Her Master's Kiss 5 (3 page)

“What do you mean?” Renee reached out for him. “What’s wrong, Stefan?”

He turned back on her, his eyes blazing. “This is wrong!” he snapped, thrusting out his hands. “You’re asking something of me that I cannot give you.”

Renee shook her head, it was like an angry lioness tossing her mane. “I don’t understand!”

Stefan sighed, but the anger stayed flashing in his eyes and distorting the hard rugged features of his face. “I love you, Renee,” he said, and suddenly his voice sounded weary and tired. “And I can’t bring myself to hurt you. We’ve been through so much. You have suffered so much. I don’t want you to ever feel hurt or pain again. When I came back to you, I promised myself I would do everything in my power to protect you from harm. Now… now you want me to treat you like my submissive again? Can’t you see that I care too much for you to ever treat you that way?”

His face was close to hers. Renee could not bear to see the expression in his eyes, for it was pitying and sympathetic. She lashed out at him with her open hand. Stefan pulled back, but her palm slapped wickedly across his cheek. He caught her wrist but she twisted against him, and there was a wild and wounded hiss in her voice.

“If you cared for us and our future, you would give me what I need,” she hissed. “But you care more for yourself, Stefan. You care more for your code of honor than you do for me.”

“That’s not true! You are everything to me, damn it. Everything!”

“Then prove it, Stefan!”

He lunged for her suddenly and for a split-second Renee felt a flash of real fear turn her bones to jelly and scald the back of her throat. She gasped as his hand snapped out and locked around her wrist. She was spun round, lifted from her feet. The next moment she was down on the coffee-table, her legs spread wide, the smooth wood cool against the burning skin.

Stefan went down on one knee and moved his mouth to the edge of her panties, licking around the elastic with firm rapid flicks of his tongue. Then he ripped at the material and it fell open so that the soft glistening lips of her sex pouted swollen before him. Renee gasped.

“I want to make a baby with you, Renee,” Stefan said. “I want to pleasure you and make you happy. We don’t need BDSM.”

He lowered his head between her parted thighs and Renee held her breath. The touch of his tongue was electric, and a million sensitive nerves suddenly screamed their release in a single moment. She gasped again and felt her hands clutch desperately at the edges of the coffee table to restrain herself. Stefan’s tongue licked higher across the opening folds of her, and as the force of his tongue became firmer, she felt her back begin to arch and her vision blur.

Renee could feel herself being swept away; the sensations were building, the pressure low in her abdomen began to writhe and uncoil, readying to explode. She knew the signs – she knew that at any moment she would explode.

Suddenly she sat up and eased herself away from Stefan’s mouth.

“You do know how to pleasure me, Stefan,” she said, her voice tightly strained and thick in her throat. “But it’s not enough anymore because you have forgotten how to
excite
me. I want you to make me feel like a woman, and I want you to make me feel like the woman you
want
… not just the woman you love. BDSM is the only way that can ever happen again.”

And then she stood – her legs shaky – and picked up her dress.

Five.

Renee made coffee and set Tink’s cup on the table. Then she dropped herself down into the kitchen chair and sighed. Tink glanced around the kitchen. She noticed the two candles, still in their silver holders, standing in one corner of the kitchen counter. She turned back to Renee, and there was a question in her expression.

“Want to talk about it?”

Renee sighed again. She stirred her coffee, staring bleakly into the cup as though the answer might be there. It wasn’t. In the end she simply shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know what to say,” Renee confessed. She felt tired and listless. She had spent the night alone in bed, tossing and turning, while sleep had completely escaped her. Now she was in a dark defeated mood. “It’s not working out between me and Stefan.”

Tink didn’t look surprised. She knew all too well what a strain the past six months had been on Stefan and Renee. In a way she felt guilty, for it was a time in her own life when she had never felt happier.

Tink took a careful sip of her coffee and set the cup down on the table. “So you talked to him?”

Renee nodded. “Last night. When he came home.” She sighed once more. “It didn’t go well.”

Tink nodded, and then her manner became direct and brisk. “Did you tell him you wanted him to be your Master again? Did you tell him you wanted to go back to being his submissive?”

Renee nodded. Tink frowned.

“Did you get him in your mouth?”

Renee looked at Tink, her expression bemused and bewildered. She laughed awkwardly and felt a flush of embarrassment at the young woman’s forthright question.

Tink shrugged matter-of-factly. “There’s not a man in the world who can resist a woman who knows how to use her mouth,” Tink explained.

Renee laughed again. Tink might have been young, but she was a woman, and she had learned the weaknesses of men at a young age. It was probably the only way she had survived at the hands of her brutal Master before Stefan and Renee had freed her from the man.

“Yes…” Renee said slowly. “I got him in my mouth, Tink. Sort of…” she shifted on her chair, disconcerted.

Tink frowned. “So he’s not willing to be your Master again?”

Renee shook her head in a dejected gesture. “He doesn’t think we need BDSM in our lives. He doesn’t see the spark of what we have is being extinguished. He doesn’t even seem to hear me when I explain it to him. It’s like he’s scared or something. Either scared of hurting me, or scared of letting go.” She shrugged again. “Maybe getting married wasn’t the best idea for us,” Renee said finally. “Maybe Stefan and I would have been happier if we had stayed as Master and submissive – and never changed the dynamic of the relationship we had.”

Tink shook her head. “I don’t believe that, Renee” she said softly. “A piece of paper doesn’t change the dynamic of your relationship. It’s the people within the relationship that change.” Then she smiled abruptly. “But that means they can change back, too Renee. So don’t give up hope, and don’t stop trying. You and Stefan are such good people, and after all you have endured, you both deserve every happiness. You just need to keep fighting for it. Stefan’s stubborn and old-fashioned… but he’s not stupid. He will come to realize. He will…”

Renee smiled, but it was a lopsided, tired little thing that barely reached the corners of her mouth. “I hope so, Tink. Because I don’t think I can keep doing all the fighting to save this relationship for much longer.”

Tink finished her coffee and raised her eyebrows suddenly. “Why don’t we all go to a BDSM club?” she suggested. “There’s one in Bishop’s Bridge that Master Peter and I go to often called
‘Heaven’s Gate’
. It would be the perfect way to open Stefan’s eyes and remind him of the energy that is part of the lifestyle – and remind him of everything he is missing, and denying you.”

Renee thought about that. She had heard of
‘Heaven’s Gate’
, and she had seen the black timber door in Weaver Street. She nodded thoughtfully, her mind playing forward and trying to imagine Stefan’s reaction if she made the suggestion. “I’ll ask him,” she said at last, “when the time is right.”

Tink nodded. She got up from the table and went to the kitchen counter to re-fill her cup. Renee followed the young woman with her eyes, and watched as she spooned in coffee and sugar. Then, as if drifting into a trance, Tink stood perfectly still and stared out of the kitchen window for long dreamy seconds –humming the tune of a song while she waited for the water to boil.

When Tink came back to the table, Renee was frowning at her thoughtfully.

Tink tilted her head, an expression of puzzlement that made her look almost childlike, and Renee caught herself admiring the girl’s fresh and genuine beauty. She wore no makeup, and yet her skin glowed with a healthy radiance that defied cosmetics. Her short blonde hair was tousled and ungroomed – and yet somehow she looked stunning. Not fashion-model stunning – more beautiful than that. It was something intangible – something that Renee had never noticed before. Something that….

“Oh… my God!” Renee breathed suddenly, her own woes forgotten in an instant. Her hand reached out across the table and snapped tight around Tink’s wrist. She stared at the young girl, studying her eyes, searching her expression. “You’re in love!”

Tink flinched – recoiled guiltily – and her eyes widened with feigned innocence. Then she suddenly began to smile until the smile became a grin and finally a throaty joyous laugh that sounded like bells ringing.

Tink nodded her head and lifted her eyes to the sky as if in prayerful thanks. “I am in love,” she admitted. She squeezed Renee’s hand tightly. “Master Peter told me that he wants to collar me.”

Renee gasped in excitement. “When?”

“Last night.”

“What did you say?”

Tink looked shyly away for just a second, and when she turned back to Renee there was a teary glitter in her eye. “I told him I would let him know today. I wanted to speak to Stefan first.”

Renee frowned, bemused and incredulous. “You made him wait for an answer?”

Tink nodded slowly. “Just until after I spoke to Stefan.”

Renee shook her head again. “Why? What does Stefan have to do with your decision?”

Tink shrugged. She was suddenly embarrassed and self-conscious. She sat back in the chair and stared down into her coffee cup for long moments. When she looked to Renee again, there was a single tear hanging like a drop of morning dew from her eyelashes.

“You and Stefan are the only people I know as family,” Tink said softly. “I know my real family is somewhere in the world – but I don’t know who they are. You and Stefan saved me from Larry Madden. You’re the closest people I have to a big brother and sister. And… and I wanted to ask Stefan’s permission…”

Renee’s first impulsive reaction was to laugh, but she could see the heart-felt emotion in Tink’s eyes, and she sensed the significance of the gesture. Tink saw Stefan as her unofficial guardian, and – just as if Peter had proposed marriage – Tink had wanted to seek Stefan’s approval. It was kind and sweet, Renee decided, and such a disarmingly innocent gesture that she could do nothing else but lean across the table and hug the girl.

“Stefan will be honored that you think of him so highly,” Renee said softly. “He’s working in the downstairs room. Why don’t you go and share the good news with him…. and I’ll get back to you about the visit to the BDSM club.”

Six.

Tink sat on the bottom step of the staircase and quietly watched Stefan working.

He was wearing jeans and his old painting t-shirt, hanging shelves in the downstairs room with a grim expression on his face. Tink drew her knees up to her chin and watched on, admiring the physique of the man – but admiring even more the way he seemed to do everything in his life with such intensity – even hanging shelves.

So she was caught off guard when she finally spoke and he showed no sign of surprise. She had thought she had been watching him unobserved, but it seemed that Stefan saw everything.

“I want to tell you something – but first I need to ask you something,” she said quietly.

Stefan didn’t stop working. He was penciling lines. He flicked her a sideways glance and then returned his attention to the wall.

“Ask,” he said.

There was a long silence as Tink searched for the right words. Then finally she said simply, “ Master Peter wants to collar me as his submissive. I would like your permission.”

Stefan froze, and turned his head slowly to the beautiful young woman on the stairs. His expression transformed from concentration to confusion, and then the furrow of his brow melted away in understanding. He set down his tools, wiped his hands on his jeans and came to her on the stairs. Solemnly he went down onto his knee and took her small hand within his.

“You have my permission, Tink,” Stefan smiled. “Peter is a fine Master, and I know how he feels about you. I could not be happier.”

Tink smiled and threw her arms around Stefan’s neck. “Thank you,” she said, her voice muffled as she hugged him. “It means so much to me that you understand.”

“I do,” Stefan said. He rubbed her back. “Congratulations.”

She squeezed him tight, and Stefan could feel the racing beat of her heart. He leaned back and planted a kiss on her forehead. “You are going to be very happy together. For what it’s worth, you have my blessing.”

Tink nodded. She was teary, but they were happy tears. “Your blessing means a lot to me, Stefan. You and Renee are my family. I look up to you. I respect you. And I care enough about you both to tell you that you’re making a mistake.”

Stefan froze, and then drew himself back slowly, his eyes searching Tink’s face, and his expression darkening suddenly. Tink held his gaze, never blinking.

“I beg your pardon…” Stefan said warily.

Tink could see the sudden tension now in his expression and the way he held himself. He was like a cobra, coiled and poised to strike. Then Tink smiled suddenly – but it was a sad, forlorn expression. She shook her head.

“When I was taken by Larry Madden, he treated me badly, Stefan. You know that.”

Stefan nodded. He was still wary, but some of the sudden tension had gone from his body.

“He did horrible things to me – forced me to do things to him for his pleasure that still give me nightmares sometimes.”

Stefan said nothing. He rocked back on his haunches and watched the young woman’s face as she seemed to change the subject suddenly. “His favorite movies were the
‘Rocky’
films – especially the first three in the series. Have you ever watched them?”