Obsession (17 page)

She considered it, really considered it. “Depends what the punishment for disobeying is.” She admitted eventually and his pupils dilated.

“Test me and you’ll find out kitten.” He purred, releasing her arm.
Uncertainly, she headed for the bathroom and rinsed her hands. As she dried them, she eyed the cubicle longingly. Really, what was the worst he could do? He had promised never to hurt her and she had her safe word if it got too out of hand. She’d survived the last punishment, as disconcerting as it had been, with nothing more damaged than her pride. It was either that or spend the rest of the night with sticky mess on her thighs. She glanced again between the door and the cubicle, hesitating. They were going to end up in the play room anyway. She knew it. Why spend the time between now and then uncomfortable?

Five minutes later, feeling much fresher and yet strangely guilty, she emerged to find his eyes on her like a hawk.

“You disobeyed me didn’t you?” He said flatly when she stood before him, not really asking.

“I realised I needed to draw a line.” She made one last attempt to escape punishment. “I don’t mind you needing to control me when it comes to sex, but outside the bedroom and the play room you need to let me have a normal life. If you take control of these small things now, two years down the line I’ll be little more than a slave.”

“This
is
sex kitten.” He growled. “The fact that I have a gig to perform in between starting it and finishing it doesn’t make it any less foreplay. Haven’t you heard how my voice bleeds for you?”

She swallowed. “What are you going to do to me?”

“You know what the punishment is for disobeying me.” The soft voice caressed her skin like a promise of flame and her face heated.

“You want me...up the...you know...?”

“Yes.” His lips twitched at her inability to say it. “But it will be worse this time, since the first time didn’t teach you discipline.”

Worse?
It actually got
worse
? Oh hell. She wasn’t sure she’d survive the night. She just had to remind herself that she had her safe word. With a wan smile, she followed him and the others back out towards the stage and the roaring crowd. Yes, cabbage was her friend...

The
band were on stage for the midnight bells and then closed the show with three really big numbers that let the lights go down on a high. They were all on edge when they got back to the dressing room and Gabriel immediately pulled Noelle to the side.

“I have to meet a couple of people quickly, but then we’re getting out of here.” He smiled, his eyes drawn once again to the mark on her neck.

“Don’t you want to stay and party?” It wasn’t a hopeful question, she was genuinely surprised.

“Any second now they’re going to let a bunch of groupies through that door.” He pointed behind him without looking. “You don’t need to see what happens afterwards.”

“Oh I see.” He was right. She didn’t need to see that. “Go do your thing. I’m okay here.” She threw his sweater around her shoulders, accepted a drink from a passing band member and leaned up against the wall to wait for him. The squealing when the groupies arrived was ear piercing and she winced, wondering how the guys put up with it all the time. It wasn’t until she looked around that she realised they were all well on their way to not caring, loaded as they were with alcohol and adrenaline.

No-one noticed her at first
, but then one of the girls in the low cut tops and miniskirts spied her mask and came strolling arrogantly towards her, with a loose-hipped sway that screamed of sex. “Who are you?” She demanded. “What’s with the mask?”

Feeling righteous indignation from head to toe at the arrogance of this slut, Noelle gave her a sweet smile. “I’m kitten.”

“Kitten?” The girl snorted. “What sort of a name is that?”

“My
name’s not Kitten, I’m
the
kitten.” She pursed her lips when the girl still didn’t get it.

“Everything okay over here?”
Gabriel had ghosted up behind the groupie while neither of them were looking.

“Everything is fine Master.” Noelle winked at him. “This girl felt entitled to question me. I was just telling her who I was.”

“Kitten.” He breathed. There were volumes in that one word. Amusement, pride, lust, warning...they rolled through the room.

“Well yes.” Noelle shivered as his voice sent seductive tendrils rippling down her spine. “I told her that, but she isn’t really grasping the concept of what that means.”

“Come here.” The command was soft but incapable of being disobeyed. Noelle slipped around the wide-eyed groupie and stepped into Gabriel’s arms. “This is what it means to be my kitten.” He said evenly over her head to the girl and then looked down, focusing on Noelle. “Kiss me.” He said softly. And she did. Reaching up, she curled her arms around his neck and lifted her face to press her lips to his.

Heat and hunger flared between them as the kiss grew fierce and Noelle barely noticed when strong hands gripped her thighs, lifting her so that her legs curved around his waist. She did notice when her back hit the wall and Gabriel’s lips left hers, heading down her neck to trail fire across her collarbones. She met the groupie’s eyes evenly
, even when Gabriel’s hips rocked against hers and she moaned softly with need. The woman was torn between horror and lust, but jealousy most of all rode her face in a rage of envy.

“Are you satisfied kitten?” Gabriel murmured against her skin, increasing the delicious friction between them until she gasped.

“I will be.” She grinned wickedly. “Oh I definitely will be. But I don’t think we need to rub her face in it any more.”

“Then let’s go home and get depraved.” He said, just loud enough for everyone around them to hear
, and you could have heard a pin drop as everyone gaped open-mouthed at them.

“Yes Master.” Grinning, she unhooked her ankles and slid wantonly down the front of his body, noticing with amusement that he was rock hard. If they made it home before he’d dealt with that, she would bet her life savings on the lottery.

Gabriel turned on the groupie. “
That
is what it means to be my kitten.” His voice was a whisper of burning ice and the girl flinched.

“I’m sorry I didn’t know.” She blurted out
, but the damage was done. He gave her a look of contempt and turned his back.

“Come kitten. I need you.”
I need you.
She smiled up at him.

“As you wish.”
He led her through the crowd of startled people, snagging her coat from the rack by the door and tucking it under his arm.

“Give me my sweater.” He told her as they approached the exit and she sighed, having hoped he’d forget. “Don’t sigh.” The beast was back, rolling
beneath his tone of voice as his fingertips brushed across her skin. “You’ve already disobeyed me once tonight. You do
not
wish to make the punishment worse.”

She endured the gauntlet of screaming photographers and fans all the way to the car and slid onto the seat with shaking legs. She didn’t know how Gabriel could stand it. He’d deflected most of it from her
, but still...it was not a pleasant experience. He climbed in after her and the car immediately pulled away. It was a limousine this time, with acres of space. Stretching his legs out, he removed his mask and tossed it on the floor.

“Why did you call me Master?” He asked and she blinked.

“I...” She was about to say she didn’t know, but the mood he was in tonight he wouldn’t take the lie well. “It amused me to shock her.” She said carefully, after some thought. “I’m not some pathetic groupie. I’m yours. This is real.”

“Good answer.” He smiled. “What are your thoughts on continuing to call me Master whenever we’re in the play room?”

Again, she gave it some lengthy consideration. “I think I’d like that.” She said hesitantly and he nodded.

“Explain.”

“It helps me draw the line.” She turned thoughtful. “I know you don’t understand my need to compartmentalise everything, but if I don’t I’ll drown in you. Out here we’re Gabriel and Noelle. In there we’re Master and kitten. I feel safer when I know who I am within clearly delineated boundaries.”

“I won’t stop calling you kitten.” He warned her softly and she chuckled.

“I know, but out here it has a different intent. It’s not you that has the problem drawing the line.”

“Then it’s settled.”
He took her hand. “You will call me Master.”

“Yes.” She shivered at his tone, feeling like she’d just signed her soul over to Satan.

“Come here.” He commanded and she slid across the seat towards him, silently laughing that they were going to seal the agreement with a kiss, like the devil at the crossroads of yore.

“Do you want me to take the mask off?” She asked as he scooped her around to straddle his lap.

“No. Leave it on.” He reached up to touch the warm leather. “When we get home I’m going to take you into the play room and fuck you while you’re naked except for your mask and your boots.”

“Oh.” She gasped, even now his crudeness
both scandalising and thrilling her dark places.

“You were a bad girl tonight kitten.” He levelled
her a steady look. “Do you want me to tell you what I’m going to do to you?” Good question. Could she bear to spend the next forty minutes knowing what was going to happen to her, or would it be worse to walk into the play room with no idea what she was facing? “Answer me kitten.” He growled and her eyes went wide.

“Yes.” She blurted out before she could stop herself. “Tell me.
Please.”

“I’m going to undress you.” He ran a finger down the line of neatly folded leather covering her body. “When you’re naked
, I’m going to tie you up and hang you from my ballet bar. I’m going to prepare you.” His hand slid up her thigh under her skirt and grasped her cheek, leaving her in no doubt exactly what he would be preparing. “When you’re spread and wanting, I’m going to let you worship my cock with your tongue.” She gasped and he slipped a finger from his other hand past her lips and into her mouth, a teaser of things to come. “I’m going to come down your throat. And then, kitten, then I’m going to make you beg.”

“Beg?” She squeaked around his finger and he nodded, dark humour lacing his lips.

“You’re going to beg me to fuck your arse. And you’re going to ask for it hard.”

Her legs wobbled. “I don’t think I could beg for that.” She admitted, drawing her head back so his finger slipped out.

“Don’t underestimate my powers of persuasion, kitten.” He said, amused. “You have no idea what I’m going to do to you.”

“I thought that was the point of telling me.” She said
, before her brain to mouth filter engaged, and he went still.

“For that, you will let me mark you again.”
Her hands instantly went to her throat and he growled. “I didn’t say I would bite you again. There are other ways to mark a woman, kitten.” She wasn’t sure she wanted to know. “I could spank you.” He whispered. “I think my hand print would look fine on that creamy-cheeked arse of yours.” Under her skirt his hand was possessively caressing the smooth globes of her backside.

“I won’t let you hit me.” She said stubbornly and he smiled.

“It’s not hitting, kitten. There’s a difference. One day I’ll make you beg me to spank you too, but maybe not today.” He slipped his fingers back into her mouth as though it fascinated him. “Maybe I’ll tie you tightly so the rope moulds your skin. Maybe I’ll just get a sharpie and write on you.”

Well at least that wouldn’t hurt. She could deal with that.
Silently she prayed for the sharpie. It might take a few days to wash off, but she knew he was too sensible to write anywhere it might be seen if the language was filthy, and she knew it would be filthy. That was the whole point of a punishment, to humiliate and deter.

“I’m not sure about swallowing.” She whispered
around his fingers, screwing her face up as that minor detail came back to her. His eyes narrowed as he considered her, weighing how far he could push it, and then he nodded.

“I’ll make you a deal
, kitten.” He smiled. “You let me spank you once and I won’t make you swallow.”

“Just once?”
She wavered, fighting the urge to bite the inside of her lip. Spank or swallow? She couldn’t decide. If she let him spank her, the pain would be over in a heartbeat. It would be just one sting...like having an injection at the doctor. If she swallowed, she’d have to force it down. What if she was sick? That would be horrendous. It didn’t matter which way she thought about it, she just couldn’t get her head around the idea of swallowing someone else’s bodily fluids. The very idea made her shudder. She closed her eyes as he nodded and heat crept up her throat, flushing her cheeks with shame. “I’ll take the spank.” She whispered.

“Say it like you mean it kitten.” He took his hand from her mouth and she inhaled a deep breath.

“I’ll take the spank please Master.” She forced her frayed nerves to stop jangling, but he still wasn’t happy.