CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Marly
Istood there,completely nude in front of Jude who was still fully dressed in his flat front slacks and crisp button-down shirt. It hung open, revealing the ‘V’ where his throat melted into his muscular chest. The sight of him, even fully clothed, left me panting. Wanting. Desiring.
He circled me, not touching, but I could feel his gaze just as surely as if it were his fingers skimming along my heated flesh. His eyes flashed as they slid down over my breasts and landed between my legs. I resisted the urge to cover myself. To squirm. But a hot blush over my cheeks and neck gave me away.
“Fuck, you’re gorgeous,” he said. I could hear the adoration—the lust—in his voice, deep and graveled. His jaw flexed as he walked in a circle behind me. I closed my eyes, shivering despite his hot breath on the back of my neck. “You know what you do to me, right?” he asked.
He stepped so close to me, that his cotton-clad erection brushed against the bare, sensitive flesh of my ass. I whimpered and nodded, then cried out as something whipped against the backs of my thighs.
I yelped, my body jerking in response.
What the hell was that?
“That’s not how you answer your Dom, Poppy.”
I swallowed as he continued pacing, circling me until he was back in my field of vision, in front of me. “Yes, Sir,” I whispered.
“Better,” he said. His voice was different somehow. Jude in Dominant mode was deeper, raspier. More raw, like potent, undiluted testosterone. He oozed sex and power in a way that had my knees trembling and weak.
In his hand, he clutched the leather riding crop, similar to the one Ash had used last night. I gulped, my throat going drier than a bale of hay left out in a Los Angeles drought.
“Eyes stay straight ahead,” he said. “What are your safe words?”
“Planner for stop. Sticker for slow down… Sir.”
“Good girl, Poppy.” His voice was hoarse as he praised me.
He smacked the insides of my thighs with the leather crop. “Spread,” he said, and I immediately complied, wet heat pooling between my legs. My clit was swollen and achy and my sex throbbed, begging for any contact he was willing to give. But I knew better than to ask. He would give me what I needed. Jude wouldn’t tease me only to not deliver. If there was anything I had learned this week, it was that. As my Dominant, he had my best interest in mind; he had my pleasure in mind. Even if pleasure meant a little pain beforehand.
He continued circling, and with my eyes straight ahead, after a couple of steps, he was once more out of sight. “Normally, I use the riding crop as punishment for my submissives,” he explained. “Normally, it’s a means of discipline. But you, my gorgeous, scarlet Poppy… I’ve learned you seem to enjoy the punishments. Which means for you as my submissive, it doesn’t quite work the same way. Am I right? Do you enjoy a little bit of pain?”
I had never considered myself a masochist. It seemed so… depraved. But I couldn’t deny that when Jude spanked me that first night, my panties flooded. “Yes, Sir… at least, I think so.” Then I added, “With you.”
He gave an approving hiss. “Have you ever been spanked before me?”
I shook my head. Another smack, this time on my other thigh. I yelped, a satisfied cry. It hurt—and yet it felt so fucking good. “No, Sir,” I corrected.
Jude chuckled. “I’m so used to administering pain for punishment, but for all I know, you’re intentionally answering incorrectly because you like getting hit. Is that why you keep forgetting to answer with ‘Sir?’”
“No, Sir,” I said quickly. “I’m just not used to it yet.”
Thwack!This time on my left ass. I moaned as the sting lessened, melting into a buzzing bliss on my backside. “But you enjoy it? The so-called punishments?” He circled to the front once more, staring directly into my eyes as he awaited my answer.
“Yes, Sir. But I enjoy pleasing you more.”
He shuddered. Visibly shuddered as a smile curved at the corners of his full, lush lips. “That makes me so fucking happy.”
Thwack!He smacked the crop against one nipple, then the other. It was the hardest hit yet and the feeling whipped down my core to my pussy. My nipples stung, the aftershocks tightening my belly and the pain melting into a simmering euphoria. My breath caught. An intense need to move, to squirm overtook me and I locked my knees to stop myself from shaking. A single drop of arousal slid down the inside of my thigh. Like a two-headed dragon fighting with itself, I was turned on and ashamed all at once. My calves knotted into tight little balls as I curled my toes against the carpet.
The corner of the riding crop dragged slowly against my inner thigh, catching the drop of arousal. Jude brought the rectangular riding crop to his mouth and licked where he had caught my cream.
His mouth turned in a quick smile that vanished almost instantly. “Delicious,” he whispered, his eyes blazing. Then without warning, the crop sliced through the air, landing hard against my clit. I cried out, my hips bucking with the sharp, tight sensation that sent pleasure jolting down my legs. My knees gave out and I landed on all fours on the floor, panting… quivering.
“Up,” Jude demanded in a sharp tone. I dug the pads of my fingers into the carpet and even though my legs were wobbly, I pushed to my feet, taking a deep breath and spreading my legs once more.
Even though I was staring straight ahead, my vision was blurred; I was so aroused, I literally couldn’t see straight. My pussy clenched, craving that again. The sudden, hard contact was enough to have me throbbing for more.
