STORY EXCERPT

Tonight, they’d relax with a bottle of wine, and in the process learn more about each other. He wanted to know everything about the beautiful new lady in his life. What was her favorite food? Had she ever skied in Aspen, or even the Alps? What was her politics? Hmm, perhaps I’ll leave that one for now. Of course, he had her portfolio on record, which she’d needed for her job as his personal assistant, but that only contained simple facts and figures, information she was happy to divulge about herself. He was looking for emotions. He wanted to know what made the real Paige Palmer tick.

However, Leon needed to tread carefully, because in his experience everyone had secrets, skeletons in the closet so to speak. Just about every one of the seven billion inhabitants on this overcrowded planet had things they didn’t wish to discuss, or sometimes even remember. He was no different, because even he had memories and episodes in his life which he found painful to relive.

My mother’s illness and my father’s death.

The same went for sex. They were both into the D/s lifestyle, but for now he’d play it cool and not pressure her into accepting hard limits she wasn’t comfortable with. He could always renegotiate at a later date as their relationship blossomed.

Leon rapped three times on the door and waited. He knew she was in because her arthritic beige Ford lay slumped on the driveway. Luckily for him, a screen of mature spruce and juniper bushes hid it from the main house. If ever a car needed a visit to the crusher, it was this one.

He’d told her he was going to visit friends in Denver, so she had no idea he was coming over tonight. That meant he had the element of surprise on his side. He smiled as her feminine shadow, concealed by the frosted glass in the front door, made its way toward him. Leonardo Caparelli always made it his business to seek the advantage, whether that be at work or play.

As Paige opened the door, she immediately put her hand to her chest in shock. He’d caught her cold all right. She wore a facemask that cracked with surprise as soon as she saw him. The dried brown goo looked incongruous next to her stunning green eyes, and he had trouble stopping himself laughing. With a stoic restraint he was proud of, he just about managed it. A sexless, quilted robe fell to her ankles, as well as being securely buttoned right up to her neck. When he looked down, he was amused to see a pair of slippers his grandmother would choose. The old-fashioned type with big fluffy pompoms. Oh yeah, he’d certainly caught her cold, and this gave him one hell of an advantage.

“Leon, I thought you were—”

“Hank called me earlier. Told me he’d come down with food poisoning, along with Jake. So the poker game was cancelled. Too bad, and I was feeling lucky tonight.”

He’d never seen her look so self-conscious and downright embarrassed, and he gleefully reveled in her discomfort. “Oh…oh…I’m sorry to hear that, I’d invite you in but—”

“Thanks for the offer.” He’d always had a mischievous side to his nature, and he strode past her, before settling himself into a comfy armchair. “Not disturbing you, am I?”

Continuing to look distinctly uneasy, she replied, “Er, no, no. Not at all. I was just winding down after work. I often curl up on the sofa and chill out with a good book.”

Leon knew she wanted to run away and hide, then come back all glammed up as though nothing had happened. What woman wouldn’t? But for now he’d enjoy the show. “Uh-huh, I see,” he said nonchalantly, picking up the paperback that lay open and face down on the coffee table to keep her place. “Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I’m impressed.” He guessed she blushed profusely under the mudpack.

“I really should go and change.”

“No need to on my account.”

She coughed self-consciously. “Well, in that case, can I get you a drink?”

He held up the bottle and glasses. “I’m way ahead of you.”

Almost in a panic, she grabbed them from him and rushed toward the kitchen. “I just need to sort out a corkscrew. I’m not exactly sure where it is.”

He really shouldn’t be so cruel, but other people’s discomfort, especially that of a natural submissive like Paige, was always entertaining. That was why it was incorporated into so much D/s sex play throughout the world. As he patiently waited for her return, he allowed himself to stretch luxuriously like a contented cat. In the six months relationship he’d shared with Cherise, he’d never once seen her without makeup. This was fine to begin with, agreeable even, but after a while he realized that the blonde supermodel he initially found so attractive was as shallow as a puddle of rainwater. She had no hidden depths. What you saw was what you got—a self-centered money grabbing bitch.

Paige was different. Even plastered in the mud-and-seaweed facemask, and dressed in something Mother Teresa would consider overly prudish, she still turned him on. Why? Because the real Paige would always be there, just beneath the surface.

ADULT EXCERPT

He nipped her neck with his teeth, exactly as he’d done when he’d fucked her on the hood of his Caparelli, and she knew he marked her as his personal property. “This discipline can take many forms.”

Paige knew her words were breathy and she didn’t want to come across as desperate, but she couldn’t stop herself from pleading, “Please, tell me more.”

“Inquisitive aren’t you, but as you’re being so polite and well behaved, I will. On occasion I may be minded to pull down your panties, turn you over my knee, and then spank your cute little ass with the flat of my hand.”

“Yes, I’d like that.”

“I love the noise it makes. Don’t you?”

“Yes, I like that, too.” He knew exactly which buttons to push.

“Or, I may decide to use a cane. I personally prefer the wafer-thin variety. In my experience they act as an admirable deterrent. Such a fearsome implement of correction will leave your creamy butt stinging for days after the discipline has been administered.”

“Yes, the thinner the better.” Fuck, he was turning her on, the bastard. “Oh, I know, I know. That’s my favorite, too.” She arched impatiently on his lap, allowing his finger to slip deep inside her wet pussy and his thumb to take over the stimulation of her sexual pearl. Her voice quavered when she said, “You know exactly what you’re doing to me. You know when you control me like this, you can make me agree to anything.”

“Of course there’s plenty of other ways to exert my dominance over you. I have a liking for handcuffs and manacles. Some girls love the noise they make when they lock in place.”

“I like it, too.” But did she? With Leon she felt safe when he spoke about such things, but in the past…No, she wouldn’t go there. She refused to allow her thoughts to return to that dark period in her life.

“Some women love the feeling of being totally helpless, and the acceptance it brings. I can imagine you handcuffed to my bed, unable to move. Naturally, you’d be pleading for me to let you go, but I wouldn’t. Instead, I’d fuck every orifice your beautiful silken body possesses before releasing you.”

Imagining herself in that vulnerable predicament, Paige squirmed on his lap again. She almost felt normal, but then without warning her nemesis rose and crushed her happiness once more, until she put the unwanted thoughts back in their box and locked them away.

He nipped her earlobe with his teeth and whispered, “I know everything. Your pussy doesn’t lie. It’s so fucking wet. I made it go that way, and only I will ever make it go that way.”

“Yes, oh, yes.” She teetered on the edge of climax, but Leon had such control over her body and mind, that he wouldn’t allow her that tiny extra bit of pressure that would send her over the cliff edge and onto a roller coaster ride of euphoric pleasure.

“I know you better than you know yourself, Paige. My opinion of you is higher than the one you have of yourself. When I look at you, I see intelligence and kindness mixed with an exquisite beauty that takes my breath away. Yet, when you look at yourself in the mirror, you see an ordinary woman, just like someone you’d pass in the street without a second glance. But you’re wrong. From now on you will never see yourself in this way again. You’re an extraordinary woman, Paige. Never forget that.”

“Yes, I promise.” Oh, God, did he know how to make a girl feel good about herself. When she was with Leon, she felt she could conquer the world, and his words of praise made her self-esteem rise higher than it ever had.

As he exerted more pressure on her clit, she sucked in a ragged breath. She was so very close to coming, but she knew better than to take matters into her own hands and orgasm without his permission. He hadn’t expressly forbid her, but she already understood the unwritten rules, which she knew she had to abide by.

He spoke again, his voice even lower and richer in its delivery. “Sex toys. Ah, sex toys, now they serve a purpose, too.”

“Oh, yes.”

“You like the feel of a vibrator between your legs, don’t you?”

“Yes, oh, yes, but not as much as I like the feel of you between my legs.” He’d bolstered her self-esteem, so she’d willingly boost his ego in return.

“And if lubed properly, then in your ass, too?”

“Yes, but not as much as your big cock.”

“Yes, I can just imagine it sliding inside your tight asshole. The nerve endings at the entrance to the female butt are particularly sensitive. If I close my eyes, I can see myself riding you doggy style, reaching around and fingering your clit when you please me, or blistering your ass with a riding crop when you don’t.”

As he explained in graphic detail what he wanted to do to her, she felt his breathing become more urgent and aroused, raising and lowering her weight with increasing rapidity. His mounting excitement had the effect of speeding up the movements of his thumb on her clit, too.

“Leon, I–I can’t hold it back. I have to…I have to…”