Page 14 of After Dark
This was about punishment, she knew that. But she also knew that he intended to leave her ass a bright, cherry red, as a beacon. For the two of them, but also for Frederick.
Who, she had no doubt, would have his own dark opinions about her behavior.
That did not help.
Josette was sobbing, but doing everything she could to stay still, digging her toes into the rug to keep herself in place, desperate to make him proud.
Until, finally, she counted out the last blow.
And she knew she was done when he rested his palm there, the heat in his hand making the terrible, crawling heat in her ass both worse and better.
He picked her up and moved her around on his lap, making her sit on her tender butt. This was also deliberate, she knew. He wanted her tofeelit. He wanted her to moan the way she did—helplessly—and he made a low sort of noise in response as he held her there, then brushed her hair back from her face.
“Look at you,” he murmured in her ear. “You’re a mess, Josette. You didn’t even come, and yet I think we both know that spanking was the best sex you’ve had in eighteen months. Excluding, of course, our little meet and greet downstairs.”
“Yes,” she managed to breathe out, though her voice hitched. “Sir.”
“I’m not going to be easy on you,” he told her in that same low whisper. “That was my mistake last time. I gave you too much leeway when rules exist for a reason. If you break them, there will be consequences.”
She couldn’t speak. There was a great, deep roar inside of her. Her ass hurt.
Not a sexy hurt, either, though at the same time, she could feel how slippery andhotshe was. He ran a hand along her thigh, then found his own way between her legs, testing that heat. But he didn’t thrust those big, hard fingers of his inside of her. He avoided her clit entirely. Somehow, that was what made it even hotter than if he had.
“Kneel,” he said, lifting her off his lap. “And wait.”
And as Josette obeyed him and went to her knees, then waited as ordered, shefelt.
The sting in her ass cheeks, blooming into a deeperache. The rawness in her throat. Her soft, hot pussy, more desperate for him by the moment.
She felt all of those sensations. The rug beneath her knees. The arch of her back. The familiar demands and comforts of this position she’d assumed for Arlo a thousand times.
A deep breath in, then out, and she found herself smiling despite the tears drying on her face that she knew better than to wipe away.
Because she really was home. She washome,when she’d believed this whole time that she’d lost the right to ever come back.
She had no idea what would come next. If they could ever be again what they’d been once.
But she was home. With him. At last.
And for the moment, she let the sweetness of that wash all over her like more of that California sunshine, and smiled as wide as she could.
Chapter Four
Master Frederick Hill, admired and feared in all parts of the Bay Area and every other community he deigned to inhabit, was first and foremost Arlo’s friend. Probably his best friend, not that he spent a lot of time making friend designations, pretty much since the day they’d met in a questionable kink club not long after Arlo moved to the city.
They’d been equally unimpressed with the experience and had decamped to find a drink at an establishment that was a significant upgrade.
As was the woman they’d met and shared that same night.
Tonight, the look Frederick sent his friend when he walked in and saw the woman kneeling there before Arlo’s chair was… intense. To say the least.
But first he tended to his own submissive—so brand-new that Frederick hadn’t even mentioned her name when he’d called the night before. Arlo watched as Frederick ordered the girl to her knees. The girl flushed bright red. She looked as if she might balk, but then, at the sight of Frederick’salmost-raised eyebrow, obeyed.
Arlo would be shocked if this girl had ever submitted to anyone before, and he was not easily shocked. The last time he’d been anything close had been when he’d realized Josette really had left him and showed no signs of coming back.
Not what he needed in his head tonight, he reminded himself. Not when this scene wasn’t about him or even Josette, not really. It was about Frederick and his new girl—Josette and Arlo just got to reap the benefits.
“Maintain this exact position,” Frederick told his girl in that stern voice of his that made every submissive woman in a 500-mile radius quiver.
