His Absolute Domination: The Billionaire's Paradigm (#5) (A BDSM Erotic Romance) (The Billionaire's Ultimatum, Book Two) (12 page)

"Yes," he said.

"Alright, but does everything have to
be fitted?" I asked.

"Indeed. Everything." He nodded
once.

"Panties?"

"Everything."

"Socks?"

"Everything."

"Condoms?"

"Every--"

I snickered and cuddled against him,
burying my face in his thigh, feeling happy and shy at my sudden
silly comment.

"Feisty tonight, are we, Miss Tanner?"
Lucent tickled my side, sending me into another fit of laughter.
"I'll have you know that, when the occasion requires it, I already
have the fitting for those necessities under control."

I spun around immediately and stared
up at him. "Do you really have fitted condoms?"

He grinned. "Mhm."

"Can I see one?"

"If you were anyone else, I'd think
you were flirting with me." He rolled his eyes. "Unfortunately I
did not intend on pursuing sexual relations with anyone upon
entering this club tonight, so I haven't brought the object of your
interest."

"Oh." I frowned. Fitted condoms,
really? "Can we use one later?"

Lucent glanced down at me, attempting
to hide his amusement. "You're so strange, Miss Tanner."

"I am not!"

We argued, but it was playful arguing.
I informed Lucent that I just couldn't trust his assessment of a
properly fitted condom unless I saw it in use, and I needed to
insure it worked properly. That's all. He laughed and told me that
he saved them for special occasions. I pretended to pout and said
that I should be a special occasion. He agreed with me.

Blushing, teasing, tickling, laughing,
cuddling, kissing.

Sam arrived with our food and drinks,
leading them in on a cart. After setting everything up, he left
Lucent and I to ourselves once again. We ate and everything tasted
as delicious as I remembered. Lucent kept me in his lap, too. This
suited me wonderfully, because I didn't want to leave his
lap.

He fed me, also. I never even asked,
but he nodded and made a gentle noise and tipped his sandwich
towards me. Smiling, I opened my mouth wide and took a bite. It
almost felt like we were in the library again, trapped in our
little room, the two of us, together.

"What do you think of the stout?"
Lucent asked after I took my first sip.

"It's..." It was dark; dark beer.
Sweet, though. Chocolatey? Kind of like an adult version of
chocolate milk. A little hint of vanilla, too. "I think it's good,
but I don't know if I'd order it on my own," I admitted. "Do they
make a fruity version?"

"A fruity version of a stout?" He
lifted one eyebrow.

I shrugged. "I don't know?"

"Next time we'll try something
different," he said. "It sounds peculiar, but it's really quite
good. You mix half a glass of champagne with half a glass of stout.
Traditionally it's called a Black Velvet. They're somewhat fruity,
by way of the champagne."

"Do you like them?" I
asked.

"I do enjoy them on occasion,
yes."

"Alright. I would like to try one,
then."

...

Once we finished our meal, Lucent and
I chatted. He also rubbed soothing balm on my butt. I protested
that one at first, but he refused to accept my arguments. Laying
across his lap, my elbows pressed onto the leather of the couch,
lips pouted, I reluctantly allowed Lucent to rub cream on my sore
cheeks. He lifted my skirt and pulled down my underwear and began.
This was sexual, and yet it wasn't. It was odd.

The balm was cold and made me fidget,
but he used such gentle, calming motions that I couldn't help but
relax. And we talked more. Everything went by so fast. I'd arrived
at the club with Cole at nine, but in a matter of moments it seemed
like everything was closing down. Soon enough, when I looked up,
the main room had dwindled to a handful of people, and even those
people were packing up and saying their goodbyes to one
another.

Lucent finished with the balm. Taking
a soft linen towel from the cart Sam had left us, he cleaned the
excess cream from my butt, then tossed the towel aside. Then he
rubbed me again, but this time he had no balm.

His hand circled one of my
cheeks, then the other, from the outer edge to the center curves.
And downwards. He toyed with me, teasing his fingers lower, lower,
to my slit, where he gently
pushed
a little bit inside of me, and...

He stopped. "Come, Miss Tanner. I'll
have someone fetch your coat. I'm taking you home."

What? No. That wasn't fair. "I don't
want to go home," I said, whiny and in protest.

"I'm taking you to my home," he
added.

"Oh."

"Do you find this acceptable?" he
asked, some curious, erotic expression on his face. His lips
quirked, amused, but his eyes watched me, lascivious. Oh
God.

"Only if you show me your fitted
condoms," I said. I thought I should bargain here, even though I
didn't even care about the condoms anymore.

"No," he said.

Argh! Should I say no, then? I didn't
find this acceptable? I did, though. I wanted to see Lucent's
home.

I decided on another angle. "Lucent,"
I said, sweet and demure, "I would find it pleasing if you showed
me your fitted condoms."

"Would you?" he asked,
grinning.

"I would like it a lot if I could see
how they worked."

This was it, I thought. It was fun,
too. A game, kind of. That topping from the bottom thing Lucent
mentioned. He refused me if I tried to bargain with him, but if I
mentioned I liked something, then what?

"Perhaps," he said. "I'll consider it.
What I have in mind isn't especially conducive to condom use,
though."

"Oh," I said. "What do you have in
mind?"

"It's a secret."

"I don't like secrets."

"Are you saying you don't find this
acceptable, then? Shall I bring you back to your apartment, Miss
Tanner?"

I was absolutely positive he wouldn't
bring me back to my apartment. He'd kidnap me and tie me up and
tease me and torment me and have his way with me. And, while that
sounded thrilling and exciting, I couldn't even play hard to get
right now. He had me; he owned me. I adored Lucent's secrets, even
through my impatience.

"I find
you
acceptable," I said,
crossing my hands over my chest.

"Is that your way of stating you'd
like nothing more than to fuck me right here and now with reckless
abandon on the floor of my private booth?" he asked.

"Yes," I said, petulant. "It
is."

"I am going to make careful note of
that, Miss Tanner. For future reference."

"Good," I said.

"Come. Let's find your coat and leave.
Otherwise I might use my private knowledge of your verbal
intricacies sooner rather than later."

...

Lucent requested someone fetch me my
coat, which they did quickly. We left after that. He
drove.

For some reason, I imagined someone
like him having a personal driver, but he didn't. I mentioned it in
passing as we rode through the quiet, early morning streets of the
city, and he just laughed.

"I'm not an especially trusting
person, Miss Tanner," he said. "I prefer to drive myself because I
know I'll do an appropriate job of it."

"You trust me," I replied, hopeful.
Hopeful, because I didn't want him to respond unfavorably and say
he didn't.

"I do," he said. Then he added, "In
many things, at least. I don't trust you to drive,
though."

"What? I'm not a bad
driver."

"No one said you were bad." He grinned
and tossed me a sidelong glance from his throne upon the driver's
seat; King Lucent of the Streets. "I'm better, though. That's
all."

"I'll race you," I said.

"If you plan on racing me, I believe
you'll need a new car first. Yours is more likely to fall apart
than to win any races. Also, racing is hardly the appropriate way
to prove you're a safer driver."

"I suppose," I mumbled.

At the next stoplight, Lucent grabbed
my hand and kissed the back of it, letting his lips linger on my
soft skin. I blushed and smiled shyly at him and forgot all about
driving.

...

Apparently Lucent lived in an
apartment, which was more like a house, in the upper section of
some prominent skyrise residential tower. He rented two floors of
it, both connected either by the elevator or a spiral staircase. He
had his own private passcode for the main elevator that brought him
to what amounted to his front door. Along with that, and not as
interesting, he told me, was a service elevator and emergency
staircase sequestered in a back room. No one typically used those;
they were just there.

"In case of emergencies," I said,
nodding.

"Yes, I suppose so." He grinned at
me.

I wanted to see the entire place. It
looked quite roomy. Most everything was dark, though. Lucent turned
on the bare minimum of lights and led me down a hallway, making me
guess at the shadowed silhouettes situated down other halls and in
rooms with half-opened doors. It might've looked ominous and
disturbing, except I somewhat doubted Lucent had anything
especially creepy in his house.

Perhaps I was too trusting.

"Can I have a tour?" I asked, hoping
to halt our progress for a moment so I could investigate. His house
was a mysterious new continent found in the middle of uncharted
waters and I wanted to discover it.

"No," Lucent said, glancing at me.
"Not tonight, at least. I'm going to punish you."

I blinked and stared at him. "What."
This was supposed to be a question of concern, but I never reached
the questioning part.

"Yes," he said with a nod. "I'm not
too pleased with your willful and reckless abandon, Miss Tanner.
You put yourself into an extremely dangerous predicament, and I'd
like to ensure it doesn't happen again."

"Lucent, I..."

Did I want to be punished? I didn't
think so, or at least not right now. I still felt... odd. Weird?
Yes. My butt stung slightly from Cole's abusive palm and I was
worried. I didn't want to be worried, especially with Lucent, but
after this evening I realized I didn't really understand any of
these BDSM things and perhaps I shouldn't. Perhaps this meant
Lucent and I couldn't be together, and perhaps this was best, and
perhaps...

He sidled close to me and put his hand
on my hip, pulling me close to him. With his other hand, he touched
my chin and bade me to look up at him.

"Miss Tanner," he said. "I won't hurt
you, I promise you that. Do you trust me?"

"I think I do," I said truthfully.
"But I'm scared." Scared to trust him, scared of punishments, or
scared of myself; I wasn't sure which applied.

He frowned and furrowed his brow,
considering my honesty. "Come with me," he said. "I shall show you
and explain to you the form of punishment I wish to exact upon you.
I assure you it's extremely light, all things considered. I promise
you it won't hurt."

"How do you know, though?" I
asked.

"I've been on the receiving end of
this particular form of punishment."

"Oh." Wait! What? "Who punished
you?"

"No one." He smirked. "I'd be a
terrible person if I didn't know how my punishments felt, though,
now wouldn't I? I've assessed these situations by experimenting in
private on myself and I'm a more sensible and trustworthy person
because of it. I will know exactly how you feel, exactly when you
feel it, because I have felt it."

"Oh." That sounded... very nice.
Fascinating, actually. I wanted to know how Lucent felt, and while
this was different in a lot of ways, it intrigued me.

"Don't trust me because I say that you
should," he added. "Trust me because you find me trustworthy. Shall
we go?"

I nodded, but I didn't know entirely
how I felt about all of this yet. A little confused, morbidly
curious, fascinated and surprised. This seemed like a lot of
feelings for what Lucent called an "extremely light"
punishment.

Holding my hand, he led me to a room
near the end of one hallway and escorted me inside. He flipped a
lightswitch on the wall and closed the door behind us.

The room was... peculiar. Large, or
large enough. As big as my bedroom back at my apartment. It looked
like a massage studio, or maybe a doctor's office. A cushioned,
massage-style table in the center of the room acted as a
centerpiece to the surrounding area, with an excessive amount of
bookshelves lining the walls, and a smaller, actual table near the
cushioned one. The small table had drawers on the side. Hiding
things, I supposed. What things? Punishment BDSM things?