Beyond Eden (22 page)

“Yes, please, Master.” “Then hand me your clothes.”

Eve crawled over and picked up her clothes. She handed them to Danny with the realization that his habit of being annoyingly neat had nothing to do with him being metrosexual and everything to do with him being a kinky pervert. She made sure her smile at that epiphany was a sweet one instead of the smart-ass one she was more inclined to.

“Stand up,” he said as he took her clothes and set them on the table.

Eve stood in front of him, her knees protesting the sudden change in positions. She tilted her head, her eyelashes hiding her eyes, the same small, sweet smile curving on her lips as she stood patiently in front of him.

“I want you to take off those cotton panties you’re wearing,” Danny said, tilting his head toward her hips. “And then I want you to hand them to me.”

Eve squeezed her eyes closed and lowered her head as her breathing became rampant and she lost control of her small triumph over Danny due to her seductive, womanly wiles. She was back to being a quivering mess. Lust, anger and huge doses of actual fear surged through her. Eve’s body betrayed her again, clenching at being empty, weeping over it to the point it was going to be painfully obvious.

She would lose every ounce of her power if he knew how badly she wanted him. Danny would know this was turning her on. Even if it was infuriating and frustrating, she was aching in a way she hadn’t before this afternoon.

“Take them off—now!”

She huffed as she pushed them down her hips and stepped out of them, feeling the stickiness of longing linger on her thighs. He could see it without inspecting her panties, which he was probably going to do anyway—the sick pervert.

She held them out to Danny without looking at him.

“My, my, my,” Danny said in husky voice. Eve gave in to temptation and looked up to see him rubbing his thumb over the crotch of the panties she had handed him. He stared at her unwaveringly as a smug smile tugged at his lips. “These panties are telling me you enjoy being my slave.”

Eve groaned and lowered her head again as a blush as hot as fire burned her cheeks and neck. Her embarrassment was so profound, she was seriously considering breaking up with Danny rather than be forced to face him every day knowing he was aware she had been turned-on by being forced to kneel at his feet like a dog.

She felt as if every ounce of self-respect had just been stripped from her. She was more than naked, she was exposed clear down to her soul and she wanted to cover her face with her hands, but she didn’t dare. His control over her was absolute. She didn’t want to move without permission.

She heard Danny stand up, but she didn’t look at him. He was even more imposing when standing. She could feel his energy without touching him. The strange sexual power he wielded so easily radiated off him so potently she was completely weak to it. Even as she stood there broken and humiliated, she ached for him. She wanted to please him, craved the notion of being the slave of his dreams.

“Walk to my bedroom,” Danny whispered in front of her, his voice rolling over her in sensuous waves. “Keep your eyes down when you do it and don’t stop until you are standing at the foot of my bed. When you get there, I want you to kneel and wait for your Master.”

Eve turned around and walked away, mourning his loss rather than enjoying the reprieve from the torture of his domination. She walked deliberately, with a smooth

sway to her hips and her back straighter than usual because she wanted to be beautiful to him. She wanted to lure him back to her.

She walked into his room, which was neat as usual and kneeled at the foot of his bed. She was left waiting, the hardwood painful on her knees, with only the sound of her heartbeat in her ears and her heavy breathing to keep her company. Her sense of time had to have been off, because she felt like she kneeled there forever. The fear of not knowing was agony. She kept her eyes closed as she focused on steadying her heartbeat. She tried to calm herself down but the more she thought about the fear, the worse it got.

When she heard Danny walk into his room, her heart slammed against her chest and her breathing became noticeably ragged like that of a trapped, wild animal, which was exactly what she felt like. She had the image of a terrified rabbit, one that cowered in fear from a deadly panther. Her instincts had her longing to flee but her mind told her to remain still because cats liked to toy with prey that ran from them. It was a game to them and panther games were dangerous for terrified little rabbits that didn’t know how to sit still and try to meld into their environment.

She kept her head down, watching only his bare feet. She followed them with her eyes as he walked to the side of the bed. There was a jingle of keys, which made her body clench in dread and anticipation. He was leaning down, unlocking a drawer that was built into the bottom of his strange bed.

Her breathing became more ragged as she thought about the large bed behind her with its oak frame that was thick and sturdy. It had four posts with wooden beams running along the top that connected the posts at the head of the bed and two more on each side. There was no beam connecting the posts at the foot of the bed but there were rings hanging at each of the posts. Eve had thought they were to hang curtains from, imagining a shimmering white material laced through each of the rings to hide the bed from view, making it a secret, mysterious haven for lovers.

But she had been wrong. The rings weren’t to hang curtains. They were to attach shackles to. The bed behind her was built for torment. She knew it with absolute certainty. She had been fucking a man who was deeply submerged in a dark world of sexual torment and domination enough to sleep in a bed designed to keep slaves bound and submissive.

Other women had kneeled at the foot of his bed as his slave.

She had known Danny had other lovers, many of them. The man bled sex—of course he had slept with women over the years. Knowing he had fucked other women didn’t bother her, but knowing he had dominated others, that he had slaves before her that he had cherished and kept for his own personal amusement, that had her burning in anger and jealousy. A fresh riot of emotions washed over her, leaving her more confused as he pushed the drawer closed and then walked around to stand in front of her.

“Look at your Master.”

Eve tilted her head back and looked up at Danny. She felt her mouth go dry as her eyes widened and her pussy clenched involuntarily. He stood there wearing only a pair of black leather pants clinging to his gorgeous, long legs like a second skin. They hung

low on his narrow hips, lacing up the front, making them appear natural and organic rather than sharp edged and barbaric with metal zippers and buttons.

Her artistic mind went wild. Forget photographing him naked, she wanted to capture him in black and white wearing those leather pants that clung to his body as if they had been designed just for him. His beautiful, sleekly muscular body was designed to entice. His darkly angelic face with his nicely arched, inky eyebrows and his sinful eyes that were as sinister as the devil’s cried out to the artist in her, begging to be captured for all time.

He stood there casually, the master of his domain, holding a set of leather cuffs in each hand and had four long tethers that looked like flexible belts hanging around his neck. Eve stared hard at the bondage cuffs decorated with silver buckles and lined with fleece. He was beautiful like that, with the bondage gear in his hands, appearing to be the perfect Master. She liked the way the tethers looked draped around his neck, with the silver buckles gleaming against the tan skin of his chest.

“These restraints are an embarrassment,” Danny said in a firm, dark voice that bled disappointment as he held up the pair of cuffs in his right hand. “It means you are a weak slave that lacks the ability to obey her Master. You need to be tied down and forced into submission. You don’t trust me enough to obey without leather cuffs that mark you as the undisciplined puppy you are.”

Eve wavered where she kneeled in front of him, the fear and lust making her vision foggy as she stared at Danny unwaveringly. Her breath was still bursting out of her chest in ragged pants and she quivered like the frightened rabbit she was.

“Hold out your hands, Evie,” Danny said as he tossed one set of cuffs on his neatly made bed. “I want you to willingly accept the marks of your station as a disobedient slave who has to endure the embarrassment of being tied down like a puppy that can’t even follow the simple commands of its owner without leashes and collars.”

Eve held her hands in front of her. Danny fell to his knees next to her and placed a cuff on her right wrist, fastening it securely by pulling the leather tight and lacing it through the buckle on the side of her wrist. The fleece it was lined with made it comfortable, even if it was pulled tight enough to make it impossible to bend her wrist properly. He treated her left wrist with the same rough treatment, tugging the cuff tightly and securing it with annoyed, jerky motions as if he were disgusted she needed to wear the leather cuffs. He leaned past her, giving her an enticing whiff of expensive cologne and tobacco as he grabbed the ankle restraints.

He surprised her by handing them to her. “Put those on, pull them tight enough to mark and then secure them. You’re going to help me with this punishment because you know you deserve it, don’t you?”

“Yes, Master,” Eve said as she leaned down and grabbed the ankle cuffs and then fell down to sit on the floor with her feet in front of her.

She worked at putting them on, pulling the leather tight enough that the edges of the cuffs not covered with fleece dug into her ankles. Then she sat there, with her knees

bent in front of her, spread apart so that she was exposed to him. Knowing he would, Danny tilted his head, staring at her pussy glistening with desire. She was still turned-on, her pulse pounding in fear. She was learning quickly there was a special high to be found from fear when desire was mingled with it.

“Get up and pull the comforter and sheets off my bed,” Danny demanded, still kneeling next to her on the floor. “Like you, they belong to me. How do I expect my possessions to be treated?”

“With reverence, Master.”

“Very good. Now go do what I told you, obey me and be happy about it.”

Eve made quick work of pulling the deep blue comforter and sheets off his bed. She took the time to fold them and then walked over to set them on a chair in the corner of his room. Walking around with silver-buckled leather cuffs on her wrists and ankles left her feeling exposed in the bright light of day coming in through the open window.

She
did
feel like a slave as she worked in front of him wearing nothing but leather cuffs that marked her as disobedient. The bindings felt heavier than they actually were and she was acutely aware of them, the way the fleece soothed and the leather cut and marked.

When she was done, she didn’t know what to do, so she went back to stand at the foot of the bed. She floundered when she didn’t have him telling her what to do. She felt lost and scared without his words to guide her. With commands she knew what to do, without them she was left frightened.

“Crawl on the bed,” Danny said as he walked over to stand next to her, invading her personal space as he leaned down to whisper in her ear. “And then lie down with your head near the headboard. You’re a slave. You get no pillow, push that away and lie flat.”

Eve did it immediately, her breathing still shallow and ragged as she crawled onto the bed, pushed his pillows to the side rather than onto the floor and then lay flat on her back, with her chest rising and falling and her body pulsing with pent-up frustration. The sheets felt cool against her fevered skin and she tried to focus on the feel of them against her bare back rather than the tightrope of desire that was pulled taut as Danny walked around the bed and reached for her left wrist.

She closed her eyes as he laced the tether through the ring on the side of her cuff. He pulled her arm by the tether, making her feel as if she were leashed as he leaned down and attached her binding to something below the bottom of the mattress, a ring of some sort that was attached to the post of his headboard.

A choked gasp burst out of her when she felt how tightly he pulled her leash, forcing her arm to jerk back against the mattress and stretching it to the point that he forced her body to shift to that side of the bed. She wasn’t prepared for the lightning strike of lust that shot through her with the rasp of leather and the clinking of metal as he secured her arm.

When Danny stood, she looked into his eyes and saw his desire there. A wild, carnal lust was suddenly swirling in his gaze because he knew her body was going insane. He had heard her gasp of pleasure, had known being tied down was turning her on to the point she couldn’t control herself enough to keep quiet.

Eve’s eyes followed him as he walked around to the other side of the bed. She licked her dry lips as she watched him slowly pull the next tether from around his neck as if he knew he was captivating her. His grip on her right wrist was harder, more forceful and Eve was panting as he laced the tether through the ring on the cuff. She watched him lean down to secure her other arm, leaving her completely defenseless against him. The wrench of the second leash was harder, more violent as he laced it through the ring at the bottom of the post and pulled with a strong, fast motion that forced her arm to spread wide. The lightning bolt was more violent this time, striking at her with white-hot lust that had a small scream bursting out of her chest. He pulled even harder at the sound of her scream, forcing her arms as far apart as they could go. Her arms were pulled so tautly against the bed she couldn’t even struggle. She was completely immobile and defenseless, her hands splayed palm open at the edges of the mattress. When she tugged them experimentally, Danny pulled the binding tighter as punishment and then secured the second buckle.

Eve was panting now, unable to hold back her response to him as Danny stood and looked down at her with smoldering eyes that burned her body as they touched her with his gaze. She saw that his breathing was shallow too. His bare chest rose and fell with short pants of breath rather than the long, slow steady ones of before.