Chapter 40
Gray
I sit up on the bed and start to pull my shirt off.
“Slowly,” Ash says when I work at it too quickly.
I slow down, forcing myself to make it more of a strip tease.
Ash watches me intently from the side of the bed as I finish pulling the shirt off and hold it up.
With a flick of my wrist, I toss it toward his head so it covers his face.
He pulls it off, and for a second I’m not sure if it’s anger or passion I see in his eyes.
I yelp as he surges forward onto the bed, and I have to lean back as he hovers over me, his face serious.
“You told me you weren’t a brat,” Ash says as he continues to loom over me. “Did you lie?”
I search my memory for our conversation about brats, then shake my head. “I…I was just trying to be playful,” I say. “I’m sorry.”
Ash’s face eases. “No, I’m sorry. I just had a bad experience with a brat once.”
I nod my understanding. Or what little I can understand based on my limited knowledge of BDSM.
“Take off your bra,” he says more gently.
He still looms over me, and I manage to reach a hand behind me to pop the clasp on my bra. Ash’s eyes drop to my chest, and he watches as I pull the bra loose and toss it off the side of the bed.
He smiles. “Good girl.”
I go wet again between my legs and reach for the zipper of the plaid skirt, but Ash grabs my wrist.
“Not the skirt,” he says. “That stays on.”
I nod again, and Ash eases himself back off the bed.
He goes to the head of it and picks up one of the restraints.
When he just stands there, I finally get the hint and lay back on the bed.
I put my hand above my head, and he wraps the cuff around my wrist. He lets go when he’s done, and I tug on the restraint to test it.
It holds me firm, and I feel a jolt that’s somewhere between thrill and fear.
Ash walks to the other corners of the bed, and each time I dutifully present him with a limb that he straps down.
I have no idea why I’m submitting. Almost every fiber of my being is screaming at me that this is not what strong, smart women let men do to them. Almost every fiber. A few remaining ones have locked the objectors in a basement and are assuring me it’s not wrong to like this.
When Ash is done and I’m lying spreadeagle across his bed, he goes to his box and pulls something out. He turns and looks down at me, taking me in, before he holds up what’s in his hand. A blindfold.
My heart skips, and I tug unconsciously at the restraints.
“You’re going to blindfold me?” I ask warily.
“I want you to focus on what you feel,” Ash says. “This will help.”
Ash kneels on the bed and slips the blindfold, a fancy sleep mask, over my head.
I feel him get off the bed, and my ears instantly sharpen to listen for what he’s doing.
I can’t hear anything for several seconds, and my imagination runs wild.
Is he taking pictures of me strapped naked to his bed?
Will he send them to his teammates? I would die of mortification if my students ever saw me like this.
I begin to thrash. “No pictures!” I yell. “Ash, what are you doing?”
I feel his weight dip the bed almost instantly, then his body is pressed against the side of mine. He’s still wearing his jeans, and they’re rough against my legs, but his naked chest pressed to mine is warm and soft.
“Gray, sshh,” he whispers. His hand cups my cheek. “Easy, baby. I’d never take your picture like this without your permission.”
The nervous patter in my heart is still giving a hummingbird’s wings a run for their money, but I force myself to inhale deeply to calm down.
“Do you want me to take the blindfold off?” Ash asks. “Maybe you’re not ready-”
I feel his hand move to the mask, but the denial leaps off my tongue before he can remove it. “No!”
His hand stops. “Are you sure? This is supposed to enhance your pleasure, not your anxiety. If you-”
“Promise me,” I gasp out, cutting him off. “Promise me you’re not taking pictures, and I’ll believe you.”
There are two very long seconds of silence before Ash says, “Gray, I promise, I’m not taking pictures of you like this. I would never, ever.”
Something in his tone eases me instantly. Maybe I’m a fool for believing him, but the sincerity in his voice is almost palpable. As if he’s hurt I’d even consider the possibility he was doing something devious.
I nod. “Then leave the blindfold on.” I must be mad, but fuck it.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes,” I say. “Green light.”
Another few seconds drift away before Ash shifts, and something grazes over my breast. I jump at the sudden sensation, but I realize on the next graze that Ash is running the leather flogger over my breasts.
I hear his murmur of appreciation as my nipples peak, and I exhale a slow breath as pleasure spreads through my body.
Ash shifts again, and it feels like he’s sitting up next to me on the bed.
I let out a soft cry as the tails of the flogger slap against one breast, making the nipple harden. Before I can recover enough to react further, Ash snaps the flogger against the other breast, just hard enough to make it sting a little.
I shift against the restraints as my body comes alive. I’m suddenly aware of every place something touches my skin, and I swear I can even feel the warmth of Ash’s body near mine, not touching, but close enough to sense his nearness.
There’s a sharp sting against my outer thigh as Ash slaps it with the flogger, then he drags it over my inner thigh and up to my apex. The buzz of a vibrator catches my ear, and I lift my head.
“Ash?” I ask.
“Sshh,” he hushes. “You’re supposed to be trusting me.”
I feel the vibrator on my nipple and bite my lip. Ash moves it to the second nipple, and my hands jerk against the restraints, fingers flexing.
Ash chuckles and trails the vibrator down my stomach. He pauses near my pubic bone – for effect, I’m sure – then touches it to my clit.
I let out the moan I’ve been holding back, and instinct makes me try to open my thighs wider.
“Mmm, that’s a good girl,” Ash praises. “Is your needy little pussy getting all wet for me? Let me check.”
I moan again as Ash pushes a finger inside me, and I can’t stop myself from trying to ride it.
“Fuck me,” Ash breathes. “Baby, you’re soaked again.”
Ash removes his finger, but he props the vibrator against my clit before I feel him get up from the bed. The swish of heavy fabric tells me he’s taking his jeans off. Then there’s the crinkle and tear of a condom wrapper, and I barely hear the slick sound of him rolling the condom over his cock.
The bed dips again, and Ash climbs between my legs.
“Sorry, baby,” he says. “I really wanted to draw this out longer, but I don’t seem to have any self-control around you. I need to fuck you now.”
“Yes,” I say as he pulls the vibrator away and the buzzing stops.
I try to open my legs as wide as the restraints will allow, and Ash settles between them. He runs his cock up and down through my wetness before notching it at my opening.
“I don’t know if you’re on birth control or not,” Ash says, “but I’m giving you fair warning that the next time we do this, I’m going in bare. I need to feel your hot, wet little cunt around me.”
I whimper in need, then gasp as Ash pushes into me in one smooth thrust. He starts to fuck me, and I’m close already. I’ve never had this many orgasms so close to one another, and I’m stunned my body is so ready, even eager, for another one.
Ash’s grunts aren’t loud, but with the blindfold on, they seem magnified in my ears.
I’m also so much more aware of how big he is, of how hard his body is, and of how good he smells.
I smell myself on him too from when he had his mouth between my legs, but it doesn’t detract from the smell of ‘man’ that is him.
I’m usually good at being able to pick out particular scents – I do it all the time when wine tasting – but with Ash I only smell indistinct things like ‘virility’ and ‘dominance’ and ‘future father of my children.’
“You’re so God damn beautiful, baby,” Ash says against my cheek, and the words shoot straight between my legs.
I can barely hold myself together beneath him as he thrusts into me. I instinctively try to wrap my arms around his neck, but my hands jerk to a halt as they meet the limits of the restraints, and I let out a whimper.
Ash slows and lifts himself from me a little.
“Are you okay? What’s wrong?” he asks.
I can’t tell him. This is the way he wants me, and I’m still too uncertain of this thing between us to complain.
“Nothing,” I say, the word sounding false even to my own ears.
Ash stops moving altogether, and I bite back the urge to apologize and beg him to keep going.
“Don’t lie to me, Gray,” he says. “Tell me what you want.”
The words are an order, and I obey automatically. “I want to touch you,” I gasp out. “Please.”
The three-second pause that follows is the longest of my life because I can’t see his face.
I’m certain I’ve made him angry until I feel his hand on the cuff at my wrist, and there’s the snick of metal as he releases the clasp from the strap to free my hand.
He pulls my hand up to wrap it around his neck, and I let out a breath of relief as my fingers curl in the hair at his nape.
My other hand is free and around his neck seconds after that, and I feel like the sun has just broken through the clouds.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
“You have to talk to me, baby,” he scolds gently. “If you want something, you have to tell me. That’s the only way this works.” He starts to thrust slowly again, and I wrap my arms tighter around his neck, resisting the urge to remind him that he kept shushing me.
Ash snakes his arms under me, and I let out a noise of surprise as he lifts me. The next thing I know, I’m sitting on his lap, fully speared on his cock. I feel it press deep inside me, and I suck in a long breath.
One of Ash’s hands fumbles at my ankle, and there’s the snick of the clasp as he frees the cuff from the strap holding it to the bed. Then he pulls my stiletto off too, and I hear it thunk on the floor next to the bed. He repeats this with the second ankle and shoe.
As soon as both my legs are free, I wrap them around his waist, and he chuckles.
“That’s it, baby,” he says. “Fucking perfect.” Then his mouth is on mine, kissing me hungrily as he cups one hand under my ass and one around my back. He helps me move up and down his cock, and pleasure shoots through my body as I grind my clit against him.
Even without the cuffs attached to the restraints, there’s something about the feel of them on my wrists and ankles that arouses the hell out of me. I’m already unraveling fast when Ash starts talking dirty to me.
“You better come soon, baby, because that greedy cunt of yours is swallowing me whole, and I’m about to blow my load right through this fucking condom.
” He bucks his hips into mine, making me moan.
“I want to come inside you so bad. I want my fucking cum dripping down your legs when I’m done with you.
Are you going to be a good girl and fucking come for me, or do I have to turn you over and drive my cock between those pretty thighs of yours until you’re screaming my name? ”
I open my mouth to tell him I’m close, but he reaches between us to roll my nipple between his fingers, and that’s all I need to send me over the edge.
My climax hits like a torrent, and Ash grunts as I spasm around him.
Then I’m on my back again as he pounds into me.
He buries himself inside, and I feel his cock pulse as he wraps himself around me, his hips giving two more shuddering thrusts before he collapses on top of me.
We lie like that for several minutes, panting hard, before I finally reach up and pull the blindfold off. My eyes find his in the semi-darkness. Strands of hair cling to the sides of his face as he looks down at me with the hint of a grin.
“How am I supposed to be the Dom when you’re clearly the one calling the shots?” he asks with a laugh.