We headed back to the Grove after we—well, mostly me—devoured a Butterfinger Blizzard. There were more than a few odd looks when I started spoon feeding ice cream yumminess to big ass dudes with tattoos and leather vests. By the time we hit the bottom of the dessert, I managed to crack a smile.
Now we were a couple miles outside where it all started. Max and I went one way. Ray, Mom and the MC went the other. My heart thundered wild in my chest as I realized where he was taking me. Why? I wanted to pound on his back, make him stop. Or go faster. Fuck if I knew what I wanted.
We rolled up a few hundred yards from the sprawling driveway. He idled the bike and motioned for me to get off. I wobbled for a bit, but he reached out and kept me upright.
“Why are we here? Drop me off in town, I can walk home.”
“You aren't staying alone, not tonight. Rangers have our compound and places covered. Chief's is clean, so far. You'll crash here tonight. If we can slide out unseen, Ray and I'll come for a visit later.”
A visit.
I tried imagining Chief rolling out the red carpet, serving tea and crumpets or whatever froo froo shit rich people ate when people visited. Yeah, I won't admit I knew Tony all that well, but I didn't think them stopping over in the middle of the night was going to be cool. Then again, what the hell did I know?
“Does he know I'm here?”
“He will when you knock.”
Great. My luck he'd turn me away and I'd have to walk back to the Grove. Oh well, at least I'd work off the Blizzard. “Okay, see ya around.”
Max grabbed my arm and hauled me to him faster than I could turn my sandaled self. A thunderstorm of unhappy rolled in his gaze, but his grip remained gentle. “There a reason you're throwing sass right now, babe?”
“No reason at all. I'm sure everyone loves being dropped on someone's doorstep, unannounced. I'm sure Chief will love me showing up, interrupting his plans.”
“Right,” Max commented. He tugged my hair, firm enough to make me gasp. “Now you wanna tell me the truth?”
“What if he doesn't want me here?” I whispered.
“Come again.” The grip loosened, turning into a warm press against my cheek.
“The Rangers are investigating him, because of me and Mom's stuff. What if he's pissed? I caused him too much trouble.” I looked down at the bike, unable to face Max in case his expression indicated I was right.
“Babe, that man's crazy about you. We all are, but he's bat shit crazy. He's been climbing the walls, pissed that staying away was the best, safest call for you. For all of us, but most importantly you.” Max feathered a soft kiss on my lips. “We wanted to keep you in Las Palmas a couple of days, but Ray knew Chief was going nuts. If he got word we rode with you out of town, then he'd go ballistic.”
“If he hears, that means the Rangers will, too. Won't that be bad, if they hear I was with you today?”
“That's why Ray's got the urn. For all the Rangers know, your Mom wanted us to spread her ashes, after a final ride.”
“Are you...are you going to spread them?” I asked lamely.
“Wouldn't make that call, babe. She was your ma. How you handle her final rest is your call, and one we'll help you with, if you want.”
“Okay.”
“Give me a kiss, then get down to Chief before I change the plan.”
“Change the plan?” I asked, my belly fluttering wildly.
“We've got camping gear stashed at an old cabin by the river. I wouldn't mind a couple days in the wild with you,” he replied.
A couple of days in the wild sounded nice. “I don't do bugs.”
“Babe, you're in the country, in Texas.” He flashed a sexier than hell smile. Suddenly bugs didn't seem all that bad. I'd conquer alien bugs the size of dinosaurs if I earned another of those smiles. “Later, I'm gonna spend all night eating you out. I hope you're ready to come so much you pass out.”
I wobbled a bit. I loved getting eaten out. The guys were so...into it. I wet my lips and nodded. If he didn't leave soon, I was gonna jump him. Chief could wait.
I stood and watched him ride away. He'd be back. I clung to the thought as I ambled down the long driveway, each step harder than the one before. Were the Rangers watching? Max said they weren't, but how would he know? Chief had done enough for me. I didn't want to jeopardize his job any more than I already had.
The sun winked out in the distance, leaving phantom splashes of pale orange and yellow in the sky. Thick oaks and pecan trees swallowed light around me as I approached the house. A floodlight flicked on. I realized too late I was heading toward the back door.
A screen squeaked open. I gasped, my pulse rattling to life as he stepped out, his tall, muscular frame propped against the doorframe like a bronzed god about to accept a war prize.
I paused a few feet from the porch, unsure whether I was welcome or not. My gaze hadn't tracked to his face yet. I was too busy drooling on his washboard stomach and the thin thatch of hair narrowing into his unzipped pants. No shirt, undone pants and no shoes. He was one pair of denim from naked. My inner slut activated and I took another couple steps closer for a better look.
“Eyes on me, sweetheart,” he ordered.
Oh, my eyes were definitely on him. We locked gazes. I faltered, one foot on the step, one on the ground. “Max dropped me off. He and Ray are going to try and come later.”
“How much later?” he asked, voice husky like he hadn't used it in a century.
“I-I don't know.” My vision clouded as tears formed in my eyes. Fuck. I didn't want to fall apart. I was right. He didn't want me here.
My breathing grew labored. Sweat dampened my palms.
Okay. Think, Harmony. This isn't the first time you've been stranded. Remember when Mom's car broke down and you had to walk six miles to a farmhouse to borrow a phone and that creepy man tried to get you to come inside and wait?
“How long do I have you?”
“I don't know.”
“Then we'd better get started, because I've waited long enough.” He motioned inside. “Strip, kneel in the entry like a good slave until I've decided what to do with you.”
I guess he wanted me here after all. Anticipation pulsated in me as I walked inside and removed my shoes. The cool wood comforted my feet. Weird, but true. I unzipped the sundress I'd worn to Mom's memorial. She hated black, so I opted for a pale yellow.
Chief prowled around me like a caged animal just reintroduced to the wild. A pillow landed in front of me. “Kneel there.”
I folded the dress and set it on my shoes as if I didn't have a sadistic Dom watching, waiting. A feral-like sound rumbled from his throat and kick started my heart into a thundering tempo.
I reached to undo my bra, but he grabbed my hair and tugged. “Knees, slave.”
I settled into the position he'd wanted last time, ass on heels, legs spread wide enough to expose my pussy, hands on my thighs, upturned to show my palms. Head down, I waited.
Each heartbeat pounding in my ears heightened the anticipation beading beneath my skin in tiny pinpricks of sensation. My mind warred with whether the man circling me was the Tony I first crushed on long ago, or the Chief I'd come to crave. A bit of both radiated from him.
“Heard you've been wandering around town like a Walking Dead stand-in. You cried yet?”
The question startled me. I gasped, too shocked to respond at first. I hadn't. A few incidental tears escaped, but I hadn't bawled like the grief-stricken people in movies or anything. I figured it was because a part of me had accepted the inevitable.
“You've locked it up tight, where it can't hurt you.” Denim grazed my shoulder as he settled behind me. “So used to handling whatever fallout she created, you never let yourself go, feel.”
God, had he read my journals? No, I hadn't ever written that kind of shit in there. It was too deep, too raw to give a voice to. He circled to the front. Jeans and bare feet appeared at the edges of my focus. My pulse quickened.
“But you come alive when we take you. You melt beneath whatever pain and pleasure we give, don't you, slave?”
“Yes, Master.” The last word tumbled from deep in me, the part that accepted he was so much more than Tony or Chief.
“Then you know you're in my domain, under my full control.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Good. I'm gonna use you hard tonight, slave. And you're gonna let it all go, give it to me because you know you're safe here and I'll make it all go away.” Two fingers settled beneath my chin and pressed up until I met his intense gaze. Tingles ignited along my skin. “When you're in this house, I'm the only one who worries about anything, Harmony.”
I didn't want Chief worrying about whatever crap I dragged to his doorstep, but I remained silent, the obedient slave both he and I needed me to be.
Anticipation battered the thought aside when he flicked the front closure of my bra open and palmed my breasts. Warmth spread through me as he squeezed and toyed with them, thumbed my nipples until they were hard, aroused points sending their pleas for attention through my entire body.
“I enjoyed the way we started our play time when you were here last. Do you remember, slave?”
“Yes, Master,” I whispered, my voice deepened by the arousal flaring through me.
“I love feeding my cock down your gorgeous throat, but I want my first load to fill your pussy this time. Crawl to the middle room on the right of the hall. The door should be open enough for you to push your way in.”
I crawled. I wondered what it was about the act Chief enjoyed and why it sent my heartbeat into overdrive and activated the dark within my brain. The door was cracked, just enough for me to nudge with my head and wander in. Darkness greeted me. An omen perhaps? Anticipation banged around in my pulse, which quickened the deeper I crawled into the room.
Soft overhead lights flickered on a couple more paces into the room and my breath froze in my lungs. A dungeon. Did every horny man in the Grove have one, or was I just the lucky one to be in three so far? Unlike the compound’s gritty one, which appealed to the masochist lurking within my dark, this one was clean, welcoming.
A plush leather sofa sat in the corner, in front of a coffee table with a cage-like bottom. Was that a real cage? My heartbeat accelerated. A spanking bench in the corner, where lines of assorted paddles, floggers and whips hung on display. My gaze tracked the toys along the wall, then halted at the huge X-shaped cross. Chains mounted to a pulley device overhead hung low, as though warning me of the pleasures to be had in the room.
A huge bed sat in the other corner, tall metal columns with hooks, cuffs and chains dangling. My pussy clenched as I imagined being there, Chief fucking me hard and wild. Camera equipment sat on a small table nearby, ready for the truly adventurous. I wasn't sure I was the girl for that sort of thing, but I suspected Chief would decide that, not me. In this room, I had zero decisions as long as I didn't safe word out.
As if summoned by the wicked thoughts drifting through my head, he wandered in. Watched. Waited out the roiling anticipation rippling within me as I studied the room, everything in it, including the jail cell-like area in the far back, down a slow incline. I glanced over my shoulder at him. He nodded.
I crawled, wanting a closer look at the small area in the back. He closed the distance he'd maintained when I entered the confining area. A small cot was against one wall of the cell. A toilet and small basin in the corner. It was the rows of toys along the other wall that drew my gaze, which swept quickly to the two pieces of equipment that engulfed the room.
The first was a medical table of sorts, complete with stirrups and restraints. The other. Dear God. My pussy clenched. Arousal pooled between my legs as I studied the restraints on each corner, the neck brace and collar which would no doubt keep me immobile. Defenseless. The long bar at the back, the one wielding a thick, massive dildo, left no doubt what the machine was, what it did.
“This is where bad slaves are put for a time out.” He ran a hand through my hair and settled my cheek against his leg. “We'll play in here when I think you're ready, slave. Come, your adventurous spirit has made me impatient.”
Good, because I was a few seconds from jumping him. I should've explored the compound's dungeon closer. This one made me wonder what all I'd missed.
I crawled dutifully toward the front, my tits hanging down. Nipples tight, achy. Where would he have me go? The bed looked like a great start.
“We need to get you warmed up. Crawl to the cross. Get into position, facing the wall.”
I'd passed warmed up a while ago, but remained silent and headed toward the strange equipment. A slight tremble settled in my legs when I rose from the floor.
Chief swallowed the space between us, suddenly pressed against my back and suckling away my private space like a Dom vampire on a feeding frenzy. Without comment, he guided me toward the device with a firm hand on my waist and another on my shoulder.
The cool leather taunted my sensitized skin. Chief grazed my shoulder blade with his fingertips, the contact so light and feather soft I would've missed it entirely if my entire focus hadn't been him. The tingling sensation followed his fingers as he glided up the arm he'd placed against the top right portion of the cross. He circled my wrist a couple times, then secured it in the thick, leather cuff. I tested the restraint, noticed how it was loose, almost enough for me to shimmy out of. But, like the mind fuck he probably intended, there was no escape. It latched me into place with just enough comfort to offer a false semblance of control.
Chief moved my hair to the side and kissed my shoulder, then the back of my neck. His teasing fingertips slid across my other shoulder, gently guiding my other hand to the same fate. My entire body trembled as he secured my wrist.
“Been wanting you here for a while, Harmony,” he whispered in my ear. “You remember your safe word?”
I nodded.
“I need the words, sweetheart. You'll get to drift away soon enough. For now I need to know you're here with me.” His hands settled at my waist. I wiggled my ass against the bulging denim rubbing against me.
“Yes, Master, my safe word is red.”
“Good, slave.” I earned a kiss on my neck. He ran fingers beneath my lace panties at each hip and pushed downward. “I'm gonna warm this sweet little ass up.”
Kisses and caresses trailed along my spine. Chief slapped my ass cheeks, so hard I cried out. Then rubbed. Massaged. Nibbled. He thrust a finger into my wet pussy and a groan escaped my parted lips. My knees buckled when he stroked my pussy lips, then rolled across my clit with ruthless proficiency.
“You don't come until I tell you, slave.”
Damn his rotten soul. I hung on the cliff he'd driven me to so easily, desperate for a release he hadn't approved yet. His attention moved, a slow glide down the back of my thighs, my calves. By the time he reached my ankles, my entire body trembled with need. He buckled my ankles in and chuckled as he rose.
“Fully secured, slave. You're all mine. I could leave you here all day and no one would stop me.” Hot breath trailed near my earlobe as he settled against me. “Do you want to come?”
“Yes, Master. More than anything.”
“In this room slaves earn the right to come. What will you do to come, slave?”
“Whatever you wish, Master.”
“Beg for my flogger then, slave.”
Flogger. A ripple cascaded through my entire body. I tugged against the restraints as one of my favorite fantasies woke and took its first carnal breath. “Please, Master. Please beat me until I come. Make it all go away.”
The last plea ripped from me, an unintended confession of what I needed most right now. I wanted the pain I'd held onto the past few days to be purged. I didn't fully understand what I craved, sought. All I realized was Chief would give it to me.