As she stood waiting in the dark corridor, Eva wondered, not for the first time, why she’d allowed her best friend to talk her into this.
‘Because you love me very much,’ Tiffany reminded her when she returned, ‘and because it’s for a good cause. You look sexy.’
Eva let her lips quirk halfway into a smile. ‘Isn’t that the point?’
‘Well, yes, and I’m just telling you that you did a really good job. You’re third. Now go make me proud!’
Third. As in: the third person to be auctioned off to the highest bidder for charitable funds to help support veterans within the community. It was hard not to sigh; Eva was used to being in a position of strength and authority. She was known all over this area as a merciless Domme, yet here she was putting herself in a pretty damned helpless position. She tried to look at the bright side: the sub with the balls to buy a play session with her would surely prove interesting, at least.
‘OK, you’re up,’ a voice whispered. Then a gentle hand – she’d pay to know whose – gave her a shove at the small of her back, and Eva straightened her shoulders and allowed herself to be pushed onto the temporary stage that had been set up in the dungeon’s open hall. Her heels snapped smartly against the wood of the stage as she strode forward, hands on corseted hips, to stand beside a woman she knew only as Grayling.
Grayling, the MC for the evening’s festivities, introduced her to the crowd and invited her to give a little spin. Eva smiled against her gritted teeth and indulged in a little fanciful daydreaming about what horrible things she’d do to Tiffany the next time she had her in some rope.
‘We’ll start the bidding at a hundred dollars! Awesome! How about a hundred and fifty? A hundred and fifty! Now I’m looking for two hundred dollars, ladies and gents, for this fine-looking bitch-Domme!’
Eva added Grayling to the list of people who were going to have to watch their asses around her in the near future. She glared, but the MC only dropped her a saucy wink, and Eva had to smother the urge to laugh. This whole situation was absurd.
‘Come on, folks,’ Grayling continued, ‘Get your paddles up!’ They were using actual spanking paddles, of course, with numbers taped onto the ends. ‘Ooh, five hundred and fifty dollars! It’s getting hot in here, kinksters! Amazing! Six hundred! We have a new high for this evening, but can we push it any higher? Going once? Twice? Sold!’
Relieved at being allowed to retreat from the stage, Eva turned to the stairs and took the hand of the sub who’d been stationed there to help the light-dazzled and the dizzy out of the spotlight gracefully. A handsome Indian man replaced her on the stage, but Eva made straight for the desk, not interested in the bidding.
She almost turned right back around, though, when she noticed who was lounging against the front desk. ‘Hunter,’ she said instead, refusing to give in to cowardice. ‘Better hurry up with your paperwork or you’ll miss the choicest plums,’ she teased. He grinned back, though, and she had to keep her knees from going rubbery on her. Hunter was…Hunter. He was the embodiment of sex and chemistry, and she would swear that she could often feel his presence in a room, even with her back turned. He was intelligent, funny, painfully handsome and also the one thing she could never afford to fall for: a fellow top.
‘Actually, I’ve already got what I came for,’ he said, tapping a paddle subtly against his leg. Of course it wasn’t one of the borrowed paddles. No, he’d brought his own, dark and thick and wicked-looking. She didn’t often use paddles, herself, but she admired his taste in them.
She was so caught up in the gloss of the wood that it took her a moment to process what he’d said. Done already? She wished she’d paid more attention to the two people who’d walked on stage ahead of her. ‘Oh? I must have been backstage. Who did you…?’
Hunter’s grin grew wider and he slid a signed cheque across the counter. It was made out to the Leather Veterans’ Association. For $600.
Eva gaped as Rose, the desk-girl and co-owner of the club, grabbed the cheque and slid it into a manila envelope. ‘Thank you for your generosity, Hunter. Enjoy your special night!’ She looked at Eva and winked, and Eva snapped her mouth shut.
‘You didn’t just—’
Hunter interrupted her, thanking Rose and taking Eva by the arm, guiding her gently toward a table where refreshments had been laid out. She accepted the water and pretzels he handed her, but her mind was still a bit preoccupied.
‘You bid on me?’
‘Seems so,’ Hunter said quietly, his voice a rumble that she could feel as much as she could hear it over the din from the next room. He was too close…
She stepped back and nearly tripped over a misplaced cushion. ‘Hunter, I’m a Domme.’
‘Oh, I’ve noticed. Trust me.’ He hadn’t moved, but he still seemed so close.
She took another step back, reaching for calm. For cool. ‘I won’t kneel to you, Hunter. Not even for charity. Not for anyone.’
‘We’ll see,’ he answered, looking unconcerned.
‘No, we won’t—’ she started, but he stopped her with a gesture, and she wanted to kick herself for letting him.
‘I don’t mean to push you. We won’t do anything you’re not comfortable with, OK? I promise.’ He stepped forward, back into her personal space, and this time she let him, refusing to let him chase her. Still, she damned near whimpered when he ran a rough thumb over her lips. ‘I’ve wanted to kiss you since the day we met, but you’ve never let me. We’ve got sparks, Eva.’ When his thumb moved from her lips to caress her cheek, it was all she could do not to follow it with her lips, she was so hungry for a taste of him. ‘But you always keep me at arm’s length. Is it because you don’t want me?’
All she had to do to save herself was to lie. But it was beyond her. ‘No.’ He couldn’t have heard her over the cheers in the next room, but he read the word on her lips and something kindled behind his eyes.
‘Then give me a chance. Just a chance.’ His wandering thumb had found her chin, and he tilted her head up towards his as he leaned forward. ‘Will you do that?’
Fuck! ‘Yes,’ she breathed. Her entire body was on fire for this impending kiss.
‘Good,’ he said, close enough for his breath to feel hot on her lips. Close enough that she could practically taste the Italian he’d had for dinner.
Then he backed away from her, his hand falling away from her face as he straightened, leaving her feeling untethered and dizzy. ‘Then I’ll book a room for next weekend. Is Saturday night OK?’
Eva gasped and rocked in her heels. ‘Fuck. You,’ she enunciated.
He laughed, then leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek, nothing more than a parting gesture between friends. She was going to…to…she didn’t know, but he was on her list.
‘I’ll see you then. Have you still got my number from that demo we did? I’ll text you when I have our reservation.’ Then with one last wink he turned and strode out, snatching up his motorcycle helmet on the way.
Tiffany appeared at Eva’s elbow as if by magic. ‘Wow, that looked steamy. Was that Hunter?’
Eva blinked twice, trying to clear her mind. Then she turned a glare on her good friend. ‘Are you done organising?’
‘Yes, why?’
This time it was Eva whose sharp grin threw a helpless woman off balance. ‘You and my rope have a date. Come on.’
* * *
Even with Tiffany’s enthusiastic help with taking the edge off, Eva was tense for the rest of the week. She jumped at every notification on her phone, but when Hunter finally texted her on Tuesday afternoon, it still managed to catch her by surprise. And once she had the time plugged into her calendar, the imminent train wreck felt all too real and painfully inevitable.
Maybe that was why she took such care with her wardrobe. She didn’t wear anything she might normally have been seen in, at least not at the dungeon. Instead, she slid a pair of ass-hugging jeans on over her thong, and coupled them with a button-up blouse and some sexy-but-vanilla heeled boots. She looked like any single woman might, getting dressed up for a Saturday-night date. Which was the point. She had to remember that no matter how sexy Hunter might be, neither of them was submissive enough to kneel for the other.
Rose didn’t even raise an eyebrow when she checked in at the desk. ‘Hunter’s already here,’ she said, and then waved away Eva’s $20. ‘He already paid for both of you, and he told me that whatever you threatened me with in order to get me to take your cash, he’d do twice.’ Rose smirked. She was a hardcore masochist who was known to take quite the thrashing from time to time, so it wasn’t a threat with teeth.
‘Fine,’ Eva said, conceding with what grace she could muster. ‘Where?’
‘Green room.’ Rose blew her a cheeky kiss. ‘Have fun, now.’
‘I’d spank you if I thought it would teach you any manners.’ Rose’s laughter chased her down the hall, but even the familiarity of their banter couldn’t distract her from her fate for long. Eva walked through the nearly-empty room where the stage had been constructed only the week before, avoiding by habit the suspension points where toys – and people – sometimes hung, and found her way to the green room.
Hunter hadn’t spared any details that was for sure. The whole room seemed to glow with the light of the candles he’d placed on nearly every flat surface. His smile, when he saw her, threatened to outshine them all. ‘Eva. You look gorgeous.’
She wanted to warn him away. To threaten him. To defy whatever expectations he had of her. To remind him that he’d bought her time and nothing more. Instead, she stood silent, waiting and watching. A good top was patient.
Hunter didn’t make her wait, though. He walked up to her, took both of her hands and drew her into the room. ‘Tell me what you love about dominance,’ he commanded, but gently.
Still, Eva was surprised. She didn’t know what she could say, so she let her eyes show him her confusion.
‘Is it the sadism?’ he prompted.
‘Not…necessarily.’
He nodded encouragingly. ‘The trust?’ This time she nodded, but not emphatically. ‘The power?’
‘Yes.’
He squeezed her hands and smiled. ‘I’m a sadist,’ he said, unselfconscious. ‘But I don’t think I know anyone who doesn’t feed on the power exchange to some level or another.’ He lifted one of her hands to his mouth, and his eyes never left hers as he kissed her palm, sucking gently on the fleshy pad beneath his thumb. Then he bit her, and her eyes went wide at the shocking sensation. She started to pull back, but he was already releasing her. ‘Did you like that?’
‘I – don’t know.’ She really didn’t. It had felt so good up until the bite, but that…the bite hasn’t felt as bad as she’d expected. Painful, but not bad.
Hunter stepped into her personal space. ‘I want to hurt you, Eva, but I don’t want to scare you away.’ When she didn’t move, his hand circled her waist. He smelled delicious, like leather and the clean scent of the evening air.
‘I’m not scared,’ she said, managing to sound steadier than she felt, ‘but I’m no submissive, Hunter.’
‘Then don’t submit to me,’ he said, looking earnest. ‘Submit to the pain and to the pleasure. Let me hurt you and make you feel good. You lead,’ he promised, ‘and whatever you let me do to you…I’ll let you do to me later. Any of it.’ The thought of paying Hunter back in kind was almost too tempting. Still, she thought she might have been able to resist him if he hadn’t leaned forward again and said, right against her ear, ‘I want to find every possible way to make you scream.’
Shivers ran through her and she shoved him away, her back stiff and straight. Hell, what she wouldn’t give to take a flogger to his backside…
But, of course, she could arrange to do exactly that. ‘Anything I want,’ she clarified.
‘You’re in control.’
‘And I get to give back everything I take.’
‘All of it.’
‘Then…I want you to flog me.’ That was certainly something she’d never expected to say.
Hunter smiled and gestured to his toy bag, inviting her to choose. ‘What’s your safeword?’
‘No,’ she said, pausing in her rummaging to face him. ‘I’m not a sub, Hunter, and I’m not going to play one. I’m going to take a little beating so I can get a little payback, and maybe I’ll like some of it. But I’m not playing games. If I say stop, you stop.’
He actually looked flustered. ‘Sorry,’ he said, ‘habit.’
She nodded acceptance and pulled out a black flogger with thick, heavy leather tails and a carved wooden handle in true Hunter style. ‘Should we be keeping a list?’ she asked, handing it to him.
‘Oh, I’ll remember.’
He waited patiently for her to decide what she wanted to do. Eva took a deep breath, walked to a padded table, undid her jeans and pulled them down to her knees. She bent over, presenting her virtually bare ass to him.
Hunter made a hungry sort of sound, but before she could think too hard about what she was getting into, the first blow fell. ‘Fuck!’ she shouted, jumping at the unfamiliar pain. Heat bloomed across her left ass cheek, and she started to straighten. A second blow fell on the other side, and she yelped and spun, forcing him to abort midway through his next swing.
Her mouth dropped open. Then shut. Hunter raised his eyebrows and waited, saying nothing. Her ass felt hot, like she’d gotten a particularly inconvenient sunburn, and she gritted her teeth and reminded herself that she’d soon be able to make it hard for him to sit.
With a deep breath to collect herself, Eva turned and bent over the table again. The next punch from the flogger came even before she’d settled herself, but she managed to stifle her cry this time, gritting her teeth against the pain as it slammed into her ass and thighs again and again…
Enduring wasn’t enough. How did her subs deal? Some of them talked about the joy of submitting to a sadist’s whims, but others…she remembered Tiffany telling her about the high she got from the pain itself and the endorphins that followed. Runners got the same thing, didn’t they? So anyone could do it…
Difficult though it was, Eva tried to surrender to the sensation. To embrace the pain. To submit to it. And slowly, her body started to work its magic. It was hypnotic, the way that the blows rocked her, hurting, yes, but less so as she learned to relax into it. To let it carry her away. To let the pain work itself out while she focused instead on the body’s reaction to that pain.
‘Eva?’ It took a while to realise that the blows had stopped falling. Hunter was beside her – when had he moved? – and he was shaking her shoulder gently. ‘I need a new target, Eva. Your ass is as red as the cherry-on-top.’
‘Hmm,’ she said.
‘I’d hate to have to stop already,’ he said, ‘but I promised you I wouldn’t do anything you didn’t ask for.’
Well, crap. She’d been enjoying the floating, pulsing pleasure, but she’d lost track of her surroundings and somehow misplaced her ability to think straight. All she knew was that she wasn’t ready for it to stop. Not yet. This feeling was new and it was intriguing. And surprisingly arousing. Her pussy felt flushed and wet, and her nipples were so hard they ached.
Nipples…
Eva turned, scooted back until she could sit on the edge of the table, and caressed her breasts, looking Hunter right in the eye so he’d understand.
‘You want me to flog your tits?’ he asked.
She nodded and leaned back, bracing herself on her arms.
‘It would be better if I could take your shirt and bra off. Is that OK?’
She nodded again, and tried not to whimper as he moved in close, standing in the space between her legs, his face close enough to kiss as he worked his way down the row of buttons. When he got the last one undone, he parted the fabric with one finger and worked it down her body from her throat all the way to the top of her silly, impractical panties. Then he put his hands on her waist and made her shiver as he ran them smoothly up her sides to the place where her bra clasped. It was unfastened in a heartbeat, and he helped her lean forward to strip the shirt and bra away.
She should have been embarrassed or excited to be sitting there exposed in front of Hunter, spread out like a picnic feast. There was a touch of that, yes, but mostly what she felt was eager as she waited to see what new sensations he’d bring.
He didn’t keep her waiting long. The flogger fell gently at first, teasing over her breasts and her aching nipples like leather-scented rain, but the force and the pace slowly increased until she was moaning softly with each heavy blow. Then whimpering. Then crying out, each hit pounding the sound out of her even as it drove her like a nail back into that floating haven.
Hunter, however, seemed done with the kid gloves. She should have expected it from a sadist. And she did have to appreciate – in an abstract way – his precise control. He took a half-step back, and then snapped the flogger down. Only the very tips of the tails made contact, right against the tip of her left nipple, in a sting like a hundred fucking bees.
Eva screamed.
Hunter snapped the flogger down, this time on her right.
She screamed again.
Her every instinct was to curl up. To cover her stinging breasts. To demand that he stop.
But she’d learned something, submitting to the discomfort. There was bliss to be found hiding behind the pain. And there it came, in a rush of heady ecstasy even as the flogger snapped across her left nipple again. Anguish. Euphoria.
Right. Left. Right. By the third strikes she was screaming full-throated with each blow, letting the power of her lungs drive the pain aside to make space for the pleasure.
She waited for a fourth pair of strikes, but when they didn’t fall, she opened her heavy eyelids to see what Hunter would do next.
He was standing staring at her, flogger hanging at his side as if forgotten and his breath coming as heavily as hers. She’d never expected to find pleasure nestled in with pain, but he’d been right, and once she’d given in, her body had taken over. Now it was primed and ready, her pussy throbbing with want and her heart pounding.
But as soon as Hunter surged toward her, boxing her in, her natural dominance couldn’t be denied. Her ardour cooled and her head cleared as he tugged her hair to tilt her head back, his every gesture one of dominance and control, and suddenly it was easy to put a palm flat on his chest and push. ‘Stop that.’
He backed off at once, his free hand raised in mute apology, frustration in his gaze. His words immediately clarified that it wasn’t her that had caused it, though. ‘I’m sorry – I got carried away.’
‘That’s why this can’t work, Hunter,’ she said quietly. ‘I might be able to bring myself to enjoy a little pain play –’ he laughed at that ‘– but neither of us can take power all the way out of the equation.’ She started to get off the table, but he stepped forward, not close enough to crowd her, but enough that she’d have to move into his space if she dismounted. Eva settled back, wary.
‘I made a mistake, Eva, but I can learn not to. With practice.’ He gestured to the front of his pants, which were straining to hold back the erection within. ‘Does this look like I’m put off by you asserting yourself?’
She’d tried something like this once, years before. She’d gotten married young and only found out afterwards that her new husband was a rigid Dom. Unfortunately for him, she hadn’t been the pliant sub-in-waiting that he’d thought he’d landed. ‘You think you can handle me in my glory?’ she asked, sliding off the table and into his personal space. The faint smell of his sweat and the heat from his body sent thrills down her spine, but she didn’t let it show as she stared up into his face.
He froze, tensing up as if to reach for her, but remained as still as she could have hoped. ‘Eva, I want you in your glory.’
She brushed past him, looking for what she’d need. There was no chair in the room, but there was a low bench along one wall that would do just fine. She grabbed one end and pulled it out towards the centre of the room, then pointed to the end. ‘Sit there.’ When he moved to comply, she held up a hand. ‘Wait. Strip first.’
He groaned and tugged his shirt over his head, toeing out of his shoes before it had even cleared his torso. That done, he wasted no time skimming out of his pants and boxers, and stood bare and proud before her. For a second, she almost lost her nerve. He was…like a work of art. Beautiful and strong, with just enough flaws – a small scar on his chest, a dark freckle on his lower belly – to make him fully human and all the more enticing. She wanted to devour him, and that passion made her fearful.
But even that hesitancy couldn’t cut through the desire that had hit a fever pitch within her.
Hunter sat as he’d been directed, and she took a condom from a handy bowl and tore the packet open. ‘Lean back, grab the bench and don’t move.’ If he could handle that, maybe…maybe he could handle her.
When he’d leaned back, she rolled the rubber slowly down his cock, taking her time to enjoy the feel of his erection in her hands. Then she leaned forward, close enough that her breasts were nearly pressing against his face, and said, low and husky, ‘I’m serious. I’m going to pleasure myself, now, and if you really want to prove that you can handle me, you won’t move.’ She thought of ordering him not to come, but he was a smart man; he’d figure it out.
She didn’t make a show of removing her panties. This moment was hers, not his. She merely tugged them down and stepped out of the scrap of fabric, shuddering as the scent of her arousal wafted up to her. Her body was ready and she didn’t want to wait another second. Anticipation twinged in her stomach as she stepped forward, straddled his lap and slowly lowered herself onto his cock.
He moaned as she sank onto him, her pussy clenching tight around the head, but he behaved himself, holding back from reaching for her. She grinned wickedly and, impulsively, dropped the rest of the way onto him, slamming his cock deep into her slick pussy.
This time he let out a shout and his back arched, his eyes squeezed shut. His knuckles, where she could see them, were white on the bench. Eva rocked her hips experimentally, purring with pleasure as his cock moved deep within her. He was a delicious size, thick and long and hard as stone, teasing at the very depths of her being.
She rocked again, searching for the perfect angle, and his breathing grew ragged as she found the particular thrust-and-grind manoeuvre that pleasured her inside and out. Slowly at first, she rode him, increasing her pace as she felt the pleasure within her begin to mount. He was hard and throbbing between her legs, powerful and under her spell, and she revelled in it, drowning herself in ecstasy until it burst over her like champagne, tingling and sweet.
But when she looked into the face of her lover and saw Hunter’s bright, hungry gaze, the afterglow dimmed. Her ass burned, her tits throbbed with as much pain as pleasure, and the look on his face was barely restrained predatory desire. And she’d just fucked Hunter, the one man she’d told herself she couldn’t have.
‘Satisfied?’ he asked. He wasn’t quite speaking through gritted teeth, but almost.
‘Apparently,’ she said breezily. His cock still pulsed and throbbed inside her, and she felt her inner muscles clench almost involuntarily against him.
‘Good,’ he said, ‘because fair’s fair, and now it’s my turn.’
‘I didn’t—’ Before she could say another word, or move off him, Hunter wrapped his arms around her and lifted her as he stood. His fingers dug into her bruised ass and she yelped, too surprised to do anything but cling to him. And oh, did he take advantage of that! He spun around, quick as can be, and deposited her on her back on the bench, his cock still buried deep within her.
‘Don’t say no,’ he begged huskily. ‘You may not be willing to submit to me, but I still want to make you scream one more time.’
Her mouth fell open, but she couldn’t say no. Didn’t want to.
Hunter growled, bracing himself half-on and half-off the bench, and fucked her like she’d never been fucked before, hard and fast, totally in control. She stiffened for a moment, her instincts fighting against the feeling of submission to his body and his will, but his cock drilled into her, hard and deep, and she let the fear go, submitting instead to the pleasure that was once again mounting low in her belly and sparking through her clit every time he slammed home.
‘Eva,’ he groaned, his face tight with control. ‘I want you…to fucking…scream.’ Then he reached up and pinched one of her poor, abused nipples. Pain and pleasure, still so tangled in her brain, spiked in her like magma and set off an explosion that shattered everything else. Her body convulsed with the intensity of the pleasure as Eva came harder than she’d ever come before. And she screamed until she had no breath to carry the sound.
Distantly, Eva was aware of Hunter burying himself twice more in her clenching cunt, and of his groan, low and earthy, as the throbbing of his cock intensified within her. It was several moments before he moved away, and even longer before she felt capable of sitting up.
When she did, eyes half-glazed with pleasure, she found Hunter crouching beside the bench, watching her. His grin was as erotic as it was infuriating.
‘This can’t possibly work out,’ she said baldly, though she was too satiated to even wish for clothes, much less put force into her rejection.
‘It worked out just fine in my view,’ Hunter said easily. His voice lowered to a husky growl and he leaned in. ‘I loved every second of hurting you tonight, and I think you did, too. Are you really not going to let me hurt you again?’
Her breath caught. The nerve! She meant to tell him to take his paddle and shove it, but what came out was ‘I’ll make you crawl and beg for every moment of pain you give me.’
Hunter laughed. ‘Did you see me complaining?’ He moved to sit beside her on the bench, his presence warm and inviting, and she gave in to the urge to lean against him. ‘And if either of us misses the real thing, we could always team up and make some lucky sub suffer.’
Hope sparked, and Eva shivered. ‘I still get to pay you back for that flogging.’ As Hunter laughingly agreed, Eva allowed herself to dare to imagine new possibilities.