Twenty
A hand tugged on my pant leg as I handed out the last of the flyers I’d printed. I glanced to my side and saw Barry looking up at me quizzically. The double dose of sugar had hit him hard, prompting his grandparents to take him over to the mini petting zoo for the last hour. The festival was winding down and they’d come back to the booth.
“Miss Sloane,” he chirped.
“Yeah, buddy?”
“Barry, we’re working,” Leo snapped before his nephew had the chance to answer me. I whipped my head to the side and caught sight of Leo, head down, straightening the remaining books on the table. His mood had been off since the morning. He’d barely spoken to me since we began manning the table after I took Barry for his snack.
“What is your problem?” I whispered to Leo.
Blue eyes flicked up from the table to slice right through me. I felt sick. “Nothing,” he said. “He needs to quit pestering you. And you don’t need to be so concerned with entertaining him.”
I flinched, retreating from him at the harsh sound of his voice.
“Miss Sloane,” Barry whined.
“Barry, knock it off!”
“Leo,” I hissed.
“She got a big spider on her back!”
I froze and turned to Barry at my hip with wide eyes. “What?”
His curls flounced as he nodded at me, urging that he was telling the truth. I instantly yelped, grabbing the bottom of my sweater, shaking it as I cringed. My skin crawled imagining what Barry’s idea of big was. As I continued to shiver, praying I’d lose the spider, I suddenly felt a hand skate over my shoulder.
“I see it, hang on,” Leo said.
My imagination had turned it into an entire swarm of tarantulas and knowing Leo could see whatever monstrous spider was creeping up my clothes, made me squirm even more. Desperate to get it off of me, I wiggled and flapped at my shirt some more. Then Leo gripped my elbow and rasped in my ear the voice that always made me obey.
“Hold. Still.”
I calmed under his touch and shut my eyes. Pulling in a breath, stifling another squeal, I felt him pluck something from my sweater before he smoothed his hand all over my back for reassurance.
“It’s gone,” he whispered. “You’re safe.”
I turned on my heels to look at him and saw the care in his eyes. His hand came down on my shoulder and slid to my elbow as his mouth tightened into a pained smile.
“Thanks,” I muttered.
Leo nodded and his smile grew more relaxed. I could see the stress marring his face and knew the arrival of his sister must’ve brought up some lingering issue he’d yet to share with me. Oliver began packing up the table as the sun set in the distance and I figured Leo and I would have time to talk once we left.
“Sloane?”
I turned and came face to face with Leo’s mother, Kathy. She offered a sweet smile and glanced past me a Leo before she spoke.
“Would you like to join the family tomorrow afternoon for dinner? We didn’t get to talk much today and I’d love to hear more about you, dear. Seeing as my sons—and my grandson,” she laughed, “are so fond of you.”
Including Leo? I thought. At this point, I wasn’t too sure. My throat worked to gulp down the quick bit of fear that bubbled up in me. I looked over my shoulder at Leo wearing a subtle glow. For a split second, I wondered if my mother were still alive if her hair would be as white as Kathy’s.
“Of course, Mrs. Calloway. Thank you.”
***
Leo’s house was dark; we walked in in silence. My head had been a mess the entire day. The only time I didn’t feel nervous, out of place, or on edge due to Leo’s attitude had been when I was alone with Barry. Leo had remained quiet on the drive back to his place after we dropped everything off at the store where Wendy was closing up for the night. My mind raced with all the things I felt I needed to say to him. All the questions I wanted to ask burned painfully behind my eyes.
Leo walked to the kitchen and poured us each a glass of water, handing me one without a word. I watched as he gulped the liquid down then put his glass in the sink. He turned to walk to his bedroom, stripping his shirt over his head as he made his way there. When he glanced back at me, I sipped the cold water but his stare chilled me more.
“Come in here when you’re done,” he said.
I chugged the water and followed him, preparing my voice to speak. I couldn’t surrender to him without first clearing the air.
“Leo, this morning when I said—”
“Stop,” he interrupted. He moved slowly around the room, lighting candles and switching on the bedside lamps before turning off the overhead light, leaving it dusky.
“But—”
He faced me, shirtless, jaw tight and darkness clouding his stare. “Stop,” he repeated. “Get undressed.”
Acid raged in my gut and I choked down the saliva the sight of his body had brought forth. “Leo…”
He raised a careful hand and rubbed his forehead—not yet wearing his gloves—and I saw agony painting him. “Please,” he begged in a hush. “Please do this for me.”
The pleading whisper mixed with the despondency I saw in his gaze convinced me. Just as I’d needed his heavy hand to wipe away memories of Warren and punish me in the way I’d never be able to punish myself, I knew Leo needed this. Whatever storm had been brewing in his veins that day was ready to be unleashed and while the anguish consuming him bordered on frightening, I knew that ultimately I could always end it. I took a deep breath and he watched with a heavy lidded stare as I tugged my sweater then my tank top over my head, dropping them to the floor. My stomach pitched when a thought chased through my mind.
The regret I felt over telling him I loved him would fade when his rough touch sent me spinning. I needed this too.
It was as though we’d always find ourselves here. Bound by this twisted kind of loving that hurt and healed all at once. Leo’s ability to make me feel was unique to him alone. Of course I wanted to talk more. I wanted to creep inside Leo’s mind the way he always crept in mine but I didn’t have the same power he did. My intuition wasn’t nearly as strong when it came to him. I only ever felt sure of one thing with Leo—that surrender was freedom.
I unbuttoned my pants and pushed them to the floor along with my panties, stepping out of them as I unhooked my bra. When all had fallen to the ground and I was bared to him, he closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. He grabbed his gloves off the dresser, shoved his hands into them and moved me by the shoulders to the center of the room, near the foot of the bed.
He ducked into the closet as I stood naked and waiting and with my own deep breath, a strange feeling washed over me. Clarity. Calm. No matter what had transpired between us earlier, the worry I still held onto from my hasty confession, or the mystery plaguing Leo, I still felt most at peace under his rule. His touch would be my undoing and I hoped for his sake I could bring the same to him.
He came into view with multiple items in his hands. He tossed a few things on the bed and I didn’t dare peek. He lowered in front of me and pushed my feet apart, placing a long metal bar between them. He secured cuffs around my ankles that attached to the bar, making it impossible for me to spread my legs farther apart or close them. From the bed, Leo grabbed the cuffs with the chain between them that he’d used to hook me to the headboard before. He unlatched the chain from one cuff and looped it through a metal ring at the center of the bar between my feet then reattached it. His hand grabbed one of mine and tugged. I had to bend at the waist for my wrists to reach the cuffs and when I did, Leo captured my hands in the leather, tightening them perfectly. Bent low in the compromising position, Leo and I were face to face where he knelt on the floor.
His eyes lifted to mine and he wet his lips. “Yellow to slow, red to stop, black to end. Got it?”
“Yes.”
His brow furrowed and I felt leather fingertips pinch and roll one of my nipples, causing me to cry out. “Yes?”
“Yes, Sir,” I choked.
Leo rose and I hated how obstructed my view was. Not only did he move to stand behind me, but with my wrists shackled just a few inches higher than my ankles, I couldn’t crane my head to see higher than waist level. A quick smack on my bare ass jolted me out of my thoughts and made me realize how easily I could fall over if I wasn’t careful of keeping my balance in the position. I sucked in a breath as Leo grasped handfuls of my ass, squeezing me so hard I squeaked with my exhale. A few more quick slaps of the flesh and I actually smiled. By the time his gloved hand trailed up my curved spine, I moaned.
“Are those happy noises I hear?”
I caught my lip between my teeth and sighed after one more spank. “Yes, Sir.”
“Hmm. Interesting.”
His hands left my body and I heard him gather something from the bed. Just like when I’d been blindfolded, I had to deduce what was happening around me by my sense of sound. I heard a squirt, like gel from a bottle, and then something wet. I jumped and nearly fell forward as Leo’s hands spread my ass once more, this time even rougher.
“Take a deep breath,” he commanded.
I obeyed, but held the breath I’d pulled into my lungs the moment I felt something cool, hard, and wet pressing against my asshole. My entire body tensed and even as the abrupt pain melted into something like pleasure as the small, teardrop shape settled inside of me, I didn’t breathe. Leo let go of the cheek he’d pulled on roughly and tapped the exterior of the toy. A groan burst forth from me as well as the breath I’d been clinging to as a shockwave of foreign sensation rippled through me. I felt it rush up my spine and pulse through my sex. While I focused on the new kind of lovely torture, Leo’s feet came into view. He crouched down to my level and took my chin in his grasp, examining me.
“Do you want to fuck Ethan?”
“What?” I gaped, a surprised and incredulous laugh coating the retort.
His finger pinched my chin harder and he tilted my face up at an uncomfortable angle. “Wipe that smile off your face. Do you want to fuck him?”
“No, Sir,” I murmured.
“Have you thought about it?”
“No, Sir.”
“Who do you think about fucking?”
I swallowed and watched his flaming blue irises dance across my face as I whispered, “You.”
He softened barely and rose once more, resuming his position at my backside. “Do you think about fucking Warren?”
Paralyzed by the question, I didn’t even make a noise when he spanked me for not answering him. My eyes locked on the floor and I illogically considered Leo’s mood being linked to Warren. But how?
“Tell me how he hurt you.”
A swift blow from something flat and leather and much harder than Leo’s hand struck my ass, the impact sending another shockwave of sweet discomfort rolling through me. I recalled a paddle hanging among Leo’s tools and figured that must’ve been his instrument of choice for the evening.
Another crack against my ass burned the flesh and I cried out.
“Tell me, Sloane. Tell me what he did!”
“He lied to me,” I said through clenched teeth.
Another thump and another shout.
“And?”
“He used me!”
He stuck me again and my head began its reliable decent into a spinning trip where pain and pleasure met. Where shame and forgiveness melded together. And where my contradicting, spiraling thoughts dragged me beneath the surface of reality.
“What did he make you feel?”
“Alone,” I purred, the trance cast on me.
The paddle whacked my already stinging flesh and I groaned, having fallen in love with the sensation. “Tell me more. How did you feel with him?”
High from the strange bliss Leo awarded me, my lips moved independent of my clouded mind but the truth made its way out. “Like a whore.”
I heard Leo panting as he struck me again. Then the paddle clattered to the floor and his hand resumed the punishment, spanking me relentlessly. “He used you and lied and made you feel like a lonely little whore, Sloane. What the hell were you thinking?”
Heat flooded my body and my pussy throbbed, the emptiness during the revealing exchange unbearable. “I—” I tried to speak. I tried to think of an answer, but I’d been searching for that one on my own for so long I wasn’t sure I’d ever know.
I whimpered the moment I felt his cock press against me. His hands latched onto my hips and pulled me back, impaling me on his length. Stretched in both openings, bound by leather, metal and words, I let go and fell into complete surrender as he fucked me. My lips closed, humming the sounds of gratification with every angry thrust Leo gave. Pumping into me, I heard him growl as his grip on my waist strengthened. While my mind blurred, dizzying by the second, I still felt the tender skin of my ass bumping against him. For every pulse of fiery ecstasy his cock gave, the marks of his aggressive inquiry lit with pain.
“Oh God,” I moaned.
Leo’s arms wrapped all the way around my waist and he hunched over me, breathing hotly against my back. His hands found my breasts, tugging on my nipples with brute force. The spin had too great a hold on me to allow a try cry to fall from my lips, but I whined—half begging for mercy and half begging for more.
“Tell me why you left. Tell me what he did that made you leave. What was worse than lies and disrespect? What was worse than making you his whore?”
The corkscrew of my consciousness faltered and I tumbled into a state of lucidity as my answer screeched inside the confines of my head. Leo fucked me harder, panting and groaning wildly at my back before coming with a harsh curse. The spinning had slowed and I was in my body, ready to tell Leo the truth about the end of my relationship with Warren when he pulled out and slapped my ass again.
“Answer me,” he huffed. Another spank and I shut my eyes, flinching as the skin ached with tenderness.
“He had a child,” I barked as he slapped me yet again. The assault stopped and I heard Leo’s breathing hitch. I sighed and hung my head as my legs trembled. “He had a baby with his wife,” I breathed. “That. That was worse.”
“Black,” Leo said.
My head rose as far as it could. “What?”
Leo dropped beside me and unlocked my wrists and ankles with quick, gloveless fingers. He tossed the spreading bar and cuffs aside and as I barely moved to straighten, his hand pressed firmly on my back to keep me bent. I felt him ease the plug out of me and did my best to breathe through it, sighing relief when it popped out completely.
“Did you say black? I’m confused. What did I do wrong?” I relaxed and fixed my body upright, feeling the harsh sting of my punishment and the tingles still pulsating in my sex.
“Nothing.”
I moved to see Leo, but he brushed past me. My panicked mind took in the sight of the lion etched on his back as he stomped into the adjoining bathroom. And my heart constricted in my chest as he slammed the door shut without another word.