sydney?”
Avery blinked rapidly against the moisture blurring her vision. Damn the man, why did it have to be someone so unattainable who did it for her in every way she’d ever dreamed, and ways she never imagined? “I’ll stay. I know you’re needed at the bar now.”
“I am, but there are always exceptions allowed for needy subs. Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” She smiled, not wanting to appear needy.
“Then come keep me company.” He frowned as Cassie came through the foyer door and flicked Avery a smug look before beaming at Grayson as she walked by.
“There’s Nan,” Avery rushed to point out before he could question her again. She recognized the suspicious look crossing his face as he eyed Cassie’s retreating back. “I’ll go sit with her while you tend bar.” She pulled away from him and wound her way over to Nan’s table, feeling those eyes now following her until she sat down.
It was after ten the next morning by the time Avery roused, showered and found Grayson on the phone at the kitchen counter. She must have been more tired than she thought to sleep so long; either that or the tossing and turning she’d done all night as Cassie’s words kept replaying in her head was responsible. It wasn’t until Grayson’s muttered, frustrated swearing pre-empted his hard arm clamping around her waist to pin her against him that she settled down to a few hours of sleep.
“I’ll head out shortly and get back to you.” Snapping the phone shut, he nodded toward the full pot of coffee. “I refilled it when I heard you moving around. I’m sorry,” he said, coming around the counter to drop his mouth onto hers for a quick kiss. “Today was my day off, but Caden called to tell me a neighboring rancher spotted the same truck Connor went after. I need to get their statement, but it won’t take me long.”
“No problem. I planned to go into town anyway and pick up a few things. I’m… not sure if I’ll be back before I go to the diner.” Avery held her breath, praying he didn’t read more into her plans than she wanted him to. She needed to put space between them, figure out how to keep her heart from crumbling when she returned to her life in Chicago, or went
back on the run. The best she could figure, those would be her only two options once IA finished their investigation and Grayson informed her he’d done all he could.
“I’d rather you returned here by early afternoon and let me drive you back to work. The forecast calls for snow by then and you suck at driving in bad weather.” He softened his criticism with a teasing smile that didn’t erase the doubt darkening his eyes.
“Thanks to you, I have snow tires, so I should be fine.” She averted her eyes and inched around him, turning her back on his scrutinizing gaze.
“But, because it concerns your safety, which falls under my control, you’ll do as I suggest, won’t you, sugar?”
She whipped her head around as she reached for the coffee pot, the implacable, hard edge to his tone a sure sign he wouldn’t back down. A curl of resentment festered inside her as she thought of him moving on to the next submissive woman who caught his eye after he finished with her. Avery tamped down the urge to lash out, which would get her nowhere, shrugging with an evasive reply as she poured her coffee. “I should be done by then. I hope you get another lead on those rustlers this morning.”
“We’ll get them; it’s just a matter of time.” Snatching his Stetson off a hook by the door, Grayson stepped out with a parting shot that heated Avery from head to toe even as it sent a ripple of unease slithering down her spine. “I’ll introduce your ass to both sides of my hairbrush if I don’t see you back here in a few hours.”
“That’s just wrong,” she mumbled, her buttocks clenching and her pussy spasming as she imagined how the bristles on his brush would feel scraping over skin reddened after he applied the wooden side. “Huh, it might be worth it to ignore his order, in more ways than one.”
Chapter 13
