Mistress of Shadows

Chapter Two-2

There was a small diner attached to the motel. Good thing too because the wind was getting worse. We ducked our heads and dashed inside. Of course, I loosely use the word “restaurant” to describe the place - it was the very definition of a greasy spoon. But with the wind howling there was no way we were going on the road for a better place to eat. As it was the floor had a thin covering of dust to go along with the drawn face of the staff and other customers. Except for one - our waitress. She fairly shone in a pair of tight blue jeans and a spotless white tanktop. Short, saucy blonde hair also helped. She threw down a couple of single page menus.

“What’ll y’ have?” she drawled. “Not much to choose from, but I’d recommend the loin.”

Raven snapped her head up at the waitress. Those dark eyes pinned her, like the waitress had said something way out of line. By now I had known Raven long enough to sense her moods and she in no way liked this girl. But I was too tired to figure out why and my stomach growled ever louder.

“Coffee and the tenderloin,” I said.

“Me too,” Raven said, tight lipped.

The waitress’s eyes narrowed at Raven just the smallest amount. “You sure?” Her eyes flicked to me. “It’s a big plate.” Eyes back to Raven. “Maybe you need to share.”

Raven’s return stare spoke danger. “I’m always hungry enough for two.”

“Oh, I’m sure you think so,” the waitress coolly returned.

“Just get us our food so we can get out of here.”

What the hell was going on? Next thing I expected were the claws to come out and the fur fly.

The waitress gathered our menus, but not without a little lopsided grin and secret wink at me from beneath a stray lock of that blonde hair. She turned and called out to the chef, “Two tenders on the fly.” Soon our steaks sizzled in the kitchen and I remembered just how hungry I was. I reached to lift my water glass just to down something and cut the hunger, but it never reached my lips. Raven grabbed my wrist.

“Just what the hell are you doing?” she said.

I blinked. “What’re you talking about?”

“Don’t f**k with me,” Raven hissed. “I saw you checking out her tits.”

“What? Is that what this is all about?” I said, now angry in my turn that Raven was jealous, something that I never found attractive in a woman. “Take a look around you. Everyone here is covered in grime and dirt but she’s clean as a whistle. That’s all.”

Raven released my wrist, not sure if what I said was sincere. Well, it was. After the months we had been together, what we had shared, to think that I was distracted that easily was...well, it was bullshit.

We didn’t speak the rest of the meal. The steaks came, I absent-mindedly thanked the waitress, attacked my food like a bear and pointedly ignored her. The waitress hung around way longer than necessary, but even when she asked if I wanted more coffee I didn’t answer. More coffee would have been fine, but other things were on my mind.

Yes, I was hungry, but I was a little pissed off too. How could Raven think that I would sneak off on her? Goddammit, didn’t all the time I spent submitting to her mean anything? Just because another woman smiled at me didn’t mean I wanted to screw her. As a result of my own gathering anger I finished way before Raven. She took her time, no doubt a bit of a dominant game, but she did finish. When we got up she grabbed the charge card from my hand and almost threw it at the blonde waitress who rang up our order. Oh, and one more thing, Raven grabbed me by the hair at the cash register.

“Hey!” I whispered. “Everyone will see!”

“I don’t care,” Raven said. “You’re mine until I say otherwise.”

So that’s the way it was; Raven controlled me, even pushing my head down to the counter so I could sign the receipt which I did right under our waitress’s scribbled name - Norvin. When Raven pulled me back up Norvin didn’t appear shocked at all. In fact, she gave me that grin once more. “Thank you for you making my day,” she said.

“Yeah, I’ll just bet you’re happy, you b***h,” Raven said. Her hand still gripping my hair, Raven bent me forward to her waist and led me out of there.

***

Back in the room Raven ordered me to strip. I did so under flinty eyes while she tapped the end of her riding crop in her hand.

“I know we have very little in the way of equipment,” she said, “but I can still exact punishment.”

The crop sang, smacking the tops my thighs. In our secret language this was Raven ordering me to spread them. I did with so my hands behind my head.

“You think I’m gonna buy you’re story about that waitress?” Raven said. “ ‘Oh, she’s just different than the others, mistress’. I know she was flirting with you!”

I didn’t say anything. Raven’s dark eyes blazed and the best thing I could do was not throw fuel on the fire.

But I didn’t always do what was best.

“Yes, mistress,” I said. “She flirted with me. Nothing I could do to stop it.”

“So you admit it!” She circled in back. The crop whistled and my ass cheeks burned. Raven came back around in front and soon the inside of my thighs were also lit on fire. I grunted, cried out while the crop marked me, but I didn’t move. The stubborn male inside would not allow me to break position, but my mouth kept getting me into more trouble, even when I thought it would get me out.

“Mistress...Uh! Mistress, please! Think...Grrr! Think for a second. I couldn’t stop her! Her actions were beyond my control.”

Raven grabbed me by the throat. My airways squeezed tight I forgot about talking and just struggled to breathe. “She wouldn’t have kept on with it if you hadn’t encouraged her. When she brought the food you held her in your eyes more than was acceptable.”

“Wha...What?” I gasped.

“I saw you! You smiled back!”

“Mistress...no...”

But did I? Did I give Norvin just a little smile? Ah, s**t.

Raven let up on my throat. “You test me, Kyle. Oh, you so test me.”

I drew in air and swallowed, got back my full voice. “Mistress, I... I’m not sure what happened. But if I did anything to offend you...”

Raven stepped back. Whether any slight on my part was real or imagined, the hurt on Raven’s face was decidedly real. But then she covered it up. Mistress Raven was here, and she was fast entering full on b***h mode.

“Grab your d**k. Grab it! Hold it up!”

Oh, f**k.

I did as ordered, my c**k resting in the palm of my hand. The crop whistled and smacked.

“Ahhhh!” I cried.

Tears formed in my eyes but I kept them from spilling out. Raven caught what happened and, for a moment, hit pause on b***h mode. She stepped close, a hand rubbing over my chest then travelling down to my balls. She cupped them.

“I guess it is that time,” she said. “You’ve been so good, even when I’ve pushed you beyond your limits. But now maybe you’ve grown beyond what either of us thought.” She squeezed my balls, just a little, not enough to hurt, yet enough to remind me that she was in charge. “Now, submit, my beautiful slave. Submit like you’ve never done before. Tonight and forever.”

“Yes, mistress,” I breathed. “I am yours.”

The crop flew. Such a thin, short thing, but Raven expertly wielded it. She marked my back, my chest, all up and down my legs. Little, stinging smacks. Not much taken individually, and they would all mostly fade by morning, but they added up until after one more sting on my inner thigh I fell to the floor. Raven dragged me by the hair up on to the bed and her own hair was drenched in sweat. Her skin glistened as she undressed and straddled my hips. My c**k, already full grown, slipped easily into her wet v****a. She ground her hips, her head thrown back, n*****s erect.

“f**k me, slave,” she whispered. “f**k me like you would f**k her.”

And I did. I sucked her n*****s, pounded her p***y deep until she screamed and I was sure the neighbors heard everything through those thin walls. And not only once. Three times Raven shrieked before I finally unloaded inside her. My hot c**k spewed forth and Raven’s face contorted in a mix of pain and bliss. Sheets thrown aside, pillows scattered on the floor, our sweat soaked bodies lay entangled as if we were one, the only sound our labored breaths.

At last Raven stirred and I moved aside to let her up. As I lay on the bed, halfway between consciousness and oblivion before I fully drifted off, I remembered something Raven said. Something about taking everything they could throw at her and still telling them to f**k off.

***

Where the hell was Raven?

I awoke to a silent room. Raven wasn’t next to me in bed, and it was still full on dark. What the hell? Sometimes she would go outside, grab a cigarette, then come back just as I was missing her. She was a restless sleeper and her leaving the bed for a while in the middle of the night was nothing unusual. Only this time she didn’t come back.

With a bad feeling growing inside of me I threw on my pants and stepped outside. Her bike was gone.

I ran to the motel office and asked the night manager, the same guy from last night, a grizzled, defeated man, if she had seen Raven leave.

“Yeah, I saw her. Rolled her bike down the road a spell before she started it. Headed west.”

“Why?” I said, half to myself.

“Don’t know. Don’t care. She’s an adult, she can go where she wants when she wants,” said the manager. “As long as she paid up, that’s all I care.” He paused, looked at me through bloodshot, weary eyes. “Dude, let her go. No p***y is worth chasing after.”

“f**k you,” I said, and bolted back to my room.

I dressed quickly, then dashed to the restaurant just as they were opening. The flirty blonde from last night wasn’t there. Just as well, so I grabbed a couple of donuts, chugged a mug of coffee and hit the road. West. That’s all I knew was west.

Even though I had got an early start on the flat road before sunrise, I already knew it would probably do me no good. Raven could have turned off the main highway anywhere, doubled back and headed off in a different direction. But I kept on the main highway, noticing after about an hour or so that no other vehicles passed me going in the other direction. And as I headed into the blackness I wondered just when it would change to the usual gray, dishwater morning. But then I realized it wasn’t an endless void I approached but a line of mountains. Not very tall, but tall enough. The rising sun behind me turned their slopes deep purple, then a dark shade of green, like it had all just been washed clean. But the closer I got, eventually climbing into the foothills, the mountains lost their color and turned barren. No, not barren, exactly, but like things had once grown here, alive and vibrant. They still did, but it seemed as if they were all reborn. Not like youthful spring or seemingly endless summer. Instead I caught a scent of something, something not quite fresh, but also not entirely of decay like so many other places on this road trip. The grass, the trees had somehow perked up, been renewed; like a host cleaning up their disheveled house for an unlooked for, but very welcomed guest.

I rounded a long, slow curve on a slight climb and gunned the engine, swept around a couple more curves and came across a field of sparse scrub. A couple of miles farther on the road penetrated a small cleft. The bike’s engine roared in the small space, like a herald announcing the arrival of an errant knight and I burst out to the other side. Before me were sturdy, tall rocks, standing apart from each other, but not like lifeless stones. No, the fresh scent that wafted from them was more like a blooming garden. A few more curves took me deeper in the forest of stone and I slowed to savor the sight, thoughts of catching up to Raven somehow banished from my mind. Then I found myself at a crossroads and it seemed only natural to stop, somehow drink in the experience. I turned off the motor and removed my helmet.