Finding Orion (27 page)

"Wear one tonight when I come to see you.
Wear only the robe."

Heat brushed
my cheeks when I read the last part. He wanted me to answer the door with a
single layer of fabric between us. I swallowed hard, and with fingers that had
a little more control than they did when I tried to unbutton my blouse, I replied.
"Yes, Master."

"Good girl. See you in a few hours."

I turned off
the cell knowing he wouldn't text again. Over the last week, his texts had
gotten shorter and more direct. After going over safe words time and again,
he'd eased me away from repetition and into territory I had yet to visit.

I'd seen him
earlier in the week when he came into work for a visit, but it was business
related more than anything else. He'd actually gone in to
Farrin's
office to see if he could get me off work earlier. At first
Farrin
was against it, but when
Jace
got
Karie
and the rest of the crew involved, we were more than covered for Friday
evening.

A part of me
hoped someone would call out so I'd have to stay late, but deep down, I
couldn't wait. I opened my cell, turned it back on, and read his last text
again.
Wear only the robe.
And like
some many times before today, I looked at the clock, counting down the hours
until I'd get home, until I met him at the front door.

Four hours.
I could do this. Four
hours was nothing compared to my usual, but just thinking about it made time
slow to an agonizing crawl. I tried to find something to do. I faced the
shelves and recounted the money in my till. But for once, everything in the
store was already taken care of. If I didn't know any better, I would've bet
Jace
had something to do with it.

Three hours and fifty-eight minutes.
Time couldn't
go fast enough.

****

As promised,
I'd put on a short, black satin robe before
Jace's
arrival. The fabric barely reached to my knees and only just covered my
breasts. The anticipation I felt at work had only gotten worse since I got
home. I wasn't sure what unnerved me more—the fact that I was naked under a
paper-thin piece of fabric or because I was home in the afternoon when I'd
usually be working.

Pacing from
the living room to the bathroom, I straightened the robe, my short hair, the
comforter on the bed.
Jace
hadn't even mentioned what
he had planned for this evening, so as far as I knew, anything was game.

My breath
caught when I heard a knock at the door. Checking the time on my cell, I set it
down on the kitchen counter and cautiously opened the door. I reminded myself
to breathe and opened it further when I saw
Jace
standing
on the other side. Decked in a suit and carrying a bag at his side, he accepted
my invitation and closed the door behind him.

Again, I waited
to hear him say something, to praise me, to comment on my robe or how short it
was. He didn't. He didn't say a word. Instead, he double-checked the door and
looked down at me.
Goodbye,
Jace
. Hello, Orion.

"Have
you been wearing your cuffs at night like I told you to?"
Jace
asked as he walked further into the apartment.

I followed
him into my bedroom and nodded to the cuffs on the nightstand.
"Every night."

"Are
they uncomfortable?" He dug into the bag he'd brought with him for a long
lead of some kind.

I shook my
head, eying the strange item as he put it under my mattress. "They felt
odd at first, but I’ve actually been wearing them through the night."

"Really?"
He smirked,
tugging on the lead so the four ends appeared at every corner of my bed. "I’m
impressed. And if you’re that comfortable…" He finished his work on the
odd looking strap and closed the space between us, the breath from his lips
whispering against my ear. "You won’t mind if I do this."

He gently
pushed me down onto the bed, making sure I was centered before placing the
cuffs beside me. "Tell me your safe words." He opened one of the
cuffs and held it in his hands.

"Red
to stop.
Yellow to slow down."

"Good
girl. Now, spread your arms and legs, almost like you’re doing a jumping jack."

I smiled at
his comparison and did as I was told, swallowing when the first cuff wrapped
around one of my wrists.

"Not too
tight?"

"No,"
I replied, correcting myself when his eyes narrowed in my direction. "No,
M-master."

"Good
girl. You will let me know if something hurts."

I bobbed my
head, and he continued. One cuff after another, he placed them around my wrists
and ankles. I drew in a deep breath when he attached one of the cuffs to the
lead running under my mattress. My heart skipped a beat when he attached the
second one. By the time both ankles were bound to the bed, I couldn’t move,
even if I’d wanted to.

I was at his
mercy—to do with what he wanted. Sweet, delicious helplessness on my part, and
I couldn’t fucking wait. I could still see him, feel him. SMELL him. He circled
the bed, bobbing his head this way and that as he continued his inspection.

He uncurled
one of my hands, turned my leg a certain way so the knee wouldn’t get stiff. He
placed the pillow under my head so my neck wouldn’t do the same. All this
attention to detail and I didn’t even know how long I was supposed to stay
here.

I closed my
eyes, listened to him breathe. My breath came out in short, shallow gasps. His were
even, controlled. I licked my lips and pulled at the cuffs on my wrists. The
bindings held fast. My heart skipped a beat, but I wasn’t panicking. I was
anticipating. What would he do next? Would he do anything?
Would
he just let me lie here and get used to complete and helpless surrender?

Similar to
when he walked around me in the living room, he took his time. He trailed his
fingertips against my palms, the bottoms of my feet, up my legs and down my
arms.

I flexed my
hands, pulled against the restraints if only to touch him. I gave in when the
bindings didn't come undone.

Stopping when
he reached the nightstand,
Jace
said, "Today,
you're going to give me your sight and complete control over what happens."
He unzipped his bag and pulled out a blindfold. Leaning over to place it over
my eyes, he looked right at me. "Do you trust me?"

"Y-yes,
Master."

"Good
girl." He lifted my chin. "Now, at some point during this scene, I
want you to use your safe words, even if you don't think you need them. See how
I react. This is the only time I'll continue play after the word's been used,
but not before we talk about it first. Use it when you feel like you've almost
had too much."

I frowned. "You
want me to abuse the words?"

"Just
this once, yes.
It's so you can see how I react. It will also
help build trust. Most
Doms
don't offer this, but
because of my history—I want you to feel safe. If you feel threatened or in any
kind of danger, then I'm doing something wrong. And until I learn your body
language, I'll depend on you to tell me when I need to stop. Understand?"

"Yes,
Master."

"Tell me
your safe words."

"Yellow
if something's wrong.
Red to stop."

"And
what are your limits?"

I pulled
against the cuffs just to make sure my hands didn't go numb.
"Fire."

He nodded.
"Noted.
Now, since this is your first time, I won't
expect you to know all of your hard limits, so if we do something and you feel
it should be added to that list, let me know. However, if you use red at any
time after today, whatever caused you to use your word will go on that list as
well. Make sense?"

I nodded.
"Seems simple enough."

"It can
be, but some subs seem to forget there are rules put in to place for a reason.
Like I said, if I scare you, I'm doing something wrong. Making you nervous is
part of the game, but if at any point you feel uneasy about anything, it's
better to use yellow so we can talk about it first. That said
,
have you heard of subspace and aftercare?"

"Yes."

"What
are they?"

"Subspace
is the frame of mind a sub goes in to because of an overload of endorphins."

"And
aftercare? What is it? Why do subs need it?"

"Aftercare
is whatever the sub needs in order to come down from subspace. There isn't
really a definition for it."

"Do you
know why aftercare is so critical?"

I shook my
head. "I always just thought it was used to make the sub feel good."

"Well,
that's certainly part of it, but the reason we use aftercare, especially after
a hard scene, is so the sub doesn't drop after the endorphins wear off. These
subdrops
as we call them can be very damaging and last days
at a time. So, if you ever find a Dom that doesn't offer aftercare, make sure
you get it from someone else. Keep yourself hydrated. Eat something and get
under some warm blankets."

 
Biting my bottom lip, I asked, "How would
aftercare work in a long-distance relationship?"

"The
same way it does in one that's close by. The Dom will talk the sub down, then
call to check in on them a day or two later. This is why it's just as important
for a sub to know what they need for aftercare in case her Dom isn't around. Do
you have any questions?"

"No."

Jace
crossed his
arms over his chest. "No?"

"No,
Master."

"Good
girl."

He kissed me
on the forehead and my world went dark.
Jace
didn't
speak after that, but as I settled in to darkness, every sound he made was
magnified. His weight on the bed lifted, disappeared. A drawer opened, possibly
my nightstand.
Jace
threw a few items on the bed,
some too light to feel, but still easily heard.

I waited to
hear him move, to see a darker shadow pass over my eyes, but the blindfold he
used was thick. I couldn't see a damned thing.

A tremor
rippled over my spine when the tie on my robe came undone.
Jace
carefully pulled at the ribbon, removing it completely so my robe fell away
from my breasts. I flinched when a fingertip brushed under my collar bone,
pulling the robe further away from my body.

Jace
stopped. "Are
you okay?"

"Yes,
Master," I squeaked.

"Do you
need to use a safe word?"

"No,
Master."

He squeezed
my hand and then released it before moving away. The sound of a zipper broke
the stale silence as
Jace
dug through his bag for
whatever he'd brought with him. Another item, heavier than the ones before it,
fell onto the bed. I focused on it, on its heavier weight and the shape it may
have left on the covers of my bed.

Something
even heavier dropped down near my feet, something I assumed was his bag and
whatever was left inside. I gasped when a piece of rough fabric brushed against
the insides of my leg. It was cooler than my skin, but too warm to be an ice cube.

"Tell
me, Brianna, what were the two things I asked you to do for me this week?"

Looking back
at our last evening together, I said, "To wear the cuffs, and not to come."

"I know
you wore the cuffs as I'd asked, but what about my second order? Did you keep
to that as well?"

I chewed at
my bottom lip. I'd had one dream of Orion in the last week, and as brief as it
was, I still came.
But that was just a
dream.
Did it really matter? As far as
Jace
was
concerned, Orion only knew I had someone else when I was awake. Was it possible
to disobey an order while I was asleep when I'd only made a promise to keep to
it when I was awake?

"Brianna,
answer me."

Taking a
breath, I asked, "Do dreams count?"

Jace
scoffed. "I
guess I couldn't fault you for something like that." He stopped moving
again, his lips hovering somewhere above mine. "Our subconscious has a
mind of its own. No, dreams don't count."

I could tell
from the lilt in his voice that he was curious, but he didn't ask anything after
that. Probably pleased with my answer, the cold item on the inside of my legs
moved again. It moved up over my one hip, against my side, over my ribs, and
across one of my breasts.

It wasn't
until it passed under my chin that I realized what it was. The smell of soft
leather wafted in the air in front of me, and as
Jace
moved the tails of the flogger down my other side, I shivered.