Chapter 22
Blaze
I wait until after Victoria finishes lunch and Ryder is back before I gather her from the kitchen and take her to his office. I shut the door and take a seat on one of the velvet armchairs, keeping her tight against me on my lap.
“What’s wrong?” she asks.
Ryder sits across from us, elbows on his knees, fingers threaded, brow furrowed. If she’s looking at him, she’s probably panicking.
“The PI called,” I tell her.
She stiffens.
Ryder reaches over to snag the file folder from the edge of the desk. He opens it and holds out a photo. “Do you know this man?”
I take it and hold it in front of her.
She gasps. “Yes. That’s David, the man I told you about who took me on that weird date.”
That’s what I suspected.
Ryder holds out another picture. “And this is your stepmother?”
“Yes.”
He glances at me before pulling out a third picture.
Victoria nearly falls off my lap. Good thing I have my arm firmly around her. “What the fuck?” She slaps her hand over her mouth and twists to look at me, eyes wide.
“Yeah…” I cringe. The photo isn’t pretty. It’s a shot of her stepmother’s backyard, featuring Sheila and David fucking on a lounge chair. Sheila is riding him, head tipped back, mouth open in pure ecstasy. Under the circumstances, it’s disgusting.
“What. The. Fuck?” Victoria repeats.
“Apparently, David is also your stepmother’s pool guy and fuckbuddy.”
She blinks. “That’s insane. He told me he worked in corporate America for his father. And why the hell would she set me up with someone she’s fucking, a man half her age?”
“I think she thought he was easy prey and she could get him to marry you without much difficulty.”
“Why the hell would she want me to marry the pool guy? And why would she be fucking him if she wanted him to fuck me, too?”
I tip her back in my arms and cover her mouth. “I know you’re angry, and you have every right to be, but that’s enough fucks, got it?” I lift a brow.
She stares at me with wide eyes.
My girl cusses pretty regularly, and I haven’t called her out on it yet. There are a lot of things I haven’t called her out on…yet. But the tide is changing in our relationship now that I know more about what makes her tick.
Victoria needs a firm hand. I’m not yet sure how far she will push me on a regular basis.
It’s normal for her to explore her boundaries.
It’s kind of up to her. She’s the one who needs to decide how often and how hard she likes to be spanked.
She’s also the one who needs to discover more about her humiliation kink.
We’re crossing into new territory. The air is thick from our standoff. I’m confident she craves what I’m about to offer her.
“In six months, babies are going to start popping out. Eventually, one of those babies will be ours. Do you want their first word to be fuck?”
She swallows hard and glances at Ryder.
He doesn’t move. He’s almost smirking but trying to hold it back. I can see it in his eyes.
“Look at me,” I order.
She shifts her attention back to me.
“Does Ryder make rules for you?”
She shakes her head slowly.
“Ryder has his hands full with his own wife. I don’t care what her rules are. If he wants his kids to cuss, that’s his problem.”
Ryder smirks. “That ain’t happening.”
Over her dress, I slide one hand under her bottom and grip it. “Did I not spank you hard enough before lunch, Victoria?”
Her face pinkens adorably.
And she grips her thighs together.
Yes.
I just learned something new. I don’t have to spank Victoria to humiliate her. I can reprimand her in front of other people. Ryder won’t see her bare ass. He’ll never see it. But I’m getting the same effect.
There’s a lot going on here. I just rocked her world with very painful information about her stepmother.
She’s shocked and rightfully upset. She needs to know someone is on her side.
That someone is me. And the best way to prove to her that she’s not alone is to assert my authority. She expects and craves it.
“Who makes the rules for you, Victoria?”
“You do, Blaze,” she whispers, squirming.
I slide my hand up her back until my fingers are around her shoulder blade. My thumb is against her breast. I apply just enough pressure to get her attention.
Her breath hitches.
I move my thumb slightly, near her nipple. It’s not obvious to Ryder, but incredibly obvious to Victoria.
Her eyes widen further as she holds my gaze. The fact that she doesn’t look away tells me everything. She’s tempting me to take this further. It’s in the depths of those gorgeous brown eyes.
“No more cussing, understood?”
“Yes.”
I lift a brow and stare at her, wondering if she will grasp my meaning and what more I want from her, or if I’ll need to spell it out.
She licks her lips and parts them, ready to speak. Oh, yeah. She knows what I’m waiting for.
This is huge, though. New line. How many lines have we crossed in the last few days? A lot of them. This one is big.
I wait.
Her chest rises and falls. She’s hesitating.
Thinking.
Deciding.
Finally, she gives me what I want. She gives it to me because it’s what she wants, too. “Yes, Sir.”
“Good girl.” I smile at her and turn her to hug her against my chest. My heart is beating rapidly. So is hers. We need a moment to absorb the dynamic we just added to our relationship.
I catch Ryder moving out of the corner of my eye and look at him. He nods toward the door and leaves, closing it behind him.
I keep holding Victoria tight. My lips come to her ear. “That felt good, didn’t it, baby?”
She nods.
“You didn’t know you were so submissive, did you?”
She shakes her head against my chest. A sob escapes her, and she tries to suck it back. Unsuccessfully.
I tip her in my arms and wipe her tears with my thumb. “It’s okay to cry, baby. I’m sure you’re feeling incredibly emotional right now, and you have every right to feel that way. A lot is happening all at once. I’d be worried if you were stoic.”
She nods again, more tears falling.
I glance around and spot a box of tissues on the edge of the desk, so I reach and snag several. When I hand them to her, she wipes her face and blows her nose.
“I’m sorry,” she murmurs.
I tilt her head back with a finger under her chin and shake my head. “No reason to be sorry. You don’t need to repress emotions with me. In fact, if we’re going to be in an intense relationship with aspects of BDSM, we need to be more open than vanilla folks. Okay?”
“Okay.”
Grinning, I lift my brow.
She sighs and rolls her eyes. “Yes, Sir.”
I kiss her. “That’s better. I know it felt good the first time you said it.
The reverence will center you and remind you of your place in our relationship.
We’re in this discovery phase where we’re finding out what each of us needs.
You’ve learned a lot today, and I’m going to make sure you’re always getting what you crave, baby. ”
“Okay.”
“Now, back to the reason I brought you in here. I do not like this shit with your stepmother and David. Not at all. Something is going on with them. I told my PI to dig deeper. I’ve spoken to my lawyer, too. He’s going to get his hands on your father’s will.”
She frowns. “My father’s will?”
“Yes.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“That’s what I want to know. I have my suspicions. Have you ever seen it?”
“No. I was too young to even know such a thing existed when he died. Are you sure there is one?”
“I can’t be certain, but something is hinky.”
Victoria frowns, her gaze moving past me, unseeing.
I get a better hold of her and stand. “Time for a nap.”
“Blaze… I don’t need a nap. In the past few days, I’ve slept enough for a month.”
“Who’s in charge?” I tease, moving across the room and opening the door.
“Me?”
I chuckle and carry her to the front staircase and up to our room. After I shut the door, I sit her on the edge of the bed. “Arms up.”
She grumbles, but she obeys, letting me remove her dress.
After taking her sandals off, I lift her again, tug the covers back, and lay her gently on the sheet.
Tucking a pillow under her leg, I glance up.
Fuck, she’s so damn stunning. She’s the cutest when she’s wearing nothing but plain cotton panties.
I don’t know why she’s so sexy like this.
Perhaps because on some level, I recognized her submission all along.
I just didn’t realize how deep it extended or how much dominance she would need from me.
The reality is that she didn’t, either. But here we are.
I lift the covers to her chin and sit next to her.
“Let me point out a few things. One, your leg hasn’t been elevated all day, and Kinsley said to keep it propped up as much as possible.
So you’ll take a nap like a good girl and stay right here until dinner.
If you can do that without complaining, I’ll let you sit at the table at dinner for an hour or so. After that, back to bed.”
She licks her lips. There’s another stare down before she says, “Yes, Sir.”
“Good girl. Next, you have a lot to process. You just found out you have a humiliation kink. So did I. Neither of us knew that. Both times I embarrassed you since we got home, you reacted strongly. That’s important.”
“Maybe I wanted to slap you,” she proposes, lifting her chin.
I chuckle. “Maybe your panties were soaked, and you wanted me to thrust my fingers into your cunt.”
Her cheeks darken. “Poop.”
I laugh harder. “Much better word. As for rules, baby, you crave them. We’ll find out through trial and error if it’s because you like to be disciplined and will misbehave to fulfill a need to be spanked or reprimanded or punished in any number of ways.
But it’s also possible you just really need boundaries, and you will follow them in order to avoid punishment. ”
She lowers her gaze. “I don’t know,” she whispers. “All of that seems really freaky.”
I dip my head, forcing her to look at me.
“It’s fine that you don’t know. We’ll learn together.
And it’s not freaky. It’s just who you are.
Victoria, I’m a bossy guy. You’ve known that since you met me.
You were attracted to my dominance from the get-go.
Maybe my heart recognized a kindred soul the moment I set eyes on you.
Either way, it doesn’t bother me one bit to find out you have submissive needs.
I don’t care what that looks like. I’ll recalibrate to be what you crave, baby.
If you need my bossiness at a ten instead of an eight, that’s what you’ll get. ”
She groans. “That sounds ridiculous.”
“It’s not. It’s who we are. We fit like a puzzle. Now, be a good girl and take a nap. You’re going to need a lot of sleep to deal with everything coming up.”
“What’s coming up?”
I stand, kiss her forehead, and smirk. “You know, the wedding, me filling your cunt with my seed, you getting pregnant… Then there’s the baby, feedings, milking you… It’s a lot.”
She swats me and giggles. “Go away.”
“Don’t get out of bed.” I grab her dress, dig her phone out of the pocket, and set it next to her. “Text or call if you need me. No walking. No hopping. If I find out you moved from this bed without permission, I will spank you so hard you won’t be able to sit at dinner.”
“Yes, Sir,” she says reverently. “Just so you know, I’m probably going to test you.”
“I fully expect you to. It’s how we’ll learn what our dynamic looks like. Just so you know, I’m not a pushover. If I tell you not to do something, and you defy me, I will discipline you any way I see fit.”
“Yes, Sir.”
My heart squeezes every time she says that. I’ve never been in a Dominant/submissive relationship, so I had no idea how affected I would be by those words. Fuck. It sounds…right.
It sounds like us.
I’m aware that some of the wives in his house use that kind of honorific. They aren’t always blatant about it, but I’ve heard them use the word Sir on many occasions.
I lean over Victoria again and linger with my lips on her forehead. She smells so good. I want to stay, but I have things to do while she rests. When I pull back, her eyes are closed and her body is already relaxing. It makes me nearly chuckle.
I don’t need a nap, my ass.