Chapter 10
CHAPTER 10
It was their last day at Rawhide Ranch, and Rubi found herself not wanting to leave. It had been the most incredible experience of her life, and she and Logan were in such a solid place.
The day was bright, the sky the most brilliant blue, the sun reflecting off the snow, and they’d bundled up to take a walk together. They held hands as they moved toward the foothills behind the barn, their boots crunching in the snow.
“It’s so peaceful out here,” Logan said.
“It is. I love this place. Can we come back every year?”
“Yeah, I’d like that. I was thinking the same thing. It’s been so good for both of us. And we’ve made some real friends here.”
“We have. I’m really going to miss Claudia and Reese. I’ve been getting to know Sadie, too, and she’s just the sweetest. And I feel like your friendship with Master Derek has been so good for you.”
“It has. He and Arrow are the first guys I’ve really been able to talk to, you know? On that deeper level, where I don’t have to hide any part of myself. That’s been an important part of it.”
She stopped and turned to him. “And no more hiding yourself from me either, right, babe?”
He smiled down at her. Her blue eyes were the same color as the Montana sky, and he felt so much love for this woman. “No more. At least, I’ll do my best not to. Feel free to call me on it when I inevitably do, though.”
She grinned. “You know I will. So, what now? What happens when we get home?”
“Well, I was thinking we should look for a local kink group to join. Would you be up for public play again, do you think?”
“Maybe. I’m really not sure yet. If I feel comfortable enough with the group, it’s a possibility, and honestly, I think it might be good for other women my age to see us play. Maybe it’ll help someone else not to feel so self-conscious about getting older in the kink scene.”
“Baby, I love that you’re thinking about other people and wanting to share what you’ve learned here,” he told her. “But just know that if you change your mind and want us to only play at home, I’m good with that, too.”
They walked for a few minutes quietly, then she asked him, “Do you remember our wedding? God, we were so young. I was only twenty, the age Gabe is now. And you must have been twenty-one. Practically kids.”
“Yeah, we were. But we had such a firm idea of what our future together would look like. And we both pursued our dreams. You got your Masters in English. I attained my ranks in the Air Force, got to fly planes for a living. And we had our kids. Maddie and Gabe are our biggest accomplishments.”
“We really managed to accomplish so much, didn’t we? But, Logan? Do you think part of the problem, maybe for both of us, is that we feel like… there’s nothing left for us to accomplish?”
He paused, thinking. She could see it in his deep brown eyes, like shadow and light flashing all at once.
Finally he said, “Our kids are still a work in progress. I think Gabe especially, at twenty, thinks he’s got it all figured out, but he still has a lot to learn. And Maddie… she’s only nineteen. How did we let her fly off to London for fashion school when she could have stayed in the US, gone to school in LA or New York?”
“I know. I worry about them every day. But you’re right; they’re both works in progress. And they’ll still need us, even if it’s only once in a while. But I’ve been thinking about this a lot—about us a lot—and there has to be something aside from being parents, aside from our careers, that makes us… well, us . Who we are together, and just as people.”
He nodded. “Yeah. You’re right. In a way, we kinda need to start over again. That’s why I wanted to come here. We needed to rediscover ourselves, as individuals, and as a couple. We needed to find new ways to thrive, with me being retired, and us both being empty nesters. I know you still have your job after your sabbatical this year is over, but to be honest, baby, I’ve been feeling like I have… nothing. Like I am nothing, if I’m not in the Air Force. It’s helped to talk it out with Arrow, in particular, but that feeling is still there.”
“Oh, babe. You’ll always have that; the military will always be a huge chunk of who you are, whether you’re actively serving or not. You did your time, and you deserve to rest. But I understand you feeling a bit lost. It’s pretty common when someone retires, and I do think it’s even harder for someone who’s lived a life of service. I’m wondering… is there anything you can do, some sort of volunteer work, maybe, that’ll give you a sense of serving your community?”
“Derek suggested the same thing to me. How would you feel about me going for training as a volunteer firefighter?”
“Well, you know I’d worry. But I’d also be so damn proud, Logan.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” she told him, wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him tight. They hadn’t done anything kinky that day, but that didn’t mean he didn’t need some caring from her, some reassurance. He was human, after all. That was something they’d both needed to pay a lot more attention to.
As they made their way back to the lodge, she was filled with such a sense of peace and fulfillment. It had been the right choice, coming to Rawhide Ranch. The best choice possible. And she felt that a part of both their hearts would be left behind when they had to go home tomorrow. But they still had one more night.
“Are you sure about this?” Logan asked his wife as they walked onto the main floor of the Dungeon.
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“You can call yellow any time if you need us to move to a private room, baby. You always have that safety net safe words provide.”
She nodded. “I know I do. Thank you, babe.”
The lights were low in the big room, and maybe a dozen couples and two trios were already playing, while a few others sat on the low couches around the room or above the play area at the bar. Ambient music played, punctuated by the occasional moan or the thud of a flogger. He’d always loved the sounds of a dungeon. There was something so sensual about it, and even meditative in some way.
He led Rubi to a St. Andrew’s Cross, guiding her to stand in front of it.
“Ready, baby?” he asked.
She smiled at him. “Yes, Sir. I’m ready.”
He slipped her black satin robe from her shoulders, leaving her in a lacy black lingerie set and her high black pumps. Her long legs looked spectacular, and she held herself so proudly. He was so damn proud that she was his.
He cuffed her to the cross with her back to him, then caressed her skin, murmuring into her ear, telling her how beautiful she was, then he stepped back and began to flog her with a light suede flogger. Once she was warmed up, he switched to the pair of floggers he’d bought from the special area in the back of the gift store. They were purple and black leather with long, narrow strands, beautifully made. And they were built for Florentine.
He worked his wrists, swinging, weaving a pattern as the pair of matched floggers almost danced together, hitting Rubi’s back with the tips. He shifted from two beats to three, changing up the dance, keeping the rhythm going as red welts appeared on her skin. He loved marking her so much; it was a point of pride for him, and he knew she loved to wear his marks.
He kept swinging the double floggers to the beat of the music, his body swaying along with the floggers, so that it was a dance for him, too. He worked his way lower, to her sweet ass cheeks, and she started to groan.
He paused the rhythm to give her butt one hard smack, and she yelped, making him smile. He moved in close behind her, close enough to murmur in her ear, “What color are you, babe?”
“Mmm, I’m so green.”
“Even though we’re playing in public?”
“Oh, yes. It’s coming back to me, why I loved public play… picking up on everyone else’s energy. It’s like it magnifies every sensation.”
“Yeah, for me, too.”
He moved her hair aside and kissed the nape of her neck before stepping back to continue flogging her. And when he did, he noticed a small group of people had formed a bit of a circle to watch, at a respectful distance, of course.
He knew it wasn’t all about him using two floggers—most of the people there had probably seen someone Florentine before. It was how responsive his wife was as she swayed a bit in her bindings under each hit, how absolutely beautiful she was, even more so in her submission.
He went back to work, swinging the floggers for a while before putting them down and moving in close and pressing his body against Rubi’s back.
He didn’t want her too sore for their trip home tomorrow, so he’d need to leave her ass alone. Instead, he reached around her and did a little rough body play: grabbing the flesh at her sides and gripping until her silky skin pinched between his grasping fingers, until she gasped and moaned. Then he slid his hands up over her tits, and pinched her nipples through the lace of her bra until she was pressing back into him, her breath coming in short, sharp pants, making him hard.
Need to fuck my baby .
He realized then that it was as huge for him to play in public as it was for her. And he’d loved it, but he was ready to have his girl all to himself again. He kissed her neck once more before stepping back and taking her out of the cuffs. He gave her some water, then slid the robe around her shoulders.
“I need you, babygirl,” he told her. “I need you so badly; I can’t wait.”
“I need you, too, Logan. Always.”
He quickly packed up his bag and smiled when Rubi seemed a bit uncertain about what to do with herself when one of the Dungeon’s service subs assured her she didn’t need to wipe down their play area. He understood it was the Ranch sub’s job to take care of it, but he was still proud of Rubi for wanting to carry out dungeon etiquette, even after being flogged.
“You’re my good girl,” he told her as they moved toward the elevators.
They were silent as they rode it up a floor, standing close together, their fingers intertwined. The doors slid open and they got out and moved across the empty lobby. He didn’t think he’d ever seen the lobby completely empty. They must have been playing longer than he realized.
He opened the door to their suite, dropped his toy bag just inside the door, and pulled her robe off before picking her up and carrying her to the big bed. He laid her down and took her heels off, admiring her soft expression, the full rise of her gorgeous tits beneath the lacy bra, the way her eyes gleamed as she watched him get undressed.
He bent over her, and too needy to wait, he yanked her panties off and slid them down her legs, then took off her bra.
“You are so damn beautiful, my baby. Don’t ever forget that this is how I see you.”
“Through eyes tinted with love,” she murmured, her voice soft and low.
“Always.” He smiled down at her.
He could barely believe this woman was his, that he was this damn lucky. That they had done the work—or had gotten a good start, anyway—and this could be their life now.
As he lowered his body over hers, she wrapped her arms around his neck. He kissed her as he entered her, as their bodies came together.
They moved in rhythm, and he took it slow, needing it to last, to simply be with her. This time it was all about being together, one person, almost. Connected in a way they never had been before.
Pleasure rose, spiraled, and they came together, shivering, crying out. And when it was over, they stayed wrapped around each other.
“You were so incredible tonight, baby,” he told her.
“Mmm, so were you. Not just tonight, but on our whole journey here. And you know, I thought it was going to be more my journey, really, in the beginning. But I love that it’s been yours, too. ”
“It had to be,” he said, his heart a hammer in his chest. There was so much emotion in there. “It had to be both of us. I had so much to learn about myself, about you. About how to be the best I can be for you.”
“For us .”
“Yeah, you’re absolutely right.” But then, she usually was. He wasn’t too macho to believe otherwise. “We have so much to look forward to now,” he told her.
“We do. We have each other. The kids. A life . We have everything.”
She was right about that, too. She was everything to him, and they really had each other again, in a way that was deeper, truer, than they’d ever had before. Finally. And that was everything.
The End