The Reluctant Dom Read online

  He went back to his paper.

  “How long are you leaving her like that?”

  Kaden glanced at the cable box. “Another ten minutes. Then her torture starts.”

  Seth thought Leah moaned, but it wasn’t an “oh, shit” moan. It was an “oh, goodie” moan.

  “Torture?”

  “Yeah. For being a little on the pushy side yesterday. She’s going to spend the day being tortured. Aren’t you, love?”

  She definitely moaned that time.

  Seth stared, realized he still held his coffee mug and that his hands were trembling. He set it on the coffee table near Leah’s head. Somehow that didn’t feel right, so he picked it up and moved it to the end table.

  “Do I want to know how you’re going to torture her?”

  “You should. You’ll find this very effective.” He lost himself in the paper again.

  “Um, dude. Focus. What are you going to do to her?”

  “Keep her on edge all day long, not let her come. Later tonight, if she’s a good girl”—that comment he directed at Leah—“I might let her have an orgasm. If she’s very good, I’ll let her have two.”

  She moaned again.

  Nope, definitely an “oh goodie” moan.

  Seth could sympathize, because his dick throbbed in his pants.

  “I didn’t use a crotch rope this time because I knew she’d rub against it and try to get herself off.” Instead of wrapping between her legs, he’d used a pattern that looped around her upper thighs. “That’s why I’ve got her legs spread, so she can’t squirm against the thigh ropes.”

  Seth swallowed hard. “Uh-huh.”

  Kaden finally folded the A section and laid it on top of the rest of the newspaper. “You’ve got to watch her very carefully. She’s squirmy. She loves trying to get free. Part of what she really gets off on is not being able to get loose. And in the process of squirming, she’ll rub herself into coming against the ropes. So unless you want her to be able to do that, you have to use a pattern like this.” He pointed at the rope, showing Seth where he had looped it.

  “Uh-huh.”

  Kaden glanced at the time again. “Watch her for me for a minute, please? Never leave her alone or turn your back on her when she’s rope bound. Especially suspended. With cuffs, depending on the circumstances, if you’re at home it’s sometimes okay to leave her alone for a little while. Not leave the house, of course. But like in bed or over the spanking horse or something.”

  Seth nodded. “Okay,” he whispered.

  When Kaden left, Seth leaned close to Leah and whispered, “Are you really okay with this?”

  She winked. The edges of her mouth definitely twitched in what he thought would be a smile if the ball gag wasn’t in the way. And her eyes crinkled in a familiar look he recognized as amusement.

  Kaden returned a moment later. He carried…

  Holy fuck.

  Seth sat back and stared, dumbfounded.

  Definitely dropped through a wormhole. No other explanation.

  Kaden held up a large butt plug. “Want to do the honors?”

  Seth tried for words, had to swallow to form spit, and tried again. “No thanks. I’m good.”

  Kaden shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He patted Leah on the ass. “Get ready, love.” Apparently they’d dropped back into formal mode.

  She closed her eyes and moaned.

  He lubed the plug and carefully, gently slid it in. She immediately started squirming, and her skin flushed.

  Kaden patted her ass again. “I know, this is especially mean of me, using that one on you. It’ll really keep you hot all day, won’t it?”

  She moaned.

  The other device…good God almighty! It was a large dildo with straps. Kaden reached between her legs and slipped two fingers inside her—Seth’s cock painfully throbbed again—and Kaden smiled.

  “Jesus, love, you’re really wet. You must enjoy having Seth watch this.

  Her eyes were still closed but she softly moaned.

  Kaden pressed the large head of the dildo against her. “Here it comes. Get ready.” He slowly slid it in while she struggled against the ropes.

  Seth realized she was trying to fuck herself with it.

  Kaden laughed. “No, you don’t get off that easy. No pun intended.” He seated it all the way inside her, then Seth saw what the straps were for. Kaden buckled it around her thighs and waist, holding not only it but the butt plug in place. When he was happy with how it was adjusted, he gently swatted her ass.

  “Another twenty minutes like that.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small silver…remote? Then he thumbed a button on it. Leah jumped against her tethers and moaned.

  Seth heard a low buzzing sound and understood what it was. It wasn’t just a dildo. It was a vibrating dildo.

  He felt lightheaded, realized he’d been taking shallow gasps of air. Forcing a few deep breaths into his lungs, he watched as Kaden sat back down on the couch.

  And started reading the funnies.

  Seth stared. He realized the buzzing wasn’t a steady constant. It alternated patterns, sometimes a steady hum, sometimes a start and stop rhythm, sometimes stopping altogether for a moment. When it did that, Leah would whine and squirm even harder until it started again.

  As hard and painfully as his cock throbbed, Seth didn’t dare move. He worried the very act of standing would trigger enough friction against his swollen member to make him come.

  She was gorgeous, and as she knelt there a fine patina of sweat covered her skin.

  “How do you know she’s okay?” Seth whispered.

  Kaden didn’t look up from the paper. “Our code is two loud, long grunts, if she doesn’t get my attention with hand signals. If she does that, it means the gag comes off immediately.”

  She was aware of them talking about her, because her eyes slowly opened. But they looked passion-glazed under heavy lids. As the vibrator cycled through another pattern, Leah closed her eyes again and softly moaned.

  Kaden smiled, finally looking at her. “I don’t dare spank her like this. She’ll freaking explode. I mean, if she didn’t have that gag in her mouth, she would totally scream her head off, buddy. Trust me. You work her up like this, it’s absolutely amazing how hard she’ll come. And she loves it.”

  Leah moaned her assent.

  Kaden wasn’t finished. “She really loves to be fucked like this. Perfect height on this table, too. Or in bed. She’s totally helpless like this. You can play with her clit, lick her”—Leah moaned at that— “and do whatever you want to her. I love this position.”

  Seth’s entire body resonated in time with the sound of the vibrator.

  Kaden met Seth’s eyes with a steady gaze. “Want to try her right now?”

  He gasped for breath again and shook his head. Leah opened her eyes and moaned, this time in disappointment, at Seth’s refusal.

  As weird as this was, and as much as Seth wanted to take them up on the offer, he couldn’t quite bring himself to take that step yet. Especially not with his best friend sitting right there.

  But…

  Day-amn.

  Seth struggled for a gracious out. “I need a shower. And…and we don’t have my test results back.”

  “I had her buy condoms.”

  Fuck.

  Seth shook his head. “Um, maybe…later.” He jumped up, grabbed his coffee, and hurried back to his bedroom, closing the door behind him. He started for the bathroom, then returned to his bedroom door and locked it.

  Just to be safe.

  He turned on the TV again—this time Lester was talking to some high-profile chef about raisins versus citrons—and turned on the shower.

  It took three strokes on his cock to explode. And he didn’t go soft. Almost frantically he continued stroking and a few minutes later he came again, the memory of Leah’s ass in the air setting him off.

  * * * *

  When he finished his shower—after jerking off one more time—
he wandered back out to the kitchen, relieved to see the living room empty.

  And just a tad disappointed.

  That was fucking hot, no denying it. Had he not been so absolutely shocked he would have enjoyed it.

  Or might have forced himself to take them up on the offer.

  It was nearly ten, and he was starving. What did that say about him that he felt a brief flash of irritation that Leah hadn’t fixed his breakfast yet.

  And where were they, anyway?

  He looked down the hall, saw the playroom door standing open. Swallowing hard, Seth forced his feet to move.

  Leah was now strapped to the spanking horse, her legs spread far apart and cuffed to the bench. She still had the butt plug and vibrator in. Her arms were also cuffed to the bench, and now she was blindfolded. She wore a smaller ball gag, though.

  He heard the vibrator click on. Leah’s hips jerked, frantically squirming against the bench. When the vibrator shut off she moaned, whimpering.

  Kaden’s soft voice in his ear nearly scared the crap out of him. “You know you want to.”

  “Fuck,” he whispered.

  Kaden handed him one of the riding crops. “Right now, before the vibrator comes back on, just one square across her ass. It’s not enough to get her off.”

  Seth’s dick led the way. He nervously lined up the blow as he’d been shown in class the night before.

  Kaden crossed his arms and smiled, watching.

  Fighting a twisting in his stomach, Seth swung. Leah jumped, whined, and wiggled her ass at him. He looked at Kaden. Kaden held up his hand, indicating wait.

  Sure enough, the vibrator clicked on again. Leah moaned, squirming against the bench.

  Kaden waved Seth out into the hall and whispered, “She doesn’t know which of us did it, or when we’ll do it again. It’s driving her crazy.”

  “Are you really going to leave her like that all day?” The thought of that made Seth partly feel bad for her.

  And partly excited him.

  Kaden raised an eyebrow at him. “I wouldn’t stop you if you want to give her some relief. You’re entitled to.”

  Seth pointed down the hall to the living room. When they were safely out of Leah’s hearing, Seth asked, “What if I can’t be kinky enough for her all the time?”

  “What do you mean?”

  He wiped his mouth with his hand and wished for a drink. He knew he couldn’t have one for that very reason. “I mean, geez, yeah, okay, right, it’s fucking hot seeing her like that. But damn, you know, there’s a lot of times I’ll just want to cuddle or have straight sex and not all of…” He waved his arm down the hall. “That.”

  “What?”

  “That!” He pointed again.

  Kaden smiled. “She doesn’t get off on the kink.”

  Seth took another step toward the hallway and waved his arm again. “Uh, duh! What the fuck is THAT then?”

  Kaden sat on the couch and picked up the sports section. “She would be happy having vanilla sex for the rest of her life. That’s not what this is about. It’s hotter, sure, but that’s just a bonus.”

  Seth’s jaw dropped. “How about some fucking answers to my questions?” He stormed over to Kaden, grabbed the newspaper, and tossed it over the back of the couch. “What the fuck do you mean she doesn’t get off on the kink?”

  “The pain is to help her process emotions, especially painful emotions, when she’s overstressed. If she gets off in the process, even better. They are totally different things, even though they’re related sometimes. If you did nothing but missionary with her for the rest of your lives and spanked her with your hand over your lap when she needed it, she’d be perfectly happy with that, too.”

  “Then why do you do all of this other stuff?”

  He shrugged. “We just sort of fell into it. As we got to know more people in the lifestyle and saw things, we decided to experiment a little. I told you, she’s not a pain slut. You’ll see people who put dozens of clothespins all over themselves, needles, hot wax, knife play, shit like that. She has no desire to do any of that. All she needs is the occasional grounding. That’s what the spankings are about. She likes and enjoys the other stuff. It’s fun. The shibari is nice for her—when done properly and she can’t get loose—because it forces her to relax and just be for a little while. You know how they say you should swaddle babies?”

  “Dude, I don’t know nuthin’ about swaddlin’ no babies.”

  Kaden froze, then laughed, loud and hearty. It was good to hear that sound from him.

  Seth struggled against the mental heartbeat, but it came back anyway.

  kaden’sdying

  When he could talk again, Kaden continued. “It’s comforting. She’ll have to get to the point where she trusts you to do it with her, and she will. She just…” He thought about it. “It’s like she totally goes into subspace without laying a finger on her. She would literally allow me to keep her tied up twenty-four/seven if I found a position she’d be comfortable in without risk of her circulation being cut off. It’s like she gives herself permission to totally relax and unwind.”

  Seth dropped to the couch and shook his head. “This is a lot to fucking learn.”

  Kaden nodded. “I’m trying to cram nearly twenty years of trial and error into…into a short amount of time. The good news is, I know what won’t work and I can give you the benefit of my wisdom there, too.” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “You saw how stern I was with her at the club?”

  Seth nodded.

  “That’s a hard edge for her. You’ll notice most of the time I don’t talk to her like that. And you can only talk to her like that when you’re dropping her into subspace or when she’s fully there. However, as soon as the scene is over and you’re giving her aftercare—and she must always have aftercare—then you need to be very gentle and tender with her. When the endorphin high starts to fade, you can amp it back up a little.

  “I also never compare her to anyone else. Ever. And I don’t ever use humiliation with her. I don’t ever want her to feel like that. Frankly, I couldn’t do that to her anyway. I have never threatened, even in play, to find a new sub or let a stranger use her. Ever.”

  “Okay. Explain what the fuck is subspace?”

  “It’s sort of like a trance. What this does to her, it releases a huge flood of endorphins into her system. It’s like a natural drug for her. It medicates her, in a manner of speaking. That’s why she swam herself to exhaustion in the pool the other night. Think of a runner’s high. It’s sort of the same thing. Sometimes she can do that for herself with swimming or even running. A lot of the time, especially when she’s very stressed or upset, she can’t. That’s when you have to help her. Under normal circumstances it’s more maintenance than anything.”

  Kaden took his glasses off, laid them on the coffee table. “Whether it freaks you out or not, having you here to teach has been a huge help for her. She’s got something—someone—to distract her. An alternate focus. We’ll deal with some major meltdowns with her as we go along. I have no doubt about that. For right now she’s finding a basic center she can function within.”

  “What if…after. What if she slips too far away from me to bring her back?” Seth quietly asked. It was his greatest fear.

  Kaden shook his head. “You won’t let that happen. You love her too much to not find a way to keep her safe.” He tipped his head toward the hall. “Why don’t you go have some fun with her? Don’t take the blindfold off. Just spend some time playing with her. She’ll really love it.”

  “Does stuff like that put her in subspace?”

  “A little. Not totally. The most intense is a public scene. Then private scenes like you saw that first night, only that was, like I told you, fairly tame. There’s been times where even if we don’t make the club, even just playing, literally slap and tickle in bed, it’s enough to keep her grounded. If she’s not totally stressed out or upset, it’s very easy to maintain her mood without major scenes
of any kind. That’s why she enjoys the full-time slave lifestyle. It helps her give over some of her emotional baggage.”

  “You’re telling me to go fuck your wife. That is fucked up, dude.”

  “Then don’t do that right now if you don’t want to. You’ve got hands.” Kaden smiled. “Take the ball gag out and listen to her scream. Your cock will harden like concrete, buddy.”

  “Oh, SO not having this talk, Kade!” Seth stood and walked halfway down the hall. From there he could hear Leah whimpering in the playroom, obviously wanting relief.

  Seth returned to the living room and jabbed his finger at Kaden. “This is fucked up.”

  Kaden sadly nodded. “Tell me about it.”

  But Seth’s cock throbbed, wanting to return to the playroom for another look at her. Seth turned to Kaden. “I can’t…with you watching…yet. Just stay out here, okay?”

  Kaden grinned. “Should I turn the TV on?”

  “Might not be a bad idea.”

  Kaden reached for the remote while Seth started down the hallway again. Seth heard Meet the Press come on in the living room. The vibrator was running. Leah trembled, squirming, trying to rub herself against the bench.

  He took a deep breath and walked over, then sat down beside her. With trembling fingers he reached out with his left hand and gently caressed her ass.

  Leah froze. For a second Seth worried she’d tell him to stop or grunt or something.

  She moaned, furiously bucking her hips.

  Her meaning was unmistakable—she wanted more.

  Her skin felt cool and smooth beneath his hand. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t want to rip the vibrator out and fuck her silly right there.

  He leaned in and pressed his lips to her right hip. Then he closed his eyes and inhaled. Her bodywash and the musky scent of her arousal mixed together in an intoxicating way.

  Leah moaned.

  He laid his cheek against her. Closing his eyes, he stayed his hand, his palm warm against her flesh. When the vibrator shut off, she moaned in frustration again.

  “Shhh,” he whispered.

  She quieted, waiting.

  “Good girl,” he whispered. He imagined she had to know it was him by now, even though she once joked that she had trouble telling his voice from Kaden’s over the phone without Caller ID.