Chapter 76
Emery
Darcy’s gaze jumps up from my lips to my eyes, the dark blue irises filled with want.
My breath catches in my throat at the sight of it. It’s hard to maintain eye contact. Every fiber of my being wants me to look away, to lower my eyes, to take a step back, or better yet, get on my knees for him, just from that one look.
But I don’t. I stand my ground and wait for him to reply.
He searches my face before answering, voice low and quiet. “And what favor are you going to ask of me, princess?”
Biting the inside of my cheek, I give myself one more minute to decide if I really want to ask him for this. Is getting to know them and their history worth it? Or is it going to leave me crushed worse than going into the apartment and seeing the things they’ve bought for their next baby girl?
I just…
No. No more second guessing. I need all the information so that I can make the right decision for me and my future. And if they have truly moved on from me by the time I know what I want, then they weren’t worth my future, anyway.
So, yeah, I need to know.
“I want you to tell me about all of you. I want to know how you met. I want to know why you decided to share someone. I want to know the backstory to the Monarchs.” I throw that last bit out there because I’m curious to know if they’re aware of the name the students have for them.
Darcy groans and drops his head back until his neck cords from the strain and he is staring at the ceiling. “You know about that?”
“I’ve been featured on it just as much as you have for the past few weeks, so yeah, I know about it.” I try to keep my tone even, but I think it might come out more dry than I intended.
Darcy drops my gaze, refocusing his attention on the ropes as he starts pulling the length through a loop. “I didn’t know that.”
I shrug, but it feels odd with my wrists tied together in front of my chest, my movement already restricted by the simple tie.
“Yeah, at first there was speculation about the four of you with Oakley, but that has all swung to me, mostly because there are photos of Derek carrying me across campus bridal style. And now there is a bit of a spot Professor Knight situation going on, where people take photos of me and see if he is in the background.”
Darcy pauses his movements for a brief second, then chuckles before continuing with his ropes. “Do you want me to talk to Thayne about it? I can have it taken down.”
“No,” I reply with a shake of my head. “There’s no real point in having the forum shut down, it’ll just make the Instagram account more popular.
Or a new one will pop up. They’ll either get over it soon, or some other hot professor will start teaching here and their attention will switch over to him. ”
Darcy doesn’t respond to that as he pulls the rope toward my belly button, drawing my arms down tighter.
Stepping in close, so that his chest is pressed against my forearms and I can feel his exhale on my cheeks, he wraps the rope around my back, then brings it back to my middle. “I met Hudson first.”
I clamp my jaw shut, stopping the million questions I want to ask from tumbling free. I just want to listen. I don’t want to get into a conversation.
“We met before either of us were at NU. I think we were twenty-three, twenty-four. There was an expo in Vegas that we both attended. I was there to see a Shibari workshop and upgrade my beginner’s rope kit.
The sub I had with me, Delilah, was standing by my side as we watched a predicament scene, when a man I didn’t know called out her name.
She was very recognizable due to her candy-pink hair, so I was used to random people coming up to us to talk.
But this time, when she turned to the person, she lit up like a Christmas tree.
Several hours later, I found myself in my hotel room, sharing Delilah with that man. ”
Darcy pauses as he works the rope up my arms, stepping in close again to pull the ropes around my back, binding my biceps to my ribs before working the end in and around the thickening knot between my wrists.
“That man was Hudson. I won’t go into the details of that night, but I learned the true definition of edging from him.
Poor Delilah was a mess when we finished with her. A happy, sated mess.”
Just imagining the things those two would have done to her has me feeling all sorts of things. Jealousy is there, but it’s overpowered by the very deep urge to let them re-create that memory with me.
Did they restrain her to the bed and take turns tormenting her but not letting her come? Or was it kneeling backward on a chair, arms and legs secured so that her pussy was exposed for their use? Did they use her ass? Did they tag team or spit roast her?
Were they holding her still for the other one to use? How long did they make her beg? Did they blow multiple loads while they kept her wanting?
Fuck.
My clit throbs with all my thoughts, each one flashing through my mind like a picture reel. Except, where there should be an unknown girl with pink hair, there is a brunette with a heart-shaped face.
“It wasn’t until a few years later, when I was here for a gallery opening for my first ever art exhibition…
To this day, I still get a little nervous on opening night.
But that particular night, I got to talking with a man more than a few years older than me.
He was with his wife, and I noticed that she had a daytime discreet collar on.
Having recently moved back to the area, I hadn’t had a chance to go exploring for a kink community, so I took a shot and tested the waters out with this couple.
I commented on how beautiful her necklace was and mentioned how I hoped to have someone to wear mine someday.
They gave each other a look, then Thayne offered me a card with his details on it.
He told me to call him the next day for more information about where he got the necklace. ”
Another two bands around my upper body have left my arms well and truly immobile, but I’m so lost to Darcy’s story, I’m barely noticing it.
“That’s how I met Thayne. And no, before you ask, I have not been with him and his wife.”
I hadn’t been about to ask but am happy with the information. Although, something about Thayne having a wife doesn’t seem right.
“How are you feeling, princess? Does anything feel too tight?” Fingers roam between the ropes, running between the tightness and my skin.
“It’s good,” I murmur as I look down at my loosely curled fists. The added weight of the ropes is making everything heavy, including my eyelids. “Can I sit?”
Darcy makes a rumbly noise and grips my elbow. “Not yet. Do you think you can manage to stand for a bit longer for me?”
I nod, but it makes the room wobble. “The room is moving.”
“Okay, give me a minute and I’ll fix that. I’ll be right back.”
I’m almost embarrassed by the noise I make when I feel his heat leave me, but he is back almost instantly. There is tugging at the knot in the center and then there is tension pulling me directly up.
“I’m securing you to the ring a little early, but you can trust it to help you stay standing. How does that feel? How’s the pressure? Is it too much on your arms or waist?”
Warm hands smooth over my ribs and up my arms, eliciting a shiver from me. Now that Darcy is holding me, I tip my head back and let the harness take my weight, loving the feel of weighted pressure that pulls along my back. “’s perfect.”
I can hear the smile when he talks and really wish I could open my eyes to see it. “Been missing the ropes?”
With effort, I attempt to shrug, but I don’t know if it works. “Maybe.”
One hand trails down my side to my hip, and I feel Darcy move around me. “I’m going to begin your hip harness now. You still need to keep your feet on the ground until I tell you can lift them, okay, princess?”
“Yeah,” I mumble, pushing down with my feet so I don’t accidentally lose contact with the ground.
“Yeah, what?”
The edges of my mind are growing foggy, and I’m not sure if it’s from the gentle fingers stroking the bare skin of my waist or the way each of my breaths tightens the rope into a firm hug. “Yeah, yes, sir.”
The fingers stutter in their teasing back and forth before I am rewarded with more of his story.
“Hudson and I kept in contact. We’d meet up at kink events every now and then.
He lived in New York, making rich people richer, as he likes to put it.
Meanwhile, my work was consuming my life.
I had galleries and exhibitions flowing relentlessly, thanks to Margot. ”
I have to riffle through my cloudy memories to place the name—his agent.
“Eventually, I was able to find a Friday night to attend Club Obsession for the first time and linked it up with Hudson for a weekend he was visiting. That was when we met Derek.”
Lines of pressure build around my waist and hips, the tail of the rope slithering along my thighs as the new harness is built.
“Thayne introduced us. My first impression of Derek was a pompous asshole. He claimed those leather couches like they were his own personal court, waiting for those who wanted an audience with his royal highness to approach him, all while he was rolling amber liquid around in a glass, wearing guyliner and no shirt.”
If laughing was an option right now, I totally would. Instead, the warmth of the picture he is painting ebbs through my body, increasing the fog and decreasing my ability to subconsciously stay in this room.
“But the more we sat with him, the more we realized he was one of the pillars of the kink community. Thayne too. People came and went, talking to the two of them. Subs would kneel by Thayne’s wife and have quiet conversations.
When Devi would sit with us, the entire vibe of the club would change.
It was like having three ruling powers in one space.
Now that I know they are all sadists, I understand why the subs would get all antsy. ”
I must make a noise of discomfort.
“Exactly, princess. Actually, I do remember one scene, where Devi had a female sub tied spread eagle to the coffee table, arms, head, and torso on the table, with her ass barely on the edge. There were quite a few dildos of varying sizes resting in a case by her feet, each with a number on them. Other club members could come and select a dildo to use on the girl. However, the girl would need to get that number of flicks from Devi’s riding crop.
The poor thing was a hot and moaning mess of desperation by the time the night was over. ”
I fucking bet. To be left balancing for whoever knows how long on that sweet line of pleasure pain is a level of mean I can’t even contemplate. Just thinking about it makes my flogging scene with Derek float to the surface.
“I’m going to start on your legs. Remember, no sitting.
So, Derek, Hudson, and I all become friends.
Derek would travel with me to meet up with Hudson wherever there was an event we wanted to attend.
It took a while, but eventually Hudson wanted out from his job in New York.
I’ll leave his story for him to tell, all you need to know is that he was burned out.
He came to crash at my place for a week, but that turned into two and then a month.
Fun fact, he is actually from the area, but once he took over his parents’ retirement fund, they were able to move to Florida a lot earlier than planned. ”
Fingers trace a line of fire around my upper thighs, the firm satin winding its way along the back and around the side, until it joins once again at the front.
I suck in a sharp breath when fingers slip between my inner thighs, followed by the long tail of the rope, all the sensations so deliciously close to my clit.
“Hudson eventually used his connection with Thayne and Derek to apply for a position at NU. Luckily for him, there was a spot available for a professor with a background in international economics. I didn’t start at NU for another year.
Then it was just the three of us, on campus and at the club.
It didn’t take us long to figure out we preferred playing as a group.
It’s not something we ever really spoke about, Hudson and I just automatically started including Derek. ”
With two tight bands of rope around my upper and lower thighs, it feels as though I’m secure enough to let myself fall, but Darcy said no lifting my feet, even though I desperately want to.
That fuzzy side of my brain with the cotton candy and fluffy clouds is just out of reach while I concentrate on my toes and the rubber matting beneath them.
“Then, one day, completely out of the blue, Derek shows up to our Monday morning coffee with Xavier. It was like we had a spare shadow. He was there with us, but barely spoke, joined our group chat, became the fourth in our poker tournament, and just went along with whatever our plans were.”
Now bound from head to toe, my ability to fight the fog is dwindling. Darcy sounds far away, almost like he is in a completely different room. Lethargy has filled every cell, and I am moments away from tipping over into the darkness.
I need to stay here.
I need to stay here.
“Okay, princess, just a few more minutes, then I’ll have you up.”
A few more minutes.
Twisting and tugging follows fingers as they work their way back up my legs, moving around each binding’s knots and twists until his knuckles brush right over my panty-covered clit.
My body jolts in place. I have no idea if I made a noise or not, but I do know warm air flows over my inner thighs with every one of his exhales. Firm hands grip my hips and apply the gentlest amount of pressure to pull me forward.
And then I feel him.
His stubble against my thighs.
His lips over my public bone.
He opens his mouth, teeth grazing, until they slowly close, pinching my clit just hard enough that I arch back, zings of fire shooting from my core, up, and out through the rest of my body.
This time, when the fogginess surges forward, I let it take me.