The Naughty One: A Doctor’s Christmas Romance (Season of Desire Book 2) by Michelle Love (15)

The lobby was bustling with activity, much more so than it had been when we’d come in. Troy held my hand as we went to the reception desk and he checked us both out. His bag was brought down and his Jeep was brought around, and we headed away in no time at all.

“What kind of breakfast are you hungry for, Blyss?”

“Pancakes.” I was still hungry for him, but he seemed to have another agenda that morning.

He stopped at a chain restaurant, where we ate, then he took me to a sporting goods store where he bought me a weeks’ worth of clothing and a few more camping items he said he didn’t have. Then we were on our way out to the woods. With the windows down, the air flowed around us. I loved the way everything smelled. Troy and I didn’t talk much, as the sounds of the road and the wind made it difficult to hear without us shouting at one another.

I liked the quiet comfortable solitude between us. The idea of hanging out in the woods with this man was turning me on. I’d never been so sexually preoccupied before. That’s literally all I could think about. Troy and I fucking in the tent, in the lake, in the grass, or on a rock. I was kind of a nympho, and it hit me that my mother was probably one too.

Shit! Did I have to watch out or I’d become addicted to sex? Was that one of the many things that ran through me that I had to be careful of? Would sex be a thing I could only have in moderation?

I hoped not!

The trees that lined both sides of the road where tall and pretty and I tried to focus on them instead of my pulsing pussy that just wanted Troy’s cock planted so deep inside of it that I’d feel like he was part of me.

Counting trees was impossible—there were too many of them. So I tried to count the yellow stripes on the road. Troy slowed down and we took a turn, taking us to a small road that led into the forest. “Here we go, Blyss. It’s not far now.”

There was a large trash container and it had a heavy lock on it, along with a sign that showed a bear and an X over it. “There’re bears here, huh?”

“This is where they live, honey. And wolves too. But you’re safe with me.”

Nervous laughter escaped as I searched the thick trees for any signs of the killers that lived there. With my luck, I’d finally get laid, it would be the happiest moment in my life, then a bear and a wolf would join forces to eat me alive.

Troy took my hand and gave it a squeeze. I looked at him and tried to act unafraid. “I trust you.”

“Good.” He kissed my hand. “I love the outdoors. My parents call me Tarzan.”

“Good to know. I hope that means you have his unique ability to talk to animals and make them not eat me.”

His eyes went heavy as he growled, “The only thing that will be eating you is me, princess.”

I made a little gasp and went wet with the thought. “Oh!”

“Oh,” he said, and his eyes got big as he licked his lips.

My entire body quivered, and I thought it might be possible for the man to make me orgasm with just his sexy look and the way he made noises. “You’re really good at what you do.”

“How so?” he asked as he took another turn, taking us even deeper into the forest.

“Like, you’re sexy, and you make me, um, horny. I guess that’s the best word for it.” I blushed a bit with my honesty. I’d never felt anything like what I was feeling. It was odd, but a great odd.

“I make you horny?” He laughed and it echoed through the forest. “Good, because you make me horny too. I plan on taking you all over this forest, Blyss. What do you think about that?”

My eyes nearly rolled up in my head, as he and I were on the same wavelength. Both of us wanted to fuck all over the place. I was beginning to think we’d do little else than that and I liked that idea. Screw the fishing and swimming, let’s just fuck! But we had lots to do before we got to that, I found out when he parked the Jeep under a big tree and we had to set up camp. That took forever, and we were both hot and sweaty when we were done.

Thankfully, it was secluded and there was the lake only steps away from us. “I think we should take a dip before we start making lunch,” he said.

I started going toward the tent to put on my bathing suit and found he had me in his arms. “Hey!” He let me go, only to grab the bottom of my T-shirt and pull it off. Then my bra was the next thing to go, and he made short work of the rest of my clothes. I was naked, standing in front of him, and not a bit of shame was in me.

He held up his arms, and I rid him of his shirt. His shoes were kicked off as I helped him with his shorts. When he was naked, I took a step back to look him over and appreciate his body. “So muscular.” Before I knew it, he had picked me up and was taking me into the lake, which I found out was frigid. I shrieked with the abrupt change in temperature, and he tossed me away from him, sending me under water.

I freaked out for only a brief second. My feet touched the rocky bottom and I found I could stand up. I was glad he didn’t have to see me losing my shit, but I felt he needed to be reminded. “I can’t swim, Troy. Don’t forget that.”

“I haven’t forgotten.” He came to me and held me tight. “Put your arms around my neck and hold on. I’m going to take you for a swim.” I held on and he leaned back, swimming backward. My body was laid out on top of his. The cold water hadn’t dampened my libido a bit, and it helped that his dick wasn’t in an erect state. If it had been, I’d probably have been trying to ride it.

“You like it out here?” he asked me.

I looked around at the tall cliffs that surrounded the lake. The green trees formed a ring around the blue water and it looked like something out of a travel guide. “I do like it here.”

A fish jumped beside us and I must’ve looked surprised. “The fish live in the water, baby.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

“Have you ever been in a lake?” He turned in a circle and headed back to the shore.

“I’ve been to a lake on a field trip. I’ve never gotten in the water, though. This is the first time for me.”

“I think it’s cool that I’ll be a part of so many of your firsts, Blyss. First time in the lake, first time camping, and first time fishing.”

“And my first.” I kissed him. I knew I wasn’t following any of the Sub rules Isabel had told me about. According to her, I was supposed to wait for my Dom to do all things. I wasn’t even supposed to undress myself unless he told me to do that. In my opinion, from what she’d said, I was to act mindless.

I could’ve acted that way, but there was something about the way Troy acted that let me know I didn’t have to portray a typical sub. He was fine with me being me. For the first time ever, someone was okay with that. As I looked into his hazel eyes that had a lot of green in them at that moment, I thought about how I had thought things would be going for me. I’d envisioned a dark room where some masked man would have me strung up, whipping me, then tending to my wounds before he took me.

I was glad I was in a lake with a man who looked at me with care in his eyes instead. But the truth was, I was more than ready to get to the good stuff. I wanted to feel a belt wrap around my ass with the power of his hand. If that made me weird, so be it.

Troy

The day passed with us playing in the water, skinny dipping most of the day away and making out a few times. Blyss was smoking hot for me. Everything about her told me that. It wasn’t that I wasn’t used to women wanting me, but Blyss was a virgin with a tight-as-shit vagina. And I was packing some real heat. I knew I’d hurt her if I plowed into her the way she seemed to want me to.

Her inexperience was the only reason she was trying to jump the gun. I had a plan in mind and waited until after a dinner of freshly-caught trout to take her into the tent and begin the descent into sexual relations with her. The vibrator I’d brought was light pink and it could heat up as well as vibrate. I pulled it out of the bag I had it in and showed it to her. She ran her hands over it as I held it. “This is half the size I am. I’ll get you stretched to this size before I go any further.”

Her eyes were glistening as she looked at me. “Troy, please don’t make me wait another night to feel you inside of me.”

Caressing her cheek with the back of my hand, I wanted nothing more than to give her what she wanted. “Baby, you’ll get me tonight. I promise. But we have to go slow.”

She bit her lip as she lowered her head. “And can you spank me?”

I was taken aback by her request. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. You’re not ready.”

She blinked rapidly. “Not a lot. Just a few times. Like, lay me over your lap and give me a few. I just want to see what if feels like.”

She had me so fucking hot for her, I found it nearly impossible to do things slowly. But I held onto myself and found the strength to do it. “I can do that. But we need to go ahead and establish a safe word. Stop won’t work.”

“And why is that?” she asked with the innocence of a child.

I made her lie back as I trailed my fingers up the inside of her leg. “Because there will be times that things get so intense that you’ll beg me to stop. But if I did stop, then you’d hate it. Your mind plays little tricks on you and so does your body. Some women try to get away when they orgasm. But once they’re held tight, and the man keeps going, the orgasm can go on and on.”

“Oh, okay. I might say stop, but I won’t mean it. That’s interesting. How about another word that’s kind of like that, then? Say, desist?”

“No, that’ll be too hard to remember. I like to use cherry. Will that work for you?” My hand went flat on her cunt and I found she was already getting hot for me.

“Yeah, cherry will work for me.”

I kissed her lightly on the mouth, then picked her up and turned her over my lap. “I’m going to give you three strikes, Sub.” I chuckled, then ran my hand in circles all over her ass. “Can you tell me why I’m giving you this punishment?”

“And what am I supposed to say?”

“Well, you’re supposed to tell me why you’re getting them. This time, it’s because you asked me for them. There might be a time that you get them because you did something that needs correcting and I’ll add in the punishment so you’ll remember the correction. Let’s say that I told you to take the trash down to the dumpster before it gets dark. And let’s say you ignored my request and a bear came to our campsite and tore the trash up, then I had to get up the next morning and pick it all up because you didn’t do what I told you to do.”

“Why does it have to be about a bear?” she moaned. “Now I’m thinking a bear might really come tonight.” She looked at me over her shoulder. “What if our sex makes some bear horny and he wants to join us?”

“It’s never happened to me before, Blyss. But, anyway, do you get what I’m saying? If you don’t do what I say, I might spank you or something like that, and then you’d answer me with what you did wrong.”

“Okay,” she said, then turned her head away. “I’m getting punished because I asked you to spank me.”

“That’s right. Good girl.” I rubbed her ass some more, then gave her a light pop.

“Harder, please,” came her response.

I did it harder, but not too hard. “Count them off, Sub.”

“One, but can you do it harder?”

I shook my head in disbelief as I raised my hand up high and came down on her ass with a hard smack. She yelped, then made a little mewling sound. “Two.”

Seeing she liked that hard, I gave her another. “And that’s three,” I said.

“Oh, baby, more. Please give me more.”

There were already two red handprints on her ass and she wanted more?

“Are you sure you’re new to this?” I asked her, then popped her again and again one more time.

She was shaking and moaning as I picked up the vibrator and turned it on vibrate only. I moved it over her ass, around the outside of her asshole. She moaned the whole time, letting me know she was getting aroused.

When I turned her over and pushed her legs up until her knees were bent, I had prime access to her pussy. I went straight to work on her. My Sub was hungering for more, and I was through taking my time, worrying about how she was going to handle it all. Blyss was a grown woman with the needs of one. She’d already waited longer than most, and I was about to make her body feel things it never had. I kissed her juicy pussy as she writhed with desire.

She arched up to me and I could tell she was about to climax. I pushed the lubed dildo into her and she yelled with the pain, “Fuck! It burns!”

I didn’t move it. I let it stretch her as I continued to lick her cunt. I licked her over and over, without moving the vibrator. When she came, she was shaking from head to toe. I began to move the dildo back and forth, causing her to moan continuously. When it moved with ease, I decided it was time for me to make an entrance. I pulled it out and moved up her body. “Now you’ll get me, baby.”

Her eyes flew open and she smiled as she wrapped her arms around me. “Good. I’m ready.”

I pushed my hard cock to the edge of her vagina and it wasn’t easy. I had to thrust hard for it to go inside. and when it did, her eyes glistened with tears. “It hurts, I know. I’m sorry …”

She shook her head. “No, it’s not that. It does hurt a little, but it’s just so, so, so …” She began to sob, and I pulled what little bit of my dick I had gotten in, out of her.

“Baby, did it hurt that badly?” I ran my hand through her hair as she shook her head.

“Please don’t stop. It’s not that it hurts, physically. It’s more mental than anything else. It’s just that I’ve never felt connected to anyone before. It’s a little overwhelming.”

My heart pounded and I thrust back into her, halfway in. I felt so horrible for her. How awful to never have felt connected to anyone your whole life. I pushed all the way in and her cries grew less and less as I moved back and forth inside of her, murmuring in her ear all the while, “I’m with you, Blyss.”

The cries stopped and she moved with me, then she whispered, “Thank you, Troy. Thank you.”

I kissed her. I wanted her to know that there was no need to thank me. I was getting as much as she was out of it all. Her canal squeezed me like none other ever had. Her legs wrapped around me and she moved with me like we’d done that a thousand times. It wasn’t like any other sexual experience I’d ever had. There was heat, tenderness, and something else that filled me as I took her innocence away from her, replacing it with sexual knowledge.

Caressing her cheeks that were red and wet from tears, I kissed them as I continued to move in and out of her. She was panting and glowing. I’d never seen anyone look so beautiful. My heart was swelling as we made love, a thing I’d never done before. I’d had tons of sex, but I’d never found it so beautiful. Her hands took my wrists as she looked at me. “I can’t wait to feel you cum inside of me.”

Her words sent me into beast mode and I pounded her virgin cunt with a fierceness that took her breath away. Her breasts rose and fell with each hard breath she took. And when I felt it climbing up in me, I went harder and faster until I spilled myself into her. I didn’t stop moving—I went slower, but I didn’t stop. “I’d have gotten you pregnant just now if you weren’t on birth control, baby. I’ve never ejaculated that deep before in my life.”

“Good thing I’m covered, then,” she said as she gasped for air. “That was unbelievable. I never imagined it being that good. My God what I’ve been missing. I’m never going to stop doing this. Never!”

I kissed her to shut her up. What she was saying was bothering me. The fact that she felt it was good she was on birth control and what we did wouldn’t result in a baby was aggravating me for some reason. And when she said she was going to never stop having sex, well it only served to bring to mind her being with other men.

It all just pissed me off, and I kissed her hard, demanding she give all of herself to me and only me. I wanted her to tell me she’d have my baby if I wanted her to. I wanted her to tell me she’d never let another man have what was mine. My cock went hard again as I kept moving it. When I let her mouth go, she was looking at me with wide eyes. “I didn’t know it was possible for you to get back to that state so quickly, Troy.”

“It is. And this time, I want you to scream my name when you cum with me. Don’t leave me hanging, Sub. I want all of you. Every fucking bit of you.” I knew I was going beast on her. It wasn’t something I’d planned. It just emerged, and she looked frightened. That was okay. She needed to be afraid. She needed to know I was the only one who got to touch her. I was the only one who could feel her that way.

Only me!

Blyss

The way Troy’s eyes had changed to dark brown was a little scary to me. He seemed like another man, one who just might be possessed by a demon or something. He looked at me as he fucked me with hard thrusts. He grabbed one of my legs and pulled it back, so my heel was next to my ear, and went harder and deeper. I could feel it all, every last inch of his cock, as he plunged it into me.

“Who do you belong to?” he asked me between clenched teeth.

“You,” I said quickly, as I knew better than to try to make conversation with him at that moment.

He made a swirling motion, and I moaned with how good it felt and gripped his biceps. “You like that?”

“Yes,” I moaned as I closed my eyes and reveled in the sensations that were traveling all through my body. “You fuck so well.”

The growl he made sounded so much like a wolf that my eyes flew open and I looked at all four walls of the small tent for its shadow. When I found only him staring at me, I should’ve been relieved, but I was anything but that.

“Only I get to make love to you, Blyss. Only me. Do you understand me?”

The words—make love—weren’t what I thought we would be doing, ever. But I wasn’t about to get into that with him. “I understand.” I did understand in a way. He meant that, while we had the contract, I wasn’t to have sex with anyone else. I knew that already; he didn’t have to be so worried about it that he’d say such a thing right in the middle of things.

I was shocked when he pulled out of me and picked me up by the waist, tossing me onto my belly, then grabbing my waist again and slamming back into me from behind. I found the sensations even better that way and screamed, “Yes!”

He pounded my ass and slapped it a few times, making me shriek more yeses at him. I had no idea sex could feel so all-encompassing. It was like only he and I were in the world. Nothing and no one else mattered—only us and what we were doing on that night in the middle of the Oregon forest.

His nails dug into my sides as he held me tighter. “I’m about to come.” He reached around me with one hand and manipulated my clit until I was having an orgasm, then he jerked inside of me, filling me with liquid heat once more.

I was soaked and so was he as we fell in a heap on the pallet he’d made for us. The blow-up mattress was for later, he’d said. We’d need the room to move around. I had no idea what he was talking about in that moment.

Then, I got it!

After he had caught his breath, which was way before I did, he turned over and stroked my stomach. The darkness in his eyes was all but gone. The green had returned and so had his smile. “Did you like that?” I nodded and he kissed me on my forehead. “Me too.”

“Good,” I managed to get out.

He dropped back to lie at my side. “I got a little more intense than I’ve ever gotten before. Funny, huh?”

“You haven’t always done it that way with all the other girls?” I asked as I finally got my wind back and turned my head to look at him.

He looked at me too. “First, I don’t want to talk about any other sex I had with anyone else.”

“Okay.” I bit my lip, as I felt like I’d hit a soft spot with him and found that weird.

He was a Dom—a man with a lot of sexual experience—and I thought it would be a man like him who’d be honest with me about sex. I guess I had been wrong.

“This is about you and I, Blyss. And I’ve never felt the way I just felt. Can I be honest with you?” He rolled over and rested his head on his hand as he looked down at me.

“You can be honest with me,” I said the words, but the truth was, he wasn’t acting the way I thought he would and it was a little unnerving.

“There was something you said while we were making love.”

There were those words again!

“What was that, Troy?”

“You said you never wanted to stop having sex. And it pissed me off.”

“Um, do you know why it pissed you off?”

He ran his hand over my cheek, kissed my lips softly, then whispered, “Because it made me think of you having sex with other men.”

“I think it’s completely natural that you don’t want to think about that.”

His eyes darted back and forth. “Do you think it’s perfectly natural for me to have thought about you and I having a baby?”

I nearly laughed, but the look on his face made me hold it in. “That’s probably not natural. Have you wanted to have a baby with anyone else?”

He shook his head. “The thought has never entered my mind. Not until just now with you. You’re the psychologist. Why do you think that is?”

“I’m not one yet,” I reminded him. “And I think we’ll have to get to know one another a lot better before I have an idea of why you’d want that. My first thought is that I’m a person without any connections in this world and you’re picking up on that. You might be overly empathetic and want to connect more with me than you did with others, only because you feel that’s what I need.”

“Hmm.” He laid back and closed his eyes as if he was thinking.

But he wasn’t thinking. He was falling asleep. I suppose the whole sex thing had worn him out. It had worn me out, too, so I closed my eyes and fell asleep right alongside him. When the sun woke us up the next morning, I found him wrapped around me from behind. His cock was erect again and he was snoring. Dead asleep and he was all ready to go again.

I grinned as I watched the sun get higher into the sky as he held me. It was a pleasant way to wake up, I decided. A stiffy in the middle of my back wasn’t something I ever thought would be endearing to wake up to, but I was wrong. It was quite endearing.

When his warm lips pressed against the back of my neck, I ran my hand over his as he moved one of them up to cup a breast. “Oh, yeah,” he whispered. “I think I want a tit for breakfast.” The smell of sex mixed with fresh air was a little erotic to me. I giggled as he turned me over and I saw his sleepy eyes looking at me. “Hi.”

He kissed my forehead. “Hi. Mind if I break off a chunk of that hot ass before we get up?”

“I am yours. Break off anything you want.”

The look on his face was priceless. Lust took him over and I was kissed all over before he very gently took me again. There was a lot of stiffness and a bit of pain, but the way he handled me took all that away with ease. Later, we bathed in the lake, washing each other’s hair, and I felt as if we were a couple who’d been lost on a tropical island in the middle of the ocean. It was only he and I, and we were happy with that.

For the next three weeks, we didn’t fuck one time. He made love to me, though. So many times, I lost count. We did it under trees, in the lake, in our tent, and even once on the hood of the Jeep. I could see it settling in his eyes and his body. He was falling for me.

I wish I could’ve felt the same way. Instead, I was feeling very little other than love for the amazing way he made me feel. Every touch sent sparks through me. When he put his cock into me, it was like I’d been hooked up to a battery charger. He made every time something I’d never forget. But I wasn’t falling in love, and it seemed he was.

There was more wrong with me than I’d ever realized. I had a sexy man who looked at me with loving eyes and treated my body like it was a gift to him. He spoke kindly to me, while also chilling me to the bone with confessions of feeling more when we connected than he had with anyone else. But I was more than a little broken. I had genes and DNA running through me that no one knew about or understood completely. With no family history, I had no idea of what might pop up in me.

That was the reason I stayed so closed off. I even did that to myself, afraid to love the woman I had no idea about. Could there be mental illness in my gene pool that might crop up one day and destroy my brain, take over my body, and send my soul so deep inside of me that no one could ever bring it out again?

I had to protect myself from what might happen to me one day, and Troy was supposed to be a man for the summer and nothing more than that. I didn’t want to turn into my usual self with him. Not at this time. I wanted to explore things I’d never allowed myself to before. I never thought I’d hook any man, much less a Dom.

We sat by the fire one night, roasting marshmallows and sharing them with each other. He ate mine off my stick, and I ate his. It was all very sweet. The night sky was filled with so many stars, it boggled my mind. I rested my head on his shoulder as we laid on the ground, looking up.

“I’ve never seen so many stars. It’s beautiful out here.”

He sighed and turned his head to look at me. “I’ve never seen anything so beautiful in my life as the woman lying here with me. Do you believe that love can happen so quickly?”

“This is lust, Troy. Let’s not get it confused with anything more than that.”

He sat up, looking at me with a frown. “I’m not going to let you do that, Blyss. I know what lust is. Hell, that’s all I’ve ever felt.” He touched his chest then mine. “What we have isn’t lust, baby. This is much more than that. I know you’re an innocent young woman, but this is bigger than either of us ever planned.”

I sat up too, ready to say something I’d been holding in. “While we’re talking, instead of fucking, like we’re usually doing …”

“Don’t call it that. I hate when you do that.” He gave me a stern look as he shook his head.

“Okay, I won’t. Anyway, I wanted to learn about BDSM with a real Dom. And I have myself a real Dom with lots of experience, and I haven’t gotten more than a few spankings, at my asking. When will the BDSM stuff come into play? When are we going to leave the woods, go to the club, and get down to business?”

“You want me to take you away from this Nirvana we’ve managed to find, go back to the club, and teach you all about that life?” he asked me, as if I hadn’t been crystal clear about it.

“Yes, that’s what I want. I want you to rule me, take me over, and make me over.”

“You’ve been made over, Blyss. I haven’t said the words because I can see your fear at times when we’re making love. But I’m going to say them now. I love you, Blyss Danner. I do. And I don’t want to rule you. You have been made over, only you can’t see it for some reason.”

“I want more. I signed up for more. Teach me about being a Sub. That was what you were supposed to be doing with me.”

His eyes narrowed as he snarled, “I tell you that I love you and you don’t have anything to say to that? Not even a thank you, which would be terrible, but better than nothing at all?”

“What do you want me to say? Do you want me to lie and tell you something I don’t feel?”

“You do feel it. At times, it’s in your eyes and your body conveys it to me. Admit it. It’ll make you feel better. And if you want to do a little BDSM stuff, I’ll go along with that. But I won’t do it until you face your feelings for me. Because honesty is the number one thing about BDSM. Without honesty, people can get hurt.”

“If I want to get to know what that’s like, I have to tell you that I love you?” I got up and walked toward the water to wet my feet, as I was growing hot from the way we were talking. It was too much like an argument and I’d never gotten into one of those before.

His hands suddenly gripped my shoulders. “Don’t walk away from me just because you’re trying to get away from a conversation you feel uncomfortable with. I don’t want you to tell me that you love me unless you feel it in your heart. So, do you feel it?”

“I do feel uncomfortable with this conversation. I feel as if we’re arguing.”

“Because we are,” he said, then let me go. “Blyss, have you never had an argument with anyone before?” I shook my head, and he turned around and went back to sit by the fire. “You’re not ready for what BDSM is. You most likely never will be. If you’re uncomfortable with this, then you’ll hate what the other is. Degradation, humiliation, and insecurity are far worse than a tiny argument about being in love. And the fact is, I love you too much to put you through something that might shatter your delicate psyche.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and huffed, “I’m the damn psychologist, not you. I’ll decide what will and won’t break me. I think it’s odd the first argument I’ve ever had is with my Dom about finally bringing BDSM into our lives. I suppose I’ll have to put myself right back up for auction when our contract is up if I want to get the experience I came for.”

“Like hell, you will,” he shouted. “I own your ass, remember? Now, come over here, sit next to your Dom, and let him tell you how much he loves you. Then he’ll show you what you mean to him. And not another word about putting yourself back up for auction. You never know, I may extend our contract.”

All I could do was stare at the man who had me over a barrel. Did he honestly think he could make me fall in love with him?

* * *

Troy

Blyss wanted more—a lot more than she was ready for. I had a feeling she wanted to break. Maybe there was a demon inside of her who wanted to own her. She had said she was born addicted to many things. God only knew what kinds of demons her mother fought or gave up the fight to. She had put her baby in a box and left her, after all.

Was there something inside of her that wanted her flesh punished? Was there something buried deep within her soul that yearned to be hurt?

Blyss was angelic in physical attributes. Treating her the way I had other subs wasn’t coming naturally to me. But maybe I wasn’t being what she needed me to be. Maybe that’s why she wasn’t saying the words that I wanted to hear. The night was eerie. A cool breeze moved through the forest, making the trees moan and whisper to one another. A full moon had many of the creatures that lived there scurrying about more than usual.

“You really want to go to the club, Blyss?”

She nodded as she stared at the campfire. “I thought you would understand my need for this. Not only because I want to write my thesis …”

“Stop right there.”

She looked at me with curious eyes. “Why?”

“Because you don’t understand this lifestyle at all. You don’t do these things just so you can write about them. You have these experiences because you can’t stop thinking about them. You have a desire to do them for yourself—not anyone else. That includes writing a paper about the experiences. The fact you don’t understand that is one of the many reasons I don’t want to put you through anything. Not yet.”

“Well, we only have a little over two months left. So, when do you think you’ll see fit to showing me what I came to see?”

Frustration was building in her. I could see it in everything she did. Was I wrong to deny her? Was I treating her like a girlfriend instead of what she signed up for—to be a Submissive? Was I short-changing her?

I made a sudden decision, putting her needs first and my feelings second. “Take off your clothes and go face that tree over there.” I pointed at a giant tree that was surrounded by dark shadows as the fire’s light bounced off its dark trunk.

“What are you going …”

“Hush! Do as I say, Sub.” I didn’t look at her as I tried to steady my mind. I didn’t want to do anything like this to her, but her sweet nature was changing because I wasn’t keeping up my end of our deal. And if I never gave her what she wanted, she would put herself back on the auction block and find someone who might hurt her. Just the thought of another man having anything to do with her made my gut clench.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a smile fill her face as she jumped up to do what I’d told her to. She had no idea of what I was about to do. I had to be honest—I only had half an idea of what I was about to do, myself.

If she had demons inside who needed tending to, then who better than I to do that?

My inner demons needed to be fed occasionally too. Why was I putting Blyss on a pedal stool? Why was I treating her like a princess all the time, when some of the time she wanted to be treated like a lowly slave? Blyss might look like an angel, but she wanted to be treated like a sinner every once in a while. I wasn’t living up to what my duty was to her. I finally realized it that night.

The conditions were right for her to be introduced into the dark underbelly of life. An owl hooted, then flew through the treetops, screeching its approval of what was about to happen to her. Or maybe it was a warning not to go through with it. I wasn’t sure of that. The only thing I was sure of was that the woman I’d grown to love wanted more and I knew how to give it to her. She was mine to care for, in whatever way she needed to be cared for. Her dark side needed to be brought to light, and that night it would be set free.

In a box in the back of my Jeep were the things I typically used on my subs. I went to it and pulled out the ropes I’d tie her to the tree with. Then I got out the whip. I wasn’t sure if I’d hit her with it or merely snap it around her body, but I was about to let her see what being a Sub was all about. My blue jean shorts and T-shirt weren’t putting me into Dom mode. I ducked into the tent and put on the loose-fitting black warmups I liked to wear when changing mental gears from average Joe to demanding Dom.

When I came back out of the tent, I saw she was still facing the tree, standing stone still. Moving in behind her, I ran the rough rope around her upper body with one loop, then tied it off. “I’m going to tie you to this tree, Sub. Do you know why I’m doing this to you?”

“Because I’ve asked you to, Master.” Her eyes were glazed over. I had no idea if she was actually in that zone that Subs eventually learned to go into or what the deal was. But she had the same look seasoned pros would get before they received a punishment.

Running the rope around the tree, I pulled her tightly to it. I had to make sure she couldn’t move. I didn’t want her to even flinch, or the whip might hit her when I didn’t want it to, or it might hit her in a place it shouldn’t. I still was unsure if I’d allow her pristine flesh to be broken. She was a rare beauty, unspoiled by any scars at all.

I suppose when one makes reading her life, then one never does things that might end up leaving scars. But Blyss had them in her brain. She had many scars there. As I ran the rope around her, I thought about balance and how the pain in her mind might not be balancing with the relative painlessness of her outer existence. Was what I was about to do going to help create that balance?

As I pulled the rope tightly around her ankles, then tied it off, Blyss was completely secured to the tree. Unable to move a muscle. That, in itself, was a form of discipline. So I decided to make sure she needed anything more than that. “Blyss, I’m going to leave you tied up, unable to move at all, for a period of ten minutes. That will be your punishment for tonight.”

She turned her head, and when her eyes met mine, I saw the reflection of the campfire in them. It sent a chill through me. “Master, I desire more.” She looked at the whip I had lying on the ground. “Were you going to use that whip on me?”

“I wasn’t sure about that.”

“Did you use that on your other Subs?”

She knew I hated for her to bring shit like that up. “It doesn’t matter what I did with the others, Blyss. You’re not like them.”

“I want to feel it.” She looked at me with eyes that glistened as tears welled up in them. “Please, Troy. I want to feel it.”

A knot had formed in my throat. She wanted to feel it. Her body had gone untouched for so damn long, she yearned to feel all she could. The bitch that was her mother deserved to rot in hell for what she’d done to an innocent baby. Blyss was lucky it was me who came into her life. God only knew what would’ve happened to her if a sadistic asshole had won her.

I kissed her lips with a sweet kiss. I wanted the last taste of her BDSM virgin lips. After she experienced the pain of the whip, both physically and mentally, she’d be changed. Forever!

Blyss

My mind was quiet as I got ready to feel the whip across my back. Troy leaned in close, his breath was hot on my neck. “What is our safe word, Sub?”

“Cherry.”

“Good girl. I’m going to use this whip on you now. Or I might only brandish it around your body.”

“Please, Master …”

“Be quiet!” His tone was strict; his body went rigid behind mine. “I will do with you as I please. No more back talk out of you.”

I nodded and felt let down—depressed about the fact that he wasn’t going to do to me what I wanted. My body had been on fire for him to take me sexually. The sex we had was far better than I thought sex could even be. Why couldn’t he allow me to feel what he’d given others?

The same way that sex had preoccupied my mind before he gave it to me, so was the thought of feeling him do to me what he’d done to others. It wasn’t one of the things I’d thought a lot about when I’d signed up for this. After getting involved with Troy, I wanted more. I wanted to feel his power. It was all I could think about.

I’d dreamt of him paddling me, stringing me up, blindfolding me, gagging me, and even whipping me. When I’d seen that whip lying on the ground, my mind had blurred with excitement. And when he’d said that he might not hit me with it, I’d wanted to cry. I yearned to feel it on my skin, but he’d shut me down before I could explain a thing to him.

“Yes, master,” my voice quivered.

He took me by the chin, running the pad of his thumb over my lower lip. “Tell me why you want me to strike you. And please refrain from saying it’s because of what I did with others.” His eyes were almost completely green as he looked at me like he was searching my mind for answers even I didn’t have.

“My body yearns to feel your power. That’s the only way I can explain it, master.”

With a nod, he kissed my cheek. “Then you will feel my power, Sub. Promise me you will call out the safe word before your body is overly taxed by the whip, and I will fulfill your need.”

“I promise you, I will call it out before I’m overwhelmed, master.” My heart was pounding with excitement.

He was going to actually do it!

Finally, I’d feel the same thing he’d given other women. The elation that was running through me and my body was tingling with anticipation. I was about to have my first BDSM experience! He moved back several steps and I heard the tiny limbs breaking under his feet as he backed up. The crickets chirped, an owl screeched for the second time that night, and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

A whooshing sound met my ears, then a thunderous crack came to my right side. It was so close; I could feel the air it moved. I stopped breathing as I thought about what that might actually feel like on my skin. The whip cracked on the other side of me, sending my body into a tense state beyond any tension I’d ever felt before. Everything in me tried to get away from the thing that threatened me, but I was tied so tightly, I couldn’t move a thing except my head. And that was tucked in, without me thinking about it, keeping it safely out of the whip’s reach.

Troy popped the whip around my body about fifteen times. It was so strange how I went from deathly afraid he’d hit me to wishing he’d just do it already. My entire body began to vibrate as it wanted the impact. The sound of the cracking whip was making me more than frustrated and I screamed with tension—a high-pitched scream that had the whip stopping. “Did I hit you?” Troy ran his hands over my back, looking for a place I’d been hit.

My breathing was ragged. “No, but I want to feel it. Please!”

Troy was so close to me; I could feel the heat of his body on my back. “Are you sure, Blyss?”

“Don’t call me that, please. I am your Submissive, master. A woman who is begging you to let her feel your power. Please!” I was nearly crying with the emotion that was overtaking me.

“I will give you what you want, Sub.” He took a few steps back and cracked the whip four times on either side of me, then one fell across my back and I shrieked with the pain. Something inside of me erupted as another lash pelted me. A couple of pops on either side of me had my body vibrating with urgency. It wanted more!

The searing pain had already vanished from the first two strikes. I wasn’t about to call out the safe word. Another strike sent fresh heat through me. The scream that came out of my mouth did so without me thinking about it. Then I moaned as the burning continued and Troy popped the whip around me. I was shaking, but the roped held me, not allowing my body to move the way it needed to. One more lash fell across my back and I had to call out, “Cherry …” I sagged in the ropes as everything drained out of me.

Troy was moving fast, untying me. It was then that I realized I had started crying. Sobbing, actually. I didn’t know I was doing it and that bothered me a bit. I was picked up and carried to the tent. Troy laid me on my stomach and moved around as I kept on crying like a baby. My back was throbbing, my body ached, and I felt like a blob of nothing but pain.

Something cold was put on my back. “Blyss, are you okay?”

“Not really,” I got out between sobs.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to do that. I told you.”

“No, I’m glad you did. I … I …” my words were choked by my crying. A sudden burst of warmth rushed through me, as if a heater had come on inside of me. An odd warmth, a comforting feeling, moved through me and my head felt light. My crying stopped and I moaned with another sensation as Troy ran his hands over my back.

“This is a pain-relieving antibiotic ointment. There are a few places on your back that will take a few days to heal.” He began rubbing my shoulders as he leaned close to me. “Baby, don’t make me do that again. Please, don’t make me.”

I turned to my side and saw the distraught expression he was wearing. Running my hand over his bearded cheek, I felt sorry for him. “You didn’t like that?”

He shook his head. “I hated it. And you waited so long to call out the safe word.” He shuddered, then hugged me. “Blyss, I don’t like the way you screamed. It was terrible. I felt as if I was killing you.”

I had no idea the sounds I had made were so disturbing. The man had done things like that before. Had the other women not reacted the way I had? Troy pulled back and I found he had a box of tissues. He wiped my eyes, then held one to my nose and I blew. No one had ever done that for me. He was taking care of me. Not that he hadn’t done that the entire time, but this felt different.

I sat up once I’d pulled myself together. “Master …”

“No! Troy. Not master. Not right now.” The look he gave me was stern. “You didn’t do what you were supposed to. You let it go too far.”

“To be honest with you, I think I went right where I wanted to be. I wasn’t crying from the physical pain, exactly. What I felt was much more primal. Isn’t that what’s supposed to happen?”

He sat back on his feet as he looked me over. “Much later it is. Not with your first time doing anything like this. Usually, one strike is given on the first time. Maybe two if the Sub’s pain threshold is high.”

“I think mine is really high.”

He shook his head, surprising me. “I don’t. The way you screamed told me that much.”

“I didn’t think I was screaming more than anyone else would.” He was beginning to make me feel uncomfortable about how I’d reacted and I wasn’t loving it at all. “Troy, did I go overboard?”

He looked at me without so much as blinking. “No. No, I shouldn’t be holding you to any kind of reaction. You reacted in a way that came naturally to you. You had a burst of energy that escaped you. It came out the way it’s meant to, for you. I’m sorry. I’m overreacting so much with you.”

I was too much for the man. That was obvious. “If you want to end our contract …”

His hands gripped my shoulders. “NO! No, I don’t want to end anything. I don’t want you to seek out another Dom. You’re fragile.”

“I am not!” I was getting so tired of him thinking I was breakable.

His grip tightened as he looked into my eyes. “You listen to me, Blyss Danner, you are vulnerable and fragile. You may not like to hear that about yourself. I get it. I really do. You see yourself as a confident, smart woman. And you are that, but you’re also a little girl who was left all alone. Your cry was primal, much more so than any cry I’ve ever heard. I’m never walking away from you. I’m never allowing another person to take you on as a Submissive.”

“While that’s nice of you, I don’t need you to go to that much trouble with me.” He was overstepping his bounds. I hadn’t signed up to be with him forever, the way he was talking about.

“It’s not trouble. I actually feel obligated …”

It was me who stopped him as I put my finger to his lips. “No. Just stop, please. I don’t want you to feel obligated to me. Troy, I came here to learn, and now I see that I can learn even more than I ever thought I could. That release has left me feeling better than I’ve ever felt. Even better than after you and I have sex, and that’s saying something.”

The way he slouched didn’t make me happy. “That made you feel better than sex with me?”

I’d hurt his ego, something I hadn’t meant to do. But was I supposed to lie to him to save his feelings? “Troy, sex with you is great. Better than I knew it would be. But the way I felt, letting something go that was buried inside of me—that was unbelievable. It’s difficult to explain. It felt as if negative energy was shooting out of my head and out of the universe, where it could never harm me again. And I have you to thank for that. Please don’t stop it now.”

“There won’t be any more of that type of thing until your wounds have healed. So don’t even ask for that. But you do seem to need to cry more. You must’ve been a quiet kid.”

“I was told I cried any time I was awake when I was first born, until I went completely through the withdrawal. And then I didn’t cry at all. I was sent from place to place and never got close to anyone. It didn’t bother me to move on.”

“Not even a little?” He looked confused. “You never got close to anything? You didn’t like a place a bit more than what you went to next?”

“Sure, there were places I liked better than others. There were people around who I thought were more interesting than others were. Some were nicer, some were meaner, and some were barely there. It didn’t matter to me; I knew I’d be moved again.”

I hated the way his eyes drooped at the outer corners. I hated the pity I saw in them. He held out his arms, as if I needed to go into them to find solace. I didn’t need him to provide that. I could find that within myself.

Or could I?

I had screamed in a way that frightened him. I had cried in a way he’d never seen and he thought I needed to cry more. Something was definitely wrong with me. I had been denying that for too long. Troy was there to let me know I needed help, even though I didn’t think I did.

Moving into his arms, I let him hold me. “You can let yourself go with me, baby. I’ve got you. You have me and you always will. I love you, Blyss. My love for you is deep and true, and I will never walk away from you. I feel like you and I came together for a reason.”

“I don’t like feeling weak.”

“No one does. But you have to know and understand your weaknesses before you can ever be truly strong. It’s okay. I’m here for you.”

As he rocked me back and forth, I felt something pulse inside of me. It was my heart. It was pumping at the same rate his was, getting in sync with his.

Was that love I was feeling?

Troy

I had never been in love. Not really. I’d said the words to a few women in my lifetime, but I’d never felt anything as deeply as I felt with Blyss. The pain that was masked behind that beautiful face was deep and ugly. And it needed to be released.

The whip had brought out more in her than I had ever intended it to. It was shocking to me, and I had seen things that would make most men cry. Watching Blyss come undone was the single most heart-wrenching thing I’d ever witnessed. If I were to stay with her, I’d have to not only witness that again, I’d have to induce it. Cuddling her that night, after her first BDSM encounter, I found her body going into a much more relaxed state than it had in the previous three weeks. She even snored a little as she slept, and I watched over her.

Every time she fidgeted a bit, I’d wonder what was playing out in her mind. Was she dreaming about something terrible that had happened in her childhood? Was she dreaming about her and I making love? Or was it another thing altogether that I’d never understand?

Blyss was the most complex creature I’d ever encountered. The only thing I was sure of was how much she’d fight me. Our contract would be up in only a couple of months. I had no intention of letting her go, though.

I wasn’t looking to extend our contract. I didn’t even want one. I wanted her to stay with me. And I knew she wasn’t about to do it of her own accord. Blyss was lying to herself. She pretended she could face life on her own, all alone. And she could. I wasn’t foolish enough to deny that fact. But she’d only dig her grave deeper if she did.

The wailing sounds she made that night sounded like a banshee who was being crucified. The pain was deep, guttural, and dark. And I thought it was coming from the lashes I was leaving on her back.

How wrong I was!

Those lashes only opened her up to release that agony that was trapped inside of her perfect body, and she’d need more to help her become the woman she could be. A woman who could love and be loved—something she wasn’t at this time. I’m not an egotistical man, but I knew I was more than a catch. I was professing my love and loyalty to that woman, and she was acting as if she didn’t give two shits about that.

I could’ve let it hurt my feelings and decide not to give her any more of my time or attention. But I knew there were reasons why she hadn’t reacted to what I’d told her. She wasn’t able to. She didn’t know how. It wasn’t something she’d ever dealt with. Giving or receiving love was something she’d missed out on.

She’d told me something that if a person hadn’t experienced love before they were a certain age, then they never would. Well, I hated that idea. I was sure anything could be overcome, even something like that. Giving up on Blyss was not an option, and I was ready to do everything I had to in order to bring her into the real world—a world where love existed and helped people do remarkable things.

Blyss would learn to accept what I had to give, even if I had to fight her every step of the way! Leaning up on my elbow, I peered down at her, softly stroking her pink cheeks as I watched her sleep. Her eyelids fluttered, then she opened them. She had a dreamy look on her sweet face. “What in the world are you doing, Troy?”

I kissed the tip of her nose. “Watching the most beautiful woman in the world as she sleeps. Go back to sleep, baby.”

She stretched, then ran her arms around my neck. “I was dreaming about you. You were running your hands all over my body, making me hot in all the right places.”

Tracing my fingers along her neck, then down to her naked breast, I gave it a little pinch. “Were you now? And how was that working out for you?” I was glad to hear I was in her dreams. It meant I was becoming more to her, which was a step in the right direction.

“It was working out great.” She pulled me down and kissed my neck. ‘Wanna make my dreams come true, Troy?”

“In ways you’ll never understand.” I trailed kisses down the front of her throat, then pulled her ripe tit into my mouth.

She arched and moaned, “Yes, baby. Suck me, lick me, and fuck my pussy.”

I wanted her to want more from me than just a fuck, but that was taking longer than I had anticipated. I moved my body over hers, taking her hands and pinning them above her head. I thought it was about time I restricted her access to my body. Maybe then she’d realize how much she wanted me to make love to her, instead of merely fucking her.

That night, I was going to give it to her. A mindless fucking might be what would help her see that making love was pretty damn good. There would be no kissing and no sweet words said. Using my knee, I pushed her legs apart and pressed my cock into her. She tried to move her arms, but I held them down, not allowing that. “I want to hold you, Troy. Let my arms go.”

I stopped sucking her tit without looking up at her. “No. No touching me. You want to be fucked? This is what fucking is. I will use your body to get off.”

“And what about me?”

“Get off if you want, or don’t. That’s up to you. My cock will be going in and out of that tight pussy, fucking it the way you asked me to.”

“That sounds hot. Fuck my pussy, baby. Fuck me hard.”

So I pounded into her while holding her hands down and sucking her tit. Over and over, I thrust into her. All the while she was fighting to get her hands on me. She was groaning, then pulled her legs up to wrap around me. It gave me an idea about really immobilizing her.

I pulled out and she looked more than a bit confused. “Um, you didn’t cum yet.”

I pulled out two sets of handcuffs and tossed one of them to the other side of her. Not saying a word to her about what I was doing, I cuffed her right wrist, then pulled up her right leg and cuffed her ankle. I did the same to the other side, then looked at her and decided she needed more. A blindfold and gag might do the trick. I took them out of my bag and fixed her up, putting on the blindfold, then the gag. Touching no other part of her, I grabbed her ass, lifting it up, and stuck my cock into her, fucking away.

I didn’t even look at her, I looked up at the top of the tent as I plunged my cock into what could’ve been any pussy. I’d done that kind of thing countless times before with my other Subs. With them, I had no real connection. I’d tie them up in various positions, get my rocks off, then set them free and we’d fall asleep, not even touching each other. It worked for what I was after.

Blyss wanted to get fucked and she was getting it. It took quite a bit longer to cum like that. Dick to cunt penetration and that was it. No touching and no skin to skin contact. No real thought about pleasing the woman I’d come to love and want to do everything I could to make her happy.

As I was trying hard not to think about her as I used her body to make mine feel better, I found I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Everything I did was for her, even what I was doing at that moment.

How did my world start revolving around her?

Blyss was a mess, emotionally speaking. I’d made it my responsibility to help her, whether she wanted that help or not. I was trying to teach her not to want things that were less than what she deserved.

Did she deserve to be bound and used for her pussy alone?

No.

Did she want it?

Maybe. But I was trying to teach her how she could have more. She didn’t have to settle for less.

I couldn’t keep it up. I stopped and took her gag out of her mouth. “You want more, or should we change this up?”

She wasn’t even out of breath. “This is a bit dull. Can you take off the blindfold so I can watch you fuck me?”

I pulled it off and growled, “You sure you don’t want me to let you go, so you can actively participate in this?”

“Um,” she bit her lower lip as she thought about it. “Can we try this first? Just go on and fuck me the way you were doing.”

“You didn’t even like it.”

“I know, but I should know what it’s like. You’ve always been so, so …”

“Loving?”

“Yes, so loving, and it’s always felt so … so …”

“Personal?”

“Yes, so personal. I want to see what it feels like when it’s not personal. You know, like any man who a woman might meet and do a random hookup with.”

Then I was mad. She was thinking about meaningless sex with other men. I slammed into her, making her breath shoot out of her mouth. “Oh, I can show you how that goes. I’ve fucked many women that way and walked away without so much as a thank you. You really wanna feel that?”

Her eyes went dark. “I want you to do things to me that you’ve done to other women. I want to get that aspect of you too.”

I nearly shouted at her, but I decided I’d let her in on what she wanted to know so damn badly. “Tonight, you get the treatment those other women got, Sub.”

Looking up again, focusing on anything but her, I fucked her. Out of the lower part of my eye, I saw her watching as my dick went in and out of her. She watched and watched and still her breathing was normal. Her body hadn’t responded one bit to what I was doing to her.

“I don’t understand,” she moaned. “There’s just not that much feeling. Are you sure this is what you’ve done to other women? I mean, who’d come back for more of this?”

I looked down at her. “Women who want nothing more than to feel a dick in their cunt. Women who don’t have anyone who loves them. I can make you feel something if you’d like.”

“How? You’ll have to uncuff me.”

“No, I won’t.” I licked my lips and leaned over, kissing her. Her tongue ran around mine, then I pulled away and her head tried to follow, but could only come so far. Already her breathing was harder. I looked into her eyes as I made hard strokes. Moving my hands over her stomach, then up to her breasts, I massaged them as we gazed into each other’s eyes. I kissed her again, biting her bottom lip before I ended it.

Her face was glowing and her body had a light sheen of sweat as her breasts rose and fell with her now much harder breathing. “How?” was all she could ask. Moving my hands to grip her ass, I pulled her up and thrust into her harder and faster. “Your pussy is salivating all over my cock, baby.”

“I know. This feels so damn good.”

I let one of her ass cheeks go while keeping the other right where it was, easing a pinky into her ass. Putting my index finger in my mouth, I wet it, then rubbed her clit. “Watch me, baby. Watch me please you. You like that, baby?”

“Oh, yeah …” she moaned and closed her eyes. “Baby, yes …”

Moving my pinky in and out of her ass, I felt her walls begin to pulse. “If you really want to have an experience you’ve never had before, say these words, Blyss. I love you.”

Desire had taken her over. Her body was about to let go. I watched her lips part. “I love you.” She arched her back as I felt her climax. “Ahhh! I love you! I fucking love you!” Her eyes opened then and tears ran out of them as she looked at me like I’d tricked her or something.

My cock was ready to fire, but I was holding back. “One more time, baby. But this time say my name.”

Huffing and puffing, she looked at me. “I love you, Troy Masterson. I love you.” The orgasm that took me over had me groaning as I fell over her body and humped until there was nothing left in me. When it was over, I looked at her and found her frowning.

“And what’s that for?”

“I’m not sure I meant what I said to you.”

“Well, your body meant it. Your brain will catch up.” I pecked her lips. “I love you, Blyss Danner.”

As I uncuffed her, I watched her looking more and more worried. Rubbing her arms and legs, I finished my duties as a Dom, making sure my partner’s limbs had blood flowing into them again.

“Troy, is that really how you did things with other Subs? I mean the first part.”

“That is exactly what I’ve done to other Subs. Then I’d take one side of the bed, leaving them alone on their side, and we’d fall asleep.”

“No cuddling?” she asked, as if that was crazy.

“Why would we cuddle? We wanted sex. Nothing more than that.”

I laid down, giving her the option of cuddling or not. She laid down next to me, then rolled over, putting her head on my chest and throwing one leg over me. “I didn’t feel a thing at first. Not a thing. No spark, no fireworks, nothing.”

“That’s because it was fucking, Blyss. No real emotions are involved.”

She raised her head to look at me. “How does anyone climax?”

“Friction, I guess.” I chuckled and ran the back of my hand over her cheek. “It takes a lot longer to orgasm when you’re fucking someone. For both parties. Can I make the assumption that you like it when we make love a lot better than when we merely have sex or fuck?”

“You can safely assume that. How did you and I manage to make a connection so quickly if you had never experienced one with anyone else? Or are you lying about that?”

“Now, why would I lie to you about that?”

She shook her head, then laid back down, resting her head on my chest again. “I don’t know. It’s just that this odd sensation went through me when I thought about you having anything with anyone else the way we have it. I don’t like that feeling.”

“That’s jealousy, Blyss.” I grinned, happy she had some jealousy where I was concerned. “I’ve got a ton of that over you.” I kissed the side of her head. “Go to sleep. Morning will be here before we know it and you know those birds won’t allow us to sleep in.”

“Jealousy? I don’t like how that feels at all.”

My voice was heavily laced with sarcasm, “Me neither. Goodnight.”

Things moved further that night than they had in the last three weeks. She loved me!

Blyss

Troy made me wait a whole week before we left that forest to go to the club. He was taking me to be a voyeur and nothing more than that, for that night anyway. With his help, I was making some real breakthroughs in myself. He thought I should learn how to cry, virtually on demand, to get some of my troubles to come to the surface. I hadn’t managed to do that yet. I needed the outer stimulation to achieve that. If pain was initiated, then my emotions would rise. I couldn’t do it on my own, even with the ideas he gave me.

“Feel sorry for that poor baby who was left in the rain, Blyss.” He looked at me with sorrow filled eyes. “She was helpless and left there by her own mother, a person who was supposed to love and care for her, unconditionally. It’s not fair that she robbed you of that, Blyss. Cry for that baby.”

I’ve tried to see the baby I had been and feel sorry for it, but I couldn’t. He’d have to put me over his lap and spank me until I cried, which would take about twenty smacks to do, and that number was growing. He didn’t want to use things on me. He hated the way the whip had left my back with a few stripes on it. It was me who asked about using a paddle. He agreed to do it, and we both found that to be more pleasing. He didn’t have to give me that many strikes before I was crying.

I found it hard to say the safe word. I wanted the pain to keep on coming. Troy decided that when I began to cry, he’d stop. He was worried about the addictions I’d had when I was born. He’d only give me enough pain to open myself up and let things out, but no more than was necessary to achieve that.

The day he took me back to Portland, he and I went shopping at some exclusive dress shop inside the Dungeon of Decorum. After getting us an apartment there for a week, he set me up in sexy clothes and gave me what I wanted. I wanted to immerse myself in the culture of BDSM. I wanted to see what it was all about. I’d found out that pain helped me get into my feelings. Now I wanted to see how being put on display as a sexual object might help me to grow as a person.

It was a bit after five in the evening when we left the lavish apartment to head down the dark hallway to the private rooms. We headed into the main room, hardly anyone was there yet. Troy had clad me in a red corset with fishnet stockings. My heels were so high, I had trouble walking. So he held the leash he’d attached to the collar he had put around my neck so other men would know not to touch me, very close to my throat, to help stabilize me. He joked that it made me look like a thoroughbred.

A couple of burly men, wearing nothing but tight, black shorts, were setting up the stage at one end of the room. “A couple will be putting on a show or a scene in a little while. Would you like to watch?”

I nodded enthusiastically. “Please.”

He led me to a small table for three right at the front of the stage. “We’re so close, we should be able to feel their heat. How about a drink?”

“Um, what would you suggest?” I asked as the man who’d kissed my hand the night I was auctioned off came into the room. He looked right at me, tipping his hat as he headed our way.

“Mr. M. and Miss Danner, how nice to see you’ve decided to hang out with us a bit.” He took my hand and kissed it again. “May I say that your Dom has made you even more beautiful than you were when we last met?”

Heat filled my cheeks as shyness took me over. “Do you really think so?” I wrinkled my nose as I didn’t think I looked much different if any at all.

He and Troy exchanged looks as Troy nodded. “I have to agree with Mr. J. You have blossomed, my love.”

Mr. J. looked at Troy with bright eyes. “My love? Did you two make more of a connection than just a Dom and his Sub?”

Troy ran his arm around my waist, pulling me close to him, then his lips touched my cheek. “We did. I’m working on keeping this one for as long as she’ll let me.”

I looked down. He’d been at me to agree to move in with him. He had to stay at the military base on occasion, but if we got a place midway between Stanford and San Diego, he’d get to be home more often. I still hadn’t agreed to it. I wasn’t sure life would be as great as he claimed it would be as a couple.

“Congratulations,” Mr. J. said, then looked at me again as I raised my head. “You seem a little uneasy, Miss Danner.”

“I’m going to go grab us something to drink.” Troy held out a chair for me that was between the other two at the small table. “Would you mind keeping my girl company while I do that?”

Mr. J gave him a nod and took the seat to the right of me. “I’d love to. Take your time. Mr. M.”

Troy left, and I found myself wondering about the man who was sitting next to me. “So, Mr. J. Didn’t my Dom tell me you’re one of the club’s founders?”

“I am.” He sipped his Scotch.

“The woman who helped me in the beginning—Isabel—told me she and one of the founders had a thing. Was that you?”

When he nodded, I felt a little thrill run through me. “She’s so nice. What happened that had the two of you never becoming more than a Dom and Sub? If that question doesn’t offend you, sir.”

“I’m not offended in the least. You see, Isabel and I like each other, but there was no spark. Not like you and Troy have. I haven’t found that spark and might never. I can’t say I’m looking for one.”

My inner psychologist raised her head. “And why not?”

“It’s a sad story. I don’t like to talk about it. Let’s just say that I’m not quite the believer in love that I once was. Not that what you and your Dom have found isn’t real. It probably is for the both of you. I come from a DNA line that makes me think love can’t last, at least not in me.”

“I’m intrigued. You may not know this, but I’m going to be a doctor in a few years. A psychologist to be exact. I’d love to be able to talk to you more. You know, help you with your phobia where love is concerned.”

“I’m aware of your major. You go to Stanford.” He sipped his drink again. “You seem bright and empathetic. Maybe one day, if your Dom will allow it, I might like to talk to you about things. It’s getting a bit old, being alone. But I can’t seem to make myself change. I used to think what I was doing was smart. Now I see it as being stagnant, something I don’t find very attractive.”

“I’m sure Troy would have no problem allowing me to talk with you. And, for the record, you are extremely attractive. I’m sure you could find a woman if you wanted to.”

“And that’s the problem right there. I don’t want to find one. But this life and the things I do are becoming dull. I want more. But I know what comes along with that. I’m not sure I can handle it all. Not sure anyone wants to handle my baggage.” He downed the rest of his drink just as Troy came back. “Good. I need a new drink. Save me a seat for the show, will you, Mr. M? I’d love to watch it with you two, if you don’t mind that.”

“Not at all. I’d love to have you join us. We’ll save your seat, Mr. J.”

The man who seemed to be in his late thirties walked away from us, and I couldn’t help watching him go. “He seems like he has a lot on his shoulders.”

“I’ve never seen him act the way he does with you.” Troy turned me around as he tapped his tall glass to mine. “He didn’t come on to you, did he?”

“Not at all.” I smiled and kissed his cheek. “Thank you for bringing me here. I think I’m going to like it.”

“You seem to fit in, that’s for sure. You’re like a duck to water.” He took my hand and held it under the table. “Okay, the key to this place and these people is to not ask any personal questions. Most of the men who come here don’t want anyone to know much about them. Some will wear masks to hide who they are entirely. Some of the women will too. And if you prefer to be anonymous, due to your impending career, we can go buy us some masks before people begin to get here.”

“I never thought about that. I’m not a liar, though. Hiding feels like lying to me. If you don’t mind, I’d rather not hide behind a mask.”

“I don’t mind at all. I don’t openly talk about what I do in the summer months to my family or friends, but if I’m pinned down about it, I don’t mind saying what I dabble in.” He kissed my hand as he looked into my eyes. “And if things go the way I want them to, I won’t care who knows what we do.”

“My savage Dom has no worries, huh?” I’d given him that little nickname as he and I experimented with the whole punishment thing. He was anything but savage, with me, anyway. I was hoping being inside the club with all the testosterone would pull that savage beast up in him. I wanted to see that beast I knew was buried inside. He thought he should keep that part of him away from me, his fragile little woman. I wanted to feel his wildness, though. I was working for that time when he let himself be free with me, something I desired more and more each day.

Troy

Grant, Blyss, and I had been chatting away when the lights went down and everyone got quiet to watch what was about to happen on stage. Classical music began to drift through the room. It sounded ghostly, haunting me already.

Blyss put her hand on my leg, leaning into me. She whispered, “This seems surreal.”

I kissed the side of her head and wrapped my arm around her. “Yes, it does,” I agreed.

Blyss asked me often if we could come up with a scene to play out in front of the other club members. I was against it, still worried about how fragile she was, even though she kept assuring me she wasn’t as breakable as I thought she was. I wasn’t about to take any chances with her. My heart beat just for her, it seemed. She consumed me in more ways than one.

Lilacs in a crystal vase took center stage as a spotlight hit them. The scene was anything but typical, in my opinion. Most of the scenes I had watched had been more on the dark side. This one already seemed sweet.

Grant placed his ever-present glass of Scotch on the table and leaned back in his seat. His attention was fully focused, then he leaned in to tell us, “The Sub who’s in this has asked about me several times. She’s been what I call a hopper, going from Dom to Dom. I’m interested in her, only to try to tame her and stop her endless roving from person to another. I’d love it if you could see if you can get a read on her, to let me know if that would even be possible, Miss Danner.”

Blyss gave him a smile. “I can try.” She patted his hand. “Maybe she will be the one for you. You’re a Sub hopper, yourself. Perhaps you could tame each other.”

“Blyss, it’s okay for a Dom to take as many Subs as he wants to. Don’t refer to Mr. J. as a hopper,” I corrected her.

“I apologize, Mr. J.” Then she turned her attention to me. “As for you, your hopping days are through.”

Grant chuckled, and I felt heat fill my face. Blyss had no filter and she needed to get one. “Blyss, we’ll talk later about how you speak to me. Now, get quiet and watch the show.”

She nodded and bowed her head a bit, “Yes, master.”

I gave her shoulders a squeeze and kissed the side of her head. “Good girl.”

The spotlight pulled out, enveloping the stage with light. In a chair made out of brown leather, the Sub sat, reading a book and wearing a knee-length, baby blue dress with white heels and a string of pearls around her neck. Reading glasses were perched on her nose and she had her legs crossed, bouncing the top one casually.

Smoke began to billow out from the left side of the stage, but the woman seemed oblivious to it as she read the book. The sound of a door creaking came from the speakers, then there was a man standing at the right side of the stage. A black coat and hat were what he wore. The couple looked like something out of a sixties television show. He tossed his hat and it landed perfectly on the table the vase of flowers was on. “Is dinner ready, pet?”

The Sub finally looked up from the book, seeing her Dom had arrived. “I have no idea. I got lost in this story.” The smoke moved in a large puff across the stage.

“There’s a fire in the kitchen!” the man shouted and ran off to the left, while the woman didn’t bother to get up. Instead, she used a book marker to keep her place in the book, then sat it on the table along with the flowers and the man’s hat. Uncrossing her legs, she sighed and waited.

The man came back, his coat gone, wearing a singed white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. A scowl was on his face as he shook his finger at the woman and yelled, “That’s the fourth time this week you’ve burned supper and nearly burned down our home, pet. We’ll be having cold bologna sandwiches yet again, thanks to your errant ways. What am I to do with you to get you to remember what your job is here at our home?”

“I don’t know.” She got up and ran her arms around his neck, being flirty with him. “We don’t have to eat sandwiches again, sir. We can go out for a nice meal. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

He growled with anger, “Pet, you have a mess to clean up in the kitchen. Not only do the burnt remains of the meal in the oven need to be cleaned out, but you also haven’t cleaned any of the dishes you used to create the now-charred meal. And I will not be rewarding your behavior. As a matter of fact, I think you need to be punished.”

She let him go and put her hands on her cheeks as her mouth made an ‘O’ shape. “Punished?”

He took her by the hand and led her back to the chair she’d sat in while dinner had burned. She pulled back, trying to fight him about what he was about to do, but he sat down and pulled her to him as he looked at her. “Pet, do you realize that food you keep burning is costing us money?”

“It’s not that much. Please don’t punish me, sir.” She batted her long eyelashes at him, trying to persuade him to let her go.

“Do you not think I work hard for our money, pet? I have to stay on bended knee all day long, selling shoes. And for that hard work, you take the food we buy and ruin it. So far, this week alone, I calculate you’ve cost us fifty dollars. That’s three days’ work for me. With all we’ve been put out, do you still agree that you don’t need to be punished to make you remember you are to be cooking, not reading or doing anything other than making our evening meal?”

“I’ll remember from now on. You don’t have to punish me. I promise I’ll remember. And I’ll go clean the kitchen right now. No, I’ll bring you a sandwich and even a pickle slice first, then I’ll clean the kitchen. Oh! And how about a nice glass of Scotch? I’ll go fetch that really quickly while you relax. You’ve had a terrible day. I’ll make it all better. You’ll see. If you let me go and put this silly punishment stuff aside.”

The man’s face went red as he held tightly to her hand. “The time for all that has passed. You should’ve met me at the door with a drink. You should’ve kissed my cheek and led me to this chair. You should’ve rubbed my shoulders to loosen my sore muscles—muscles I will now have to use to administer your punishment.” He made an irritated growl and pulled her over his lap.

She kicked her legs in protest and flailed her arms as he held her down with one arm across her back. “No! No, sir! I’ll remember to do all those things from now on! Please!”

“It’s too late.” He tossed her dress up to uncover her bottom. She had on white panties and he pulled them down to expose her milky white flesh.

Blyss was enthralled with the production and whispered, “She does deserve it.”

Kissing the top of her head, I agreed, “Yes, she does.”

The man’s hand made a loud smack as it hit her bottom. The woman screamed as if she was in terrible pain, which she wasn’t. She was all theatrics, and her Dom knew that. He spanked her again and again until she had stopped kicking her feet and moving her arms. He spanked her until she was crying, weak, and repentant. “I’m sorry. I really am. I’m so sorry, sir.”

With her state, it let him know she had learned her lesson. He pulled her panties up and moved her around to sit on his lap. Tears ran in streaming down her face as she gasped to catch her breath.

“Do you think I like to punish you, pet?” He ran his hand through her hair.

She shook her head. “No, sir. I deserved it. I kept paying more attention to things that didn’t matter, instead of what does. Like cooking your dinner and making sure you’re welcomed home after a hard day at work. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

“Good girl. That’s my girl. Can you give me a kiss?”

She nodded and sniffled, then wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. She kissed her Dom on his lips, then ran her arms around his neck as their kiss grew. Her Dom moved his hands over her back as she turned and straddled him as he sat in the chair. She moved her hands down, undoing his pants, then pulled her skirt up, gliding her body over his cock.

“Oh wow!” Blyss mumbled.

The Sub rode her Dom’s cock as they kissed. Then the Dom stopped the kiss. “Get on the floor on your hands and knees, Sub.”

“Yes, sir.” She hurried to get off him and went to the floor, doing as he’d said.

He threw her dress up and pulled her panties down, then thrust his large cock into her, making her squeal. She looked out at the audience as he fucked her from behind. “You will be a good girl from now on, won’t you?”

“Yes, sir.” She bit her lower lip.

He slapped her ass and she moaned. “You will never burn our dinner again.”

“I will never burn it again, sir.”

He slapped her ass again. “You will meet your Dom at the door each and every day after work.”

“I will meet my Dom every day after he gets off work, with a fresh glass of Scotch.”

He slapped her ass again. “And why will you do these things for your Dom?”

“Because my Dom takes care of me and I am to take care of him. In all ways, the same way he does for me.”

He rubbed her ass as he pounded into her. “That’s a good Sub. Do you like this fat cock?”

“I love your fat cock, sir.” She chewed her lip as she looked out at the audience, her eyes landing squarely on me. “I love feeling your cock inside of me. I want you to fuck me.”

Blyss looked at me, then back at the woman on stage. “Well, that fucking bitch!”

Her jealousy was cute, but her anger was about to get out of hand as she tried to get up. I grabbed her hand and kept her where she was. “What the hell are you thinking?”

The woman on stage was still looking at me. “I want you to fuck me tonight. I want you to tie me down to the bed and fuck me until you can’t anymore.”

“I’m going to beat her ass!” Blyss said under her breath. “Just you wait!”

I took Blyss by her face, making her look at me. I could feel her body shaking with anger. “Blyss, it doesn’t matter what she’s doing. I am with you. You can see that, right?”

Blyss stared into my eyes. “You don’t want her, do you?”

I shook my head. “I only want you, Blyss Danner. Only you.”

The lights went down on their little scene, and the lights in the room came up to a dim yellowish color. Grant looked at Blyss and I as I held her tightly. “Seems that Sub on stage had it for you, Mr. M.” He smiled at Blyss. “Seems you had a bit of jealousy over that, Miss Danner. Perhaps you should learn a bit about controlling that. Mr. M, you should reign that in before it gets out of control.”

“Mr. J, I thought you liked me,” Blyss stammered.

“I do. That’s precisely why I think that ugly little trait should be taken care of. It’s just sex, Miss Danner. Nothing more than body parts. Your heart doesn’t get into it. So what does it matter if another woman wants to feel your Dom’s power?”

Blyss was blindsided by Grant. “This man is more than just my Dom. He is my love. Once you find love, Mr. J, your opinion might very well change.”

The Sub from the stage came to me even though I shook my head at her. She ran one finger along my shoulder. “I’m Daphne.”

I wasn’t able to hold onto Blyss as she got up and stood toe to toe with the woman who seemed set on trying to get a piece of me. Blyss put her hands on the woman’s shoulders. “He’s mine. You will back off now!”

The woman stopped looking at me to look at Blyss. “You are his, not the other way around, Sub. And if he’d like a taste of me, he can have it. I don’t belong to anyone.” She looked at me again. “So, would you like a taste?”

The sound of flesh smacking flash was all I heard as Blyss slapped the shit out of her and shouted, “You fucking bitch!”

The cat fight was on and Grant and I had to scramble to pull the two apart. “I’ll take care of her,” Grant called out as he dragged the over-sexed woman away from us.

“See that you do, or I will!” Blyss shouted.

A crowd had gathered around us, and I was suddenly feeling very ashamed of what had happened. I took Blyss by the hand and led her away. “Come on, Blyss. This has gotten out of hand.”

Her leash was hanging from her collar as I walked her through the crowd. One of the men stopped me as he put his hand on my chest. “Take her by the leash, man.”

Shaking my head to clear it, I grabbed her leash and tugged her along. She wobbled on her high heels and nearly fell to the floor. I managed to yank the leash to stop her, but it hurt the back of her neck, as the collar was pulled tight against it. Tears sprang up as I looked at her. “Are you okay?”

She nodded and dropped her head. Shame radiated off her as I led her to the door. I stopped to open the door and another man said, “You need to train her a lot better before you bring her back.”

With a nod, I agreed with him, then opened the door and took her away. I was racked with guilt. I knew she wasn’t ready for that and I took her there anyway. Everything was my fault, but all were looking down on Blyss.

Blyss

I didn’t understand anything. Troy was taking me away from the room and everyone was looking at me like I was some kind of leper. All I had done was make sure a woman knew that Troy was mine.

What was so bad about that?

Staying quiet until we got all the back to our apartment, I opened my mouth once we were behind the closed door. “I don’t think this is quite the catastrophe everyone is making it out to be.”

“Please go sit down while I make myself a drink. We have to talk. I’ve made mistakes, too many of them, and they have to be rectified.” He walked away from me, going to the kitchen, and I found anger rising inside me.

Instead of sitting down, I went to the bedroom, where I pulled off the ridiculous heels that had almost had me on my ass. The corset was tight as hell and I took that off too. No reason to keep on the fishnet stockings, so I took them off and put on a robe. When I turned around, Troy was standing there with a tall glass in his hand, just staring at me. The corners of his lips were pulled down into a frown and I hated the way he was looking at me. Disappointment lingered in his eyes. I disappointed him and I couldn’t understand why he felt that way.

“Troy, if a man were to have done to me what that slut did to you, you’d have had them by their balls. So why is it that everyone is looking at me like I’ve committed a crime?” I went to sit on the bed, cross-legged, and waited for his answer.

“Because you are my Sub. You aren’t my equal. And if I wanted to experience another, it is my right to. It’s also my right to turn her down on my own. It’s not your right. It’s a simple premise, Blyss. I won you. You do as I say and I hadn’t said a word to you about doing anything. You overstepped your bounds and broke the rules.”

“She was being disrespectful to us both!” I threw my hands up in the air, trying to get him to see reason.

“I admit, you could look at it that way. In this place, she wasn’t being disrespectful. Anywhere else, yes, she would be out of her mind to speak to me that way or look at me the way she did. Not here, though. Here, I am a dominating man who owns the woman with me—a woman who is to stay quiet unless I tell her she can speak. And no one ever allows their subs to fight with other women.”

“Why not? Why can’t I fight for what’s mine?”

“Because I am not yours.”

“Then what was this last month about? You and I are more than Dom and Sub.”

“Not here, we aren’t. And I told you that. I told you that you needed to be a spectator and not interact. That was so you could see how people act here. This isn’t a normal place where normal things happen. This is a BDSM club, Blyss, where some are in charge and others do as they say or they’re punished. You do know I’m expected to punish you for what you’ve done. Other men will ask me what I did to correct that behavior and I will be expected to give them information.”

“I don’t see why you would be expected to tell anyone what you and I do in the privacy of our own apartment,” I huffed, exasperated by what was going on.

“So they can learn from it. That’s what we do here. We share information so others can learn from it. As Doms, we discuss things in depth to become the best we can be.”

The way he stood there, leaning against the door frame, was pissing me off. He wasn’t mad at me, yet he talked about punishing me because others expected it.

“I don’t live my life according to what others expect or want. I live it on my own terms. One would think you, as a powerful man, would do the same. I just can’t see any need to be corrected for putting that bitch in her place. I’m not going to agree to any punishment.” I had said it, plain and simple. I wouldn’t go along with being punished for something I saw as the right thing to do. End of story.

“I see.” Troy turned and walked away from me.

I sat there for a long moment before I went to the living room to see what he was doing. I found him sitting there, staring at nothing. The glass he held hung in his hand as if it was about to fall.

“Troy, you’re making a big deal out of nothing. Come on. Let’s go to bed.” I reached out for him, but he just shook his head.

“We should leave. It was you who wanted to be here anyway. I didn’t want to come here. I knew you didn’t understand all the rules. I knew you would have trouble following them.” He pulled the glass to his lips and took a long drink.

“Look, just tell the guys you spanked me and that I apologized. I want to stay. I really do. I’ll be quiet when we’re out there. I’ll do as you say. I want to see what that world is like. You know I want to write about it.”

Putting the glass down, he took my hand and pulled me to sit down. “That world is about a lot of things you don’t want. Things like separating love from sex. Things like putting one person above another. It’s a place where the reality of everyone being equal is dissolved. In there, one person is the master and one the slave.”

I didn’t want things to end. I wanted to understand things in that world, not only so I could write a thesis, but for myself as well. I climbed off the sofa and kneeled as I bowed my head. “I trust you, master. I want you to rule over me. I want to experience it all. If that means taking the punishment for something I feel wasn’t breaking any rules, then punish me. I’ve changed my mind. I will accept it because I want you to know that I give myself to you completely.”

He took me by the chin and made me look at him. “I don’t even want that anymore. That’s something you want.”

“You bought me to be yours. I want to know what that feels like. I still have no idea what it actually feels like to be ruled over. Teach me, master. Please.”

I was hungry for something. Not sex with him or anyone else. It seemed I wanted to be pushed to do things I didn’t want to. I wanted to feel more, even if it meant being humiliated for standing my ground with a rival woman. If that was what BDSM was about, I wanted to experience it.

But Troy was fast becoming soft with me, and I was missing out on what I was after because of it. I wasn’t sure if I should push him or not. His look was more than a bit despondent. I felt a chill around him. He wasn’t happy with me.

“Blyss, I can be brutal. I can be heartless. You have no idea of the beast you’re provoking. I don’t want to treat you that way. I want to love and cherish you.” His eyes climbed into mine. “I want everything with you. Marriage, a family, the whole nine yards. I want to leave this behind me. Can you come with me and leave this all behind us?”

What he said didn’t shake me. I knew what he wanted. He might not have said it all as crystal clear as he just had, but I was well aware that he wanted me to be with him forever. And I wanted that too. But I wanted to experience more before I went to that place with him. The little domesticated woman who would be by his side was within me, but so was a wild woman who was begging to come out and play. Only he wasn’t allowing it.

I had begged him to torture my flesh, and he’d only given me what he thought I could take. I knew I could take more and wanted to reach my boundaries that hadn’t been close to being reached. I even wanted to know what it was like to have to watch the man who owned me do things to other women and make me accept it.

My outburst at that other woman was because she initiated it all, disrespecting my man. The truth was, if Troy had initiated it, I’d have done as he wanted me to. But he didn’t want to take me to where I had come. He took me away from it as soon as he could. Now that we were back and it was time to teach me, he didn’t want to do that.

“Troy, if you will put this side of you away for only one week and show me the true meaning of being a Sub, then I will leave here with you and we will put this lifestyle behind us. If that is what you really want. I came here to experience things. Give me what I came for, please. You didn’t come here to find a wife. You came for a Sub and you got one. Now do with me what you would with any normal sub.”

“Put my love for you to the side?” He got up and threw his glass across the room. It shattered and fell on the hardwood floor.

I was afraid. For the first time, I was afraid of him. My body trembled and I didn’t know what the hell to say. My head stayed down, as if I knew, instinctually, to cover my vulnerable areas. “Please, for one week, master.”

The growl he made filled the entire room and shook my body. “I’m going to have you taken to one of those private rooms. I’ll have three men there witness your punishment for your actions tonight. I will allow them each to strike you for disrespecting the sanctity of their club. That is what I would do to a Sub I cared nothing for. Is that what you want, Blyss?”

“Yes, master.” I was scared to death and elated at the same time. He was going to treat me the way I had wanted from the beginning. I was about to find out what it felt like to be a real Sub.

“Then I will take you down and shackle you, so you will have to watch me as I take another Sub. That is what I would do to a normal Submissive partner who thought she could run the show.” My blood ran cold. “Is that what you want, Sub?”

I couldn’t make the words come out of my mouth. I had just thought that was what I wanted. I had told myself if he wanted to fuck another woman, I’d accept it. I’d find it an experience I had never had. I knew Troy could mindlessly fuck. He’d done it to me. I knew emotion was the key to making love. Could I watch Troy, the man I had come to love, mindlessly fuck another Sub to prove he was the one in charge of everything and I was in charge of nothing?

I gathered my courage. “Yes, master.”

“Then you have set your fate, Sub. Wait by the door for someone to come and get you. Don’t move or say a word to me until I tell you to. You’re getting what you want. You’re going to be treated the way a person who chooses to be lower than another is treated. You are going to experience the entire thing. I don’t think you can handle it. The safe word is cherry. Don’t forget that word.” He walked toward the bedroom. “Take your place at the door, then.”

After he had closed the door behind him, I went to the door and knelt the way he’d told me. I knew I could stop all of it with one word, but I didn’t want to. It was Troy’s savage side I had wanted to see, and I was about to get my wish. A niggling voice cropped up inside my head. Are you sure you want to coax this beast out in him, Blyss?

Of course I was sure. I had thought about it a lot. I wasn’t making some rash decision. My life had been beyond bland up until I signed up to be a Submissive for a complete stranger. Thanks to taking the initiative to become something, instead of nothing, I had experienced a lot in a short amount of time.

Now, you can add public beating to the list of experiences, Blyss. You must be so proud.

That inner-voice was annoying. A real Miss Goody Two Shoes!

I stopped breathing as the door opened and a man took me by the arm. It was only then that I realized I hadn’t taken off my collar or leash. He grabbed my leash and led me away without saying a word to me.

We got to the end of the hallway, where the black door to the private rooms was, when I heard Troy calling out, “Sub, are you sure you want to go through with this?”

The man who had my leash jerked it hard, making me stumble. “Answer your Dom, Sub!”

“Yes, master.” I caught sight of Troy as he stood just outside the apartment door. His head fell and he went back inside.

My heart was banging in my chest. It was only then that I realized that I was hurting him with what I wanted. But if I gave into him, I would deny myself the very thing I came for. Moving forward, I let the man take me to one of the dark rooms. He removed my robe, leaving me naked. My collar and leash were left on as I was strung up, facing a red-painted wall. A dim yellow light was all that lit the room and it looked ghastly.

A set of shackles hung across the room from me. It was there I’d be taken after I was whipped. It was from there that I’d have to watch Troy fuck another woman. My arms were tied, outstretched, then the same was done to my legs. I was unable to move. I’d been tied so tightly, anchored to that cold wall. The room was frigid—maybe thirty-five degrees. I was shivering and my teeth were chattering. The man who brought me there left me alone. I had no idea it would be so cold. I also had no idea how long I’d be left that way.

I figured Troy would leave me for a while, hoping I’d decide not to go through with it. As I waited, I tried not to think about anything. It was something I wanted to do. Something I could keep in my memory box about the time I really went wild. The one and only time. I had to make it count. Troy had many plans for us in the future, and none of them included anything like what was about to happen to me. I heard the door open, then close. The loud sound of the lock made a lump form in my throat. I couldn’t speak, it seemed.

My hair was pulled, making me look back. It wasn’t Troy. It was some man in a mask. “You need to be properly trained and your Dom hasn’t done it in an entire month.”

“Did he send you?”

“No, he did not. I’m here because I saw the trainer bring you in here and I wanted to get a shot at you without your soft-hearted Dom around. He’s done nothing for you. I had high expectations for you. I bid on you, too, and lost to the man who’s ruined you.”

“I don’t think I’ve been ruined by him. He just fell in love with me, is all. He’s not a bad guy. He’s anything but a bad man. He’s wonderful actually.”

“Yet he didn’t teach you the smallest of rules. Sit down, shut the fuck up, and allow your Dom to do whatever he wants.” His lips pressed against the back of my neck as he shoved my head back up.

“If he didn’t give you permission for this, you’re really fucking up. He loves me and knows I’ll accept anything he has to give me, but from you, I refuse to accept a thing. Walk away now and I won’t tell on you.”

His laughter was maniacal, then he took the whip off the wall next to me and unfurled it. “This is going to be fun.”

“Sir, really, don’t do that. I’m telling you not to do it. If you do, then it’ll be considered assault. You don’t want that, do you?” I was trying to get him to think about things before he really messed things up for himself.

The first strike whipped through the air and landed squarely on my back. I shrieked with the pain. He’d hit me ten times harder than Troy ever had. Another came after that, then another and another.

I was gasping for air, as I couldn’t breathe. I was crying so hard. “Please, stop! Cherry!” I cried out the safe word, praying it would stop what was happening to me. “Cherry! Help me. Help me, please. I don’t want this. Cherry! Someone call Troy Masterson!”

I felt something hard against my back and my hair was pulled again. “That’s my cock that’s rubbing your blood soaked back. I’m covering it with your blood, then I’m going to ram it into your pussy. I’m going to give you what you should’ve had, instead of what that pansy ass gave you.

“Stop, no …” I choked on bile that rose in my mouth.

My body was hanging limply in the ropes. I couldn’t do a damn thing to stop the man. I wailed, begged for mercy, and received none. He stepped back, then I felt dozens of small whips flogging my back all over it. The pain was so unbearable, I felt myself slipping away.

“Oh, don’t faint, honey. I’m not nearly done with you yet. And I need to hear you say that you understand what you did was wrong and you’re sorry. Can you tell me that?”

All I could do was cry as blackness moved in. I felt more lashes, then I felt nothing as my eyes closed and I accepted the fact I was going to die on that wall.

Troy

When I went to the hallway where the private rooms were, I found Grant, Thomas, and William running from the other direction. Grant shouted, “Some other man has her, Troy! We have to hurry!”

“What the hell is going on?” I was in shock as I saw the looks on their faces. Pure terror was in all their expressions.

We met at the door Blyss was behind and found it locked. “Who’s in there with her?” I leaned my ear against the door, but heard nothing.

Grant pulled open the small window, but tape had been put over the other side of it. “Fuck! We don’t know who the man is right now. It’s too dark in there and he’s got a mask on. An ambulance has been called.”

An ambulance!

“What, why? What the fuck is he doing to her? I don’t hear a damn thing!” I began to bang on the door as William started to try all kinds of keys on the locked door. “Open this door now!”

No one came to open the door, but William had found the key that worked and he flung the door open. My heart stopped as time froze.

Blyss was covered in blood. Her body hung in the ropes as some asshole hid in the corner of the room, whimpering like a little rat, “She wouldn’t stop talking. I had to do it.”

Grant looked at me with raised brows. “Do what you need to do, Troy. We’ll get her down.”

The coward was cringing close to the floor as I made swift steps to him. My mind was black. I was in combat mode. He’d hurt the woman I loved. Maybe even killed her. He was as good as dead.

I can’t say what happened after that. I just know it took five men to pull me off him, and when my eyes came back into focus, a bloody mess was all that was left of the man who’d dared to harm my woman.

As the rage began to simmer inside me, I saw that Blyss had been loaded onto a gurney. She wasn’t breathing, one of the paramedics said. He began trying to resuscitate her, but she wasn’t responding.

“I know how to do that.” I stepped up and began mouth to mouth on her. I found her limp and cold. It was my fault for sending her there. Everything was due to me and I’d be damned if she was going to die because of that. She wasn’t responding to me either.

Stopping for a second, I took her hand and held it to my heart. “You feel that, baby? That’s beating only for you. You come out of this. I need you. I’m not letting you go.” I went back to work on her, and when I felt air flow from her mouth to mine, tears sprang into my eyes.

“We have her,” the paramedic confirmed. “We’ll get her to the hospital now.”

I held her hand as they wheeled her out, then I felt Grant put his hand on my shoulder. “We’ll press full charges on the man who did this. Not to worry about a thing. You just take care of your girl. We’ll come up to the hospital after the asshole is dealt with.”

“Did I leave you much to work with?” I had to ask, as I had gone black, the way I always did when the savage man inside took over.

“Not a hell of a lot, but we’ll make sure he’s kept alive so he can face the charges we’ll bring against him.” Grant left me, then, with a pat on the back and a smile. He called out over his shoulder, “She’ll be okay. Take good care of her. She’s tougher than she looks.”

I prayed he was right and I was wrong. I didn’t think she was tough. I thought she was like a porcelain doll—one I hadn’t taken care of well enough.

As we rode in the ambulance, I couldn’t think. One of the paramedics asked, “Is there anyone you should be calling? Her parents or any other family?”

I shook my head. “She has no one. No one except me.”

“Okay. Can you get started on this paperwork, then? That way the doctors can get right to work on her. The lacerations are over some of her vital internal organs. I’m sure they’ll want to take her into surgery and have the blood transfusion permission paper signed by the responsible party.”

I got to work on the papers that were stacked on a clipboard, but hated that I couldn’t hold her hand while I did it. I was taking responsibility for her. She could count on me to make sure everything was done for her. I was all she had. When we got to the emergency room, things went in a rushed fashion. Three doctors looked at her as she was wheeled down a long hallway. The lead paramedic shot off all this medical jargon that helped them form their plan of action.

I walked along with them, never letting her hand go and quietly whispering to her as we went, “I love you. I’m here for you. I am with you, Blyss. You stay with me. I’ll never let anyone hurt you again. I promise that. Just come back to me. Please don’t leave me. I’ll make your life a fantasy. I love you.”

We got to the doors of the operating room and I was left behind as the rest of them went in with my heart and soul on the gurney. Turning around in a circle, I found a bathroom and staggered into it. There, I fell completely apart. I threw up, cried, threw up some more, and shouted at the top of my lungs that I’d kill that mother fucker who’d done that to her. Then I washed my face, ran my wet hands through my hair, and wiped everything away with a paper towel.

As I looked in the mirror, I said to myself, “That was it. Your one moment of weakness. You get no more of that. You are to stay strong for your woman. Never have doubt that she will make it through this. Never!”

When I left that bathroom, I found Grant waiting in the hallway just outside the OR. “They told me they took her straight into surgery. The cops picked up the man. His name is Roger Parker. He’s from New Jersey. He’s been a member for three months and had no prior charges. I have no idea why he did what he did, but he’ll never leave prison alive, I can promise you that, Troy.”

I nodded and saw a small waiting room with glass walls. “Let’s go in there and wait. That way they’ll see me when they come out with any news of her.”

He and I went to the room and took seats. There was a brightly-lit vending machine full of sodas. Another one had all kinds of snacks in it, and I found myself wondering who the hell could eat or drink when someone they loved was in the operating room.

Grant was the best company a man could have during that six-hour wait. He was quiet. He was a man who knew what other men needed—to be quiet, but know someone is there for him. When the doctor came in, I had a hard time not grabbing him and squeezing every bit of information about Blyss out of him. “How is she? Is she awake? When can I see her?”

The doctor put his hand on my shoulder. “She has a cut on her liver, bruised kidneys, and many, many lacerations on her back and sides, including her buttocks and the backs of her legs and arms. Her wrists and ankles are both bruised and cut where she pulled against what seems like ropes. We know where she was brought from. Did she consent to be treated that way?”

“NO!” Grant and I both shouted.

“That’s not a part of what goes on there,” Grant said. “This is an uncommon situation. This has never happened in all the years the club has been open. The man who did this was taken into custody and the owners, me being one of them, are pressing every charge that can be brought up on him.”

“And what are you going to do to prevent anything like this from happening again?” the doctor asked as he crossed his arms, looking at Grant with disapproval.

“We’ve closed the club down for now, until we can make the rooms more easily accessible and also keep guards in the hallway with monitors to make sure this never happens again.” Grant put his hand on my shoulder. “I promise you, this will change a lot at the club, Troy. We’ll never allow this to happen again.”

I was reeling from how the doctor was treating us, as if we’d hurt her. If he was acting that way, how would the police treat us?

The doctor turned his attention to me. “Do you plan on suing the club for what happened to your girlfriend?”

Grant went pale and I shook my head. “Not right now, I don’t. This is an unprecedented thing that happened. Can we please get back to Blyss and how she is? When can I see her?”

“She’s going to be in intensive care for a while. A few days. Maybe more. We have her in a medically-induced coma. When internal organs are involved, it helps to keep her completely immobile. The only way to do that is by keeping her asleep. You can visit her only twice a day for five minutes each visit. Her times are nine in the morning and six in the evening. And only family members are allowed to visit.”

“She has no family at all,” I told him. “I’m it.”

“And you aren’t family. Sorry, buddy. You can ask at the nurses’ station at the ICU about her condition. When she’s moved to a room, you’ll be able to have visits with her.”

My brain was spinning as I tried to think about what I could say that would allow me to see her, even if it was for only ten minutes a day. “She and I are fiancés. Isn’t that right, Grant?”

He nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, they’d just told everyone the great news.”

“She didn’t have a ring on her finger. Nor a tan line where one had been. Not that it would matter. Still not family if you’re not married. Engagements don’t count.” Then he turned and walked away.

Grant shouted to stop him, “We need to know if she was raped. Was there any semen inside of her?”

I held my breath as I waited for the answer. Grant put his hand on my back to steady me as the doctor turned around. “We found semen on her back. But not any of her cavities. She was not anally or vaginally raped. And you both should thank God for that little miracle. Keep your women safe, gentlemen, and I use that term loosely.”

I had to lean against the wall as relief washed over me. “He didn’t manage to get to her.”

“I wasn’t sure if he had or not. The camera caught him moving behind her, but it wasn’t apparent from behind if he was making contact or not. I guess he was rubbing himself on her back, sick mother fucker.” Grant shook his head, then went on. “Come on, I’ll give you a ride back to the club. You can still stay in the apartment. We closed off the club, but that side is still open.”

I had no choice but to leave the hospital without seeing her. It was the hardest thing I’d ever done, walking away without even looking at her face one time. But I had no other choice.

Nothing had ever hurt me more than I hurt that night. And nothing ever would.

Troy

An entire week went by with Blyss being kept in the coma. The news was all over the club. I had moved out of it and into a hotel room. The media was eating us all alive. Our faces were plastered everywhere, as sexual deviants. Even the BDSM community at large was against us. Every time I turned on the television, there was some man or woman dressed in shiny black leather, telling how nothing like that had ever happened in their clubs or in their little circles. Everyone pointed fingers at the owners.

Grant was trying hard to hold on, as were the other owners. Things looked bad for them—much worse than the Doms and Subs had it. I was next in line after the owners to be getting the most flack about being in the club and not protecting the woman who was mine to care for. No one had their stories straight. One reporter called Blyss my love slave, another my torture subject. It was all way out of hand and it made going to the hospital impossible.

I called every day and night to see if Blyss had been taken off the medication that had her staying asleep. I was sitting by the window one day, looking out of it and praying Blyss would recover a lot more quickly, when I got a call from Grant. “Turn on the news, Troy.”

I grabbed the remote and turned it on. There was my sleeping Blyss. “How the hell do they have a camera on her?”

“Some nurse is allowing them to film, looking through the outside of the glass,” he told me.

I listened as the reporter said, “Blyss Danner is a young woman of only twenty-two years old. She’s a psychology major at Stanford University in California. Her grades are excellent and she was in the prime of her life when tragedy struck her down. Blyss Danner had signed herself up to become the Submissive partner to a man she’d never met. Troy Masterson won her with the highest bid. The young woman wasn’t an active participant in the world of BDSM. Far from it. Blyss Danner was a virgin in every way. The poor thing never stood a chance when the man who took her, making her do whatever he wanted her to do, out in the forests of Oregon. In that lifestyle, the young girl was his to protect, but he failed her. In so many ways, he failed her. He hasn’t been seen at the hospital at all since she was first brought in. Abandoned by the man she sold herself to, we have ourselves a real life sleeping beauty. Men from all over the world have been calling the hospital, leaving messages for the young woman, telling her they will care for her when she wakes up. They all want her to leave the man who brought her to such a terrible world.”

I turned off the television as anger boiled inside me. “They don’t know shit!”

“I thought you needed to see that, Troy. Were you serious about marrying her?” Grant asked me.

“I was.”

“I suggest you get a ring and be ready when she wakes up. It sounds like an entire world of men will be seeking her company. Marry the girl or you’ll lose her.”

I ended the call as his words rang in my ear. ‘Marry her or you’ll lose her.’

I knew he was right, too.

I had told my parents about everything before the news traveled too far. They were shocked and disappointed, but they had my back and promised not to believe any of the crap on television. And they both made me promise to bring her home with me when she was out of the hospital. My mother wasn’t going to have it any other way. She’d nurse her back to health, and I was not to leave Blyss’ side unless she sent me away. And even then, mom would still take care of her.

Dad asked me about my intentions with Blyss, to which I told him I wanted to marry her. He told me I should get to that, then. With my family on my side, I made a call and got the biggest diamond ring I could find from the best jewelry store in Portland. In only a couple of days, I had the ring in my possession and was only waiting for my sleeping beauty to wake up. In the meantime, I made my way to the hospital every morning and every night. I didn’t care about the reporters who were camped out in the parking lot. I smiled and waved at the bastards.

“She’s my love, guys. Sorry.”

That ring stayed with me. If I caught her awake, I wasn’t about to wait to ask her the big question. I wanted things to be solid between us. And I wasn’t about to let her hem haw around about it while millions of men sought her attention. Finally, the day arrived when I caught the doctors leaving her room in the ICU. I stayed back so they wouldn’t see me and I could listen in. One of the doctors was talking to a nurse.

“The medication is to be stopped. Monitor her pain levels and keep us informed of any changes in her vital signs. One of us will be back in a few hours to see how things are going.”

She was being taken off the drugs!

I was set to stay put until she was awake. Maybe, if she asked for me, they’d let me go into her room. Even if all they’d allow me to do was to look at her through the window, I’d take it. After the doctors had cleared out, I went into the small waiting area by the nurses’ desk. Sitting quietly, I watched and counted the nurses that were in there. Five of them were watching over Blyss and the other three patients who were under their protection.

“You guys are a lot like angels,” I said to try to break the ice.

“That’s been said before,” one of the female nurses responded to me.

Not many of the hospital staff were fans of mine. I was the big, bad man who took the little girl to the bad place. If they only knew how much I hadn’t wanted to take her there, then things might’ve been different. I wasn’t about to go spouting off that Blyss wanted to be there. Pointing the finger at the victim isn’t a smart thing to do. But I did plan on letting Blyss know she’d never be stepping foot in a place like that again. Not ever!

I wasn’t going to lay a hand on her again, but I was going to exert my authority over her in other ways. Like making her let me take care of her. And love her. And worship the ground she walked on. In those regards, I’d stay her Dom.

Three hours later, one of the nurses came out and gave me a little smile. “She said your name, Troy.”

I jumped up and begged, “Please let me see her! Please! I’ll give you a million dollars if you’ll just sneak me in to see her!”

She nurse looked around, then wiggled her finger at me. “I don’t want your money. But I will give you a tiny bit of information. The night nurses will be coming in soon. There are scrubs in the closet that’s just outside of the bathroom over there. I’ll put the name, Physician’s Assistant Tad Stevens, down in the book, making evaluations for the Surgeons’ General Office. Maybe you’ll be able to pull off a little visit after we get off. Best if you’re not sitting here, waiting, when the night shift comes in.”

With a nod, I turned to leave. Taking a look at the closet, I turned back to find she was looking away on purpose. Going to it, I grabbed a set of scrubs out and covered them with the blanket I’d brought for Blyss if she did wake up. I was set to make a visit. I just had to wait around for another three hours, then I could finally get to her. I was a ball of energy, to say the least.

The hours ticked by slower than maple syrup in the winter. But finally, I saw the first shift of ICU nurses leaving the hospital from my strategic location near the lobby bathrooms. I had changed a few minutes earlier and had hidden my clothes under the sink in the bathroom. I had the ring in the pocket of my scrubs and was heading to see Blyss. My heart was pounding with each step I took.

It was almost midnight, the hospital was dim, and no one was around except an old security guard who was already snoring as I passed by him. Not that I was worried about him. I was under cover in my scrubs after all. The night shift was quietly whispering as I came into the ICU waiting room. I acted like I was tired, yawning and stretching. “Hey, guys. Tad Stevens from Surgeons’ General …”

“Yeah, man, sign the book and do what you gotta do. We just started our shifts. We have shit to do,” one of the nurses told me. “The paperwork on one of our comas is like a mountain.”

I nodded, scribbled the name in indiscernible writing, then headed down the hallway to find my lady. I found her watching television as she laid in bed. Her eyes were wide open and I nearly fell to my knees in thanks to the Lord above.

“Blyss,” I hissed as I came into her room.