26. Chapter 26 – Peyton
Chapter 26 – Peyton
Congrats Puppet, you’ve earned yourself another gift.
I smiled the entire way to the post office in town on my afternoon break, like a lovesick puppy. And I couldn’t care less. I was happy.
It felt a little foreign and kind of like at any moment it was going to be taken away from me, but I tried not to dwell on the foreign feeling. Because then I had to acknowledge how being happy was a new feeling for me.
And that would make me sad for all the years I wasted up to this moment. So instead I drove with a goofy grin on my face to the quaint little town for another round of Secret Santa from Dane. I tried getting out of him what exactly I had done to earn the gift, but he just chuckled darkly through the speaker on my phone in my guest house and said, “You’ll find out, eventually.”
As I parked in the parking lot of the post office, I looked around the quaint town with a different view as I tried to envision living in it from now on. Was Dane from this town, or did he come to me for our encounters from somewhere else?
He couldn’t have been far away, given how quickly he made it to me at the bar after I tried to sacrifice myself for his attention. Admittedly, a stupid idea. But I’d gotten what I wanted in the end. So I was going to mark that one down as a win.
The bells on the door rang as I stepped inside of the deserted post office and the little old lady looked up from her book at her desk and grinned. “Ah, Ms. Peyton.” She stood up and pulled her glasses down her nose as she came to the counter. “I see you survived the last few weeks, I kept watching the news for a missing person’s poster with your face on it like you asked.”
I smiled, feeling foolish for involving her now that I knew Dane. “I’m fit as a fiddle. But thank you for watching out for me.”
“Ach,” She waved me off, “All I do is watch. I watch who comes and who goes. Who leaves with who and who goes about it on their own.”
I squinted and leaned on the counter. “Any more info on my secret admirer?” I asked, hoping she knew something more about Dane this time.
She chuckled, “Besides the fact that he has superb taste in cars and, I’m guessing, presents?” She reached under the counter and pulled out a smaller gift box in matte black with a velvet bow on it. “And the fact that he is still devilishly good looking.” She shrugged, “I unfortunately didn’t get to take him for a test drive on the counter this time either, though.”
I snorted and took the box from her. “Bummer.” I winked and stepped back toward the door. “Because that man knows how to turn a woman wild for him.”
Her wrinkly face pitched up in excitement as a shit-eating grin broke out on her face and she whooped out loud. “That’s my girl! ”
I chuckled and started to open the door when she stopped me.
“If you know how he is in bed, how is it you know nothing else about him?”
I shrugged and contemplated my answer for a moment before giving it. “Sometimes it’s nice not to worry about names, social standings, or future plans when you want to forget about everything else in the world, too.”
“Anonymity.” She nodded, “I like your style, girl.”
“Until next time.” I lifted the box in goodbye and walked out.
O nce again, Dane’s instructions were simple regarding his present. I had to be free from distraction and available only to him before opening it. So when I walked back into my guest house, via my brand-new door that Lincoln had fixed sometime yesterday, I was eager to ignore the rest of the world for Dane.
“Oh monster, where art thou monster?” I called out loud as I kicked my shoes off and walked through my dark guest house toward my bedroom.
I expected Dane’s deep voice to flow through my speakers to me like usual, but there was nothing.
“Dane?” I called out again as I got into my room, pulling my shirt free of the waistband of my pants. “Hello? ”
I laid my phone down on the table by the door and pulled my shirt off over my head, eager to be free of the constricting fabric.
“Puppet.”
“God!” I screamed in terror as Dane’s warm body pressed against mine from behind. He wrapped his gigantic hands around my bare waist and pulled me tight to his massive chest. The fabric of his shirt was soft like a well-worn cotton and I melted into his touch. “Dane.”
“You should be more careful Puppet, if you say my name too many times, I appear like Beetlejuice.” He growled against my ear as his hands wandered over my body.
“Mmh,” I moaned when one of his hands glided over my chest and up to my neck, pulling my head back against his shoulder and looking away from him as he laid sensual kisses along my neck. “Then why didn’t you appear when I played with myself earlier? I called out your name on repeat the whole time.”
“Minx.” He chuckled against my skin. “Liars don’t get rewarded with sexy gifts and orgasms.”
“Okay, fine,” I smiled as his fingers skimmed over the lace of my bra. “I didn’t play with myself earlier, but I really wanted to. Instead, I had to go into town to get my present.”
“Do you want to open it?” He pulled the cups of my bra down, freeing both of my breasts and instantly took them into his palms, thumbing my nipples.
I could look over at him if I wanted to. I could just see the outline of the hair hanging over his forehead out of my peripheral vision.
“Do I get to see you?” I whispered and then pushed my ass back into his body, where his hardening cock pushed back against me.
“Do you feel me?” He hummed, pushing his cock harder against my back, bending down slightly to rub it up the entirety of my ass.
“Yes.” I moaned, leaning into him .
“Do you hear me?” He pressed his lips against my ear and growled as he toyed with my nipples.
“Yes.” I knew where he was going with it, and I was only slightly disappointed with the distance he kept between us.
“Do you smell me?” He slid one hand up my throat and over my mouth so I could smell his skin and his familiarity burned deep when my senses were consumed with all things Dane.
It was just dark enough that if I turned to look at him, his face would be hard to see clearly. But I was tempted to try, anyway.
“Yes.” I admitted when he dropped his hand to my throat and tightened it, drawing a breathy moan from my lips.
“Then you don’t need to see me right now.”
“Please.” I whined, and he chuckled.
“You want to beg me tonight, Puppet?”
“Don’t I always end up begging you for something?” I hissed when he pinched my nipple and pulled on it.
“Because you’re my good little girl.”
“Mmh, then reward me already.” I challenged, reaching behind me and cupping his cock in my hand, stroking him. “Give me what I obviously ache for.”
He chuckled and pulled me back to the chair next to my bed and sat down, making me land in his lap. I hated sitting on laps because I was too big, but Dane positioned me until I was settled right on his legs with my feet on the floor between them.
I huffed when he was no closer to impaling me on his cock, and he chuckled. “Open your present, Puppet. So I can get mine.”
“Hmm, I don’t remember getting you anything.” I deadpanned as he laid the black box on my lap and then gasped when he bit my neck directly over the mark he left last night. I had to use makeup tricks I hadn’t used since high school to cover it so I could face Lincoln.
My pussy throbbed, remembering the way Lincoln had hovered around me all day long, feeding me breakfast and then kind of lingering like he wanted to spend time with me. It didn’t make any sense.
“Distracted?” Dane hummed, bringing me back to him and the present.
“Around you? Always.” I giggled when he gripped my hands and started pulling the bow open on the gift.
When I had the bow free, I lifted the lid, but Dane reached over next to us and clicked the small reading lamp on and I froze. “I’m trusting you, Puppet.” He laid wet kisses over my shoulders and I stared down at the present in my lap. “Be my good girl, baby.”
“Okay,” I whispered and finished opening my gift. It’d be so easy to look over my shoulder and see his face for the first time, but as he laid his cheek on my shoulder looking down at the gift, I forced myself to be good for him. “Oh,”
In the box was a black satin pillow of sorts with three very precarious items cushioned on top, and my body tingled as I looked down at them.
“Pick the one you want to explore first.” He stated, rubbing his hands up and down my thighs in a comforting yet teasing way. It was the first time he freely touched me when we weren’t fighting for control or power in the dirt like a couple of animals.
“Well, I know which one I’m not going to start with.” I whispered, grabbing one that probably wasn’t safe either, but felt safer than the other one.
It was two things, actually. A delicate black ribbon choker with a gold jewel closure and a matching bracelet in the opposite coloring. I noticed that the gold bracelet had a beautiful sparkling chain instead of ribbon, and when I lifted it to inspect it, the black closure on it seemed slightly scary. And sure enough, the black gem was a skull with emerald stones in the eyes, giving it an eerie yet painfully beautiful appearance.
I lifted the choker to examine the jewel closure closer, and it was a matching skull with dark black gems for eyes.
“What are these?” I whispered, noting the way the different colored gems reminded me of us. True, I’d never seen his eyes before, but I imagined they’d be dark. Just like Lincoln’s were. There was just something about his personality that said his eyes were dark, like his soul.
His fingers traced over the black ribbon choker and he responded, “Some people would call this one a collar.”
An image of a woman in a sex dungeon locked in a cage with a padlocked chain around her throat came to mind and I shivered at how unappealing that was. “What would you call it?”
“A token of commitment.” He said, taking the seemingly harmless ribbon from my hand and using both of his hands to bend the skull at the center. Right before I thought it’d break in his large hands, a seam appeared down the middle of the face and the token parted. “It’s something to be worn no different from a promise ring or something more conventional to prove to the person you’re with that you’re theirs.”
“That seems serious.”
“It is. It’s not meant to be taken lightly. I wouldn’t take it lightly if you were to wear it.”
I felt overwhelmed, so I shifted my attention to the glittering golden bracelet with a matching skull with glowing green eyes. “Then what is this one?”
He smiled into my hair and put the black choker back into the box. “This is the training wheels edition of the necklace. Something more normal with the same meaning. But this one represents a commitment to yourself.” He ran his fingers over the glowing green jewels and opened it, the same way he opened the choker. “This one is a gift to yourself, linking you to no one but you. Because if you accept my necklace or not, I want you to accept this bracelet as the first step to regaining your individuality and autonomy.”
“I don’t understand.” I whispered, but that was a lie. Despite not being the one to disclose that part of my life, I knew what he was referring to.
“Choose yourself, Puppet, if nothing else. Choose your own happiness and your own path and stop doing it for everyone else.”
Tears burned my eyes as I felt the impact of his words on my heart. So instead of telling him how right he was, I held my wrist out, welcoming his brand and the vow it carried for myself. His fingers gently clasped the skull back together and then he reached into the box, pulling out a pin key. “If you lock it, it won’t come off without this key.”
“Lock it.” I whispered, watching as he twisted the small lock and I looked down at the symbol of me and him intertwined. “This is the same skull you have on your back.”
“Is it selfish of me to want to be a part of your happiness, even if it isn’t with you choosing me?”
“No.” I smiled to myself. “Not at all.”
“We’ll hold on to this one until you’re ready for it.” He took the key and tucked it back into the box with the necklace.
“Fair.” I ran my fingers over the bracelet and felt the warmth in my soul at the gesture he gave me. And then I remembered the other things in the box and groaned to myself, pushing my emotions to the side. “And the other parts of my gift.”
He chuckled darkly, lifting the black leather like blindfold that had cushions in the eye spaces with a tight elastic band to go around my head. “This is so I can fuck you face to face like last night without worrying about you suffocating with my shirt over your face.”
I snorted, “Or you could just reveal your identity to me. And end the whole charade.”
“Soon, Puppet.” He kissed my neck again.
“Okay, and the last one?” I eyed the last gift .
He snorted, “I thought that one spoke for itself.” I stared down at it in the box atop the satin cushion. “Pick it up.”
I tentatively picked up the silver item, testing the weight of it. I turned it over and ran my thumb over the green gem that matched the ones in my skull bracelet and snorted at the beauty within such an obnoxious object. “A butt plug.”