Iron Dominance (15 page)

“Uh, yes.” She took a measured swallow of retsina, looking at him from under her eyelashes. Her hand didn’t visibly tremble, but the surface of the retsina did.

“From what I’ve seen, you’re happy with that?”

She said nothing.

“You’re very red, Claire. A beetroot would be put to shame.”

“I’m, uh, happy with that.” On one side, she curled her hair back behind her ear. He waited until she stopped fussing and put her hands in her lap.

“Good.” He let his own pleasure show through in his tone and noted her blush fading. “Because, this isn’t about me only. If you’re not happy, then I’m not. I may like holding you down when we have sex…or restraining you in other ways”—
ahhh, good; that made her breathe even faster
—“or sometimes even turning your bottom red with a paddle, but I want you to find joy in this.” He made himself sit still, despite wanting to reach out and fondle her.

“Um”—she swallowed—“I’m not keen on the restraining, or the, uh, paddle, and you know ropes are out.”

“No? I think perhaps it’s too early to decide that. When the moment arrives, yes? Then we’ll see if you feel the same way. And that is one of my rules. I get to decide how far we try to go, because I don’t think, Claire, that you really know yourself.”

At that, he picked up the cloth that had held the pastries, reached across, and slowly looped it around the hand she leaned on. Then he kept her hand pinned there to the ground, with the cloth wound tight, while he cupped his other hand beneath her chin. He watched her for a long moment. Her eyes were on his, her nostrils flaring. He moved in and kissed her thoroughly. When he pulled away and dragged the cloth from around her wrist, her lips were parted, and she looked like she’d fall over on her back if he pushed the slightest amount.
Superb.

“Your lips are swollen, Claire. And I know that if I touched you between your legs, I’d find you wetter than that river behind you.” He narrowed his eyes but kept the warmth of approval in his tone. “That was restraint. You liked it. I had thought we’d already established this.”

After a second, she gulped. “I did…like it. But that was different. I could have gotten myself free.”

“I don’t doubt you could have tried and maybe succeeded. But you didn’t. You enjoyed being held down. It’s not necessarily about being overpowered; it’s about relinquishing control. There’s always an out. For me, there’s a thrill in knowing you’re giving me that power.”

He made his voice stay utterly steady, imprinting on her that this was fact. “The greater the restraint, Claire, the greater the enjoyment will be for you. When you trust me enough to hand me complete control, I’m going to tie you up in rope. I love the stark beauty of rope on a woman’s skin. I’m going to tie you up so thoroughly that you won’t be able to stop me from making you come, over and over.”

She froze, and he could see that both fascinated and shocked her, as her throat and mouth worked with little movements.

He smiled. “This is not meant to be algebra. If you’ll let me, I’ll take you on a journey, one you won’t easily forget.”

She shut her eyes, opened them, and fixed him with those golden irises. “Mmm.” She steepled her fingers together. “But what if I want to stop or take a different path to the one you’re on?”

“I’ll always take into account what you want done to you.”

“Done to me?” The words twisted into a squeak. She shook her head as if perturbed at the betrayal of nerves, then cleared her throat.

His gorgeous bodyguard was unsettled, if aroused.
Good.

“Just remember, I’m the one with the ultimate say. And I guarantee, you won’t always, one hundred percent, like what I do. But that adds to the fun.”

She shot him a suspicious look at that. “A last thing to remember, and this is important. I have rules. I have to. It’s not just you and me—there’re hundreds who rely on me, look to me for leadership. I can’t have you questioning me in public. If I give an order, I expect to see it obeyed. I’m speaking specifically of last night when you walked away from me. Do that again and there will be consequences. On the other hand, if you want out of this, I’ll endeavor to find somewhere you can live without the PME coming after you. Is that all clear?”

“Um. Yes. It’s clear.”

He let her think about everything he’d said, in silence. For a while they sat together, finishing off most of the delicacies and listening to the wind rustling the tree tops, and the plop of water as fish searching for bugs popped to the surface.

“Now, I’d like to hear about you. Something that’s not in that report.”

He took a sip from his glass. “Come, tell me something? Anything. I’ll listen.”

“This isn’t what I’m used to.”

“What? Bodyguards don’t get to talk? Do you have friends?”

She shrugged.

“Right.” He suppressed his annoyance. How was he going to get her talking? She was so different from his previous consorts.

He began to clear away the food, and after a moment, Claire joined him at his side. They put everything back into the basket, except for the bowl of strawberries, which he whisked from her hand.

“Now. We’re going to play a game. Sit there. Kneeling.” No dalliance this time; he made that a command.

She opened her mouth but did as he asked.

He waited until she sat with knees together on the plaid rug, stretching those leggings in many appealing directions.

“You said that you’d not made love to a man before?” Red spread across her cheeks. Still so easily embarrassed by sex? “So, I was your first lover?”

“Yes.”

“Then, I’m honored that you gave me that privilege. And I hope I didn’t disappoint you.”

“Ah.” This time he got a smile back. “No, Theo, you definitely didn’t disappoint me.”

For once, he was the one in shock. She’d smiled at him
and
called him Theo.

“Good.” He put a wicked twist to his own smile. “I’ll have to make sure my record stays impeccable. Give me your hand.”

With only the slightest hesitation, she extended her arm. He turned her hand over, then stroked her palm.

Fascinated, he watched the shifting colors in her irises, like clouds and sunlight passing through.

“I said I wouldn’t tie you up with ropes yet. I also said that ropes aren’t the only form of restraint.” He kissed her palm, then gave each fingertip a brief touch of his tongue.
Ah, yes. Her eyes widened the slightest
. He curled her fingers into her palm, let go of her hand.

She blinked at him, the tip of her tongue coming out and resting in the middle of her upper lip. Clearly, she was thinking about his words. He’d like to suck that little pink tongue into his mouth while he kissed her…or have her lick his cock.

“What are you planning?”

“You’ll see soon enough.”

She shut her eyes. The sunlight haloed her hair in gold. She was so beautiful. Yet, he thought wryly, he valued the smile she’d just given him more than the prettiness of her hair.

“Sit up on your knees, Claire,” he said softly.

Slowly, she did so.

“Straighter. Good. Now, I’m going to answer your questions, and you will answer mine. If you answer me, I will reward you with an instruction, and some food.” He plucked a strawberry from the bowl.

“What?” A tiny crease appeared on her forehead.

“You’ll see. My first question, and I’ll warn you in advance—this means those leggings come down—tell me your earliest memory.” He dangled the strawberry. The lure, of course, was not the fruit.

“Wait. So, I have to answer you, and then you’ll make me take off my clothes? And if I don’t answer you? What happens then?”

“I’m not sure. Perhaps, I’ll spank you…perhaps not. Depends on how much you’ve said. Do you want this to go further or not?”

Her eyes looked fathomless as pools, yet deep down, he glimpsed a rising swirl of desire. He waited, grinning, the strawberry rotating on its stalk where he held it between finger and thumb.

He’d tried just plain asking, and she’d still held back. Dankyo was right. He had to know more about her. If she couldn’t handle honesty, he’d be better off sending her away, no matter how that tore him apart. With his political connections and all those under him, there was too much at stake.

He aimed to make this talk fun. And with this game, he’d blurred the lines of who held the reins and who did not. He made up the rules and the consequences. She had the choice of opting out.

“I…” Claire opened her mouth a few times, ducked her head.

Ah. She’d decided to participate. He studied her sweet body. The anticipation might just kill him.

“My earliest memory? I remember running down a forest pathway. My friend, Francine, ran beside me. We used to play hide and seek. She was darn good at that. Too good.” She raised her head, stared at him, as if daring him.

As if he’d not follow through
. He put the strawberry to her mouth. She parted those soft lips and sucked in the redness, chewed and swallowed. He let his finger trail into the hole created by those lips and imagined his cock there. “I think, after all, you should do this. Pull them to your knees.”

And at last,
finally
, she was talking.

She put her hands to her waist, and slowly, teasingly, she shimmied the leggings down until they bunched at her knees. No underwear. The golden triangle of hair greeted his gaze. Now that was worth seeing.

“Your question?” He found another strawberry.

“What happens after?”

“This time it’s a secret.”

“Hmph.”

He cocked his head. How he liked messing with her. One of the perks of being the dom. Keeping the submissive off-kilter was at least half the fun. Too predictable, and things got boring. He never, ever, wanted boring. Neither would she.

She sucked in her bottom lip. A nervous habit. One he could count on. The more he understood her, the better. “You won’t tell me?”

“No.” He shook his head.

“Then I should make it a hard question. Why did you not listen to Dankyo when he told you to…dispose of me?”

Oh, now that was some question.

“Because, though I listen to Dankyo, I trust my own instincts even more. I don’t think, even now, that you’re a danger to me. How could anyone who’d do this be a risk?” He smiled. “Take off your bustier.”

He fed her the strawberry and ate some fruit himself while she opened the buckles on the jacket to get at the bustier, then undid the gold hooks and took it off. Her breasts, round and inviting, swung free. The nipples shrank, wrinkling up into perky pinkish buttons.

“My question.” He found a small bunch of red grapes, examined Claire, naked apart from the opened jacket, all the way from her knees up. Too tempting. He put a hand above the twisted cloth at her knee and ran it up toward the delicious territory between her legs where the light tuft of pubic hair came to a point.

* * *

Claire found her breath stilled in her throat as she waited for his hand to get to where she wanted it to be. Her clit and vulva had acquired heartbeats of their own. Yet he didn’t caress her there; instead his fingers combed lightly through her pubic hair while the fingers of his other hand traced their way to an areolae…again, not quite touching the center.

“Claire?”

She opened eyes she’d not known she’d closed. Damn, the man was smirking at her, or near enough.

“What are you most afraid of?”

She flinched, felt herself come down from the isolated world of pleasure she’d inhabited.

“Claire? I understand that’s an even harder question than yours.” He put a hand on her knee. She focused on that. “Maybe, just this once, I’ll let you reserve that one. Answer later. Would you like a different question?”

Would I? But I’m afraid of so many things. Myself, to start with
. This was a trade-off. Hand him her heart and soul on a platter, and he’d what? Give her great sex? No, she belittled what he offered. “Claire?”

She looked at him. Kind, gentle when she needed him to be, twice her body weight, and he wanted to tie her up and spank her.
Whew
. And just the thought of that made her squirm, made her want to both climb all over him and run the opposite way.

“You’ll give me a different question?”

“If you want. But you get to answer it later today.” His hand on her knee squeezed.

She screwed up her face. “No. I’ll answer. I understand why you need honesty. Even if I hate talking about things like this.” She huffed. “I guess…I’m afraid of being lost, of having no home, nowhere to go. Of not being me.” She couldn’t keep the misery from her words. This topic was so close to the core of sadness in her. Even in the midst of desire, she felt the worst of it.
And now, I’m afraid of losing you, because really, what I just said makes me sound like the most useless sort of person.

His arms enfolded her, and he pulled her tight into his chest. “Thank you,” he said softly. “Shh. It’s okay.”

He didn’t think she was something awful? She crumpled a bit and slid her arms around him, put her face into his shoulder. Solid. Nice. For a while it was enough to sit and be comforted; then slowly she remembered her ass was bare, for Theo had glided his hand down, feeling her between the cheeks of her bottom.

“Hey,” she whispered huskily, turning her head up.

He kissed her. A slow, steamy kiss that warmed her from her toes to her pussy and left her thighs quivering.

“Enough of this.” His voice rumbled deep. Suddenly she was aware of everything, her skin so sensitive, and every detail before her sluiced sharp, as if ice water had been thrown on her. From the way he glowered, Theo had plans. Devious ones.
Oh, dear.

With a last pat on her bottom, he drew away. “No more questions. Not from me, though Dankyo wants you to elaborate on that report, and you will do that.” He ended on a stern note. “But now, straighten up and keep your arms by your sides. Don’t move.”

Dankyo, oh damn
. She could handle him. But this was going elsewhere. Where
Theo
wanted, and she was sure he meant to do more than hold her with a dish cloth.