TamingTara

Chapter Eighteen

She awoke to sensation—dark, erotic, electric—her body stretched out on the bed, hands above her head. She sank into the touch of hands, hard but gentle, and Joe’s mouth, warm but greedy, as he kissed and nibbled and sucked.

When she tried to reach for him, hardness bit into her wrists. What the…she jerked her wrists. But to no avail. Her eyes flew open. Her hands were bound by leather cuffs to the headboard behind her. The lamp beside the bed cast a golden glow over the bed, where Joe lay beside her stroking her, kissing her, setting every nerve ending aflame. His dark hair gleamed in the lamplight, his olive skin satiny smooth over big muscles.

“What are you doing?” she demanded through a tight, dry throat. “Untie me!”

He lifted his head from where he pressed a kiss to her belly and slanted her a wicked smile. “No.”

“Joe!”

Fear sizzled over her body and she yanked at the restraints again, craning her neck on the pillow to look at them. She could not let him do this to her. The idea that he could do anything he wanted to her sent adrenaline surging through her and, oh dear lord, a rush of liquid heat in her pussy.

This could not turn her on. It could not. She was not going to submit like this.

“Tara. Just let go. You can’t fight it, so just…feel it. It’ll feel so good, baby.”

“Oh for…” Her eyes burned and she blinked back tears of frustration. This was exactly why she hadn’t wanted to go to Le Château—the fear that he was going to do something like this, something to force her to do things she didn’t want to do, to see things she didn’t want to see.

Joe cupped her pussy with one big hand. “You’re pulsing here,” he murmured. “And…you’re wet. So wet. You tell me you don’t want this, but your body is telling me different, Tara.”

“I’m not!” She choked on a sob, fighting for control.

“You can be punished for lying,” he said. “You know I’ll do it.”

“Oh God.” Her stomach swooped.

“You know I can show you things. You know you want this.”

She closed her eyes against that mesmerizing heat in his gaze.

“What’s your safe word, Tara?”

“I…I don’t know.”

“We need a safe word. You have to feel safe.”

“I’m tied up! How can I feel safe?”

“Olives,” he decided, lips quirking. “You know how it works, right?”

She pressed her lips together and glared at him.

“Trust me,” he murmured. “Trust me to know what you need. I’m responsible for you—not just your pleasure, but your safety.”

She went still. “Responsible?” she whispered.

“Yeah.”

“I haven’t heard that word used. I’ve heard control, domination, power. But not…responsibility.”

“That’s how I feel.” He ran his hands up the sensitive insides of her arms and covered her bound wrists. “I take that responsibility seriously—I’m the one who’s responsible for giving you pleasure. For knowing how far to take you, for knowing when to stop. Responsible for knowing the technical skills, so I can use those toys without harming you when we do. And it’s a sub’s responsibility to be honest.”

Her gaze fastened on his as he talked. “I’m not a sub.”

His mouth went firm and he slowly shook his head. “Let go, Tara. Let it take over you. Find out what it feels like to give yourself over to it. And be honest when you’re telling me what you’re feeling.” He kissed her mouth while he tickled his way back down her arms, lingering in the thin-skinned bends of her elbows. “Use the safe word if you’re in unbearable physical pain. Not just because you’re being stubborn. So be honest—with yourself and with me.”

She blew out a frustrated breath.

“Honesty is important, but I know it’s not easy, especially at first. Especially if you don’t know what you really want. But that will come, as you learn more about yourself.”

How did he know she wasn’t sure what she really wanted? She’d had the dreams, the dark fantasies of bondage and pain, and yet she wasn’t sure how to make those fantasies come true. So far the things she’d done hadn’t been all that fulfilling.

“This is insane,” she said, almost crying, her wrists burning as she fought against the leather cuffs.

“Sssh.” He pressed a hand to her shoulders. “Stop fighting it, you’ll just hurt yourself.”

He leaned over her and his mouth on her nipple sent heat sweeping over her body, need clawing inside her, sharp and hot. She closed her eyes against the dark eroticism of being helpless beneath him as he took her body—giving her pleasure beyond her darkest, wildest imaginings.

“I can’t!”

“Yes,” he crooned against her breast, one hand cupping it. He licked again. “You can.”

She rolled her head back and forth on the pillow, tried to squirm away from his touch, but his big heavy body pinned her to the mattress.

“Don’t you see, Tara?” He lifted his head. “The hardest things to do are the things you’re most afraid of. That’s what takes the most courage. The most strength.” He paused. “It takes strength to give up control.”

She stared back at him, her mind racing, breath coming in shallow pants. What was he talking about?

“And you are strong,” he continued, kissing her chest between her breasts, inhaling deeply. He moved lower to her tummy and licked her bellybutton, sending shivers cascading over her. “So strong and determined and smart.”

Oh Jesus, he was making her melt with the compliments again. How could he combine such aggressive physical domination with such sweet words? How could he ask so much of her, yet give her so much too? It was crazy.

He nuzzled the curls between her legs, making her legs twitch, but she kept her thighs firmly together. He stroked her hips, the outsides of her thighs.

“Open for me, Tara.”

“No.”

He smiled against her hip. “Okay then.”

And he flipped her onto her tummy. Her arms twisted above her head, heat flaring at her wrists and down into her shoulders.

“Ow!” She bit her lip. She could end it now. She just had to say the word. It hovered on her lips, but then Joe’s mouth on her ass vaporized the safe word and it was gone on an exhalation. He kissed her butt cheek in a slow reverent kiss that made her go molten. Kissed the other cheek, slow and open-mouthed. Nibbled with his lips. Kissed her again. Sighed against her sensitive skin. She clenched her glutes.

“Mmm,” he murmured and laid his hands on the tight muscles. “Nice.”

“Oh God.”

Sensations shimmered over her body as his lips and tongue spread sweet heat over her butt, down to the sensitive crease where cheek met thigh, up between her cheeks.

“Oh dear lord!” Her head lifted and her back arched at the sinful touch of his tongue there.

He pressed a hand between her shoulder blades, pushing her flat, and continued his exploration, his other hand parting her thighs, which she could no longer keep tight together. Fingers trailed lower, through her drenched folds, back up between butt cheeks. She clenched. She gritted her teeth. She moaned.

A flame burned inside her in a licking, twisting spiral of heat.

“I love your ass,” he murmured just before he gave her a sharp tap there. She cried out again. “And you love that, don’t you?”

He warmed her ass with his hand, one cheek, then the other. Heat radiated from her buttocks and shimmered up her spine and into her brain, rendering her hot and hazy.

“Joe.” She dragged his name out of her.

He paused and gave a gentle stroke. “You want more, don’t you?”

He moved away and she lay there glowing with hot pleasure, unable to even lift her head. She heard him leave the room then return with a rustling noise.

Finally she dredged up strength to turn her head and peer at him through her long hair trailing in front of her eyes. And what she saw had her heart stuttering.

He held a flogger—a bigger, more dangerous version of her little one, and he looked like he knew exactly how to use it.

Her breath caught and she stared wide-eyed at him. Her heart lurched into an uneven rhythm, blood pulsing hotly in her veins.

“Joe.”

He walked toward her, dragging the tails across his own palm, his face dark and focused.

“I know you want this.”

She couldn’t take her eyes off the flogger, the sensual way he moved it, the confident way he held it. Her pussy tightened, every little muscle inside her clamped down hard on a surge of need.

He was a primal male animal, naked and assured, his eyes making her dark and wicked promises.

“I know there are things you want that you don’t want to admit to.”

“Yes, but…but not like this.”

He smiled. “You think you want to be the one doing this. I see it in your eyes—a craving. But not to do this to someone else. You want it for yourself.”

She bit her lip, once again unable to utter the words she wanted to. His admonishment to be honest kept ringing in her head. What would it be like? What would it feel like? What would it do to her—to surrender? Just this once?

“Do you think I might hurt you with this?”

She didn’t know for sure what he would do. He could do anything he wanted. Fear sizzled through her, a sharp edge of uncertainty. And excited anticipation.

“Remember the safe word,” he said softly, flicking the tails of the flogger.

He approached the bed, watching her. “You want this. You want to be cuffed and flogged and fucked in every orifice. And you want me to do it.”

Her eyes widened and fluttered. His dirty words made her even wetter, her pussy aching. Her chin tilted up, but she said nothing. She watched him. Her shoulders ached from being in the position, restrained, arms stretched and twined above her head.

“You liked what I did last time,” he said, dragging the tails over the curve of her ass. Up. Down. Up the groove of her spine, then back down, in a wicked caress. Then with a flick of his wrist, he delivered a thumping little blow and she moaned with pleasure.

Her eyes fell closed. More heat suffused her body at each stroke, at first like a sensual massage, achingly pleasurable. The sensation changed from stinging to dull as he varied his strokes over her body, and pleasure vibrated through her with every touch. She sank into the rhythm, flames licking over her body, pleasure and pain combining into a heady shimmer.

And then he stopped.

She lay there, vibrating, unable to move. Was that it? Her pussy quivered, helpless and needy, and she pressed her hips forward into the bed.

“This will add to the pleasure,” he said from behind her, his voice a dark promise. She heard a noise—a squirt of liquid—and then hands lifted her butt in the air. Slippery fingers probed at her heated butt cheeks. And between them. She clenched tightly around the intrusion, where no one had ever touched before.

“No!”

“Relax.” He stroked a hand over her buttocks, probing again.

“What is it? What are you doing?”

Something slid inside her, past the tight ring of muscle, smooth and round. Small. She sucked in a breath at the unfamiliar sensation.

“Beads,” he replied, and pushed in farther. Another small round penetration. And another—only bigger. Filling her. Stretching her.

She groaned and hid her face at the forbidden thrill of it.

He paused between inserting each bead, stroked her tender flesh, then pushed again, maddeningly slow until her ass burned with it. “Keep those there,” he instructed her and then the tails of the flogger swiped over her again in another hot caress.

She cried out. Pleasure ricocheted through her body from the inside out. As he brushed her flesh with the flogger, the beads inside her picked up the rhythm and transferred it to her very center until her entire body vibrated inside and out with edgy pleasure.

Her mind emptied. Her blood raced hot, her skin burned and she drifted on a euphoric high of submission and pleasure-pain. She floated.

He took her up. Hovering. Higher. She knew the safe word. A vague thought entered her head that she should say it, that she should stop this. But his words—unbearable pain. She could bear this. She absorbed it into her. And when she was almost at the point where the pleasure peaked into a sharp exquisite point—he stopped.

He smoothed his hands over her body, up her back, over her shoulders and arms and released her wrists. He rolled her over onto her back. She stared at him through dazed eyes, unable to process coherent thoughts.

“Come now,” he murmured. He lifted her legs, pressing them up to her chest, and his fingers slipped between her legs. “Come for me. You’re so close.”

He stroked through her wetness, wetter than she’d ever been, up over the bump of her clit, her ass still filled with the beads. He pumped them a little as he rubbed her clit, sensation rocketing through her in hot waves.

She cried out, closed her eyes, and turned her head to the side. It was too much, too much sensation, too much pleasure, heat rushing through her body, building to an intense peak, making her mindless with fiery ecstasy. The forbidden pleasure of the beads in her ass, the wicked touch of his fingers on her clit, the helplessness of being at his mercy all combined into a dark, edgy euphoria. Her orgasm crashed over her and when he pulled the beads out of her anus, one by one as she came, fire flared over and over and over, her body convulsing in hard pulses.

Restraining his own dominant urges to shove his prick inside her and fuck her senseless was a supreme challenge to his self-control. His cock throbbed, his balls ached with the need to come. Adrenaline sizzled through his veins and he could even taste it in his mouth. Yeah. Oh yeah. He’d done it for her. A massive wave of satisfaction rocked him.

He held her arms as he drew them slowly down to her side, knowing the burn she would be feeling. Starting with one small hand, he slowly massaged her, his fingers kneading and stroking their way up her arm to her shoulder. He knelt beside her and tenderly massaged her shoulder muscles, using his thumbs to press deeply. She moaned and her eyelashes fluttered.

“That…feels good,” she moaned.

“You were amazing, Tara.”

She’d really gone far away and he’d been impressed, awed even, though he sensed she could go even further. He continued his massage down the other arm and hand, then gently rolled her over to her tummy again. Her long hair curtained her face from him. He pressed fingers and thumbs into the tight muscles from shoulders down the sides of her spine in a slow sensual massage, until he reached her ass. Her sweet, blushing pink ass. He shifted and leaned down to press a kiss to each soft, hot cheek, gently massaging her tender flesh. Her small whimpers of pleasure told him what he needed to know.

“Stay put,” he said, rolling off the bed. “I’ll be right back.”

In the bathroom, he ran warm water over a cloth and returned to wipe the slick lube from her ass and pussy, carefully washing her.

“There you go,” he crooned and he lay down beside her and pulled her into his arms. She was as limp as the cloth he’d just tossed to the floor. “You did so good, baby. So good. Christ, you make me hot.”

His erection pressed against her softness, but he knew he had to wait. He needed all his control to be able to give her what she needed.

“I can’t believe I let you do that to me,” she moaned. He cupped the back of her head and pressed her face to his chest.

“You loved it.” He stated it with utter certainty and satisfaction.

“No, I didn’t.”

He inhaled slowly, delving deep for patience. Surely she still wasn’t going to be in denial about what she’d gotten from that? He swallowed a sigh, giving her a chance to recover and catch her breath before he got inside her pretty body. He wanted to fuck her everywhere—her pussy, her mouth, her ass. And he had no doubt she wanted that too, deep inside her.

When he felt her heart rate slow and her breathing even out, he moved her away from him, gently laying her on her back on the bed. “So beautiful,” he said, carefully pushing strands of hair back off her face. Her mouth was swollen and red; probably she’d bitten her lip while he’d flogged her. Her eyes still held a dazed haziness, her cheeks flushed a pretty peach. He rubbed a thumb over her plump bottom lip, pushed into her mouth to feel the sharp edge of her bottom teeth, the warm velvet of her tongue.

“Suck me,” he said softly. Her mouth closed around his thumb and she pulled at it with a soft wet suction. “Good girl.”

Her pupils dilated and he let her suck for a moment, then tugged his thumb away and dragged his fingertips down the side of her neck to her breasts. He loved her tits and playing with them for a while to get her all hot again would be sweet torture.

He bent his head and took one tight little nipple into his mouth, fit it to his tongue and sucked. Her fingers slid into his hair. Aw, that felt damn good. Although he loved seeing her bound and helpless, there were advantages to having her hands free.

He nibbled and licked and sucked with increasing pressure and intensity until her body twitched hard beneath him and her fingers dug into his scalp, sending electricity sizzling down his spine. He lifted and looked down at her breasts, firm and round, tipped with hard, dark red little nipples almost glowing with heat and sensation. “They’re perfect, Tara.” He stroked a hand over them, cupped her fullness, then pinched and rolled the nipples in his fingers. He bent his head and used his teeth with exquisite care. She gasped.

“Tell me, Tara.” He nipped at the other nipple, swollen and crimson. “Does it hurt?”

“Yes.” Her head tossed on the pillow, her hips lifted and satisfaction drizzled through him like warm honey at how responsive she was to him. His cock leaped. “God, yes.”

“If you want me to stop, say the word.” He dragged his tongue over the tight bud, alternating soft with hard, soothing with sharp.

She didn’t say it, just moaned again.

“Your nipples will be sore,” he murmured. “But when I touch you tomorrow, just a brush of my finger against your tender nipples will remind you of this and make you wet.”

Her breathing grew even choppier. “Oh dear God.”

Christ, he needed to be inside her, and he moved over her, parted her thighs and slipped his fingers through her wetness. Unbelievable. Her clit twitched delicately at his touch. She needed to come again as much as he did.

He reached for a condom, gloved up and prepared to push inside her. “What do you want, Tara?” He paused, his hands on her thighs. “Tell me what you want.”

“I want you to fuck me!”

“Ah.” And he thrust into her. She was wet and soft enough to take almost all of him on the first push, and with the second he was balls deep inside her. Christ! On his knees, legs spread wide, he dropped his head back, eyes closed, lungs straining. Her velvet warmth wrapped around his cock, tight and hot. Moisture beaded on his forehead. Pleasure tore through him, violent and ferocious.

“Oh be careful,” she begged, head tossing. “So deep…so deep…”

Ah Christ, he didn’t want to hurt her. He eased up just a little. He reached for her face, grasped it and turned it toward him, holding it. “Look at me,” he commanded. “Open your eyes.”

She dragged her eyes open and met his. And everything he saw there slammed into him, knifing straight to his heart. His hand slid from her jaw to her throat, holding her there like a collar. He fucked her with hard, heavy strokes and she lifted into him and fucked him back, their eyes fastened on one another.

“Come,” he said. And reached between them to find her clit with his thumb. He pressed over it and she cried out and arched up off the bed. He watched the ecstasy tighten her beautiful face, a pink flush of pleasure flow up from her breasts to her throat to her face.

Need for her whipped through him, wrenching at his muscles. His head spun, his skin tingled everywhere, pressure built at the base of his spine, his balls tightened. And then he came violently, sensation exploding through his nerves, racing over his body. He slammed into her, holding himself against her soft pussy as he poured into her, coming in long, hard spurts of ecstasy.