Naughty Temptations

Chapter One-2

So he could still surprise her. She didn’t want to let any twinkle of hope survive. Too dangerous. She’d fought hard for the person she was now. “Can I get you a drink? I have some wine, and probably a beer in the fridge.”

“Just a soda if you have any. I’m assuming I’ll have to drive back to the hotel tonight.”

She went into the corner that formed the kitchen and poured out Sprites for each of them.

He took a long pull on it. “Why didn’t you come to me for help?”

That, she didn’t expect. “Why would I think I could? That last argument we had… It didn’t leave me feeling like you’d ever feel friendly toward me again. And you got married, too. Are you still?”

He shook his head. “We lasted a year but said goodbye with no regrets on either side.” He stared hard at her. “We’d been so close once. You and I.”

“Once.” She watched him sit tentatively on the rickety sofa. He looked out of place there in his expensive suit and polished shoes. Ironic how their situations had reversed. “People change. Situations change. Life moves on. Why did you come? Are you hoping we can rekindle the flame?”

“It might’ve crossed my mind. It was quite a flame while it burned.”

“It was. But we’re not the same and we can’t go back.”

He gave her a glimpse of those dangerous dimples when he smiled. “No. We have to move forward. But I thought— I’ve known for a while that the only person I wanted to go forward with was you. When I heard your husband was gone, it felt like we might have another chance.”

“I don’t think so.” Each word hurt as it came out. Lynn set her soda down to avoid spilling it. She shook with the flood of emotion. Temptation. She’d thought she was over him, but now she knew better. She’d never stop wanting him and the amazing way he made her feel. The way he made her body sing. The way he could comfort her, protect her, steady her, laugh with her. And the way he could command her submission, punish her, make her hurt in the most astonishing and delightful ways.

His eyebrows shot up. “Why not? We’re both free, and I don’t believe you feel nothing for me now.”

“It’s not that. I don’t think I can. As much as I’ve hated my parents for convincing me to leave you and marry Trent, and hated myself for being persuaded, I’ve realized that they were right about one thing. Only one thing, and their solution was all wrong, but they hit the mark when they told me that my relationship with you wasn’t a healthy one.”

“What?” He froze, staring directly at her. His amber/hazel eyes seemed to bore down into her soul. “How not healthy?”

“My submission and your domination went too deep. You essentially owned me. I didn’t make any decisions for myself, well, except for that one drastic one to listen to my parents. I really didn’t think for myself at all. You took care of everything. I didn’t have to grow up. Didn’t have to learn to think for myself, to take care of myself.”

He was silent, watching her steadily, but when she finished, he looked down at the rag rug on the floor. “I never thought of it that way.” The words came out slow and quiet. “I thought I was protecting you and taking care of you. I didn’t think that was a problem. I thought that’s what women wanted from their men, and subs from their Masters.”

She saw the pain in his strained expression. “I’m not saying it was wrong or bad. You were doing what you thought was right. What I seemed to want and need from you at the time.” She grabbed the soda and took a drink, letting the bubbles fizz on her tongue. “You didn’t know it wasn’t good for me. At the time I didn’t know either. I sometimes wonder what would’ve happened if I had eloped with you. I’m pretty sure I’d be someone different now.”

“We’d both be.” He lifted the toe of one shoe, studying it. “Different people.” He looked up at her. “I wonder how different?”

“In my case, very, I think,” Lynn answered.

“Maybe me too. I’ve had to change some, too. I did try to save my marriage to Jenny. Worked at giving her what she wanted and needed. Turned out she just didn’t really want or need me.”

“That was hard for you.”

He shrugged. “It was a blow to my ego, certainly. Finding out that I wasn’t perfect. At least not for her. Not for a lot of women.”

“Come on. Surely I’m not the only woman who did think you were perfect?”

“Maybe not, but you were the only one who knew me well and still thought so.”

She laughed and it helped break up some of her tension. “Maybe I didn’t know you well enough.”

His voice got suddenly very serious. “Maybe I didn’t know you well enough, either. Do you think there’s any chance we could try again?” he asked. “As different people with a lot in common, especially s****l tastes, but maybe a different way of approaching it.”

“I’m not sure I still have those s****l tastes. And it would be kind of awkward. We live six hundred miles apart and I can’t afford to travel much. Even if I had the time, which I don’t.”

“I don’t think people’s s****l tastes do change much, though you can get smarter about how you handle it. I hope I can. Would you be willing to try?”

Lynn drew a breath and let it out on a sigh. “I don’t know. I shouldn’t. But despite everything, we did have something special. I don’t know if we can find it again. I don’t know if we can do this again as more mature people. But I haven’t met anyone else who…fits me the way you did.” She stopped to take another drink. “I don’t know how we can go about it.”

“Let’s start with a date tomorrow, since I’m here. Just a date. Time to be together and talk. I have to go to a couple of seminars in the morning, but I’m free after noon. Are you working?”

“Tomorrow’s Saturday so the pre-school is closed. I’m not scheduled for the restaurant again until Tuesday.”

His smile made her heartbeat speed up. “Great. I’ll pick you up about one. Let’s go for a ride into the country, maybe find a place for a walk, have lunch and dinner wherever. You know the area better than I do. If you have any suggestions, I’m open.”

“Actually I don’t know much about it at all. But I’m ready to go exploring.”

He stood up and set aside his empty glass. “I should head back if I want to be worth anything tomorrow.”

She walked him to the door and stopped there. He paused, then he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. He started gently, giving her space and time to step back away from it. When she didn’t, he put his arms around her and pulled her closer, running his hands into her hair. Her body came alive, turning molten from the heat of that contact. Blood rushed faster and hotter in her veins.

He pressed harder and she opened for him, welcoming the invasion of his tongue, letting it explore. Dear heaven, the man knew how to kiss. He found all the sensitive places and stroked in a way that sent quivers sailing up and down her spine. Her bones softened and threatened to give up under the sensual onslaught.

She wrapped her arms around him and pressed herself closer, reveling in the strength of the muscles under her hands. Evidence of how much he was affected pressed into her belly and that roused additional heat in her core. He’d always been able to do this—turn her on with just a touch, or a threat. That hadn’t changed.

She rubbed up and down his back then moved down to his rear end. He had a great one— tight, lean, and muscular. Every bit of him was terrific, made her happy… Made her want to be closer and squeeze for the sheer sensual joy of holding more of him. He groaned and pressed into her. Hands brushed down along her back to her rear, making her freeze, waiting.

He stopped, too, and looked down at her, then stepped back and away. His chest heaved with his noisy, panting breaths.

He had to wait a moment until he could talk. “We still pack quite a punch together. And, with that, I’d better get going, or I won’t go at all.” He didn’t wait for her to object or try to change his mind. He opened the door and headed out.

It left her breathless, frustrated, and confused.

Sleepless, too. Once she got herself ready and into bed, she lay there, remembering. The good times with Ryan kept parading through her mind. Their first meeting, in a math class while she was a sophomore and he a junior. Their first date, when they went to a football game and then to a party in his dorm. The first time they had s*x, and the awkwardness of it. She didn’t orgasm then, and he noticed. It took some fumbling around for him to find out what would please her and turn her on, but he enjoyed the experimenting more than she’d expected. And finally he figured it out.

And then he discovered that she was attracted to the idea of bondage and spanking games. Once again their first attempts were awkward, but so much fun and so arousing, they kept at it until they figured out a few things that worked well for both of them. They’d both had a grand time experimenting with novel ways for him to tie her up and spank her. Or flip her over his knees and spank her. Or stretch her out on the desk in his dorm room…

At the end of the first term, he’d moved out of the dorm into an apartment, which gave them more freedom to try things out without worrying about others intruding or hearing her cries.

But the memory that came most vividly to her was of a day that changed the game completely and changed her indelibly. It was at once the most memorable, most excruciating, and most exciting day of her life. She cringed from it and couldn’t help reliving it over and over, still relishing the feelings.

It was the first time he’d really punished her for something she’d done. Something that deserved a real penalty. And he delivered.

She’d blown off a class to do…something else. She couldn’t even remember what now. But there had been a quiz that she’d missed. Though she made it up later, it still affected her grade. When she confessed it to him, he asked if she thought she deserved to be punished for it and she’d said yes. She’d really planned to tell him no, but the other word popped out of her anyway.

They’d just bought a brand-new four-post bed and Ryan had installed a few discreet hooks. He had her strip and tied her to it, fastening her wrists to padded leather cuffs that hung from cords at the top of the posts and her ankles to the bottom. Any awkwardness or hesitation on his part had disappeared. He used several things on her, starting with a leather paddle that he applied to her ass with considerable force for much longer than she would normally want. She had a safe word and could use it even for this, but she deserved this and besides… The pain burned terribly at first, but as it burrowed its way deeper, it turned into an arousing heat. And there was something satisfying about it on an elementary level. His willingness to punish her, the fact that he’d make the effort reassured her. And the intimacy of it reached deep inside, to the most remote depths of her heart.

The flogger that followed packed a sting way different from the sensual abrasion of the lighter ones he’d used during their play sessions. This one had a cruel bite. Fortunately he gave her only a dozen or so strokes with it. Unfortunately he followed that up with a dozen more from a whippy rod that felt like it cut her to ribbons, though in fact it hadn’t broken the skin at all. It just felt that way.

By the time he finished with it, her throbbing bottom felt hugely swollen, but at the same time the pressure of arousal overwhelmed everything else. It actually felt glorious. Powerfully, amazingly erotic.

When he released her, she collapsed into his arms. For reasons she didn’t understand, tears poured out of her in a torrent as he cradled her against his chest.

“Was it too much?” He sounded worried.

“No.” It came out on a hiccupping sob. “Yes. But not in the way you think.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It hurt but not that badly. In fact, it hurt…just right. But it also— Made me feel so much. Arousal and love. Guilt and anger with myself and humiliation. And joy. Because—you.”

He was silent for a bit, probably trying to process her incoherent babble. “Because me?”

“It seems so right. You. Me. The two of us together. Don’t want to let you down.”

“Ah. I think. You haven’t.” Then came the real penalty, when he continued. “But since this is a punishment, you get to spend the next three hours on the bed, considering your behavior and how you might improve it.”

She looked up at him, though his features seemed to waver when viewed through the tears still in her eyes. “You haven’t forgiven me?”

“I have, but you haven’t forgiven yourself yet. You have three hours on your own to do it. And no touching yourself. Got it?”

“Got it.” The words sounded sulky, even to herself.

He nudged her off his lap. “Starting now.”

Lynn sighed and got on the bed. As the throbbing ache of arousal faded over the next half hour, the other aches he’d caused reasserted themselves. The pain wasn’t really bad now, except for the ache in her heart. An ache compounded of love and fear and joy and discovery.

Mostly because he insisted on it, she decided she could forgive herself as long as he did too. And she wanted to be a better person for him.

When he came back in, three hours later, she was dozing, but woke at his entrance. He’d removed shirt and shoes and wore only the jeans that rode low on his lean hips. She lay on her side, facing him, until he said, “Roll over. Let me see.”

She rolled onto her stomach and shivered as he ran gentle hands over her bottom.

“Redness has faded,” he commented. “Only a few marks left.”

“I know. I looked. But didn’t touch! Honestly. I wish I had more.”

“You do? It would take a much harder spanking than that to leave real marks.”

“I know.”

“Okay.” He nudged her legs apart, then brushed his hands up and down the insides of her thighs, stopping just short of her core. The touch set off sparkling waves of heat that rippled across her skin and settled deep inside. Lynn fisted the sheets in her hand and moaned.

He caressed her backside. No welts or even rough areas remained but the touch did find a couple of sore spots. A press on those sent another wave of heat and need rushing through her. She wanted to give him everything, every bit of her heart and soul.

His questing fingers slid lower and she groaned when he parted her labia and stroked the sensitive tissues within. Pleasure jolted her in a series of near-electric shocks. Her breath caught and she let it out on a loud gasp. His low chuckle made her stomach tighten.

He rolled her over, and for a minute or two they stared at each. She could lose herself in his eyes, those gorgeous deep amber eyes that glinted with humor but could also go cold in sternness. Then he pressed his palms over her breasts, rubbing gently over the n*****s, and she lost any thoughts other than the little blasts of pleasure that stabbed to the center of her being.

When he kissed the side of her cheek, fire zipped across her skin, which launched her into a full moaning, writhing frenzy as he moved down her neck, stopping to nuzzle each n****e, across her abdomen and finally probing into her slit with his tongue.

He stopped for a moment and looked up at her, grinning. “I love making you go crazy,” he said, before plunging his tongue back into her slit and exploring its depths. She bucked when he found her bud and licked over it several times in succession. Her breath came in loud, rough pants as tension pulled her muscles and nerves tight.

“Need,” she said, gasping to get the words out. “You.”

He stood up and hastily shucked off jeans and briefs, tossed them aside, grabbed a condom from a drawer, rolled it on, and returned to stretch out over her, weight on his elbows. “You’re ready?”

“More than. Please!”

He pushed in gently at first, then harder as he slid in easily. She gasped at the heat and power of him filling her. As he pumped in and out, he brushed over the spot that sent jagged shards of pleasure rushing through her, making her tighten around him. He groaned and ran his hands into her hair, brushing through the strands. The tenderness of it contrasting with the force of his plunges melted her heart while the erotic pleasure of his possession made her body explode with fire. Need expanded, grew, tightened her into a vibrating bowstring, their combined moans the music it created. And then the string broke, catapulting her into a wild, joyous orgasm that had her jerking and screaming. It set off his own and they rocked together for a long time, moved by spasms and aftershocks.

They fell asleep together, completely exhausted by the exercise.

And after that, he pretty much owned her, heart, mind, and body. Not that he made it obvious to everyone and anyone, but she began deferring all major decisions to him and letting him tell her what to wear, where to go, and how to behave.

She’d been so young back then, so immature.