Illicit

Chapter Seventeen

Talk about empty promises. To Cabot Reed, getting acquainted meant me getting acquainted with the Rabbit Hole and him playing the role of teacher, not Sir Whips A Lot.

You can imagine my disappointment.

We began by going through the paperwork together. Again. When that laborious experience was over and I had signed on the dotted line–just kidding, there was no dotted line–then he took me down to one of the rooms and explained all of the equipment to me.

In

Tedious

Fucking

Detail

When he had explained to me how the St. Andrew’s Cross was originally created–that was the big X he’d had his executive assistant strapped to last week, but we don’t talk about her–I had the sheer audacity to ask, quite sarcastically, “Will there be a test?”

To which, he replied with a death stare. His nostrils flared. That muscle in his jaw ticked. And I got just the slightest hint of that angry vein in his forehead.

Which sent a thrill of anticipation down my spine.

Ruh roh.

Somebody’s about to get a spanking,.

Oh, don’t worry, it wasn’t me.

Somewhere in the Rabbit Hole, someone was probably getting spanked, the lucky bastard.

But apparently we hadn’t reached that part in the getting acquainted torture yet.

He’d been painfully slow in every decision, walking me through everything until he was blue in the face and I was blue between the legs.

And now, Wednesday night, we were finally getting somewhere.

I was stripped down to my new black lace teddy and bent in half over a spanking horse.

Although he’d refused to strap me down, as, according to Sir Whips A Lot–sorry, Sir Doesn’t Whip At All Anymore, womp womp–we didn’t yet know what my hard limits were.

Well, let me tell you something, Cabot Reed, three nights spent learning instead of doing were quickly becoming my only hard limit.

But I had to commend the man for his patience; I wasn’t an easy student.

Keeping my hands to myself was damn near impossible–at work and in the underground club. Although, we had slipped up a few times at both places, which only served to drive me mad and make him pull away.

But now, finally, I was about to meet Master Creed.

After our now-familiar routine of locking up the store, we’d made our way downstairs, and he led me to what I presumed was his favorite room.

He had stripped down to just those low slung dark jeans again, and I followed his bare feet as he strode casually around the room. He’d instructed me to grip each leg of the spanking horse with my hands, which made it difficult to watch him the way my hungry eyes wanted to.

He lowered to a squat in front of me and I met his gaze. “How do you feel?”

“Frustrated.” I flashed a sardonic smile.

“Rylan.” He said my name on a sigh. “We have to take our time. This is all new to you. You think you want it, but you don’t know what you don’t know. It is my job to guide you.”

I dropped my head.

“Look at me.”

The aggression in his voice made me jump. I met his gaze again.

He held up a black leather whip, similar to the ones he used with Stella–

Oh no no no. I pushed the thought of her aside and focused on the man in front of me. I hadn’t even told him about seeing her in the store Monday night and didn’t plan on it. He and I were starting something new, and there was no room for her.

“This is a flogger.”

I refrained from saying I know, we’ve been over this, and focused on the way he held the handle tightly in one hand and caressed the long strands with the other.

God, he was fucking hot.

“What’s your safe word, Rylan?”

“Lavender, Master.”

“Good girl.”

A shiver traveled down my spine at the simple praise.

“Do you remember everything we discussed about consent, pet?”

I nodded, swallowing hard. The longer he held my gaze with those dark eyes, the more my blood hummed with desire. “Yes.”

“Do you remember that you can take back consent at any time?”

“Yes.” Like I would ever do that–

“I am going to give you what you want now.”

Fucking finally. As he stood and disappeared from sight, a tremor of excitement ran through my body.

Then Reed placed his palm on my right butt cheek, only briefly, before removing it again, as if purposely trying to focus my attention to that spot. I closed my eyes and braced myself.

The slap of the leather fingers bit my skin for only a split second. I gasped, but then it was over, and his hand was back in place, the warmth of his palm soaking into my skin.

“How was that?”

I shrugged.

“Verbal communication, Rylan. It’s imperative.”

“It was good… I guess?”

“You guess?” That hint of amusement was back in his tone.

The leather strips came back down against my skin, harder this time. The bite of pain lasted longer.

I groaned, clenching my teeth against the discomfort.

“And now?”

Oh fuck, his voice was so sexy, so much deeper when he was turned on.

“Good.”

“Good what?” He followed that up with another quick smack to my ass.

My body jerked and I gasped when my clit rubbed against the spanking horse. “Good, Master,” I breathed.

“Hold still.”

“I can’t,” I panted.