Chapter 14
Gage slid the razor over his jaw and down the side of his neck in hypnotic strokes, erasing his five o’clock shadow.
I sat on the edge of the tub and rubbed jasmine scented lotion into my smooth legs.
I liked watching him do mundane things. Standing barefoot with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist, he didn’t come across nearly as intimidating as he normally did.
Until he turned that steel blue gaze on me in the mirror.
I didn’t know what propelled me to kneel behind him, my hands tugging at the terrycloth around his waist. The towel floated to the floor, and I wrapped my fingers around his cock. It only took a few strokes to get him hard. He dropped the razor onto the counter.
“What are you doing?”
I didn’t often take the initiative. He’d conditioned me to follow his lead, and that was a hard lesson to break.
“Serving you, Master.” Swiping my thumb over the head of his cock, I bit my lower lip, hiding a smile at the bead of moisture on my fingers.
“Did I give you permission to grope me?”
“No, Master.”
He chuckled, but as soon as I stroked the length of him, his laughter turned to a deep-throated groan.
“You’re being very bad. You interrupted my shaving, Kayla,” he said, but his tone teased rather than admonished.
“Now I have no choice but to punish your mouth.” He whirled and had my head between his hands before I had a chance to move out of reach.
As he pushed between my lips, his gaze roamed my face, as if he were searching for the answer to my out-of-character behavior.
“You’ve been quiet tonight, and now you’re on your knees playing with my cock of your own accord. Something is obviously going on here.” He thrust deeper, ensuring I couldn’t answer him.
And that’s when things took a turn for the worst. My gag reflex kicked in, stronger than ever, and I jerked my head back. But he moved with me, wordlessly forbidding me to pull away. Gagging was a huge turn-on for him, and he wasn’t about to give me any slack.
“While I fuck your mouth, why don’t you consider telling me what’s on your mind?” He paused for a moment, a dark brow arched. “Something is on your mind, right?” Ceasing his thrusts, he allowed me a quick nod of my head.
Would my entire pregnancy be like this? Struggling with the side-effects of growing a baby inside my body while he took his pleasure from me? All evening I’d worried over how to tell him, but suddenly, I wanted answers first.
He moved his hips in a lazy circle, keeping his cock buried deep in my mouth, and hitting the back of my throat with each rotation. His eyes deepened to my favorite shade of indigo. Sometimes, that hue was a warning, but more often than not, it was a sign of his raging arousal.
Gage was possibly the most passionate man I’d ever met.
With a grunt, he pushed further into my throat, and I gagged so hard my eyes burned from unshed tears.
My belly roiled—a sure sign I was in trouble if I didn’t get him off pronto.
Renewing my efforts, I worked his shaft with my tongue and lips, hoping against hope that it would be enough to make him come.
I wasn’t sure how much longer I could stand his cock trapped in my throat, no matter how much I loved making him go wild with my mouth.
And this was why I needed to tell him, or at the very least, open a conversation about the what-ifs of pregnancy.
He withdrew without warning, causing my lips to make a popping sound.
Then he bent over and hefted me to my feet with two hands under my shoulders.
He spun us around, lifted me onto the counter, and buried his half-shaven face between my legs, smearing shaving cream on my skin in the process.
My elbows hit the counter hard, but I didn’t give a fuck.
Not as long as he kept flicking his tongue over my clit like that.
“Master…feels so good.”
He lifted his head. “I lick, you talk.”
My head fell back against the mirror. “About what?” His wondrous tongue derailed my train of thought.
“Tell me what’s bothering you, or I’ll stop.” Again, he lifted his head and stared at me, brows narrowed over eyes that saw too much. “You haven’t been yourself all afternoon. I know when something is off.”
“I’ve been thinking about…” He darted his tongue into my opening, and I gripped the edge of the counter with white-knuckled fingers. “Oh, God. Don’t stop.”
“Then finish what you were going to say. You’ve been thinking about what?”
“What if…what if I do get pregnant?”
As soon as I said those words, he backed away completely, and I lamented the loss of the heights he would have surely sent me to. But the way he watched me, with a mixture of suspicion and hope, told me that our oral session was over. Reluctantly, I slid to my feet.
“What do you mean what if?” He folded his arms, and somehow he didn’t look ridiculous standing buck naked like that. If anything, he seemed more formidable. “As far as I knew there was only when. Are you trying to tell me something, Kayla?”
“No! I just never gave it much thought until now, but…”
“But what?” His voice rose, on the edge of anger. He was taking this all wrong. Or I wasn’t explaining myself in the right way.
“How will you treat me during the pregnancy, or after the baby is born?” Considering the what-ifs—the ones I’d never given much thought to because getting pregnant seemed like a pipe dream—were making me nauseous.
Either that or it was morning sickness.
“I’ve done research, Kayla. You need to trust me to know what is safe and what isn’t.”
“I’m not just talking about safety. I’m talking about…
about what I want.” I wrung my hands before forging ahead.
“If I were to get pregnant, I’d want more freedom.
And once the baby arrives…” I gulped, kicking myself for the slip-up.
“I mean I can’t comprehend taking care of a newborn and kneeling at your feet daily, or taking your belt or…
or your anal punishments. Gage, I’d need you to tone it down. ”
A tick went off in his jaw, and for a second I thought he’d figured me out.
“You sound like you don’t want a baby. First your talk the other night about how it might not be in the cards for us, and now this?
” He took a step toward me, but my back hit the edge of the counter, leaving me no room to escape.
“Have you been taking birth control pills behind my back? Is that why you’re not getting pregnant?”
“What?” My eyes widened. “No! These are just things…I’ve just been giving this stuff some thought lately.”
“Well here’s all you need to know. I’m your Master, and I will take care of you. You might not always like my methods, but I won’t hurt you beyond what you can handle.”
“What if I don’t want to ‘handle’ it while pregnant or taking care of a newborn?
” My voice climbed higher with every word, and I regretted it immediately because I knew what he was after before he disappeared from the bathroom.
A few moments later, he returned with the ever-dreaded ball gag clutched in his fist.
Shaking my head, I flattened my lips together in pure defiance. “I’m sorry I lost my cool, but this is serious, Gage. We need to talk about this.”
“I’ll talk. You’re going to listen.” He pressed the gag to my lips, but I batted his hand—and the gag—away. Even as I did so, I was horrified by my actions. Not because they were out of line, but because they were out of line according to his standards.
“Kayla,” he warned, once again coming at me with that horrid gag.
“Please, Master. Can’t we just talk about—”
“We will talk. We’ll talk about anything you want, but after you’ve accepted your punishment.”
“What am I being punished for? Will you at least give me a damn reason?”
His mouth formed an indomitable line. “The way you just spoke to me is a fine example of why your disobedient mouth is getting punished.”
Why bother protesting? Even if I were ready to tell him about the baby, he wasn’t willing to hear me until I took my discipline like the dutiful slave I was.
I parted my lips and stretched them around the gag.
After he’d tightened the buckle with extra oomph, he ordered me to my knees in the middle of our bedroom.
I did as told, and Gage surprised me by producing a set of leather cuffs. He secured my wrists behind me, and I had to wonder why. He rarely restrained me anymore—he didn’t have to. A slight chill stirred by body as he walked in a slow circle around me.
“I may be your husband, but this is not a normal marriage. You knew going in that I would have absolute authority over your life, your body, and your decisions.” Completing another circle, he came to a stop in front of me.
“You have no control here, Kayla. And though I love your feisty spirit—God, I truly do—I won’t hesitate to put you in your place, pregnant or not. ”
He cocked his head to the side. “And this is your place—on your knees, naked, bound, and gagged. Your place is on all fours, offering your cunt and asshole whenever I wish. Your place,” he said, raising his voice, “is in any damn position I see fit with your mouth wide open and eager to please me.”
Sliding his fingers under my chin, he forced my head up, eyes on him. “There is only one path to freedom, and it’s one I know you’ll never take. I’ve made sure of it.”
Everything he said was true, and it rose inside me, an insidious truth I couldn’t deny. He’d manipulated and molded me, trained and conditioned me. My will was strong and always present, but he’d somehow rewired it to exist for him.