The Alexandra Series (69 page)

“What
did
I do?”

“Spill the beans on thousands of dollars worth of prints that aren’t going to be worth jack shit once everyone in the whole world has already seen them.”

“You’re overreacting. You must be.”

“Don’t bet on it.”

He was too angry to talk anymore. One last glare and he brushed past her on the way to his studio, slamming the door after him.

It was innocent. The gesture a favor. Of course she never did anything with Will’s work without his consent, but this move to the museum was everything thing they’d talked about, at least until he left for Alaska. If something had changed, she knew nothing about it. Unfortunately that didn’t hide the fact that she was guilty, and there wasn’t much defense for that, except that she meant well. In her heart of hearts she thought it was an act of kindness taking care of this tiny piece of business that appeared to have slipped through the cracks in his hurry to make the trip north.

She rapped lightly on the studio door an hour later, hoping his rage had died down. Will didn’t answer her knock, the door swung wide instead.

“I’m sorry. I thought I was doing the right thing,” she said.

“I guess you did,” he replied. This admission was comforting, but he hardly looked happy, and there was still no decent welcome home. The best she could say, he was calmer, at least for the moment.

“Maybe you could take it out of my ass?” she proposed. “You probably want to do that anyway.” She tried flirting with the idea, being coy, thinking a little humor might relieve the tension and get them into bed where they belonged.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “When I’m not thinking of what a mess you’ve made of my career, I’m thinking up ways to make you suffer.” His expression was as grim as his words, and not humorous at all.

“Well then, how about taking me to Reggie?” She tried again, but the attempt backfired.

“Hell no!” he snapped. “And why would you say that, anyway? Is that what you want?”

“It’s just a joke. Though right now, I think he’d be easier on me than you.”

“You’re likely right. But right now you can go to your room like the negligent brat you are.”

“And wait until you pass sentence?” she wondered aloud.

Will glared. “Frankly, I’m surprised you weren’t out finding some other man to spank your ass.”

“That’s unfair,” she retorted. Any attempts at playfulness quickly lost their inspiration, reminded of one particularly dark hour in their rocky years together.

“Maybe so, but I’ve lost my perspective on this,” he said. “So let me handle that, then I’ll take care of your backside.”

“Why can’t we get it out of the way now?”

“Because we can’t,” he snapped. “You need to suffer and I need to stew.” The nasty flash in his eyes drove her from the room without another word. It was a sinking feeling being caught in Will’s massive web of anger; so, try as she might, she couldn’t escape its grasp, not at least until he’d punished her.

While Alex waited in the bedroom for Will, the phone rang.

Jocelyn’s voice on the other end sounded so sweet.

“So he’s home?”

“I think I’m regretting it,” Alex answered.

“You’re in trouble so soon? You don’t waste time.”

“Don’t kid. This is serious. I screwed up without knowing it, and I haven’t even begun to pay.

Standing in the doorway listening, Will heard the nasty singsong in her voice.

“Alex.” His voice cut through the conversation, drawing her attention away from the call.

“I have to go,” she quickly explained. After a hasty good-bye, she hung up the phone and stared at her husband.

“What’s going on?” Will asked.

“I was talking to Jocelyn.”

“You always talk about me with so much sarcasm?”

“Just when I’m angry.”

“She saying malicious things about me to fuel your opinion?”

“Why would you say that?”

“I don’t think it’s any secret that Jocelyn and I don’t exactly see things the same way.”

“Sorry, but I never noticed.”

“Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter, not when there are other matters more pressing.” He moved to her side, standing over her, looking down on the golden tresses and the blue eyes and the winsome sweet grin on her face. He appeared less hostile than he’d earlier been.

“You’re probably innocent of any malice sending the photographs to the museum,” he said. “I can even understand why you did it, and why on another occasion it would be the perfectly right thing to do.”

“So you’re forgiving me?”

“No,” he said.

In the dim light of the room his face was half in shadows, half in the light. One eye glaring, the other looked as soft as love.
Was that even possible?
she wondered, staring up at his odd gaze.

“Sounds like you’re trying to.”

“It’s not the forgiveness that I’m worried about. I think I can handle that. It’s what’s brewing between you and me. These fireworks. You have a solution for that, because I’m still damned pissed.”

“My mistake, it’s going to cost you a lot?” she asked.

“I’m not sure.”

“Would making me suffer, strapping my ass, abusing me the way you love to…would that help?” she wondered aloud.

“It won’t solve my problem with the museum…”

“But…”

“It would eliminate the tension, maybe curb my anger, and probably fit your brand of atonement.”

She smiled from the depths of understanding, from that warm place where comfort resided. And the smile turned into a mischievous smirk as the two locked onto the same wicked musings “Maybe it’s just what we need,” she said.

“Maybe, it’s my welcome home,” he added coldly.

She nodded, looking into coldness beyond Will’s restive mood, beyond which was the fire that always raged in him. He rarely let it show on the surface of his life, just when he was really angry, and times like this.

“Give me your hands,” he said, holding his in front of her.

“My hands?”

“Yes, your hands.”

She held them out while he drew a length of rope from out of nowhere, and wrapped it around her wrists with a skill she’d always wondered about, how he’d managed to perfect the art. Reggie would use cuffs, but Will preferred rope. He once told her he found it more personal. Any way she looked at it, this was personal.

As civil as he seemed on the exterior, Will’s face was exceedingly dark, his fury visible to her, and the time in his studio had apparently transformed the wrath into a purposeful plan.

Pulling her off the bed, he led her out of the room and down the hallway to the apartment’s front door.

“Good god! What are you doing?” she asked, spooked, not just by his attitude but by a destination that was apparently outside the safety of the apartment.

“Worried someone’s going to see?” he asked.

“Of course I’m worried.”

“Then be glad it’s after midnight.”

There were just a few paces between their door and the elevator, and to Alex’s relief, there wasn’t a soul in the hallway. If there had been it wouldn’t have mattered to Will, her being seen with her wrists bound wouldn’t have bothered him.

“You’re going to like this, Alex,” he whispered in her ear. The steel in his voice, like something suddenly driven into her, shocked her system when she realized this was no mere punishment. They were on their way to a dark game, the kind she liked best; though this one was laced with Will’s righteous indignation and a fury that would color the event with its own distinct aims.

Straight down five floors, they passed the first floor and continued into the basement, where the boiler room fired an angry blast of steam that made the dim light cloudier still. What could be more apropos? she thought, as she stepped into the shadowy dark, and then into a maze of corridors and grinding machines.

“You like this, don’t you?” he whispered in her ear again. He could have shouted and no one would have heard, but the whisper counted for something, as if they were keeping secrets from the rest of the world. When he spoke in her ear, the effect was staggering—her cunt throbbing, pangs of need shooting everywhere, every bit of her craved attention. She’d get it, and hard, very hard, before he’d ever be soft again.

There was a month of sexual recess to make up for, even if this episode wasn’t precipitated by her regrettable act.

“Hold on to the bar,” he said, as he fastened her bound hands to a steel rod that could only be reached by bending over a metal tank.

How convenient that the heavy metal hit her in the groin where her legs bent. Her ass would be hard to miss pushed out so lewdly. Will shoved her skirt to her waist so the bunched up material was the only comfort she’d have against the unforgiving surface. The metal edge of the tank felt as if it was cutting her thighs in two. But what luck, even these discomforts, like the thought of her bottom scorching from the many-taloned whip Will held, excited her so much that she figured she’s be orgasmic in minutes. Fear was the best aphrodisiac. No matter what she anticipated, real things were always more dangerous and pleasurable than the imagination.

When Will began flailing her backside, each snap created a jerk, which created more pain. She thought bone and flesh would soon be welded to the metal beneath her. The way she was bent over with her legs spread wide, her cunt was exposed so that her pussy felt the raw snaps of leather against it as distinct as those on her ass, and decidedly more biting against the tender flesh. She howled into the din like some feeble mouse crying in a cornfield on a stormy night. No one to hear but her own ears, she wasn’t much comfort for herself. The only thing to comfort her was knowing she was ‘at the edge’ of orgasm. With enough stimulation she’d be barreling over the top, not caring how hard Will laid on the retribution. She’d have her pleasure on the spot.

Will backed away at one point and let her rest. He’d seen his wife a dozen times so ecstatic, and it always left him awed. He knew what the midst of pleasure felt like; but his satisfaction could be nothing like what she experienced at a moment like this. Some time he’d have to reincarnate as a woman to feel her kind of bliss. As he waited to begin again, he watched the infinitesimal movements in her sultry form, ones that made her look as if she was moving to some inner music, since there was nothing melodic about the blaring discord of noise around them. He inspected the whip, liking the way it looked, the way it felt in his hand, and the imprint it left on his wife’s behind. The six long fingers of leather were tied into a handle, and capable of snapping against six distinct places. This was his ultimate weapon because it was so unpredictable. If there was anything that she wanted, but was scared of most, it was unpredictability. Today was the first time she’d seen it that she hadn’t begged him not to use it. He guessed she was in need of it today as much as he was.

Time to resume, Will drew his arm back and the black whip snapped through the air and hit her reddened backside with the talons striking her thighs and ass all at once. The longer talons wrapped about her side so that she felt their vile bite. The expression on her face morphed from pain to pleasure and back again a dozen times as the beating continued. Perhaps she was already orgasming, he thought. For a time they seemed to settle into a steady rhythm. But that changed as Will, ready for the punishment to end, laid on one especially vicious blow. With this last strike, he actually heard Alex wailing voice rise above the clamoring machines.

The implement fell to the cement floor as threw it off and he descended on her red ass with fingers probing deeply along the moist crack and her roughed up cunt. He felt her body tense, and then as powerful surges of sexual energy moved through her, attacking his own body. Her pleasure came in waves, crashing through her, and then like the tide easing off.

She wasn’t even thinking when he entered her pussy from behind. Thrusting deep, his organ quickly erupted as he held her close. Smothering her neck in kisses, he reached around to fondle her clit so that she climaxed a second time before she fell limp against the metal tank. As he finally backed off, physically spent, it took some moments for them to revive.

“You’re not going to untie me?” she finally asked.

“When I’m ready.” He spent another moment or two admiring her beautifully marked behind, then he pulled her skirt back over her raw ass. “These lines might stay a while,” Will said, finally lifting her off the tank. “I hope you weren’t planning to sunbathe in public.”

“It would be just my luck you’d want me to,” she said.

They were by the elevator, and he still hadn’t untied her hands.

“You’re really going to keep me this way?” she asked mournfully.

“Don’t pout and don’t whine. Who said I’m pacified? Maybe I’m just getting started.”

On the surface, he looked as fierce as he earlier had, though she could sense when he was really enraged, and all that seemed to have disappeared with the last stroke of his whip. Deciding not to address the question again, Alex rode the elevator up six flights to the fifth floor and breathed a sigh of relief when they were safely back in their apartment.