Chapter Thirteen
LILY’S heart flipped in her chest at Stone’s command. Whatever he meant to feed her now wouldn’t be whipped cream or chocolate. She heard the dare in his voice.
Gathering her courage and fighting the residual apprehension from her blindfold, she did as he bid and waited. She would not cave in. She would not let anything Canton had ever said or done ruin this moment for her and Stone. Because when this man touched her, she shivered. When he commanded her, as he was doing right now, she realized how badly she wanted to rise to his challenge. She ached to trust him, submit with grace, and show him how much he was rapidly coming to mean to her.
He trailed his finger from the middle of her tongue to the tip, then rimmed her lower lip. He tasted of salt and man and strength. Lily liked everything about him. The gentle alpha way he handled her, helped her, settled her—even as he excited the hell out of her—was like a fantasy. But when he touched her . . . she’d never felt bliss like it.
Playfully, she sucked his digit back in her mouth, wrapping her lips around it, cradling it with her tongue, mimicking what she wanted. He so often touched her for her enjoyment and pleasure. In that moment, Lily yearned to please him in return . . .
Suddenly he withdrew his finger and nudged her lips apart again. “Open wide. Wider.”
As she complied, Lily heard the hiss of his zipper as he lowered it.
Her heart raced. Her insides jumped with a jolt of thrill. Would she finally have the opportunity to return some of the ecstasy he’d given her?
“I want you to suck my cock, Lily.” His voice sounded gruff and raspy as he looped a hand around the back of her neck and urged her forward.
A fire flashed directly between her legs.
“Yes, Stone.” She couldn’t say the words fast enough. She couldn’t wait to take in his flavor, savor his taste, saturate him with her need, take him to the edge. At least she hoped she could. “I’ve never done this before.”
“Never?”
She shook her head, wishing she could see his expression. Was he intrigued? Weirded out? Annoyed that she’d be a novice?
He let go of her neck and gripped her chin. “How is that possible?”
Though he’d barked the question, Lily still didn’t really know how he felt about her admission and gave him an uncertain shrug. “My high school boyfriend was way more interested in straight intercourse, probably because he was one of the first of his pals to be ‘getting some,’ I found out later. And Axel . . . he never wanted to make the sex we had about him. He was always trying to help me deal with my triggers so I could move forward. You know, mentally. Our relationship wasn’t romantic. We were friends, but we had a Dom/sub dynamic. And the first rule of any Dominant—”
“Is to give the sub what she needs.” Stone clearly understood.
Since he also didn’t seem to like Axel much or want to talk about him more than necessary, Lily cut short her explanation. “I’ll do my best.”
Because she ached to satisfy him. Yes, she felt the yearnings of a sub who’d been stuck on some training treadmill and never allowed to give in to her natural instinct to please. But she wanted it more because he was Stone and she was quickly realizing that he held her heart.
“I don’t have any doubt you’re going to drive me out of my ever-loving mind, baby. Tongue out.”
Lily thrust it out farther than before, breathing audibly, shaking.
“That’s good. You look so fucking pretty waiting for my cock. Take it.”
He came closer, and Lily could smell the musk rising from between his legs. The ache gathering between her thighs drew up, tight and sharp. Then he slid his erection directly on her tongue, its weight foreign, heavy, and intoxicating. As the silken-smooth head glided over her taste buds, she licked something salty. She wanted more time to explore that, swipe her tongue over the slit and tease the ridge, but he kept easing in, inch after steely inch. The groan that came from his chest sounded somewhere between tortured and ecstatic.
For a moment, Lily was glad she couldn’t see. Now she had to simply let herself go and feel.
“Oh, yeah. That’s it. That’s so fucking . . . wow. Now close your lips around it and suck me.”
She balanced on her heels as she leaned closer to take more of him inside her mouth. Once she felt steady, she drew his length toward the back of her throat with a whimper of pleasure.
“That’s it. Oh, damn. Baby . . .”
Twirling her tongue around his shaft, she tried to map every inch of him, did her best to take all of him into her mouth, pushing her head down and swallowing deep until he poked the back of her throat. The animal sounds of need he made aroused her. She’d never felt so alluring, enticing, so filled with this heady brand of feminine power. And she basked in it, eased down farther, trying to close her lips around his root. Instead, she began to choke.
“Lily . . .” He pulled back. “I love your mouth. God, it’s like heaven. But you’re attempting penetration that looks like something out of the Oral Olympics. You’re not ready for that.”
He might be right, but that frustrated her. It felt as if she’d never been ready for anything. People always worried she wasn’t strong enough or prepared enough or experienced enough. And damn it, she couldn’t fix that without doing and feeling and practicing.
She groaned in protest, lunging forward to suck him back deep. When she lost her balance, he caught her.
“Baby, you can’t—”
She yanked away and he withdrew from her lips with a pop. “I can. I’m doing this. I need to give this to you. Don’t stop me. Please . . .”
He paused for a silent moment, and Lily had to believe that he was trying to figure her out. Because he couldn’t see her eyes with the blindfold covering them, she had to hope her voice conveyed her passion.
“You sure?”
“Are you going to hurt me?”
“Of course not.”
“Then what’s the harm? I’m a big girl. I should be able to handle this. You. Us. Being together.” She was nearly ready to scream. “I don’t just want more togetherness. I think we need it.”
“You’re right.” He thrust his hand in her hair and drew her closer. “You’re goddamn right. Open for me. Remember, you don’t have to rush and you don’t have to prove anything.”
Lily let his words sink in as he filled her mouth again with his slick, steely hardness. If there was such a thing as smiling on the inside, she was doing it. As she sucked on his thick staff and moaned, Stone gripped her hair and pulled just enough to soak her senses with his musk and gruff tenderness, to make her head buzz with desire.
She curled her lips around him, lapping at him with her tongue again, finding new spots to taste and delighting in the sounds of his ragged breaths, hisses of pleasure, and guttural groans. The little divide at the bottom of the head tempted her tongue over and over. And every time she lashed at it, he shuddered and pulled her hair tighter before he quickened his pace, shuttling in and out of her mouth.
“Baby . . . Oh, shit. I can’t even tell you how amazing that feels. Hmm . . .”
She redoubled her efforts to give him every shred of her earnest need to serve, along with a delicious pleasure he wouldn’t forget.
He ramped up his rhythm, thrusting into her mouth with long strokes that demonstrated his utter control and mastery. Around him, she moaned and shook her head to take more of his length into her mouth. She couldn’t quite put her face against his abdomen but the closer she drew to his root, the stronger his masculine scent rose to fill her nose. It intoxicated her senses like a drug. She could easily crave this intimacy all the time just for the sheer pleasure of breathing him in.
Lily pulled back as he tugged her away again. She resisted, but he forced her to break their connection, proving that he was the Dom and had command of both the situation and her.
“Stop,” he growled.
She panted hard, wishing she could read his expression. Then it dawned on her t
hat, not once while she’d had him so close and tasted his flesh had she been panicked about being unable to see. Not once had she replayed that harrowing time leading up to Erin’s death.
Yes, it was probably weird to feel a sense of accomplishment from sucking a man’s cock while blindfolded, but engaging in “firsts” and pushing through fears absolutely made her want to celebrate. She’d conquered one of her hang-ups with Stone and felt a bit more whole because of it. Which made him even more amazing to her.
When they’d first met, he’d been like a powerful star, glimmering so bright and so hot that she’d been afraid to touch him. Now he seemed like all that and a hundred feet tall. But she wasn’t afraid around him anymore.
“If that’s what you want, Stone.”
He was breathing hard, too. “Not really. Would I love to stay in that silken mouth and ride it until the ecstasy turns me inside out? Hell, yeah. But I’ve got other plans. Tonight isn’t simply about me getting off.”
“But can’t it be?”
“When our trust is stronger, when I know I’ve satisfied you first, sure. But I’ve got other ideas at the moment.”
With that, she heard the rustling of cloth. Was he pulling his pants up . . . or taking them off?
Lily didn’t have an answer to her question when Stone helped her to her feet and led her across the room. Then he unhooked her wrists.
Slowly, she brought her arms to her sides again. They tingled slightly as blood rushed back in. “Are you . . . Are we done?”
She couldn’t help the disappointment slashing through her.
Stone massaged her shoulders. “Not unless you’re giving me your safe word.”
“No.” She shook her head vigorously. Her nipples were tight and her clit burned with need. The only thing she wanted was more. “No.”
“Good. Then bend over.”
He guided her down and nudged her torso over the padded dungeon table. She trembled as he pressed her breasts down into the cool, cushioned surface.
“Now raise your arms. Lay them above your head and stay still.”
Lily yielded and lifted her arms straight up, draping them on the table. Stone stepped behind her and leaned over her body, every inch of his hard frame covering her as he caressed his way up her waist, over the exposed side of her breast, before he veered to the vulnerable underside of her arm, eventually gliding his way down to her wrist.
He clipped the O-ring to one of the bondage points on the side, near her head, rendering that arm immobile.
Slowly, carefully, he reached for her other wrist, his fingertips prowling up her body again, inciting the kind of shiver that raised goose bumps and made her suck in a sharp breath. Despite her dizzying arousal, Lily nearly resisted as he pulled her wrist inexorably closer to the next bondage point. Instead, she breathed through the anxiety and forced herself to give over to him.
“That’s beautiful, baby. So pliant and perfect.” Stone stepped back and moaned. “And you look amazing stretched out for me, all pale skin and sweet ass.” He rubbed one palm down her exposed cheek. “It’s right here, so vulnerable and untouched and mine.”
Lily tensed again. What did he have in mind? Not that he would hurt her. She believed now that he wouldn’t. But she was completely at whatever mercy he possessed—or didn’t.
“Stone?” She needed to hear his voice, needed him to reassure and ground her.
“Right here. Not going anywhere. Just contemplating the punishment I should dish out for your disobedience. I still haven’t repaid you for disregarding my instructions and making my cock ache with those stockings and shoes.”
She hadn’t thought he was serious. Clearly, she’d been wrong.
“Nothing to say about that?” he urged.
Lily’s thoughts raced. She could defend herself or ask what punishment he had in mind. But after her years of working at Dominion and dealing with Axel, she knew better. Querying a Dom about his punishments was a punishable offense in itself. And while Stone hadn’t been topping for long, and she wasn’t afraid of what he would do to her, she wasn’t the sort of brat who went out of her way to earn “funishments.”
“No, Stone.”
“Hmm. Good girl.” He massaged the back of her neck, his hand engulfing the fragile column and her shoulders before he slowly slid his palm down her spine in a silken glide.
Lily shivered. Every callus, every drag of his fingertips, all the heat of his body she could feel in that one touch. She arched, head tossed back, lifting her ass and weeping sex to him. Wherever and however he wanted to touch her now, she urged him to hurry in silent supplication.
As he reached the small of her back, his touch grew even softer, the skate of his fingertips slower down her flesh. Then he lifted his hand away, leaving behind a trail of tingles. Her breathing picked up speed, then became a gasp when he reached between her legs and cupped her wet sex.
“I want this.”
“Take it,” she whimpered.
“I will.” He pulled his hand away. “As soon as I finish your punishment.”
That would only delay what they both really wanted. “I know you’re disappointed, but I promise I won’t do it again.”
Behind her, he froze, then braced a palm at the base of her spine. “I’m not disappointed in your appearance. I want to be clear about that. You’re all kinds of sexy, and it’s only by sheer strength of will that I haven’t decided to shrug off your disobedience and fuck you. I’m punishing you for three reasons. First, I don’t want you to forget who’s in charge. Second, don’t think I’m not paying attention to every single thing you say and do, baby. I always am. Last—and most important—we’re growing the trust between us. After this, you’ll know that if I say it, I mean it. Maybe then, if push comes to shove and Canton finds us, I’ll be able to direct you in the escape route I already have planned and you will obey without hesitation or question. All that make sense?”
The independent part of her that had lived alone for years and taken care of herself through the darkest days of her life wanted to bristle. Her head told her that maybe she should. But Lily couldn’t deny that—politically correct or not—his attention to her and his unyielding dominance made her feel special, cared for. Loved.
“Yes, Stone.”
“Again, just to be clear, you are submitting to this punishment with the understanding that I’m doing this for our good, and you have a safe word if it becomes too much?”
She nodded. “I am.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear, baby.”
Before she’d even processed the words, she felt his big hand thwack her ass. The surprising sting burned into her. She clutched the edge of the table with a gasp. The sensations startled her, not good . . . but not bad, either. More like a shock of tingles, a flurry of heat, a lingering awareness of her skin. Lily wasn’t sure how to process all that at once and still take in Stone’s masculine scent and his long moan. Everything about him intoxicated her. The soft, pliant leather beneath her, along with the sultry heaviness of the swamp air, wrapped her in a warm cocoon. Time seemed to stop. Right now, only the two of them existed.
Lily closed her eyes and savored the odd peace. “More, please?”
At her whisper, Stone rubbed his palm across her prickling backside and heat seeped under the top layers of her skin, down into her very muscles and bones. “Oh, I wasn’t anywhere near done.”
Closing her eyes, Lily smiled. Until now, she’d never been a fan of spankings. Axel had doled out a few punishments during their time together. The sadist he’d brought in from Houston once or twice had immediately tested her pain threshold with a hard-core paddling. She hadn’t hated or loved it then. But that act also hadn’t possessed any emotional context for her. Both of those men had been trying to pry her open or draw out her pain. By contrast, Stone simply wanted to align her with him, get them in sync. He wanted to show her another way they could be right for each other.
“Good,” she breathed.
It p
robably sounded unfeminist or backward or some other negative that she would consider changing anything about herself to suit a man. Lily didn’t see it that way. Compromising a little so that Stone would also have what he needed made sense. Weren’t relationships give and take? Yes, and he’d already done so much to