In the Zone (12 page)

“That said,” he continued, “the one thing that is constant, every couple has rules that work for them. Here’s my one inflexible rule: I’m in charge. This means I won’t allow you to top from the bottom. You don’t have to like anything I say. But you do have to obey or suffer the consequences.”

The car’s interior light faded, leaving them in darkness. In this area of the neighborhood, there was no streetlamp. The car’s passenger compartment felt close, intimate.

“I’m not an ogre,” he said. “Use your safe word anytime, or ask for permission to clarify something or discuss it. I don’t want you fearful. Do you understand?”

“I do. Sir.”

“It pleases me to open and close doors for you. And I expect you to walk a bit in front of me, never behind me, even if you’re on a leash.”

“A leash, Sir?” Her mouth dried. No dom had ever leashed her.

“Any questions or further arguments? If so, let’s hear them now. In future, you’ll be punished for not following my rules.”

She was so stuck on the image of being leashed that there was no room for other thoughts. “No, Sir. None.”

“We’re clear, then? I’m the dom, and you follow my rules? Do as you’re told, when you’re told, and we’ll be fine.”

“Yes, Sir.”

He nodded abruptly and exited the car.

Waiting for him to come around for her was uncomfortable. She was an independent woman, accustomed to doing things for herself. Even at the club, she was on the management team. The submissive scenes she participated in were exactly that—scenes, not reality. Waiting on a man to open her door felt archaic as well as unnecessary.

In a way, though, it reinforced her submission to him. Moments later, he opened her door.

“It’s okay to let others do things for you,” he said. “It’s okay to be a woman. It’s okay to let others care for you.”

She flashed a quick, fake smile. She tried to be graceful as she stepped out of the vehicle. He offered a hand, and the act of accepting his help made her very much aware of her femininity, of their size difference. She moved away from the car, and he closed the door. With his remote key fob, he locked the vehicle.

“We’ll go in the back door,” he said. “Lift your coat and your skirt and hold them up. I want your ass exposed.”

She froze. She wanted to ask about the neighbors, but she didn’t dare. There was little ambient light, and his home was set back from the road. With the way he’d parked the SUV, the driveway was blocked from passing vehicles.

Even if that wasn’t the case, she was expected to follow his orders, even if they made her uncomfortable.

The narrow path had neatly trimmed bushes on one side and solar lights on the other.

She bared her bottom to him and walked up the narrow path.

The night air was cool on her skin, raising goose bumps.

As she neared the door he’d indicated, she exaggerated the sway of her hips. She might pay for the sass later, but it was fun right now.

“Kneel while I open the door.”

She lowered herself to the welcome mat. He reached over her with his keys.

It seemed to take him forever to unlock the door and open it. He flicked on an interior light and then took her purse from her.

By coming in the back door, they were entering the home through the kitchen.

“Crawl,” he told her. “When you reach the middle of the floor, kneel up and remove your coat.”

Earlier, at the club, she’d wondered how they would make the transition from work to home. She shouldn’t have worried. This man’s dominance was ingrained.

He stood there, watching her.

Her face heated with embarrassment. She told herself this was completely natural, but the way he watched her made her hyperaware of her every move.

She crawled over the threshold. Now that she was here, totally alone with him, her normal bravado fled. She was aware of being more than just a masochist. And this moment he was forcing her to be a submissive—
his
sub.

He followed her and closed them in, turning a dead bolt in finality.

She continued across the floor, determined not to complain about the cold or the rough texture of the tiles.

Alani barely had time to take in her surroundings—the stainless-steel appliances, poured concrete countertops, and the small table near the bay window—before he said, “Dawdling will earn you a time-out.”

A time-out? Her first reaction was to bare her teeth. He had no freaking idea how uncomfortable it was to crawl on this unyielding surface. She wasn’t taking her time; she was trying not to bruise her knees.

“I believe in the punishment fitting the crime,” he told her. “You want to take your time, put off the inevitable? Then you’ll get more time to think about it.”

She stopped in the middle of the room, hating how well he seemed to know her.

Making sure she didn’t stall, she knelt up, unknotted her belt, and then shrugged out of the coat. He took it from her and left the room without a word.

Being alone in his kitchen unnerved her, and she suspected he knew that.

She waited, like a good sub, her gaze downcast, for a few seconds. The sounds he made were in the distance, so she glanced around.

As she might have guessed, his place was immaculate. There wasn’t even a glass out of place. Either he had a service come in or he kept things simple.

She heard the sound of his footsteps coming closer, and she looked at the floor.

“Good,” he said.

She heard him place a few things on the table.

Nerves spasmed in her stomach.

“On all fours,” he commanded. “Forehead on the tiles.”

She thought of protesting but kept her mouth shut. As she moved, she noticed he’d removed the leather jacket. That made his arms look more powerful.

“You had a small plug in your ass at the club. Since I intend to take you up the rear when it suits me, we’ll begin preparing you now.”

Anal wasn’t one of her favorite things. But the way he took charge was.

“Are you waiting for something, sub?”

She moved into position, spreading her legs and placing her forehead on the floor.

“Dip your back. Titties on the floor.”

She complied. Keeping her balance was difficult.

He moved behind her.

There was something deliciously humiliating about not being able to see anything except his shoes and the bottom of his trousers. Her ass pointed skyward, and she was wide open, exposed.

He squirted lube on her ass. “We’re starting with two fingers since I stretched you a bit earlier.”

“Yes, Sir.” As if what she wanted mattered.

He slowly but unrelentingly pushed into her.

She eased her rear back, trying to allow him greater access and cause herself less discomfort.

When his fingers were buried to the knuckles, she exhaled. It hurt, but it was alternately tantalizing, making her aware of her submission to him.

He finger-fucked her.

Damn!

It hurt worse than she imagined. He spread his fingers a bit, forcing that ring of muscle to stretch wider.

“Better,” he said.

The little plug earlier hadn’t hurt nearly this bad.

He left her, her ass gaping open, her entire body uncomfortable on the cold tile floor.

“Turn your head to the side,” he said a moment later as he crouched next to her.

He showed her a glass butt plug.

“Oh, God.” How the hell would that thing fit up there? She was far from an anal virgin, but she’d never even considered putting something that big up inside her. Surely it had a bigger girth than his cock?

“Is there a problem, Alani?”

“No. No, Sir.”

“I wouldn’t want to think you were already being disobedient.”

“No, Sir.”

“Good. Then beg me to put this up your tight little hole.”

She squeezed her eyes shut. Beg him? She was a masochist. But he equaled her in his sadist tendencies. She was already learning a lot about him. There were plenty of ways to torture a submissive. Spankings and clampings were only part of what she’d experienced. “Please, please, Sir. I want you to shove that glass plug up my ass.”

“What else do you want?”

“I want you to fuck me with it, stretch me wide, prepare me for your cock.” She couldn’t believe she was shoving away her fear enough to say these things.

As she watched, he drenched the glass with lube.

Her heart raced. No way was that thing going to fit.

She clenched her ass cheeks involuntarily.

He stood. She squeezed her eyes shut. She heard movement and imagined he was returning the lube to the tabletop.

All too soon, she felt the firmness and the chill of the wet plug at her entry.

“Beg,” he said. “I know you want to go inside your head, and I’m not going to let you.”

He forced the plug partially in.

She yelped.

“My fingers were bigger than that,” he said somewhat drily.

But the idea of that monstrosity being inside her was terrifying.

He eased it back out, and she managed to draw a breath.

“We’ll find a rhythm,” he said, “but you need to start begging.
Now.
”

“Please,” she whispered. “I want—”

“Louder!”

“I want you to fuck me with that horrible thing.”

He slapped her left buttock.

“Please fuck me with that big plug, Sir.”

“That’s better. But not good enough.”

As he spoke, he shoved in the plug even deeper, but before she could protest, he pulled it back out. “I want it up there, Sir.”

“Where?”

“My ass, Sir. I want that glass plug in my ass.”

“Why? So I can admire the way you look with your hole stretched and held open?”

“Yes, yes!” Jesus, he was relentless. The plug hurt each time he thrust it in, but he pulled it back so quickly the hurt started to vanish as soon as she registered it. “Yes, I want it in my ass so that you can admire the way my hole is stretched and held open for you.”

“And so that your pussy is even tighter when I fuck you?”

“That’s it, Sir! I want my pussy to be completely tight for you. I’m so hot for you already, Sir. Please, please.” He had to want her. Enough to stop this torture and just fuck her? “I want you inside me,” she said.

“Then take this plug, sub. Take it all. Take it now.”

He continued the onslaught.

The plug wasn’t like the ones she’d played with. The silicone ones had some give. The stainless-steel one he’d used earlier was shaped like a teardrop, and it was small. It had slid in fairly easily. But this thing…? Glass was an entirely different material with no give. Its force was unlike anything she’d ever imagined.

Surely it was almost there?

There was no way she could take any more. “Sir, no!”

He pinched her clit.

The shock distracted her.

He shoved the plug deeper, then pulled it back instantly.

“You’re almost there,” he said.

It sounded like a promise. But maybe it was a lie. “I…I can’t.”

“Use your safe word or beg for the plug.”

The faster this was over, the better.
“Put it all the way in, for fuck’s sake,” she said, hoping the words sounded desperate and not as if she were trying to be in control. “I want this pain to stop. Please!” She told herself that when it was seated properly, it wouldn’t hurt as bad. The thick part of the plug was considerably wider than the stem. “Sir, I’m ready. Put it all the way in, Sir. Please?”

“Bear down,” he told her.

She curled her hands into fists against the floor.

He pulled the plug all the way out and then pushed it in deeper than it had been.

“Breathe, Alani.”

Before she could gasp at the intrusion, he pulled it out again. He increased the depth of penetration and the quickness of the strokes.

She screamed, and her body pitched forward when he shoved it deep inside her.

“You’re there,” he said, running his fingers down her back.

She gulped in some air. As the seconds dragged into half a minute, the pain began to recede.

“How does it feel? Unbearable?”

She thought about it before answering. “No. I feel full, Sir, stretched wide. It’s uncomfortable. But it’s not horrible.”

“You hated that?”

“Yes, Sir.”

He fingered her cunt. “So why are you so wet? You’re a shameless painslut, Alani. You scream and carry on unless you’re being spanked. That won’t be tolerated in future. Especially since your body betrays you. Stand. Strip. I want you completely naked.”

She struggled with the tight-fitting top.

He moved over and said, “Hands up.”

Her chest rose and fell quickly as he helped her remove the clothing for the second time that night. He folded the shirt and placed it on the kitchen table.

“You do the rest.”

She allowed her skirt to fall to the floor. When she scooped it up, he took it from her. Yeah, he was definitely a neat freak.

“The rest,” he said.

“Everything?”

“Everything.”

She slipped out of her heels, then the rest of her clothing. He placed everything in organized piles.

“Nice,” he said, facing her. “Now bend over and grab your ankles so I can see the plug in your ass.”

She did, and she was very much aware of the way it shifted and the way her hole was stretched wide.

“Just lovely,” he said, grabbing hold of the base and tugging on it.

She moaned, aroused.

“I think you like anal play more than you let on, Alani.”

Maybe more than even she’d realized.

“My bedroom,” he told her.

There was only one way out of the kitchen, so she moved that direction.

“Turn left. Master bedroom is at the end of the hallway.”

She conceded his point. Walking in front of him was considerably more submissive than walking behind him.

“Stop. I prefer you crawl. I can enjoy your ass more that way.”

Her heart missed a beat. She’d never been treated like this before. He was demanding and exacting, exactly what she wanted and needed. Heaven help her.

She crawled, feeling the plug shift.

He murmured approval.

His room was as immaculate, as Spartan as the rest of his home.