by Brandi Evans
This was about sex and seduction.
This was Maddox Westbrook in full Dom mode.
He was about to take her on a wild ride, and she couldn't wait.
When he finally broke eye contact, he knelt between her thighs and twined the rope around her still-bent leg, the braid hitting mid-thigh and mid-shin.
As he kept working, she closed her eyes and reveled in the feel of the rope, of his hands, of his complete attention on her. The brush of her Dom's hands on her skin mingled with the sounds wafting through the room like erotic music. The slap, slap, slap of flesh against flesh, pleasure-fueled cries, murmured commands and soft acquiescences. The sounds took her back in time, to the sensations he'd unleashed inside her. She drew on the eroticism as past and present combined and let it fuel her.
By the time Sir moved to her other leg, her breath had turned shallow, and her hips moved with a gentle undulation she couldn't control. She wanted whatever was next, his mouth on her sex, his cock pounding inside her. She didn't care. She just fucking needed more of Sir!
"Eyes open, kitten," he ordered. "The fun's about to start."
About damn time! she thought but said, "Yes, Sir."
He fastened cuffs around her ankles and secured them to the same two chains where he'd bound her hands, spreading her wide for him, and then, a knowing lilt to his sexy lips, he unsnapped the fasteners at her crotch and exposed her to him and everyone in the room.
Why did that knowledge turn her on so much?
"So gorgeous, kitten."
Sir ran teasing fingertips along her thighs but stopped just shy of reaching her wet-and-ready sex.
Her eyes rolled back.
"No, you don't, kitten. Eyes on me."
She wrestled her lids open.
"That's my good girl." He teased fingertips over her labia. "Just a few more words of caution before we jump in."
Goddamn it, how was she supposed to understand words when he was touching her like that?
"I've been careful to keep the bindings loose enough that they shouldn't cause you any severe discomfort; however, if you feel any numbness or tingling in your legs or toes, let me know immediately. I don't want any circulation or nerve damage tonight, got it?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Good. And now that I've got you into position, I want to give you a little something to help you relax."
She lifted her head and looked at him, apprehension making her chest tight. "Like what?"
His sexy grin made her shiver. "An orgasm."
He spread her labia wide and kissed her like a Dom who meant it. He plunged his tongue into her channel and devoured her. The anticipation of being tied, the excitement of being here, but mostly, the man whose mouth was on her all worked together to send her soaring over the edge.
"Sir!"
The orgasm sizzled through her, every muscle in her belly contracting and quivering. Her fingers flexed, toes too, and Sir kept right on feasting until she felt high, so high that she wondered if she'd ever be able to return to earth.
When Sir stopped, when the orgasm had finally ebbed, she couldn't quite muster the energy to open her eyes—even when the familiar feel of a flogger's tails danced over her thighs.
The platform shimmied as Sir knelt beside her. Like raindrops, the tails played over her arms, tantalizing her, tickling her.
"Sir…"
"Your reaction pleases me, kitten. I wasn't sure you'd be ready for this, but I'm glad you are." Sir eased two fingers inside her, and with a flick of his wrist, the tails bit into her right arm, her left breast, and then, her right thigh.
"Oh, god."
He worked his fingers faster into her, his manipulations combining with the subsequent heat from the flogger's contact. Each strike connected faster than the last, the sensations coming too quickly to separate them in her mind. Pleasure, pain, heat. Pleasure, pain, heat. Pleasure, pain, heat. They cycled and compounded. Her growing need for Sir, her increasing desire to be possessed by him heart, body, and soul grew until the pressure inside her core overwhelmed her.
Her second climax broke through her, and lights exploded behind her eyelids like a million tiny supernovas, nearly blinding her. Cupping a hand behind her head, Sir covered her mouth with his and devoured her screams as he plunged his fingers faster and harder inside her, working her sex until she went soft.
"That was the most incredible thing I've ever seen." He spoke the words softly, his lips moving over hers.
"I love you, Sir." She meant to speak the words, but her voice hadn't worked.
She readied herself to try again, but Sir spoke first. "Making you come is addictive. I'm going to have to do it again, but I thought we could turn it into a little bit of a game."
"G-game?"
"Mmm-hmm. I call it the Orgasm Game. For every three orgasms I give you, you will give me one in return—in any way I see fit. You think you're up for it, kitten?"
If he said anything else, she couldn't hear it. Her heart pounded against her sternum. Her blood whirred between her ears, and suddenly, she was in another time and another place. She was at the masquerade ball, with another Dom who'd proposed that very game, except, except…
No.
Her eyelids flew open, and she shook her head. Maddox wasn't… No, he couldn't be…
Could he?
Maddox's gaze was hard on her. He'd sensed her change in mood and pulled back to assess her. Her first Dom had done that, too. The Dom she'd looked for when she'd returned to school her junior year. The Dom she'd never been able to find.
Until now.
Holy god.
Fuck.
Fuck!
Her mind spun with the realization.
Maddox cupped her face in his big hands. "Kat, I'm right here, sweetheart. I'm here. What's wrong?"
"Masquerade ball."
He looked as if she'd spoken a foreign language. "What?"
"Masquerade ball!"
He looked clueless and a little terrified, so she did what she had to do.
"Blue." She kicked. She jerked. Dear god, she had to get up. She had to tell him. She had to know if what she thought was true was, indeed, true!
By the time he'd freed her, tears were streaming down her cheeks, but they weren't tears of sadness or fear. Her brain was short-circuiting. She had to know, one way or the other.
"We need to talk. Privately. Now. Oh my God, Maddox. Masquerade ball!"
He hurried her from the club and to a hallway she hadn't visited before. The space was simple, the walls the same colors as the rest of the halls she'd seen. The only difference was that this corridor had doors lining it, six on each side. Displays over the handles showed either "empty" or "occupied". They passed four sets of doors before they found one that showed "empty".
Maddox ushered her inside and threw the lock. The room had a lush sofa opposite the door, the walls the color of the ocean. Was it some sort of tranquility room? But she never had a chance to ask.
Sir spun her around to face him. "Kat, you're scaring me. What happened in there? I know you were there with me, enjoying the moment, and then, suddenly, you weren't."
"I was there with you," she assured him. "But then, you said something, and I realized I'd been with you like that before."
"I'm not following."
She blew out a frustrated breath, shook her head, and tried again. "I was there with you in Restrained Fantasies, but then you said something, and I realized it wasn't the first time you'd said those words to me, the ones about the orgasm game. You said them to me one other time, at a masquerade ball in college."
She knew the second understanding slapped him. He remembered that night. More importantly, he remembered her.
He took an unsteady step away from her—stumbled a step backward? His hands fell from her shoulders. "At the house… in college… the shy, new sub with the cat ears. That was you?"
She nodded.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, face scrunching up. "Christ. I can't proce
ss this."
He dropped onto the sofa and buried his head in his hands. She wanted to go to him, but she figured he needed a moment for his shock to settle. Hers was starting to ease now that she knew she'd been right. A brighter emotion was taking over.
Awe.
He looked at her, confusion overtaking shock. She considered that a step in the right direction.
"And tonight's the first time you realized this?" No accusation darkened his voice.
"Yes, although, I think my subconscious has been trying to tell me for a while. In a lot of my dreams, I find myself back at that house, but you're the Dom there with me. You now, that is—the man, not the boy. I just thought it was my mind's way of dealing with everything going on. That night with you was my first time to gather the courage to perform a scene with anyone. You were so amazing, and well, I was never quite able to forget about you."
When he didn't respond, she pushed on.
"I looked for you when the new semester started, but I couldn't find you. And now, I know why. You'd graduated and come here."
Shame rose to become the dominant emotion on his handsome face. "I didn't just graduate, Kat. I ran away from you."
Maddox cursed himself. He hadn't meant for his admission to sound like a slap in the face, but given her pain-filled expression, a slap in the face was stupidly accurate. That was the second time tonight he'd done that to her.
"I didn't mean that however you're thinking," he assured her quickly. "That night with you terrified me. I'd never felt that kind of connection with another sub. The way you responded to me was the ultimate turn-on, and I wanted more than one night with you."
Eyes closed, he fisted a hand and pressed it, thumb side toward him, hard into the center of his forehead, but it didn't help with the frustration nor did it help him conjure the right words to explain what he'd felt back then. It especially didn't assuage the guilt burning through him like a lava flow.
"That night between us meant that much to you?" she asked, her expression a cross between bewilderment and hope.
"Yes."
"Then why didn't you stay?" Her voice was barely audible, not that the decibel did anything to lessen the way the question sliced through his stomach lining.
He made himself stand up and face her like a man. If things were about to spin out of control, he owed her the respect of saying this face to face.
"Because I had my future planned out, Kat, and falling for a sub I'd met one time wasn't part of it. I'd had a solid plan since my father's trial. Graduate and then join the academy. I'd already gone through all the preliminary interviews with the police department, background checks, physical fitness tests, and whatnot. I had a spot and a start date at the academy. My future was set, had been set for years, but goddamn it, after just one night with you, I'd entertained the idea of throwing it all away just for the chance to see where things went with us. And I didn't even know your fucking name, and that terrified me."
He'd been so close to staying, too, so close that he'd ended up leaving three days earlier than he'd planned. He'd wanted to weed out the temptation before it had had time to grow roots, but now, given the intensity of what he still felt for her, it made him wonder something else.
If he'd have stayed, would it have kept her from ending up with Harris? Would staying have saved Kat from a lifetime of abuse?
Hindsight was a fucking, sadistic asshole.
Kat stepped close and pressed a hand to his cheek. "I know what you're thinking, Maddox, so stop. Do you hear me? Stop."
He didn't need to ask what she thought he was thinking. "It's true, though. If I'd have stayed, maybe I could have saved you from him."
"Sure. Maybe if you hadn't left, we would have stayed together, had eight kids, and been blissfully happy. Or maybe, you would have started to resent me for keeping you from becoming the one thing you always wanted to be: a cop. Or maybe, we would have lasted for three months, I still would have eventually ended up with Jeff, you would have blown your chance at going to the academy. Then, who would have been there in that restaurant to save me from him?"
Closing his eyes, he wrapped her in a fierce hug. "I'm starting to think I was always meant to save you from him, one way or the other."
"And I'm starting to think, no matter what we would have done, we'd have ended up right here, in each other's arms."
He pulled back and looked at her through eyes filling with tears. "I wonder if part of me recognized you when I saw you in that restaurant. I know the cop in me recognized a battered spouse. The way Harris treated you, the way you tried to make yourself so small, but when I went over there, the jolt I felt when I looked at you was immediate."
"I felt it, too. There was something in your eyes that told me I could trust you. You're the first person I'd ever told about the abuse."
He took her beautiful face in his hands. "The cop saw the abuse victim, but I think the Dom recognized something more primitive: a battered submissive. My submissive. And I knew I needed to save you."
"You have saved me, Maddox. No matter what happens next, I want you to know that this time with you has been the happiest time of my life."
"Mine, too."
"I wonder if we were always supposed to have just that night, that fate somehow knew I'd need that night with a good Dom, one who showed me what it was supposed to be like between a Dom and a sub. That way, when you and I met again after I'd suffered years of abuse, I'd be able to be the sub you needed while also being able to accept the kind of pleasure I wanted."
Need.
Want.
He took a deep breath and responded with the only thing that seemed appropriate. "I love you."
Her tears flowed over his hands, where they still pressed to her cheeks. "I love you, too."
Chapter 21
Katlyn set her tablet down. If she looked at one more ECG tracing, she would lose her damn mind. She'd reached the point of diminishing returns. She'd mixed up A-fib and A-flutter on about every question on that last quiz. If that wasn't a sure-fire sign to take a break, she didn't know what was. Except, it wasn't six-thirty yet, and she and Maddox had made a pact. One and a half hours of work and studying, and then, they could go back to making out.
Smiling hugely, she wrapped her arms around her middle. They'd spent most of the morning naked in bed, save for the hour he'd been in court. They were like teenagers who were unable to keep their hands off each other. What a difference twenty-four hours and three little words made.
Maddox loved her!
They had a connection neither had imagined. Happiness was like a radiant heat inside her, and she wanted to make sure he—they—remained happy.
Lost in her own thoughts, she didn't realize Sarge had come in until he laid a single taper candle on her lap, a piece of paper neatly wrapped around the stem and tied with twine.
Oh, Maddox.
She gave her messenger a good scratching behind his ears and then unwound the twine. Maddox had penned a single sentence on the paper: This belongs at the table, and so do you.
Grinning like an idiot—at least she felt like an idiot grinning this hugely—she looked at Sarge. "He makes me so damn happy, sweet boy."
Sarge barked in return as if agreeing with her.
"Come on. If you're good, I'll sneak you something under the table."
He barked again and spun in a circle for good measure.
She was still smiling when she stepped into the main living area and Maddox caught her up in his arms.
He pressed his mouth to hers. "Mmm, I was jonesing for your lips."
"And I kept forcing myself to keep studying because all I wanted to do was find you and jump you."
"I consider myself duly warned." He covered her mouth with his, this kiss longer, slower, and much more thorough. "Come on, kitten. Let's eat. That way, I'll have ample strength when you decide to finally jump me."
"That's mighty forward-thinking of you, Sir."
"I try."
Oh, he'd more
than tried. "You made dinner?"
He nodded.
She stood slack-jawed and stared at the table. Dinner was the leftovers she'd planned to reheat last night before he'd taken her to Ravenous: pasta salad, the last of the meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and the homemade bread she'd made for the pasta meal. He'd lit the taper candle on the table, as well as a few of the votives scattered around the living area. He even had soft music playing in the background.
"Maddox, this is wonderful. Thank you!"
He shrugged. "You're the one who did all the heavy lifting. I just re-heated stuff." He ushered her to the table. "I did order us some dessert, though. It'll be here soon." He took the candle from her, lit the wick with the flame from the other candle, and returned it to its holder. "How'd the studying go?"
She shrugged. "Good at first, but then I kept screwing up because I kept thinking about jumping you. It was very distracting."
Grinning, he poured her a glass of the red wine he'd left to breathe on the table. "Yes, my ego and I recall you mentioning that."
"So, as you can imagine, my mind wasn't fully engaged, and that's not good when studying ECG tracings. I kept screwing up these two rhythms, and at one point, I wanted to throw things."
"I'll just take this then…" He eased her butter knife toward his side of the table.
"Funny man!" She took her knife back. She'd need this for her bread.
As they ate, they gave topics like Jeff, the Group, and the murdered detective a wide berth. They fell into a relaxed conversation about nothing: how much fun Sarge would have if they had a yard, when they'd head back to the club, the Subs Self-Defense Club's first meeting—Viv's brainchild. When they somehow breached the subject of "stupid things I did in college", easy conversation became impossible because both were laughing too damn hard.
Maddox pushed his empty plate away. "You and Caroline snuck into the aquatics center on a dare to skinny dip? No way!"
"No, I'm serious. We found our bras the next day on one of the ceiling fans in the library. To this day, we don't know how they got there."
