Chapter 11
eleven
Asher
When we were still in the living room, Emma asked how I was going to punish her. I didn’t answer on purpose. I want her to worry. My little Raindrop didn’t listen to her Daddy. Now she’ll have to suffer the consequences.
She thinks I didn’t realize how turned on she was this morning. I’m betting she is now, too, even though she probably wouldn’t admit it. My inner sadist can’t wait to teach her a valuable lesson.
“What are you going to do?” Emma’s voice cracks as she asks. She’s worried.
“You’ll find out soon enough. Stay there. I’ll be right back.” I don’t move until she nods. Even though I plan on punishing her, she is still the one with ultimate control. After seeing how she responds to my dominance, I am confident she won’t stop me.
After opening my closet door, I look back over my shoulder to make sure she hasn’t moved.
Satisfied she’s staying where I left her, I walk further inside.
It’s a large room with built-in cabinets and racks lining both sides.
Behind the furthest rack is a hidden door to my safe room.
As soon as Emma can stand up without hurting her foot, I’ll show her and explain how to use it. But that’s not why I came in here.
I don’t think she’s experienced being restrained, so I pick one of my silk ties rather than rope. It’s soft and won’t damage her skin. Though just thinking about my rope marks on her skin makes my cock throb against my zipper.
With the tie in my hand, I get a devious idea.
Oh, yes, this’ll be perfect. My father always said that you should start as you intend to continue.
Emma needs to understand that my dark side isn’t going anywhere if she’s going to make an informed decision about being mine—not that I’ll ever be able to let her go.
I pull out the bag that’s tucked under my clothes. Rummaging through it until I find what I’m looking for, I hold it up, and my cheeks crease into an evil grin. This is going to be fun, but fuck, if I don’t get these jeans off soon, I’ll have permanent zipper indentations on my dick.
Emma is exactly where I left her. I know I’m still smirking when her eyebrows rise, and she nibbles on her bottom lip, a sure sign she’s stressed. After closing the door with my shoulder blades, I hide my hands behind my back so I can keep her guessing for as long as possible.
Approaching the bed, I slip one of my surprises into a drawer in the bedside table, then hold up the tie. Emma draws in a deep breath. Emotion deepens the color of her beautiful eyes. They look greener than ever, as if I’m being swathed in the forest.
“Give me your wrists, baby.” I infuse my dominance into the words, curious to see how she’ll react. When she raises her hands without comment, my smirk grows. She’s perfect.
Her eyes widen as I cross her wrists and wrap them in my tie. I chose the red silk, knowing how gorgeous it will look against her pale skin. As I lift them over her head, she gasps.
“What are you doing, Asher?”
“Ensuring you stay where you’re put, Raindrop.” My gaze drops to hers briefly as I attach the ends of the makeshift restraint to the headboard. Her pulse races against my fingers.
“You have a tie?”
Chuckling, I pull the knotted ends so they won’t come loose. Then I make sure the silk isn’t too tight around her wrists. I’m pretty sure this is going to be her first experience with power exchange, and I don’t want to scare her away.
“Even big, grumpy bears have to get dressed up sometimes.”
“I guess that’s true,” she mumbles.
It looks like she wants to say more, but wisely decides not to poke me more than she has already. Emma pulls her arms—testing how well she’s attached to the headboard. She’s not going anywhere until I release her, which won’t be anytime soon.
I need to touch her skin, to taste her, to make her mine more than I need my next breath. With my hand on her stomach, I sit beside her on the bed.
“I peeked at your e-reader this morning, so I know you read romance. Dark romance, from what I saw in your library. But do you understand what power exchange is? How it works?”
“What?” Her fists clench, then she winces in pain as her fingernails dig into the skin of her scraped palms. Emma’s hips shift on the bed—she’s squirming. I’d bet money that my girl is soaked.
“You heard me, Raindrop. Do you know anything about power exchange? Dominance and submission…” Raising my eyebrows, I remain silent, waiting for her to process my words.
Emma’s struggling to answer. A rosy color rises from her neck to flood her cheeks. She’s never looked more beautiful. When she opens and closes her mouth a few times, I can’t help grinning. But when she pulls her lower lip between her teeth and bites down, I use my thumb to pull it out.
Taking pity on her, I slide my hand under her T-shirt, resting my palm directly on her skin. “Do you know what power exchange is, baby?”
This time she nods, but doesn’t answer.
“Have you ever given your submission to anyone?”
She whispers, “No,” barely loud enough for me to hear.
“I kind of figured, and I think you already know I’m a Dominant—a Daddy—I need to be in control, to have my rules obeyed.
” I’m pleased when she doesn’t freak out, even though she’s vibrating under my hand.
“You broke one of my rules earlier. So you’ll be punished.
But since we haven’t discussed what your limits are, I’m not going to spank you—this time. ”
Her relief is palpable as she relaxes into the bed, and her judders lessen. “But that doesn’t mean I’m still not going to punish you.
“What are you going to do?”
“Do you know what edging is, baby?” Her pupils widen, and she draws in a deep breath, and nods again.
“Good girl. But from this point forward, I’m going to need your words. Ultimately, you have the control here even if it won’t seem like it. First, I need you to pick a safe word.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m going to keep you on the edge of an orgasm until you’re begging me to let you come. Then I’m going make you come until you’re begging me to stop. Then I’ll give you more. But if you use your safe word everything ends and we talk about it. Understood?”
“I… Yes.”
“If you don’t want to think of a word, we can use the stoplight system.
I’m sure you’ve seen it in books. Red means I stop immediately, and we talk about what you need.
Yellow stops everything temporarily until you decide you’re okay to continue, or if you need to go to red.
Green means you’re good to keep going. Do you have a word you want to use? ”
“Hemlock. I choose hemlock.”
“Good girl.” Her blush intensifies every time I use those words. “It’s perfect for you, and not something you’d scream during sex, usually. At least, I’d hope not.”
“No, Sir.”
Hearing her call me Sir without me asking eases the last of the worry that I’ve read the situation wrong. She wants this as badly as I do. What she doesn’t realize yet is that I plan to give her whatever she needs every day for the rest of our lives.
“I prefer Daddy, but Sir is okay for now. Are you ready to take your punishment like a good girl?”
Emma’s heart races beneath my hand, and a soft moan escapes her parted lips. I’ll take that as a yes, but I need her words.
“Emma? Words…”
“Yes, Sir.”
“There’s one more thing to take care of before we start.”
“You said you weren’t going to spank me.”
“I’m not. But I want to make sure you remember your punishment for the rest of the day.” I open the nightstand drawer and pull out a bottle of lube and the butt plug I hid earlier.
When she sees it, she shakes her head, but stays quiet.
I raise my eyebrows. “Are you using your safe word, Raindrop?”
“Ummm, no?”
I hide my smile when her answer sounds like a question.
“Are you sure?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. I’ve never done anything back there.”
“You mean anal, baby? Good to know, but none of your holes will be off limits to me. Unless it’s a hard limit. Is it?”
“No, but I don’t want it to hurt.”
“Part of punishment is giving you pain, but I’ll only ever give you as much as you can handle. I don’t damage what’s mine.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes, of course I am.”
“But we’re not in a relationship. Holy shiitake mushrooms. We just met yesterday, if you can even call it that.”
I set the plug and lube aside, and cup her cheek, my thumb rubbing over the silky skin. “As soon as I had you in my arms, I knew you were mine.”
“Really?” The emotions in her expression change faster than I can track. But she’s not using her safe word. That’s a good sign, right?
Even knowing I’m pushing her too hard, I can’t stop.
I don’t recognize myself right now. “Yes, really. After holding last night, taking care of you today, feeding you, it’s everything I never realized I craved—needed.
You’re healing pieces of me I didn’t think could be fixed.
Touching you wrecks me, and when your pulse races, I want to toss you on the couch and bury myself so far inside you that you’ll never forget how I feel.
You were wet for me this morning, weren’t you? Tell me you want this…”
Andrew would kick my ass right now. After I confessed my feelings earlier, he warned me to take it slowly, that Emma would need time. I probably just fucked everything up. But I won’t let her go—can’t let her go. Something other than guilt fills me for the first time since my parents' murder.
Unable to resist the urge a moment longer, I lean down until our lips are almost touching. I give her a chance to tell me no, then I take my first taste of her.
While I rub my lips against her soft, puffy ones, she moans gently. It’s all the opportunity I need to slide my tongue inside her warm, sweet mouth. Tasting her, inhaling her scent, it’s like being transported to a hot spring in the middle of summer.
My hand tightens on her jaw as I tilt her head to deepen the kiss. When her tongue hesitantly touches mine, I can’t hold back my moan. Tangling together, we don’t break apart until we’re both panting.
“Shiitake mushrooms!” Emma exclaims as she tries to catch her breath. “Is that how kisses are supposed to be?”
“Oh, baby, you have no idea. It gets much better from here. Are you saying you want this, too? To see where it goes?”
“Yes.” When she agrees, her smile is angelic.
I could stare at her all day, but her saying that one word is everything.