Sandy Sullivan (20 page)

With
apparent reluctance, he pulled back and looked down into her eyes.
"Strip."

"Yes,
Sir," she answered enthusiastically as she stepped back and unzipped her
dress, letting the fall to the floor. Standing in nothing but her bra and
shoes, she wondered what he thought. Did he like her body?
Now is a hell of a time to worry about my body. He's already seen the
whole shebang.

"You're
beautiful, Elizabeth."

"Thank
you, Sir."

"I
love everything about you from the rich almost alive bounce to your hair to the
tips of your painted toenails. Those fuck-me heels are a major turn-on."

She
bit her lips to keep from continuing to talk, knowing he wasn't a talker when
they were about to play.

"You
like a little pain with your pleasure I've noticed."

Her
eyes widened and she fought to shake her head no. Pain didn't please her. Or at
least she didn't think so, right? The spanking was bad enough. He said he still
owed her swats, but anything else he could think of like the nasty looking
bullwhip he'd been using before, made her shake with apprehension.

"Easy,
darlin'.
I won't do anything I don't think you
can handle. Tonight, you aren't ready for the bullwhip but maybe soon."
She sighed in relief as he chuckled. "But I do owe you spankings. I know
you enjoyed the flogger."

"Yes,
Sir."
The flogger wasn't something she
couldn't handle. She'd actually enjoyed the soft flicks of the suede ends on
her flesh.

"We
can play with some toys too."

"Toys,
Sir?"

"Dildo,
vibrator, nipple clamps…I'd love to show you what I have. It's been a while
since I've had the chance to play with someone on my own turf," he
replied, walking to the cabinet in the corner to open the doors. Several rows
of
toys
lined the cabinet. Everything
from dick-shaped vibrators, to handcuffs, to bejeweled nipple clamps sat in every
nook and cranny of the shelves.

"These
will do." He grabbed a set of nipple clamps and walked toward her. She
took a hesitant step back, shaking her head. "What do you say to me?"

"Yes,
Sir."

"Good
girl." With an arm around her waist, he dropped his head to her chest,
sucking her left nipple deep into his mouth. She moaned as he sucked hard,
bringing the nipple to an aching point. When he lifted his head to take in his
handiwork, the aching bud cooled in the evening air of the room as he let it
dry. The pincher-type contraption bit into her nipple as he tightened the
device until she winced, then made the teeth clamp down just a hair tighter.
After he secured the second one, he stepped back to admire his handiwork, the
bastard.
"Very pretty, Elizabeth."

"But…"

"Do
you want to use your safe word?"

"No,
Sir."

"Then
be silent." He returned to the cupboard to retrieve several more
implements…a vibrator, a butt plug and a smaller item that looked like a
flogger, but with much shorter strings. At her curious look, he said, "A
pussy whip." One more thing she noticed in his hand…a paddle about the
size of an overly large ping pong paddle.

She
didn't like the idea of that last item at all and released a whimper.

"Don't
worry. It'll be fun."

For who?

"Across
the spanking bench, Elizabeth.
I owe you twenty
swats."

Fuck!
Twenty?
She exhaled sharply and lay stomach down on the bench while he secured her limbs
even though her thighs screamed in pain.

"Comfortable?"

"Yes,
Sir."

"You'll
count for me and thank me for the lesson when we're through." The paddle came
down fairly easy on the first swat across her left butt cheek.

"One,
Sir."
Each subsequent swat got harder until
tears rolled down her cheeks and she sobbed with each swat. "Twenty, Sir.
Thank you for the lesson, you bastard," the last two words were said under
her breath.

"I
heard you. Do we need to start over?"

"Fuck."

"I'll
let it go this time. Now, let me hold you."

"You
want to cuddle after you hit me?"

"Punishment
is as hard on me as it is on you, darlin'. I don't like hitting you in such a
manner. There is a difference between erotic spanking and spanking for
punishment. You've only had the punishment kind. Soon, I'll show you the erotic
kind." He ran his hands over her hot ass, mixing the pain of the spanking
with the pleasure of his touch. After he unhooked her from the bench, he
wrapped her in his arms and sat down in the chair next to the wall. "I
need this cuddle time too."

"This
is all so strange."

"You'll
learn, sweetheart. For now, let me hold you. We'll get to the fun part of the
spanking bench. You did notice it's the perfect height for me to fuck you,
didn't you."

"Yeah,
I kind of noticed, Sir."

"I
want your ass tonight, Elizabeth," he said, smoothing his hand over her
hair as he tucked her into his arms, rocking her slightly.

"Only
my ass, Master?"
She loved the way his title rolled
off her tongue. Never in her life did she ever think she'd call anyone Master,
but it fit Marcus.

She'd
done some research on BDSM since they begun to play together. Some of what
she'd learned was scary, but other stuff intrigued her. Rope bondage called
shibari
looked fascinating. Wax play looked scary and so
did fire-play. The bullwhip Marcus had in his hand when she'd come through the
door scared the shit out of her. The thing looked like it would seriously hurt.
She wasn't into pain that much or at least she didn't think she would be. She
seemed to be learning things about herself every time she played with Marcus
like this.

"Oh,
I plan to take all of your holes soon. We'll see how much you are up to tonight
and we'll go from there."

"Yes,
Master."

"Better?"
he asked, shifting her on his legs and chuckling when she squeaked.

"Yes,
Master."

"Then
back across the bench with you. My cock aches for your warm hole whichever I
chose to use tonight."

Chapter Twelve

"I'm
done being your pansy," the cowboy snapped as he paced the floor of the
barn on Mitchell's ranch.

"You'll
do as you're told or there won't be any pay."

The
clipped voice on the other end of the phone pissed him off. No one told him
what to do. "You're fucking with my livelihood here too, asshole. If I get
caught, I won't be able to work anywhere in the cattle business."

"I
don't care what you're risking. I want that ranch destroyed. Elizabeth will rue
the day she turned her back on me. No one walks out on me."

"You're
crazy, dude. She's just a woman."

"She's
my woman. I'll kill anyone who touches her."

"You'd
better get in line then. She's fucking the country vet who works here."
The animalistic growl from the other end of the phone sent shivers down his
back.

"I
want more nitrates in the water supply. Kill every animal that moves."

"You're
a real bastard, you know it?"

"Of
course, I am. Why do you think I'm on top of my game?"

"Why
do you have to destroy this ranch though? Not man enough to get Elizabeth
without it?"

"She
won't give me the time of day anymore and I'll not have it. Women come to me, I
don't go to them. If she doesn't come crawling back to me, I'll destroy her
entire family."

"Dude,
you need to get a life. She isn't the only woman in the world." He stepped
across the handle of a rake lying on the floor and moved into a stall.
"I'll admit, she's got a nice rack on her, but my world wouldn't stop if
she didn't give me the time of day."

"I'm
not discussing my love life with you. Do as you're told and you'll get your
money."

"Fine."
The cowboy snapped his phone shut and grumbled under his breath as he pulled
the bottle of poison from his pocket. Killing animals wasn't something he would
be proud to say he'd done for money, but he needed the funds to pay off a
gambling debt before the man he owed killed him. Fifty thousand dollars was a
lot of money.
Way more than he'd ever earn working as a lowly
cowboy.
He moved steadily toward the water tank. Poison in the main
water supply would kill off anything living from the horses to the cattle in
one swoop. It would be done…the job. The moment he finished, he'd pack his
stuff so he could disappear. He couldn't afford to be caught.

A
crack of thunder could be heard as he moved closer. A mid-summer storm was
brewing, kicking up dust and making the animals nervous. No one seemed to be
around tonight. Most of the cowboys if not all, had already headed into town
for the regular pool game.

When
he got closer, several of the cattle stomped their feet and shifted nervously
like they knew he wasn't supposed to be there. A couple of the horses snorted
when a flash of lightning exploded in the night air. "Wow. That was too
close."

He
moved next to the tank as he prepared to drop the whole vial of nitrates into
the water when a flash of lightning lit up the night sky, hitting the lightning
rod attached to the top of the tower. The cattle and horses spooked into
a frenzy
. He screamed and dropped the vial as one of the
horses reared up, pawing at the air, kicking him in the skull with both front
feet.

* * * *

Elizabeth
drove into the front yard and squinted through the windshield. Rain pelted the
front of her car with fat droplets in the mid-summer storm. She'd spent the
night in Marcus' arms praying she would come to some conclusion about where
their relationship would go from here, but awoke this morning with more
questions than answers.

Cattle
and horses braced themselves against the rain in a large group near the water
trough. This wasn't usually something she'd notice, but a flash of red on the
ground drew her attention as the animals shifted.

"Are
you coming in or are you going to sit out there all day?" her father asked
with a chuckle, standing on the front porch.

She
didn't want to walk across the muddy yard in her heels but she hadn't brought
any other shoes to wear. "Stupid, Liz.
Really
stupid."
Her short, tight black dress would probably be ruined by
the time she got to the porch, but there wasn't any way around it. She had to
run for it. Once she got the door open, she jumped out, slammed the door and
sprinted as fast as she could in three inch heels toward the front door.

"You
didn't come home last night."

"No,
I stayed at Marcus'."

"I
assume you two made up?"

"Yes.
I really wasn't serious about calling Ari back, Dad."

"It
sounded like it to me. I'm sure to Marcus
too,
otherwise he wouldn't have left the way he did. Games like that will get you
into trouble in a relationship, Elizabeth. I thought your mother and I taught
you well enough to avoid those."

"I
already apologized so forget it. Okay?" She glanced back at the pasture.
"What's out there in the middle of the mud? There is something red on the
ground."

"Probably
a bandana one of the cowboys lost, I '
spect
."

"It
looks larger than a bandana, Dad. Don't you think you should check it
out?"

"I
will when the rain lets up some. They said this storm should move off in about
an hour."

"Good.
I guess I should have waited to come home. I would have saved my shoes,"
she said, lifting her waterlogged and muddy heel up for his inspection.

Her
father laughed and hugged her. "Let's get some coffee."

"I'm
going to run up to change back into some ranch like clothing.
Jeans and a T-shirt?"
She giggled as she pulled off her
heels and pushed her wet hair back off her forehead.

"I'll
make sure the coffee is hot."

They
walked into the house together and she headed up the hall to change her
clothes. Grabbing a dry towel out of the bathroom, she walked into her room
only to find a dozen red roses sitting on her dresser. "What the…Where did
these come from?" A small white card sat nestled in the buds. When she
opened it, she smiled and shook her head. "When did he have time to do this?"

"They
came early this morning," Caroline said from the hallway. "Pop left
them in here figuring this would be the first place you'd go when you got
home."