Chapter Twenty-Two

 

 

When The Ropes Come Out

She moved quickly. So quickly that if she hadn’t instructed me to follow her then I would have thought she was trying to leave me behind. She climbed behind the steering wheel of her car, and I waited for the sound of the locks disengaging before pulling open the door and sliding into the passenger seat. Once she backed out of the parking lot and navigated her way into the mid-morning traffic, I reached into the inside breast pocket of my vest and pulled out a slim cigarette case. Tonya shot a brief glance my way as I popped it open and retrieved an expertly rolled blunt. Her eyes lingered on my hands before returning to the road and my lips curled into a smirk. Sliding the shiny, metal case back into my pocket, I exchanged it for a custom, leather-wrapped lighter and lit the blunt, pulling on it until the end caught the spark and a thin trail of smoke curled from the end.

Puffing once, twice, I extended my arm in her direction, putting it near her hand and in her line of vision so that she didn’t have to reach too far away from the steering wheel to grab it, which she did without me having to say a word.

When she offered it back to me I shook my head, knowing that she needed this, that she probably hadn’t indulged since I last pressed my favorite pipe to her lips hours after we’d made love and watched her naked chest rise as she inhaled. The thought that this was something unique to the two of us, that I had the ability to offer a level of relaxation—of calm—that she didn’t usually reach… was heady, as were the thoughts swirling around in my head as I watched her bring us to our destination.

There was something about the way Tonya drove her car with one sure, secure hand while delicately gripping the blunt—my blunt—with her thumb and forefinger that ignited my arousal.

Pausing at a stop sign.

Licking out with the tip of her tongue to capture a bit of smoke that had leaked from the corner of her mouth.

Whipping the car into a one-handed right turn ever so smoothly.

My eyes captured each action and by the time she downshifted to park, the cage in my pants was working overtime to be worth every penny I’d spent on it.

Within moments, we were in the bedroom smoking and disrobing until she stood naked before me, tugging on my slacks. Watching her face morph from hungry anticipation to something else entirely when my pants finally relinquish their hold on my hips and fell to the floor was a moment I would pay any amount of money to witness again and again. Her eyes widened and I heard the clicking of her throat as she gasped before her mouth gaped in surprise. She was stunned, and rightfully so.

“Wha—”

The same mud-brown irises that had plagued my night—and day—time thoughts throughout my self-imposed exile shot up at me, confusion plainly embedded in their depths.

“Jereth, what the fuck am I looking at right now?”

There was a note of hysteria in her voice that excited me. It thrummed through my veins, heating me up and rushing south. I felt the jerk of the metal resting on my thighs as my arousal was stifled but it was the way Tonya jumped that shook me from my thoughts.

“You didn’t have this shit before you left.”

“I did. It was at my house—”

Fuck! The moment the words left my mouth I wished I could have grabbed them back. As soon as I mentioned my house—the one I owned in Pine Bluff, the same one I’d avoided speaking of and had never brought her to—I saw some of the light leave her eyes. We both realized at the same moment that this was the first time I’d even hinted at me having a place to lay my head.

She sat back on her haunches and I knew—I fucking knew—that if I allowed her to voice the question that was written plainly in her eyes, the moment we were in would be ruined, and I had no assurances that it was possible for us to get it back.

“It’s a cage.”

“I can see that.” Her eyes never left the juncture of my thighs. “I knew you were into some kinky shit but this…”

“This isn’t a kink.” She lifted a brow and I grinned. “I mean, it is, but for me, this is more like a…punishment.”

Those brown eyes that she might have thought were so plain but I found so beautiful, ballooned. “Punishment? Does it…hurt?”

It was evident that she was serious. She didn’t know what this was, had never seen one, and her voice was colored with concern. Still, I couldn’t help but laugh bitterly. “It hurts, alright.”

Her eyes shot daggers up at me. “I don’t have time for your cryptic bullshit right now, Jereth! I only brought you here ‘cause I expected to get stroked to sleep. Now, I’m staring at a dick-shaped metal box and you want to be funny? You’d better start talking or I’m putting your ass out!”

“Okay, okay. Calm down.” I held my hands up in surrender before dragging my palms down my face. I don’t know what I expected, but this shit was more stressful than I could have anticipated. “It’s a chastity device.” I paused, thinking she might have a question, but she simply stared at me silently, so I continued. “It does what the name implies. While it’s on, I can’t get hard at all. If I try, it hurts, because there’s no room to grow in this thing. I can’t jerk off and I can’t fuck. In that sense, it’s a punishment.”

“Okay. Why are you wearing it?”

“Because I hurt you when I left, and I deserved to be punished for that.”

One manicured brow lifted. “You absolutely deserved to be punished for that.”

It wasn’t a laughing matter, but I couldn’t help but throw my head back and howl at her straightforward words.

“Damn, baby. Tell me how you really feel.”

She smirked. “How do I get it off?”

My pulse sped up. That was what I wanted to hear. “Just unlock it.”

“Okay, gimme the key.”

There was no way for me to predict what her reaction would be, and the potential outcome made me nervous. In a weak attempt to stall for time, I licked my bottom lip as I held her gaze. “You have it.”

Those dark and captivating eyes of hers zeroed in on me. “Don’t play with me, Jereth.”

“I’m not, I swear. You do have the key. It’s on your bracelet, the one I gave you on our anniversary.”

Scrambling to her feet, she rushed over to the dresser and lifted the lid of her jewelry box. Holding the trinket in the air, it wasn’t difficult to discern which of the five charms was the correct one. Grasping the miniature key between her thumb and forefinger, she returned to me and crouched down until she was eye level with the steel enclosure. Her hands were steady as she inserted the tiny key into the lock on the side and turned until it gave away, opening up the cage like she was unwrapping a present, eyes widening as my dick immediately stiffened right under her nose.

She dropped the cage, letting it hit the floor with a dull thunk and gripped me at the base, swallowing me down halfway before rising and beginning a rhythm that had my toes curling into the carpet. With one hand twisting my staff as she sloppily bobbed up and down my head, the other reached between my legs to massage my perineum, and fuck if I wasn’t done right then. It had been so long while I was stifled inside of that cage and she was giving too damn good—too fucking perfect—on her knees in front of me that I was coming in minutes, fingers digging into her bushy ponytail, stomach concaving, knees shaking, her name a silent cry on my lips.

When the tremors subsided, I used her hair to tilt her head back.

“Let me see.” My voice was weak from the powerful climax she’d brought me, too, but I didn’t need a heavy bass to command her.

Obediently, she opened her mouth, showing me the pool of white resting on her tongue. And when she swallowed and flashed an empty, pink tongue at me—like the good girl I knew her to be—I grunted my pleasure and bent at the waist, crushing my lips to hers in a desperate kiss, tasting myself on her sweet tongue. Groaning, I pulled up her and backed her towards the bed, lifting her on the mattress with every intention of fucking her into a coma, but when I stepped in between her legs she placed a hand on my chest.

“Can we just…lie in bed together? Without sex? I mean…at least not right now.”

“Of course.”

Reaching behind her, I pulled the covers back and helped her get underneath them before climbing over her and settling in behind her, pulling her back against my chest. Her sigh sounded content, but my mind raced with worry. She might have let me in right now, but we weren’t out of the woods yet, and the reality that I was hanging on to my marriage by a thin thread scared me more than I cared to admit.