About thirty minutes into the drive Autumn questioned her ability to make decisions. It was not the first time today that she’d done it, but this time she was in the middle of nowhere, and she wasn’t sure where she was going. She stopped the truck and checked the compass on her phone. It said she was driving west. She couldn’t remember if the mines were west of the resort or not.

She closed her eyes and tried to remember which direction Shawn had driven when they’d come out here the first time. She’d been too interested in him to watch where the sun was while he drove.

Now she had to make a decision on whether or not she should turn around and go back to the resort and tell Shawn what she’d found.

“Damn it,” she said as she put the truck back in gear and stepped on the gas. The truck lurched forward, and she went about fifteen yards when a sputtering noise filled the cab. The vehicle shuddered to a stop. “What the…” she looked down at the dials and realized she was out of gas.

The urge to cry and cuss were foremost in her mind, but she knew neither of them would do any good. She also knew she shouldn’t leave the vehicle. The two things she’d done right was bring a few bottles of water with her, and lowered the windows so she could get a good cross breeze while she drove.

She picked up her cell phone and checked the bars. Amazingly enough she had service. But when she rang Shawn’s number there was no answer. She sent him a text that told her she’d taken the vehicle out and run out of gas.

There was no answer. Maybe the phone was lying to her and there really wasn’t any service out in this area.

It was ten minutes later when he responded. “Were you trying to run away from me?” He inserted a smiley face at the end of the sentence and Autumn smiled.

“I found something, and didn’t hear from you. I was excited to get out to the site and see if I could find the thing your father left for us. I should have waited for you.” She waited a beat before adding. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too,” he said. “I should have let you know where I was. Jackson arrested your friend for trespassing. He was by himself, hunting treasure.”

“That twerp,” she typed.

“Yeah, I have to decide whether I want to file charges against him, or just let him go.”

She sat for a moment and waited for him to text her again. When that didn’t happen she typed, “I’m not exactly sure where I am.”

“Did you follow the road?”

“There was a little bit of a jig about fifteen minutes ago.”

More silence before he texted, “How long have you been gone from our cabin?”

Her cheeks heated at his use of the word our. Had he not understood she was leaving? Or was he planning on trying to change her mind?

“About thirty minutes before I pulled over.”

“Why did you pull over?”

“I wanted to check the compass, to make sure I was going in the right direction.”

Something told her he was thinking about exactly what was on her mind.

“Are you waiting for me to come rescue you?” he texted.

“I am,” she typed.

“In what way?” he answered.

“The truck is out of gas,” she typed. “Bring gas.”

“Is that all?” he countered.

Autumn stared at her phone. “Why are you typing when you should be driving out here to get me?”

“Look in your rearview mirror.”

She jerked her head up, and then smiled at the image of the car behind her.

“How did you find me so fast?” she texted.

“GPS,” he replied. “Bring your stuff and come back here.”

Autumn continued to stare into the mirror. “How did you get here so fast?” she typed.

The answer never came, and as she stared at her phone, there was a knock at her door. She jumped and gasped, putting her hand at her throat.

“Sorry to scare you,” he said. “When I found you, and the truck gone, I was afraid you’d left for Pueblo. I thought you’d been that pissed last night. But then I realized you would have taken your own car, so I activated the GPS and saw you out here, heading toward the mines.”

“So, I am going in the right direction?” she asked, quite pleased with herself.

“You are,” he said with a laugh. “Want to tell me what you found?”

“A book by Fortenberry with a note written by your father; Number three, four boards down.”

He frowned, then motioned her out of the car. “Let’s go while we still have light.”

She turned the key and rolled up the windows, and then hurried back to his vehicle. He piloted his around hers and they took off at a faster pace than they’d driven the last time they’d come down this road, or rather path.

“I want to talk about last night,” he said after a few moments.

“I told you already,” she said. “I’m not up for what I saw last night.”

“If you think I’m giving up that easy you’re nuts,” he said. “Think back to the box I gave you.”

“Shawn, I don’t think this is going to get us anywhere.”

“Please answer the question.”

Autumn closed her eyes. She could see the box, the handcuffs, the ropes, and other implements of restraint.

“Bondage items,” she said.

“Exactly.” He tightened his grip on the wheel as they hit a hole.

Autumn braced her hand against the roof.

“I’ve done this wrong,” he said. “I think it’s because I was distracted by the search for the money, and by our trip. I should have gone over things with you better, since you know nothing about BDSM. Every Dom is different, just like every person is different. I enjoy spankings, especially slapping that gorgeous pussy of yours.”

Autumn shivered, in a good way.

“But I don’t punish my subs by doing things like Josh did last night. That’s not my style. You should know that.”

“But you condone it by letting it happen,” she said. “He abused her.”

“No, he gave her what she wanted,” he said. “I know Mary. I tried to date her at one time, but I wasn’t harsh enough for her. She dumped me.”

Laughter erupted from her throat. “Are you serious?”

“Yes.” He glanced at her for a split second. “What, you think you’re the only one with failed relationships? I don’t have a collared sub, which means I haven’t found the one. Until now.”

Shivers ran through her again. “You still think we’re a match?”

“Yes, I do,” he said. “You don’t have to approve of what another Dom does with his sub. You do have to respect it, though, and not disrupt it.”

She opened her mouth to object, but then closed it again. “Are Mary and Josh still at the resort?”

“For a week,” he said. “They take a vacation here every six months, so they can play hard without their children seeing.”

She had to give them a thumbs up for that. They didn’t want their children to see daddy whipping mommy.

“I guess the problem is I can’t see enjoying the pain.”

His laughter filled the cab.

“What?” she asked.

“You, who loved having her pussy whipped, are judging a woman for loving pain.”

“That was different,” she said.

“Was it? What if Mary thought the fact that you loved having your pussy whipped was abhorrent? What if she thought I was abusing you? You can’t judge another person on what they enjoy.”

“It doesn’t mean I want to watch it,” she said.

“Understood.” They were getting closer to the mines. There was a big part of her that wished the tent was still there, that they could stay the night and see if they could rebuild what had been going so well for them, before last night.

“May I ask you something?” He kept his gaze on the terrain around them, but she looked at him, wondering what was coming next.

“Of course,” she said.

“The relationships that have gone so wrong for you, was it one fight and it was over? Did either you, or your partners, fight for the relationships?”

“No,” she said. “I mean no, we didn’t fight. I guess I just run away.”

“Not this time,” he said. “If I have to tie you to the bed you’re staying.”

This time the shivers were caused by desire. She thought about being tied to the bed, about him whipping her pussy as he had before, about the orgasms that made her feel as if the earth were shattering underneath her.

“You’re wet, aren’t you?” he asked as he pulled the truck up in front of the mines. He parked the truck and reached across the seat, gently stroking her cheek.

“Yes,” she said. “I’m soaked.”

“Good.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Let’s go see what sort of message Dad left for us. You said he wrote number three, four boards down.”

“Yes.” She handed him the book, which she’d brought with her when she’d left the cabin. He stroked it gently, and she wondered what it would feel like to be close to your family. “You miss him.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement of fact that she could see from the look on his face.

“Yes.” He stroked the cover of the book. “He read to me from this book. He was a voracious reader, and he passed it on to me.”

“That is something we share,” she said.

She reached for her door handle, but he grabbed her hand. “Close your eyes.”

It shocked her that she obeyed without questioning his order. “Now, I want you to envision us on the back deck of our cabin, reading a book. Only you’re naked, except for a spreader bar between your legs, and the handcuffs between your wrists. Of course, you’re wearing a collar, and I’m holding the leash. Tell me, are you drying up, or does that vision open the floodgates?”

“Oh my,” she whispered.

“Yeah, I’m taking that as the latter,” he said with an evil chuckle. “I can’t wait to tie you. But first let’s go and see what we can find on the third mine, four boards down.”

“Do you think he meant third mine from the left?”

“I would say so.” He took a crowbar from the back of the truck.

“You came prepared,” she said.

“For more than one thing,” he said. “Even though your friend is in custody, there is no telling who he was working with, and who might be out here.

As if on cue, both of them looked up into the sky to where they’d seen the drone. There was nothing there now, and Autumn exhaled in relief.

They went to the third mine and Shawn took off the two pieces of wood that made a cross over the boards. Then he counted four down and used the crowbar to work it loose. The rocks behind it shifted, and for a moment Autumn worried they would all come tumbling out of the hole he’d left, but they didn’t. He turned the board over and they both gasped.

Burned into the wood, as if done by a blowtorch, was the word Shawn, and peaches.

“What does that mean?” she asked.

“It means my Dad left it for me to find, and if I didn’t find it, then no one would,” he said. His voice broke a little and she put her hand on his arm.

“Peaches have a special meaning for you?”

“They do,” he said. “The lodge was where my parents lived. He had a garden outdoors, which we still use. There are different trees, including peach trees. I planted one of the trees when my Grandfather died. I’ve worked hard to make sure it’s still living.”

“Do you think he buried the treasure there?”

“I do,” he said. “I don’t know where to dig, exactly. I think we should get a metal detector and try to see if it, for lack of a different word, detects something down there. We need to go into town.”

He looked into the sky. “It’s getting dark, though. We’ll have to go tomorrow. Which gives us time to play tonight.”

She watched as he took off his belt. Was he going to spank her pussy right here? Autumn rather liked that idea. She could lay in the bed of the truck.

But that was not what he had in mind, obviously. He put the belt around her neck and she gasped. She pulled at it as he tightened it into a collar around her neck, leaving the length of it to use as a leash.

She pulled on it in an effort to get it away from her.

“Stop fighting, stop fighting,” he said, his voice deeper and more demanding than she’d ever heard before. “We’re doing it my way tonight, and you’re going to obey. Do you understand?”

“But I—”

He pulled on the length of the belt and said, “Do you understand?”

She quaked in response, and the floodgates he’d opened earlier were flowing down her legs.

“Yes.”

He turned her and slapped her bottom. “What?”

“Yes, Sir,” she said.

“I’m not going to give you any more passes on that,” he said. “When we are playing you will call me Sir, or you will be punished. Do you understand?”

She wanted to say no, but she said, “Yes, Sir.” She was afraid of what he meant by punishment. He said he didn’t do things like Josh did last evening, but wasn’t that punishment? Don’t, don’t, she said to herself. You know this excites you, you know you want more. She wanted him to tie her arms, tie her legs, and then fuck her. At this point he could put his cock in her ass and she’d gladly take it, even though she’d never done it before.

“I can see your nipples begging for attention,” he said. He used the belt to pull her closer to him. “We’re using some clamps tonight, to provide good, tight pain that will shoot to your clit. You’re going to come tonight like you haven’t in the past. I’m going to prove to you that we match in the bedroom, that you need to wear my collar.”

Like the one I have on now, she almost said. But she kept her mouth shut. She nodded, and then swallowed hard.

“Get in the truck, and while we drive I want you to think of my cock inside you, in every opening you have.” He lowered his face until his lips were inches away from hers. She felt his hot breath when he spoke again. “Let’s start right now, shall we? On your knees.”

“Here?”

He turned her quickly and swatted her ass.

“On your knees,” he said.

She obeyed, ignoring the sand and small pebbles that cut into her knees.

Shawn put his hand on the back of her head and pushed her face into his crotch.

Excitement tore through her, and she hated the idea. Here she wanted to call the cops on Josh last evening for beating Mary, and she loved the rough treatment she was currently receiving from Shawn.

“Do you want my dick, naughty girl?”

“Yes, Sir,” she said, her voice muffled since he still held her close to his crotch. She could feel his hardness beneath her lips.

“You’re going to suck me, and you’re going to finish me off with your mouth. When we get back to the cabin I’m going to fuck you in the ass. This time I mean it. Your butt is going to open for me as if nothing but my cock was ever meant to be up there.”

He released her immediately and she fell back. She would have toppled onto the ground, but he still held the belt. She was sure there would a mark there, but right now she didn’t care. She fastened her gaze on his hands as he undid his jeans.

When his cock sprang forward she licked her lips.

“Suck it, naughty girl,” he said.

He pulled her forward and she took him in her mouth, ignoring the voice inside her head that said she didn’t know what she was doing, that both of the men she’d been with before had criticized her for her skills at oral sex.

She sucked, and released and then sucked again.

“Keep it in your mouth, naughty one,” he said.

She did as he said, moving him to the tip of her lips and then back inside.

“Fuck that feels good,” he said. “Yeah, in and out, in and out. Suck it deep.”

She choked when she followed that direction and he stroked her hair. “You’ll learn. Relax, calm yourself and then keep going.”

Calm herself? Last night she thought she’d be back in Pueblo in a few days, and now here she was sucking his cock and being told she was going to be fucked in the ass. How was she supposed to be calm?

Ignore the fear, she told herself. She put her hands on his hips to steady herself and sucked him in and out, in and out. One time he pulled on the belt and she felt as if she would choke to death. He released it suddenly and his cock popped out of her mouth.

“Come on, back to work,” he said. “Take my dick back in your mouth.”

Heaven help her she loved that he was ordering her to suck him. She did as he ordered, savoring his taste. A few times she choked and had to release him, but he stroked her hair and gave her a few moments to recover.

When he finally released inside her she gagged and pulled away. He held her close and used his hand to finish what she’d started.

“You’ll learn to take it,” he said when he was done, his voice shaking with obvious exertion.

“Yes, Sir,” she said, even though her mind said, “No, that’s not going to happen.”

“Stay here.” He released the belt. “Don’t take it off. I’ll get water and a towel, and then we’ll go to the house for the main attraction. After the initial pain, you’re going to love it.”

The trip back seemed to fly by, and Autumn was pretty sure it was because she was so nervous about what was going to happen when they arrived. It was pitch black when Shawn parked the truck in front of the cabin. He ordered her to stay in the cab while he went into the house.

Autumn was more than a little nervous about tonight’s events, and she was sure he knew it. She needed to stay calm, needed to let him lead her. The urge to run away from him was gone. Giving him a blowjob at the mines had given her a confidence she’d never felt before in her life. She was afraid if she backed down now she would lose it, and it would be impossible to get it back.

When Shawn appeared at the passenger door of the cab she saw what she thought was a very determined look on his face. He opened the door and said, “Turn to me.”

She did, her feet dangling out the door. He removed the belt from around her neck and she ran her fingers over what she knew would be bruises in the morning.

“I’ve set up a hot bath for the two of us,” he said. “We’re going to soak and get ourselves clean and then go to the bed.”

“Okay,” she said. She knew her simple answer sounded foolish, like she didn’t know what to say, but truthfully, she couldn’t figure out anything else. She got out of the truck at his command and then, after another command, took off her clothes and left them in a pile on the front porch.

They went to the bathroom where he’d lit candles and filled the tub with oil that gave off a wonderful rose scent.

He helped her into the tub and then stripped and joined her. They used washcloths to wipe each other down, and when he ordered her to turn she did so. Embarrassment flooded her as he ran the cloth between her ass cheeks. She gasped and squeezed her eyes shut when he pushed against her anus and pushed the cloth gently inside.

“Don’t tense up,” he said. “That’s important to remember when I take you, too.”

When he takes her; more to the point when he fucks her in the ass.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” she whispered.

“You will.” He continued to clean, and when he stopped he kissed her shoulder. “Let’s get out and dry off, and then I want you to go into the bedroom and lie on the bed. There are handcuffs there, attached to ropes secured to the headboard. Lie on your back and wait for me.”

“Yes, Sir,” she said. She was surprised when he gathered her in his arms and kissed her deeply. He held her close as his tongue claimed her and set her body on fire.

“I want you to relax,” he said. “It sounds like I’m repeating myself, but you need to not tense up. I’m going to be watching for your reaction, and it’s important you let yourself sink into the bed and let me take charge in this.”

“Okay,” she said. “I mean, yes, Sir.”

He stroked her cheek. “Go into the bedroom and follow my instructions.”

He was being so sweet, so tender. She hadn’t expected that after the first time he’d boldly said he was going to “fuck her in the ass.”

When she was in the bedroom she was surprised to see that all the windows were open, creating a nice, cool breeze in the room. When she lay on the bed she looked up to see an unusual star grouping of windows. They were also open, bringing in the breeze and giving her a beautiful view of the sky.

“I love it,” she said.

“I’m an outdoor kinda guy. I like feeling like I’m sleeping under the stars.” He knelt beside her. “Put your arms over your head.”

She didn’t respond immediately, he stroked her stomach.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’d like to keep my hands free,” she said.

“Sorry, but since I’m the only one of the two of us who has done this, we’re doing it my way. Now, put your hands above your head.”

She fought back tears as she did as he asked.

“Don’t be so afraid,” he said. “If you don’t trust me enough to do this just say so.”

He sounded irritated, and she supposed she couldn’t blame him.

“This is just so outside my… comfort zone.”

He leaned over and kissed her. “Trust me.”

“Yes, Sir,” she said.

He climbed on top of her and kissed her again. Then he played with her, kissing her shoulders and nibbling on her breasts and nipples like he’d done in the past, making her body sizzle with need. He teased her, making her gasp and cry out for him to please, please make her come.

When he stopped touching her, she opened her eyes that had been squeezed shut while he’d made her body his toy.

There was a vibrator in front of her face.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“I thought—I mean not that—”

“Trust me,” he said. He told her to lift her hips. He slid a slim, long pillow under her and then said, “So beautiful, and I’m about to claim the last virginal part of your body. All mine. All mine.”

And then he put the vibrator against her clit, and she came.